Ian Santa Claus
Marquis
Lunar Age
My idea for a Lunar age would be for players to be able to start a small colony on the moon, essentially build a second city, where everybody would start on a level playing field.
The lunar colony would have its own town hall (moon base) and start off as a 16x16 area (16 expansions), the same as our original cities.
No building that can be constructed in the main earth city can also be built on the moon and vice versa.
Instead of a ship or submarine that ferries in promethium or orichalcum the space shuttle would be used to ferry supplies and goods out to the moon that are produced in the Earth city, as the lunar base would not be producing these things itself, at least not to begin with, so construction on the moon would be limited by the shuttles carrying capacity.
The moon base would produce the special good for the age (let’s just call it refined moon rock, I’m sure somebody can think up a better name later) at a rate of 1 piece/hour and the shuttle would be used to bring it back to Earth. The moon base would not be able to store any pieces of refined moon rock, instead it would be randomly placed in available silos (a 2x2 building). Goods brought from the Earth city could be used to upgrade the moon base to improve production speed (upgrades will become available in the tech tree). Each silo can hold 10 goods or 100,000 supplies or a combination of the two e.g. 5 goods and 50,000 supplies
The shuttle would have different crew members like the ship does. Engineers to reduce damage, cargo specialists to increase carrying capacity, navigators for quicker trips and all the other various abilities that the ship and sub crews have. A big difference for the shuttle though would be that the player would have to launch it both from Earth and also for the return trip. The crew selected for the moonward trip would be the same as the crew for the return journey so no extra cost involved, but during the early stages of lunar colony development, while storage capacity there is severely restricted, the player may want to delay the return trip as the refined moon rock would be automatically placed directly into the shuttles hold while it is docked on the moon. Basic cargo for the shuttle would be 50 goods or 500,000 supplies or a mixture of the two.
One of the options when loading the shuttle for the journey to the moon will be to load silo which will fill its standard storage capacity, if the selected crew (or accumulated damage from previous trips) has reduced the shuttles storage capacity below the basic level then loading a silo will not be an available option that trip. The goods, supplies and coins needed to build it will be deducted from the terrestrial city stock. When unloading it on the moon the silo will appear next to the shuttle and the player will have to move it into position in his lunar colony in the same manner as moving buildings is done now. The build cost for a silo will be 5 of each lunar good, 250,000 supplies and 500,000 coins.
When the shuttle arrives on the moon two buttons will be available for it. One of the buttons will be to launch it back to Earth, the other will be to unload it. When unloading the goods and supplies on board are moved into any available silos. If there is not enough available storage then a warning pop up will let the player know that unloading the shuttle will result in the loss of any materials that there is insufficient storage for. The player can decide to unload anyway or leave the shuttle where it is until enough of the cargo has been used for construction of buildings that the amount of available storage is sufficient to hold what is left in the shuttle.
Military units
Lunar age military units can only be produced and used on the moon, and no terrestrial units can be ferried up to it. So loading the army management screen while your lunar base is open will open a different selection screen than if loading it from your Earth city. A successful attack on a neighbouring lunar base will allow you to plunder one lunar building. If plundering a silo how much refined moon rock or supplies or earth goods is in each silo would be a matter of luck, so this could result in a failed plunder.
Houses
Some of the lunar age houses will be terrestrial ones, i.e. have to be built in the main earth city, and others will be lunar ones that have to be built on the moon. The lunar ones will house very few people compared to terrestrial ones (about 1/10) due to the difficulties of supporting life on the moon, as well as costing 10x as much. But lunar buildings will need less personal to run than equivalent terrestrial ones.
Production and Culture buildings and decorations
These will be a mixture of terrestrial and lunar buildings in the same way as houses are with the same 10x cost and 1/10 efficiency for the lunar buildings compared to terrestrial equivalents.
Roads
Lunar roads will be in the form of prefabricated tunnels to connect buildings, both the single and double lane ones.
Goods buildings
The five goods buildings for the lunar age would all be terrestrial constructs.
Expansions
The available expansions for the age would be divided equally between terrestrial and lunar use.
The lunar cities would have their own neighbourhood bar.
So that all attacks with lunar units are always against other lunar units.
Great Buildings
Terrestrial GB’s will have no effect on the moon and Lunar GB’s will have no effect on the Earth.
This is to maintain the level playing field and fresh start premise of the lunar base.
The one of the three lunar age GB’s that is for the terrestrial city could be the Orbital Defence Platform. A building that provides a chance of a glancing blow from incoming enemy fire that halves damage to your troops in the same way that the arctic orangery has a chance to increase damage, by intercepting ranged shots with its laser battery. It would have no effect on an attack from an adjacent hex. Its second ability would be a significant speeding up of the scout.
The Orbital Defence Platform would be represented in your city by a large radar array which would be the ground control for it.
The other two lunar age GB’s would both be built in the lunar colony, suggestions from players what they could be would be great.
Guild Expedition & Guild vs Guild
Both these are terrestrial occurrences so lunar units will not be able to take part. Players who have reached lunar age will compete in GE at Oceanic age. This is to prevent players from being able to ignore the need to build lunar barracks if they want to defend their lunar bases by simply accumulating unattached lunar units from GE. Rewards from Temple of Relics will also be Oceanic age.
Continent Map
The lunar age continent map will be on the moon so the sectors will be defended by lunar units and will need to be conquered using lunar units if the military option is selected.
My idea for a Lunar age would be for players to be able to start a small colony on the moon, essentially build a second city, where everybody would start on a level playing field.
The lunar colony would have its own town hall (moon base) and start off as a 16x16 area (16 expansions), the same as our original cities.
No building that can be constructed in the main earth city can also be built on the moon and vice versa.
Instead of a ship or submarine that ferries in promethium or orichalcum the space shuttle would be used to ferry supplies and goods out to the moon that are produced in the Earth city, as the lunar base would not be producing these things itself, at least not to begin with, so construction on the moon would be limited by the shuttles carrying capacity.
The moon base would produce the special good for the age (let’s just call it refined moon rock, I’m sure somebody can think up a better name later) at a rate of 1 piece/hour and the shuttle would be used to bring it back to Earth. The moon base would not be able to store any pieces of refined moon rock, instead it would be randomly placed in available silos (a 2x2 building). Goods brought from the Earth city could be used to upgrade the moon base to improve production speed (upgrades will become available in the tech tree). Each silo can hold 10 goods or 100,000 supplies or a combination of the two e.g. 5 goods and 50,000 supplies
The shuttle would have different crew members like the ship does. Engineers to reduce damage, cargo specialists to increase carrying capacity, navigators for quicker trips and all the other various abilities that the ship and sub crews have. A big difference for the shuttle though would be that the player would have to launch it both from Earth and also for the return trip. The crew selected for the moonward trip would be the same as the crew for the return journey so no extra cost involved, but during the early stages of lunar colony development, while storage capacity there is severely restricted, the player may want to delay the return trip as the refined moon rock would be automatically placed directly into the shuttles hold while it is docked on the moon. Basic cargo for the shuttle would be 50 goods or 500,000 supplies or a mixture of the two.
One of the options when loading the shuttle for the journey to the moon will be to load silo which will fill its standard storage capacity, if the selected crew (or accumulated damage from previous trips) has reduced the shuttles storage capacity below the basic level then loading a silo will not be an available option that trip. The goods, supplies and coins needed to build it will be deducted from the terrestrial city stock. When unloading it on the moon the silo will appear next to the shuttle and the player will have to move it into position in his lunar colony in the same manner as moving buildings is done now. The build cost for a silo will be 5 of each lunar good, 250,000 supplies and 500,000 coins.
When the shuttle arrives on the moon two buttons will be available for it. One of the buttons will be to launch it back to Earth, the other will be to unload it. When unloading the goods and supplies on board are moved into any available silos. If there is not enough available storage then a warning pop up will let the player know that unloading the shuttle will result in the loss of any materials that there is insufficient storage for. The player can decide to unload anyway or leave the shuttle where it is until enough of the cargo has been used for construction of buildings that the amount of available storage is sufficient to hold what is left in the shuttle.
Military units
Lunar age military units can only be produced and used on the moon, and no terrestrial units can be ferried up to it. So loading the army management screen while your lunar base is open will open a different selection screen than if loading it from your Earth city. A successful attack on a neighbouring lunar base will allow you to plunder one lunar building. If plundering a silo how much refined moon rock or supplies or earth goods is in each silo would be a matter of luck, so this could result in a failed plunder.
Houses
Some of the lunar age houses will be terrestrial ones, i.e. have to be built in the main earth city, and others will be lunar ones that have to be built on the moon. The lunar ones will house very few people compared to terrestrial ones (about 1/10) due to the difficulties of supporting life on the moon, as well as costing 10x as much. But lunar buildings will need less personal to run than equivalent terrestrial ones.
Production and Culture buildings and decorations
These will be a mixture of terrestrial and lunar buildings in the same way as houses are with the same 10x cost and 1/10 efficiency for the lunar buildings compared to terrestrial equivalents.
Roads
Lunar roads will be in the form of prefabricated tunnels to connect buildings, both the single and double lane ones.
Goods buildings
The five goods buildings for the lunar age would all be terrestrial constructs.
Expansions
The available expansions for the age would be divided equally between terrestrial and lunar use.
The lunar cities would have their own neighbourhood bar.
So that all attacks with lunar units are always against other lunar units.
Great Buildings
Terrestrial GB’s will have no effect on the moon and Lunar GB’s will have no effect on the Earth.
This is to maintain the level playing field and fresh start premise of the lunar base.
The one of the three lunar age GB’s that is for the terrestrial city could be the Orbital Defence Platform. A building that provides a chance of a glancing blow from incoming enemy fire that halves damage to your troops in the same way that the arctic orangery has a chance to increase damage, by intercepting ranged shots with its laser battery. It would have no effect on an attack from an adjacent hex. Its second ability would be a significant speeding up of the scout.
The Orbital Defence Platform would be represented in your city by a large radar array which would be the ground control for it.
The other two lunar age GB’s would both be built in the lunar colony, suggestions from players what they could be would be great.
Guild Expedition & Guild vs Guild
Both these are terrestrial occurrences so lunar units will not be able to take part. Players who have reached lunar age will compete in GE at Oceanic age. This is to prevent players from being able to ignore the need to build lunar barracks if they want to defend their lunar bases by simply accumulating unattached lunar units from GE. Rewards from Temple of Relics will also be Oceanic age.
Continent Map
The lunar age continent map will be on the moon so the sectors will be defended by lunar units and will need to be conquered using lunar units if the military option is selected.