Manual:Game Mechanics/Developments

Development Points
Your race begins with 16 DP (Development Points) to divide between the various aspects of development. This will define your race's technological developments. At the start of each turn, players will receive 1 additional DP to spend amongst their developments. NOTE: You can 'save up' DP to spend in future turns, this becomes important when you need to reach new levels of development as the DP cost to improve them begins to increase.

Reverse Engineering
Your race will likely come across alien technology they wish to duplicate. To do so, you require a fully functional system on a world (or a ship/station with a science lab). The amount of time required to reverse engineer is based on the level of the tech.

Tech that is more than 2 levels higher than your own: This technology is far too advanced for your people to understand, reverse engineering is not possible. Tech that is 1-2 levels higher than your own: Reverse engineering will be difficult, but will provide invaluable knowledge to your people. Reverse engineering will take 1 full turn and provide up to 2 ranks in that field (example, reverse engineering ship shields would provide up to 2 ranks in ship shields for you). These bonus ranks cannot push you to a total beyond the rank of the tech being reverse engineered, and an individual example of a technology cannot be reverse engineered more than once by a race.

Tech that is less than 1 level higher than your own: Reverse engineering will be easy, your people already understand the basic concepts behind this technology. Reverse engineering will take 0.5 turns and provide 1 rank in that field, though this cannot push you to a total beyond the rank of the tech being reverse engineered. You can also reverse engineer tech traits, though these are far harder to duplicate. As with other tech, you require access to something that bears the trait (this allows a player who has conquered an alien world to possibly reverse engineer developmental traits). The time it takes to reverse engineer the trait is based on the level of the trait and your race's aptitude with that field of development. Base time required: 1 turn/level of the trait.

If your race is not at least level 2 in that field of technology/development, you cannot reverse engineer traits from that category. If your race is at level 3 in that field of technology/development, you may reduce the required time to reverse engineer the trait by 1 turn (to a minimum of 1 turn).

Ranks and Levels
The game starts at the first tech (technology) level, essentially a bit ahead of modern day Earth. Each development aspect has a rank, which defines how well developed the aspect is. Aspects have four ranks per Level. When a category has reached the fourth rank, you need to invest in a higher level category to develop further. For example, your species has mastered the first level of Economics with rank 4, after investing a total of 4 DP. To develop further in Economics, you will need to invest in level 2, which will cost 2 DP per rank instead of just 1.

Technologies
As your people advance their developments, they may find unique ways to apply their new-found developments in unexpected ways. You pick a single level 1 technology for each related development you have at least 1 rank in. At level 2, you gain a level 2 technology. At level 3, you gain a level 3 technology and either a level 1 or another level 2 technology.

You may opt to pick a technology of a lower level than the one you would normally receive (taking say, another level 2 instead of a level 3 or a level 1 instead of a level 2).

Breakthroughs
Breakthroughs are similar to tech traits but develop suddenly when different development and tech elements combine into whole new forms of technology. Any race that reaches the appropriate ranks and level requirements of the breakthroughs automatically gain those effects. NOTE: These cannot be reverse engineered directly, and require a race to fully develop all aspects of the technology before being able to develop it on their own.

Breakthroughs can also be created that provide special technology or abilities that cannot be duplicated by other species. These develop primarily through role-play, but certain aspects of a race's technology/actions/etc may cause such breakthroughs to be developed. These should generally be limited to 1/era, and should be relatively balanced compared to similar traits and breakthroughs.