Alrighty, voting is closed (has been for awhile now, actually
) and the Industrialists came out the winnar! Now, for the first update, the "Prologue", if you will.
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Here is Sol. As you can see, we've got three asteroids in our system (provide production bonuses). By a quirk, we can already see two planets from another system at about 2 o'clock. Both are Class 0, but the rest of the system may be worth checking out. Mars is habitable at a Class 4, but frankly there are usually better ways to spend a colony ship.
Now, we get three ships to start. From right to left, they are:
- Space Miner: Builds asteroid mining bases
- Flagship: Fast ship that can be used as a scout, but is best suited for tracking down anomalies (there's on right next to Earth, potentially a good one).
- Colony Ship: Used to colonize planets (duh). Can only be used once, so we'll need to build more if we want more planets.
If you look at the minimap, you'll see white dots scattered all over. Those are stars. We cannot see individual planets, but we'll be safe from sending a ship into an empty stretch of space. You may also be able to see a dark gray circle, with a blue shape in the middle. The blue shape is our field of view, and the gray circle is the colony ship's current range.
Now, let's look at the Earth:
We kinda lucked out on this one! Those green tiles represent the number of planetary improvements we can build. Two of those tiles have a little symbol, denoting special tiles. The red one indicates a research zone (basically a precursor artifact or something similar), while the gray one shows that an influence-boosting landmark is in the area. These tiles will increase the effectiveness of certain improvements.
Other than that, there's not much to say. Most of the rest is fairly self-explanatory.
Finally, the current budget:
Not much going on right now. We're currently at a 33% tax rate and a 67% production rate. All areas of production (social, military, and research) are receiving an equal share of the budget. Increasing the production rate allows production to reach it's full potential, but is much more expensive. Increasing taxes lowers approval ratings, which is something we do NOT want. So, the best way to increase production is to find or create other sources of income.
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Well, I'm sure I've gone on long enough. Remember, the first official year will be played out tomorrow, at roughly the same time. Take this time to finalize your plans.
I'd like to request that each council post it's finalized orders clearly and concisely. Having to go through a lot of contradictory posts is more than I care to deal with. Remember that discussion between committees is an important part of the game, but when it comes time to play a year I need a single post per committee to refer to. Also, try to post more than one order. This is especially important for R&D and Colonial Affairs, as it is rare that a single project will take a whole year to complete. If you want to give more generalized orders, such as "Focus on laser techs" or "Build a factory on every planet", that is fine as well.
Good luck, and remember to have fun!