User Guide

COLONIZING PLANET
CHAPTER 4
63
• Thinker. Thinkers have maximized the computational capacity of their
brains and provide +1 Psych and +3 Labs per thinker. Thinkers require
Mind/Machine Interface, and become obsolete with Secrets of Alpha
Centauri, replaced by Transcendi.
• Transcend. The penultimate stage of human mental evolution, tran-
scendi provide +2 to Economy, +2 to Psych, and +4 to Labs. They
require Secrets of Alpha Centauri and they never become obsolete.
GOLDEN AGE
If a base of size three or greater has no Drones, and the number of Talents is
equal to or greater than the number of Workers, that base enters a “Golden
Age.” For the duration of the Golden Age, the base’s growth rate and energy
production are both enhanced (equivalent to a +2 Growth, +1 Economy on
the Social Engineering screen; see Society Window, p. 136). The Golden Age
ends once there are more Workers than Talents, or if any Drones appear.
DRONE RIOTS
If the number of Drones in your population exceeds the number of Talents,
the result is a Drone Riot, which shuts down the base’s entire research and
production capabilities. If left unchecked, rioting Drones start to destroy facil-
ities, and may even cause a base to defect to a rival faction.
To end a Drone Riot, you can move military units into the base to act as police
(the number of police needed is determined by your Social Engineering choic-
es), adjust your Social Engineering to increase your Psych rating globally (see
Society Window, p. 136), or create Specialists to increase it locally. To avoid
Drone trouble in the long term, there are numerous facilities and Secret Projects,
such as Recreation Commons and The Human Genome Project (see Appendix
2), that increase your Psych rating or suppress Drone activity.
When your faction grows very large, you come to a point where Drone pro-
duction and inefficiency both accelerate dramatically. Beyond this point, extra
Drones may appear due to the difficulty of managing a far-flung empire.