GETTING STARTED FACTION MAINTENANCE There are 3 major things to keep in mind when maintaining your Faction: Social Order Rating (SOp), Upkeep (UKp) and Resource Points (REp). The SOCIAL ORDER RATING determines how healthy your Faction as a society is. The higher the rating, the happier your citizens are and the more effecient your economy is. The following is a breakdown of what each SOp represents: SOp 4- Cultural enlightenment. The people are happy with their Faction. REp returned is doubled. SOp 3- Good state. The people are pleased with their Faction. REp returned is up by 50%. SOp 2- Average state. The people are ok with their Faction, but there are also doubts by many. No REp bonuses. SOp 1- State of unrest. The people are not satisfied with their Faction. REp returned is reduced by 25%. SOp 0- Civil Chaos. The people are angry with their Faction. Rebellions and anarchy reign. One sector that has no fleet present will be lost to the Faction at every turn. REp returned is reduced by 50%. SOp can be raised by contributing bonus REp to the Upkeep. There is a SOp fund in the Upkeep, which is how much a Faction must contribute if it wishes to advance to the next Rating. If the minimum Upkeep cannot be paid, then the balance of the unpaid Upkeep will be subtracted from the SOp fund. Once the fund is empty, the Faction's SOp will be reduced. The following is the SOp funds rate for each SOp. SOp 4- 50 000REp SOp 3- 30 000REp SOp 2- 10 000REp SOp 1- 5000REp SOp 0- N/A If a Faction's SOp is 0, for every turn it remains in 0, one of its sectors that is not occupied with a fleet will fall into anarchy and will no longer be in the control of the Faction. The decision of which sector will fall into anarchy will be arbitrarily determined by the GM. Rival Factions may influence which sector falls by contributing some of its REp to the sector that it wishes to fall. The UPKEEP is the overall cost of operating the Faction. The Faction leader must pay the Upkeep at the beginning of his turn to maintain his Faction, otherwise the Social Order Rating may drop and eventually cause civil unrest. Factors that determine the Upkeep include military maintenance, public works maintenance, government administration costs, base/facility maintenance and Social Order funds, among other costs. They are totalled at the beginning of the player's turn. The Upkeep is the minimum payment required for the Faction leader to contribute. He may wish to include more, which will then be accumulated into the SOp fund. However, if the Faction leader fails to pay minumum amount for whatever reason, then the negative balance will be subtracted from the SOp fund. RESOURCES are collected by Faction leaders at the end of each turn. Refer to TERRITORY AND RESOURCES for more info. TERRITORY AND RESOURCES This is a game of conquest, primarily, and thus the focus will most likely remain on the acquisition of territory and the ensuing monetary gains this will provide. The gameworld will be divided into sectors. Each sector is a region of space of approximately equal volume of area. To simplify the game, territorial claims will be done via sectors, instead of individual star systems and planets. Within each sector will be star systems and other notable points of interest (space stations, HS Vein terminals, etc). Each sector will have varying numbers of star systems. Each star system yields the same number of Resource Points. Thusly, controlling a region of space that is denser in star systems will bring in more Resource Points. Each sector will also entail an administration cost that will be included in the Upkeep. While a sector will have a base administration cost, planets and bases/facilities which exist within the sector will cost extra. Generally speaking, the more territory a faction holds, the more costly it will be to maintain it. Holding key locations which are richer in Resources is a more effecient strategy. A Faction leader may abandon his territories as he wishes, although this will leave said spaces open for invasion by other Factions. MILITARY A Faction must maintain an effective military force to keep greedy invaders from rampaging through their space. These are done primarily by fleets of spaceships. The maintenance of the fleets is done through the Upkeep, but in order to add to the military force, resources must be invested into the construction of new ships. Fleets are deployed into sectors to protect against invaders, and are used to also capture new territory from Faction rivals. The strength of a fleet is determined by the ships that are assigned to it, along with the various special enhancements available to the fleet. Ship classes that can be used are as follows: ATT DEF MOB TRAIT FIGHTER 1 1 8 x2 damage vs. Heavy Fighter HEAVY FIGHTER 2 1 7 x2 damage vs. Battleship FRIGATE 3 3 4 x2 damage vs. Fighter BATTLESHIP 5 5 2 x0.5 damage vs. Fighter CARRIER 0 5 1 MOTHERSHIP 7 8 0 Ship construction is done at shipyards. Each shipyard can produce 10 ships a turn maximum. All Factions start with a shipyard in their homeworld. Construction of additional shipyards will be necessary to increase output of ships created and strategically place them for effecient integration into major fleets. All newly created ships are placed in reserve at the sector of their origin. Each type of ship will have a different maintenance cost associated with it, and it will be added to the Upkeep accordingly at the beginning of each turn. FLEET MANAGEMENT NOTE: Should the data for Faction statistics conflict between the GM and the Faction leader, the GM's statistics will take precendence The Faction will organize their ships into fleets. The faction's profile should have an organized chart of each fleet, and each fleet's makeup, for reference to the Faction leader, the GM and for recon purposes. The number of fleets, and each individual fleet's composition of ships, will be known only to the GM and the Faction leader, unless proper recon protocols have been successfully attempted by another faction. The fleet database will contain the following: -fleet designation -type of ships in fleet, and the number of said types -flagship leading the fleet -fleet location -total fleet combat power -special attributes the fleet possesses (cloaked ships, fold drives, etc) For ease of reference, the database should be organized by location, then by designation. Fleets can be arranged anytime, except when there is a battle engagement and during the recovery period. The Faction leader must inform the GM of any changes made immediately. The Faction leader may, at anytime (with the exception of battle engagments and recovery period), create or disband fleets, or transfer ships between fleets. New ships that have been created are automatically placed in reserve, and must be assigned to a fleet for them to be in service to the Faction. The ships are placed in reserve in the planet of their origin. All movement rules for ships in transit between fleets apply. BATTLE ENGAGEMENT RULES refer to sob-battle.txt Under certain circumstances, a fleet may have a flagship that has earned special attributes, or has a Hero character commanding the fleet. The benefitting attributes are added to the fleet during combat. If a Hero character is commanding a fleet, he is the one who will direct the battle engagement, instead of the faction leader. Hero characters can give extra bonuses to a fleet battle, but there are also dangers as well. A very charismatic Hero character can boost the effectiveness of the fleet's performance, but he can also steal the fleet if he so wishes. A high SOp ranking can prevent this, however.