After two years of settlement, Colonia has developed into a stable self-sufficient region - and one very different from the powers of the Sol bubble. The overall picture is of strong support for science and exploration, a peaceful attitude, and a rebuttal to some of the worst mistakes of the Sol bubble.
A lot of this, however, is hidden within separate Galnet articles, or implicit in details of how the settlement has progressed (or in some cases in the absence of actions) - there's not a lot of detail provided directly [1], so I thought I'd document some of my observations ... mostly about the last two years of development, but there's a bit at the end about Colonia's newest system - the mysterious Kinesi.
Known facts about the Colonia Region
Starting with the basics that are definitely known from explicit in-game text or evidence:
Who are the Council?
Very little information has been revealed on who the Council are, what their relationship is to the other factions, and how they operate. Statements have so far generally been issued by anonymous spokespersons, though Professors de la Vega and VanCleef working as advisors to the Council have more recently been quoted directly, and Councillor Giselle Kingspear recently was quoted directly.
It seems likely that the Council - as it matches Jaques' government type - was set up with the involvement of Jaques, perhaps to let him concentrate on fixing his station and mixing drinks rather than running a colony.
In the "trouble in Colonia" CG it was described as the "governing body". More recently, other factions have been described as "Colonia's partner organisations" - as distinct from "Colonia Council's partner organisations" - implying a general level of equality between them.
A plausible structure based on this would be that the Colonia Council
Colonia's economic balance compared with the Sol bubble has a heavy bias towards High-Tech, Tourism and Service economies. All three of these boosted economy types are crucial to the colony's development:
Technology and Scientific Agenda
Unsurprisingly, and reflecting the interests of many of the players who helped found it, there is a focus on mining and exploration. These are the areas in which full A-rated outfitting is available.
Two of the major partners work in mining, and two in research - out of a total of eight ... and more partners focusing in these areas have been added since.
The Council has been able to attract a full set of material brokers and tech brokers - despite none of the systems in Colonia being large enough for them to conventionally consider worthwhile. The broker at Kojeara has since been essential to the Council's recent research, and all three are likely to contribute significantly to engineering research.
A major interdisciplinary research centre has recently been constructed in Tir. With the Federation beginning to arrest academics for carrying out politically inconvenient research, there is perhaps a chance of a significant "brain drain" to the more sympathetic and safe environment of the Tir Research Labs or one of the other two recently constructed Scientific Installations.
The recent attraction of 4 engineers to the relatively small Colonia sphere - a much higher density than the Sol bubble - may be an early sign of Colonia's ability to attract highly-qualified researchers.
Colonisation Ethics
The recent CG to construct a new hydroponics facility is perhaps surprising from the perspective of the old bubble powers. There are, after all, 32 Earth-like worlds within 50 LY of Colonia [2] - sufficient to support a population of hundreds of billions on their surfaces and produce a large surplus of food for elsewhere - and yet the Council is worrying about food (and in the Coeus CG, terraforming) to expand beyond 8 million.
Colonisation of an existing ELW involves displacement and risk of extinction of the native life - numerous ELWs in the Sol bubble list native species as either 'extinct' or 'only in captivity' - from Tau Ceti to Achenar to Lave, this has been the pattern. From both a scientific and moral perspective this is a permanent loss to the universe, and with so many planets without their own existing life, there is no actual need to do this - it would just be convenient.
This is consistent with the earlier agricultural development: the initial Agricultural settlement at Metztli was run by Colonia Research Division, not the Agricultural Cooperative, and has not settled the planet's surface. (There may well have been some limited gathering of edible specimens, of course)
The agricultural settlements since have been around dead ice worlds - at Deriso, Einheriar and Pekoe [3] - or a Water World not suitable for human settlement (Hamlet's Harmony). Hydroponics - and the synthetic meat from High-Tech stations - has been how Colonia has been fed so far, and how it will probably continue to be fed in future - at least until terraforming of currently uninhabited worlds is completed.
Government diversity
Unsurprisingly for a region primarily made up of those dissatisfied with the existing powers, the regional governments are very different to both the Sol bubble as a whole and to all three superpowers individually.
The Cooperative government type is the most common (at over a third of factions) but there are also numerous new government types which the map maintainers have had difficulty classifying and appear to have just stuffed into some category they vaguely resemble.
Defence policy
As an organisation founded on peaceful principles by scientists, miners and explorers, the Council was a bit slow to realise that it needed a defense policy - with none of its major partners having a military remit, and the military economy type [5] being omitted from the initial outposts. As a result, it had to call for combat assistance on two occasions:
The construction of the Colonia Bastion Security Installation was stated to be a direct response to the Thargoid invasion of Sol. Taken at face value, this has been entirely successful - no Thargoids have been sighted near Colonia ... but a more likely explanation is the Council realising the significant risk of a Sol bubble group deciding to flee the Thargoids in a "Dynasty Project" [6] and deciding that 70 ready-settled systems would be more convenient than starting afresh.
The significant - though low-key - build-up of defenses since then - with additional military installations in Los, Coeus and Randgnid, and over 500kg of military hardware *per person* being shipped in from allies in the bubble - may not prevent a determined attacker, but it probably does make it more convenient to just go elsewhere and start over.
Extra distinctions
It's a tiny thing, but the name set used for Frontier named stations in Colonia (e.g. Morten, Vitto, Muir, Talalay, Bisley, Giles) seems to be completely distinct from the set used in the Sol bubble. Another nice touch to - subtly - make it feel different.
The mystery of the Kinesi system
The Kinesi system is highly unusual for a Colonia settlement. Starting with the clear facts:
Footnotes
[1] The plan for Colonia development to be player-driven probably means that Frontier don't want to pin down any more than they have to ... but I think they've been very good about taking decisions in a way that supports the science/exploration/independence preferences of the players settling it. The new Engineer upgrade mechanism gives us a more direct way to express preferences, too, which I'm hopeful is only the start.
[2] Prior to terraforming and excluding Earth itself, there were only 5 within 50 LY of Sol.
[3] Pekoe's facility orbits 1000 Ls distant from a T-class primary, presumably just to make the point.
[4] The original source of this diversity was selections by CEI player group settlers, but later NPC factions mirror this diversity - e.g. Ra' Takakhan Resources Inc is a Social-Feudal government, which is a 'copy' of the earlier Knights of Colonial Karma CEI faction.
[5] The other omissions were Tourism - already covered by Jaques Station - and the still-absent Terraforming - an expensive long-term project undesirable for trying to jump-start a basic local economy.
[6] I personally suspect The Nameless were funded by a bubble group planning exactly that - their facilities (now captured) were very high-quality in both outfitting and military production.
A lot of this, however, is hidden within separate Galnet articles, or implicit in details of how the settlement has progressed (or in some cases in the absence of actions) - there's not a lot of detail provided directly [1], so I thought I'd document some of my observations ... mostly about the last two years of development, but there's a bit at the end about Colonia's newest system - the mysterious Kinesi.
Known facts about the Colonia Region
- There are currently 70 inhabited systems (including a detention centre), 96 stations, and 86 factions (including detention and engineer 'hidden' factions).
- There are an additional nine systems (6 with surface ports and 3 with orbitals) forming a "highway" between Colonia and Sol and providing opportunities to break a journey, repair, and resupply
- Recently, 31 installations have been built, with more planned.
- There are 18 operational mobile megaships spending at least some time in the Colonia region, split roughly evenly between internal logistics, resupply of the highway stations, and trade with the Sol bubble.
- Several of Colonia's newer stations have a commodity production capacity *much* larger than the system population would normally imply
- The Colonia and Ratraii systems have "capital-level" protection against BGS changes (conflicts and inbound expansions are prohibited)
- Shipyard and outfitting capability is much higher than for similar population systems in the Sol bubble, especially in a few key systems
- There are four engineers, between them providing all known blueprints at G1 (with upgrade to G5 possible over time)
Starting with the basics that are definitely known from explicit in-game text or evidence:
- like Jaques, it's a Cooperative faction type, with Colonia as its home system.
- it is responsible for controlling settlement of the Colonia region (though criminal groups occasionally are able to set up unauthorised facilities) and was formed specifically to do so
- it is responsible for ensuring that Colonia remains free of Superpower and Power interference
- it has been described as the region's "governing body"
- it does a lot of its work through "partner organisations". Its major partner organisations are Colonia Co-operative, Colonia Research Division, Colonia Research Department, Colonia Mining Enterprise, Colonia Tech Combine, Colonia Mining Co-operative, Colonia Refinery Operations and Colonia Agricultural Co-operative - all of which also have the Cooperative government type - these were created very early, and have played a more major role in the development of the region than others.
- generally when a new Colonial system is settled, the Council and possibly one of its major partner organisations will have minority influence, and a new organisation will have majority influence
- it employs a number of scientific advisors
- it prioritises mining and exploration equipment for outfitting
- it has a stated commitment to not turning away refugees or other individuals wishing to settle - but is at times concerned with its practical ability to keep that promise. (This commitment to openness is reflected in it having no permit systems)
- it is not publicly concerned about the possibility of Thargoid attack, but did build a security installation "just in case"
- it has Councillors (which sounds obvious, but took about two years for actual in-game confirmation...)
Who are the Council?
Very little information has been revealed on who the Council are, what their relationship is to the other factions, and how they operate. Statements have so far generally been issued by anonymous spokespersons, though Professors de la Vega and VanCleef working as advisors to the Council have more recently been quoted directly, and Councillor Giselle Kingspear recently was quoted directly.
It seems likely that the Council - as it matches Jaques' government type - was set up with the involvement of Jaques, perhaps to let him concentrate on fixing his station and mixing drinks rather than running a colony.
In the "trouble in Colonia" CG it was described as the "governing body". More recently, other factions have been described as "Colonia's partner organisations" - as distinct from "Colonia Council's partner organisations" - implying a general level of equality between them.
A plausible structure based on this would be that the Colonia Council
- is an assembly of equals with no recognisable "leader", likely generally seeking consensus in preference to voting
- is probably made up of representatives from the region's partner organisations (who may well have very diverse ways of selecting who they send)
- maintains a small direct administration for a few stations in Colonia itself and for regional governance purposes elsewhere (the in-game faction) - giving it the option, never yet exercised, to take direct control of system defence if needed
- the assembly, rather than the faction, is generally being referred to in "Colonia Council has ..." news
Colonia's economic balance compared with the Sol bubble has a heavy bias towards High-Tech, Tourism and Service economies. All three of these boosted economy types are crucial to the colony's development:
- High-Tech economies allow the colony to be much more economically productive by using the latest and best production tools, without the legacy infrastructure most older settlements have. Regional shipyard and outfitting services - while not quite as comprehensive as a top Sol bubble system - stock most items in most sizes and grades, with full A-rated selections of most mining and exploration equipment.
- Tourism economies obviously take advantage of the region's attractiveness to tourists and visitors, and presumably bring in quite a lot of external money. Slightly surprisingly, the region only has three tourist beacons - there is an opportunity here to add more to commemorate the region's history and highlight some of the discoveries made more recently.
- Service economies again allow the region to take in money from the Sol region: a lot of service tasks are presumably quite straightforward to outsource in this way. There may also be various tax-advantage schemes (e.g. Zachary Rackham) that use Colonia's "offshore" status, enabling the region to gain a substantial income relative to its population.
Technology and Scientific Agenda
Unsurprisingly, and reflecting the interests of many of the players who helped found it, there is a focus on mining and exploration. These are the areas in which full A-rated outfitting is available.
Two of the major partners work in mining, and two in research - out of a total of eight ... and more partners focusing in these areas have been added since.
The Council has been able to attract a full set of material brokers and tech brokers - despite none of the systems in Colonia being large enough for them to conventionally consider worthwhile. The broker at Kojeara has since been essential to the Council's recent research, and all three are likely to contribute significantly to engineering research.
A major interdisciplinary research centre has recently been constructed in Tir. With the Federation beginning to arrest academics for carrying out politically inconvenient research, there is perhaps a chance of a significant "brain drain" to the more sympathetic and safe environment of the Tir Research Labs or one of the other two recently constructed Scientific Installations.
The recent attraction of 4 engineers to the relatively small Colonia sphere - a much higher density than the Sol bubble - may be an early sign of Colonia's ability to attract highly-qualified researchers.
Colonisation Ethics
The recent CG to construct a new hydroponics facility is perhaps surprising from the perspective of the old bubble powers. There are, after all, 32 Earth-like worlds within 50 LY of Colonia [2] - sufficient to support a population of hundreds of billions on their surfaces and produce a large surplus of food for elsewhere - and yet the Council is worrying about food (and in the Coeus CG, terraforming) to expand beyond 8 million.
Colonisation of an existing ELW involves displacement and risk of extinction of the native life - numerous ELWs in the Sol bubble list native species as either 'extinct' or 'only in captivity' - from Tau Ceti to Achenar to Lave, this has been the pattern. From both a scientific and moral perspective this is a permanent loss to the universe, and with so many planets without their own existing life, there is no actual need to do this - it would just be convenient.
This is consistent with the earlier agricultural development: the initial Agricultural settlement at Metztli was run by Colonia Research Division, not the Agricultural Cooperative, and has not settled the planet's surface. (There may well have been some limited gathering of edible specimens, of course)
The agricultural settlements since have been around dead ice worlds - at Deriso, Einheriar and Pekoe [3] - or a Water World not suitable for human settlement (Hamlet's Harmony). Hydroponics - and the synthetic meat from High-Tech stations - has been how Colonia has been fed so far, and how it will probably continue to be fed in future - at least until terraforming of currently uninhabited worlds is completed.
Government diversity
Unsurprisingly for a region primarily made up of those dissatisfied with the existing powers, the regional governments are very different to both the Sol bubble as a whole and to all three superpowers individually.
The Cooperative government type is the most common (at over a third of factions) but there are also numerous new government types which the map maintainers have had difficulty classifying and appear to have just stuffed into some category they vaguely resemble.
- In the Sol bubble, Patronages, Prison Colonies and Theocracies are "authoritarian" governments. In Colonia they are run along "corporate" lines (largely, by Sol bubble standards, replacing actual corporations). Clearly these are not the same government type, though exactly what they represent is less clear. [4]
- Authoritarian governance styles are extremely rare in general (though used by a few partner organisations where justified)
- There are in total 21 different government types in the Colonia region, 13 of which are not found elsewhere.
Defence policy
As an organisation founded on peaceful principles by scientists, miners and explorers, the Council was a bit slow to realise that it needed a defense policy - with none of its major partners having a military remit, and the military economy type [5] being omitted from the initial outposts. As a result, it had to call for combat assistance on two occasions:
- piracy coordinated from Unauthorised Installations in Kojeara (which still occurs, but not to the extent of needing active suppression through a CG)
- the Nameless establishing a base in Carcosa, and then using this to directly attack the Council in Colonia in an attempted military coup
The construction of the Colonia Bastion Security Installation was stated to be a direct response to the Thargoid invasion of Sol. Taken at face value, this has been entirely successful - no Thargoids have been sighted near Colonia ... but a more likely explanation is the Council realising the significant risk of a Sol bubble group deciding to flee the Thargoids in a "Dynasty Project" [6] and deciding that 70 ready-settled systems would be more convenient than starting afresh.
The significant - though low-key - build-up of defenses since then - with additional military installations in Los, Coeus and Randgnid, and over 500kg of military hardware *per person* being shipped in from allies in the bubble - may not prevent a determined attacker, but it probably does make it more convenient to just go elsewhere and start over.
Extra distinctions
It's a tiny thing, but the name set used for Frontier named stations in Colonia (e.g. Morten, Vitto, Muir, Talalay, Bisley, Giles) seems to be completely distinct from the set used in the Sol bubble. Another nice touch to - subtly - make it feel different.
The mystery of the Kinesi system
The Kinesi system is highly unusual for a Colonia settlement. Starting with the clear facts:
- it is large, having a population over twice the largest existing system
- it has five native factions of a variety of government types. Colonia Council is not present.
- its three stations are only partially operational - none has shipyard or outfitting, none has a full set of repair/refuel/restock, and only one has cartographics
- the three stations are initially owned by three different factions
- the primary station is technically an Orbis, but consists of the docking and primary hab-ring sections only.
- a civilian installation "The New Queen VI" orbits the ELW at exclusion-zone height, and would be attacked by terrorists if it didn't run away so fast.
- an unauthorised installation is present at 3a, with the remains of another structure present at 3b (private data beacons are present at 3b but either cannot yet be scanned or require a decryption key to be obtained from somewhere else first)
- the stations are generally well-hidden: one in a ring system, one in an asteroid cluster, and one on a distant moon
- the system was originally known as Eol Prou PX-T d3-1134, which was earmarked by the Council as a phase 6 system for the Colonia Expansion Initiative, though the offer was not taken up by the eligible group.
- the ELW does not appear to have been settled - the Orbis hab-ring is large and may be used primarily for agriculture.
- the system starting influences were set to make at least one initial civil war for station control inevitable (in fact, two are pending)
- the absence of Colonia Council on the faction list suggests that this (like Carcosa) is an unauthorised settlement
- without a nav beacon transmitting data, the chances of casual discovery of any of the system stations would be minimal
- the high population, multiple stations and installations and the 'history' implied by the wreckage at 3b suggests that there have been people living here a while, not just the few days we've known about them
- the war states, lack of operational services, substantial number of factions, and wreckage suggests a series of schisms among the initial settlers, leading to a war in which a station was destroyed and others seriously damaged. It is plausible that one faction (perhaps the losing one?) placed a nav beacon to reveal the system to the Council and call for help.
Footnotes
[1] The plan for Colonia development to be player-driven probably means that Frontier don't want to pin down any more than they have to ... but I think they've been very good about taking decisions in a way that supports the science/exploration/independence preferences of the players settling it. The new Engineer upgrade mechanism gives us a more direct way to express preferences, too, which I'm hopeful is only the start.
[2] Prior to terraforming and excluding Earth itself, there were only 5 within 50 LY of Sol.
[3] Pekoe's facility orbits 1000 Ls distant from a T-class primary, presumably just to make the point.
[4] The original source of this diversity was selections by CEI player group settlers, but later NPC factions mirror this diversity - e.g. Ra' Takakhan Resources Inc is a Social-Feudal government, which is a 'copy' of the earlier Knights of Colonial Karma CEI faction.
[5] The other omissions were Tourism - already covered by Jaques Station - and the still-absent Terraforming - an expensive long-term project undesirable for trying to jump-start a basic local economy.
[6] I personally suspect The Nameless were funded by a bubble group planning exactly that - their facilities (now captured) were very high-quality in both outfitting and military production.
