Nation Creation

National Archetype

A nation’s Archetype is essentially its economic and political place in known space. All nations must have exactly one Archetype. Automatic Traits are always applied and cost (or give) 0 points.

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.
- 375 SD
- 10 Diplomatic Action Points monthly
- Large/Giant Population SD cost is halved
- Automatic Traits: HEC Connections
- Disallowed Traits: Treaty of Sirius, Übermensch, Manifest Destiny, Rogue State, Hangarize!, Cyberize!, Compuphile, Bioroid Lovers

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.
- 375 SD
- 8 Diplomatic Action Points monthly
- 50 free He3 extraction
- Automatic Traits: Treaty of Sirius, Hangerize!
- Disallowed Traits: Superheavy Shipyards, HEC Connections

Independent Enclave

A small number of independent states have flourished, often sent out through longshot wormholes or early single-use FTL drives and only now rejoining the Human sphere. The majority of these independent enclaves have transhuman populations, making diplomatic relations with the core worlds strained. Being archetypically unaligned, they typically rely more heavily on their own resources.
- 350 SD
- 6 Diplomatic Action Points monthly
- 1000 Wealth of Jane's warships (normal purchase limitations apply)
- Official Secret limit is doubled, Übermensch applies to all units
- Automatic Traits: Medium Shipyards
- Disallowed Traits: Superheavy Shipyards, HEC Connections

Rim World

The rim worlds are the true frontier, the slowly-expanding edge of human space rich in resources and potential. Far from the core worlds, corporate interests vie with libertarian freespirits over resource right and exploration opportunities. Unfortunately, those that do live this far out are almost universally at the mercy of larger powers.
- 200 SD
- 5 Diplomatic Action Points monthly
- Automatic Traits: People’s War
- Disallowed Traits: Medium Shipyards+, Advanced Technology, Impractical Engineering, HEC Connections

Infrastructure

All nations have two main values that are central to their economies. These are Wealth and Industry and are the nation's Infrastructure. Additionally, a nation needs Helium-3 to fuel its ships and cities along with Strategic Resources for complex construction projects. Finally, a nation without a Population is just a collection of empty buildings and memories.

Wealth

This represents a nation’s direct economic power; direct taxation and strength of banking institutions are key here. Wealth, since it represents currency reserves, can be banked if not used. Every 1 SD at nation creation buys 5 points of Wealth, each of which provides 1 WP per month.

Industry

This represents a nation’s industrial power; essentially a holistic value of industrial productivity. Industry is used to build units and other tangible objects and since an idle factory produces nothing, Industry cannot be banked if not used. Every 1 SD at nation creation buys 5 points of Industry, each of which provides 1 IP (Industrial Production) per month.

See the Production section further down for further explanation of how industry works

Helium

Helium-3 is the fuel of choice across the known space. Its efficiency and lack of neutron emissions make it almost perfect as a compact source of energy. Unfortunately it can sometimes be difficult to extract in quantity and as such, the vast majority of humanity's Helium-3 is supplied by the Helium Energy Consortium.

Under normal conditions, each state receives a monthly amount of Helium-3 (He3) equal of the sum of their Wealth, Industry and Population ratings. A state may attempt to lobby the HEC for a greater Helium allotment.

If this is insufficient or if a state desires energy independence, it may elect to build its own Helium extraction. These cost 1 SD per 5 points at nation creation, each of which provides 2 units of He3 per month and are treated as conventional infrastructure for further construction. As these are nationally-owned they are unaffected by traits such as Helium Disconnect.

Strategic Resources

Pre-space Earth had resources like oil and Uranium. With the expansion of Humanity to the stars, the rare resources required for technological civilization has changed and if anything, gotten more demanding. Every 5 points of Strategic Resources costs 2 SD at nation creation. It requires surveying and prospecting to discover new resource deposits, thus the rules for increasing Strategic Resource output is somewhat different from normal infrastructure.

No nation may start with more than two different Strategic Resources. The only exception to this is Delta Dust which may be taken even if a power already had two other Strategic Resources.

Population

Every state needs people. Each unit of population is 100,000 people and provides 0.5 Wealth per month. During nation creation, population is bought at the price of 5 units (500,000 people) per 1 SD at nation creation.

During peacetime, draft is 1% of total population. For more information on Draft, see the Draft section below.

Building new Infrastructure:

New Infrastructure is bought in January of the year and comes online in the following year's January. The cost per point is dependent on how much is being built.
0-5%: 20 W/point
5.01-10%: 40 W/point
10.01-15%: 80 W/point

There are twelve economic cycles per year and at standard game speed (1 game month = 1 RL week) each cycle takes seven RL days.