New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[Seon]

My interest in that NES would be exponentially proportional to the amount of cosmic horrors present within the game, Nutra

 

[nutranurse]

My interest in that NES would be exponentially proportional to the amount of cosmic horrors present within the game, Nutra

Cosmic horrors are present in all three NES'.

 

[Seon]

That's Nutra I like

 

[Starlife]

Thanks for that elaboration, nutra. As for colonies and infrastructure: Do players have a single colony or several? Before piecing together a good system, this information is obviously vital.

In a space colonization setting, colonies should be spread out and focused directly over resources specifically. That is because in the future, a spacefaring society will no doubt have master over its resources, and thus have the knowledge and tools to become the masters of otherworldly resources (though of course with a learning curve and an element of adaptation). In addition to settlements directly over areas that are of utmost efficiency to extract resources, living quarters/homes would probably attempt to efficiently use space, while including greenhouses, recreation, and other such additions. In effect, I feel like space colonies are not focused at first on the creation of culture and city, but are more focused purely on resources. This depends, though, largely on the groups settling. You might have a religious group seeking more freedoms on a new world, or criminals escaping from their dark past. Their concern, though, would still be resources - for the religious to continue the propagation of their ideals, and for the criminal as a means of pure survival and to make a name for themselves (just to name 2 groups, others such as entrepreneurs and scientists are obvious). Colonies would probably not have a single group, too. What I'm saying is that because of spacefaring transportation technology, having a spread out colony is most prudent - cities would usually not develop necessarily around resources, but rather they would develop around transportation hubs, busy spaceports, significant geographic regions (dependent on pre-existing factors such as cultural and socio-linguistic groups), and so on. With such high-tech transportation, making a city right next to a vital resource becomes less essential.

We'll need to know why this planet. What is so special about this world. Is it like the homeworld, or is the landscape dramatically different?

Either way, I think that you should not get too specific. As in, with colonies, I would prefer to not have a pre-made list of improvements and their specific monetary value / price to construct. Too limiting. Perhaps a pre-made list is okay, but we should be able to customize. Maybe we want one colony to have a better-than-average greenhouse, more than needed defenses, or space hubs with more docking spots (sorry for the really bad string of ideas there). But we should be able to detail specifically what we want in our orders instead of have it be specifically defined for us in list-price form from the start. I just think that would be fun, and would make every colony unique in a sense. There should more be certain aspects we need to look out for: happiness, efficiency, infrastructure, etc. - and we should discover our own ways to solve problems or make these aspects better. Examples or whatever might be nice. I dunno, just having it somewhat freeform would be kind of cool. Same goes for tech. In fact, as far as tech is concerned, shouldn't that be an Imperial endeavor? Colonists would hardly be focused on researching new ways to do things - if this is a spacefaring empire, they should know very well how to do what they need to do in creating a colony. However, using that technology is a different story. Perhaps different groups (the ones you mentioned) are more or less adept at using certain types of tech.

With any kind of colonization, resources and happiness are important and should contribute somehow to income. So perhaps the happier a colony is, the more productive it is. Making a colony happy is a tricky thing. Or, you could just be a brutal ruler of the colony, basically hiring only slaves and criminals - you would be efficient and manage to amass a fortune, but your people would be miserable (so a different way to go about things). Maybe you have a religiously zealous community and so to make them more productive you must focus on appeasing their faith.

Your ideas for favor and perceived wealth are excellent. It would be fun to appeal to certain factions and not to others, and also fun to have our exploits be interplanetary news, thus attracting certain types of settlers.

Just brainstorming here. You got me excited to play in such a NES. Sorry for rambling.

 

[Kentharu]

Anyone who doesn't vote for idea Aros remake is a loser >=[

Anyway, I'm sad that Matiea died, but at least she got an army while she was going down!

 

[nutranurse]

Thanks for that elaboration, nutra. As for colonies and infrastructure: Do players have a single colony or several? Before piecing together a good system, this information is obviously vital.

In a space colonization setting, colonies should be spread out and focused directly over resources specifically. That is because in the future, a spacefaring society will no doubt have master over its resources, and thus have the knowledge and tools to become the masters of otherworldly resources (though of course with a learning curve and an element of adaptation). In addition to settlements directly over areas that are of utmost efficiency to extract resources, living quarters/homes would probably attempt to efficiently use space, while including greenhouses, recreation, and other such additions. In effect, I feel like space colonies are not focused at first on the creation of culture and city, but are more focused purely on resources.

I wholeheartedly agree. For most players the colony game will be about securing some resource and getting it back to the homeworld to gain as much profit as possible. However, I want this to be a means to some end. Ideally the money gained should go back to developing some sort of cultural hub or city or something. The game would be a boring number-crunch otherwise, really. Hence why I'm struggling over how best to represent infrastructure. At the moment I am debating either an abstract representation via positive and negative integers, or important buildings defined, for the most part, by the players.

This depends, though, largely on the groups settling. You might have a religious group seeking more freedoms on a new world, or criminals escaping from their dark past. Their concern, though, would still be resources - for the religious to continue the propagation of their ideals, and for the criminal as a means of pure survival and to make a name for themselves (just to name 2 groups, others such as entrepreneurs and scientists are obvious). Colonies would probably not have a single group, too. What I'm saying is that because of spacefaring transportation technology, having a spread out colony is most prudent - cities would usually not develop necessarily around resources, but rather they would develop around transportation hubs, busy spaceports, significant geographic regions (dependent on pre-existing factors such as cultural and socio-linguistic groups), and so on. With such high-tech transportation, making a city right next to a vital resource becomes less essential.

We agree again! Players will be able to settle more than one colony, though they have to purchase a charter for each settled colony, and as the NES continues players will find that it will suit them better to have their own spaceports, factories, etc. Spread-out colonies still should have a central hub where all those resources are gathered and the colonists are able to access goods from the homeworld, but again I agree that resource-focussed colonies won't be cultural centers. It's why I've created an Imperial colony before all others. Initially it is the planet's cultural hub and only real way to shuttle goods to and fro. I want to limit player made off-world transportation until a certain point via mandating that players must purchase writs to construct spaceports. Once constructed the spaceport-colonies would grow into hubs as you've described so nicely.

Groups working within the colonies is something I did not consider till now--thanks for bringing it up. Perhaps I should also implement a 'factions' stat within the cities? Something simple like 'Workers' 'Gentry' 'Criminal' etc etc etc? Or should I KISS and not bother with that and just do something simple like an 'Order' stat.

We'll need to know why this planet. What is so special about this world. Is it like the homeworld, or is the landscape dramatically different?

Sutaat-Amenis is a fairly wet planet rife with shallow seas and marshlands. Truly solid land is found in the hills or mountains. This is a rather remarkable contrast to the fairly arid homeworld of Nebar.

Either way, I think that you should not get too specific. As in, with colonies, I would prefer to not have a pre-made list of improvements and their specific monetary value / price to construct. Too limiting. Perhaps a pre-made list is okay, but we should be able to customize. Maybe we want one colony to have a better-than-average greenhouse, more than needed defenses, or space hubs with more docking spots (sorry for the really bad string of ideas there). But we should be able to detail specifically what we want in our orders instead of have it be specifically defined for us in list-price form from the start. I just think that would be fun, and would make every colony unique in a sense.

I don't want to limit the players either, hence why I am probably going to allow buildings to be more or less user defined so long as they get my permission first/explain it to me. Then I'll add it to a list of buildable buildings! But to prevent the players from building up continually I think I may implement a 'size' stat, i.e. Small-Medium-Large colonies and give each size rating certain amounts of 'slots' for buildings. Furthermore these 'slots' will be influenced by the category the colony falls under (Military, Agricultural, Economic), i.e. an Agricultural colony has more 'outside' slots that allow for things like irrigation systems, larger fields, etc. This would be to the detriment of 'Inner' slots that would be filled with buildings like merchant hubs, spaceports, etc.

There should more be certain aspects we need to look out for: happiness, efficiency, infrastructure, etc. - and we should discover our own ways to solve problems or make these aspects better. Examples or whatever might be nice. I dunno, just having it somewhat freeform would be kind of cool. Same goes for tech. In fact, as far as tech is concerned, shouldn't that be an Imperial endeavor? Colonists would hardly be focused on researching new ways to do things - if this is a spacefaring empire, they should know very well how to do what they need to do in creating a colony. However, using that technology is a different story. Perhaps different groups (the ones you mentioned) are more or less adept at using certain types of tech.

Tech is completely off-screen, though the players influence its progression by sending back resources to certain factions!

With any kind of colonization, resources and happiness are important and should contribute somehow to income. So perhaps the happier a colony is, the more productive it is. Making a colony happy is a tricky thing. Or, you could just be a brutal ruler of the colony, basically hiring only slaves and criminals - you would be efficient and manage to amass a fortune, but your people would be miserable (so a different way to go about things). Maybe you have a religiously zealous community and so to make them more productive you must focus on appeasing their faith.

Hrm... Happiness as a factor? Interesting--and fairly doable. Perhaps a Morale/Productivity stat? Numerical or abstract 'bad-decent-good' scale is what complicates it. I think I'm leaning towards the more descriptive scale of 'b-d-g' because it's just vague enough to lend some leeway for me to insert some rebels or something despite the overall happiness being high, while at the same time not being so vague/clumsy that the player disregards the start (also advancing from 'bad' to 'decent' is much more pleasing than getting +5). I'll think on it more in terms of how happiness boosts productivity because, as you mentioned prison colonies or zealous religious conclaves can operate productively without happiness. Perhaps an 'Order' stat? A well organized colony can probably out preform a loosely organized one regardless of the happiness of either.

Your ideas for favor and perceived wealth are excellent. It would be fun to appeal to certain factions and not to others, and also fun to have our exploits be interplanetary news, thus attracting certain types of settlers.

Thanks! I'm probably going to leave the personal portrait section as it is because I think favor and perceived wealth compliment each other nicely.

 

[Starlife]

Well nutra, you're on an awesome track here. It sounds fun to start with some resource rich areas and then gradually build up a city/larger hub. As for factions, I say KISS as you mentioned and have something vague like an Order stat. Though actually, one advantage of having pre-made factions is that 1 colony would relate to another player's colony based on their factions. But you can do this anyway with keeping the factions user-defined, through common sense. The reason keeping it simple is nice, is because maybe I have a colony of criminals, but they were wrongly accused on the homeworld and given a second chance - or they are repentant and wish to do well on this world. They aren't necessarily blood-thirsty tyrants. Having a more vague order stat is nice because I can define all of these aspects and truly make my colony(ies) unique. Perhaps having slots as in buildings in which we can make up factions. By the way, the building-slot idea is great. It will force us to think about what we build instead of mindlessly build whatever, whenever.

Yes, having a Productivity stat is nice - maybe also a %? But whatever really. Happiness would be good, but yeah, for colonies wishing to not be happy but simply be productive it might be limiting. So Productivity is a good middle-ground there, which can be effected by happiness or slavery or whatever other civic wishing to be implemented, if it is successful. With that flexible building rule you're talking about, one colony can be productive because they built tons of gymnasiums, while another can be productive because they built tons of Big Brother cameras everywhere. Maybe you could have 'categories' of structures, just so buildings at least have a concrete purpose (i.e. military, entertainment, livability, extraction, transportation, education, culture, aesthetics, religion, and so on). Each category would not do different things to stats, but would be present only so we know specifically what a player's structure is doing primarily - could have primary and secondary structure purposes. So a Westpoint-like school would be Military/Education. Just for a descriptive element, and makes it so we at least can relate our buildings to one another. Otherwise you might have people making uber-structures. But whatever - I'm sure either way people will be mature and imaginative about it. You could give some stat-altering bonuses to these categories, too.

This is exciting. Kind of like SMAC, in a way. I'd love to create my own offworld culture and develop it, while interacting with others doing the same. You should make the map kind of small-ish (kind of like Ethereal), allowing us to build up a bit at first but inevitably have to interact with one another. Or make it large and give us a lot of terrain each turn, or... I don't know. Whatever. Sounds fun no matter what you do. Unfortunately, I think I'm in the minority here.

How are you thinking we would settle new colonies after the initial one?

 

[nutranurse]

Right, let me provide sample stats that I'm just kind of throwing together right now. Also I'm not detailing income/income per turn/debt here. I think I'll make those a part of the personal portraits to represent the fact that most money does not come from the colonies themselves, but selling off their goods (colonies, of course, provide a small amount of income, but the real profit is in trade!)

Name
Owner
Colony Specialization
Output
Size
Order
Happiness
Productivity
Cultural Background
Religious Background
Military
Infrastructure
Project

Name and Owner are obvious, so not going to get into that.

Colony specialization comes in two tiers: Broad category and Specialized. The broad categories are the categories I have mentioned before--Agricultural, Economic, Military. The infrastructure slots for each of the broad categories are the following:

Agricultural- 2 Outer, 1 Inner, 1 Transportation
Economic-1 Outer, 1 Inner, 2 Transportation
Military- 1 Outer, 2 Inner, 1 Transportation

The setup for slots in Agricultural colonies is pretty easy to understand--they are more focussed on things outside of the colony's central hub. Economic and Military is where it gets a bit confusing. After all, wouldn't an Economic colony have more focus on inside buildings? Well, yes, but no. See, I have decided to make roads a building in of themselves. Most early colonies will have their 1 transportation slot taken up by roads (they can be upgraded, though). Hence why Economic colonies have 2 slots instead of 1. That way players can build harbors, spaceports, airports, etc. right off the bat if they so desire! But why do Military colonies gain an extra Inner slot? Well--Sutaat-Amenis is a dangerous planet (as players will find out ) and to have a successful city of any sort you're probably going to need a bunch of guys with lasers to shoot at things lurking around the colony. Also, the soldiers double as the police (albeit a violent police force, when cities grow larger players are encouraged to form actual police forces) so they can better control/protect a large population centered on some site than any of the other colonies can. Therefore, Military colonies gain an extra inner slot.

After a certain size is reached colonies can then be further specialized to reap more specific bonuses.

Spoiler Colony Specializations :

Agricultural

Plantation
These colonies are composed of great swaths of fertile field all devoted to one cash crop. They have increased output of 1 luxury crop. They have an increased productivity, but a lowered happiness to represent the farmers not growing enough edible crops. Base Slots: 3 Outer, 1 Inner, 1 Transportation.

Greenhouses
These colonies run country to the traditional outer-focus of most Agricultural colonies by concentrating most growth in greenhouses within/around the colony's hub. They have a lowered output of all they crops by 1. They have an increased productivity, happiness, and order to represent the centralized nature of the colony. Base Slots: 2 Outer, 2 Inner, 1 Transportation

Mining
Not strictly agricultural, these colonies are focussed on huge mines and most people live in collections of small mining villages far away from the central hub. They have an increased output of 1 mineral. They have an increased productivity, but a lowered order to represent the decentralized nature of the colony. Base Slots: 3 Outer, 1 Inner, 1 Transportation

Economic

Dedicated Spaceport
Named after the giant, spiraling structures in the center of their colonies, Spaceports are one of two kind of colonies able to house spaceports larger than M-Class. They have an increased productivity, but a lowered order to represent the influx of all walks of life in the colony. Base Slots: 1 Outer, 2 Inner, 2 Transportation

Deep Sea
Sutaat-Amenis is 70% water and of that 70% only 10% is used by most colonies. Unknown riches await any who can dive into the deeper seas, to that end Deep Sea colonies have dedicated themselves to sea-travel, trade, and traditions. They are the only colonies able to construct M-Class and above harbors and sea vessels. They have an increased productivity, but lowered order to represent the time spent by the vast majority of the population at sea manifesting paranoid behaviors. Base Slots: 2 Outer, 1 Inner, 2 Transportation

Corporate Capitals
Some corporations from the homeworld ma find it much easier to relocate themselves to Sutaat-Amenis itself. This often leads to the colonies they reside in becoming the regional centers-of-trade and some of the largest colonies due to the private security most corporations employ. They have an increased order, but decreased happiness to represent the well-policed nature of corporate capitals and the anger callous businessmen generate amongst the populous. Base Slots: 2 Outer, 2 Inner, 2 Transportation

Military

Refinery
Most colonies produce raw goods, but refinery colonies have cut out the middleman and seek a more self-sufficient path. They are the only colonies capable of building factories larger than small ones. They have an increased productivity, but decreased happiness to represent the harsh lives of the vast majority of the population. Base Slots: 1 Outer, 3 Inner, 1 Transportation

Fortress
By special dispensation from the Eternal Parah himself Fortress colonies are the only colonies capable of housing organized troops and M-Class armor/aircraft. These citadels are often the most populous colonies due to the security they provide. They have an increased order, but decreased happiness to represent this stern protection. Base Slots: 1 Outer, 2 Inner, 2 Transportation

Research
These colonies are fairly rare due to the Parah's insistence on keeping research facilities well away from Sutaat-Amenis. However, some things simply cannot be safely researched on the homeworld. Research colonies are always small, but tough fortresses filled to the brim with soldiers and scientists. They are the only colonies capable of housing research facilities. They have an increased order and happiness, but decreased productivity to represent all of those mad scientists zealously poking and proding at things they should not be, leaving little time to make something of their findings. Base Slots: 2 Outer, 2 Inner, 1 Transportation

Note that all of these specializations are still rough and I would not be opposed to feedback/suggestions for specializations!

Output is the specific goods the colony produces. You'll notice that colonies do not have a direct income stat and that is because the colonies themselves do not produce much commerce--it is up to the player to find places for goods produced to be sold.

Size is somewhat tricky. I'm conflicted between a numerical stat and a descriptive stat, but I think I'm going to air on the side of descriptive. With each level of size the colony gains/loses base happiness, productivity, and order.

Spoiler Size :

Tiny
Populations anywhere from 500-1,000 colonists. +++Happiness, +++Order, ---Productivity

Small
Populations anywhere from 1,000-10,000 colonists. +Happiness, +Order, Neutral Productvity

Average
Populations anywhere from 10,000-50,000 colonists. Neutral Happiness, Neutral Order, Neutral Productivity

Large
Populations anywhere from 50,00-250,000 colonists. -Happiness, -Order, +Productivity

Sprawling
Populations 250,000+. --Happiness, --Order, +Productivity

Furthermore, I am thinking that are Large and Sprawling I colonies will gain an extra building slot in either Inner or Outer, but I'm not sure how much that will throw off balance.

Order/Happiness/Productivity are all stats that are interconnected and contribute directly to the output of a colony and it's small monetary income. All three will be represented in percentages. When I say they are interconnected I mean things like increasing Order through a vigilant police force may lead to the increase in Productivity because colonists are safe to go about their days doing their little jobs, but a decreased Happiness because they may feel repressed. Conversely, if we apply that method of increasing Order through policing the population a colony centered around black market affairs may see its Productivity decrease because the criminals who were the lifeblood of the economy are being locked up, but the happiness will increase because the people are safer. Players should consider their situations/colonies unique and understand that there is no one way to increase a certain stat. All actions have reactions.

Cultural and Religious Backgrounds represent the approximate composition of your colonists. Nebar may be united under the Eternal Parah, but its people still hail from all sorts of places and bring with them their own creeds and ways. Often times these conflict. Religious backgrounds is doubly inflammatory. There are only two sanctioned faiths--the Cult of the Eternal Parah and the Covenant of the Daughter. The former is more or less the Parah's personality cult through which he is seen as a god-king, son of the Sun and Moon, reincarnation of the first man, and manifestation of Nebar itself. The Covenant of the Daughter is centered around the worship of a single deity simply called Daughter. She is the alpha and omega, creator of everything that was, is, and will be, and an omnipotent but not omniscient entity. The only reason the Parah has allowed the Covenant of the Daughter to continue its worship is because of its popularity in provinces further away from the imperial capital, but that does not mean that the followers of the religions get along. In fact they rarely do. I'll probably flesh out/alter the religions should I actually do this NES, though.

Military is represented simply through numbers. You can have 1,000 infantry, 50 S-Class awesometanks, 10 M-Class Airships, and so on so forth. All units cost upkeep and that upkeep would be spelled out in the units section.

Infrastructure is just a short list of buildings currently within the colony and empty slots.

Lastly, the colony's Project is its current goal. This can be as specific or vague as the player wants it to be. Most times colonies will have their Project be constructing a certain building, but in times when construction is not occurring the player may specify what else they may want to colony to do.

Spoiler Sample Completed Stats :

Suu-Surr
Owner: Nomarch Tattidema
Type: Agricultural-Plantation (Starfruit)
Output: 10t Starfruit/2t Spacecorn
Size: Average
Internal Stats
95%/10%/100%
85% Tefimen, 10% Bessut, 5% Natives
90% CotEP, 10%CotD
Military: 1,000 Parah Royal Guardsmen, 5 XL-Class Surge Tanks, 2 XL-Class Warhawks
Infrastructure: (Advanced Irrigation; Frontier Outposts; -)(-)(Paved Roads)
Project: Constructing Slave Catchers (Outer Building)

How are you thinking we would settle new colonies after the initial one?

For every new colony the player would have to somehow get their hands on a Settlement Charter. These are purchased or finagled from the Parah. Players also have to purchase writs to preform certain actions like construct Fortresses, Spaceports, certain facilities, etc.

 

[Adrogans]

Colonies may also be created by a group to escape or who believe they need to escape persecution, abuse, neglect, etc. Such colonies generally still tend to identify with the home country, but would not be created for a specific specialization.

I.E. will you be including colonies that kind of just happen or will they all ahve to be government funded?

 

[SKILORD]

Colonies may also be created by a group to escape or who believe they need to escape persecution, abuse, neglect, etc. Such colonies generally still tend to identify with the home country

Well then why aren't the national languages of Israel German and Russian?

 

[Adrogans]

Sigh - the word Generally was in there you do see it yes?

 

[nutranurse]

Colonies may also be created by a group to escape or who believe they need to escape persecution, abuse, neglect, etc. Such colonies generally still tend to identify with the home country, but would not be created for a specific specialization.

I.E. will you be including colonies that kind of just happen or will they all ahve to be government funded?

Most likely not because colonies in this case are space colonies! Space travel is still something highly monitored by the homeworld central government, though they have begun to ease upon on merchanting endeavors. I agree that colonies sometimes are made up of refugees and such, hence why I'll have NPC's contact the players asking if they can take X refugees away or something. Of course not all of these re-settlement attempts will be strictly legal.

Example:

The border province of Tan-Tet has rebelled from the Eternal Empire. The Parah swiftly crushes the rebellion and puts to slaughter 75% of the population (hey, to rule a whole world you've got to chop some heads). However, some of the rebels are associates of the Covenant of the Daughter. Player X is good friends with the Covenant of the Daughter (they have a high favor) and the leaders of the CotD approach the player, asking them to transport some of these rebels into one of the player's colonies. Player X now comes to a crossroad. She can:

A) Take on these refugees, gain colonists and favor with the CotD, but risk losing favor with the Parah.
B) Refuse these refugees, lose favor with the CotD, but none with the Parah
C) Tell the Parah about this, gain lots of favor with the Parah, but lose lots more with the CotD
D) Whatever else the player may think of

That's probably how I will model the immigration waves of workers, refugees, profiteers, etc.

 

[SKILORD]

Fair enough, sorry, Zionism-tourettes

 

[Adrogans]

Cool, seems doable to me.

 

[Starlife]

nutra: This is looking awesome, and I like the way you are going about it. I personally, however, am not a huge fan of the generalization here. I.e. having a 'military colony' or an 'economic colony', and then deeper into that, having a 'deep sea colony', which must have less Order. Couldn't a deep sea colony also be a bunch of scientists? We aren't seeing the complete picture here, so you might already have some of that thought out.

Either way, it is looking to be cool and I particularly like the setting you have provided.

 

[nutranurse]

Well, I understand that generalization is a bit frustrating because it does frustrate the players a bit. That's why I'm allowing players to create their own buildings from scratch so that colonies are tailor-made. A Deep Sea colony can be a research one if you make the buildings for it. I'm thinking of replacing the Military-Research colony specialization with something else and freeing up research facilities so that they can be placed in any/all colonies.

I generalize some things, though, for my benefit. I know what kind of mod I am and if I get bogged down in the specifics too much then I tend to lose out on interest due to how much time it takes to do each player's stats or something. At the same time if I make things too vague then I get lost in my own vagaries and just confuse the players as well. I hope I've struck a balance with that in all of the NES' I've presented.

 

[Starlife]

Well, I understand that generalization is a bit frustrating because it does frustrate the players a bit. That's why I'm allowing players to create their own buildings from scratch so that colonies are tailor-made. A Deep Sea colony can be a research one if you make the buildings for it. I'm thinking of replacing the Military-Research colony specialization with something else and freeing up research facilities so that they can be placed in any/all colonies.

I generalize some things, though, for my benefit. I know what kind of mod I am and if I get bogged down in the specifics too much then I tend to lose out on interest due to how much time it takes to do each player's stats or something. At the same time if I make things too vague then I get lost in my own vagaries and just confuse the players as well. I hope I've struck a balance with that in all of the NES' I've presented.

Yeah, I can see that. And I suppose when dealing with colonies, and the fact that structures are so vital, it makes sense. Maybe when describing a deep sea colony, instead of saying sailors make it lose order, you can say that the amount of time spent deep under the sea causes psychological distress - and use that as justification for reduced order.

 

[nutranurse]

I went with 'the time spent at sea manifests paranoid behaviors' to suggest that there's something in the waters.

Also don't be afraid to suggest colony specializations to me, now or in-game! If you want to make a certain kind of colony, but find that the current templates do not quite align with your idea then don't hesitate to propose a template to me. I reserve the right to alter it as I see fit, though.

 

[Adrogans]

Be careful you don't make it too much to handle for yourself though. That was my mistake when I tried to run a NES. It should be fun for you to run.

 

[Seon]

Something in the water?!

Where did I put that yacht. I have some octopuses to ram with it.