Inpuning the NESing collective there NK? Whilst I agree the map names are hard to parse, I assumed it wouldn't be hard to match them to the names on the distance chart (and made the names distinct for that very reason).
Anyway hows this for some economy stats:
Super simple explanation of the economy mechanics
You have
population that lives in
habitats, Habitats come in size from
Alpha to
Zeta, and each have a set population limit after which you need to upgrade the habitat if you want the population to continue growing. You can ugrade the Habitat at any time though. Each world has a number of
regions that can take one habitat apiece, you can also build habitats in orbit around the star. Building and upgrading habitats has costs based on the conditions of the planet, ranging from
free on terracompatible worlds with biospheres and breathable atmospheres, to hugely expensive on molten super Jovians. Each year you have a base 50% chance of adding a new population point in a habitat with empty space, which is modified by various factors. Each population point produces 1
e and 1
s a turn, these are
economic and
scientific capital respectively. You spend
e to build things and on your upkeep, and
s to research technologies, develop prototypes and find out various things. You can also spend e to move population round a system or onto colony ships.
Habitats gain
unhappiness at their maximum size limit, and gain extra unhappy for various other reasons, you can spend 2
e or 2
s per year to assuage 1 unhappy.
Within a system
e is freely movable between Habitats, but cannot be shared between systems till a trade route is established, and even then only works at 1/4 efficency.
Habitat Size
Alpha: 0-1 (a base) doesn't need food, only 1 per world allowed
Beta: 4 (a settlement)
Gamma: 10 (a city) +1s inherent bonus
Delta: 15 (a large city) +1e 2s inherent bonus
Epsilon: 20 (a very large city) +2e 4s inherent bonus
Zeta: 30 (a megalopolis) +4e 8s inherent bonus
As a system a hard cap on population is imposed by the amount of food available, the total number of population cannot exceed the amount of
f. Each population point consumes 1
f a turn.
There are a number of
facilities you can build in each habitat that modify the production of
e and
s:
-A
Factory doubles the amount of e and halves the amount of s this Habitat will produce, more advanced Factories are available later in the game. Factories require Gamma or larger Habitats.
-A
Mine adds 10e but reduces reproduction rate by 50%. If your system holdings include a mine on a world with metals
and a world with volatiles you get +25% to e production in that system. A rare earths, heavy metals or exotic gases mine adds +25% e to all systems connected by trade routes. More advanced mines are available later in the game. Mines require
Beta or larger Habitats. Habitats can only be built in space if you have a mine on a planet with metals within the system.
-A
Farm cannot be built in a habitat that has a mine or a factory. Farms produce 5
f as baseline, which is modified by technology and their planetary environment. Farms on dry worlds or in space get +5
f if you have a volatiles mine within the system. Destruction of you farms by random events or enemy action will cause population crashes. Farms require
Beta or larger Habitats.
-A
University adds 100%
s and reduces
e by a quarter. Universities require
Gamma or larger Habitats.
-A
Research Centre gives you +200% s from a Hab towards a particular research field, and you can only build 1 for each of the fields. Building them in different environments gives bonuses (Construction gets a boost in a low grav world etc). Research Centres require
Beta or larger Habitats except for the Social RC, which needs an
Epsilon Habitat.
-
Cultural Centres reduce the unhappiness in Habitats by X where X is the amount spend in their construction. You can describe the function of a cultural centre yourself, or ease its construction with a story.
-
Shipyards allow you to build ships in orbit around that world.
Various other buildings (15 including the 7 here) will be revealed at higher technology levels
Facilities and habitats will show on the system map, the stats page will only give a system summary for that player:
Steve
The Steve-ites
Bunda: 15p/15f 17e 34s: [Defence Fleet; Steve-class Fighter x 4]
Duhr: 1p/0f 1e 1s: [Colony Ship]
As you can see there are three causes of scarcity (something that Pre=ChaNES failed massively on), with varying levels of importance: a) Terra-class worlds, which will occur at a rate less than every other system provide tremendious opportunites for population growth and intellectual development, b) rare resource types, that give a significant bonus to the entity that mines them, and c) Access to the metals and volalites
within a system in order to do various things. Since the rest of the galaxy is more than 20 years turnaround time from this cluster, a no return on investment within an individual lifetime could be gained from travelling beyond, and so it is valid to think of it as an
economically closed system.