Official News - page 2

THE FINAL AGRI BUILDS

Bella has coded in the final two infrastructure builds that planet-owners can do at agricultural level: biodiversity and dole. Neither of these builds do anything useful at agri level, though, so we don't recommend you rush out and try them!

Biodiversity projects are a good way to keep your populace happy. Part of the ecology set of builds, they ensure that the eco-system on your planet remains in balance, no species comes to dominate to the detriment of others, and that there are no extinctions or die-offs of plants or animals - whether native or terran species. Each biodiversity project reduces disaffection by 1%, up to a limit of 5%. The command is 'BUILD BIODIVERSITY'. Details are in the Idiot's Guide.

Dole, or unemployment pay, is one of the social security builds. It's another effective way of reducing disaffection, but it's an expensive one with some side-effects you have to take into account. When unemployment is high, the dole provides a safety net to keep people from starving, but it does also reduce the willingness of the workers to work for low wages. Each point of dole pay reduces disaffection by 3%. However, each point of dole above the level of the planet (where agricultural planets are 0, industrial 1, etc) reduces the working population by 5%. That in turn can have a knock-on effect on consumption: for every 100 workers below the base level of 1,000 there is a 1 point decrease in the consumption of all consumer goods. Still, if you become desperate to appease a rioting populace and figure a dole payout is the only way, the command is 'BUILD DOLE'. Details in the Guide.

These two infrastructure builds are the last of the builds that Founders can carry out. As stated in last week's Star, some of them don't actually have an effect at agricultural level; they are intended to counter disaffection, which doesn't kick in until you promote and your planet becomes a resource planet. Bella will now turn her attention to the code for disaffection, and after that she'll make the final decisions on the promotion requirements.

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