Hail, station master!

All right, just to get some ideas down space station building sim, probably isometric multi z-level viewpoint. Given a large square of space to build in, starts with a small docking and construction bay. Players select the sector they want to start in with randomly generated features and resources, and randomly generated species will come to inhabit their station. The simulation will take place primarily on two levels; the first, a local map where you build and day to day life takes place, and the second, on a galactic overview which will have slowly shifting political borders, trade routes, and patches of lawlessness and bandit hideouts. The player will spend most of their time building and playing in the former, while gradually expanding their influence in the latter.

Players will build station with a specific type of specialization in mind:

-a large colony
-an upscale hotel
-military outpost
-research center
-information trade and security
-crime haven
-interstellar bazaar
-shipyard
-factory

Each of these professions will guide the design of their station's layout, and will require the establishing of a utilities infrastructure (power, life support, living essentials, station maintenance), building a residential complex which can room and board staff and guests, building the mainstays of their chosen industry and keeping them supplied with raw materials and competent employees, and establishing an economic powerbase. Players can also establish and manage franchises that will spread across the galaxy, competing with other powerful business moguls, engage in politics both local and abroad with other station managers, follow a variety of space religions! or maybe even witness the birth of a new one, with serious consequences if you anger the wrong deity, research New technological advancements for the improvement of your station and civilization (or detriment, perhaps one of your clever scientists will figure out that an incredibly addictive drug for species x can be synthesized with the blood of species y. Chaos ensues).

The management of the station will involve checking finances and ensuring a steady stream of revenue, overseeing construction and maintenance, enforcing law on the station, ensuring proper distribution and import and export of goods, and raising the quality of life for your people. Residential matters are tricky for your station, because your guests can be any number of species, randomly.generated with their own diet, accommodation requirements, and cultural biases, which may clash violently with those of other species.


Please direct all complaints to your R.A.
	-Different species will need different housing and different food.
	-Species may also prefer differing light levels, levels of sanitation, large open spaces vs. tight
	cramped corridors, and can be very picky about their neighbors.
	-Each different housing type can be upgraded to larger dwellings that can house more of the same type.
	These upgrades and other types of room improvement will be achieved through research.
	-Housing will require different raw materials to build and maintain as well. The appropriate atmospheric
	mix can be synthesized without the raw ingredients, but it is costly on both money and power.
	-If you cannot afford an atmosphere regulator that synthesizes for various species, it is more economic to
	either buy a life support system  and cargo that meets the needs of one species cheaply.
	-Your station will gradually open up to new species, rushing into hosting everyone will only cause
	trouble. Each new species will require a good investment of time to set up new facilities.
	-Building separate boroughs of varying races can prevent unpleasant tension between them, but a number of
	species thrive on diversity, and even dedicated xenophobes will suffer on productivity if not occasionally
	exposed to others.
	-Species breeding can vary, with different gestation times, live birth vs egg laying, and various gruesome
	birthing traditions (eating parent, lay eggs in a host (undesired breeding can be surpressed with
	drugs(which can be secretly included in their diet on your station!(parentheses!)))) Energy beings can
	split into wavelengths or merge prismatically, rock creatures could be mined out of their homeplanet
	whenever a new one is needed, plants can spore on your farms
	-Species preferences will be randomly generated at the start of the game, and will be designed to
	encourage players to switch up their playstyle and try new things. There could be species that want to
	live in hard vacuum, or one race that's life bonded to another and require very close quarters. Some
	species might see others as a delicacy. They should probably be kept apart.
	-Citizens will also want a high security presence around residential areas. Might be possible to irk some
	by having certain species of officer patrol their neighborhood.


Interstellar gourmands and the Golden Arches Nebula
	-Food will come in different types (energy, plant, meat, mineral, vapor) and can be harvested through
	various industries on your station such as farms and mines, but most will also likely supplement their
	pantries through imports
	-Food preparation requires skilled individuals. To prepare a meal for a species, the cook may not have to
	be of that species, but he will need to be properly trained in that race's cuisine.
	-Though grim, it will be possible to butcher inhabitants for meat. Most species will heavily frown on
	this, both out of personal preference and following their cultural tenets. Government condemnations and
	galactic security investigations will follow shortly if found out, but you may find a species or two that
	just doesn't care, and there can be good money in it.
	- Energy beings will likely feed on pure energy. Make sure you build hardpoints where they can access your
	power system to do so paying and legally, or they will likely try to siphon some off on the side.
	-There will be both high and low cuisine that will appeal to different types of clientelle. High cuisine
	is more expensive for everyone involved, and requires a skilled chef, but can have a significant impact on
	station rating and VIP tours.
	-Industry stations and businesses have the option of a collective dining hall, which is simple and
	generally satisfies.
	-Lower cuisine, (a.k.a. fast food) is much simpler and a money mainstay, and vital for feeding your
	visitors, but will generate more litter and the occasional unhappy thought or health crisis.
	-Fast food is also one of the quickest things on the station you can own as a business and start a
	franchise with. Just build your first one, customize its layout and choose a food style, then sell the
	blueprints abroad and to other station owners. Manage advertising and pleasing your target demographic!
	Watch as you spread all across the galaxy! Sneak something horrible into the food!
	-Most neighborhoods will likely also want their own spacebar. Everyone loves bars. Crime will happen here.


Government and other notorious criminals
	-Stations can start out under the patronage of their local government (where you build is your starting
	faction alignment). Which isn't to say you can't cast off the yoke almost immediately. Just be prepared
	for resistance. Alternatively, you can start in unclaimed territory and start unaffiliated, but when a
	major power starts knocking at your door looking for more territory, be prepared to defend yourself if you
	wish to remain neutral. Or appeal to other governments to protect your sovereign territory.
	-Race territories will start out close enough for co-mingling and to allow a multiracial station at the
	start if desired, but there will still be unclaimed territory between them that will be a source of
	contention. A race's borders will shift throughout the game depending on their relative strength and
	influence. Battles won can be major border changers, as can internal political upheaval. As a station
	master, your political intrigues and military actions can also shape the territories (i.e. agents can be
	sent to persuade star systems to change sides).
	-The two primary facets of government (in terms of influence on gameplay) are legislation and enforcement
	Each species' government will have its own laws, in accordance with their race's beliefs. These can be
	tariffs on certain goods or subsidizing the production of others, or bonuses for taking actions against
	other governments, or embargoes if they feel you have behaved inappropriately. If major crime is committed
	on your station, you may also face the enforcers of your government. Special investigators can be sent to
	your station to demand inspections. If you are found in possession of contraband, or are implicated
	in a crime, the station will be penalized, either with a fine or military action. Failure to comply with
	inspections can also result in combat. They generally won't try to destroy your entire station, only
	curtail any activities they disagree with. Enough violations, and if you wish to remain on your
	government's good side, you may have to house permanent overseers. Every crime will have to be carefully
	snuck past them subsequently.
	-Wormholes will pepper the galaxy, which can make trade routes much quicker and more efficient. They will
	usually be under control of local gov. and will require their permission to use regularly


Skulduggery, roughhousing, and the terrible secret of space
	-The universe isn't always a nice place, and combat will be a necessity at times. The scale of these
	conflicts can range from a brawl that needs to broken up by station security, to a military outpost
	orchestrating the overarching strategies of a war. Large scale conflicts will take place mostly on a
	tactical level, requiring the planner to provide a stock of units to field, as well as mustering local
	support, and then providing a rough tactical plan for them to follow. Local conflicts will be part of the
	simulation engine, and will primarily focus on hand to hand fighting and ship to ship fights. These
	battles will be fought by station security, trained and equipped by you, and through them you will fend
	off boarding parties and raids, ship blockades, and rampaging alien monstrosities.
	-Any of the fights can include special station personnel called agents. Agents are hired by you, and will
	be directly controlled by you in battle. They usually have a range of powers and specializations, and
	unique stats or items to help them turn the tides of a fight.
	-Agents are also used in covert operations of your own, including sabotage, blackmail, and assassinations.
	These could be turn-based or realtime missions that take place on your station that require slightly more
	planning and intelligent use of items, as you may have to foil your own security at times or leave little
	enough evidence that the crime can't be pinned on you.




Resources

-Constructimax: Pre-fab fabulous! Space concrete! The stuff of really boring stars. A building material used for
	almost everything with rare and expensive exceptions; reliable, cheap, and can be derived from almost
	anything. Naturally, it comes in a variety of aesthetically pleasing designs and colors. Can be mined or
	purchased from nearly anywhere

-Food and Life Support: You will need to regularly purchase or produce your own food for your various inhabitants
	(of varying quality, from generic to extremely sophisticated meals. Guess which one generates the happy
	thought), as well as atmosphere for them to breathe as your systems distribute it around the station

-Metals and alloys: Mined or purchased, used as raw material for your industries to produce manufactured goods

-Money: Duh. Just remember, nine ningis to one pu.

-Power: Generated by various researchable systems of varying magnitudes. Can be fed raw resources, or even
	injected with cold hard cash, though at a significant loss. Though energy beings will consume power, they
	may occasionally provide quite generous returns. No shovel required, honest. Systems across your station
	will require constant power, so budget your output and make sure important systems are high priority, so
	they're not lost during blackouts.




Examples of special local features:

-Black Sun: Special star system that, when your station is  built close enough, completely masks all outgoing signals and blocks transmissions

-Wormhole: end points for galactic fast travel routes, can boost economy and visitor rate. could also be strategic site in war, will be regulated by local government

-Planet debris: Vast chunks of planets that weren't up to the cruel realities of space and giant death lasers. Can be mined for continual mineral wealth. Occasionally, they will turn out to be synthetic and reveal parts of planet fabricator engines, endgame tech which can be sold for large amounts of money

-Local fauna: A local flock of vacuum dwelling non-sentients, which can attract tourists, be bred and sold, or harvested for exotic craft materials (space ship circuitry, rare medicines, treasure)

-Monolith: A very small black rock that remains in a fixed location. Can be studied for continual research boost. Can be basis of religion.

-Crystalline Ark: A free floating casket, courtesy of Precursor-Santa. Generates religious interest, and can be broken into (with great effort) to recover a powerful artifact, like a relic ship, or a weapon system, or a piece of endgame tech

-The Spray: Vapor cloud of mysterious origins, harvested to produce a potent drug




Hazards

-Natural
	stars exploding
	meteor showers
	subversion of physical laws/space-time
	plague
	nonsentient monsters

-Deliberate (more likely once you start stepping on some toes)
	spies and industrial espionage
	riots
	war
	space banditos!
	assassins
	galactic security lockdown
	trade embargoes
	cultists and fanatics




VIPs (please them, or meet certain requirements and be rewarded!)
-big ol cash bonus
-station ratings boost
-allows new species to settle
-starts new religion
-offers lucrative business contract




Example victory events (hesitant to put in win conditions, a smoothly running station suited to its own industry is kinda the goal, but those who want to WIN can choose to initiate events that will put station owners in direct competition to achieve a certain victory condition

-Starforge: Expand business and construction enough to become the universe's first planet foundry!

-Metagamer: one of every settling species, one of every nonsentient in the menagerie, acquired all the galaxy's surviving great works of art (can be recovered on raids or purchased through auction), successfully completed a large scale contract in every industry, own the top grossing franchise, recognized as a major influence in at least one war (instigator, closer, successfully operated military outpost, completed military research or military construction contract), be in the good graces of a divine being

-Existentialism: Universe about to end. Find inner truth. Express in 12 or fewer words.

-Top of the shit-heap: Every race's government has disbanded. Crime runs rampant throughout the galaxy. You control more than 50% of all galactic wealth. You are the pirate king.




Tech path musings:

All basic research can be completed at an appropriately staffed simple tech lab. Once sufficient progress has been made along any branch of the tech tree, specialized labs will need to be built to continue development.


What will you need for . . .

-Giant robots!
	Refined alloys *
		Mining operations or trade capabilities
		Foundries
		Tech lab (for higher tier alloys)
	Researched and manufactured weapons systems *
		Tech lab
		Weapons lab (for advanced military research) *
		Armaments Fabrication *
	Researched and manufactured armor and shielding *
		Same as above
	Pilot control systems *
	Pilot training facilities
		Military academy (divided into schools for piloting, ground combat, and ops?)
	Construction Yard

-Pirate raids! (conducting your own that is)
	Nearby trade route
		Signal scanners and jammers, other forms of detection and evasion *
	Large scale dock
	Shipyard (if you want to produce your own ships)
		Same construction requirements as above, alloys, weapons, armor
		Also requires ships with large cargo capacity
	Enforcers who will collect your share of the loot
	Strategist to plan long term, large scale raiding(~)

-Attract ambassadors
	Upscale culture (examples)
		Highly rated food establishment
		Functional Opera House
		Host a sports team or arena
		Be an artists patron or acquire a great work of art
		Developed religion
		Maintain local systems communication hub
	Suitable residence
		Exclusive high quality apartments
		Good food
	and Office
	Diplomatic influence
		Good standing with your government
		High influence in your local star system
		On a trade route or in a location of strategic importance
	Certain level of station security

-Intergalactic trade
	Ship capable of long distance journeys/government granted access to local wormholes
		Advanced research into cargo storage for full profit
		Crewed by navigator and merchant
	Escort for travel in unsecure sectors
		Military ships
	Information on market trends in different sectors



Sketch tech tree:
Research along the paths unlocks additional building plans or the next iteration of a currently
known plan, manufacturing blueprints, efficiency improvements, furniture for rooms, or hardware
for ships. Although some researh options can be granted as standard starting tech, they can be
withheld to add challenge to missions until they can be researched. Conversely, do not gate too
much behind research, it will be tiresome.

Station Core Structures
	-Command Structures
		-Bridge
		-Personnel office (recruit agents)
		-Security Center
		-Requisitions Office
		-Intelligence office (sabotage, acquire diplomatic leverage, trade bonuses)
		-Communications
		-AI Core
	-Power Systems
		-Generator types
		-Distribution
			-Wiring
			-Transformers
			-Hardpoints
			-Wireless power transmitter
	-Life Support
		-Environmental Control
		-Atmospheric distributors
		-Atmospheric mixers
		-Temperature Maintenance
		-Fire Control
	-Shielding
		-Hull plating upgrades
		-Hull breach response
		-Auto-defense systems
		-Electromagnetic barrier
	-Maintenance
		-Maintenance and repair probes (final tier: colonies of nanomachines live on outer
		 hull allow breaches/other hull damage to regenerate itself)
		-Structure durability upgrade (requires some sort of mat. science/alloys tech pass?)
		-Construction

Living needs
	-Food Service
		-Raw Materials Processing
		-Cooking and dining
		-Food shops
	-Rest
		-Sleeping quarters and upgrades (based on species type)
		-Hybrid species housing
	-Entertainment and Culture
		-bars
		-music industry and venues
		-athletics training and arenas
		-gambling
		-art schools and museums (holoprojector statuary upgrade!)
		-religious institutions (kinda weird to research, might need to be its own separate
		 system for necessary complexity)
		-brothel? (Startopia love nest style?)


	-Medbay
		-Furniture to treat different illness types, different species
		-Clinics for further disease type specialization (virus, parasite, poisoning . . . )
		-Training schools for different species doctoring


Harvesting
	-Mining
		-Probes and robots
		-Mining lasers
		-Ore haulers
		-Smelting and refining
		-New Alloys
	-Artifacts
		-Astroarchaeology
		-Research and extraction vessel
		-Recovered artifacts are research projects themselves
	-Xenobiology
		-Capture ships
		-Containment
		-Xenolabs/vivisection
		-Menagerie (nonsentient display)
	-Horticulture
		-Buildable farms, greenhouses, and hydroponics centers
		-New plant strains that produce more, can grow in a wider variety of climates
		-Farming probes and machinery



Science
	-Research and lab upgrades
	-Robotics
		-Drones
		-Service Droids
	-AI
		-Programmable, self maintaining sections of station

-Navy
	-Ship types
		-Fighters and scouts
		-Support Ships
		-Battleships and Command vessels
		-Trade vessels
	-Hardware
		-Cargo holds
		-Sensor arrays
		-Weapons array
		-Shields
		-Hull plating
	-Weapons
		-Laser cannons
		-Tech up to plasma, anti-matter, etc.
		-Missile batteries and defenses
	-Other military projects
		-Personal weapons
		-Power armor and mech suits
		-Psionics, mental warfare
		-Training for pilots, engineers, fighters




Priorities:
1. Physical properties. What will collide with what? How to define the vacuum and how to isolate the interior from it.
2. World generation. Defining a map. Populating it with star systems and civilizations. Generating history.
3. Basic construction. How will you expand your station? What will you start with? How are buildings placed?
3.5 Basic tileset
4. Residential, life support, species survival and comfort needs
5. Food, introduce first resources and resource gathering, employment system.
5.5 Health and medbays
un6. Buttons and signals (make objects communicate with other objects)
6. COMBAT
7. Military and government, security, combat missions
8. Basic economy, trade, cargo management
9. Markets, franchises, trade missions, industry
10. Social interaction, satisfaction and dissent
11. Riots, security, criminal and judicial systems
12. Information and espionage, more politics, more business
13. Organized crime




Sample Species Profiles

Name: --
Type: Plant
Diet: Carnivore/Geovore. Does not eat much.
Preferred light level: Dim (2-6) (0 = pitch black 10 = blinding light) (maybe on the numbers)
Preferred temperature: Hot
Attitude: Defensive/Manipulative
Longevity: Short lived (12 cycles) (say average human lifespan is 20 cycles)
Breeding: Releases spores that root in nearest arable land
Traits:
	Grow their own thorny armaments
	Are devout followers of (x) religion
	Are immune to parasitic infection

Stats spread:
Strength (8-10) Speed (8-10) Intelligence (3-8) Dilligence (7-8)



Name: --
Type: Insect
Diet: Carnivore. Contstantly ravenous.
Preferred light level: Bright (6-10)
Preferred temperature: Hot
Attitude: Prideful/Impulsive
Longevity: Clinically immortal, will only die by unnatural causes
Breeding: Does not reproduce
Traits:
	Capable of climbing walls
	Junk hoarders, favorable to sell to
	Occasionally have ancient artifacts

Stats spread:
Strength (4-7) Speed (12-14) Intelligence (6-10) Dilligence (3-4)



Name: --
Type: Energy
Diet: Only eats certain metals, eats very rarely
Preferred light level: Moderate (3-7)
Preferred temperature: Cool to Normal
Attitude: Pacifist/Mercantile
Longevity: Very short (7 cycles)
Breeding: Splitting into prismatic wavelengths (separate entities)
which eventually merge together with others to create new full beings
Traits:
	Thrive on cooperation with other species


Stats Spread:
Strength (5-6) Speed (6-9) Intelligence (11-14) Dilligence (7-9)



Name: --
Type: Humanoid
Diet: Herbivore, Insects
Preferred light level: Moderate (3-7)
Preferred temperature: Warm
Attitude: Cowardly/Logical
Longevity: Long lived (30 cycles)
Breeding: live birth
Traits:
	Capable of flight
	Hosts annual galactic intelligence competition
	In a symbiotic relationship with another species

Stats Spread:
Strength (5-7) Speed (8-12) Intelligence (9-16) Dilligence (6)



Name: --
Type: Humanoid
Diet: Carnivore, herbivore
Preferred light level: Dim to Moderate (1-7)
Preferred temperature: Cold
Attitude: Secretive/Manipulative
Longevity: Nearly human (22 cycles)
Breeding: Egg laying
Traits:
	Very wealthy race, run many businesses and markets
	Leaders of galactic council
	Secretly a race of murderous shapeshifting brainstealers

Stats Spread:
Strength (10-13) Speed (7-10) Intelligence (8-12) Dilligence (7-10)