Vacation and Updates

So coming up in the next couple of days, I’ll be heading out on vacation. This means that the updates, as irregular as they are will be more irregular.

Beyond me heading out of the country for 10 days, the recent tech update I’ve been working with has strewn wrenches through out the book. I attempted to keep the techs aligned with current tech components to minimize the disruption. One area that has not escaped the disruption is starting empires.

Currently, a normal start is 5000 RP, with a low tech start being 3000, and high tech start being 7000. Now with a normal start being everything at level zero, a high tech start would be gaining 200-300 RP to apply to research areas. This would grant the tech components to at least level 1. I am still undecided if a roll is needed for these techs or not.

So for low tech start, I am thinking three of the six areas are at level 0, and the rest require some expenditure to raise to level 0. Another idea is treating it as an uplift situation. The player race is effectively TL3, and would require 10,000MCr to get to TL4 and level 0 in all of the research areas.

The second option almost seems to be too much cost. With Fleet and Missile Funds that are supposed to be expended prior to turn 1, there would not be anything to spend them on. With option 1, I am thinking three areas that are set to level 0, and three that are completely unavailable. An expenditure of 1,000MCr per area, or possibly 150 RP per area would open the area up for use.

Areas
Energy       Propulsion/Energy Generation
Defense      Armor & shields
Electronics  Sensors/Scanners/ECM/etc.
Biotech      Population & Health
Construction Hulls & Industry
Weapons      Weapons.

Under the RP scheme for low tech starts, 3 of the areas will be at level 0. The other three would be at “-1” and require 150 RP to advance to level 0. This would accumulate as normal. Approximately 16% of the generated RP will be applied to each area, if it is allocated equally. Obviously, the player may allocate research points as they see fit.

One thing I am also toying with in this new scheme is some technologies will require more RP (beyond the normal multiplier). As an example, Improved power generation would require an additional 20RP, Enhanced power generation would require an additional 40RP, and Advanced power generation would require an additional 60RP. This means Improved Fission would require 120RP before making a roll. Advanced Fusion would require 260 RP. This would make the higher tiers of some technologies more expensive.

The only other area that will be affected is intelligence operations. I’m not sure how the intel ops would be changed yet. Once I have an idea on that, I’ll make a new post.