Welcome Back to the Boden Project
In this part of the introduction to Boden Project, we'll discuss the harsh reality of living in space, and how that affects all of the resources discussed in the previous articles, (Part 1 can be read here: Indiedb.com, Part 2 can be read here: Indiedb.com).
The last article covered the last of the resources that you must managed as steward of your own Project, including, Population, Food, Power, Materials, Science, and Happiness. This article will outline some of the adversarial elements of colonising the stars, all of which can bring your Project's time to an end.
Like Tears in Rain
As a Population grows, more Food and Power are needed to sustain them. But when those necessities aren't met, then your Population will become Unhappy. This occurs when a Population Centre's Happiness goes into the negative and this can be the slow death of your Project if not remedied.
Negative Happiness is generated through three key ways, the first being lack of food. As described earlier and in Part 1 (https://www.indiedb.com/games/boden-project/news/welcome-to-the-boden-project-part-1), a Population will require Food to sustain themselves. So a level 3 Population will need 3 Food and 3 Power to be content. Any number under that will add -1 Happiness for each level under the requirement. This means that a Population that has 0/3 Food will have -3 Happiness.
The second way is through lack of power. Lack of Power affects Happiness in the same way that a lack of Food affects it. Any number under the necessary Power requirement will add -1 Happiness for each level under the requirement. This means that a Population that has 0/3 Power will have -3 Happiness.
The third and final way is through overcrowding. Every 15 seconds, a Population Centre will increase its Population Level. Every 5 Population Levels are confined to a Population Centre's Level, meaning a Level 1 Population Centre can only house a Level 5 Population at maximum. If the Population tries to increase above that maximum then negative Happiness is generated until the Population Centre gets upgraded.
It's Getting Hot in Here
A more pressing threat to your Project is heat. As you work on a Sector on your Project, every building placed on that sector is slowly heating up. When a building begins to approach critical temperature massive walls of heat will begin to appear around its tile. When a building's temperature hits 100 then the building will begin to overheat. If the Sector isn't changed in time then overheated buildings will tear themselves apart and get destroyed, taking precious resources away from your Population Centre. Buildings can only cool down if the active sector is changed so ensure you have enough resources to continue building in the next sector.
Onward to Victory!
Your Project, ultimately, has an end goal to achieve: to show that humanity can survive the harshness of space. The way that is achieved is through having your Project survive for a set number of years, that is displayed as days. When your Project reaches a lifetime of the set goal then your Project was successful, but there is something to stop that progress in its tracks.
If a Population Centre has two of the following; Lack of Food, Lack of Power, or -5 Happiness, then it will become Unhappy. If a majority of the Population Centres on a sector are Unhappy then a Dark Day will be counted. Dark Days signify that the Population was unhappy, and if that happens too frequently then your Project will be considered a failure. The Dark Days required for failure is half of that of your Project's Lifetime goal.
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