Suggestion: Terraforming and Efficient Energy

[JayTS]

I know the current progression of late game is to build orbital installations and upgrade facilities on low quality planets. So far, there are no other ways to increase the quality or to reduce maintenance costs. So maybe it is possible to have a science called "Terraforming" under construction path line to increase the quality of planets. And another science under the same construction path split to have maintenance management. I will first describe the science tree progression and then discuss each item individually. So this is my idea:

Research Tree:
>Planetary Construction 9: Gaia Reform (1800 RP)
Allows you to construct two new facilities: "Terraforming Megastructure" and "Efficient Energy Research Facility"
Allows you to research Terraforming 1 and Efficient Energy 1

>>Under "Terraforming" branch
Terraforming 1: Unlocks Action "Terraform 1" (1000 RP)
Terraforming 2: Unlocks Action "Terraform 2" (1200 RP)
Terraforming 3: Increases the possible mineral value increase (900 RP) (After upgrade, it changes secondary function on Terraform 1/2)
Terraforming 4: Unlocks Action "Terraform 3" and increases possible mineral value increase further (1500 RP)

>>>Under "Efficiency" branch
Efficient Energy 1: Unlocks two upgrades for Efficient Energy Research Facility: "Geothermal Power Plant 1" and "Nuclear Fusion Core 1" (1200 RP)
Efficient Energy 2: Unlocks further upgrades for "Geothermal Power Plant 2" and "Nuclear Fusion Core 2" (1500 RP)
Efficient Energy 3: Unlocks further upgrades for "Geothermal Power Plant 3" and "Nuclear Fusion Core 3" (1800 RP)

Terraforming Process
Main Function Summary:
Re-rolls the planet's quality value and set the minimal rolling limit as the current planet's quality.
E.g. If the original quality range of the planet in between 5-24. Initially the planet rolled for 8 quality. By terraforming, you re-roll the planet from 8-24 instead.

Secondary Function Summary:
Have slight chances of increasing the mineral of the planet. The function would only progress if the previous roll is successful.
E.g. 70% chance to increase mineral by 1. 40% chance to increase mineral by 1 for the second time. 10% chance to increase mineral by 1 for the third time.
The maximum mineral value for the planet cannot be exceeded.
E.g. If the maximum mineral value is 20, current value is at 18, it will stop rolling after the success of the second roll.
If current value is >= the maximum value, cease all rolls for mineral increase.

Mechanics and requirements:
1. Requires a construction of a "Terraforming Megastructure"
2. After the construction, you have the optional action to "Terraform Planet"
3. During Terraforming, the planet would be in a sealed state where it does not generate any income, research, trade points, population growth and morale.

Upgrade: Terraforming Megastructure
Requirement: Planetary Construction 9: Gaia Reform
Cost: 50 CP and $400.
Maintenance: $25
Function: Provides 1 Research Points. Unlocks action to Terraform.

Action: Terraform 1
Cost: 100 CP and $500
Primary Function: Re-rolls the quality value, replaces the minimum planet quality value with the current quality value.
E.g. Original values is 4-20, Current quality value is 7, Re-roll values is 7-20
Secondary Function: 50% to increase mineral by 1, 20% to increase mineral by 1 for the second time, 5% to increase mineral by 1 for the third time.
Improved Secondary Function: 70% to increase mineral by 1, 30% to increase mineral by 1 for the second time, 10% to increase mineral by 1 for the third time. (After the research "Terraforming 4")

Action: Terraform 2
Cost: 85 CP and $800 (Decrease in CP but increase in cost)
Primary Function: Re-rolls the quality value, replaces the minimum planet quality value with the current quality value. (Same as Terraform 1)
Secondary Function: 60% to increase mineral by 1, 30% to increase mineral by 1 for the second time, 10% to increase mineral by 1 for the third time. (Improve chances from Terraform 1)
Improved Secondary Function: 75% to increase mineral by 1, 40% to increase mineral by 1 for the second time, 20% to increase mineral by 1 for the third time.

Action: Terraform 3
Cost: 55 CP and $1500 (Decrease in CP but massive increase in cost)
Primary Function: Re-rolls the quality value, replaces the minimum planet quality value with the current quality value + 1 and maximum value + 1. (Improve value from Terraform 1/2)
E.g. Original values is 4-20, Current quality value is 7, Re-roll values is 8-21
Secondary Function: 80% to increase mineral by 1, 50% to increase mineral by 1 for the second time, 25% to increase mineral by 1 for the third time, 5% to increase mineral by 1 for the fourth time. (Improve chances and addition of fourth roll from Terraform 1/2)

Discussion:
The whole process is suppose to be expensive and costly. It will also renders the planet useless while in the process of terraforming. However, there are incentives to try to terraform for 1/2 times to increase the functionality of the planet. It carries some risks but reaps tremendous benefits.

Efficient Energy Facilities
Provides 2 very different buildings in reducing maintenance costs and other unique functions. Can only build either one of the upgrades, cannot have both at the same time. The efficient energy research facility needs to be built first before you can build any further upgrade. So you cannot jump from nothing to a Geothermal Power Plant 3, however you can jump from Efficient Energy Research Facility to lvl 3 of Geothermal or Nuclear.

Upgrade: Efficient Energy Research Facility
Requirement: Planetary Construction 9: Gaia Reform
Cost: 50 CP and $400
Maintenance: $40
Function: Provides 2 Research Points

*Upgrade: Geothermal Power Plant 1
Requirement: Efficient Energy Research Facility and Efficient Energy 1 Research
Cost: 60 CP and $500 (Not including the cost of Efficient Energy Research Facility)
Maintenance: $30
Function: Provides 2 Research Points and 8% decrease in Total Maintenance on the planet

*Upgrade: Geothermal Power Plant 2
Requirement: Efficient Energy Research Facility and Efficient Energy 2 Research
Cost: 75 CP and $1000
Maintenance: $15 (Decreases because it can sustain itself more efficiently)
Function: Provides 2 Research Points and 19% decrease in Total Maintenance on the planet

*Upgrade: Geothermal Power Plant 3
Requirement: Efficient Energy Research Facility and Efficient Energy 3 Research
Cost: 100 CP and $2000
Maintenance: $0 (Decreases because it can sustain itself more efficiently)
Function: Provides 3 Research Points and 40% decrease in Total Maintenance on the planet

**Upgrade: Nuclear Fusion Core 1
Requirement: Efficient Energy Research Facility and Efficient Energy 1 Research
Cost: 50 CP and $500 (Not including the cost of Efficient Energy Research Facility)
Maintenance: $35
Function: Provides 1 Research Points, reduce Total Maintenance cost by flat $45, and reduce CP requirement by 5 (Only applies to 20 CP or more)

**Upgrade: Nuclear Fusion Core 2
Requirement: Efficient Energy Research Facility and Efficient Energy 2 Research
Cost: 80 CP and $1100
Maintenance: $26 (Decreases because it can sustain itself more efficiently)
Function: Provides 1 Research Points, reduce Total Maintenance cost by flat $85, and reduce CP requirement by 10 (Only applies to 30 CP or more)

**Upgrade: Nuclear Fusion Core 3
Requirement: Efficient Energy Research Facility and Efficient Energy 3 Research
Cost: 135 CP and $2000
Maintenance: $14 (Decreases because it can sustain itself more efficiently)
Function: Provides 1 Research Points, reduce Total Maintenance cost by flat $120, and reduce CP requirement by 17 (Only applies to 35 CP or more)

Discussion
All these upgrades are really late game items. They are suppose to provide high utility functions to provide better cash flows management and CP production chain. This is just a preliminary stats so more balancing should be required.

Conclusion
Hopefully this will provide a more variety of choices for the player in late game. Any feedback on these ideas would be great!

[Guest]

It's awesome how much work you put into this, but terraforming is already being planned out (our current tech tree is only a fraction of the whole thing). Something about not increasing quality of planets, but decreasing the quality requirements of existing buildings.

startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/8480/improving-planetary-quality

[Cory Trese]

Upcoming releases will reveal more of the Tech Tree and give you some insight into the upgrade tree.

As a player, you'll have the option to research "more efficient" vs. "bigger and better" upgrades improvements.

Terraforming as an "Action" or "One Time Event" (like a Festival) is not a planned component of the game. Terraforming will be represented as an expensive core upgrade that offests quality cost. We considered, tested and eliminated it from the saved game format, and that was a permanent choice I made -- a trade off, in the end for features that are core to the game as it is now.

Global Infrastructure that offsets general maintenance is part of the roadmap. I was thinking about some different names for it, but wrapping it up as "Power Generation" is an interesting idea. I was thinking about logistics, supply infrastructure or communication networks. Added this to the list for possibly being selected as the names (currently called "Anti-Maint" in the test game, pretty creative, I know

[Nullzone]

I like the "Efficient Energy" / "Global Anti-Maintenance Infrastructure" .
I'd add Orbital Powerplants to the list, so you have an option that does not use Quality: Solarcell plants would be on top of my list.
Plants that harvest energy from the system's magnetic field should also work: I cannot remember the exact novel, but it's one in Peter F. Hamilton's Void trilogy. There they use a positively gigantic flywheel-style mega-structure to generate power for a whole solar system. The "flywheel" itself is powered by the magnetic flux between the two suns, if I remember right.