Curious about the business tactic used here...

[Iron Sky]

I would call it a "Government Facility" or something similar - nothing increases loyalty to a government like having a mortar-and-sand and feet on the ground watching the populace, suppressing sedition, and spreading propaganda right? If that's what the building's intent is, I think that's closer to what you're looking for.

Luxury implies expensive non-essentials usually bought by those well-to-do. Good for the economy where they are purchased/utilized since their prices are usually inflated, but doesn't do much for the society as a whole.

For something that boosts Morale, I'd say something like "Public Recreation Facility" or even just "Public Facility" - the bread and circuses supplying entertainment, welfare, and/or jobs to keep the people happy.

It seems like Loyalty and Morale are usually conflated - the best predictor of whether a President will be re-elected is how strong the economy is in his election year (a good benchmark for how happy/secure the people are in general). It seems almost superfluous to have both as they tend to blur together.

I guess if you broke it down: High Loyalty, High Morale is a product of any well-functioning non-oppressive government. High Loyalty, Low Morale would be the general state in a totalitarian regime as the people are too scared to do anything. Low Loyalty, High Morale would be a libertarian regime or other loosely-knit government where the people are fine as long as you're not telling them what to do. Low Loyalty, Low Morale is any government that's screwing up and the people aren't happy about it.

Dunno... just random thoughts.

[Tyrel Lohr]

I can see where the name is probably part of the problem, as the term Luxury can be interpreted in different ways and isn't necessarily as clear as I would like it to be. I'm also starting to think that the entire concept for the facility may not even be viable under the current iteration of the rules. It might be something to be filed away to be revisited later on. Or...

...what if we took this Luxury Resort (or Pleasure Dome, or whatever it should really be called) and instead give it the effect of allowing the player to spend economic points to directly purchase Morale? It couldn't be at the normal 10 x New Value rate because that would make it too easy to fix Morale issues at colonies that are having problems, but possibly at a flat cost of about 20-25 EP per Morale bonus. That seems a bit too conditional for my liking, though, and probably not worth the expense of building a facility.

As I mentioned with Jay on Sunday, the current goal is to increase the costs of facilities in order to eliminate their maintenance costs to remove one extra thing that players have to worry about from turn to turn. The 100 EP price tag for facilities under this revised plan is the equivalent of about 4 Infrastructure, which is a reasonable expense but still not something that you're going to spend without good reason. A player could build a Shipyard in every system, but the cost would be extremely burdensome and consume money that would be better spent on other projects.

[countercheck]

Another way to handle loyalty would be to roll once per turn per Sector. The number of systems in the sector, or number of jumps from sector capital to outlying system could be a penalties to encourage division of the empire into smaller administrative groups. Depending on how badly the roll fails, moral could drop in multiple systems, insurgent units could be generated, more rolls might be needed for individual systems, starting at the fringe and moving inward.

And yeah, I'd probably reskin Luxury as Bread and Circuses.

[Vandervecken]

Almost 2 weeks since last "Check in". Keep the juices flowing by giving us something on how the latest 'play tests' are going, please.

[mwaschak]

Almost 2 weeks since last "Check in". Keep the juices flowing by giving us something on how the latest 'play tests' are going, please.

No worries! We are pushing ahead.

I think the VBAM team members each has his own style of testing. Charlie and Tyrel like to start from scratch. I typically go out and create a scenario I would run with some friends and see if it works. This is how we found some earlier tech problems. For my part I have been working on some redesigns to the Kuissian ships with the most recent set of 2e. When I talked to Tyrel about a week ago we went over some ideas for showing how some of these established ships would really look in 2e and still fit the fluff of the universe.

-Jay

[Charles Lewis]

My second playtest was going gangbusters and then I hit the end of year surge at work.

Tyrel's suggested streamlining for loyalty and piracy checks really help move the turn along. I'm hoping to get back to it next week after the dust settles. I know this has been a long drawn out process, and I'm very confident you'll feel the wait was worth it. 2E is going to be a true evolution of the system you enjoyed in 1E, not just an incorporation of errata and a few new tidbits tossed about.

[Vandervecken]

Another week has gone by, another weekend of play-testing perhaps. Could some of you in the loop tickle our brains with what you are up to ??? Thanks, as always.

[Vandervecken]

Been 18 days since last post in 2E and a few more since VBAM member has posted in Second Edition Dev. Can we get a quick update on status; either for the 2E rules or status of the designers/playtesters (how your summer is going). Danke, Thanks, Arigato, etc ...

[virtutis.umbra]

I miss you guys

What's the latest...?

[Charles Lewis]

Don't want you guys to think you're being ignored, but the answer is: I dunno.

Haven't heard from Tyrel lately...hopefully he'll pop his head in here soon and update us all.

[Tyrel Lohr]

I fell off the face of the earth again due to a combination of work, social commitments, and mental burnout. I've been poking at the 2E rules with a stick in the interim, trying to see what has worked based on my previous playtest and what needs changed. I'm still really not happy with how some of the new rules are working, and have been trying to figure out some changes to the combat side of things that might make things work a bit better.

I'll see if I can get some of the forum backlog cleared out today as I work on other projects. I'm gone tomorrow and will be leaving in two weeks on vacation which, incidentally, is going to be the first uninterrupted block of time I'll have to really sit down and work on things.

Onwards and upwards!