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Colonies

When one of your ships discovers a colonizable world, you have two choices. You may set up and fund a colony on that world or declare it Suitable for Colonization. If you choose not to set up a colony yourself, there is a chance that your citizens may set up their own colony. A civilian colony will take longer to start production of Personnel and Supplies, but it costs you nothing.

A military-funded colony requires an Agro Station and the equivalent of three Small Exploration Freighters in cargo and special sensors. The colonists will provide crew for the freighters (if used) and Agro Station. They may start from any of your Major Planets.

You also need to fund the planet's terraforming (if needed). It costs 25EP for each turn of terraforming required, paid up front, and the colonists will terraform the planet for you once they reach it. Civilian colonies will take care of the cost as well as the actual process, but will not spend more than one turn terraforming. If you wish to terraform a planet without a colony, it takes a Survey Cruiser and an Agro Station.

Once the planet is terraformed, the Agro Station begins production for the colony. 1 Agro Station will allow a colony to increase in population every 3 turns. A colony with 2 Agro Stations will increase every 2 turns. A colony with 3 Agro Station will increase every turn. Colonies start at a population of 1, and the increase follows a Fibonacci series.4 You may build up to 3 Agro stations on a planet.

Agro Stations on major or populated planets may be assigned to support a colony for this purpose. An Agro Station used in this way must be assigned to support a specific colony, and produces no EP. In additon, a small freighter (or equivalent cargo capacity) must be stationed at the colony for each such Agro Station.

At a population of 13, a colony begins to require outside trade for further growth. A Commercial Platform and a Free Trader will allow the colony to resume expansion. A Free Trader is a small cargo ship, generally operated by wealthy corporations or growing colonies. It costs 70EP, and may be built the same way as a freighter. In rare cases, a colony may be rich enough to afford these on its own.


next up previous contents
Next: Populated and Major Planets Up: Internal Affairs Previous: Exploration   Contents
Charles E Leiserson Jr 2004-09-10