By now most of you know what this will be about, so I will skip the usual introduction this time :D

Colonization

You don't build any colonization ships and don't directly colonize planets. There are 2 kinds of colonizations, one done by people who like you (corporations wanting to colonize a planet, private investors who want to exploit the new planet under Emperor's protection) and one done by people who don't understand yet they should love you (dissidents, rebels, disgrutled people and those who want to create their small paradise somewhere far, far away).

Separatist are easy, they randomly colonize planets, preferably unexlored and far away from you. They are irrelevent at the moment.

So, the loyal colonization works like that:

- your Empire has each turn a 80% chance to colonize 1 planet and 20% chance to colonize 2 planets (yep, quite a pace). You can improve these numbers by various investments and research. As your empire grows this pace slows down.

- if there are no orders given a random nearby explored planet will be colonized (and the citizens will ask if they are allowed to join the Empire)

- you can mark a planet as "do not colonize here" (loyal colonists will never colonize that one) and "encourage colonization" (increases a chance that colonists will choose that planet to colonize - will not work very well on vulcanic or barren planets :D)

- you can mark any explored planets as "claimed by the Empire", it has two effects, first the separatists will never colonize it (unless they have no valid targets anywhere else in the galaxy), second any colony here will instantly join the empire

- this exploration drains resources from your population and weakens the economy (so it's not exactly free)

Exploration

Your military fleet can not enter unexplored systems. You need to explore first, it's donre by abstrac "Exploration/survey team".

Your exploration team has each turn a 50% chance to make one exploration check and 50% chance for two exploration checks.

If no orders are given they choose a random nearby unexplored system and attempt exploration. You can put "explore here first" markers, in such case first a random planet will be explored. Exploration is not guaranteed to succed, something might eat the expedition :)

Only systems you have a direct starlane to can be explored this way.

Each colonized planet has a 80% chance to send one free exploration to an unexplored neighbour. This is done before the Imperial exploration team attempt.

Random event "a brave adventurer returned with news of system X" grant you sometimes free exploration of a distant system (not neighbour).

Each Terran separatists colony has 1% chance per turn to become known (explored).

What you think?

Your military fleet can not enter unexplored systems. You need to explore first, it's donre by abstrac "Exploration/survey team".
Your exploration team has each turn a 50% chance to make one exploration check and 50% chance for two exploration checks.
If no orders are given they choose a random nearby unexplored system and attempt exploration. You can put "explore here first" markers, in such case first a random planet will be explored. Exploration is not guaranteed to succeed, something might eat the expedition

what about reconnaissance in force? vendi vidi vici! i came, i explored, i ate them.

So if my math is right you automatically explore a minimum of 1.5 planets a turn and colonize on average 1 planet a turn.

Assuming each planet has 1 explorable neighbour that ups the planets explored a turn to 2.2?

Which means if you had 100 planets in the game you'd have explored them all in 46 turns and colonized the remainder by turn 101.

That seems a rather extreme pace. Doesn't give much time to get learn how to play the game.

So if my math is right you automatically explore a minimum of 1.5 planets a turn and colonize on average 1 planet a turn.

Assuming each planet has 1 explorable neighbour that ups the planets explored a turn to 2.2?

Which means if you had 100 planets in the game you'd have explored them all in 46 turns and colonized the remainder by turn 101.

That seems a rather extreme pace. Doesn't give much time to get learn how to play the game.

"As your empire grows this pace slows down." - Like: (80% base rate -2% per already colonized planet but no less than 5%)

Anyway, these are just numbers trivial to tweak later. I ask more about the overall concept. Should I go for these mechanics?

what about reconnaissance in force? vendi vidi vici! i came, i explored, i ate them.

hmmm....

I'm going to say I dislike the idea. Mainly because it seems like a strange 4x/idle game hybrid.

I'd like to be more involved the colonization and exploration process. If I have an empty planet in range and different corporations, investors, and factions why not let me sell the the rights to that planet to one of them. The owner of the planet affects the strength of that group and how the planet develops.

Colonies start off as an outpost and require X number of infrastructure points to advance to colony status. During that time they require a certain amount of cash each turn from your colonization budget. The number of infrastructure points gained a turned is base on many factors.

Any cash in the colonization budget not being used to support outposts goes towards building colony ships. Once a ship has been built then I decided which faction gets it.

In that way I'm at least involved and can control the speed at which my empire grows and how it evolves.

I'm going to say I dislike the idea.

I'd like to be more involved the colonization and exploration process. If I have an empty planet in range and different corporations, investors, and factions why not let me sell the the rights to that planet to one of them. The owner of the planet affects the strength of that group and how the planet develops.

Overall, I have 2 reasons to not make the standard colonization mechanic:

1) I really hate is these colony ships, I hate, hate building these and then sending them. Actually, if there was some "build colony" button on each planet i could go for it instead I think... I mean, I'm not against the player having the control where to build, I'm against all the useless micromanagement (colony ships sending) when colonizing than the decision where to colonize.

2) I need "rogue colonies", planets far away colonized by my people who don't like me (yet), so I need some sort of, at least secondary, automatic & independent colonization.

Any cash in the colonization budget not being used to support outposts goes towards building colony ships. Once a ship has been built then I decided which faction gets it.

Hmm, but no colony ship of any kind tastes better to me (like this: "Colonies start off as an outpost and require X number of infrastructure points to advance to colony status. During that time they require a certain amount of cash each turn from your colonization budget.")

sounds like you have 3 design criteria:

1. model what a galactic emperor could do with respect to colonization.

2. model independent colonization by private parties.

3. eliminate micromanagement.

an emperor could allocate funds, direct which planets are to be colonized, and award contracts to private sector organizations. they could also send out the military fleet to explore along with come colony ships, colonizing anything they found in the process. they could also direct which sectors of space are to be explored next.

so they set the budget, choose colonization targets, award contracts, can opt to send out the fleet on exploration and colonization missions, and direct where to explore.

i like technogoth's idea of infrastructure points for tracking colony growth. i also like the budget ideas, except perhaps for extra funds going to colony ship construction. to reduce micromanagement, ship construction should probably be on a JIT basis. so the player would say "colonize Tau-Ceti 7", and the game would automatically build the ship and fly it there and establish the colony (assuming funds were available).

for a "hands off" emperor sim, the player has a few basic commodities to work with: money, time, territory, population, resources, and units/buildings.

and the player can issue high level orders: explore here! colonize there! go to war with those guys!

and then the AI takes over.

i've actually been working on a hands off emperor sim myself, City States, with an ancient greek city state type setting.

sounds like you have 3 design criteria:

1. model what a galactic emperor could do with respect to colonization.

2. model independent colonization by private parties.

3. eliminate micromanagement.

1. Colonization by the Empire

2. Colonization by rebels/separatists

It is of no imporance if it's done by some NPCs or by the player. I just want to split colonies of the same race. Same are loyal to the player, some are not.

The no micronamanagement part is correct.

Hmmm, maybe like this?

Claims to planets

Whenever you explore an empty planet and it is inside your "cultural borders" (1 system from your colony, 2 systems from your developed world) you automaticly get a claim to it (the planet gets an outline with your colours). From now on all colonization of these without your consent is considered an act of war (so you don't have to spawn colonies everywhere to "reserve a planet for later").

You can claim a planet that is outside of your cultural zones, to do so you need to have a significant fleet orbiting the planet and you need to pay to build an outpost.

Difference between a claimed planet and a colonized planet

The obvious one is finances (uncolonized produces nothing and can have at most an outpost). But more important is how it works upon invasion. When a claimed planet gets plundered/razed nothing happens, but when a colonized planet is razed the people are angry (weak Emperor could not protect them).

Also, pirates bases. These are automaticly built or uncolonized planets (which might or might not be claimed by you) and are hidden. When a planet is colonized there is high chance the pirates hideout will be revealed. Once this happens the pirates can either flee or enslave the colony (depending on groud forces), in such case you need to retake the planet. But usually they will just flee, unless it is some distant world where you have no forces.

Colonization

Each planet that you claimed has "Start colonization" button, when clicked a progress bar will appear and it will drain resources from your treasury to complete it. You can click the button again to pause colonization anytime.

It's seamless, first it builds an outpost (if already present the cost is cheaper/it skips that part) then basic infrastructure is built first 10k settlers get their transport fee paid from the imperial treasury. After that it's a colony.

When a planet is very razed (all colonists dead, basic infrastructure damaged) you might need to recolonize it (you pay only for the missing components).

There is similar "Terraform" button below, these are independent (you can first colonize or first terraform). Terraformed planets are better. Some extreme environments might requir some prior terraforming before colonization.

Exploration

No changes.