[edit: cross-posted with Wes. I'll leave what I wrote here as suggestions.]
I'll resist the urge to hide behind a rock and comment on this:
It looks like the ships-for-resource system will be complicated. There is no way around that. Writing ship designs is itself is a complex OOC task, and you really need to account for each subsystem to avoid abuse. Otherwise people will just cram hundreds of guns onto a hull and call it a "light escort". :?
But all other aspects of any resource system can and should be kept simple. One major aspect that I see is how resource points will be generated.
Each system must have one statistic:
*
Resource point value: A generalized measure of the strategic worth of a system. By strategic, I don't mean location, which does not need to be reflected by the resource system. I rather mean how much
raw material production and/or processing power the system possesses. For simplicity, resources should not degrade over time. We won't have to worry about that for another few IC decades at least.
In addition, each heavily populated system (as opposed to systems with only mining outposts or military garrisons) should have the following values:
*
Morale (0% - 100%): Represents general degree of happiness of local population. This would be lower for planets that recently suffered attacks, and higher for planets far from war zones. Exact value should be negotiated OOCly between system owner and owner of central government.
Loyalty lower than 100% will cause the actual resource points generated by a system to decrease, although exactly how should be debated.
Extremely low morale values will cause loyalty to suffer, and vice versa. But systems will not rebel due to low morale alone.
*
Loyalty (0% - 100%): Represents the percentage of the planet population that is tolerant of the central government. This would be near 100% for tightly controlled capitol systems such as Yamatai, and a bit lower for clients worlds on the fringe of Imperial influence, such as Lor. Exact value should be negotiated OOCly between system owner and owner of central government.
Note that the citizens of a planet might dislike the central government and still be "loyal". Only those actually contemplating rebellion should be counted as "disloyal".
Loyalty lower than 100% will cause the actual resource points generated by a system to decrease, although exactly how should be debated. Loyalty lower than 75% should cause social unrest. Loyalty lower than 50% and you probably have a civil war in the system. Loyalty lower than 25% and you're looking at open rebellion against the current government.
This will encourage central governments to look after their client states.
Outposts:
Not all systems will have those last to values. Mining colonies, military outposts, etc., will only have a few hundred to a few thousand military personnel. Loyalty will be high and morale will most likely be low. (Unless the local system is a veritable paradise.) Systems that had the local population wiped out, such as Albini, will lose those two values as well.
These systems should have much lower resource point values. A few hundred homesick miners and/or soldiers can only do so much, after all.
The way I see it, each empire, besides possibly Yamatai, will have only a few systems with major population centers. This will encourage expansion and colonization missions. Although most colonized systems will be of the outpost type, and thus have only one stat and will not generate much resources. This might make first contact missions attractive. But non-outpost planets are resource-rich and thus major targets. (Not to mention more paperwork for the empire owner.)
Bringing another civilization under your banner should be the only way to gain non-outpost systems.
On the other hand, expand too fast and Yamatai will see you as a threat. Another trade-off.
Other stats should be for IC flavor only, and therefore should be optional or at least lower priority:
* Population
* Planets in system (number, types, descriptions, etc.)
* Major species
* etc
... I'm willing to help play-test this aspect of the system before we actually use it.l