Agents Of Empire/Mechanics II

Overview

Here's what's new in part 2 of the game. If not mentioned, everything from the old mechanics and economics pages are still in effect.

Regions

Instead of individual hexes, planets are now divided into regions (the colony planets have ten regions each).

Exploration

Regions can be unexplored, or explored rank I through IV. To explore a region from rank N-1 to rank N, it takes a rank-N explorer 6 turns (or two rank-N explorers 3 turns, or a rank-N*2 explorer 3 turns). Exploration locates features of interest, which can be things like potential mine spots or things of interest to characters.

Type

Regions have a type: natural, mining, refining, factory, or mercantile, and a rank in that type (I through IV). The rank of a region can be no higher than the exploration level. Each type has a cost per level (to raise it from I to II, say, or convert a natural region to a rank-I of that type) and a kind of thing it can consume to produce another kind of thing each turn, as follows:

Type	Cost/Level	Consumes	Produces
Natural	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mining	10	nothing	3 units of raw materials per rank
Refining	20*	3 units of raw materials per rank	1 unit of processed materials per rank
Factory	25	Processed materials	Cargo ships, military units, explorers, luxury goods (subtype), useful devices (subtype)
Mercantile	30	Cargo ships, military units, explorers, luxury goods, useful devices	Mega-credits

Natural regions produce nothing, but might be good for tourism or settlement or other uses.

Mining regions can produce any combination of raw materials, but everything produced must be a type found in the region.

Refining regions must have a type specified on creation, and at least one of the raw materials in each group of three must be of that type. The processed material has a rank equal to the number of types of raw materials used in its creation. To use N goods in creating a processed good, the region must be at least rank N.

• The cost of a refining region is 15/rank for Houses with Good Industry, and 30/rank for Houses with Bad Industry.

Factory regions are used to create finished goods. The region must have a type specified on creation (cargo ships and military spacecraft; intra-system ships and military air units; explorers and military ground units; luxury goods of some subtype specified to the same degree as research institutions; useful devices specified ditto) and can only produce things of that type. To produce an item of rank N and list cost C:

• The region must be at least rank N
  • Exception: to produce an explorer or military ground unit of rank N, the region must be at least rank N-2; to produce a luxury good or useful device of rank N, the region must be at least rank N-1.
• Floor(C/(N+5)) units of appropriate rank-N processed goods are required
  • A minimum of one unit is always required, even for small C
  • Two rank-(R-1) processed goods may be substituted for one rank-R good, two rank-(R-2) for a rank-(R-1), and so on (raw goods may not be used in construction)
  • A rank-(R+1) processed good may be substituted for a rank-R good (but provides no additional benefit)
• If the item is a useful device, you can decide on N, and C is N * (N+5) (so N goods are required)
• If the item is a luxury good, you can decide on N, and C is 3 * (N+5) for purposes of the formula (so 3 goods are required), but the actual list price of the completed item is ((N+8)/2) * (N+5).
• When upgrading a unit, you can either choose to have an effective C of (upgraded cost - original cost), or you can choose to build the new unit "from scratch" but treat the original rank-N unit as a free rank-N processed good.
• A rank-F factory region may consume up to 3*F processed goods per turn in total (regardless of the rank of those goods).

Example: A rank-3 cargo ship costs 32 mega-credits. Thus it requires a rank-3 factory region to produce, and requires floor(32/7) = 4 appropriate rank-3 processed goods to produce.

These rules replace the requirements to take extra time, and to have a barracks, explorer's academy, shipyard, etc for creating higher-level units (but specialist and duo-specialist units still require an appropriate research institution).

A rank-N factory region may consume up to 3*N processed goods per turn (regardless of the rank of those goods).

Rank 1 and 2 explorers and military ground units, and rank 1 luxury goods and useful devices can be produced without a factory, by paying the list price in mega-credits (as before). Relevant processed goods of the appropriate rank (with substitutions as above) can be used to pay 4 mega-credits of the price (but this isn't the floor function, as with a factory; the remainder has to be paid in mega-credits or extra processed goods).

Mercantile regions are used to sell finished goods (and raw/processed materials). A mercantile region of rank N can, each turn, sell 3 things of rank N (of any type). Instead of selling one item at rank R, a region may instead sell 2 items of rank R-1, 4 of rank R-2, etc (regions may not sell items of higher rank). Goods are sold at the list price.

Regions are normally bought with credits. However, units of relevant processed goods of the appropriate rank (with substitutions as for factories) can be used to pay 5 mega-credits of the price (again, not using the floor function -- any remainder has to be paid for with mega-credits or other goods).

Activity

In addition to features found by exploration, regions have ongoing activity -- unrest among the population, disease, native uprisings, festivals, gold rushes, etc. Putting a diplomat in the region can help reduce unpleasant activities.

Fame, Fortune, and Flattery

The colony worlds now track a Fame score and an Influence score. Fame is raised by starting new fashions, holding parties, and winning astro-polo tournaments. It is useful in spreading rumors, starting trends, and changing popular opinion. The initial fame of the colony worlds is 10.

Influence is raised by blackmail, bribery, supporting other people's bills, and making politically-advantageous deals. It is useful in getting bills passed and also in influencing other Houses outside the political process. The initial influence of the colony worlds is 10 (having spent much of their previous total on the tax bill).

Research

Research is going to be revised somehow. TBD.

Military Units and Fighting

Only ground units can take over regions, stopping production, research, and exploration in that region, which they do by moving into the region when it has no units (ground or space) of the defenders. On their turn, a ground unit can move to another region and perform an attack (or attack and then move). Instead of moving, a ground unit can take cover. Cover lasts until the unit moves or attacks, and prevents it from being attacked by flying units.

A space unit, when on a planet, can be in orbit, flying, or landed. Units in orbit can't interact with units not in orbit; if a ship attempts to take off or land on the planet, it can be attacked by orbiting units. Flying units can't attack units taking off or landing, but they can attack other flying units or ground units (or landed units). A flying unit has +3 effective rank when attacking a ground unit. Finally, a landed unit can't attack, and defends at -1 effective rank.

Character Activity

Characters can act once per turn, as before. However, players can do at most one adventure per (real-time) week; characters' other actions can be training, assistance with House activities, or hedonistic self-indulgence.

Colony Maintenance

Each non-natural region requires one unit of Food a turn (or one portion of a unit which is worth more than one food point). If a region doesn't receive the food it needs, it is reduced in rank by 1 (this is recovered once it's eaten), and there may be citizen unrest.

A refined good that is primarily designed as a foodstuff is worth R+F food points, where R is its rank and F is how many food points went into making it. A refined good that is not primarily designed as a foodstuff is just worth the number of food points that went into it.

Fighter Ship Capacity

Going along with the modified prices/capacities for cargo ships, military ships have had their cargo capacity adjusted downwards: they can now hold 1+their rank in units (so a rank-2 ship can hold 1+2 = 3 units).