The first idea I would like to throw out there is an extension of another idea that I've been working with (which I'll discuss later), but goes back to how the system and colony stats are being handled currently in 2E. I started jabbing things with a stick again and want to get people's thoughts on this alternative:
System Stats: Carrying Capacity, RAW, Biosphere
Colony Stats: Census, Morale, Productivity, Shipyards, Tech, Intel
The above eliminates two system statistics (Orbital and Science) and one colony statistic (Agriculture). Colonies would then end up with the following outputs:
- Economic Capacity: Census x RAW; this is the amount of income the colony generates each turn
- Agriculture Capacity: Census x (BIO - 2); this is the amount of food the colony generates. Colonies with negative agriculture capacities are net importers and require food. Handling it like this removes agriculture cost, so you would just total the agriculture capacities of your colonies to see if how much of a gain you realized.
- Production Capacity: Census x Productivity; this is the maximum construction cost of units that can be under construction at a colony. This is a recursion to 1E where there was an overall build limit and not a per turn purchase limit.
- Shipyard Capacity: Census x Shipyards; this is the maximum construction cost of starships that can be under construction at a colony. The maximum construction cost of all units is still limited by production capacity, shipyard capacity just limits how much of that can be non-atmospheric starships. An alternative formula is Productivity x Shipyards, but this would allow a colony to be used as a ship repair and construction site even if it doesn't have any Census... which I don't think is a good idea.
- Tech Capacity: Census x Tech; this is the maximum number of tech points that can be purchased at the colony each turn.
- Intel Capacity: Census x Intel; this is the maximum number of intel points that can be purchased at the colony each turn.
The biggest change here is that the maximum values for each ends up effectively doubled, but this isn't as large of a problem as you might consider as one of the other changes I am still eying (morseo now that I am looking at possible changes to the construction system as part of the final overhaul of the encounters and CSCR system). The costs for tech and intel missions can also be adjusted to take into effect the higher capacities.
Probably the only thing I really don't like about this proposition is that economic and agriculture output ends up being tied to Census instead of separate infrastructure values. The loss of Agriculture as an infrastructure value is the only one I truly lament, but I think I could live without it if it came to that.
Again, this is just being thrown out for discussion to see if it works or not, and if it is any better option than the one already in the 2E draft.
What brought this up was my look at certain planned changes to the unit construction rules and how they relate to the rest of the rules. Specifically, I have found Command Rating to be something of a game balance issue as of late, and while addressing that I started incorporating other errata and suggestions. I'll make a post about those in this thread later tonight.