Industrial Indices

[Erik L (OP)]

Currently, the Industrial Index is an empire-wide value. When the Manufacturing Tech goes up, the Industrial Index increases globally for that empire.

I am thinking that it shouldn't. Or maybe have modifiers applied based on population. Smaller settlements are more efficient than larger ones. But I am also thinking that newer colonies won't have the latest processes/tech. So that puts the smaller populations into a lower index.

Currently thinking -

Population	Ind. Index Mod
Outpost	-1
Small Colony	0
Colony	+1
Large Colony	+2
Small Core	+2
Core	+1
Large Core	0
V. Large Core	-1

This gives the mid-sized colonies a huge boost in output.

Now. Is this worth it? Or should the Ind. Index be left global?

[boggo2300]

I take it that spread is for II 1? and everything would be 1 higher t II2?

I sort of agree with a few things sticking out a bit,  an outpost generally speaking is brand new shiny population so would probably be better equipped than it would otherwise be,  plus a -1 II will be pretty crippling to such a small income anyway, so from  gameplay perspective it's pretty nasty.

Inversely, big pop's while I agree they're much less efficient, will tend to have the latest and greatest in industrial tech and processes.

another way to model that, while a bit more bookkeeping would be to spread any new II out from the capital, like ma jump rating out per turn or possibly per year to model having to recreate processes with the new facilities/processes when the II goes up.

All that aside keeping the one II empire wide is much simpler and more streamlined.

[Erik L (OP)]

If the base Industrial Index is 1, then that is its floor. No lower. So for a starting empire, the range would be 1-3. It would give a huge boost to the mid-range populations.

The distance from the homeworld is what I'd want most to model it. No jump points, so it would need to run on distance. It would also need to account for age of the colony as well.

[boggo2300]

That was pretty much what I was trying to come up with, I was basing it on a single jump distance,  so based on your FTL check, every system inside that distance gets the new II,  then next period (turn or year I suppose depending on how slow you want the spread) every system within the jump distance of those gets the new II.  major problem is that's a lot of extra bookkeeping.

[Erik L (OP)]

With an open map, it will be difficult to implement.

[boggo2300]

Even with basing it on colony size, I'm not sure the benefits are worth the extra work.

I like the idea,  I'm not convinced it's practical though

[Sematary]

I really like the idea. For early game it gives players a reason to colonize several places and push for them to have higher populations. Right now the jump from outpost's 10% efficiency to a small colony's 20% for a mere 11 population is a really good incentive but then going from small colony to colony has a vastly different cost/benefit analysis but the industrial index change would change that analysis to favor making an outpost a colony as fast as possible and quite possibly bringing it to the size of a large colony. Then as the game moves on you have your core planets which are getting so large that they are losing efficiency but are making up for it through taxes, a vibrant mid range of planets around that, and then a real frontier feel unless you bring a fleet of colony ships to settle at a large size. Now implementing it will be harder, but only if you didn't have for lack of a better word one or more settings. Maps of stars, I would suggest a "realistic" setting and then one or more made up settings, with stats for the stars and planets would really help not only this issue but I think it would make the game much more accessible to people who are intimidated by the large amounts of work you have to do to set up the game.

[Erik L (OP)]

The "official" setting is part of the fluff that I'm still working on. The existing setting stuff already written will need to be gone over to bring it up to date with the current rules too.

Of course, a Stellar Index with planets and stars all fleshed out would make a good idea for another product...