What is the end of Aurora? At what point does the game become unplayable? Let's assume a player has no opposition whatsoever. In that case the race involved will expand forever, yes? But what happens in the interior of their imperium? The various minerals are mined out and are unobtainable in nearby systems. This means that the player will have to mine systems farther and farther away from the interior and send the minerals back. If he does not do this then the interior must either 1) revert to pre-trans-newtonian conditions 2) evacuate to the frontier 3) build a transmuter to produce the elements needed. Number 1 is what we started playing the game to avoid, right? Number 2 is likely to be impossible, as the interior systems are going to be the most heavily populated and it would take eons to evacuate them, and not nearly enough places to which to evacuate. Number 3 would likely cause the end of expansion, as the search for new mineral sources would be unnecessary.
So what happens to systems that use up their mineral resources and are too far from the frontier to bring the needed amounts back? Assuming they don't evacuate, can they survive without transmutation? Or do the survivors become subsistence farmers? This is likely to occur at pretty much the same time in most areas in the interior of a large imperium, so it will not be a localized problem. Yes, the frontier systems will try to send minerals back to the center, but the amounts will never equal the needs. At what point do they stop trying?
Note that this is an imperium without opponents. Any opponents, and the warfare which is likely to ensue will simply accelerat the process. Warships will be built and destroyed instead of the needed cargo ships. If the players cooperate instead of warring on each other, then the first condition recurs, in which you would have 2 imperiums expanding to their limits instead of one.
All this means that in the case of a large imperium, the need for a transmuter would be very great. Were I playing the game, that would be one of the first things I would attempt to research and build. No doubt the costs would be hgh, but the rewards would be much higher.
Comments?
This idea has been bothering me as well, but I have relegated it to the back of my conciousness since I was fairly certain I'd never play a campaign long enough to get to this point. However, after reading the above and pondering it for a little while, all I can say is that while this concept is depressing, it mimics real life. Our society runs on raw materials, many of which are non-renewable on anything less than geologic time frames. Oil, coal, iron, nickel, magnesium, uranium, titanium and a hundred other mundane and exotic resources go in one end of our civilization and are consumed. Many are "consumed".
Expanding out into our solar system will help with some of these resources. Iron and many other metals are likely available in vast quantities in the asteroid belt. But if history has shown anything, it is that as our technology goes up and our access to resources increases, so does our consumption. How long until we strip first the Earth, then the solar system, and then the surrounding solar systems?
Developing ultra-efficient recycling systems and the mythical transmuter would seem to be the only long-term survivable goals.
Kurt