ALPHA rules for Nations 2.0
Industry
Industry is the systemic conversion of raw materials into finished goods. The end result is IP (Industrial Production), what virtually all tangible ‘things’ are made from. There are three primary ways to get IP. These are as follows:
1) Domestic Industry
2) Industrial Fabricators
3) Foreign Industry
Domestic industry is an aggregate of the various (heavy) industrial facilities a world possesses. It can trace its ancestry directly to the first industrial revolution; it is often a major employer and a colony’s primary source of finished goods. Every point of Domestic Industry ‘activated’ in a month costs 1 Wealth. Domestic Industry that is not activated produces 1 wealth per 10 points. Domestic Industry may also be Mobilized and is affected by Domestic Support, see that section for the applicable rules.
Industrial Fabricators (sometimes colloquially known as Cornucopia Machines) are fully-automated construction plants; many were built and placed by the Posthumans during the colonization period while even more made up the ‘dumpers’ launched by the Stargazer Project. While eminently self-contained, needing little more than fuel, raw materials and blueprints, Fabricators tend to be expensive for their output. Each Fabricator produces 10 IP a month but may not be mobilized and does not suffer the ill effects of low Domestic Support.
Foreign Industry is often the easiest way to acquire finished goods, however it tends to put one at the mercy of standardized designs and/or higher prices. On the other hand it can sometimes be the only source for some specialized, unique or high-tech items. For buying foreign-built products, see the Diplomacy section.
Domestic Support
Domestic support is a holistic view of the support and confidence a nation's people have in their government, rated on a percentage scale of 0% to 100%. High levels of domestic support allows for mobilization of immense amounts of national resources, by contrast nations with low domestic support will find it difficult to levy additional taxes or, at particularly low levels, even prosecute a war effectively.
Domestic Support controls the amount of wealth (taxes) received monthly, with every 100,000 citizens (1 unit of population) generating 1 wealth multiplied by the Domestic Support percent. A populace with low support demands more and gives less, or perhaps simply refuses to pay the tax man.
Note that as a game abstraction, if a nation's Domestic Support changes in a given month (which it is a common enough occurance), the new rating does not take into effect until the following month. In effect, taxes and industry is collected on the 1st day and any increases up or down happen in the subsequent weeks.
During peacetime, Domestic Support also sets a soft limit on how much Industry may be mobilized in a given year without adverse social effects. The amount that can be mobilized in a single month is limited to Population or Domestic Industry, whichever is lower. To figure out the maximum amount that can be mobilized in a given calender year, reference the following chart:
Domestic Support Multiples of Population per year
0 - 9 0
10 - 19 1
20 - 39 2
40 - 59 3
60 - 79 4
80 - 89 5
90 - 94 6
95 - 99 7
100 8
The cost to mobilize Domestic Industry is 1 Wealth per point of IP generated.
If a nation finds itself in pressing need for industrial mobilization but cannot effectively convince its populace of the urgency (a massive secret project, perhaps) it can mobilize above its soft limit. However, for every 10% or fraction thereof of its population it mobilizes above its limit, it loses 1 point of Domestic Support.
A nation may also opt to do a Forced Mobilization; this directly turns Domestic Support into IP, at the rate of 1 Domestic Support per 5% or fraction thereof of population in IP generated. The normal monthly mobilization limit applies (ie, no more than the lesser of population or domestic industry), but Forced Mobilization can stack in addition to regular Mobilization. A definate way to generate IP in a hurry, but outside of a crisis situation the populace will not long tolerate this.
If a nation has a Domestic Support rating of less than 20%, it will find it difficult to rally the home front; for Domestic Support ratings of 11-19, subtract 10 from the rating and then multiply the remaining number by 10, applying it as a modifier to the returns when Mobilizing industry with Wealth.
The nation of Crapsackistan currently has a Domestic Support rating of 15%. If the President-for-live forces the peasants to work overtime, the state only receives 50% of the regular effect per point of Wealth spent.
15% - 10 = 5% x 10 = 50% effect
Thus it costs 4 Wealth to mobilize 1 point of Domestic Industry.
If Crapsackistan's support fell even lower, to 12%, it would cost 10 Wealth to mobilize just 1 point of Domestic Industry, as each point of Wealth spent is only effectively worth 0.2 Wealth. Not terribly efficient.
Particularly low levels of Domestic Support also impact the effectiveness of Domestic Industry; if Domestic Support has a rating of less than 10, Domestic Industry operates at a reduced level. Multiply the Domestic Support rating by 10 and then apply this as a modifier to Domestic Industry. At this point, civil order is obviously breaking down and corruption is rampant, absenteeism is endemic and inefficiency is the norm.
Crapsackistan has 100 Domestic Industry, unfortunately the previous administration ran it into the ground with incessant mobilization. It has just come out of a violent revolution and has a Domestic Support rating of only 5%. As a result, it has an effective 50 Domestic Industry. Furthermore, it cannot mobilize industry at all.
Getting more popular support: To come!
National Templates
Subject to massive change! Especially starting point values, which do not factor in He3 cost
Second-Stage Colony
A number of worlds were identified in the 21st century as being strategically or otherwise worthwhile, however without preexisting biospheres they were incapable of hosting large populations. Large-scale terraforming efforts have changed this and a number of these worlds have now started rapidly rising. While their close ties to the core worlds has economic benefits, they can sometimes have quite limited freedom of action.
- 500 SD
- 1 point Decisive Battle doctrine + 5 doctrines of choice
- Automatic Traits: Medium Shipyards
- Disallowed Traits: Treaty of Sirius, Übermensch, Manifest Destiny, Rogue State, Hangarize!, Cyberize!, Compuphile, Bioroid Lovers
- Starting Costs
Population: 8 population units / 1 SP
Wealth: 5 Wealth / 1 SP
Domestic Industry: 25 Domestic Industry / 1 SP
Industrial Fabricators: 5 SP each
Helium Extraction: 5 extraction* / 1 SP
HEC Deliveries: 30 He3 / 1 SP
Strategic Materiels: 5 Strategics / 4 SP
Diplomatic Action Points: 2 SP (starts with 6, max of 15)
Domestic Support: 1 points / 1 SP (starts with 25, may not exceed 75)
Strategic Resource Stockpile: 40 points / SP
Military: 100 IP / SP
- Starting Stockpiles
Wealth: 6 months
He3: 4 Months
ZOCU Member State
The Zodiac Outworlds Colony Union is an extranational economic/defense pact consisting entirely of outworld states. Having recently fought an indeterminate conflict against the core worlds over rights, ZOCU member-states have achieved their autonomy but now labour under a number of treaty limitations.
- 500 SD
- 2 points Air Dominance doctrine + 3 doctrines of choice
- Automatic Traits: Medium Shipyards, Treaty of Sirius, Hangerize!
- Disallowed Traits: Superheavy Shipyards, HEC Connections
- Starting Costs
Population: 6 population units / 1 SP
Wealth: 5 Wealth / 1 SP
Domestic Industry: 20 Domestic Industry / 1 SP
Industrial Fabricators: 3 SP each
Helium Extraction: 8 extraction* / 1 SP (starts with 50)
HEC Deliveries: 25 He3 / 1 SP
Strategic Materiels: 5 Strategics / 2 SP (Sakuradite counts as Deep Cored)
Diplomatic Action Points: 2 SP (starts with 4, max of 12)
Domestic Support: 1 points / 1 SP (starts with 25, may not exceed 85)
Strategic Resource Stockpile: 50 points / SP
Military: 100 IP / SP
- Starting Stockpiles
Wealth: 6 months
He3: 6 Months
ESA Member State
Particularly subject to change :p
Cobbled together out of political expediency and grievances, the ESA member states are a diverse collection of governments with only one major ideological commonality; independence from Core World interference. This diversity and commitment makes them unpredictable but doesn't always translate into national power.
- 500 SD
- 1 point Secret Operations doctrine + 5 doctrines of choice
- Automatic Traits: Medium Shipyards, Marked Man
- Disallowed Traits: Treaty of Sirius (repudiated!), Patron's Pet
- Starting Costs
Population: 5 population units / 1 SP
Wealth: 5 Wealth / 1 SP
Domestic Industry: 20 Domestic Industry / 1 SP
Industrial Fabricators: 3 SP each
Helium Extraction: 10 extraction* / 1 SP
HEC Deliveries: 25 He3 / 1 SP
Strategic Materiels: 5 Strategics / 2 SP
Diplomatic Action Points: 2 SP (starts with 2, max of 8)
Domestic Support: 1 points / 1 SP (starts with 20, may not exceed 95)
Strategic Resource Stockpile: 40 points / SP
Military: 100 IP / SP
- Starting Stockpiles
Wealth: 4 months
He3: 8 Months
Independent Enclave
A number of worlds were settled in the early 22nd century while others were sent out through longshot wormholes or early single-use FTL drives and only recently rejoined the Human sphere, only to be cut off for decades by the Breakdown. Sometimes seperated of anything more than cursory contact for generations, many have grown into being fully independent states. Being archetypically unaligned, they typically rely more heavily on their own resources than the norm for the Expanse. Recently however, some have loosely began supporting ZOCU, the ESA or even the local Core outpost.
- 500 SD
- 5 doctrines of choice
- Official Secret limit is doubled
- Automatic Traits: Medium Shipyards
- Starting Costs
Population: 5 population units / 1 SP
Wealth: 5 Wealth / 1 SP
Domestic Industry: 20 Domestic Industry / 1 SP
Industrial Fabricators: 2 Fabricators / 5 SP
Helium Extraction: 8 extraction* / 1 SP
HEC Deliveries: 25 He3 / 1 SP
Strategic Materiels: 6 Strategics / 2 SP
Diplomatic Action Points: 2 SP (starts with 3, max of 10)
Domestic Support: 1 points / 1 SP (starts with 20)
Strategic Resource Stockpile: 60 points / SP
Military: 100 IP / SP
- Starting Stockpiles
Wealth: 4 months
He3: 6 Months
Political Commentary
ZOCU: The war was hard on the ZOCU worlds, with many of the best and brightest killed in the fighting and an inordinant amount of national wealth spent on arms. Furthermore, they remain under the Treaty of Sirius, bound to certain military limitations. That said, ZOCU is generally positive in outlook; they have succeeded in pyhrically winning independence and collectively have sufficient military and economic power to be a player in galactic power politics. Led by long-lived transgenes and with the scars of war fresh, ZOCU has chosen to take events slowly for the time being.
The ESA: The ESA is the upstart on the galactic stage. Heavily influenced by ideologues in the ranks it has an (un)stated goal of throwing off Core control in the Expanse and strongly supports equal rights and acceptance. The ESA vocally supports many independence movements, though tangible support is less common. A certain apocalyptical thinking pervades the more extreme set of the notoriously free-ranging ESA and they have engaged in a number of dubious and dangerous expeditions for posthuman technology. Many in the Core draw little distinction between the ESA and ZOCU, to the dismay of one bloc or the other.
ZOCU-ESA: ZOCU and the ESA share similar goals at times, and at others are opposed. Their political relations are characterized as 'touchy' and erratic, veering wildly from (veiled) threats of military action to grudging solidarity and back again. It is still too early to see where the relations will stabilize; some in ZOCU are bitter at the ESA, others sympathize. A certain amount of unofficial knowledge-sharing goes on as well.
ZOCU-Core: ZOCU generally seeks to keep a distance from the Core, and as a general rule their soldiers are under strict orders to avoid any form of fraternization or significant contact and especially to avoid anything more than 'firm escorts' during flybys.
ESA-Core: By contrast, the ESA has a very rough-and-tumble approach and border skirmishes with neighboring Core-aligned states are a common occurance, though casualties are avoided - dinged armor plates is more the norm. Neither side as yet chosen to escalate these pinpricks to outright fighting; the ESA is acutely aware of its military inferiority but sees the constant testing as good for morale, the Core states see it as useful propaganda.