Official News - page 1

PROGRESS REPORT

by Hazed

Bella is continuing to work on the code for population and disaffection, and she expects to put a new version into the game during the week which will sort out the current problems with planetary populations not being calculated properly.

After that, she will be working on two new builds which will be added later in the week for the test team to play with. The builds are needed because they are both things that will help you to deal with the problem of disaffection. First will be pensions, which is a social security build. State pensions are paid to those too old to work, and ensure they can still afford shelter and food. This reduces disaffection because it keeps the old folks happy so lest prone to unrest. They also know that activities prejudicial to the security of the state - such as rioting - will affect entitlement so they have a pragmatic reason not to go on protest marches! Each point of pensions provision reduces disaffection by 1%, up to a maximum of 10%. Pensions can be built at resource levels and higher, and never expire.

This will be followed by a security build: riot police, a very heavy-handed way of dealing with disaffection. The riot police are separate from the general police force and their specific role is to deal with civil disorder; their mandate to protect the state against those of its citizens who might object to the state's activities. They are brutal, but effective. Each riot police unit reduces disaffection by 2%, up to a maximum of 20%, but the downside is that the planet's efficiency will also go down by 1% as the populace resort to more passive means of opposition such as go-slows and working to rule. Riot police are only effective in urban areas so cannot be built until a planet reaches resource level.

When these two builds are available to players, the Star will issue a special bulletin to let you know.

Meanwhile, the actual effect of not controlling disaffection on your planet - rioting and property damage - won't be turned on until all the builds which affect unrest (both positively and negatively) are available, and all of the calculations for adding and subtracting percentage points to the disaffection figure have been tested and are all correct.

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