Mechanics Series - #10 Colony Production

Production, the total industrial output of a planet, is a central part of Lord of Rigel’s economy. This is based on the population assigned to industry, any improvements on a planet, and most importantly the mineral content of a planet. Planet mineral content varies from ultra-poor (the worst) to ultra-rich (the best). The mineral content that a planet has is based on star type and whether a planet is in a nebula. Generally, hotter and younger stars (Blue and White) tend to have more mineral rich planets while colder and older stars (Yellow, Orange, Red) tend to be mineral poor but more rich in organics. This overall leads to a natural breakdown of having industrial worlds supported by agricultural worlds. Mineral content affects the base production of each population unit assigned to industry.

Industry points are then applied directly to producing whatever active item is in the build queue. If there isn’t an active item, then industry points can instead be applied to housing, thus granting a population bonus, or to trade goods where half of the industry points are converted into billions of credits (BCs). Increasing taxation is another means of converting production into credits - higher taxation results in lower production but more BCs.

BCs can be used to purchase production, enabling something to be built in one turn if there are sufficient funds. The cost in BCs decreases the further along an item is in construction. Overall, purchasing production can be prohibitively expensive and should be used sparingly.

One final mechanic tied to production is pollution. Planets have a built in “environmental tolerance” that is tied to the size of a planet. Basically, larger planets tend to have more places to stash pollution. Once production exceeds this tolerance level, planets begin to build up pollution. Each point of pollution results in a morale and farming penalty.

If the pollution of a planet is well over the environmental tolerance, a planet can have environmental degradation. This has stiffer food and morale penalties and planet climate types can degrade (ex. a Terran world to an Arid one). Reducing pollution can stabilize a planet, but terraforming may be needed to restore it. In extreme conditions where an environment has degraded to an insane degree and a tiny planet is being over harvested, it may even be outright destroyed!

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