2054 - Year of the SpyThe year continued quietly, but as more and more ships entered service it became inevitable that they would, occasionally, cross paths. Sometimes one would cut within deep-space tracking range of a planet. Other times two survey craft would meet as they each surveyed the same world. Gradually it dawned on even the densest politicians: the drive flairs were too bright to be anything but Nuclear Thermal drives. Transnewtonian Nuclear Thermal drives, the star secret key to each empire's plans, were known to their sibling worlds. In fact, no conventional drive had yet been spotted. For months records were double checked, and signatures compared with the ship launch announcements. The truth was irrefutable. Every child of Sol has held the knowledge of the Nuclear Thermal Drive from the start. The race to outer planets and stars doesn't start today. It didn't even start yesterday. It unknowingly started at least three years ago. As promised, yesterday's 5-years ago empire stats start now.
Spy Report: January 2050For any reader not familiar with the starting conditions:
• Three starting NPRs, SM added to have lower than usual starting NPR tech. 0% chance of new NPRs.
• 60 max-stars map initially, to be expanded to 240 as soon as all starting races are believed to be jump-connected.
• Precursers on. Star Swarm off. Invaders off initially but to be activated if a sudden-death resolution is ever needed.
• All races have ±65% gravitational tolerance, ±50% O2 tolerance, ±21°C temperature tolerance.
- Earthling: 22°C ideal temperature, 0.2 atm ideal oxygen, 3.5 atm max pressure, 1G ideal gravity.
- Martian: 12° ideal temperature, 0.15 atm ideal oxygen, 2.8 atm max pressure, 0.8G ideal gravity.
- Venusian: 32°C ideal temperature, 0.25 atm ideal oxygen, 4.4 atm max pressure, 0.95G ideal gravity.
• Mars/Venus Terraformed to be be cost-0 to the starting inhabitants, cost-2.0 to everyone else.
• 400 million Conventional starting population.
- 5 starting research labs
- 1 naval shipyard with a single 2000 ton slipway
- other stats normal to a 400 million conventional start.
- 8 soon-to-be-obsolete IBM bases
- 8,000 CP for pre-game industrial production/industry conversion.
- Starting Tech: Trans-Neutonain Theory, Jump-Point Theory, Geological Sensors, Genome Sequencing, +4,000 RP of choice.
- Minerals: All homeworlds normalized toward having an average of 50,000 tons of each mineral with 0.55 average accessibility. Planets with greater values were partially lowered, and planets with lower values partially raised. The planets with the most total minerals still started with the highest total, but the difference was lower than it would have been.
Venus:
Starting RP: Pressurized water reactor, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
Starting CP: 200 CI converted to factories, 200 CI converted to mines
Earth:
Starting RP: Pressurized water reactor, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
Starting CP: 140 CI converted to factories, 140 CI converted to mines, 1 commercial shipyard
Also chose one of the non-player-race government types.
Mars:
Starting RP: Pressurized water reactor, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
Starting CP: 200 CI converted to factories, 200 CI converted to mines
The starting 8 PDC missile bases of all players totaled 111,200 tons.
I was kind of hoping someone would start the game with gauss cannons, +20% construction bonus, or missile magazine tech, but no. Everyone wanted fast ships ASAP. So much for 'unique' starting tech. Come to think of it, but the 'CP customization' didn't end up very unique either. At least everyone started diversifying once out of the starting gate, but that's a story for another day.
Future '5 year ago' reports will be less detailed, only contain:
Total Population.
Number of colonies with 100,000+ colonists.
Number of research labs
Number of shipyards, and the total tonnage of all their slipways.
Total tons of shipping, including PDCs.
Home-world employment stats.
Treasury value.
I think that will be enough for score-keeping as it were.
Further details, such as ship stats, research completed, and industry breakdown will have to wait for a '10 years ago' spy report. Maybe longer.
Additional or fewer details may end up being posted if so requested by the players. Likewise empire report time-lag might be increased if requested.
Players: feel free to post-date any short-fiction accounts you wish to include regarding published spy-report data.
Recent events of interest coming soon to PMs and emails near you.
For the players, 2055 awaits.