Settlement

Settlements are places where your species congregate and coexist in the Society Stage and beyond. They are the basis of your species members' organisation, and how they are controlled.

Cities

Cities are large settlements formed when a settlement grows big enough that its population is too numerous to handle as individuals. How the game will define an area as a city is still under some discussion. When one is established, the game will count up all of the people (meaning all sapient beings) in the designated area that belong to the owning nation, and store it as a variable. The people will then no longer really exist except to move around the city and make it look busy. The buildings and their types will also become purely aesthetic and their bonuses will get amalgamated into the settlement's stats. In this way, a city is really just a single unit controlled by the nation. The city will be given a randomly generated name and the boundaries of the area controlled by the city will be shown by a thin line matching the colour of the owning nation.

Now we will look at how the player interacts with cities. Most city interaction will be done through the City Panel. The Panel can be opened by double-clicking on a city or selecting a city and then choosing the 'City Panel' option. Once in the Panel the player will be able to view and change things in the city. The different sections of the city will be shown in a number of tabs. The tabs are as follows:

Overview

This will be the default tab selected when the City Panel is shown. This will show the basic information of the selected city. This includes the city's name, population, research value, production value, stability and average health. Simplified versions of these values will be able to be seen without entering the city Panel. The player will be able to change the city's name at any time, but changing the name of a city that has not changed for a long time may cause temporary unhappiness in the city. This tab will also have a section for the player to view what resources are stored in the city and how much there are.

People

This tab handles all of the able bodies in the city. In this tab the player will be able to view the birth rates and death rates of their city, and thus the growth rate.

The tab has a Control slider, to determine how directly the player controls the populace. With the slider on it's highest, the player will be able to select exactly how much % of the population should be assigned to each Specialist Group, at lower values they will be more random. Even at a low slider value, the player can try to influence the amount of each type of specialist by assigning more wages (not strictly currency, more likely food) to certain ones The Specialists will be as follows:

• Gatherer - Collects nearby resources
• Researcher - Produces research points
• Worker - Produces production points
• Military - Produces order points
• Medical - Increases overall health relative to the Medical Research Level
• Entertainer - Increases overall happiness and decreases overall order

Any remaining member of the population will be a 'Civilian', who produces small amounts of happiness and production. Any person that is too young, too old, or physically incapable of becoming a specialist will be classed as a civilian. Each specialist group will have its own happiness rating that will reflect on its efficiency. For example a city with a Worker Happiness of 8/10 will have a production value of 80% what it should be. The simplified equation: Worker Production = No. of Workers X Happiness X Technology Level. This would work with all specialists.

Any kind of specialist can also be deployed from the city. This means that they will leave the city and become a controllable unit or number of units. This can be done by clicking on the 'Deploy' button and then choosing which type of specialist you want to deploy and how many. Using the deploy button, the player can move their specialists to different cities as they are needed. A unit will take a small amount of time to get their things and leave the city. Deploying Gatherers and Workers will allow the player to control by using regular RTS style interface. Military units will operate similar to most RTS games until the nation completes the Military Training research, wich will make units follow Squad rules. Any deployed unit will be able to be equipped with a Tech Object on it's way out of the city, and may be re-equipped or un-equipped if the desired Tech Object is nearby (unless Squad rules interfere).

Construction

This tab deals with all Technology Objects (objects created by the player or AI with the Tech Editor). As Tech Objects can be anything from buildings to tools, this tab will need to cater for many different things. For Techs tagged with 'Structure' or "Shelter', the mechanic will be similar to the build mechanic in most RTS games. The player can select the Tech they want and choose a building site. How long a tech takes to build will be relative to the production value a city is producing. When a Tech Object is being built it will be shown in the build cue, along with its status (%) and priority (%). The player can change the priority of a TO by clicking the priority icon on the object, or by opening the build options of the object and changing it. In the Tech Editor each Tech Object will have a complexity value as well as its associated resource cost. The complexity value will be turned into a construction value in the main game, and the time it takes to build will depend on the production amount, its priority and the construction value. The simplified equation: Percent done = Construction Value - (Time elapsed X Total City Production X Priority).

Research

This tab shows a more in-depth breakdown of the city's research. In the early game this tab will not have much on it. It will show the amount of research the city is producing and that's all. More advanced researches (like Scientific Method) will unlock more options in this tab. In the late game the player will be able to view how much research is going into each area, and even let the player change the percentage amount that is being zoned to each area. This will allow more concentrated research in the areas that the player feels they need.

So now we know how the player interacts with the city, but we need to know what effects all of these values will have. Here is a list** of how the values defined in the city will affect gameplay.

Population

The population is the number of people in the city . The player can zone the population in the People Tab (see above).

Overall Happiness

The average happiness of the people living in the city. Happier people will be more productive, whereas unhappy people will be less productive and have a negative effect on overall stability. Happiness is increased with specialists and specialist buildings, and decreased by bad living conditions, high death rates and close proximity to happy SCs that belong to another nation. The equation: Happiness = (Entertainers X Technology Level X Entertainment Buildings Bonus X Civilian Bonus) - (Death Rate X Population Density X Happy Nearby Nations). Happiness can be a negative value.

Individual Specialist Happiness will be calculated slightly differently, taking into account the wages each position is paid. Equation: Specialist Happiness = Wage - (Overall Death Rate X Population Density). The exception to this is Civilians, their happiness is calculated like the overall happiness.

Overall Order

The average order of the city. More and happier military units will result in a higher 'Order' value. Entertainment venues and specialists will decrease this value. Equation: Order = (Military X Technology Level X Military Buildings Bonus) - (Entertainers X Entertainment Buildings Bonus). Order can be a negative value.

Stability

The overall stability and loyalty of the city to the player's nation. An unstable city may revolt and start its own nation, or join another nation. Highly stable and happy cities may encourage other nearby unstable cities to join the stable nation. Unstable cities may also riot and destroy buildings and kill people. Stability is directly affected by happiness and order. Equation: Stability = Happiness + Order.

Research Value

The overall research value of the city. This is simply the number of researchers and the technology and buildings available to them. Equation: Research = Researchers X Researcher Happiness X Technology Level X Research Buildings.

Production Value

The overall production value of the city. This is simply the number of workers and the technology and buildings available to them. Equation: Production = Workers X Worker Happiness X Technology Level X Production Buildings

Health

The overall health of the city. This is simply the number of medical specialists and the technology and buildings available to them. Equation: Health = Medics X Medic Happiness X Technology Level X Medical Buildings

Destruction

If population for whatever reason reaches zero, it's considered empty and the owning nation doesn't have any control over it anymore. It stops influencing national borders. The city itself is grayed out, and eventually disappears. Any nation can take control of the city before it disappears.

However, even if the city itself disappears, all buildings stay in place, and eventually fall into disrepair and decay. How long the process takes is based on the structural strength of the building. A new city built on the remains of an old one inherits all its buildings in whatever state they were left in.