"Sectors of industry" SF

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9 comments, last by GeneralJist 8 years, 7 months ago

I have these 5 "sectors", by sector I mean something that produces things.

1) Agriculture (Farms) - makes food

2) Mining (Mines) - extracts minerals

3) Industry (Factories) - manufactures goods

4) Refining (Refineries) - extracts fuel

5) Administration (Offices) - provides services like banking, also government administration

Now I want to cleanup these terminologies (can be changed as long as the purpose is retained):

- how to name all these together? Just "Sectors"? But that sounds quite misleading (at the moment I'm using "Production sectors" which is more clear but very ugly)

- better alternative names for these 5 thingies?

- I'm not so fond of the "Administration"

- maybe "Industry" should be renamed "Manfuacturing"? And then all these call Industries maybe?

Overall, I'm looking for all ideas how to improve these terms.

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I think Sector is a pretty solid name for the collection of the 5, though I think Industry might work too. It's not very sci fi sounding, though. Depending on the type of lore you're trying to build, having each of them as a Ministry (or Division) might help establish the world ("Ministry of Agriculture", etc.). Again, though, not especially sf sounding. A quick flip through my thesaurus gave me Stratum (plural would be Strata), which sounds sorta neat. Lamina (Laminae) is a term used in botany/geology used to describe layers, which also sounds pretty sf.

Agriculture is a common enough word that most people will know immediately what that sector does. Cultivation sounds a little more exotic, and is pretty much just as common of a word. Agrology is the science of crop-growing, and, while not especially common of a word, it's meaning can probably be inferred from it's similarities to Agriculture.

Mining is another solid term, because everyone knows what it means. Excavation comes to mind. Something might be able to be done with farm terms like Harvest, but something like Mineral Harvest sounds pretty silly (like a breakfast cereal lol). idk Excavation seems ok

I'm not a huge fan of Industry, and agree with you that Manufacturing seems like a better title, whether or not you call them all Industries. Fabrication might also work.

I like Refining (though Ministry of Purity or something sounds really metal lol). Words with similar meanings include Distill (Distillation), Filter (Filtration), Rarefy (Rarefication isn't a word but hey this is sf do whatever you want. Technically it'd be Rarefying, I think).

I'm not fond of Administration either, but it seems to fit the set of stuff you want to encompass. Obvious alternatives are Government (or Governance), Bureaucratic or Legislation, but I don't think that's what you're looking for. Empire or Regime both sorta fit but not really. idk this one's tough

Refining effectively is just a kind of factory

Transportation is something all are dependant on

Service Industries for the population ?? (delivery of final products)\

Financial (manipulation of money) possibly included in 'offices'/administration

--------------------------------------------[size="1"]Ratings are Opinion, not Fact

I ended up naming these "Industries", also renamed some.

1) Agriculture (Farms) - makes food

2) Mining (Mines) - extracts minerals

3) Manufacturing (Factories) - manufactures goods

4) Refining (Refineries) - extracts & refines fuel

5) Services (Offices) - provides services like banking, transporting, also government administration

I think transportation should go to Services...

How about retail & overall commerce? Ignore it? Include in Services (since it already has financial services)?

How about construction sector? Ignore or include into Manufacturing?

Something else important I have forgotten?


Agrology
I think I will reuse some of these as technologies :)


Refining effectively is just a kind of factory
I have merged here extraction of the gas and refining it into fuel. So in the description is should have "extracts and refines gas to use as ship's fuel".

Note the game lore uses a bit archaic/low tech SF, like conventional agriculture, ships being fuelled by some exotic gas instead of energy crystals and the like. Definitely no food replication or teleportation.

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Something else important I have forgotten?

That depends on how they'll end up affecting the game. There a ton of industries we haven't talked about, but they might not make any sense in the game. What's the purpose of these Industries? How does the Player interact with them? I've been operating under the assumption that the Player just like diverts resources into whatever industries they want and each one has a tech tree or something. Anyways, to my eye, a sort of broader one that's absent is any form of like art or aesthetics, like all this Empire does is work 100% of the time. Which idk maybe they do I haven't seen the lore lol.. And some sort of Commerce/Economics Industry might not be out of place, either. But if you feel like there are enough Industries for the mechanic already, either of those could ostensibly be lumped with one of the existing ones.

One of the benefits of the setting being science fiction, is that if you can write off a bunch of stuff you don't want to implement/don't want to balance and it can still be canon. If someone's like "well why isn't there a Construction industry?" you can just be like I dunno man it's the future, they automated all that, etc. Alternatively, you could show the thing as an industry, but it has one node and it's already been acquired, like "Self-building sites" or "Automated construction". Deus Ex: Human Revolution did that, where there are augmentation trees with one node that's purchased at the beginning of the game because the Devs wanted a canon reason for the Player to start with the ability, like sprinting.


That depends on how they'll end up affecting the game.
Well, that's the next thing I was going to discuss :)

Refinering I have covered (fuel for ships mechanic), agriculture is pretty straightforward (population consumes it to survive and breed), mining is just a bonus/penalty to Manufacturing (you need X minerals per turn to make Y factories run smoothly). So, there is only Manufacturing and Services that are not covered yet...

At the moment I'm using Manufacturing for ship production but I don't like it (to be conistent with the game mood & lore you should be buying ships by credits alone). So I was toying with the idea that Manufacturing & Service affect the empire overall. Like the empire runs smoothly if you have these balanced and people are happy and ships are cheap to buy.

It would also make sense, I guess, to subdivide Manufacturing & Services with abstract products. Like all factories on planet A produce "warp engines" while those on planet B specialize in "computers". And you as the Emperor can affect (not directly since these are supposed to be privatre industries) what each planet produces (specialization in product X).

Then there could be some bonuses "if you have 0.1 or more "warp engines" factories per ship these move +1 faster". Similarly banking, transport industry, etc.

Something along these lines... But I'm not sure...

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Explain the whole Industry mechanic to me. Not what individual Industries do, but like the system as a whole. Refining affects ship fuel, sure, but can the Player do stuff to make that better? Like level it up with a resource? Or is it like each planet has a main industry and I own X many Refining planets so my Refining level is X strong? Having a firmer grasp on the parts of the mechanic on a whole that you've nailed down will help us understand the situation better, and hopefully come up with an idea or two.

The idea of each planet specializing in manufacturing a specific part sounds ok, though I think the Player would definitely need a way to change (or at least influence) the part being made. You could have it affect combat with things like "this ship gets X bonus as long as you're producing N or more Ys" or "This ship can perform this attack/maneuver only if you have N or more Ys". Maybe even some ships could only be built if you had enough of a thing.

I agree with the Services industry makes sense to contribute towards empire efficiency/happiness. It's up to you how you want happiness to manifest in-game, though. Something like they have in Civilization, where happiness per turn gets put in a bank, and when you have enough, a Golden Age starts, where your empire is more productive/better at combat for 10 turns or so. Or, the happier a planet is, the more malleable to population is to the will of the emperor (the Player has more influence over what happens on the planet). Unhappiness could lead to revolts, mutinies, uncooperative planets, lowered production of stuff, etc.


Explain the whole Industry mechanic to me. Not what individual Industries do, but like the system as a whole. Refining affects ship fuel, sure, but can the Player do stuff to make that better? Like level it up with a resource? Or is it like each planet has a main industry and I own X many Refining planets so my Refining level is X strong? Having a firmer grasp on the parts of the mechanic on a whole that you've nailed down will help us understand the situation better, and hopefully come up with an idea or two.
Each planet has an individual budget handled by the AI. It uses the budget to invest in the 5 industries (listed above). What exactly will be built depends on factors like: planet type (no farms on lava worlds :D), planetary resources (high mineral planets tend to invest in mining industry more), planet specialization (the player sets it, simple "focus on industry X"), empire wide edicts (the player issues an edict saying what industry should be constructed more in the empire).

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So a Player can't directly set how much a planet is contributing to an industry, but they can tell the planet what to focus on. Is there any difference between issuing an edict "Do more mining" and going to each planet individually and telling them to focus on Mining? (Are edicts just a way to mass-order the empire?)

A potential idea is to make the AI planet leaders have no predisposition to contribute towards the Service industry? And a reason for the Player to switch a planet from doing something it's good at to Service? idk seems kinda weak, I know. My thoughts are that if a planet is already investing in the thing it's the best in, why would I ever change it?


So a Player can't directly set how much a planet is contributing to an industry, but they can tell the planet what to focus on. Is there any difference between issuing an edict "Do more mining" and going to each planet individually and telling them to focus on Mining? (Are edicts just a way to mass-order the empire?)
They stack (specialization on mining + mining edict = even higher chance a planet will invest in mining). Note that planet never goes 100% a single industry, each turn there is a chance for each industry to be built, you only affect the chance what will be built. Yes, edicts are a way to mass order the empire.

And a reason for the Player to switch a planet from doing something it's good at to Service? idk seems kinda weak, I know.
Insufficient service empire wide +50% to costs of buying things, halved population happiness, double ship maintenance cost, -10% to research, etc :)

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