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.
- 500 SD
- 1 point Decisive Battle doctrine + 5 doctrines of choice
- Automatic Traits: Medium Shipyards
- Disallowed Traits: Treaty of Sirius, Übermensch, 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: 4 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 point per 150 population (starts with 40, 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
- 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 point per 200 population (starts with 40, 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
Cobbled together from 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: 6 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 point per 200 population (starts with 40, 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 begun 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 point per 250 population (starts with 40)
- Strategic Resource Stockpile: 60 points / SP
- Military: 100 IP / SP
- Starting Stockpiles
- Wealth: 4 months
- He3: 6 Months
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.
Under construction
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
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 5 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 occurrence), 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<br>
0 - 9 0
10 - 19 1
20 - 39 2
40 - 59 3
60 - 79 4
80 - 89 5
90 - 99 6
100 8
The cost to mobilize Domestic Industry is 2 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 definite 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!
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.
A nation may purchase Helium-3 deliveries at 40 He3 per 1 SD, or 50 He3 per 1 SD if the state has Helium connections
If this is insufficient or if a state desires energy independence, it may elect to build its own Helium extraction. These have a variable cost shown in the nation template and are treated as conventional infrastructure for further construction.
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 article.
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.
Population Thresholds
Even in the 22nd century, a nation’s population remains a strong control on its economic and industrial power. After all, there are only so many jobs to go around and the fluid nature of a galacticized job market means that worlds at similar levels of development tend to have similar levels of per-capita wealth. On top of that, various policies enacted by (supra)national governments and the UN Colonization Commission have both shaped and distorted the economies of the myriad colony worlds.
As such, a nation’s population places both hard and soft limits on how much Wealth and Industry they may command. This is a nation’s Affluence and Industrialization Threshold, respectively. For starting nations, it is a hard limit on how much of each may be bought at game start. During gameplay, nations may exceed their thresholds but pay an increasing amount to construct additional infrastructure – ‘mature’ economies with exceptionally low unemployment find it more difficult to expand than ones with significant room to grow.
Affluence Threshold The Affluence Threshold is equal to 2x Domestic Support + 300 + national Population.
Industrialization Threshold The Industrialization Threshold is equal to Domestic Support + 150 + national Population. Note that for starting nations, Industrialization counts for both domestic and fabricator-derived industry.
For every multiple (or fraction thereof) of national population a nation exceeds its threshold by, the cost of the appropriate kind of infrastructure is increased by x1.
- Example
- Bojanglestan has a national population of 200 and 50 domestic support.
- Its Affluence Threshold is 100 + 300 + 200 = 600
- Its Industrialization Threshold is 50 + 150 + 200 = 400
If it had 700 Wealth and wished to build more, its new wealth would cost 2x regular price, as it has more than 600 wealth but less than 800 (600 + national pop). If it had 850, every point of wealth would cost 3x regular price.
Bioroid Lovers and Compuphile may be used to increase any one Threshold by one multiple of national Population, by increasing per-capita economic or industrial efficiency.
Untrust Funds and Ensigns of Industry reduce the starting Threshold by ½ national population and reduce in-game Thresholds by 1x national population.
Traits
Positive Traits
- Affable
- 10 SD
Your diplomatic department is staffed full of friendly professionals, or perhaps they have plenty of dirt on other states. They can get the best deals across the Sphere; increasing all relations by 2 levels. However, friendly distance and a full bank account only gets one so far, and Affable may not increase a relation to Allied or better. This trait also provides a power with 2 extra DAP above and beyond whatever limits it may normally have.
- Patron’s Pet
- 15 Points
Some nations have nearly unconditional support from their patron. Isreal, East Germany, North Korea . . . they all exist on a foundation of foreign aid. This relation might be a street upon a great deal of wealth and equipment flows, but it is also a two-way street. In practice your relations with your patron organization increases to United from Allied.
- Crossing The Line
- 5 SD
Your nation’s political alignment is wavering from its colonial roots. A nation with Crossing The Line may not necessarily outright side with a different power bloc but will definitely feel a certain amount of sympathy and have fairly strong ties. Of course, relations with your original group will suffer. In practice, this allows you to change your ‘alignment’ with regards to diplomatic actions and unit purchases.
Large Population: 10 SD
Removed
Giant Population: 20 SD
Removed
- Industrious
- 10 Points per level
While all systems of note in the Sphere have a decent amount of industrial output, yours has a particularly large per-capita industrial productivity. Every level of this trait increases your Over-industrialized threshold by +1 for both starting and in-game development.
- Gold Diggers
- 10 Points per level
Your world is indisputably a significant player in the galactic markets and is known to be particularly rich. Every level of this trait increases your Affluence threshold by +1 for both starting and in-game development.
- Übermensch
- 15 SD
Your state has a major social class of people who are stronger, smarter and faster than the lumpen underclass. This increases the number of doctrine points you have, because your people are just better.
- Extreme Transhumans
- 10 SD
You've taken it even farther than most transhuman powers have and have made radical changes to the human form. This an additional doctrine point due to being even more heavily modified, as well as giving all infantry units a free +0 environmental adaptation added capability, to represent being more adapted to a certain environment.
- People’s War
- 10 SD
All infantry battalions cost half normal supply and get bonuses to command to represent the focus on infantry training and tactics, however the final cost of all units affected by Tank Industry is increased by 50%, with the exception of Shock Infantry which has unmodified cost. This stacks with Master Of The Guns. Finally, People’s War doubles peacetime draft to 2% of population.
- Tank Industry
- 10 SD
Your domestic tank industry is capable of designing and building modern IFVs and tanks. Without this trait, domestically produced IFVs, Armored Cavalry and Tank Battalions may only have 1 Upgrade. Additionally, Strider and Shock Infantry Battalions are unlocked for domestic production.
- Master Of The Guns
- 10 SD
Your generals cannot get enough of tube artillery and rocket launchers. These weapons take preference in acquisition plans and as a result, the cost half normal. Additionally, a focus on long-range firepower grants an increase in the effective range of all artillery weapons. The downside is that other armoured vehicles take lower precedence and as a result, the final cost of all domestically-built Tank Brigades is increased by 50%. This stacks with People’s War.
- Covert Operations
- 10 SD
You may build and maintain more than two Special Operations Formations. This also increases the effectiveness of these formations.
- Overt Operations
- 10 SD
All Special Operation Forces are renamed Overt Operation Forces respectively and are more effective at security and open combat. However, they have only limited worth in covert missions. You may build and maintain any number of Overt Operation Forces.
- Aerospace Industry
- 10 SD
Your domestic aerospace industry is capable of designing and building modern aerospace craft of all types. Without this upgrade, all domestically produced Helicopter Mobilization, Gunships and Fighters are limited to 1 Upgrade slot. Additionally, it unlocks Bombers for domestic production.
- Mecha Factories
- 10 SD
Unlocks Mobile Suits, Heavy Mobile Suits and Strider Battalions for domestic production.
- Impractical Engineering
- 20 SD
Unlocks Mobile Gun Forts, Landships, Super Fighters, Orbital Frames, Mobile Armors and Super Mobile Armors for domestic production. Requires the appropriate trait(s) to be effective (e.g. Landships also require Tank Industry)
- Medium Shipyards
- 10 SD
Unlocks Destroyers, Cruisers and Light Carriers for domestic production.
- Heavy Shipyards
- 10 SD
Unlocks Battleships and Fleet Carriers for domestic production. Prerequisite: Medium Shipyards
- Superheavy Shipyards
- 10 SD
Unlocks Supercarriers, Superbattleships, and Titans for domestic production. Prerequisite: Heavy Shipyards
- Hangerize!
- 20 SD
You build all Hangar upgrade for non-Carrier ships as Super Upgrades, doubling the amount of DP provided by the upgrade as well as the base DP of the hull. Additionally, the first Hangar upgrade is a Free Upgrade. Cost is halved for all nations with Treaty of Sirius
- Cyberize!
- 10 SD
You may use the +X Cybernetic Added Capability in your infantry formations, granting them broad bonuses.
- Bioroid Lovers
- 15 SD
Your state has extensive ability to manufacture Bioroids. You may construct 100,000 population for 50 WU or 1,000 manpower for 1 WU. This also extends a nation's industrial or financial capacity.
- Compuphile
- 20 SD
You may apply the +1 Highly Automated Added Capability to your units. Among other effects it halves their manpower requirements. If applied to infantry it is called +1 Drones and has the effect of replacing many soldiers with semisentient combat drones, reducing battlefield casualties significantly (the drones get shot first). This also extends a nation's industrial or financial capacity.
- Stealth Obsessed
- 10 SD
You may apply +X Stealth capabilities to all units. Without this trait, you may only put no more than +1 stealth on SPF and UAVs.
- State Secrets Act
- 10 SD
The amount of SD that a power may keep as Official Secrets is increased to 25%. See the section on Official Secrets for specifics.
- Deep Core Mining
- 15 SD
By some stroke of cosmic luck, your planet abounds in Strategic Resources. During nation creation, Strategic Resources cost half as much as normal.
- Logicians
- 15 SD
Your military-industrial complex is run by people who really get logistics. This means that every IP spent on supplies provides 3 units of Supplies, as opposed to the regular 2.
- Helium Miners
- 15 SD
Your helium facilities are more productive than normal. Each point of Helium extraction provides 3 points of He3 as opposed to 2.
- One-Year Planners
- 10 SD
Short-term planning is a dirty word in your industrial bureaucracy. The longer the planning horizon, the better. While this allows for the efficient allocation of resources, it makes rapid responses to changing conditions difficult. In practice, your Assembly Line bonus is increased to 30% and it takes effect on the first month. Additionally, you may apply the Mass Production bonus to all units save those that are spread over multiple months. However, you must use the same build order for all twelve months of the year. It may only be changed mid-year in exceptional circumstances.
- Boutique Engineers
- 15 SD
- Your design teams and factories are masters at making jewels of technological complexity. The number of upgrades you can fit on your units is doubled. However, because your engineers don't understand the concept of mass production, you will never get Assembly Line bonuses.
- External Modules
- Variable Cost
Your military has identified a pressing need for flexibility and have stockpiled a large number of self-contained systems modules that can be easily attached to a given unit prior to setting out on a mission. In practice you may build an External Systems Module for any given unit at half its base cost which may serve a number of different roles. For a cost of 5 SP your externals may be (re)configured into one of five of the most common fittings as listed at Externals. If more are desired beyond this it costs an additional 1 SP per added capability.
- HEC Connections
- 15 SD
The Helium Energy Consortium is the source of the galaxy’s cheap fuel. Their mandate to power the worlds of humanity means that all states benefit from the Helium fuel they extract from gas giants across space. Some states benefit more than others however. HEC connections increases the amount of He3 received per SD from 40 to 50.
- Advanced Technology
- 75 SD
Your technology is noticeably above the Rim norm, granting across-the-board increases in ability. All your units are built at Tech Level 4 at no extra cost. The high technical level of nations with Advanced Technology means they are a center of FTL engineering, providing them with 100 units of Delta Dust every month.
Negative Traits
- Access To Information Act
- +10 SD
A power may never have any Official Secrets, due to its lack of stringent governmental privacy enforcement. It does not make the nation less difficult to actually infiltrate with spies, however.
- Treaty of Sirius
- +15 SD
The war of '87 was both divisive and inconclusive. The ZOCU states managed to bring large numbers of proper military designs into service but could not deploy them to the front lines before hostilities were brought to a close. Coming off less-favourably in the negotiations, the ZOCU states were limited in the number of interstellar warships each could possess. See the Treaty of Sirius section for specifics.
- Active Terraforming
- +15 SD
Terraforming is expensive, dirty business. Planetary biospheres are large and take a great deal of energy to modify. The terraforming efforts on your world require 50% of your monthly Helium income, with a minimum of 100/month and a maximum of 300/month. Failure to pay this or significant damage to the terraforming equipments will swiftly result in disasters and significant setbacks to the terraforming efforts.
Helium Disconnect: +35 SD
Removed, must be bought off.
- Luddite Sun
- +10 SD
The ascension of the SAI left deep scars on your people. To this day they refuse to deal with those embracing radical (and not-so-radical) transformative technologies and sentient computer systems. In practice a Luddite Sun will impose a 100% Wealth ‘tax’ on all transactions with these powers and in general they will be viewed with suspicion.
- Ten Thousand Fists
- +20 SD
All is not well outside the palace grounds. The people are, if thankfully not rebelling, definitely not happy. It could be over government policies or over things those in power have no power over. Your starting Domestic Support is 15 and no additional points may be bought to start.
- Fires At The Gates
- +40 SD
The people are mad. Madly so. While law and order has not totally broken down, civil morale is nonexistent, absenteeism and outright work stoppages is the norm and military control is almost a requirement. A state at this level of civil unrest is dangerously close to falling into anarchism. Your starting Domestic Support is 10 and no additional points may be bought to start.
- AKs And IEDs
- +60 SD
An occupying force’s nightmare, a nation that has fallen into the state where AKs and IEDs are common is no longer a nation. Most nations tend to go through this stage for a short period after being invaded, but some are simply failed states and exist in this state of near-anarchy without outside cause. Your starting Domestic Support is 5 and no additional points may be bought to start. Additionally, your nation is considered an Occupied power and as such, all Domestic Support-related costs are doubled until the insurgency has been dealt with.
- Emotopia
- +10 SD
Everything sucks. Domestic support can never rise above 50 except in Outside Context Situations and even then it will automatically drop by 5 points/month. Additionally, all associated costs with gaining Domestic Support are doubled. This stacks with any other effects.
- Twisted Patron
- +15 SD
Relations with your patron state are rather bad; perhaps you're verging on rebelling or they're simply a pack of exploitationist assholes. Either way, your relations with them and their allies as one step worse for Diplomatic Action purposes.
- Low Technology
- +50 SD
Even by Rim standards, your technical abilities are sub-par. All your units are built at Tech Level 2 at no decrease in cost.
- Rogue State
- +30 SD
You have acquired a particularly bad name for yourself in the halls of interstellar power. Nations will actively shun your diplomatic efforts, forcing you to act as if you had relations two levels worse. As some rogue states still maintain some ties with a patron, Patron’s Pet negates this diplomatic penalty with the Patron state.
- Disaster Zone
- +5 SD
Maybe your world happens to be in the path of numerous comet swarms, or maybe it’s young with far too much volcanism for its own good. No matter the cause, significant natural disasters can and do happen to your world with depressing regularity.
- Airless Rock
- +10 SD
For whatever reason your nation inhabits a (nearly) airless world, clinging to the inhospitable surface like a giant technological limpet. On the plus side, you are easily accessible to trade vessels. On the downside, you are just as accessible to hostile warships. Most ground forces cannot do anything outside of the domed cities unless equipped with spacesuits and a stray missile could doom thousands of civilians to rapid death by asphyxiation.
- Environmental Trainwreck
- +10 SD
Your world is anything but a paradise. Crops must be carefully tended – assuming the environment is even hospitable – and most habitats are well-protected from the outdoors.
- Ensigns of Industry
- +20 SD
The people you have running your factories simply do not have it all together. This trait reduces your Overindustrialized threshold (see rules)
- Untrust Funds
- +20 SD
Your central bank – if you even have one – stinks at managing money. It doesn’t have the faintest clue how to effectively stimulate the economy, reducing your Affluence threshold (see rules)
- Resourceless World
- +10 SD
When it comes to strategic resources, your world is the proverbial blank slate. You cannot buy any strategic resources to start with the exception of Delta Dust as a unit upgrade, and furthermore all attempts to build resource extraction offworld cost double.