Map
The map consists in two major entities: stellar systems and planets.

A stellar system consists in a pair of coordinates, representing the system’s location on the map.

A planet is found at a specific orbit of a stellar system (each system has 5 orbits). It is identified through an unique map object name and includes a picture identifier to be used when displaying the planet. A planet has a population; a portion of this population is happy, the rest isn’t.

Planets may feature any amount of resource providers (at most one per type of resource); each resource provider includes its maximal amount, current amount, extraction difficulty and regeneration factor.

In addition to basic information regarding a planet, its infrastructure and current tasks must be described.

Buildings

The infrastructure of a planet consists in a set of buildings. A building is associated to a specific planet and building type. The record includes the building’s current hit points, used to determine whether it should be destroyed or not, and affecting its production level.

Civilian queues

A planet may possess a civilian build queue which lists which actions are being performed with regards to the planet’s buildings. An civilian build queue entry is specific to a planet and is identified by its queue order. It indicates the type of work being performed (construction, repair, destruction) and includes information regarding the amount of work which was already processed.

Construction is associated with a type of building and a quantity of buildings to construct, as well as the amount of work which was already performed on the current building. Destruction and repair operations may be associated with either a type of building and a quantity (in which case the game update should select the most damaged buildings) or an actual building.

Repair and destruction operations are updated when buildings are destroyed by external causes (inability to pay for the buildings’ upkeep or battle damage).

Military queues

A planet may possess a military queue which lists which actions are being performed by the planet’s shipyards; military queues are only supported for planets actually owned by an empire. A military queue entry is specific to an empire-controlled planet and identified by its queue order. Each queue entry is associated with an action being performed (construction, repair, refit, decommission). There are two different types of military queue entries:

• some entries are associated with an empire ship design; these entries also include the amount of ships that should be affected by the action (this information is updated as ships are processed),
• some entries are associated with an actual ship.

In addition, ship refitting operations are associated with a second empire ship design which indicates the type of ship the operation will produce.

In this post:

• Internationalisation
• Resource types
  • Natural resources
• Types of weaponry and defences
• Production and capability types
• Technologies
• Fleet strategies
  • Defence strategies
  • Attack strategies
  • Relative strengths
• Stuff that can be built
  • Building types
  • Ship parts

Internationalisation

All text that is independent from the interface used to access the game is stored in the database. Each string is identified by a code, and associated to translations in various languages. Each language is identified by an ISO code and a name (in the language itself). The set of translations available in a given language may be incomplete, for example when a new language is being added.

All definitions which require a name or a description in fact use the internationalisation system.

Resource types

The various types of resources which empire may possess and use are defined in the database. Each resource type is identified by its name; in addition, it carries a description as another string from the internationalisation system. It belongs to a resource category, itself identified by yet another string. All resources are given a value which is used to compute e.g. player rankings. Finally, advanced types of resources only become visible when some technology has been discovered.

Natural resources

Some types of resources can be found in the game universe and can be extracted through mining operations. These natural resources are added to the map when it is generated. Each type of natural resource has a non-zero probability of being found at a location; in addition, the map generator should enforce an average quantity and average extraction difficulty.

Types of weaponry & defences

There are three categories of weaponry (beam weapons, mass drivers and missiles) and their respective countermeasures (shields, armours and point defence systems). Each weaponry or defence category should be identified by its general type and by whether it is a weapon or a countermeasure. In addition, a name and a description need to be associated with each category.

Production and capability types

Productions and capabilities, whether they apply to whole empires, planets or ships, are described in the exact same way.

Generally speaking, a production or capability is identified by a code name. It possesses a display name and a description. It carries a flag indicating whether it is an additive or exclusive property – for example, ship components providing automated repairs have an additive effect, while mineral scanners are either present or not.

The value of a production may not be meaningful to the player. In order to display that value, a production definition includes a non-zero display multiplier, and may use a prefix and / or a suffix. If there is a suffix, then a suffix tooltip text may be included. The prefix, suffix and suffix tooltip text are of course internationalised strings.

While empire and ship productions do not include any additional data, a planet production or capability definition features a flag that indicates whether the production is local or global. A local production is used at the planet’s level only, while a global production is computed at the owning empire’s level.

Technologies

A technology is identified by its name. It carries a description, and requires an amount of research points to be accumulated before it is discovered. Each technology belongs to a technology category, identified by its name. A technology has an implementation price, defined by at least one type of resource and a positive quantity. Finally, a technology may only be researched once its dependencies (a set of other technologies) have been discovered.

In addition, a technology may provide some amount of an empire production.

Fleet strategies

Generally speaking, a fleet strategy is described by a name and a description. In addition, all fleet strategies include a probability of intercepting shots to other fleets, an advantage threshold used to determine whether ground armies should be dropped to the planet’s surface, and an advantage multiplier which indicates how much support a ship of size 1 gives to the ground armies. All strategies also include a probability of changing targets.

Defence strategies

A defence strategy is a strategy which can be used by fleets in defensive mode. In addition to the common strategy information, it also includes a probability of intercepting shots to the planet.

Attack strategies

An attack strategy is a strategy which can be used by attacking fleets. In addition to the common strategy information, attack strategies also include information related to attacking the planet: a weight modifier for ground structures, which determines how likely a fleet using the strategy is to target the planet’s buildings; a military objectives modifier, which indicates how likely the fleet is to target civilian structures, and a civilian casualties modifier, which will be used to compute civilian casualties when firing at ground structures. In addition, because planets do not have strategies, the information regarding attack strategies’ relative efficiency opposed to planets is included along with attack strategies. This information consists in 4 modifiers: aim and damage modifiers for the fleets, and aim and damage modifiers for planets.

Relative strengths

Each combination of an attack strategy with a defence strategy is described through 2 sets of modifiers: aim and damage modifiers for both the attacking and the defending sides.

Stuff that can be built

The database should contain the definition of all “buildable” items. Such an item is always identified by a name; it is associated with a description, and its construction requires a positive amount of work. In addition, all items which can be built carry a construction price and a maintenance price, both being a non-empty set of resource types associated with positive quantities.

Building types

A building type is a buildable item. It generates at least one type of planet production, with a maximal quantity associated to each type of production. Each type of building provides a quantity of jobs to be manned by the planets’ population, and possesses a maximal amount of hit points.

Buildings may also provide planet-side weaponry. A building may be associated with a type of weapon, along with weapon characteristics – accuracy, base damage, charge time and cool-down time.

Ship part types

A ship part is a buildable item. It belongs to a ship parts category identified by a name (a category may be a sub-category of another category).

There are different types of ship part types, which correspond to major elements of a ship’s design.

Rationale regarding the hybrid direct/meta modelling of ship parts: some of the ship parts’ characteristics are essential in that they provide the basic description of a ship design; most of these characteristics are used as constraints during the design of a ship (for example, available hull space must be greater than / equal to the amount of used hull space multiplied by the empire’s miniaturisation capabilities). In addition, these basic characteristics should not change in further versions of LW. However, other characteristics corresponding to various special abilities are not necessary in most operations, and are likely to evolve as development progresses. The latter are stored using meta-modelling while the former are stored directly.

Hulls

A hull is a type of ship part which provides space for other parts. It is either mechanical or biological in nature, and defines the amount of hit points as well as the basic manoeuvrability of a ship. In addition, a hull may provide energy. Finally, it may provide ship capabilities in various quantities.

Generators

A generator is a type of ship part which consumes space in a ship’s hull and provides energy. It may require the ship to be mechanical or biological.

Normal space engine

A normal space engine is a type of ship part which consumes space in a ship’s hull and requires energy. It provides thrust. It may require the ship to be mechanical or biological.

Hyperspace engines

A Hyperspace engine is a type of ship part which consumes space in a ship’s hull and requires energy. It provides Hyperspace displacement power. It may require the ship to be mechanical or biological.

Hybrid engines

A hybrid engine is an engine that is both a normal space engine and a Hyperspace engine.

Weapons

A weapon is a type of ship part which consumes space in a ship’s hull and requires energy. It is associated with a weapon type, and possesses a charge time, a cool-down time, an accuracy value (which is a probability) and a base damage.

Countermeasures

A countermeasure is a type of ship part which consumes space in a ship’s hull and requires energy. It is associated with a defence type and possesses an absorption probability, a maximal absorption value and a per-minute absorption recovery value.

Other ship parts

Any other type of ship part is a ship part which consumes space in a ship’s hull and may require energy to function. It may provide ship capabilities in various quantities.

Summary of ship part “types” and associated information

The table below is a summary of the information required by the various “families” of ship parts listed above.

Before I start, two important precisions are necessary. First, while there is actual ground combat (which is quite different from previous versions), players have no direct influence over it – everything is based on fleet strategies, and there are no actual ground units. Second, this ground combat system is definitely not the final version, it will be rewritten for M3 when the “real” planet management system is added.

Origins of ground armies

Ground armies come from 3 different sources.

• The planet itself provides a ground army, whose size depend on the planet’s population and happiness at the beginning of the battle.
• Buildings may provide ground armies.
• All ships (both defensive and offensive) may carry ground army drop pods.

Advantage index

The advantage index is a value between 0 and 1 that determines which side has the advantage. It is initially slightly in favour of defensive armies. However, it is affected by ships and buildings on both sides. Each ship increases the advantage for its side by a value that is determined by its fleet’s strategy; of course, buildings provide a fixed, pre-defined advantage increase for the defenders. The closer the value is to 0.5, the less clear the ground situation is – casualties will be high on both sides. If the value gets close to 0, then the attackers gain the advantage and they can inflict massive damage without suffering too much in return. Of course, the situation is reversed if the value is close to 1.

Dropping and extracting armies

Ships carrying armies will drop or extract their armies depending on this advantage index and on a setting that is determined by the fleet’s strategy. For example, in the current simulations, attacking fleets drop their armies below 0.55 while defending fleets drop theirs above .3 (they will therefore defend as long as the situation isn’t too desperate). Of course, this does not apply to armies provided by the planet itself or by buildings, which will always be present on the planet’s surface.

Damage

Damage to ground armies is partially determined by the advantage index. It is also strongly affected by the armies’ size: a very small army will probably lose against a much bigger one, even if the advantage index is totally in its favour – while it will inflict quite a lot of damage to the big army and not lose much at each battle update, it will end up dead eventually.

In the case of ground armies provided by ships and building, any damage to the army will translate back to its “container”, and vice-versa (any damage to the ship or building will reduce the size of the army).

Conquest

A planet is conquered when defending ground armies have been killed. The major consequence of this is that it is now entirely possible to conquer a planet while the battle is still being fought in orbit. I am still hesitating about what to do when this happens regarding the status of fleets – the best thing being to make it a setting.

Next time…

Unless you have questions or suggestions, which you should post as comments, the next post will not appear for quite a while. It will be about the battle computation’s implementation or about the database’s structure in M2, whichever comes first…

Stock market buildings

Of course, in order to use the stock market system, specific buildings have to be constructed. There are two categories of buildings that have an influence on the stock market system.

The first category contains the actual stock market buildings; only one such building can be constructed on each planet. The category contains four “levels”, each level providing higher benefits and lower risks.

In addition to the stock market itself, an economic simulator can be constructed (providing that one is available, of course); economic simulators are supercomputers which specialise in trying to predict the market’s tendencies, therefore anticipating problems and helping solve them. Like the stock market building, only one economic simulator might be built on each planet.

Regulating stock market usage

While the stock market’s output cannot be affected directly, players can control how it is used through two sets of laws. The exact names of these laws have not been determined yet, but the principles are described below.

One of the sets controls the nationalisation or privatisation of the planet’s industry. When the industry is nationalised, the state gets the full benefits from the factories’ production, but the stock market has no influence over these benefits. The higher the privatisation level, and the lower the direct benefits for the empire; however, since the stock market’s value affects the output, these benefits are sometimes heightened. With the lowest level of privatisation and the lowest level of stock market building, the benefits will range between 95% and 105% of what they would normally be; on the other side of the spectrum, the benefits will range from 89% to 135% of normal (the potential loss is higher, but it is more likely to increase the overall benefits). One last option remains – a law which can only be obtained by empires with the “Sneaky” alignment. This law allows the state to pretend the industry is controlled by the private sector, while actually owning it through a set of holdings and fake companies. In this case, the benefits will be between 96% and 145% of normal.

The second set of laws allows players to privatise their planets’ tax collection infrastructure. This will affect the planets’ base income, indexing it on the stock market.

Next time, on the LWB6 blog…

This post explained the basics of the stock market system – how it is enabled and how a player interacts with it. Next time, we’ll take a look at how it actually works.

One of the worst defects in Beta 5 was the “optimal factories” computation – it relied on nothing but arbitrary values and had one big flaw: it was supposed to prevent older players from being too powerful compared to newer players by having a decreasing derivative (yes, as in maths). This had a completely reverse consequence – people would just “whore” the planets and go away, having high population wouldn’t give you enough of an advantage in the long run.

Beta 6′s buildings will be managed in a completely different way. Instead of using arbitrary formulas, the new system will rely on a more realistic computation based on the size of the workforce available on a planet, the amount of jobs the buildings provide and what we call “secondary jobs” – construction, maintenance, police…

Each planet will have a population composed of various species – or at least that’s how it can be. As we already stated earlier, each species has specific characteristics. The first important characteristic (when it comes to employment, anyway) is the activity ratio: individuals belonging to a species may (or may not) be willing to work more than others, or have a longer “efficient” lifespan… This allows us to compute the size of the available workforce on a planet.

But then, species have different abilities – some are frail, some are extremely robust; some are clever, some are brainless brutes… The available workforce is considered to have three characteristics: an efficiency indicator for manual work (manufacturing, mining, construction, etc.), another one for intellectual work (research, medicine…) and one for soldiering (police force, defense…). These indicators are computed from the species-specific indicators and the ratio each species represents relative to the total size of the workforce. A random example would be that, if you have two populations of equal size and with the same activity ratio, one species being awful at intellectual work and the other being extremely good at it, the final workforce will be average at it. While not strictly realistic (as the guys who are good at something would probably have priority for jobs related to this ability), it should work.

Now that we know how the workforce is constituted and characterised, let’s move on to employment itself.

There are two main types of jobs on a planet: primary jobs, which are provided by buildings, and secondary jobs. The latter include construction, maintenance, research, security and a few unrelated jobs (your local Kebab shop, no doubt).

As long as there are fewer jobs than workers, the workers man all available positions completely. However, when the amount of free jobs is greater, the population starts working overtime. To compute this, we consider that people slowly take up additional 8-hour shifts, within a limit of 2.2 shifts (that’s 18 hours a day per worker on average).

However, available positions are never completely filled when people are working extra shifts. In fact, the more jobs are available, the less efficient people are. While this can be profitable in the short term, “whoring” the planets won’t work, as the efficiency will decrease and, at some point, the loss will become greater than the gain (not to mention the hit on happiness, but that is something we’ll explain later). In addition, insufficiently manned buildings will cause more pollution than they normally do, since people are less careful with what they do when they’re overworked.

It is possible to modify the priority given to secondary jobs over primary jobs (or vice versa); if they have a low priority, secondary jobs will always be short on workforce, even if many workers are available. A high priority, on the contrary, will cause these jobs to be fully manned, even if more jobs are available from buildings. An intermediary setting will cause the workers to abandon secondary jobs in favour of primary jobs if many of them are available. While this allows empires to have a finer control on what their population is doing, it is a double-edged sword as the buildings will start degrading if the planet is short on maintenance workers. Changing this setting is not instantaneous either – people slowly convert from one type of job to another, so the larger the workforce, the longer the conversion takes.

Final point – a building’s efficiency is computed from the workforce’s abilities, and from the shifts that are actually being worked. Each building’s output depends on a combination of manual, intellectual and soldiering work.