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TL,DR
Create new stations/settlements at a slow rate based on emergent local properties, and collective CMDR engagement in logistical and survey activities (existing mechanisms). The systems built in, and how they are populated, emerge from properties of each of eight construction companies and of the location. Not too complicated or obscure (promise!). Elite is by design not intended to be an "executive control" game (in which you would have resources and control to build things/command forces) and that shapes things here. Instead, CMDRs influence outcomes.
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There are 8 companies: 2 Imperial, 2 Federation, 4 Independent, with 1 being "anarchy" sympathetic
Each cycle (which could be long) there is a ranked list of possible construction locations, one of which may go on to generate a new build per cycle for each company
Construction becomes a possibility when a location exceeds a "viability threshold" for a given market type
A viability score for a star system, construction company and market type is calculated based on:
An additional weight modifies the viability score so that it's more viable for a superpower-aligned company to construct where more than half the proximity-weighted population sum is in systems controlled by a faction aligned with that superpower (and likewise for independents and independent companies).
Each company also has preferred government types that weight viability in a similar way.
Powerplay powers also increase viability via their superpower alignment/independence in a similar way to government type (but now applying to controlled/exploited space).
The "anarchist" company favours expansion to low security areas, black market-rich areas, off-the-beaten-track locations. They favour a lot of places the other companies wouldn't.
*"Resources" are:
CMDRs finish the process:
There are two viability tiers:
Reaching the first tier, which has a lower viability score threshold, creates a "site of interest"
The company moves megaships to its top N sites of interest over that threshold
CMDRs increase the viability score by ferrying materials to the megaship
When viability hits an upper tier threshold, execution is initiated; the station is built
Two or more companies may share a site of interest and "compete" to get the build
Whenever a new system is built in, it acquires a population and factions, allowing it to generate powerplay income
Factions with superpower alignment or government type matching the company are favoured to expand to the new location
Factions with more controlled systems (weighted by proximity to the site), and controlled system "wealth" also favoured
Potentially missions too for CMDRs to improve factions' expansion chances
The building cycle would probably be a number of weeks (8?), with actual construction maybe staggered for different companies so that stations don't appear in a glut
Suggested preferred factions for each company:
Imperial 1: patronage, corporate
Imperial 2: dictatorship, feudal
Federal 1: corporate, confederation
Federal 2: democracy, cooperative
Independent 1: corporate, democracy, confederation
Independent 2: dictatorship, communism, theocracy, feudal
Independent 3: cooperative, communism, patronage, prison colony
Independent 4: anarchy
It's intended to be a system complex enough to provide levers to tune in favour of certain modes of expansion. To me this would be tourism/research out in the black, and industrial/extraction on the bubble fringe, and, within most of the bubble, only rare in-fill of missing markets, perhaps of a more developed kind like hi-tech. The fringe very slowly becomes bubble. Anarchy developments would be enhanced on the fringes and would in-fill voids in the bubble. So footholds in new areas would often be established by anarchies and research/tourism outposts. At critical mass in an area, other expansion types become viable - the economy develops.
Create new stations/settlements at a slow rate based on emergent local properties, and collective CMDR engagement in logistical and survey activities (existing mechanisms). The systems built in, and how they are populated, emerge from properties of each of eight construction companies and of the location. Not too complicated or obscure (promise!). Elite is by design not intended to be an "executive control" game (in which you would have resources and control to build things/command forces) and that shapes things here. Instead, CMDRs influence outcomes.
--
There are 8 companies: 2 Imperial, 2 Federation, 4 Independent, with 1 being "anarchy" sympathetic
Each cycle (which could be long) there is a ranked list of possible construction locations, one of which may go on to generate a new build per cycle for each company
Construction becomes a possibility when a location exceeds a "viability threshold" for a given market type
A viability score for a star system, construction company and market type is calculated based on:
- Proximity-weighted population sum in the surrounding area
- "Opportunity interest": system resources of value to exploit* and regional resources (raw resources and general markets in surrounding systems) available to "support" the venture
- Market type competitors in a surrounding bubble of systems
- Market type synergies in surrounding systems
- Only bodies/resources that have been fully scanned by CMDRs factor in the calculation, so thorough exploration surveys directly influence viability score
An additional weight modifies the viability score so that it's more viable for a superpower-aligned company to construct where more than half the proximity-weighted population sum is in systems controlled by a faction aligned with that superpower (and likewise for independents and independent companies).
Each company also has preferred government types that weight viability in a similar way.
Powerplay powers also increase viability via their superpower alignment/independence in a similar way to government type (but now applying to controlled/exploited space).
The "anarchist" company favours expansion to low security areas, black market-rich areas, off-the-beaten-track locations. They favour a lot of places the other companies wouldn't.
*"Resources" are:
- Extractable resources
- Terraformable worlds
- Touristic details - near nebulae, ringed planets in-system, ringed terrestrials, lagrange clouds, mountainous/canyoned, atmospheric worlds, exotic/colourful planet surfaces, moons of moons, shepherd moons, biological life, etc.
- Research interest - most of the above under tourism, plus exotic mineral compositions, unusual stars; less aesthetic but statistically unusual locations
- Military interest - some deterministic but more inscrutable (it's secret) criteria for FDev to decide
CMDRs finish the process:
There are two viability tiers:
Reaching the first tier, which has a lower viability score threshold, creates a "site of interest"
The company moves megaships to its top N sites of interest over that threshold
CMDRs increase the viability score by ferrying materials to the megaship
When viability hits an upper tier threshold, execution is initiated; the station is built
Two or more companies may share a site of interest and "compete" to get the build
Whenever a new system is built in, it acquires a population and factions, allowing it to generate powerplay income
Factions with superpower alignment or government type matching the company are favoured to expand to the new location
Factions with more controlled systems (weighted by proximity to the site), and controlled system "wealth" also favoured
Potentially missions too for CMDRs to improve factions' expansion chances
The building cycle would probably be a number of weeks (8?), with actual construction maybe staggered for different companies so that stations don't appear in a glut
Suggested preferred factions for each company:
Imperial 1: patronage, corporate
Imperial 2: dictatorship, feudal
Federal 1: corporate, confederation
Federal 2: democracy, cooperative
Independent 1: corporate, democracy, confederation
Independent 2: dictatorship, communism, theocracy, feudal
Independent 3: cooperative, communism, patronage, prison colony
Independent 4: anarchy
It's intended to be a system complex enough to provide levers to tune in favour of certain modes of expansion. To me this would be tourism/research out in the black, and industrial/extraction on the bubble fringe, and, within most of the bubble, only rare in-fill of missing markets, perhaps of a more developed kind like hi-tech. The fringe very slowly becomes bubble. Anarchy developments would be enhanced on the fringes and would in-fill voids in the bubble. So footholds in new areas would often be established by anarchies and research/tourism outposts. At critical mass in an area, other expansion types become viable - the economy develops.
