SPACEPLAN II

VERSION 2.2

Startup Form       Credit Card Startup

These rules changes are for a new version and will apply for games AFTER game 69. They don't apply for game that are already running.

ANYGROW & ANYBUILD

The ANYGROW action grows in any location that is available, according to the best income-to-cost ratio and the ANYBUILD action builds one or two industry anywhere suitable.

These are intended to be used as standing orders, but they can be used as normal actions as well.

BOMBARD

The BOMBARD action has replaced MET option of the BOMB action. This destroys a random amount of population and industry, with a VP penalty equal to the losses incurred, adds the same amount of ecodamage, and destroys one of each type of defending ship present.

CLOAKING TECH

Ships already on the map can cloak if they're in a system on your net. Ships are not visible when they're cloaked. The CLOAK action specifies the location. The number of ships that may be cloaked is limited by your Cloaking Tech level (the number of ships is that number of carriers, plus the same number of cruisers, with anything up to a full complement of riders and marines according to your fighter cap and marines cap).

You can only cloak in a single location at a time, so any previously cloaked ships become uncloaked.

DEFENCE STRENGTHS

Population and militia count double for planets. Defence tech also counts double for planets if there is militia or population present.

DYNAMIC MAP

The map has been enlarged and it changes during the game. Each turn a new link will be placed somewhere on the map (at random, but with a preference for linking up groups of stars that are not currently linked).

Planets other than those in the initial home systems have a random allocation of ecodamage at the start of the game, representing the variable habitability and suitably of different ecosystems (you will need Eco Tech and/or Terra Forming technology to reduce this ecodamage and help keep your supply costs down).

EMPIRE ACTIONS

The selection of which technology is gained on the EMPIRE X and EXMPIRE S actions is a random choice between the different weapons and supply tech levels respectively.

FLEET LOANS

Ships can now be loaned between the fleet reserves of different empires. This is allowed only if the two empires have adjacent systems on their respective nets (ie. there's a hyperspace link between them).

You can loan ships to only one other empire at a time, and you can borrow ships from only one other empire at a time (but you can borrow from one and loan to another).

The BORROW action selects which empire you are willing to borrow ships from. The LOAN action sends ships to any empire that previously did a BORROW action to say it'll accept them. The RETURN action sends ships back to their owner. The RECALL action grabs ships that were loaned back from the reserve of the empire they were borrowed from.

The type of ships in each action is specified in the usual way (CVA, CRS, FTR, MIL, ALL) with the ALL action meaning the given number of carriers and the same number of cruisers, with a full complement of riders and marines (according to your fighter cap and marines cap) attached to the carriers.

Ships transferred between empires are removed immediately and added to reserves at the end of the turn.

GIFTS

The GIFT action has been extended to allow gifts of resources or hyperspace weapons as well as treasury BPs. This means you must now use the WHICH column to say what you're gifting (one of LBB, PLB, SBB, WBB, FO, HC, IS, MI or BPS). You must still give an actual number - the ALL and ALL BUT formats don't work.

MERCHANTERS

The merchanters routine has been revised so that merchanter costs are now 1 BP each way, instead of 1 BP for each round trip, and merchanters will no longer make trips that are not profitable.

In testing this resulted in them relocating more often and spreading out more quickly.

PLUNDER

When you capture the last system owned by another empire you capture half their treasury, supply reserve, fleet reserves and stockpiles (both resources and hyperspace weapons).

RESOURCE TRADES

It is now possible to trade resources from your stockpiles to the bank at variable exchange rates. The BANK action trades a number of the resource you're offering to the bank for "bank credits" at the current exchange rate (ie. 2:1 means 10 resources gets to 20 trade credits).

Then you can swap the credits for something else. The TRADE action swaps bank credits for the resource you want at the current exchange rate (ie. 4:1 means you can get 5 of that resource for your 20 trade credits). The exchange rates are calculated each turn and apply to all BANK and TRADE action the following turn.

Resources that are plentiful will be offered at 1:1 and those that are scarce will be offered at anything up to 9:1 (ie. you can get up to 9 bank credits for each unit offered, or you must pay 9 bank credits for each unit wanted). Normally you want to offer out the stuff with a high exchange rate and collect the stuff with a low rate. Buy low, sell high.

SUPPLY RESERVE

Each empire has a "Supply Reserve" which is used to reduce movement costs. On moves and attacks the BP costs (after the first BP) are taken from your supply reserve instead of your current balance, if possible.

The SUPPLY action cashes resources from your stockpile to create your supply reserve. Indicate the number to be cashed: only those resources where you have at least that number in your stockpile will be used. The more different resources you use the better.

If you only have one resource to cash, you get one BP in your supply reserve for each. If you have two different resources at that level, you get twice the number. If you have three resources, you get four times the number. If you have all four resources, then you get six times the number.

Example: Your stockpile contains FO 60, HC 60, IS 20 and MI 50.
SUPPLY 20 will take twenty from each stockpile and add 120 to your supply reserve.
SUPPLY 50 would take fifty of each of FO, HC and MI and add 200 to your supply reserve.
SUPPLY 60 would take sixty FO and HC and add 120 to your supply reserve.

SUPPLY COSTS

Supply costs are now shown separately for each of fleet, population and industrial supply. Supply costs are now paid in the FOLLOWING turn, but are deducted BEFORE production is carried out. This means you can't go on building stuff when you can't pay your supply costs.

TECH CAPTURES

Whenever you capture a system from another empire you have a chance of capturing a tech level, according to what tech levels the defender has and you don't (the chance is higher, the bigger the difference in levels).

TRANSPORTS

The Transport ship type has been deleted from the game. All actions that previously used transports now use merchanters instead (the logic is that you simply hire merchant ships when they're needed). The CONVERT action now converts cruisers to merchanters (as before) or merchanters to cruisers (instead of transports).

VENUSIAN PLANETS

There is no agriculture or mining on venusian worlds, but your hydroponics tech level counts double on the industrial production of food (because the atmosphere of a venusian planet is mostly CO2 and H2O).

WARP ACTIONS

The WARP action now works on diagonals (the directions are NW, NE, SW and SE). Planetoids may be warped into star systems that have no subsystems, in which case they become martian or venusian planets (at random).

WORMHOLES

Wormholes are links between two stars that can be any distance apart. Wormholes are shown in the map roundup with a w in the lower line (where the planets and asteroids are shown).

Objects the other side of a wormhole are not shown in the map roundup: you must travel (or send a probe) through the wormhole in order to see what is on the other side.

Wormholes are unbreakable. Link buster bombs cannot be used against wormholes. In other respects a wormhole link is just like a hyperspace link (movement is normal, and stations can be connected through a wormhole).

XENOPHOBES

This empire type now scores extra VPs for enemy population killed by star and planet busters and in planetary bombardments.

NOTES

There are a number of other changes in the game reports, and I've also added a freemailer option which initially will be available for standby places (to encourage people to play them).