Oolite Bulletins

I've been wondering lately about whether the numbers on the system description page (F7) stands up to close analysis. (This is merely a brain dump. I'm not planning any OXPs around this).

Edit: Originally I was going to explore the actual numbers but my brain has degenerated this train of thought into a proposed behaviour of Police in response as a function of Government, GDP, Population size and species.

We are given the following attributes for each system (there are others, but I believe these are most relevant to the discussion):

• Economy
• Government
• Tech Level
• Population size
• Population species
• Gross Productivity

Starting with this information, can we make predictions that agree with the what we see in game?

There are some obvious conclusions that can be drawn immediately. Economy has a direct bearing on the market, Government has a direct bearing on the pirate population, and Tech Level has a direct bearing on the ships and equipment available in the Shipyard. What of Population and Gross Productivity? I haven't noticed whether low population systems have empty shiplanes, I haven't noticed whether species has an effect, and I'm not sure what, if any effect GDP will have on in-game events.

My initial thoughts are that GDP would impact the Police Viper population. Rich systems would have more to spend on in-system security, so you would expect a relative increase in police presence. Having said that, would it be reasonable to presume that a combination of Government and Species have an impact on the behaviour of the police?

Government Type

Corporate State - while being considered safest, should they really be? If we take a terrestrial multi-national company as a real-world analogue, I can't imagine any company doing anything that is not first and foremost in the best interest of its shareholders. Therefore, if you're a lone trader doing business not directly associated with the Corporate State, the police service would be a user-pays system at the most (that could be an interesting combat mechanic - do you pay off the pirates, or wait for the bill from the police, or in unfortunate circumstances, pay both?), or the police would ignore your plight entirely. Of course, if you have already been granted a licence to do business in the Corporate State, then police assistance would be a given.

Democracy - oddly enough, I'd expect Corporate State and Democracy to be a polar opposite to the Corporate State, in spite of the fact that they are both at the safe end of Government types. I'd expect a Democracy to be more attuned to the wants of its society. Depending on the species type, the level of assistance given by police would vary. Felines would probably be stand-offish and let you suffer, while some of the hive-minded and avian species (I'm thinking flocks of birds here), would probably swarm to your defence.

Confederacy - (I had to look up a definition of Confederation to get a feel for what would be expected). A loose alliance of political units. This suggests to me that any response could be varied in nature (depending on whose on guard duty), or could be slow in response (gotta cover the red tape before proceeding). At the very least, though, you can guarantee a response, even if it is too little too late.

Communist - How would a Communist state respond to the plight of a non-member? My guess is not very strongly. There would have to be a species modifier applied here but I would probably take a leaf out of Sid Meiers book here and postulate that Communist government, while they have absolute power, will lose a lot of effect through internal corruption and inefficiency. Bottom line is a Rich Democracy's response would be stronger than a Rich Communist.

Dictatorship - A famous example of a dictatorship today would be North Korea. We've seen what they do to interlopers (i.e. imprison or kill them). What about the possibility of benign dictatorships? i.e. a supreme ruler that gets the fact that it's the people that allow them to stay in power. This would again come down to the will of the people (species). A gregarious species would lend assistance, whereas the felines (disclosure: I'm a cat owner ) would probably be happy to watch you suffer.

Multi-Government - at first this seems to be similar to Confederacy. Given the Multi-Government's position towards the unsafe end of the spectrum, I'd suggest that this indicates the presence of a state of civil war bubbling near the surface. What does this say, then about police response - most of the police would likely be committed to internal conflicts, so any police response would be weak at best. In addition, there would need to be multiple police types, depending on the faction that is responding. It would also follow that you could find yourself in a situation where police from different factions respond, and begin attacking each other instead - resulting in a 4-way battle: you, the pirates, police faction 1, police faction 2.

Feudal - I keep falling back to a Monarchy model when I think of Feudal states. I guess I'm being influenced by the Feudal States OXP. In-game, Feudal systems have a maximum tech level of 9, so I'd suggest that they don't have access to the best equipment. Should there be any Feudal Police Vipers at all? In terms of response to a pilot under attack, response would probably depend on if the pilot is a noble. It could be argued that the guards (I don't think that 'Police' would be an appropriate term) would only have the interests of their direct employers in mind - making them similar to a low-tech version of Corporate State Police. I don't think these guards would be for hire, though. They would more likely ignore you unless you are in the employ of a noble.

Anarchy - i.e. no government, therefore no police presence. You might get lucky and encounter a good samaritan. The pirate behaviour would be a function of the population species (more on this below).

Species modifiers

There are a total of 9 base species available:

• Birds
• Felines
• Frogs
• Human Colonials
• Humanoids
• Insects
• Lizards
• Lobsters
• Rodents

Human Colonials are the most prolific (comprising around 50% of the total systems) so I'll treat Human Colonials as the 'middle-of-the-road' example. I think it reasonable to assume that the species type will have most influence on the combat style, with combat style ranging from a swarming attack with many low powered ships, to a solo attack only from a position of strength.

To that end I'd suggest the following spectrum ranging from swarm attack to solo attack

• Insects - predisposed to swarming attacks with low-powered craft. Individual casualties are not as important as the end result.
• Rodents
• Birds
• Frogs
• Lobsters
• Human Colonials - most likely to attack as part of a team, with each team member defending each other.
• Humanoids
• Lizards (snakes / reptiles) - prefers single-strike, overpowered attack
• Felines - would just as soon watch you suffer as come to your defence (again, I'm a cat lover). Would only attack when they know they can win.

(Warning, handwavium ahead)
So at this point, my knowledge of the characteristics of the various species is limited, so instead I'm going to make some stuff up.

With regards to police response, there would also need to be considered each species' predisposition to entering combat in the first place. This ordered list would be different from the combat style list. While Insects swarm and Birds flock, the nature of the individual in each group plays a part. If we postulate that Insects have a hive intelligence, where each individual is of low intelligence, but as a swarm is capable of complex behaviour, I would suggest that small groups of insects would be unlikely to assist an outsider. Compare this behaviour to Rodents - each individual has relatively high intelligence compared to an insect, giving each individual an elevated awareness of self and consequently an awareness of other individuals.

Basically, I drew up three lists - Intelligence, Sociability and Empathy. Ranked each species out of 9 and added the scores together. Your own assessment will likely differ from mine.

So even though Insects and Rodents are most likely to have similar combat techniques, they would join combat in very different circumstances. With that in mind, here's my list of the likelyhood of each species coming to the aid of an outsider:

• Lobsters - Very low intelligence, not very sociable, not very empathetic - not likely to provide assistance (less than 30%)
• Frogs - Low intelligence, not sociable, not empathetic - not likely to provide assistance (less than 30%)
• Insects - Low individual intelligence, highly sociable, not empathetic - not likely to provide assistance (about 30%)
• Felines - Medium to high intelligence, not sociable, not particularly empathetic - less than even probability of providing assistance (about 30%)
• Lizards - Medium intelligence, Low to medium sociability, low to medium empthy - less than even probability of providing assistance (with apologies to a certain draconid that disproves my assessment) (about 50%)
• Birds - Medium intelligence, quite sociable, moderate empathy - better than even probability of providing assistance (about 60%)
• Rodents - Medium intelligence, very sociable, moderate empathy - high probability of providing assistance (about 70%)
• Humanoids - High intelligence, moderately sociable, high empathy - high probability of providing assistance (about 80%)
• Human colonials - High intelligence, medium sociability, high empathy - high probability of providing assistance (about 80%)

(And if you've made it this far, you have my gratitude) So I don't know if my assessment even holds water, but it's one way of incorporating various pieces of data that we have into what we experience in-game.

Interesting thoughts indeed. However I think you might be falling into a couple of traps in your thinking.
The Police are GalCop and are therefore independant of and un-connected to the planetary government. They work under GalCop regulations, not planetary Gov't rules and should be as keen to protect spacers in all systems. The only connection with the Gov't type is that rich systems can choose to fund extra policing to make the system safer. Also who said the Cops are locals? GalCop police may be sent where they are needed.
As for attributing behaviours to different biological types, well who is to say that say an Insectoid species is actually going to behave like the insects we know on Earth. We are dealing with Intelligences here, and that makes all the difference. A Hive Mind as we understand it is actually quite unlikely when the society is composed of intelligent individuals. Although some kind of 'intense co-operation' is possible, the individuals are not likely to act as selflessly as something like an Ant.
The fact is they would probably all act pretty much the same way we would - a mix of altruism and (mostly) self-interest depending on the individual's own set of morals and ethics.

Ah well that's kind of a shame. That puts the brakes somewhat on introducing more regional variation between systems (I did like my idea being stung for a law enforcement bill when arriving at the main station of a Corporate State).

But the beauty of Oolite is if I like this idea enough, I can always OXP it for myself...(damn there's another project for which I don't have time).

Hey, don't let me put you off. I was just trying to give you some 'food for thought'. Many of your comments deserve further thought and there is a lot there which could make for an interesting expansion of the socio-economy of the Ooniverse.

Well if (and that's a very big IF) I decide to do something like this, then the name of the OXP/Z would be "Local Militia". They would be supplementary to the existing GalCop presence.

One thought:
is to introduce a some local 'law enforcement' to complement or counteract (depending upon their allegiances) the Gallop Vipers. So depending upon the criteria you have worked out they might be a positive or negative addition to the policing. Even in an anarchy a group of 'independent business men' might offer their protection for a consideration (sort of similar to a corporate state )

I honestly think that the local planets have more influence over Galcop in their systems than most give them credit for. Corporate states depend on business and commerce not for their economy, but for their government itself; they provide Galcop more resources, whether local pilots or otherwise, which is why their systems are so safe. They could also "buy off" pirates, or simply help out those in extreme poverty who would become pirates. The same could be said for democracies, confederacies, ext to a lesser extent. Communist systems and dictatorships are probably more concerned with their own planets problems, and therefor don't give space much thought. Multi-government and feudal systems are busy looking after their fiefs and governments; and one government or manor would be too poor to protect space by themselves, and cannot get everyone on board with protecting the space lanes. Anarchist systems are just a mess.

I'd also imagine that a majority of "safe" systems become such by preventing people from becoming pirates, rather than by funding Galcop alone. I doubt the species of a planet has much say in these decisions.

Just looking at the statistics, ignoring the police…

Two initial comments on the above.

1) Cim (in his Ships' Manual) gives a number of extreme variations on the 8 government types which would have consequences for the other statistics.

2) Stranger's World includes an OXP which changes the statistics to make them more reasonable from a C21 perspective.