Revision as of 12:46, 10 July 2004

Meters

Meters are variables attached to planets, representing the production capabilities and social attributes of each colonized world.

Meters always range from 0-100. For greater granularity, meters can be modified in fractions of a full step (for example, +.25 is a valid increment of a meter). However, the value is always rounded to the nearest integer on the UI.

TO-DO: On going dicussion as to the scale of meters. 0-100, 0-10, 0-255? Might need a public review.

Before meters are used in any calculations, but after all Effects have executed, the values of Meters should be normalized to fall between 1 and 10. That means, if the meter is less 1, then the meter is set to 1. If the meter is greater than 10, then the meter is set to 10.

Future Note: There will be “meters” attached to ships, ship parts, empires, and perhaps the galaxy itself.

On planets, meters have both a Max Value and a Current Value. Effects generally manipulate the Max Value, production calaculations and conditional tests use the Current Value. See Infrastructure for more information.

Resource Meters & Focus

Resource meters govern the production of resources by a world. Meter value/10 * population = the number of resources generated by the planet.

TO-DO: There is on going discussion pertaining to the value of each meter level. Might need a public review.

The Max Values of resource meters are heavily influence by Focus settings. There is a Primary and Secondary Focus for every colonized planet. Each Focus can be set to one of the five resource meters or the "Balanced" setting.

• Primary Focus grants + 12 to the selected resource meter
• Primary Balanced Focus adds +4 to all resource meters
• Secondary Specialized Focus granted +6 to the selected resource meter
• Secondary Balanced Focus adds +2 to all resource meters

TO-DO: There is on going dicussion pertaining the value of each focus setting. Might need a public review.

Technologies and buildings also heavily influence the Max Values of Meters. See Effects for more details.

Legacy Note: Once upon a time, in version .2 , each Focus setting would add to every meter, so that every colony would produce a little of each type of resource. That role now belongs to technologies and buildings. Worlds still produce a little of everything, once the proper techs are researched and buildings constructed. TO-DO: This has been mentioned in Infra and Effect threads in Design, and implied in the public review for Infrastructure, though not explictly passed yet.

Farming: This meter is used to determine the amount of Nutrients a world produces. It is heavily modified by poor environment.

Mining: This meter determines the number of Minerals produced.

Industry: The industry meter determines the amount of Production generated by a world. TO-DO: Gravity (ie, Planet Size) effecting Industry, as a balance for larger planets. Been discussed before, at length when NF and I were assembling v.2 stuff.

Science: Science generates Research. In the future, government picks will probably have a significant influence on this meter.

Trade: This meter generates Money. In the future, government picks will probably have a significant influence on this meter.

Social Meters

Health: Health governs the growth rate of population. A low Health causes negative growth. Lack of food (ie, the Famine event) will cause Health to plummet. See Population for more details.

Construction: Construction governs the growth rate of infrastructure, and can modify the costs of build projects. See Infrastructure for more details.

Future Social Meters

Happiness: Happiness guards against unrest events. It is not used in v.3.

Security: Security lowers the duration of unrest events, guards against piracy events, and guards against enemy espionage. It is not used in v.3

Infrastructure

On each colonized planet, meters determine the quantity of resource production and the rate of growth on the planet. Each meter has a Max Value and a Current Value. On the user interface, the Current Value is referred to as “Infrastructure”.

Effects modify the Max Meter. The exception is destructive events: for example, earthquakes, riots, and enemy bombing act on the Current Meters.

New colonies start with all Current Meters set to 0.

Each turn, if a Current Meter is greater than it's associated Max Meter, the Current Meter is reduced to match the Max Meter. For example, if the player switches from Farming focus to Mining, the Max Farming Meter will have been reduced. The Current Meter would also reduce to match (if it were equal to begin with.)

Each turn, every meter (with the except of the construction meter) increases via the following formula:

(Meter Value Change) = (Construction Meter) / ( (Current Meter Value) + 1)
(New Meter Value) = Min( (Meter Value) + (Meter Value Change), (Max Meter Value) )

TO-DO: Geoff's forumla. I want Powercrazy and a few other eyes to take a look at this formula.

The Current Construction Meter increases based on the Max Construction Meter: (Meter Value Change) = (Max Construction Meter) / ( (Current Meter Value) + 1)
(New Meter Value) = Min( (Meter Value) + (Meter Value Change), (Max Meter Value) )

If a Build Project (including Terraforming but excluding Ships) is currently in progress on a planet, all construction on infrastructure is halted. No infrastructure growth occurs.

The Current Resource Meters are divided by ten, then multiplied with population to determine the quantity of each resource produced by the planet. The results of these operations are not rounded off to intergers internally, however they are displayed to integers to the user.

On the UI, each meter should be represented by: a: Filled in boxes or icons for each point in the Current Meter b: Greyed out boxes or icons for each point of the Max Meter above the Current Meter's value. c: A numeric and/or iconic display of the total resources produced by the planet. d: An indication of which resource meter is enjoying the benefits of the Primary and Secondary Foci. (Player should be able to manipulate this indication to change the Focus of the world.) e: In addition, meters should expand and contract to fit available space. Once meters reach higher levels, the indivdual boxes or icons might have to be quite small. TO-DO: or some other solution

Infrastructure Labels

Infrastructure Labels have no gameplay effect. They represent a rating to allow players to easily judge the progess of colonies.

The average of every Current Meter is determined. Based on this average, a Label is selected from the list below:

• 1-10:
• 11-30: Developing World
• 30-60:
• 60-90:
• 90-100: Metroplex

To-DO: Think up better Labels. Can't use Nascent Colony, for example, because low infra might be due to destructive events.

Effects

Events, planet specials, technologies, buildings, leaders, government picks, and racial picks are all Actors. Actors have one or more Effect. Effects describe how each Actor is influencing the game. Effects should be included in the content description of each Actor.

Each turn, every Effect is executed. The execution of Effects that check meters is delayed until every other Effect has been executed.

Most effects have a scope and certain conditions. Objects that fall within the scope must met the conditions or else the Effect is canceled.

Effects are described in greater detail on the wiki, including the conditions and scopes that can be applied to each Effect.

Modify Empire Meters Changes the value of meters for every empire within scope. In v.3, there are no Empire meters.

Modify Empire Technology Sets a named technology to either Learned or Unlearned for every empire in scope.

Modify Empire Stockpile Changes the value of Stockpiles for every empire within scope. Useful for events that offer rewards or penalties, or buildings/specials that provide a set number of resources each turn.

Modify Planet Build Slot Places a Building on every planet in scope, or removes a certain building (including duplicates) from every planet in scope. A setting allows the removal of buildings based on a Chance parameter (including 100%).

Modify Planet Environment Changes the environment and/or size of planets within a certain scope. Useful for cataclysmic events, such as novas. Setting size to "None" destroys the planet.

Modify Planet Infrastructure: Changes the values of the Current Resource Meters of planets within a certain scope. Useful for destructive events, such as earthquakes, bombings, extreme solar flares. Modification value can be influenced by a local meter value.

Modify Planet Meters: Changes the values of Meters of planets within a certain scope. Useful for technologies, buildings, racial picks, planet specials, events, etc. etc. Modification value can be influenced by a local meter value, or a count of objects.

Modify Planet Population: Changes the value of population for planets within a certain scope. Modification value can be influenced by a local meter value.

Modify Ship Hitpoints Damages, repairs, or destroys ships within scope. (Probably fleshed out and implemented in v.4)

Modify Ship Meters Causes a non-permanent changes the properties of ships within scope. Uses of this effect are varied, including adding bonuses to friendly ships and penalties to enemies. (Probably fleshed out and implemented in v.4)

Modify Ship-Part Meters Changes the properties of ship-parts, from which newly built ships inherit their properties. This effect is useful for modeling the effects of strategic resources or technology upgrades. In future versions, existing ships can be upgraded to the new values through an undetermined mechanism. (Probably fleshed out and implemented in v.4)

Modify Star Type Operates on every system within scope, changing the star color. Useful for cataclysmic events, such as novas. Because destroying stars might screw up the starlanes and therefore pathfinding, it's not an option. TO-DO: Is this true?

TO-DO: Should effects mess with starlanes n' wormholes? If so, how?

Trigger Events A “Chance” variable determines the percent chance that events will be triggered by this effect each turn, for each object in scope that meets conditions. Either the event triggered is picked from a defined list, or all events from the defined list are triggered.

Unlock Tech Unlocks a tech. Scope is always a set of empires, usually just one. Effect can be permanent, or for the life of the spawning object. (for example, if a building that unlocks a tech is scrapped, the tech might re-lock.) Effect can be permanent, or for the life of the spawning object.

Unlock Building Unlocks a building. Buildings can be unlocked for use across entire empires, or a set of planets.

Unlock Ship-Part Unlocks a ship part. Ship parts can be unlocked for use across entire empires, or a set of planets. In v.3, “ship-parts” are the scout, colony ship, mark I-V.