My suggestion:
Introduce a new T2 building (costing 1-3 T2 construction points) called "Colonisation Hub". It should be a dock able space installation / station. It must be built like any regular installation (perhaps with pre-requisites), but once you have built it, you can:
But then you could use these "Colonisation Hubs" to do other activities in the system and still have them contribute to the development of the colony. Say I am bored of hauling after two hours to build a settlement. Now I have to option to hunt some pirates in my own colony to vary up my gameplay. Then Instead of donating those BV for hard cash, I turn them in at the colonisation hub and use them to buy 300t of steel to finish the settlement.
One could even think about a "Colonisation Centre" (a Tier 3 station costing appropriate amount of T3 construction points) that has the same function, but also extends its reach 15 LY (colonisation radius) to other colonies around the system. This way squadrons and large group could designate a big system (with rings, and lots of surface building slots) as the "main colony". Surrounding colonies would then benefit from this "Colonisation Centre". If that seems unbalanced, you could add limitations: a colony could require at least a "Colonisation Hub" (T2 building) to benefit from a close-by "Colonisation Centre". Or a "Colonisation Centre" can only be built if the colony itself reaches a certain level of High-Tech, Wealth and/or System Development.
My goal here is rather simple: give people that prefer to shoot pirates, run missions, mine or explore a way to contribute to colonies. And allow larger colonisation efforts by groups and squadrons more options to build a central main colony that supports its "smaller" support colonies around it.
Introduce a new T2 building (costing 1-3 T2 construction points) called "Colonisation Hub". It should be a dock able space installation / station. It must be built like any regular installation (perhaps with pre-requisites), but once you have built it, you can:
- See on the colony's stats: wealth, happiness, development level etc. maybe with some hints on what to build next. I.e. it could show something like: "build 3 more points of high tech and you unlock outfitting and shipyard services" or "colony unhappy due to lack of agricultural settlements", so you get broad hints on what to do.
- Donate commodities (like steel, aluminium etc.) and then distribute them to construction projects within the same system.
- Accept missions to gain "Development Points" upon their completion.
- Donate mined goods from the same system to gain "Development Points".
- Donate bounty vouchers from the same system to gain "Development Points".
- Donate explo data of surrounding systems to gain "Development Points".
- Donate exo bio data of surrounding system to gain "Development Points".
- Turn in the "Development Points" to slightly improve market size of the colony (i.e. make it richer).
- Turn in your "Development Points" for auto-buying building commodities.
- Turn in a large chunk of "Development Points" for an extra M build point.
- Turn in a very large chunk of "Development Points" for an extra L build point.
But then you could use these "Colonisation Hubs" to do other activities in the system and still have them contribute to the development of the colony. Say I am bored of hauling after two hours to build a settlement. Now I have to option to hunt some pirates in my own colony to vary up my gameplay. Then Instead of donating those BV for hard cash, I turn them in at the colonisation hub and use them to buy 300t of steel to finish the settlement.
One could even think about a "Colonisation Centre" (a Tier 3 station costing appropriate amount of T3 construction points) that has the same function, but also extends its reach 15 LY (colonisation radius) to other colonies around the system. This way squadrons and large group could designate a big system (with rings, and lots of surface building slots) as the "main colony". Surrounding colonies would then benefit from this "Colonisation Centre". If that seems unbalanced, you could add limitations: a colony could require at least a "Colonisation Hub" (T2 building) to benefit from a close-by "Colonisation Centre". Or a "Colonisation Centre" can only be built if the colony itself reaches a certain level of High-Tech, Wealth and/or System Development.
My goal here is rather simple: give people that prefer to shoot pirates, run missions, mine or explore a way to contribute to colonies. And allow larger colonisation efforts by groups and squadrons more options to build a central main colony that supports its "smaller" support colonies around it.
