Hot posts in thread: Well, if you have to have buildings...

MoO2's approach to "SimCity in Space!" planet management is recognized far and wide as the low-point of the game. The buildings were supposed to bring variety to planets but they only brought unnecessary micro with the majority of planets being identical anyways.

I made this post
http://forum.masteroforion.com/index.php?/topic/917-mixing-moo-1-and-2-how-would-you-do-it/
a long time ago. Some of my views have changed after playing some of the other home-grown MoO games recently but my fervid hatred of building micro will never die.

There are 3 core parts to this particular implementation of buildings.

1) Limited number of buildings per empire and/or limited number of building types per planet. The mantra is fewer buildings but more decisions. When buildings can be spammed, they will be exist anywhere and everywhere leading to completely identical (boring) planets. MoO2 had too many buildings and too few decisions.

2) Some measure of planetary production growth. I use "number of factories" as a MoO1 analogy which represents an overall progression of industry for that planet. PSS does not have to use this particular metric, but some metric is needed.

3) A building checklist rather than a queue. The checklist approach lets you manage planets more abstractly by defining what buildings you want to exist on the planet EVENTUALLY rather than specifying the order in which they are built. Buildings cannot be built until the planet meets the metric requirement from #2. The order of building production is therefore defined by the metric requirement of the building rather than a queue.


Consider biospheres and automated factories. The biospheres may require 130 factories in the planet's infrastructure before they can be built. However, if biospheres are on the checklist of that planet, they are automatically built when it reaches 130 factories (with a minimal cost compared to the 130 factories). Automated Factories may require 150 factories in infrastructure. Therefore, after biospheres are completed, the planet would have to invest in infrastructure for 20 more factories before being able to build AF. The #factories_required defines the queue ordering.

Another feature of this approach is that buildings from the same theme replace eachother with successively stronger versions (instead of them adding up).
Here is a possible progression for the construction theme.

Automated Factories:
Produces +50 construction points per turn and increases the return of BC spent on construction by 10%. (Construction applies to ship building and defensive structures).
Maximum of 3* Automated Factories per empire.
Requires 150** factories on the planet to be built. No build cost.


Robo Mining Plant:
Produces +100 construction units per turn and increases the return of BC spent on construction by 15%.
Maximum of 2* Robo Mining plants per empire.
Replaces Automated factory if it exists.
Requires 300** factories on the planet to be built. Build cost of 500 BC's. (Approximately 1/2 turn)


Deep core Mine:
Produces +150 construction units per turn and increases the return of BC spent on construction by 20%
Maximum of 1* Deep Core Mine per empire.
Replaces Automated Factory and Robo Miner plant if present.
Requires 600** factories on the planet to be built. Build cost of 5,0000 BC's. (Approximately 2 turns).


* The base number of buildings available changes with size of galaxy.
* Leader traits may allow a building on that particular planet without counting towards the empire max.
**The factory requirement of buildings may be influenced by racial/tech/leader traits.
​

Racial, research, leader bonuses can augment these requirements. For example, Meklars may have more AF available to them. A leader bonus may decrease the factory_requirement to 110 factories and therefore get the planet jumpstarted earlier. Only the higher end buildings require a significant investment to actually "build". The majority of buildings are built rather quickly conditioned on meeting the factory_requirement.