I'm finishing up the requirements doc for v0.2 and one issue that is troubling me is that we have not clearly established the link between minerals and industry in anything passed for v0.2; there has been a lot of discussion about huge proposals for the future, but I need something now. This is the 'econ' part of the v0.1 design document:
Now, what we have for resources in v0.2 is primary and secondary foci, such that we can crank out between 1 and 6 units of food, minerals, production, or research per population unit every turn. What we don't have figured out is the minerals --> production link. I'm thinking that a very basic short-term solution would be to simply require 1 unit of minerals for every 1 unit of production; later on, when we're doing the tech tree, we can modify this ratio. This bothers me a little bit just because it throws the v0.1 system in the crapper, but I guess we knew we were going to do that all along.Base industrial output of a planet with no enhancements is 3 Production Points (PP) per population point. Industrial infrastructure is measured as the percentage of the planet’s total habitable area that contains industry (between 0 and 100%). Developing 1% of a planet’s industry requires 1 PP/current population point. Planets may set their focus to industrial infrastructure which contributes all of that planet’s PPs to this infrastructure. A planet’s current maximum industrial infrastructure is the ratio of its current population to its maximum population. Industrial infrastructure is displayed as a percentage of developed industry, e.g.:
A planet with a current population of 15 and a max population of 100 begins has no industrial infrastructure. If it attempts to build anything (a ship, more industry, or a defense base), its output is 45 Production Points (PP) per turn. If it spends one turn building industry, it raises its industrial infrastructure by 3%. If it spends the text turn building a ship, it receives 46.35 PP (15 Population points * 3 base PP per population * 1.03 Infrastructure bonus).
Because the planet’s current population is 15% of its maximum, it cannot build more than 15% of its infrastructure. Consequently, a planet dedicated to building industry will always raise its infrastructure by 3% every turn, unless it is to small to realize the 3% gain (such as a new colony).
I am also assuming for v0.2 that we can transport minerals where they're needed. Stockpiles have their own design thread right now, but much like the econ design thread, it's sort of snowballed and we don't have a final solution. So those will be the first two things for v0.3.
What do people think of establishing a 1:1 ratio of minerals required for production points? Are there any alternatives? We know that:
-- We have minerals and we have production and they are separate
-- Somehow, minerals are required for production
Those two things are passed and final. The 1:1 ratio seems the most simple at the moment.
-Aq