HABITABILITY

METALS

RECAP

Following my taking of a number of planets in this war which have required drastic measures to correct the PM in use which was not going to grow planets of any great size, I have undertaken writing the following guide to Planetary Management. This is a method which I have used with great success, consistently growing planets in the 16,000,000 to 25,000,000 range and if followed will result in planets of a like size for you.

There is nothing scientific about Pitchonomics. You do not need a calculator nor a separate PM program to devise "to the point" PM settings. The best thing about Pitchonomics is its ease of use and the ability (once you become familiar with the game) of varying the PM objectives easily and USUALLY without severe impact to the planets growth. Whether you intend the planet as one grown for size and score or prefer the battle side of SE and desire to grow ships and figs, Pitchonomics allows you the flexibility to grow your planets AND effectively grow your offensive weaponry.

The basic premise behind Pitchonomics is that with a large population base, the support areas of a planet, such as Ship Yards and Armaments, do not require large amounts of the population assigned to them to provide more than adequate Guns, Fighters, and Armaments., thereby allowing you to apply more of the population to Construction, resulting in increased growth and size, which requires less assigned to Ship Yards and Arms, etc...etc...etc...

EXAMPLE:

1.On a 100,000 population planet would require 10% of the population assigned.

2.On a 1,000,000 population planet, only 1% of the population is required.

The need, therefore, is to get the population of your planets "up" as fast as you possibly can. The Pitch method, Pitchonomics, will allow you to do just that..

Beyond a doubt, the Habitability (Hab) of a planet is the most important aspect of planet selection. The Hab of a planet is an indication of how close it is to the "earth" standard and how easy it is for a colonist to establish himself and succeed. Colonists will always migrate to the Higher Hab planets first. The higher the habitability of a planet, the faster the planet will grow and the lower the initial loan charged against the planet to establish the planet (This is the cost of the initial items provided a planet, 1 Gun, 100 troops, housing for the troops and 5000 colonists, transportation to the location, initial factory, shipyards and refineries.)

A key area of Pitchonomics, and a trademark of the system is what I call the Constant Feed Method. Labor sectors within SE are structured in such a manner that workers who are assigned to a Labor Sector may work in a sector requiring a lower skill level if no jobs are available to them in their currently assigned Labor area (as a result of the existing sector Capacity), and there is a position open in the lower skill areas. The skill structure table, listed in order of Most Skill Required to Least Skill Required is as follows:

1.Shipyards

2.Armaments

3.Engineers

4.Service Sector

Mining, Agriculture and Construction LABOR does not fall in the class of SKILLED labor and is therefore excluded from this "trickle-down" of the labor force.

The 4 areas of Skilled labor, with the sole exception of the Service Sector, requires that SOME labor is assigned to the Labor Sector in order for jobs to be available. The MINIMUM that may be assigned to a Labor Sector is .01 (point zero one) The following is an example of HOW you would use the Constant Feed Method:

Industry            % Capacity

Shipyards             1.00

Armaments           0.10

Engineers               10.00

Industry        % Assigned

Shipyards          17.98

Armaments        0.01

Engineers           0.01

Industry         % Employed

Shipyards          1.00

Armaments        0.10

Engineers           10.00

Service Sector    5.00

You can see that even though you didn't assign population to work to the capacity of these labor sectors, they are now employed to capacity. The amount assigned in SY over the Capacity of SY "trickles" over to Armaments until it reaches the Capacity of Arms which "trickles" over to BI to its capacity where it "trickles" over to the Service Sector. The excess then becomes unemployed.

The REASON that you would use this method is that if you were growing Shipyards, for example, you could assign 1% to Shipyards and then constantly adjust the amount you assign to SY as the capacity of shipyards increases, or you do not gain the benefit of the increased shipyards until you do readjust the amount assigned to SY. The Constant Feed Method, as your SY increases, DECREASES the amount assigned to Service Sector (or unemployment if there is any), keeping your SY MAXED and working for you and keeping your BI at MAX working hard at building more SY.

This is the initial Planetary Management screen.

Aries (sm) Stellar Emperor (tm)

Planetary Management (PM)

1. List Owned Planets

2. Modify Planetary Operations

3. Modify Labor Assignments

4. Modify Commodities Stockpiles

5. Modify Ship Building Labor

6. Factory Construction Effort

7. Display Economic Report

8. Print Planetary Report

Reference to these Menu selections will be as PM Option 1 - 8. The following is a brief explanation of each.

1. List Owned Planets

This selection will list all of the planets that you have established and still own.

2. Modify Planet Operations

This selection will allow you to edit the following values:

1 Conscription Rate [0.00 to 100.00%]

2 Mercenary Force [0 to 99999999]

3 Immigration Rate [0 to 99999999]

4 Land Use Tax [0.00 to 100.00%]

5 Distress Radio Channel [0 to 999]

6 Team Access Code [Team Captain Ship Number]

7 Planet Name <______________________>

8 Trade Surplus [0.00 to 300.00]

1) Conscription Rate - This is the DESIRED percent of the population that you assign to be recruited as Mercenaries on your planet during a game year. Mercenaries are needed for the protection of your planet (10 Mercs are required to operate 1 gun) for offensive maneuvers (2 Mercenaries are required to fly a fighter during a planet attack) . During planet landings (the OCC command) Mercenaries are required for the attacking and defensive sides of that action. Mercenaries (more commonly called Troops in space) are further required to put down internal rebellions that occur when there is insufficient food on your planet (Food Riots) or when you run out of metal units on your planet (Looting riots). The number of Mercenaries on your planet will constantly change due to retirements, end of enlistments, old age, accidents, death, migration and etc. Setting this value between 0 (zero) and .04% (point zero four) will cause the number of Mercenaries on your planet to steadily decrease as a result of the aforementioned reasons. The "attrition" rate appears to lie in this area (0 to .04) Setting this value too high will affect planet growth, and MAY or MAY NOT be effective as this is the DESIRED value. I have seen MORE Mercenaries recruited over a given period of time and equally often LESS being recruited. Suffice to say, to a point, the higher the conscription, the more likely that the Mercenary numbers will Increase. Setting this value at anything above .05% (point zero five) will generally cause an increase to occur, the speed of the occurrence depending on the actual Conscription rate. [Hint - to increase your Mercenary levels at a faster rate, make sure that there is a percentage of UNEMPLOYED workers on your planet.]

2) Mercenary Force - This is a value that you set as the limit for the number of troops you

wish to maintain on your planet. Setting this value too low will cause excess troops to be shipped off planet (resulting in a population decrease and metals increase, usually slight if noticed) Setting this value too high will cause an large force to be amassed. A large force has to be paid so increased metals are required. A large force needs to be fed, so increased agriculture is required. A large force has to be housed, thereby taking away housing which "could" be used by construction workers. Consider the information discussed above under Conscription and add to it the following. don jose (9865) has successfully protected his planets from being taken with his famous "troops only" defense (a 6,000,000 planet with 2,000,000 troops present). This could be accomplished before in the game with less troops prior to the TRA command which now allows team members to join forces in attacking a planet. A planet with 500,000 troops can have these troops reduced to 0 in a matter of minutes with a 3 battleship (1000 figs, 10,000 troops) accomplishing a TRA. TRA is the game command whereby you, or another ship can TRAnsfer command or your ship to another player (or they to you) and allows this combination to now attack as one unit [see notes on TRA]

This same attack would take a single battleship a minimum of 6 full loads and a considerable amount of time (over an hour of attacking) to wipe out the Mercenary force. A defending force of 2,000,000 mercenaries is an extremely difficult challenge for a three ship TRA. Using a 5 ship TRA, we were able to reduce a planet with 4,600,000 troops in about 2 hours. Even though this defense takes longer to overcome it still can be accomplished. The problem is that with such a large Mercenary force, the size of your planet will be stunted. A planet having more population and less troops will easily outscore it. You need troops to take with you to attack other planets, so be sure to account for those needs in determining your Mercenary troop totals. [ See Stock Surplus]

3) Immigration Rate - This value governs the amount of immigrants which your planet will

allow to immigrate to it during a game year. Whether an immigrant CHOOSES to immigrate to your planet is governed by the Habitability (HAB) of the planet, the Standard of Living (SOL) of the planet and the available housing on your planet. This value should ALWAYS be set to the maximum, 99999999! Any other setting will limit the growth of the planet.

4) Land Use Tax - Pitchonomics requires that this value ALWAYS is set to 0 (zero)

Previous versions of Stellar Emperor had a need and use for money. The only reason you would require money in this version is to purchase repairs, missiles or torpedoes from team or Imperial bases. You can grow armaments and get repairs for free at your bases. When you tax a base, there is a corresponding increase in government personnel, which are needed to process, perform the taxing, etc., on your planet, which lowers the available work force for Construction. People who tax their planets have lots of money and SMALL planets. Taxes are usually easily available at established, unowned planets. Just orbit the planet and enter TAX.

5) Distress Radio Channel - This option allows you to select a radio channel, from 0 to 999

where the planet will broadcast a call for help when it is under attack. Teams normally have this channel (called the screamer) set to the same radio channel for all the team planets. You set one of your ships radio channels to this frequency so that if any team planet comes under attack, you and all team members that hear the help call can respond and provide team planet protection.

6) Team Access Code - This option allows you to enter the ship number of a Team Captain,

thereby "opening" your bases to all members of that team. (Planets may not be opened to non-team Captains) Team members will be allowed to repair at your bases for a cost to them; purchase torpedoes and missiles (if available) again at a cost to the team member. Setting this to a Team Captains ship further allows individuals to whom the planet is open to see the planets defenses and assess damage taken from an attack. No longer though are teammates allowed to add troops, guns, or fighters to a planet not owned by them. (as in Older SE versions and MegaWars3)

7) Planet Name - Self Explanatory

8) Trade Surplus - This option allows you to tell the planet to manufacture armaments on

your planet over and above your desired planet stockpiles which can then be made available to team members of the team to which you have opened your bases [See Team Access Code]

Setting this value to 100% does not mean that 100% of the manufactured Armaments are to be made available to the team, but rather that an ADDITIONAL amount, equal to 100% of your set stockpiles [See PM Option 4] will be manufactured following the completion of the amount desired for yourself which will then be made available to the team.. i.e. If you have set the Missile Stockpile at 100, 200 missiles would be manufactured. Teammates would not be able to purchase missiles UNTIL the missile total on the planet was OVER 100 missiles. Other settings, based on a 100 stockpile would result in: 50% 50 additional

missiles or 150 total missiles, 200% 200 additional missiles or 300 total missiles.

Trade surplus additionally affects your Mercenary Force totals and your planet GOODS stockpiles. The difference is that teammates cannot draw on these items. Be advised that if you desire a Mercenary total of 1,000,000 and have trade surplus set to 100%, Mercenary recruitment will continue until 2,000,000 Mercenaries are recruited.

3 Modify Labor Assignments

This menu option allows you to edit the labor force assigned to work in the following areas:

1 Service Sector

2 Mining

3 Agriculture

4 Engineers

5 Construction

6 Armaments

7 Military Shipyards

8 Bureaucrats

All of these options may be edited except for Menu Selection 8, Bureaucrats. The number of bureaucrats is determined by the amount of taxes imposed on a planet. If taxes are not imposed, as should be the case in following Pitchonomics, 10% of the population will be assigned as bureaucrats. This is the minimum amount which can be assigned to the bureaucracy. Even here you cannot escape bureaucracy.

1) Service Sector - The service sector is that portion of the work force which provides a service to the population. Examples of Service Sector employment would be fast food establishments, barbers, hair dressers, maids, butlers, the entertainment industry, department stores, appliances, etc. This area has little affect on the growth of a planet. The Standard of Life (SOL) of a planet increases as more of the population are assigned to the Service Sector, an indication that life, life styles, are becoming easier and more enjoyable. Service Sector jobs are generally low skill positions and are cheap and easy to create. The Service Sector is an area which is basically ignored for the first three weeks of a war, but is the single most important labor sector for your final score at the end of the war. Service Sector assigned labor will be at 0 (zero) until the final minutes of a war.

2) Mining - This sector of the Labor force is actually out there swinging a pick, operating diggers, working drills, and out collecting ore to be refined by the Mine Refineries into Metal Units. Mining jobs are non-skilled and any number of people may be assigned to mining (Virtually anyone can swing a pickax) When the amount of recovered ore exceeds the Capacity of the Mining Refineries (this Refinery Capacity is the Capacity related to Mining), excess Ores will result. You have the option of storing these unrefined Ores on your planet [see PM Option 4] or sell them off planet at a reduced price. The selling of these ores occurs automatically once stored ores exceeds the Surplus Stockpile value you have set under PM Option 4. It is important that you note the distinction between Ores and Metal Units. Ores, are the unrefined product of Mining. Metal Units are the Product of refining the Ore. Metal Units are the Money of Stellar Emperor and Ores are a commodity.

3) Agriculture - This sector of the Labor Force grows the food required by the planet. Agriculture jobs are non-skilled. Anyone can hoe a row, or pick tomatoes. Food is an important aspect of Stellar Emperor PM and should be watched carefully. There are two primary indications that you have an inadequate number of workers assigned to Agriculture. The first indication you may see is the establishment of and the automatic assigning of workers to Hydroponics. Hydroponics are only employed when the food on hand is inadequate to feed the planet. The second indication is of a more serious nature, and indicates that not only do you have an inadequate percentage of the population assigned to Agriculture, the Hydroponics are unable to provide the needed food quantities and all planet stockpiles have been exhausted. This indication comes in the form of messages to you reporting to occurrence of "Food Riots"

It is virtually impossible to kill a planet through a lack of food, but you may incur delays in planet growth until Hydroponics can grow to the point of being able to handle the food need requirement. Klunker (8629) successfully grew "HUGE" planets., without ever having Agriculture assigned, having allowed the Hydroponics to take up the deficit food requirement. [Additional options discussed under initial PM]

4) Engineers - Engineers (BI) the single most important Labor sector in Stellar Emperor. BI creates the jobs for Shipyards, Armaments, Service Sector, Mining Refineries and Engineers by building plants, production facilities, malls, etc., thereby increasing the Capacity of these Labor Sectors.. A planet with out BI does not grow, because the incoming immigrating population quickly exceeds the Capacities of these work areas causing unemployment, lowering the SOL, and making the population unhappy. The more population working in BI, the faster the Capacities of the named sectors will increase. The trick is to have adequate BI for sustained growth in the Capacities of all of the sectors you desire, without having to assign a large percentage of the population to BI which will affect your planet's growth. BI is a skilled labor sector which requires extensive training. Engineers jobs are costly and time consuming to create.

5) Construction - Construction builds the houses in which the population live. The population resides in constructed housing at a ratio of about 1.3 to 1.5 individuals per house. Mercenaries require 1 house for every 2.6 to 3.0 Mercenaries. You cannot have planet growth if housing is not available to them. You should always maximize the construction labor force. More construction means more housing,. More housing means more population. More population means more in construction. Construction is a non-skilled labor sector. All population assigned to Construction will immediately be put to work building houses.

6) Armaments - Armaments (Arms) is the sector which builds probes, missiles and torpedoes for your planet. Armaments is a skilled work sector and creating new jobs are timely and costly. Armaments are manufactured in the following order: Probes, missiles and then torpedoes. The Arms factories have to be "re-tooled" (by the planet) to manufacture a particular armament. All Probes will be built first, then all missiles and finally all torpedoes. The number of these items produced is determined by the stockpile setting you have made [see PM Option 4] and the Stock Surplus setting you have made [see PM Option 2] I advise that, at least initially, if you are growing armaments, that you set your probe stockpile low, missiles slightly higher and torpedoes a little higher still. Once you have grown some of these items, you can change your Stockpile settings to allow for the manufacture of additional arms. Setting probes for 100 with a Trade surplus of 300% means that 400 probes will have to be built before even one missile can be built. Initial settings I use are Probes:1, Missiles:5, Torpedoes:100, and Trade Surplus 300%.

7) Military Shipyards - The Military shipyards (SY) manufacture Guns, Fighters, and Ships. This is a skilled labor sector and jobs are timely and costly to create. Military Shipyards has its own PM menu [see PM Option 5] which allows you to allocate the workers assigned to Military Shipyards, thereby allowing for simultaneous manufacturing of Guns and/or Fighters and/or Ships.

8) Bureaucrats - The government. This is a non-skilled sector. Any one can be a politician.

3. Modify Commodity Stockpiles

This menu option allows you to set the amount of the following named items you wish to have stored on your planet:

1 Ore

2 Consumer Goods

3 Agriculture

4 Probes

5 Missiles

6 Torpedoes

1) Ore - This is ore that has been mined and not yet processed by the mining refineries. This should always be set to 9999999 so that if your mining should exceed the capabilities of your refineries, the ore will be available to you once you have managed to get your refinery capacity above the level of the ore being mined.. Setting this to 0 (zero) causes the ore which cannot be refined to be sold off planet at a severely reduced rate. Setting this value to 100 would stockpile 100 units of ore plus the amount determined by your Trade Surplus Setting, selling off the amount which exceeded that amount.

2) Consumer Goods - These are items which have been produced by your Service Sector (plastic trinkets, etc) I normally leave this set at 0, as excess goods here are of no use, but if sold off planet will generate some revenue. [See Low Metal PM] This area is affected by the Trade Surplus Setting.

3) Agriculture - Food stockpiles. You will note that on establishing the planet, there is a preset stockpile of 1000 units. You should set this to maximum (9999999) as during the final stages of the game, you will move all of the population you can into the Service Sector (maximum would be 90% as 10% has to remain in the bureaucracy) and with no one assigned to Agriculture, no food will be produced . Not having any stockpiled food would force a portion of the population to start working on Hydroponics, lowering your score by taking population out of the Service Sector. While the Hydroponics are being built up, there will further be a portion of your population that will starve or otherwise die off in the resulting riots. This area is affected by the Trade Surplus Setting.

4, 5, and 6) Probes, Missiles and Torpedoes - These are a matter of personal preference. Once your stockpile requirements are met (too include trade surplus) armaments will continue to be produced as long as a labor force is assigned to Armaments. These additional items of these will sold off planet and will add to the planets revenues.

5) Modify Ship Building Labor

This option allows you to allocate the efforts of the Military Shipyard Labor Force activities. This menu is a further breakdown of Work Effort for the Labor Force you have assigned to Military Shipyards. The 100% referred to on this menu is 100% of the percentage of labor actually working in the shipyards from PM Option 3. You allocate this labor force into the following areas:

1 Fighters

2 Surface Guns

3 Transports

4 Destroyers

5 Cruisers

6 Battle Cruisers

7 Battleships

The manufacturing of any of these items requires a number of individuals working a length of time to accomplish the task. The number assigned to SY labor will determine how quickly a given item will take to produce. For example, if it takes 1 man 10 days to build a fighter, it will take 10 men 1 day to build that same fighter. . Time to manufacture an item can be severely shorted the more workers you have assigned firstly to Shipyards and secondly to the required task.

The items listed above are listed from the cheapest and least time consuming to create, fighters, down to the most time consuming and costly to manufacture, Battleships.

6) Factory Construction Effort

This is the area where the majority PM'rs make their biggest mistakes. The factory construction effort is how you allocate the Engineers (BI) workforce so that the Capacities of the Skilled Labor Sectors may be maintained and or increased. Here, you will divide 100% of the BI Labor force into the following areas:

1 Service Sector

2 Mining Refineries:

3 Engineers

4 Armaments

5 Shipyards

These areas are structured from the area requiring the least amount of skill, cost and time in order to build a facility, creating and STAFFING the job, the Service Sector (How much skill does it take to ask "You want fries with that?" ) down to Shipyards, which require extensive training and specific facilities in order to produce the sophisticated, highly tuned craft we fly, the fighters we use to attack planets and the precision guns we use to protect our planets. This menu option will be discussed in more detail later when I provide the various PM settings.

7) Display Planetary Report

Use this option to check on the progress of your planet and to assess the result of PM modifications. This report is formatted for display on your terminal.

The following is an explanation of the report format. The information is the same for displayed or printed reports:

Economic Report For <Planet name> <System.Planet>

Elapsed Days: XXX.XX Number of game days since you last viewed a report on this planet.

Growth

Current Population Self Explanatory

Current Change +/- change since last report

Current Rate Percentage presentation of the change

Team Access This is the ship number of the team Captain of the team you have opened your planets too.

Current Mercenaries Self Explanatory

Mercenaries Change +/- change since last report

Mercenaries Rate Percentage presentation of the change

Distress Ch: This is the channel on which the planet will call for help

Current Houses Self Explanatory

Houses Change +/- change since last report

Houses Rate Percentage presentation of Change

Current Metal Stock Amount of processed ore available to the planet to be used to pay for job creation, troops, etc.

Change Metal Stock +/- change since last report

Rate Metal Stock Percentage presentation of change

Immigration Rate you currently have Immigration set too.

Conscription Current DESIRED troop recruitment level

Max. Troops Maximum level of troops you want on your planet.

Housing Habitability: Ratio of Population to Houses usually 76-81%

Standard of Living: (SOL) Numeric presentation of the standard of life, based on the Norm being 100%. A planet can accept

a SOL of as low as 19% without rioting, but may do

so at lower SOLs. Typical EndGame SOLs are more than 250%.

The following holds true for Hydroponics , Agriculture, Service Sector, Mining, Engineers, Armaments, Ship Yards, and Construction :

Industry Name of Labor Sector

Employed Number of workers YOU assigned to the labor sector <numeric>

Capacity Number of workers that CAN be employed <Numeric>

Change +/- Change in workers within a sector <Numeric>

Growth Rate Percentage change indicated as growth

Labor Allocation Percentage of Population YOU assigned to a Labor Sector

Actual Employment Percentage of Population ACTUALLY employed in the sector

Capacity Percentage Percentage of Population that COULD be employed in the Sector

Construction

Effort Factory Construction Effort you have assigned <percentage>

Tax Rate: Rate you are taxing the Planet

Unemployment Percentage of the Planets population, not employed

Tax Amount of tax that has been collected on the planet

COMMODITY [Stockpiles]

The following information pertains to Probes, Missiles, Torpedoes, Metal Ore and Food:

On Hand Self Explanatory

Stock Desired Amount Set in PM Option 4

The following information pertains to Fighters, Guns, Transports, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battle Cruisers and Battle Ships:

On Hand Self Explanatory

Labor Labor set in PM Option 5 (Military Shipyards)

Trade Surplus Trade surplus set in PM Option 2

8. Print Planetary Report

Planetary Operations

Commodity Setting

Factory Settings Percent Alternate

The Midgame lasts for the middle two weeks of the war. During this time that you should consolidate your offensive and defensive capabilities (major planet attacks, grow large ships, etc) and during the third week of the war, prepare for the Endgame. The Midgame PM is primarily concerned with PM Options 3 (Modify Labor Assignments) and 6 (Factory Construction Effort.)

EndGame is the final week of the war. Your objective at this time is to MAXIMIZE your Service Sector (SS) Capacity by 1 hour prior to the End Of The War. A minimum of 90% SS Capacity is required for maximum points at EndGame.

On the last Saturday before the End of the War: [5-6 days before End Of War]

Raise your Engineers Labor (assigned) to 15% (The minimum obtained during week 3). You can use the constant feed method to assign this labor.

Raise your Mining Labor (assigned) by 1-2% and monitor your Metal Stock closely. The increased BI and surge in SS job creation will draw heavily on your Metal Stock. Adjust Mining accordingly to meet the increased Metals demand..

Re-Allocate your Factory Construction Effort to 95% in Service Sector and 5% in Mining refineries.

Monitor the Service Sector Capacity. Once 100% is obtained, you can re-allocate this effort, lower your assigned BI and Mining Labor and return to planet growth. Always maintain the Service Sector capacity at a level above 95% and you will not have a problem with your End Game score. Only 90% is required, but by having 100% you can allow for continued planet growth.

The last action you will take during a war is to re-allocate your population into the Service Sector in PM Option 3. Your Service Sector Capacity should be greater than the necessary 90% (only 90% is required as you cannot re-allocate the 10% assigned to the Bureaucracy) , but if it is not, maximize the amount you can assign to SS, placing the remaining amount into Agriculture. You must do this approximately 30 minutes before the end of the war or your foodstocks may run out, and as this action is time consuming (it will take you about 5 minutes per planet to make the re-adjustment) you want to be sure that you can complete the change prior to the End of the War. Typical Standard of Life values will be 240% to 275% .

End of Pitchonomics -

Extra Options