Second Sphere Suggestion Box

Put any and all your random suggestions here. Please try to avoid one-sentence suggestions unless they're pretty self-evident. A short description of the idea would be nice. Also, please sign the suggestion so I know who to get back to in case I need clarification or expansion.

Possibilities could include

Technologies

NPC worlds

Rules for anything

Fluff (I'll contact you to hash it out in greater detail)

Plot hooks

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Remember that chances are I can't use everything, so don't be discouraged if your suggestion doesn't get used. I appreciate the help.

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AI should be cheap but inferior to regular-people, for better use of giant swarms of Raptors and droids and whatnot.

Economics: Economics in Spaaaace

By MJ12

Growth and Savings

Or: You mean you need money to make money? Amazing!

The economy is constantly growing at a slow pace, and as such infrastructure improvements are made quarterly and "immediately" finish. Therefore, growth is done quarterly (whenever new builds must be submitted?) and said infrastructural growth immediately finishes.

Besides for the standard growth categories, there are two others that can be increased by spending-domestic support and population. The latter represents immigration-friendly policies, tax breaks for incoming businesses and their employees, improved government programs to integrate immigrants into society at large, and other similar policies for the most part, although nations with the inclination and will to use bioroid labor can simply start the factories up for another batch.

Domestic support can be increased by government spending as well, although the effects are generally temporary and short-term, used to compensate for crisis situations or simply to stave off impending disaster for just a little longer. This represents propaganda, beating people into a nationalistic fervor, spending a giant pile of money on pork, and other ways to keep the voting bloc happy lest they decide to vote you out of office-or worse yet, vote with Kalashnikovs instead of the ballot box.

Growth and Morale

Or: Bread and Circuses in the 22nd century

Many countries have found that keeping their population well fed and wealthy allows them to act more freely without the risk of significant dissent or revolt. This has not changed at all-poor growth in infrastructure and GDP can and will cause civil unrest, while high growth and the promise of economic prosperity can silence an angry population.

If economic growth does not hit a critical threshold, popular support can and will wane, although subsidies and government action (i.e. bribing the people) can stave off the worst effects, for a period of time. But once bread and circuses are promised, it is not difficult to cause the population to start demanding more, and with an essentially static infrastructure base, this is the way collapsed nations are built.

For developed nations, the quarterly growth needed to sustain popular support is approximately 0.5%, but for somewhat less developed polities (i.e. the player characters) owing to the easy access to resources and living room, desirable growth is approximately 1% in all areas (CIP, PIP, and wealth). Growth below this will penalize morale, causing it to decrease slowly. If total growth is below the threshold, for every 0.2% total growth is below the threshold, a nation loses 1% domestic support. A nation suffering negative growth can lose a significant percentage of its domestic support as its population is wracked by poverty and unemployment.

On the flipside, sustained growth can increase population support, as the promise of prosperity in the near future allows them to forgive the goverment for a lot more than people who aren't seeing their nest eggs and future brighten before their eyes. A nation which has the wealth, research and development infrastructure, and savings rate to sustain high economic growth can ignore its internal turmoil and societal problems for the most part-until it can no longer sustain said growth rates. For every 0.4% total growth is above the threshold, a nation gains 1% domestic support owing to its economic policies.

Inflation

Or: There are some things posthumans can't solve. This is one of them.

Inflation is an ugly fact of economic growth-as per-capita wealth and income increases, each individual dollar or peso or renminbi becomes worth somewhat less. Similarly, most countries only save small percentages of their GDP, using the rest for purchases, infrastructural improvements, subsidies, and other actions. At the beginning of every year, the saved money a nation possesses in its treasury is decremented by a certain percentage (3%-5%).

In theory this should encourage people to go out and spend their money instead of stockpiling it for no particular reason.

Deficit Spending

Or: How to get reelected and tick off your successor.

It is sometimes necessary or even desirable for a nation to spend more than it takes in via taxes and other means. A long time ago, some genius figured out that borrowing money was an excellent tool to do exactly that, whether on a personal or a national scale. National debt is commonly used to finance wars, prestige projects, or other significant expenses. Most notably, most ZOCU powers have been saddled with a moderate degree of debt due to their crash industrialization programs and proportionally smaller economies compared to the Core powers.

A nation can do deficit spending, which up to doubles their quarterly wealth income, but gives them national debt, at any moment. National debt, however, reduces future income, and at high levels can decrease public support of the current administration and its path. For every 20 WU of debt (round debt up to the nearest 20 WU), 1 WU of income must be reserved per quarter to pay interest on the loans quarterly. If the nation refuses to pay, massive domestic upheaval can result. Most critically, if a nation refuses to pay it is immediately disallowed from deficit spending until its deficit is eliminated, which may take a significant period of time. Payment of the deficit can be done with any budget surplus a nation may have.

Furthermore, the current deficit is transformed into a domestic support hit, and your economic system can easily suffer permanent damage-multiply your current Wealth production by (1 - Debt/Wealth), suffering a maximum of a 50% reduction in economic capacity. The permanent damage to the economy due to various factors can cause a nation to enter a depression which it may take decades to crawl out of, and the domestic support hit makes it worse. Therefore, most nations seek to ensure that interest payments on their debt are always paid, no matter what.

Similarly, high levels of government debt can also cause significant domestic support hits as people worry if the government can keep fulfilling its debts. One-quarter (rounded up to the nearest percentage point) of the percentage of total national debt (both foreign and domestic) over GDP is subtracted from the domestic support rating. (this assumes domestic support is still a 1-100 percentage).

On the other hand, a nation can borrow money from other nations, which may reduce the interest costs but gives them influence over one's economy. The results of defaulting on debt in either case are identical, as the main problem is the nation showing that it cannot be trusted to repay its debts on time. All repayment plans must be arranged ahead of time owing to the ability to use debts as leverage.

ZOCU nations start with 20% of their total GDP (Wealth infrastructure) in domestic national debt.

Reducing the Deficit

In many cases a nation with a deficit will seek to reduce it during times of plenty, by paying it down. This is done by spending wealth on it (obviously). However, as most debt is found in bonds and securities, with fixed repayment schedules, paying off debt is a slow and potentially painful process.

Debt can be "immediately" repaid, but such a process is inefficient. Owing to the mature value of most investments, this requires 10 WU to every 1 WU of debt. Therefore, most nations repay their debt in the "normal" fashion-by slowly paying it down and not borrowing further. A nation can pay off 2.5% of their debt, rounded up to the nearest WU, every quarter at a normal ratio (i.e. 1 WU spent to remove 1 WU of debt). Any debt a nation seeks to reduce past that is paid off at the higher 10:1 ratio.

Trade

Or: You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

Trade is common for one reason-in general, it makes everyone better off when it happens. Trade based economies are prosperous but generally also vulnerable to disruption, making it a tradeoff between security and prosperity.

To Be Finished

Technology and the Economy

Or: How exactly did we get "A" from Technology?

Technological improvement also spurs economic growth as well as investment. As technology improves, productivity improves, even if the net effects are fairly minor. Therefore, Research Points can be used to improve the economy in place of wealth, representing focusing government research efforts on economic, rather than military, applications and improving prosperity in that fashion.

Galaxy-Wide Economic Events

Or: Help help I'm in a recession and I'm out of money!

However, most countries seek to keep a reserve of currency for a significant reason-economic fluctuations and other contingencies can only be predicted on a fairly rough scale, and must be corrected for. Lacking enough money in case of a galaxy-wide recession (not uncommon in a fairly interconnected economic system) can cause significant popular support hits.

Overcapacity

Or: The care and feeding of your very own Solow model

There are nations which generally have far more infrastructure than their savings rate and population can support. This is rare, because fundamentally this is unstable. A nation with overcapacity loses said infrastructure over time, as money and workforce are stretched too thin to accommodate it and businesses close down due to having to produce goods below their marginal cost to participate in the market. Therefore, a nation with overcapacity must invest a significant amount of wealth into maintaining growth or at least stagnation until the population and GDP grow sufficiently to support its infrastructure, as the market is already saturated and the government is essentially the sole party standing between it and collapse.

A nation with infrastructure greater than what its population can support abandons said infrastructure at a rate of (total infrastructure - maximum supportable infrastructure/50 * maximum supportable infrastructure) per quarter. So for example, Davistan has 1250 industry but can only support 250 from population and other factors. Davistan, therefore, loses 8% of its infrastructure per quarter (a -8% growth rate) unless it pays through the nose to maintain its productivity levels.

Furthermore, a nation's cost to subsidize infrastructure it cannot support is increased by a factor of (1 + total infrastructure/maximum supportable infrastructure), rounded down. So Davistan is also paying 5 times as much per unit to keep its infrastructure from decaying. Given that it's losing domestic support as its infrastructure decays, chances are it will be an ex-nation within a few years.

Prestige Projects

By MJ12
Or: Because everyone likes one-upmanship.

Prestige projects are high-profile projects that stretch the limits of human science and technology, impressive constructs that are spoken of in awe. These are projects like the Apollo Launch, the construction of the Empire State Building, building the LHC-projects that of themselves have little benefit, but in the end are beneficial because of how they advance one's technical base.

In effect, a Prestige Project is a method to trade PIP and CIP for morale and RP-by demanding that this must be built, one creates a pull for technology in a specific field, which often makes significant breakthroughs trying to supply the resources needed to construct something of this magnitude, and by finishing it your nation has something its people can be proud of, a legacy to remember for centuries to come.

Prestige Projects are not to be taken lightly, and are a significant investment, but their rewards can be worth it. A Major prestige project, like the Large Hadron Collider, Panama Canal, or Hoover Dam, often instantly grants a free advancement in a related technical field as well as a morale booster-building a hypercollider that spans the planet's diameter may increase one's expertise in the field of particle weapons, while building a powerful AI control system might increase expertise in the field of artificial intelligence, or something such as a massive kilometers-high megascraper might translate into improved structural engineering technology. Furthermore Major projects grant a significant morale boost. In some cases, prestige projects may have significant other effects, like terraforming a continent from a patch of sand and sun into a verdant garden world.

Minor prestige projects are smaller and more commonl, but still expensive undertakings. These often simply add RP to certain fields, making further research into them somewhat cheaper. An example may be attempting to break the speed record for a powered vehicle, which could translate into advancements in aerospace or mecha technology, or a massive public transport array might translate into improved prosperity (RP put into economic development.) Minor prestige projects grant morale boosts but they are proportionally less extreme than the ones from major prestige projects, owing to their smaller scale.

Fun stuff from OmegaPaladin

This is a miscellaneous assortment of rules and fluff

Defending Your System

System defense is key to avoiding being conquered. This is a complicated array of systems such as spy satellite networks, defensive satellites, fortresses in space and on planets, advanced military firewalls, and police/space patrol organizations. Instead of representing this with individual units, this is represented by three traits.

C³I

This is the level of sophistication of your sensor network and your command hierarchy. High C³I gives the ability to pick up cloaked ships and identify sneaky enemies. Facilities that control C³I include NORAD-style command centers, recon drones, and communication networks.

Fortifications

This represents the physical presence of weaponry capable of holding off enemy space vessels and to a lesser extent troops. This includes defense platforms, battlestations, ground defense installations, and planetary defense batteries. High levels can mean either extraordinarily tough defenses or incredibly stealthy weaponry. This can be enhanced with two buildable facilities.

Citadel - More than a mere base or battlestation, this is a facility capable of docking capital ships and holding an amazing quantity of mobile suits or fighters. Think of Axis or Jaburo, and you are on the right track. Hugely expensive, with defenses to match the price tag, Citadels are fairly rare.

Superweapon - Whether it is an array of solar mirrors, a giant ground based railgun, or something more exotic, you have an ace up your sleeve. Generally, the more powerful the device, the less often it can fire, and the more vulnerable it is to attack.

Garrison

This represents your fixed bases for ships, strike craft, and ground forces. This is primarily a logistical factor that works with your military infrastructure to represent what you can support of defense. Higher levels mean you have plenty of airbases and barracks, with enough to keep your forces supported even after being attacked.