The GovBot is a Transplanetary League construct that serves two purposes:
It’s a sequence of tasks that a group of planetary pioneers can use to establish a township on a new planet, and;
It enables the tools that the government of that new township will need to maintain and grow the planet going forward.
Citizenship
Players may (optionally) become citizens of a specific planet. To do so, go to the GovBot on a planet, access the kiosk and choose to become a citizen there.
If you are already a citizen on another planet, you’ll have to renounce that citizenship first before you can become a citizen elsewhere.
You cannot access any other GovBot functionality until you become a citizen of that planet.
The First Mission
GovBots have levels, and they start at level 1. To move to the next level, the citizens of that planet must rally together to bring resources and Klaatu to the GovBot. Once they Deposit enough materials and currency in the GovBot, the mission will complete and new functionality will be unlocked for the township.
The first goal is to unlock a Missions Kiosk for the planet.
When the first mission is completed, the Mayor will be notified of the community’s success and the next mission will automatically begin.
GovBot Missions
After the initial Missions Kiosk is unlocked, successive missions unlock the ability for a township to have its own:
Tools shop
Public crafting stations
Planetary bank
University (skills kiosk)
Planetary ecology console
ReLife facilities
Title shop
Missions that will become available later (after further development) will include:
Power facility
Theater
Spaceport
Vehicle garage
Teleportation hub
Mission Rewards
Citizens will earn Citizenship Points (CP) as they contribute to the current mission, and CP may be redeemed for bonuses as you go. There are currently two kinds of rewards you can earn by spending your CP:
Learning Engrams: These items are consumable and when used, they increase the rate at which you earn XP for whatever tasks you are doing for the next 15 minutes.
Skill Chits: These items allow you to zero out the cost of a skill unlock at the Skills Kiosk. They are auto-consumed when you unlock a skill if they exist in your inventory.
These mission rewards are tradable between characters. The largest contributor (most CP added) to a task also earns special titles available only to that set of overachiever players. The more times you become the major contributor, the more titles you can unlock.
The First Mayor
A Mayor controls the laws for the planet. The first Mayor for the new township is always the largest contributor on the First Mission.
Is that Mayor going to be in that role forever? Not necessarily. (See “Voting” below.)
The Mayor can utilize the Klaatu that have been contributed during missions to unlock Zoning Lots, acquire Township Kiosks, and also can set general laws for the planet.
Voting
After a Mayor exists on the planet, every citizen has one vote they can cast for the next Mayor.
Every two (real-world) weeks, a new election occurs. A simple majority of votes decides who wins.
When a Mayor is elected, all player votes are automatically changed so they vote for that Mayor. This is intentional and favors the incumbent staying in power unless the citizens of that planet rally together and decide on a change.
To change your vote, just go to the GovBot, choose the Voting option, and change your vote from the current Mayor to another citizen instead. When the next election occurs, the majority winner becomes the new Mayor.
NOTE: If you absolutely do not want to be Mayor, there is a toggle next to your name allowing you to opt out of any future elections.
Mayoral Abilities
The Mayor is the great organizer of options for the township, but a good Mayor will often recognize that it’s easier to get stuff done by working with others.
Additionally, a planet that is ripped up, is poorly coordinated, or is just generally unappealing is unlikely to attract many citizens, and without citizens, the government will never progress.
So it’s up to the Mayor to make things happen. Here are the tools the Mayor uses to do those things.
Zoning Lots
Zoning lots are, in effect, exactly like Homesteads, but they belong to the township, not to an individual.
The current Mayor always has edit privileges on all Zoning Lots. The Mayor may also set editing privileges allowing other players to edit those Zoning Lots.
All Zoning Lots have greatly increased permission settings. Each of the following options can be set to either “Owner only” (in this case, that’s the Mayor), “Citizen only”, a specific list of designated people, or “Anyone”. The permissions that can be set on that Zoning Lot are:
Mining
Lumbering
Chronophasing
Paving
Building
Burning
Farming
A clever Mayor can not only set up Zoning Lots for specific types of buildings (allowing groups of selected players to take on construction projects), but can also use Zoning Lots to protect parklands, designate roadways, etc.
Upgrades
As the community completes missions, various kiosks become available to add to the township. The Klaatu that was contributed during those missions is stored in the GovBot and the Mayor can access those funds to purchase Kiosks and to purchase Zoning Lots. These are collectively called “Upgrades” and are accessed via the GovBot.
Kiosks
The Mayor may purchase as many kiosks as desired and those can be placed on any Zoning Lot on the planet. That kiosk is added to their inventory and is placed using the Fabricator. They may be traded.
Zoning Lots
The Mayor can also purchase Zoning Lots. A Zoning Lot object appears in their inventory and can be placed (like a Homesteader object) anywhere on the planet. Zoning Lot objects may be traded.
Global Permissions
The Mayor may also set global permissions for the planet. These include:
The ability to personally approve citizenship applications
To allow voting (yes, the Mayor can decide to be a dictator and not allow elections!)
Setting permissions for specific citizens
Adding titles to citizens (for example, if the Mayor wants to designate a council)
Building permissions (allowing/disallowing building)
Mining permissions (allowing/disallowing mining)
The ability to spend GovBot funds on Zoning Lots or kiosks
Other Improvements
A lot of our focus this sprint was on the GovBot, but other improvements were made also. Here’s a list:
The wild wormholes are going to close for a bit. (Don't worry, they will return in the future!)
You will have four regular planets to play on. After a while, the least used is going to be lost as the Servitors destroy the portal and point it at a new world. It's going to be down to your activity to determine which that is.
We are doing this because we need to test the dynamic for the later game. We will not be packing up your homesteads automatically, but we WILL be fixing your used homestead count when it happens.
The great flora conversion is finally completed. We’ll do one last flora wipe this time and then leave it alone in the future (hopefully!)
There are a few new furniture pieces! A couple of stools, two end tables, a table, a barrel and a canister. This is just a start. A new “Furniture Set” is available for unlock in the Architect skill tree and the pieces are made at the Lathe.
We added some curved wall pieces to the game also. Large and small curves for walls, windows, ceilings and floors are added to a new “Curved Set” available for unlock in the Architect skill tree.
Crafting stations and the Ecology Kiosk no longer exist at planetary portals. (You have to earn them via GovBot now.) The ReLife station is still there and you can still refit, of course. So be sure to use your Camps!
Chef and Medic have been added as titles in the Title Shop.
Enabled temporal anti-aliasing to create cleaner rendering.
Added a placeholder map page (it doesn’t function yet but people kept asking if we were going to have a map…and the answer is yes.)
/camp has been removed from the game. If your character gets stuck in the world somehow, use the /stuck command to get moved to the surface instead.
The Refinery is part of the Camp3 skill node upgrade now and will be placed when you place a camp after unlocking that skill node.
Fixed an error with the Terraformer that made its extraction mode underpowered.
The Bank now holds 100 items (instead of 60)
The Homestead Crates now hold 25 items (instead of 10)
Terraformer and Chronophaser were improved in effect, buffing them somewhat regardless of PQRV stats. (All stats are lifted equally.)
Mining tailings in space now evaporate over time.