Newcomer / Intro BGS and system/station economy

[Rock Hunter]

This probably isn’t a question(s) for Newcomers but it’s probably far too daft and obvious for the BGS sub forum.

I‘m currently in a system and trying to boost a faction from near the bottom of the pile up to being the main system faction. It looks like they’re about to win an election and move into second place so I’m starting to think about the inevitable war that will come when I take on the main faction and the possibility of taking control of the Coriolis station.

It‘s economy is terraforming and it’s the only large port in system. There is an Outpost run by the systems criminal faction that orbits closer to the main star and is a refinery economy. As I understand it, should I win an upcoming war and push my faction into the position of being the main MF, they would take the largest asset from the losing main faction. In this case the Coriolis station.

My questions are;

Does the systems economy come from the economy type of the station closest to the main star regardless of its ruling faction influence numbers and regardless of station type?

and the (more) daft one; can a station change its economy type depending on the controlling faction or is it permanently fixed regardless of changes within the systems political climate? (I’m sure I know the answer just from a technical game perspective but the BGS is complex so I’m not certain.)

 

[Rock Hunter]

Having read that back this may need to be moved - apologies if that is the case.

 

[Dommarraa]

Can't say I have ever bothered with system economy type, but it's not that. It will either be the largest asset (station), some calculated value from all stations, or even a fixed value that informs the station proc gen.

Economy type of stations doesn't change without FD intervention, but security level, what services are available and what commodities are illegal can change with the controling faction

 

[Rock Hunter]

Can't say I have ever bothered with system economy type, but it's not that. It will either be the largest asset (station), some calculated value from all stations, or even a fixed value that informs the station proc gen.

Economy type of stations doesn't change without FD intervention, but security level, what services are available and what commodities are illegal can change with the controling faction

Thanks Dommarraa.

I thought FDev intervention would be needed but wasn’t sure. Still feeling my way around what you can influence, how and how easy or hard it can be.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Does the systems economy come from the economy type of the station closest to the main star regardless of its ruling faction influence numbers and regardless of station type?

The system's overall enconomy is derived from the nature of the planet around which the primary station orbits, generally speaking. In other words, if there is a planet that is being terraformed, then the system economy will reflect this. If the planet with the primary station is a non-terraformable high metal content world, then the economy may be any one of the other types except agricultural, which requires an Earth-like world.

So if there is an outpost with a refinery economy orbiting HD 1234 A1, and a coriolis with a high-tech economy orbiting HD 1234 A2, the system economy will be high-tech, or perhaps high-tech/refinery.

The economy type actually seems to come from the station with the highest population, although this is a hidden variable (you can only see overall system population). @Jane Turner - a very smart person - worked out that you can actually estimate the proportion of population at a station (for non-agricultural stations) by the amount of biowaste for sale in the market.

Yes, she's an outright genius. I don't think that even occurred to the devs.

and the (more) daft one; can a station change its economy type depending on the controlling faction or is it permanently fixed regardless of changes within the systems political climate? (I’m sure I know the answer just from a technical game perspective but the BGS is complex so I’m not certain.)

Economy types are not variable attributes. They can only be changed through manual intervention, such as after the successful completion of a community goal, although that type of CG doesn't seem to be set up any more.

System security is a quasi-fixed attribute; it can change, but only under two conditions:

1. The controlling faction type switches from anything but anarchy to anarchy.
2. A particular faction state -- civil unrest -- happens to the controlling faction of the system. This will revert back after a certain period of time even if no actions are taken to shorten it (bounty-hunting) - system states have a built-in expiry date.

 

[Rock Hunter]

The system's overall enconomy is derived from the nature of the planet around which the primary station orbits, generally speaking. In other words, if there is a planet that is being terraformed, then the system economy will reflect this. If the planet with the primary station is a non-terraformable high metal content world, then the economy may be any one of the other types except agricultural, which requires an Earth-like world.

So if there is an outpost with a refinery economy orbiting HD 1234 A1, and a coriolis with a high-tech economy orbiting HD 1234 A2, the system economy will be high-tech, or perhaps high-tech/refinery.

The economy type actually seems to come from the station with the highest population, although this is a hidden variable (you can only see overall system population). @Jane Turner - a very smart person - worked out that you can actually estimate the proportion of population at a station (for non-agricultural stations) by the amount of biowaste for sale in the market.

Yes, she's an outright genius. I don't think that even occurred to the devs.

Economy types are not variable attributes. They can only be changed through manual intervention, such as after the successful completion of a community goal, although that type of CG doesn't seem to be set up any more.

System security is a quasi-fixed attribute; it can change, but only under two conditions:

1. The controlling faction type switches from anything but anarchy to anarchy.
2. A particular faction state -- civil unrest -- happens to the controlling faction of the system. This will revert back after a certain period of time even if no actions are taken to shorten it (bounty-hunting) - system states have a built-in expiry date.

@the100thmonkey - thank you for that, comprehensive enough to both answer my questions and also show just how much there is to dive into with the BGS.

I‘ve seen Jane’s name in the BGS sub forum and she’s clearly provided a huge amount of information as well as many of the guides and collated threads I’ve been sifting through while I try and learn what I can. I’ll be sure to keep any eye out for her posts.

Thanks again

 

[Sapyx]

Does the systems economy come from the economy type of the station closest to the main star regardless of its ruling faction influence numbers and regardless of station type?

Economy types are not variable attributes. They can only be changed through manual intervention, such as after the successful completion of a community goal, although that type of CG doesn't seem to be set up any more.

Just to verify: there is nothing that players can unilaterally do, by themselves, to change an economy. While it may seem logical that, for example, shipping required commodities to a Terraforming station should "help" the planet become more terraformed, we find that this doesn't actually happen. Several player groups have attempted to "complete" terraforming projects on their own ever since the game began, and it's never happened spontaneously.

However, it should be noted that, in the past, Economy types have been manually edited, normally as a result of CGs. Specifically, way back when the game began, there were numerous Terraforming CGs, where players helped a system to "complete" the terraforming, as a result of which the economy at that station to change from Terraforming to Agricultural. This was all before player groups got involved in "claiming" systems, and before PowerPlay added knock-on effects of changing system economy, population, and government type. I suspect we won't see too many more such system-changing CGs any more.

If you're curious: on 6th March 3301 (2015), five systems had Terraforming CGs: Dohkwithi, Djaujas, HIP 54692, Khona and Milelbis. CG completion requirements were generally much easier back then (due to the much smaller playerbase at the time), and all five planets were successfully terraformed. Likewise, on 31st March 3302 (2016), a single Terraforming CG that ran in the Vennik system successfully terraformed that planet. I do not know if it was a coincidence that all these projects occurred in March, at the start of northern-hemisphere Spring.

There is, however, a complication for large systems where multiple planets are being terraformed. The way the BGS operates, a system can only have two different economy types at space stations (eg. Terraforming and Refinery, or Agricultural and Industrial, or Agricultural and Tourism). A system can never have three different types of space station in it (eg. Teraforming and Agricultural and Refinery). There can be an infinite diversity of ground-based economies, but only a maximum of two space-based economies. Which means that, in systems where there are multiple terraforming projects happening, as well as another economy type on other space stations, then all of the Terraforming projects need to complete, simultaneously.

then the economy may be any one of the other types except agricultural, which requires an Earth-like world.

While this rule is generally true, I recall noticing in my travels a few hand-made systems, particularly down in Imperial space, where this isn't true (i.e. an Agricultural system where no ELW is present). I think there are a couple in Colonia as well.