FTA3 Economy

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1. From the Ashes 3
2. FTA3 Military and Combat
3. FTA3 Ship Design
4. FTA3 Espionage
5. FTA3 Economy
6. FTA3 Research & Development

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The Game Economy

The game economy uses three primary currencies: Cash money, generated by civilian infrastructure and represented as $, and Tokens, which are a more esoteric concept representing everything from the lobbying power of a state’s various actors to a people’s mindset and even more esoteric concepts. Tokens by nature represent different things and there are both generic tokens, representing the organs of your government doing stuff, and specific types of tokens representing, say, the efforts of a large research university or an organized religion in your polity. The final currency, Defense Industry or DI, represents shipyards, autofactories, training camps, and the like, is replenished yearly based on your production and other factors and can only be expanded through the investment of $ and the usage of particular tokens.

Civilian Infrastructure

Civilian infrastructure represents office buildings, farms, roads, schools, and everything that is required for people to live their lives and function in the early third century after the Return. As might be expected, this generates cash, through taxes and fees and what have you, that can be used by your government to buy stuff. CI is assigned to Territories, which are the principal building blocks of any Polity. A territory could represent a continent on a Garden world, a mineral-rich cluster of asteroids, an airless moon, or anything broadly comparable. Each point of CI generates $50 annually at game start. New CI can be generated through the investment of $ and the appropriate tokens, be given out as the result of an Event, etc. In theory, CI can also be lost due to certain circumstances at the discretion of the moderation team (Usually because of war or some sort of event).

Renting DI

Plenty of defense contractors scattered across the galaxy have excess capacity and are willing to sell it to polities that aren’t actively shooting at them. It is possible to purchase access to this pool of DI. It costs $1000 to rent 25 DI for a year. As with purchasing tokens, this price doubles for every 25 DI or token you rent.

Cash Economics Overview

Expansion of your economy is slower than in previous iterations of the game. This has reasons, both in and out of character. Out of character, managing and balancing the game once economies grow a certain percentage past their original starting size makes balancing core game mechanics extremely difficult. It also created, after a certain point, increasing paperwork bloat. In-character, the universe of FTA3 is old. Civilization has been extant in the Orion Spur for hundreds of thousands of years - the OPF was led first by the xan, then humans, and then the chelonians and TKK before falling into chaos. It’s not that there isn’t open territory available for the grabbing - of course there is. But over that span of time, countless worlds were settled, developed, and terraformed to be broadly suitable for baseline organic life (both carbon based organic forms and more exotic varieties). Your average Polity controls a star system that economically can support a huge population in modern comfort without too much trouble - any hardship for the average citizen is a conscious social decision, not a resource-based one. The incentive to go out into a distant star system and build a new home without a compelling reason…simply isn’t really there.

The $ purchase cost of all infrastructure, ships and other items can be pro-rated across the construction time of the item.

Civilian Infrastructure & Income

To start the game, a point of Civilian Infrastructure (CI) generates $50 of income. This number can change as the result of factors that we’re not going to get too deep into here, but are listed in other sections of the rules. Please list both your amount of CI in each territory and what your base $ per CI is in your budget for each territory (due to stability or other factors).

Expanding Your Income

It is, in fact, possible to establish new income generating territory, if there’s a compelling enough reason to. Natural loci of economic development - say, reactivated OPF autofactories, but also things like trading posts or centers of political gravity - can attract a significant population, and, as a result, civilian infrastructure that generates revenue.

In game terms, there are several steps required to establish a new territory that supports CI (and as a result generates income). First, the system where you intend to establish the territory must have a supply point. Second, there must be some objective or object of interest to justify putting a territory there. This is referred to in the game mechanics as a Landmark. This can be a token generator, an OPF autofac, a spooky neubula, or any number of things subject to mod approval. Some landmarks may be generated as the result of an event or mod action that do not have a direct production value, but provide some other game effect in the rules.

With these two essential elements in place, you have the prerequisites to establish a new territory.

It takes two years, $4000, an economic, and a unity token to establish a new territory. It starts with one CI which generates the same amount of income per year as your existing CI, and whatever your state’s base Stability level is.

Expanding Civilian Infrastructure

Expanding civilian infrastructure on an existing territory is possible, but expensive; you’re basically forcing a post-scarcity society (for the most part) to somehow consume more or have higher demand. Frankly this mechanically mostly works by getting more people out of the server spires or attracting immigration or other tricks to obtain more consumers generating economic activity rather than simply just building more stuff. You are limited to expanding your CI by no more than 2% of your total CI in this fashion in a single game year, with the caveat you can always build a minimum of 1. Round to the nearest whole number for that 2%. It costs 1 Econ token to build any amount of CI (up to the limit) and $500 per CI built. CI is completed in a single year.

Tokens

Tokens represent the organs of your polity, be they government, religious, social, or whatever, putting their willpower into doing stuff. A significant number of actions require the expenditure of tokens, which regenerate annually, but cannot be saved from year to year. They can be swapped both between players, and players and NPCs, representing various relationships be they economic, religious, political, etc.

Token Types

General

These represent your government’s basic operating capabilities (or the equivalent) and can be spent on any (almost) action.

Diplomatic

Representing your ties to other polities, be they economic or through your Foreign Ministry. Generally a pretty broadly applicable token.

• 1 DIPLO to establish relations with target NPC
• 1 DIPLO to increase by 1 relations with target NPC
• 1 DIPLO to decrease by 1 relations between designated PC and NPC
• (NPC Development Level/2) diplo tokens to diploannex target NPC
• making alliances, at the end of the diplo doc
• 1 DIPLO or 1 MIL to Close Borders for the year. This provides improved defense against piracy and lets you engage any violators in a system claimed by you without generating a CB. Don’t cross the neutral zone.Note that in general as closed borders are a longterm policy and as such it is assumed to be in effect until rescinded by the state in question not paying the token cost. This action is FREE during wartime.

Military

Representing the capabilities of your Military-Industrial complex, often used for constructing new Defense Industry but also expanding your ability to conduct operations outside your polity’s borders, as well as other functions.

• 1 MIL token (+$2000) per 5% DI (or fraction thereof) built, Maximum twice (i.e. 10%)
• 1 MIL token (or 1 R & D token) and $500 to unlock doctrine step (limited to 1 per year)
• 1 MIL $2000 to build a Forward Operating Base (1 year)
• 2 MIL $4000 to build a Supply Base (1 year)
• 1 MIL $2000 to upgrade a Forward Operating Base to a Supply Base (1 year)
• 1 MIL token $3000 and 20 DI to build a supply generator (1 year)
• 2 MIL $3000 and 30 DI to build a Fortification Network (2 years)
• 2 MIL $4000 to build a Dodecahedron (3 years)
• 2 MIL $4000 and 50 DI to build a Artemis System (2 years)
• 1 MIL and 1 ESP $2500 (and other reqs) to build Operations Center (1 year)
• 1 MIL and 1 ESP $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Hidden Armory (1 year)
• 1 MIL or 1 DIPLO to Close Borders for the year. This provides improved defense against piracy and lets you engage any violators in a system claimed by you without generating a CB. Don’t cross the neutral zone. Note that in general as closed borders are a longterm policy and as such it is assumed to be in effect until rescinded by the state in question not paying the token cost. This action is FREE during wartime.

Research & Development

Representing the abilities of your educational infrastructure, think-tanks, labs, and such. Used for things like researching new technology, reverse-engineering OPF or alien technology, etc.

• 1 R&D to explore a hypergrid node (See FTA3 Exploration for more information)
• 1 R&D $100 and 10 DI to design a new ship
• 1 R&D $500 to unlock a specialty hull
• 1 R&D and typically, $4000 and 15 DI, to refurbish OPF facility
• 1 R&D (or 1 MIL) and $500 to unlock doctrine step (limited to 1 per year)
• 1 R&D and $1000 to unlock OPF relic
• 1 R&D $4000 to build a Supercomputer Node (2 years)
• 1 R&D and 1 ESP $2500 to build Academy Grounds (1 year)
• 1 R&D and 1 ESP $2500 (and other reqs) to build Prototyping Lab (1 year)

Economic

Representing the “heft” of your CI, in whatever form it takes.

• 1 ECON + 1 UNITY +$4000(plus other reqs) to establish new territory (2 years)
• 1 ECON token to unlock building new CI + $500 per CI (up to 2% your total)
• 1 ECON to invest in sector trade, see trade doc
• 1 ECON to invest directly into a territory’s economy (see economic rules)

Unity

Representing internal order, social stability or cohesion, and other more esoteric organs. These tokens can be played either dystopian or utopian depending on whim.

• 1 UNITY to raise a system’s stability by 1 (or $1000 or 150 supply, depending on ethos, may be limitations on spending supply) You may do this more than once per node per year, but the cost doubles
• 2 UNITY and $5000 to build a Regional Capital (2 years)
• 1 UNITY + 1 ECON $4000 (and other reqs) to establish new territory (2 years)
• 1 UNITY and $5000 to build a stability generator (1 year)
• 1 UNITY and 1 ESP $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Propaganda Center (2 years)
• 1 UNITY + (other tokens, depending on circumstances) to change change the ethos of a conquered territory to match your own.

Espionage

Tokens for underhanded shenanigans of various sorts.

• 1 ESP to create a new agency
• 1 ESP to upgrade an existing agency
• 1 ESP to unlock an asset type on a particular agency
• 1 ESP for all generic intel actions
• 1 ESP to begin an intel operation
• 1 ESP (instead of 1 R&D) and $500 to unlock an espionage doctrine. This also counts as your 1 doctrine research a year.
• 1 ESP and (1 MIL or 1 UNITY) $2000 to build an Agency Headquarters (2 years)
• 1 ESP and 1 MIL $2500 (and other reqs) to build an Operations Center (1 year)
• 1 ESP and 1 MIL $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Hidden Armory (1 year)
• 1 ESP and 1 R&D $2500 to build Academy Grounds (1 year)
• 1 ESP and 1 R&D $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Prototyping Lab (1 year)
• 2 ESP $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Listening Post (1 year)
• 1 ESP and 1 UNITY $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Propaganda Center (2 years)
• 2 ESP $2500 (and other reqs) to build a Planetary Blacksite (1 year)

Plot

A special token that is not generated automatically but is instead awarded to players by moderators as the result of the outcome of Events and gameplay resolution.

• 1 plot token to invoke a dramatic plot break to extend your Deniability Clock for espionage

Purchasing Tokens

The galactic market for surplus capacity is surprisingly robust, a legacy of the OPF infrastructure that still dots the Orion Spur. It is possible to buy a one-off token, of any type except Economic or General (for obvious reasons), from the nebulous Galactic Market. The first token purchased in such a fashion costs $1000, with each token purchased afterward doubling in cost. The cost also doubles if you rent DI as described in the next section. Defense Industry: In most regards, DI is the least complicated currency as it has really only one function-equipping your military and using it. You start with 200 DI, and can build 5% more through the expenditure of $2000 and a Military Token. This DI takes a year to come online and add itself to your annual production.. DI production does not accumulate from year to year, instead whatever unspent DI a polity has in a calendar year generates $5 each, representing selling the excess production to various non-state actors. You are capped at an increase of 10% each year, as functionally speaking your existing DI infrastructure can only expand so quickly and keep up.

Landmarks

There are a variety of landmarks that can form the centerpoint of a territory that provide game effects. Some of these can be constructed in a location, while others have to be salvaged and rebuilt and others are the result of natural evolution and can only be utilized when the opportunity presents itself.

Constructed Landmarks

Capital Prime: Your national capital is a unique Landmark, representing your political and economic center of gravity. Technically, all of your ethos-based token production comes from the Capital landmark. Your capital territory may have up to four token generators and any other landmark items allowed. Every player starts with one, and for Roamers it’s mobile. Transsophant/Advancers cannot relocate Capital Prime landmarks.

Regional Capital: (S) 2 years, 2 Unity Tokens, $5000: This represents your empire investing and establishing this node as a core part of your empire, enabling territories within to support token generating landmarks. Any capital node you conquer from another polity is assumed to have this building already. NPCs above Developmental Level 7 possess these.

Token Generator: (S) 2 years, 2 tokens of the type you’re creating a generator for, $5000; The territories in any node with either a Capital or Regional capital can support up to four. If somehow you acquire a territory that has a token generator present but a capital building absent, the generator works but you cannot build more. I have to fluff up all the bullshit here to represent the different types of token, but you get it. Fuck it, players fluff up Token Generators themselves, or the person who rolls it up does it when doing exploration results. Hell there’s multiple fluff possibilities for every type of token generator. It ain’t that serious. These do not generate General tokens or other specialty token types, such as plot tokens or migration tokens, only the others. Mobile.

Supply Generator: (S) Fluff as a AM supercollider, an exceptional mine, a He3 extraction facility, etc; dealer’s choice! Costs $3000, 20 DI, one military token and one year; produces 500 supplies for operations. Mobile.

Stability Generator: (S) This could be a religious landmark, a media empire, an arena for bloodsports, whatever. They raise the stability of the node they’re located in by one. Costs $5000 & 1 unity token, one year to complete. Additional generators beyond the first can only be used to counteract Stability Maluses. Mobile

Fortification Network: (S) A massive shield array, bunker network, or some other type of defensive fortification of massive scale worked into the foundations of the territory itself. Defensive forces fight at TL+0.5 in a territory with a fortification network and all targets and landmarks in the territory are more resistant to espionage and other targeted strikes. Costs $3000, 30DI, Two Military Tokens & 2 Years to complete.

Supercomputer Node: A massive processing node dedicated to decrypting and reverse engineering arcane technology. While using it, halve the cost of opening relics, reverse engineering and other similar projects; however, due to its nature, the relics or reverse engineering examples have to be stored within the supercomputer node, and are therefore vulnerable to disruption if the facility is taken by a hostile power and/or removed with espionage. Costs 4000$, 1 R&D token, & 2 Years to complete. Mobile

The Dodecahedron: The heart of the military machine, staffed entirely by generals and PFCs to bring them coffee. This is where doctrine is laid down, superweapons are dreamed up, and boondoggles initiated. Allows you to research a second doctrine for the same cost as the first each year. Also, it allows you to swap one doctrine choice you’ve selected with its opposite selection per year. However, you are required to design at least one new warship class every two game years, because procurement officers and naval design officers remain locked in eternal mortal combat. Limit one per polity. Costs $4000 and 2 military tokens, takes 3 years to build. Mobile

Artemis System: (S) - An Artemis system is a large fixed installation that can passively pick up waste noise from cloaked ships, giving generalized information on their presence and location - without one, even trying to hunt them is next to chasing needles in a haystack. They also provide the same information for uncloaked ships, and as such most important worlds have an Artemis system (or more than one, in case of sabotage, failure, etc) for tracking all travel through them. Artemis Systems are Landmarks and provide their benefit on a system-wide basis.
$4000, 50 DI, 2 Military Tokens, 2 Years to Construct

Temple: [Dom Spiritual] (WIP) - Temples can be built by Dominant Spiritualist polities. Temples generally provide benefits to both the builder and the host but give the builder leverage over the host, especially in the realm of Espionage. (This frequently will take the form of assets with the caveat that the location of a temple is as public a piece of information as they come.)

• They can spawn events.
• They provide the builder with $200 income annually. This is not CI and does not scale with CI. Hosts may demand this income be shared or even completely taxed.
• Upon completion, the host selects up to $250 of units to gain the Garrison trait, allowing them to fight at +0.5 TL while in this node.
• The creation of a Temple will give the builder leverage over the host particularly in the realm of Espionage - usually in the form of assets.

$2500, 1 Unity Token, 1 Year, Limit 1 per territory

Temples can also be built inside your own territory. In this case, it allows you to select $250 of units to gain the Garrison trait, allowing them to fight at +0.5 TL while in this node, and might turn out useful for espionage if you have a religious agency operating at home, and has no other effects.

Fighter Command Node: (S) - A large, fixed installation dedicated to the strategic scale command and control of sub-warship craft operating in a given region. A Fighter Command Node requires a point of supply or an FOB to function, and grants all allied fighters supported there the benefits of a Fighter Direction Center module. Unsupported fighters (such as those carried on units in excess of an FOB’s weight limit) do not gain this benefit. $2500, 1 Military Token, 1 Year, Limit: Only operates if an FOB or point of Supply is present.

Dig Site: - A site centered around the remnants of a Federation or other Point of Interest that has been wholly stripped of its useful military components. While not having direct military application, the Dig Site generates 1 Federation Artifact per year, which can be spent for various effects. Federation artifacts persist from year to year and can be traded, and stolen, between players, but have no effect on their own outside of unlocking effects as detailed in Exploration. Special: Does not count as a ‘Constructed’ landmark, and instead is automatically created with the depletion of any Point Of Interest. (See Exploration for more details)

Agency Landmarks

Agency landmarks are a special subcategory of constructed landmarks that interact with the espionage system. Most of these landmarks, apart from the agency headquarters itself, have secondary conditions that must be met to build them. Commonly this is having the Agency headquarters built (though not necessarily in the same territory), as to maintain infrastructure of this scale, a stable foundation must be created. If a Landmark would lose its prerequisite, such as a headquarters being destroyed, it ceases to function until its prerequisite can be fulfilled again.

Agency Headquarters (S) - The beating heart of an intelligence agency, boasting plush conference rooms, cutting edge computing superclusters, training and medical medical facilities to bring the most out of their human resources and more unmarked underground rooms than there are letters in any known alphabet. Agency HQ prevents the standard yearly decay for one Agency, and also doubles the capacity for all asset types. Agencies do not need to be headquartered, and these facilities can be a liability when attacked (see the Statistic Decay section in the espionage rules for more information). $2000, 1 Espionage Token and 1 Military or Unity Token to construct and takes 2 years. Mobile. Specialization Specific: Unless otherwise noted, you can only build 1 Specialization Specific Agency Landmark for each Headquartered agency you own with that specialization.

Operational Security Landmark -

Operations Center - A hub for communication, both public and secret, with vast planning rooms and round tables, allowing higher ups to direct operations in real time, and adapt exceptionally quickly. Prerequisite: A Constructed Headquarters for an agency with the Operational Capacity Specialization. One additional operation at a time does not take a token to start, It is treated as ‘Well Planned’. You may use this operation with any agency, but you must make a note that you are using the Operations Center to do so. If an operation is taking place using this ability, and the operations center is destroyed or infiltrated, the operation is an automatic failure, and any assets assigned to it are left without an Exfiltration plan (though can still find their way home if they had assets on hand to do so). $2500, 1 Espionage Token, 1 Military Token, and takes 1 Year to construct. Mobile.

Hidden Armoury - A private armoury containing only the most advanced articles of armour and weaponry the agency can get its hands on, leagues above what is generally available to the nation itself. Prerequisite: A Constructed Headquarters for an agency with the Operational Coordination Specialization. Ground Units and Human Assets assigned to operations count as one TL higher for the duration of their operation, including for any combat resolutions or tie breakers that may occur. Multiple instances of this Landmark do not stack, but can provide a backup if this landmark is destroyed. $2500, 1 Espionage Token, 1 Military Token, and takes 2 Years to construct.

Infrastructure Security Landmark -

Personnel Security Landmark -

Public Security Landmark -

Academy Grounds - The place where all James Bond’s and Johnny English’s start their journey, the factory that turns green recruits into hardened super spies. Each Year, the Academy Grounds produces one of the following choices free of cost: 1 Special Agent, 2 Deep-Cover Agents, 2 Access Agents or 2 Informants. These can be assigned to any agency that have them unlocked, though they will need to be infiltrated into hostile powers to be used. $2500, 1 Espionage Token, 1 R&D Token, and takes 1 Year to construct. Mobile.

Prototyping Lab - The place where great minds meet to make all of the gadgets and dodads that spies need to perform at their best. Prerequisite: A Constructed Headquarters for an agency with the Technological Intelligence Specialization. Each Quarter, the prototyping lab produces 1 Technological Asset of your choice from among the types that Headquartered agencies have access to, free of cost. These can be assigned to any agency that have them unlocked. $2500, 1 Espionage Token, 1 R&D Token, and takes 1 Year to construct. Mobile.

Listening Post - Prerequisite: A Constructed Headquarters for an agency with the Open Source Intelligence Specialization. $2500, 2 Espionage Tokens and takes 1 Year to construct.

Propaganda Centre - Prerequisite: A Constructed Headquarters for an agency with the Domestic Deniability Specialization. Once per Year, you can hold a Propaganda Campaign within one of your territories, for the rest of that year, that territory ignores Stability Loss from internal sources, such as from events, or from failing espionage ops (can be done retrospectively to a source of stability loss to negate it). This does not apply to foreign sources, such as a Psyops campaign. $2500, 1 Espionage Token, 1 Unity Token, and takes 2 Years to construct. Mobile.

Planetary Blacksite - Officially, this place does not exist, many enemies of the state, or unlucky citizens, disappear within its bowels, never to be seen again. There are no obvious outward signs it does exist, but by logging traffic to the area, one might be able to discover that the old abandoned building is a lot busier than it ought to be... Prerequisite: A Constructed Headquarters for an agency with the Foreign Deniability Specialization. The Planetary Blacksite can be used to store assets, units and characters, as well as other items with GM permission. While inside the Planetary blacksite, they are unavailable to be used, but espionage operations & actions have a 100% failure rate against them if their Intelligence Gathering is lower than your deniability. Otherwise, everything inside the Blacksite is treated as if it had the Secured Trait. $2500, 2 Espionage Tokens and takes 1 Year to construct.

Open Palm Federation Landmarks

These landmarks originate with the Overculture and its contemporaries. They cannot be built and must be repaired to regain full function. Revenant players get to start with one OPF Landmark on this list.

Manifold Spire: A product of end-stage Overculture technological development, Manifold Spires differ from Server Spires in that they breach dimensional boundaries to interact with higher energy states on macroscale. When fully repaired, a Manifold Spire reaches across the spire network and pulls descendants of old Humanity into this material universe. This action produces 15 CI that can be immediately applied to increase the current territory value. If there is no territory at this location, create a new one.

Server Spire: A fairly typical example of Overculture technology, the server spires have stood through tens of thousands of years, softly humming as they process and move data between the stars. They (by design or by happenstance) are the backbone of modern interstellar communication and tapping into one allows for easy but also secure communication with units in space. A server spire increases the supply range of anything passing through it by 1 as interstellar JIT techniques become possible - building a supply depot around a server spire is an effective way to cover a large volume of space.

Skein Impeller: Made from lacing superstring fragments into a fractal braidwork, this device cuts through the skein of spacetime and allows access to a theoretically unlimited number of dimensional subdomains. When fully repaired, each year you may roll on the OPF Gacha table once, as your explorers recover another piece of discarded overculture technology from within.

Marduk Autofac: Produces 10 Marduk Squadrons a year. The Marduk was one of the last of the Blackbird series of advanced OPF fighters. -A Marduk can only be countered on a 2-1 basis by defending fighters on CAP, or 1-1 by equivalent superfighters. -Marduks adds -2 to the fighter resolution D20 roll on the attack and a +2 to the fighter resolution D20 roll on defense.

Antichronal Stasis Lattice: Initially thought to have been produced by an unidentified cosmofauna, this massive crystalline web is actually the product of the Open Palm Federation, made of extremely minute membrane folds that alter the flow of time subtly enough that it stands completely still at the center while still allowing access and departure from that location. When fully repaired an ASL can be used to indefinitely store in pristine condition any 100 weight of units, including ground units and espionage assets, one or more macguffins, and/or a Token without degradation or the passage of time, until removed. Anything stored within is completely immune to outside interference while within, and will survive without damage in the event that this Lamdmark is destroyed. (This Landmark may already contain something when discovered)

Hoplite Autofac: Produces 3 battalions of Hoplite advanced battle armors a year; can be applied to a Interface, Espatier, or Mobile Infantry (battalion sized) unit to increase their TL to 6.

Fold Coral: An ancient life form from the height of the Open Palm Federation, Fold Coral was engineered as a biological means of producing a complete fold drive. Now virtually extinct, these life forms can be coaxed back from their quiescent states with careful care. When fully ‘repaired’ it produces 1 Damaged Fold Drive (Can be installed on any craft of 20 unmodified weight or lower as a module, or be used to build Explorers & Strike Cruisers without taking a module) per year.

Dahak Relay: An Open Palm Federation communications device, this massive artifact marks a target in any system that contains one or more of your units. Marked Targets are surrounded by a rainbow aura which persists for 12 months or until the Weapon is fired. A target Marked in this way cannot benefit from any form of stealth and emits a unique wavelength that you can track from across the hypergrid as long as it remains in this spatial domain. This Landmark can be activated once per year to mark a target. It may be activated an additional time by spending 1 or more R&D tokens, cumulative with the number of additional activations.

Eye of Ra: A massive Crysmer Lens that can focus and direct sunlight to any planet in the system, either to generate power or to immolate your enemies. If enemy forces are in-system it has a special attack, rolling a one-time attack at the beginning of the combat when stand-off attacks are resolved, rolling three times at +5 to pierce and bypassing Avoidance. For each successful pierce, the Eye inflicts 175 damage to the target(s).

Shattered Shell World: Even the mightiest Chelonian works were not perfect. Space-based attacks made against a shattered shell world fail on a 4+, while troops doing combat drop are lost/captured on a 1-2. When first discovered as an exploration result, the world itself is (roll D6) 1 Volcanic 2 Cratered 3-4 Radiated 5 Toxic 6 Tomb

Reintegration Lattice: The endpoint of an OPF attempt at transtellar teleportation, damaged Reintegration Lattices are often the source of old spacer’s tales of ghost ships and other mysterious phenomena. While impossible to fully repair, this device can be stabilized, allowing it to periodically materialize copies of whatever last passed through the buffer- typically half a starship- which can be used as materials to upgrade a ship to TL5.5 once each year. Unfortunately, due to integrated anti-paradox drivers, the two pieces cannot be welded together to make a single TL6 ship.

Stormcaller Beacon: Even during the height of the Overculture, Ion Storms and Mutara Convergences proved too costly to ignore and too expensive to simply eliminate. Instead, a tool was developed to steer these anomalies away from developed space to limit their impact. A Stormcaller Beacon, when fully repaired, can attract and anchor an Ion Storm or Mutara Convergence at its location from up to 5 nodes away. This can draw an existing anomaly or create a new one by spending 2 R&D tokens and $3000. If this Landmark is disabled or depowered any Mutara Convergence at this location will begin dissipating, taking 2 years to fully vanish. Any Ion Storm at this location will begin migrating in a random direction after 1 quarter. It takes 2 quarters to depower or reinitialize a landmark of this type.

Dimensional Forge: The battered remains of a key component of an OPF manufactory, a Dimensional Forge is capable of alloying spacetime itself with enfolded technological segments capable of a large variety of tasks. When fully repaired, a D-FORGE may be used to bypass one (1) prerequisite to building a unit or landmark, per year.

Giant Gautama Xandha: Can take the form of a misty temple, giant statue, or some other monumental, somewhat spooky construct. If you are Spiritualist, you probably consider it holy. This counts as a Point of Interest for Exploration missions and depletes half as fast as normal. When this POI depleted, it becomes a Dig Site that produces twice as many Federation Artifacts as normal.

Node Wide Landmarks

These landmarks represent features of a given region. Not all star systems have them, in fact, most don’t, but through cultural, astrographic, or other circumstances, some nodes on the Grid become so known for a particular quirk or wrinkle that it provides advantages for those willing to exploit them. Roamers cannot take advantage of these landmarks unless they possess non-mobile territory in these systems, for obvious reasons. Any system with such a feature automatically qualifies as having a landmark for the purposes of establishing a new territory. That is, you only need to construct a supply base and incorporate the territory, you don’t have to construct a generator or autofactory or anything of that nature, to create a new territory to take advantage of the effect.

An example is the Big Easy, a young system filled with protoplanetary debris. The origins of the name have been lost to time, but it is a star system that since at least the earliest days of human interstellar travel has been associated with the Demimonde, the black market, and the wrong side of the law. It has a special System Wide Landmark: “Any territory in this system has -2 to its natural stability point but espionage token generators constructed here produce two tokens instead of one.”

Stellar Sargasso: Solar winds eddy around your system, tramlines flicker and a hundred thousand years of derelicts and junk, from all across the galaxy, accumulate at your L points. Once a year spend a token and 2d4*$100 to launch an expedition to recover ancient technology. Military token will return some sort of TL6 Ship, R&D Token will return some sort of relic/tech?, Econ Token will generate a random lump sum of $ (may or may not be more than the cost, maybe a shit load more), Diplomacy token awaken ancient sleepers gain 1 unique ground unit?

Mutara Convergence: This massive blue blot in the sky is visible from every planet in the surrounding systems, its swirling gasses hiding the building blocks of interstellar life. So dense and energetic a region of space inevitably interferes with sensors, scanners and even the naked eye. It is not difficult to lose contact with other vessels navigating this region. Effect: Can build a Darkspace Terminal here without spending an Espionage token, however all combatants in a Mutara Convergence are treated as having Deep Cloak.

Ion Storm: This massive manifestation of high-energy particle reactions can span nodes, shutting down communications, impeding tramline stability, and rendering fighters at a severe disadvantage. Worse, an Ion Storm is vaguely mobile, able to transition tramlines. If there is one saving grace it is that an Ion Storm will rarely ‘double back’, and instead typically migrates forwards- though many may have migratory routes that loop back around to familiar territory. Effect: Anything that passes through this system counts at +2 distance for supply purposes, fighters take a variable penalty to all rolls in this system, and while transiting a Tramline, the Tramline counts as unstable for the next quarter. Note: If multiple ion storms occupy the same system they combine into one big super storm that occupies a node per storm.

Other Structures

These structures may be found or built but are not landmarks.

Ultragates

Transtellar transit gates left over from precursor species across history, Ultragates link to every other Ultragate of that type when active. Ultragates have range limitations but these are so great as to be functioningly meaningless inside the Origin Spur.

Tramline Scaffolds

A development by various species after the fall of the Overculture to shore up faltering Tramlines, Tramline Scaffolds link two systems that already possess a tramline of any condition. Building a Tramline Scaffold requires that both systems have been surveyed (See FTA3 Exploration) and the polity building the Scaffold has access to both systems. Once constructed, this link allows ships of any size category to traverse the link by passing through the Scaffold's aperture on each side one ship at a time. The presence of a Tramline Scaffold insulates a Tramline from some degree of external disruption, such as from Ion Storms or other anomalies, but this halves transit speed when in effect. Passage through the aperture disrupts stealth systems like Cloaking and Deep-Cloaking devices, rendering any such vessel traversing a Tramline Scaffold visible. Vessels that could normally traverse the tramline do not need to utilize the Scaffold.

Tramline Scaffolds can be built at any Technology Level and cost 1 Economy token and $5000, taking 2 years to finish. Tramlines built at technology levels below 5 have reduced safety features and are more prone to dramatically exploding when damaged.

Trade

Trade is a passive mechanic that impacts the value of your CI. Conduct and interaction between players, NPCs, and what have you can impact the $ value of your CI depending on circumstances. Short of catastrophe, a sector’s CI value will never go below 80% of its base value, but it can and will take hits. There are various map-connected things that can impact trade which will be obvious, etc.

There are a number of major systems that act as natural loci of trade across the Grid. In economic shorthand, these act as centers of trade for regions of space. Trade (and the impact on your CI) is broadly determined by events in each sector (and in the broad macro sense, FoF & Star Patrol activity modifies this as well), while specific events and player actions can modify CI values in specific systems.

CI generally fluctuates between 80% and 120% of its base value of 50 on an annual basis. This variation is due primarily to player actions, events, and the allocation of forces to commerce protection and piracy. Fluctuations below 90% and above 110%, that is considered out of the norm for year-to-year activity, can also have additional impacts above simply revenue.

Reducing CI below 90% can reduce the stability of every territory in a sector by one, excepting those owned by FoF states. This represents the disruption of trade being serious enough to make people unhappy. Correspondingly, CI value above 110% represents a boomtime economy, and populations are happy, resulting in all territories in such a sector gaining one stability.

Sector Investment & Trade Bonus Income

States that invest an economic token into a sector’s trade also receive additional bonus income. This will manifest as a lump sum of cash based on the total amount of CI in a sector and what trade looks like for the calendar year.

Star Patrol states gain bonus income for sectors they patrol being over 110%, representing fees collected for operations, tariffs, and other more abstract benefits. Correspondingly, when trade is below 90%, they receive 50% less bonus income, representing these sources of funding drying up.

Basic Example:

Player Bob is located in the Fuckaround Sector. Trade there this year is disrupted by two small wars (--), two players actively engaging in Star Patrol operations (++) and a determined privateering operation by Steve. The mods determine that trade as a result in the Fuckaround Sector is down, reducing all CI output in the region by $2. As this is not less than 90% of base value nor more than 110% of base value, there are no stability effects. The +s and -s have deliberately nebulous impacts in order to spare moderator work overhead, and there’s dice involved under the hood. It’s supposed to be somewhat abstract as a model.

Piracy

States can engage in piracy by allocating ships to a sector on a raiding mission. Allocating ships generally requires a supply base in the target sector, and such ships burn supply as though they were one jump away from a supply base. However, a state may allocate 100 weight of ships to piracy “free” of extra supply burden (Flag of Freedom states can allocate 300) in any sector, even one without a supply base.

When yearly trade is calculated, moderators will note the list of player states who engaged in piracy operations in a given sector, and calculate their ill-gotten gains on that basis. Exceptional contributions to this effort may result in events being generated as part of the year-in-review.

Commerce Protection

As you might imagine, polities have a vested interest in protecting trade (even if they’re raiding other people’s). You may allocate 200 weight of ships to the commerce protection role, riding the space lanes and keeping trade safe on a general sector-wide basis. Ships above this level burn supply as if they were deployed one jump away from a supply base. This is considered when calculating trade value in a sector in a year. Exceptional contributions to this effort may result in events being generated as part of the year-in-review.

Ships allocated to the piracy and commerce protection roles are unavailable for the entire calendar year (representing rest & repair time, abstract deep-space deployment, communications OOD lag, etc), unless you spend a Military token that allows you to reshuffle your deployments. They do not consume supply above and beyond normal upkeep unless drawn into combat, however.

You can allocate ships to commerce protection in the Sector google worksheet.

Direct Investment

Invest an Econ token into a foreign territory containing at least 5 foreign CI to gain money and intensify economic and diplomatic relationships between you and the foreign power controlling the CI.

The first token so invested by any power in a given territory in a given year generates return as follows: subtract the total foreign CI from 100, use the result as a percentage, and multiply this percentage by $1000 to get total returns for the investment. This value can be divided between any powers or entities as the investor and controlling power agree. Each subsequent token invested by any power in the same territory in the same year yields half the return (and CI) as the previous one. Lastly, if the total return on all direct investments in that territory is $500 or greater, it gains 1 CI at the end of the year.

This investment process represents a complex and intensive bundle of economic, social, and political relationships. It can thus be attacked by piracy or espionage, serve as a cover/conduit for espionage in both directions, and be integrated into all manner of diplomatic relations and related ethos abilities. Sustained increases in investment may also benefit stability of the target system (if not combined with hostile actions), and sudden/sharp reductions may harm it.

Notes: When direct investing in a Roamer or other state with modified CI ratings, use the actual base CI value rather than one derived from any income modifiers.