Matrix Games Forums

Redoing Colony Worlds

I suggest some expansion of the existing types of colonies and colonizable worlds. This would vastly increase the science-fiction feel of the game, and somewhat expand strategic choices in colonization.

High-g races – AROM, Croyokon, Hoon Yon, Klurgu, Unn.

Types of Colonies

5 million maximum population – asteroid field or irradiated planet. All irradiated planets are airless. Even the AROM can’t live on irradiated planets outside specially shielded enclosed habitats, and are subject to the 5 million limit.

20 million maximum population – called “barren”, but really are hostile environment for the race in question, includes all airless worlds save for the AROM. Airless worlds cannot be terraformed. High-g worlds are always barren for non-high g races until the latter develop gravity control.

50 million maximum population – called “habitable”. The AROM consider all planets to be at least “habitable” except for those which are “irradiated”. Oort Habitats and Space Habitats are always “habitable” for all races. Airless worlds cannot be made “habitable” for any race except the AROM.

100 million maximum population – called “ideal”. The AROM never consider any world ideal unless it has a Terraforming Structure.

Techs & Structures which increase a world’s maximum population:

Atmosphere Creator – creates an atmosphere for airless worlds, but does not terraform them. Barren worlds remain barren. They just aren’t airless anymore. May only be bult on a planet, not an asteroid field, Oort Habitat or Space Habitat.

Gravity Control – negates the effect of high-g worlds on non-high g races.

Oort Habitat and Space Habitats – habitable for all races, and increase a colony’s population by 50 million each. Any world with an Oort Cloud can build an Oort Habitat, and any existing colony (including one limited to an Asteroid field) can build a Space Habitat.

Planetary Shield – makes any irradiated world into a barren one, except for the AROM for whom it becomes habitable. May only be bult on a planet, not an asteroid field, Oort Habitat or Space Habitat.

Terraforming I – improves the habitability of any world with an atmosphere by one level for all races. Barren worlds become habitable, and habitable worlds become ideal. Non-high g races cannot terraform high-g worlds. May only be bult on a planet, not an asteroid field, Oort Habitat or Space Habitat.

Terraforming II – replaces a Terraforming I Structure if one is present. It improves the habitability of any world with an atmosphere by two levels for all races. Barren worlds become ideal. Non-high g races cannot terraform high-g worlds. May only be bult on a planet, not an asteroid field, Oort Habitat or Space Habitat.

Planetary environments and their habitability categories by race:

Arid – ideal for Hoon Yon, Klurgu, Qa Qa & Teyes, barren for Jelluoids, habitable for all other races.

Airless – barren for all races except the AROM, for whom it is habitable.

Asteroid field - there is no colonizable planet in this system - only asteroid fields.

High–g – barren for all non-high g races until they develop Gravity Control. Asteroid fields, Oort Habitats and Space Habitats never have high-g.

Humid or Oceanic – habitable for all races except the Jelluoids, for whom it is ideal.

Icy or Frozen – barren for all races except the AROM, for whom it is habitable, and the Croyokon for whom it is ideal.

Irradiated - a planet which is so close to a star that it is blasted with radiation which makes it necessary to live inside artificial habitats with shields comparable to warship shields. Population is limited to a maximum of five million until a Planetary Shield Structure is Built.

Mixed aka Terrestrial – ideal for humans, Linkin, Umm, Walden & X Spectrada, habitable for all others.

Note: no unimproved colony is ever ideal for the AROM until it has a Terraforming Structure on it.

Oort Habitat and Space Habitats – habitable for all races, and increase a colony’s population by 50 million each. Any world with an Oort Cloud can build an Oort Habitat, and any existing colony (including one limited to an Asteroid field) can build a Space Habitat.

I would have no population growth on barren worlds for a race, half normal population growth on habitable ones, and normal population growth on ideal ones. I’d also have no population growth for races forming less than a majority of the total population on any given world as multi-racial planets will pose a problem for this model. Oort and Space habitats would have half normal population growth.

What races form a colony’s population would have to be taken into account here, which would be simple to do. The game system would assign a habitability rating for each race to each world, assuming there is a world in that star system at all. The total possible population on a given world would be determined by whichever race composes a majority of its population if no other race has more than four million people there. If no race has a majority, the maximum population is twenty million (it is barren for all races). But if, say, a world has nine million humans, four million Qa Qa and three million AROM, the humans would be a majority such that, if it was a “habitable” world for humans, the maximum population would be fifty million as long as no non-human race has more than four million people there.

Which also means that a world’s habitability rating can drop if a minority race grows past four million, so I wouldn’t allow such growth, and justify that after-the fact (xenophobia inhibits reproductive activity).

Note that the Atmosphere Creator, Gravity Control, Planetary Shield, Terraforming I, Terraforming II, Oort Habitat and Space Habitat techs each entail construction of a Structure by that name. Those can be destroyed, which would immediately drop the maximum population of that system, and subject the colony to the existing draconian unrest penalties for horrible overcrowding. On the other hand, having Terraforming II and Gravity Control on world means that its habitability is ideal for all twelve races at the same time, i.e., they can mingle freely with no environment penalty to happiness.

like the idea of different planet sizes, too.
not sure how to make gravity work but max population size should have been in there from the start.
bob probably didn't want to tackle the effect on overpopulation issues.

by the way:
from StarSystemDefinition.xml
The habitability is already inside. adding a high gravity planet can be done even now, provided the only difference will be habitability.
You'd have to add the spawn ratein the startypes section and then it should be there.
Conditionals involving certain races must probably be added in a patch, though. But doesn't sound like a biggie.

Hmm, maybe we should add some ghastly megadeath collateral damage to the unrest effects if nuking a terraformed world from orbit reduces its maximum population without killing enough colonists directly. I’d have half the excess, or 25% of the place’s total population (whichever is greater) die each turn until the surviving population drops to no more than the current maximum population. All numbers rounded up.

Suppose an icy snowball of a world is improved to an ideal Qa Qa colony with both levels of terraforming plus an Oort Habitat, and its population grows to 120 million of its 150 million maximum before it is nuked from orbit by nasty Kluguru. And the bombardment kills 30 million colonists plus it takes out the terraforming and Oort Habitat structure, and damages the one surviving industrial Structure so there is a turn’s delay before it can start building a new Terraforming Structure. This results in the planet having 90 million surviving Qa Qa on a world whose maximum capacity has dropped to 20 million, i.e., 70 million Qa Qa live there than can fit there.

Half the 70 million excess is 35 million, while 25% of the 90 million currently there is 23 million. 35 million is more than 23 million so the place’s population drops from 90 million to 55 million the next turn due to starvation, exposure, disease, violent disorder and the Qa Qa equivalent of cannibalism.

But 55 million is 35 more than the 20 million maximum, so we compare half the excess 35 million (18) to 25% of the total 55 million, and that is 14 million. 17 million is more than 14 million so we reduce the planet’s population by 17 million, to 38 million at the end of the second turn after the bombardment.

On the third turn after the bombardment, the place has 38 million surviving colonists with a maximum allowable population of 20, so 18 million are excess. Half that number is 9 million, compared to 25% of 38 million which is 10 million, so the alternative method kicks in and 10 million of the 38 million surviving Qa Qa die horrible collateral deaths that turn, dropping the place’s population to 28 million by the start of fourth turn after the bombardment. At which point a new terraforming structure has been built that increases the Qa Qa population maximum from 20 million for an iceball world to 50 million.

This, together with unrest penalties for overpopulation, should be all that is needed to deal with overpopulation resulting from bombardment destroying terraforming Structures.

It would be even simpler to eliminate all population above a planet's current maximum when it is overpopulated for two or more turns, with the eliminations going first to races other than the controlling empire's race.

Great ideas but a major re-write.
Not really in keeping with a 'simple' game?

But I personally love complexity.
I would NOT wish to be YOU, trying to do the re-write

I suspect it won't be that much work.  That star systems with only five million max population asteroid fields already exist means there is code in there which permits population limits in increments of five million.  Ditto for icy worlds being wonderful for Croyokons and barren for everyone else being evidence that there is some sort of habitability rating.
 
My proposals were written with the intent of mimicking features which already exist.  That makes them much easier to code and debug.  Note that I have gravity affect habitability rather than halving production, when the latter would "feel" more realistic.  The reason I proposed that gravity affect only habitability is it being easier for Bob to implement than something entirely new.

I'm not certain you need to do a major rewrite to make, at least, some of the changes. I suppose it depends if there are items like "CryoHabitability" already created for every race. Honestly, I think this game would be pretty easy to make changes to. I think the first thing that needs to be done is to change the names of the planet types. "Ideal" is really bad, considering it isn't really idea for the Cryo. I've read some good suggestions though.

Personally, I think most races should find the earth-like planets ideal. But there need to be some that prefer the others (there definitely needs to be one that likes Irradiated only, akin to the Sheliak from Star Trek). Of course, races that don't breath (aka robots) should be able to live just about anyway (except maybe Irradiated... I dunno). I suppose if I spent time and looked at all the xml files, I could probably figure something out. The xml files are easy enough, but I don't do textures.

Pez, I use Ideal as a relative term for each race.  Ice worlds are ideal for Croyokons, Ocean worlds for Jelluoids, Arid for Teyes, etc.  The only reason I didn't make irradiated worlds ideal for any race is that there don't seem to be any such races in this game, at least so far.

That's too complicated for the base game, but I'm happy to add features that allow modders to make more complicated systems.  That will be a little way down the line though.