Observation about the Colony File and Economics

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BLHarrison
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Observation about the Colony File and Economics

Post by BLHarrison »

The formula for calculating the Trade value is different in the Colony and Economic files. The Colony file reads:

A colony’s Commerce value will also have a direct
impact on the amount of commerce income it will
generate when it is part of a X.X Trade Route. Each
colony has a trade value equal to its Commerce
times Census, plus the average of its economic,
production, and agricultural outputs.

While the Economics file reads:

8.6.1 Trade Value
Each star system is assigned a trade value which
determines how much commerce income an empire
will earn if it operates a trade link there (see X.X
Trade Links).
A system’s base trade value is derived from the
number and type of X.X Jump Lanes connecting to
it. Each X.X Interstellar Lane provides a +5 bonus,
while each X.X Sector Lane provides a +10 bonus.
Unexplored Lanes do not provide any trade value
bonus, as they have not yet been explored.
Example: A system has 3 Interstellar Lanes and 1
Sector Lane. None of these are Unexplored Lanes.
Its base commerce value is 3 x 5 + 1 x 10 = 25.
The presence of one or more colonies in a star
system will increase the system’s trade value. For
each colony in the system, take the average of the
colony’s X.X Economic Output, X.X Production
Output, X.X Agricultural Output, and X.X Commerce
Output values and add the result to the system’s
base trade value. This will calculate the system’s
actual trade value. Round fractional trade values up.
With this formula, colonies with balanced economies
are most lucrative to trade with, but single-industry
colonies still offer some trading value.

Either formula looks viable to me, but the entries need to be reconciled.
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Tyrel Lohr
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

Gah, yes, I hadn't got the new formulas passed through to the Colonies chapter yet. That is all related to the fact that commerce output used to be trade output/value, which is where the mistake comes from. I will get that cleared up tonight.

-Tyrel
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BLHarrison
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Post by BLHarrison »

Tyrel Lohr wrote:Gah, yes, I hadn't got the new formulas passed through to the Colonies chapter yet. That is all related to the fact that commerce output used to be trade output/value, which is where the mistake comes from. I will get that cleared up tonight.

-Tyrel
So the second set is the current correct set. I assume that Commerce Infrastructure still reduces the trade link cost by 5% per level.
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Tyrel Lohr
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

The rules in 8.0 Economics are the most current versions; the 7.0 Colonies version includes some old material that needs to be fixed, from the looks of things.

You are correct, however, that Commerce is still intended to influence the cost of trade links in a system. Instead of the 5% reduction, however, I have rewritten it to be flat -1 EP per point of Commerce infrastructure present in the system. This is easier to figure. The minimum cost for a trade link is 10 EP.

I also see that I need to rewrite the 8.0 rules for clarity, as in a quick scan they don't seem to make as much sense as when I first wrote them. The intent is that you are paying to extend your trade routes. There also needs to be a rule about placing your first trade link (10 EP cost). Gah, there is always something.

In a related matter, let me ask this: would it be more logical to move the rules for trade links, trade routes, and piracy into their own distinct chapter (Commerce & Piracy)? I have been going back and forth on this and the more I think about it the more logical it seems to place them together in their own section instead of spreading bits and pieces of the rules between Colonies, Economics, and Space Combat.

-Tyrel
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BLHarrison
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Post by BLHarrison »

Tyrel Lohr wrote:
In a related matter, let me ask this: would it be more logical to move the rules for trade links, trade routes, and piracy into their own distinct chapter (Commerce & Piracy)? I have been going back and forth on this and the more I think about it the more logical it seems to place them together in their own section instead of spreading bits and pieces of the rules between Colonies, Economics, and Space Combat.

-Tyrel
Personally I think grouping them together would be better, with some cross=refferencing i.e. in the Colony section about commerce infrastructure a note saying "see X.Y.Z for more details on trade and trade routes" or whatever phrasing works best for the passage
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Post by Tyrel Lohr »

BLHarrison wrote:Personally I think grouping them together would be better, with some cross=refferencing i.e. in the Colony section about commerce infrastructure a note saying "see X.Y.Z for more details on trade and trade routes" or whatever phrasing works best for the passage
By your command! I will move all of those rules into a single "Trade & Piracy" chapter nestled in between the Movement and Space Combat chapters. I had originally debated doing that, but had waffled and didn't know if it would be for the best for not... but now you have convinced me.

-Tyrel
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Still more observations

Post by BLHarrison »

One of the opening paragraphs of the supply section (X.2.4 Supply) are cut off/incomplete, which leads me to ask the following question about supply range

I assume (based on what appears in the cutoff paragraph) that a planet's supply infrastructure rating generates an equal number of "supply movement points" down all connected jump lanes. So a planet with Supply 4 connected to 3 restricted lanes and one normal lane could be in supply range (and be part of a supply route) to all three of the restricted lanes systems, and (assuming additional normal jump lanes) to systems within two jumps, or any other combination totaling four. I am correct?
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Re: Still more observations

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

BLHarrison wrote:One of the opening paragraphs of the supply section (X.2.4 Supply) are cut off/incomplete, which leads me to ask the following question about supply range

I assume (based on what appears in the cutoff paragraph) that a planet's supply infrastructure rating generates an equal number of "supply movement points" down all connected jump lanes. So a planet with Supply 4 connected to 3 restricted lanes and one normal lane could be in supply range (and be part of a supply route) to all three of the restricted lanes systems, and (assuming additional normal jump lanes) to systems within two jumps, or any other combination totaling four. I am correct?
Yes, you can tell the sections in the Colony rules where I got to before heading off on other tangents... and then never got back to finishing them up.

To answer your question, your planet with 4 Supply can extend supply out a total of 4 movement cost along connected jump lines. In your example, it could extend supply over just one of those restricted lanes (movement cost 4). However, it could alternatively trace supply out across 1 minor lane and 1 major lane (movement costs of 3 and 1, respectively).

Additionally, the old "supply points" in 1E are now called "supply nodes", and rather than being a fixed 3 Census/Productivity, any colony whose Supply times Productivity is greater than or equal to 10 is a supply node.

Any "in supply" colony can feed supply out to units and colonies within its supply range, however they must always be able to trace a supply line back to a supply node. Essentially, supply originates at supply nodes and is fed outwards from there. This allows an empire to build high Supply colonies to serve as supply depots (rather than having a stand-alone installation for that purpose), and is also allows a player to actively attempt to cutoff their enemy's supply lines by moving into a system and knocking the colonies there out of supply.

-Tyrel
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