Star Lords Manual - Planetary Structures
Basic
Structures
Farms
Mining
Factories
Planetary
Defenses
Power Plants
Star
Bases
Advanced Structures
Atmospheric
Generator
Clone Factory
Entertainment
Facility
High-tech
Farm
Outpost
Planetary
Shield Generator
Remote
Mining Factory
Remote
Robotic Mining Factory
Star
Gate
Any race's homeworld will begin the game with a substantial infrastructure: farms to feed the population, factories to mine and process alloys and energy crystals, planetary defenses to guard the world, power plants to power all of this, and a starbase floating overhead. Newly colonized worlds will need time and resources to build themselves to a level at which they can make a contribution to the rest of the empire. This section gives a basic overview of the various structures and their uses to a world.
When selecting new structures for construction, a single click will add one structure. Clicking while holding down shift will add five structures. Holding down Ctrl while clicking will build ten structures, and holding down Alt while clicking will build one hundred. The time required to build the structures will be listed, and the planet's free workforce will be reduced. The resources necessary for construction will not actually be spent until the turn is processed, however, allowing you to change the amounts of structures being built or their priority in the queue before the resources are actually used up.
Structures require upkeep, both in the form of money to maintain the structure and population to operate it. In many cases the upkeep costs are actually more than the initial construction costs. Be careful to not overbalance your economy by building more structures than it can support.
Normal farms are one of the most basic structures. No alloys or energy crystals are required for their construction - merely money and a workforce (the insectians need merely a workforce to cover a planet with farms if they wish). Each farm will produce a variable amount of food depending on the world's soil level and the race's farming technological level.
Mining factories are necessary to mine alloys and energy crystals from the planet's crust and process them for use. Each factory mines a variable amount of alloys and crystals (if present on the world) depending on the mineral density of the planet and a race's mining technological level. Alloys and energy crystals are not renewable resources. As a world's mineral density drops each factory will produce less and less alloys and crystals. Because of this it may eventually become possible to scrap some factories to make room for more structures without seriously affecting the rate that minerals are processed. Once a world is completely mined out (which may not occur in the time span of a game) there is no longer any reason to keep factories, and they may be scrapped for funds.
Planetary defenses include bunkers and barracks designed to repel a surface attack and hangers to house ground-based fighters. The number of marines garrisoned on the planet is shown on the main planetary display and will grow with each new defensive structure built. These marines will defend against any enemy troops attempting to land on the world. Planetary defenses will also defend the planet from space attack by launching fighters to intercept enemy ships. The number of fighters available is dependant on the number of defense structures present on the planet. Due to the limited range of ground-based fighters, they can only be deployed if enemy vessels are attacking the planet itself - friendly fleets orbiting the world cannot expect to be protected by the fighters. Planetary defenses may be expensive, but they can make an invading enemy's work much more difficult for them.
Power plants provide the energy needed to operate other structures. One power plant can provide enough energy to run ten other structures. If you do not have enough power plants to power new structures, none will be available on the construction menu. Power plants use energy crystals to produce their energy, so a good supply of crystals is necessary to keep plants running.
Although you have all the technology needed to construct a starbase at the beginning of the game, constructing one is a major undertaking, requiring vast amounts of resources. Each world may only have a single starbase in orbit. Starbases construct starships, and also act as defensive units for a planet. More details on starbase operations are supplied in their own rules section.
All of the following structures cannot be built by a beginning player - they require higher technological levels in one or more areas.
Requires Artificial Environment level 6, Construction level 7, Power Generators
level 6
An atmospheric generator allows any world's atmosphere to be adjusted
to what your race finds most comfortable. It takes some time to operate,
and the generator must remain in place after the change is complete or the planet's
atmosphere will slowly revert to its original condition.
Requires Genetics level 5
Clone factories can provide a boost to a planet's
population growth, allowing a new colony world to quickly become a useful part
of the empire, or an established colony to colonize other worlds with less effect
on its own workforce.
Requires Computers Tech Level 3
Entertainment facilities are structures
which provide amusement and diversion for the population of a world. Building
an entertainment facility will have an immediate benefit on planetary morale
for the races that are concerned with such things (the humans and predatorians).
Requires Farming level 4
High-tech farms are more expensive than normal
farms, but have several advantages. They are self-contained, and so produce
the same food regardless of the planet's soil level. This can be either
an advantage or disadvantage, of course.
Requires Artificial Environment 5, Construction 5
An outpost is a series
of self-contained city that allows up to 50 million colonists to live on a world
that would normally not be colonizable. This allows support on the world
of up to ten non-remote structures (such as farms, factories, and power plants).
Outposts will also assist starships in orbit in repairs. Like remote
mines, they are built by Engineering ships.
Requires Power Generators level 3
Using the same force-field technology
utilized on starships, the planetary shield generator helps to protect a world
from invasion. No enemy ships may land troops until the shield generators
are destroyed.
Requires Artificial Environment level 3, Construction level 3
A remote
mining factory is a sealed mine with its own atmospheric controls which allow
the miners to live in a normally hostile environment. They are built on
worlds not normally colonizable by your race. There will be no population
growth on such a world, as the mining factory will be constructed with its maximum
population (all workers at the mine). Aside from upkeep costs, the mine
is self supporting, requiring no outside food or energy. Engineering ships
can construct them on any world.
Requires Computers level 4, Construction level 4, and Power Generators level
4
Remote robotic mining factories are an advance over the Remote mining factory
- they require no living workers at all. They are much more efficient
than remote mines, and require no upkeep or further support. Robotic factories
are, like Remote Mining Factories, constructed by Engineering ships.
Requires Artificial Environment, Computers, Construction, Power Generators,
Hulls and Warp all at level 9
A star gate is one of the possible paths to
victory in Star Lords. Any race which can build a star gate and defend
it for 32 turns wins the game, as all other races will acknowledge them as technologically
superior and worthy of obedience.