Planet Wars: Redux

[Crazyboy]

…and so it beings.

In the early 21st century, a series of unpredicted scientific breakthroughs coupled with an ever-worsening world population problem, the latter compounded by earth's natural resources being rapidly exhausted, led to the major governments of the world looking skywards in the hope of salvation. An international, UN-sponsored effort backed by NASA, the Chinese military's space program and Russia successfully returns explorers to Mars by 2032, and within a year several key sites have been cleared for the construction of the first off world cities - gigantic, enclosed structures that came to be known as 'colony hubs'. However, even as a newly-founded UN Space Administration Body begins picking out the first colonists from around the world, signs of strain in the international effort are beginning to show. China countenances immediate and rapid expansion of the colonization effort on Mars, whilst the USA stands firm in its belief that the existing colonies should be improved before additional ones are constructed. By 2038, shortly after the completion of a fifth colony hub on Mars, China and NASA both state that they are not willing to partake in any further international space efforts, and instead turn to their own nationally-funded colonization projects. However, with Mars colonized and the remaining planets of the system seeming far more difficult and less profitable to conquer, the question on the minds of many is where the national expansions will go. Before the UN can intervene, China, the USA and Russia have all claimed vast swathes of the Martian landscape not occupied by international colonies, and by 2042 each nation has founded at least one of its own colonies on the red planet. Subsequently, another new UN body is set up to ratify additional claims on Martian territory, according to the ability of the applicant nation to developed the land it claims. Space on Mars is rapidly running out, with all the nations involved demanding considerable territorial buffers between their cities and those of other nations, in order to guarantee enough resources to make the venture profitable. Once more, it looks like over-rapid expansion is going to cause humanity's downfall...

Then, in 2049, the Japanese space agency makes a breakthrough, sending a probe equipped with a prototype interstellar drive - dubbed the 'hyperdrive' - to Alpha Centauri. The probe returns as programmed just twelve days later, having gathered a considerable amount of data on humanity's neighboring system. The data revels, to the surprise of many, that the Alpha Centauri binary star system contains two planets. One a gas giant slightly smaller than Saturn, another, a rocky world roughly the same size as Earth, and with its own atmosphere. After being petitioned by all three of the major space-faring nations, the UN forces Japan to make the hyperdrive technology readily available to any space agency that requests the information, supplying the population growth problem as grounds for universal access to the Centauri system to be required. Once again, Russia, China and the United States send forth colonization vessels - but this time they are accompanied by colonization efforts from other nations. India, Brazil, Japan and the European Union - now an integrated nation revolving around Germany, France and Italy - also found colonies on the new planet, simply referred to as 'Alpha Centauri I', or, more commonly 'Alpha Centauri'. With the stars now unlocked to mankind, emphasis for all of the nations involved switches to exploration and discovery of new planetary star systems as much as colonizing the remainder of the two already-known systems. The location of newly-found star systems becomes a closely guarded secret. In 2054 a new and potentially powerful space program enters the scene, as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland - nations that had either withdrawn from or never joined the European Union - along with Canada establish the Combined Atlantic Space Program which, despite the name, is later joined by Australia and New Zealand as well. As planetary star systems near to earth are discovered and colonized more and more rapidly, many space agencies begin to lay claim to entire planets or even systems rather than just areas of planets. Shortly after the Cetan Crises of 2063, where the United States refuted China's claim on the Tau Ceta system on the grounds that the nation had made no effort to colonise them, and subsequently founded a colony of its own on the fertile second planet of the system, China unveils mankind's first space warship, inviting delegates from all of the other major space agencies to the vessel's first combat exercises held in the asteroid field of the Sol system. The first warship is crude, unwieldy and ugly, armed only with missile launchers (with the missiles themselves engineered for use in a 0-G vacuum) and a couple of heavy, high-velocity chainguns as armament, but with the vessel equipping a hyperdrive, the threat is clear. It becomes obvious to all of the nations flaunting out-of-system colonies that interstellar warships of their own will become necessary in order to defend their claims from the expansionist policies of their rivals. Throughout the next decade, space militaries as the major space powers find themselves locked in an ever-escalating arms race, each one vying for some form of supremacy over the others. Japan exhibits the first laser-based weapons as the CASP nations exhibit the capabilities of the first dedicated offworld troop corps. Russia showcases its new orbital-to-planet missile weaponry as the United States Space Military showcases the first primitive carrier vessel able transporting short-range fighter craft between systems. With the UN now powerless to stop the escalation and nuclear warheads being ferried out into the stars, the people of earth and the colonies hold their breath, waiting for the inevitable...

The inevitable happens in 2075, when a USAF offworld strike fighter aircraft strays into Chinese territory on Alpha Centauri I due to faulty navigation equipment, and is subsequently shot down by Chinese troops equipped with shoulder-launched AA missiles. The pilot escapes but is tracked down and imprisoned by Chinese troops. An outraged US Space Military demands the release of the pilot while China demands an apology for the unwarranted intrusion on its territory. After 24 hours of deadlock, the USSM dispatches a team of marines to secure the downed pilot. The operation goes wrong, and results with the marines limping home with the pilot, but without eight of their comrades. Around sixteen Chinese soldiers are also killed. Almost immediately, the conflict spreads. By late 2075 all of the major space-faring nations are involved, with the conflict being waged on earth as well as among the stars. It is not long before the first nuclear stones are thrown, with the Brazilian colony of Nuevo Aeries in the Escaban system being completely obliterated by fusion warheads from a warship of still-unknown nationality at a loss of twenty million souls, and similar atrocities soon following. The war continues for another decade, an endless march of attrition as each nation or coalition of nations gradually exhausts its resources and manpower. Finally, in 2092, it is clear that none of the governments involved have any capability with which to continue to wage war on the others. The war is finally concluded in the Peace of Dubai, where the remaining governments of the world all agree to disband immediately, granting autonomy to the colonies and turning over all their remaining resources to them. The one guideline set out to the newly independent colonies is that a new international body - the League of Planets- be established, in an effort to preserve the noble goals laid out by the UN. The League of Planets' first united effort is to terraform earth back to the point where it can be inhabited - for years of protracted warfare have transformed it into a scorched, barren hellhole, where winds laden heavy with radioactive dust wash over glassed earth. By 2095, earth is returned to its former state, with cloned plant life having been re-introduced to some sections of the planet's surface. Earth is granted independence from League administration a few years later. With the League having banned the development of nuclear weaponry as well as chemical and biological agents, and with any surviving nuclear warheads found having been destroyed, mankind looks set to enter a new age of peace and prosperity. However, there are dark clouds lurking on the horizon. The social and political differences between the old nations have been preserved in the societies and governments of the independent planets spawned from their ex-colonies. With the planets now beginning to found colonies of their own, and with disputes beginning to arise from the radically different ideologies of a few planets, it is perhaps only a matter of time before new and even more destructive wars are fought...

The age of the nationstate is over, but the age of the planet state is just beginning...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rules of Planet Wars Redux
Below are the rules of Planet Wars, they must be followed at all times.

General
1. Read the rules fully before posting. Listing the rules like this saved me a hell of a lot of trouble in DE and as such it's going to save me a hell of a lot of trouble here.
1.a. I bloody well mean it. Read all of the damned rules before you post.
1.a.i. No, seriously, read them all.

2. This is Crazy's thread which he has re-made with my help and permission.
2.a. As such, both of us have DMing roles relating to the thread.
2.a.i. Note that since Crazy is playing the game, any secret plans that need approving or questions relating to delicate political or diplomatic matters that need answering should be directed to me, not him.
2.b. Crazy is the economic DM, and handles all matters relating to budgets, the economy and industry.
2.b.i. I am the DM responsible for war moderation, diplomatic moderation, the handling of all NPC planets and their attitudes/actions, the running and moderation of random events and the DMing of high politics. I also handle research, but that's not as important or as impressive-sounding.
2.c. Any issues relating to my conduct as a DM should be directed to Crazy. Any issues relating to Crazy's conduct as a DM should be directed to me.

3. Be civil and courteous to eachother at all times. In character smack talk is heartily condoned, ooc bickering is not.

4. Planet Wars is a science fiction strategy thread. To start with, you must choose a planet from the list (see the next post). Once you have chosen your planet, you can get around to the economic aspect of its management (see the Economic section of the rules).

Economic
1. There are three resources in PW. P, "population", representing your planet's manpower; RM, "raw materials", representing your planet's mineral wealth and level of industrial capability; and $, "currency", representing your planet's financial wealth.
1.a. The path to economic success involves developing all three of these resources.
1.b. RP, or "research points" are another resource, but they are covered in the Research section of the rules.

2. Every RL day is one in-game month. A "turn" occurs every six in-game months. As such you are required to budget once every six RL days. This may change to seven at times (such as when Crazy is away at college) to make DMing easier. Regardless of how many RL days a turn takes, it will always be six in-game months.

3. RM or raw materials is the first resource of PW. It is calculated as follows:
3.a. (RM Formula): [planet type base RM rate]*[planet size]*[Industrial Base]
3.a.i. [planet type] and [planet size] factors are explained in the Planets sections of the rules.
3.b. [Industrial Base] is your planet's level of industrial developement. Increasing industrial base represents the construction of factories, etc, which boosts your industrial capabilities.
3.b.i. You must increase your Industrial Base to increase industrial capabily. The cost of upgrading IB is paid entirely in RM, and is calculated as follows:
3.b.ii. (Industrial Base Formula:) ([Base RM] * [Planet Size] * [Industrial Base]) / 5
3.b.iii. Industrial Base upgrades take one turn. If I order an IB upgrade one week it will be complete the next week, and I will recieve the additional income from it.
3.b.iv. Each IB upgrade increases its value by 0.5. While this might not seem like much, it will bring a more substantial increase than you might think.
3.b.v. You can gain additional RM income from units such as mining vessels.
3.b.vi. Communist and socialist worlds, where a radically different society promotes good work effic, recieve a 20% discount on Industrial Base upgrades.
3.c. Workers are needed to sustain industry. Employing these workers in government jobs will lead to a loss of industrial capability, which can be disastrous.
3.c.i. Your industrial worker population is calculated as follows:
3.c.ii. (Industrial Workers Formula:) [Industrial Base]*10,000
3.d. RM can be "sold" in non player-to-player transactions. This represents the sale of raw materials and heavy equipment in exchange for currency ($$$). You recieve $10 for every unit of RM sold in this way.
3.e. RM must be transported to a planet to be used there if it is produced elsewhere.

4. $$$ or currency is the second resource of PW. The formula for calculating your currency income is very complicated and will not be listed here.
4.a. At the start of each turn, Crazy will calculate your planet's income and report any changes.
4.b. Your financial income is taken from three sources: taxation, port fees and "other"..
4.c. Port fees are taken from trade ships that pay for permission to dock at your planet and conduct trade. Your port fee revenue is determined by two factors: the quality of your port facilities and the number of merchant ships wishing to dock at your planet.
4.c.i. To increase the amount you charge in port fees, increase the quality of your port facilities (e.g. by constructing the "commerical docks" structure).
4.c.ii. Constructing the "docking guild" structure increases the number of merchants in your system, as does constructing civilian orbital facilities.
4.c.iii. The number of merchant vessels passing through your system mainly depends on how many systems it is linked to by trade lanes (the maximum is four) and how large these systems are. Note that if trade lanes connecting your system are afflicted by piracy or warfare, the number of trading vessels will fall.
4.c.iv. It is possible to "blockade" a trade lane if you have enough ships. This halts all merchant shipping along that lane, severely damaging the target planet's income. Note that it will also damage the income of other planets in that system as well as those in the system that the blockaded lane connects to.
4.c.v. The League can impose economic sanctions, i.e. trade embargoes, that ban all shipping from member states to a particular planet. Non-League organisations can also impose these, though they will be far less effective.
4.d. Taxation is by far the largest share of your income, and comes from taxing your populace. You must set a tax rate value of 1 (low) to 5 (high). Income thereafter is dependent on the number of people on your planet and their standard of living. High taxation will damage morale over time, though it is considered acceptable for short periods of trouble.
4.d.i. To increase taxation income, either raise the tax rate, raise the number of people on your planet or raise the standard of living on your planet. For more income on standard of living, see the Society section of the rules.
4.e. "Other" comprises income from player-to-player transactions (for example, sale of technology or sale of arms) and income from selling RM (see the rules on industry). It also includes government-operated trade.
4.f. Lakhim, you cannot take out loans.
4.g. Lakhim, you cannot take out loans.
4.h. Lakhim, you cannot take out loans. (a little joke for the veterans of the first thread, there)
4.i. Finally, you do require P to support the private (financial) sector of your planet's economy. 20% of the population is required at all times to support the private sector.

5. P or population is the third and final economic resource of PW.
5.a. P is very simple to manage. Each planet type has a P Rate, and each turn your planet's population grows by the P rate of its type.
5.b. Note that while you can "move" P from one planet to another, this must be done with passenger vessels and such.

6. Commodities are one of the more abstract resources in PW. Some planets have special, unique or near-unique resources, such as Septan Ice Whales. Commodities are produced and traded in "units".
6.a. Commodities come in the low-profit (many units, not much money), medium-profit (reasonable number of units, reasonable amount of money), and high-profit (few units, much money) categories.
6.b. Commodities increase the standard of living on the planet they circulate. As a result if you buy 4 units of Septan Ice Whales each turn, expect a happy populace.
6.c. Planets that produce commodities can trade them out to other planets using trade/cargo vessels. You can sell them to NPCs or to other RPers in exchange for RM, other commodities or cold, hard cash.
6.d. Some commodities, such as Uranium have other, more interesting uses than trading.
6.d.i. Some commodities, such as Uranium, are illegal and banned by the League.
6.e. If you want to increase the quantity of commodity you produce, throw currency at the production methods.

7. Concerning back-ordering from missed turns. You cannot do it. If you missed a turn, tough, you can't build anything in it. However, you do get the resources from the missed turn to spend in your next one.

Military
1. Before conducting any military action, be sure to bear the League in mind.

2. PW features two main kinds of battle, the space battle and the planetary battle.
2.i. Surprisingly, space battles are fought in space and planetary battles on the surface of planets.
2.ii. Space battles are fought between starships and planetary battles between ground troops. You will need to invest in both if you plan to achieve any form of military success.

3. PW features a unique system (unique in strategy threads from these forums, anyway) where you pay the money for a ship hull or tank squadron, then equip it/them. As such, while some ship chasis are better at doing some things than others (frigates, for example, are faster and more manouevreable than cruisers but have less HP, and so are best suited to attacking light vessels), you can take virtually any ship chasis and engineer it via its armament toward whichever role you need.
3.a. Note that not all of the ship hulls will be available to you untill near the end of Tier 3.
3.b. Each ship hull has a number of light, medium, heavy and AS slots as well as small and large equipment slots. Different kinds of weaponry and equipment fit different kinds of slot, so don't try and fit an Ion Cannon onto a light weapon slot or similar.

4. Admirals and Generals (collectively referred to as Officers) are characters who can be placed in command of fleets or armies. A good Officer improves the performance of troops under his command. A bad one does not.
4.a. I'll give you new Officers from time to time. To improve the quality of new Officers, build the training facilities for them.
4.b. All Officers have a little written description telling you how :cool: they are at their job and what kind of things they're good at.
4.c. You'll also get better Officers by putting points toward the Leadership national advantage.

5. Of course, all the flash equipment and ships that you buy will be for nothing if your crews and troops are poorly trained or have low morale. Low morale can stem from a lack of culture, from dislike of the cause or leader they are fighting for, from previous failures in battle, etc. Poor training stems from a lack of experience of combat in the military.
5.a. To remedy low morale, make sure that everyone on your planet likes you.
5.b. To remedy poor training, build training facilities.
5.c. Again, both can be improved by putting points toward the relevant national advantages.

6. Troops need to be transported from place to place in starships. For troop transports the capacity is stated in units, but you can also but infantry into passenger pods and vehicles into cargo pods according to capacity in P/cargo units.
6.a. Fighters must also be transported from place to place in starships. For carriers, the capacity is stated in squadrons (Each squadron is 5 fighters). Fighters can also be put into small or large hanger bays (see equipment).
6.b. Fighters have to be either stationed on a ship, station or planet, in a hanger bay, or at an airbase. Any fighter squadron that is built, without somewhere for it to be stationed (ship/orbital facility/etc,) will be considered unusable until somewhere for them to be stationed is constructed or becomes available.
6.c. The same applys to Recon Vehicles/IFVs/Tanks. They're must be room at a Tank Depot for them to be stored and stationed at, or more cannot be built.


7. Fleets or ships conducting operations more than three hexes (see map) from a home system will be unable to return to that system for supplies as it is too far away. To be resupplied, they must instead dock with "friendly" ports (i.e. the planets or stations of allies, or of neutrals that you have obtained docking permission from through diplomatic actions).
7.a. Fleets operating at range in this way can also be supplied by sending along cargo ships to act as fleet tenders. One small cargo ship will be able to supply up to seven capital ships operating at range, a large cargo ship up to twelve.

8. The League Warfare Convention emerged from discussions between representatives from all early member states with one fantastically important rule: the Universal Registration Law. All starships, military, private or civilian, carry registration numbers that identify their home planet and owner.
8.b. It is as such impossible to impersonate the forces of other planets or keep your own forces unidentified using legally-built ships.
8.c. You can build ships without registration numbers if you specify (PM me to keep it secret), but if they are found to be yours, you are going to be deep in proverbial shit.

9. It is impossible to Hyperspace Jump into star systems. Don't even try it.

Politics
1. All of your planets have specified government types. Your planet's government type can affect any number of things. In time, a list of government types and their effects will be provided by myself.
1.a. These effects can be negative as well as well as positive.
1.b. New government types will become available to you in the form of Civic Technologies.
1.c. Changing government types is trickier now, but in a more defined way. Changing from some forms to some other forms (for example, Monarchy to Aristocracy or vice-versa) is comparatively easy as the two are similar. Changing from some types to other types (for example, Monarchy to Communism or vice-versa) is far more difficult and will require little short of civil war.
1.c.i. Note that your government type can change against your will if you break one of the restrictions on your current government type. If you act too authoritarian as a socialist planet, for example, you shit on Marx's vision and revert to Communism.

2. All of you start with an Authoritarian-Libertarian Scale Value. This shows how your government acts. A Communist planet with an A-L Scale value of 10 (most authoritarian) for example might appear Stalinist while a Communist planet with an A-L Scale value of 1 (most libertarian) might be more idyllic.
2.a. A high A-L Scalr Value gives you a lot of control over what goes on on your planet, but lowers the standard of living, which makes people unhappy, and this has a knock-on effect of damaging your economy.
2.b. Your A-L Scale Value will change according to your response to whatever events I throw at you.
2.b.i. If, for example, I were to event a massive series of strikes on Phang's planet, Tau Ceta Septus, he would probably give them whatever they wanted to get them back to work, because he is a communist and loves the proletariat. This is libertarian and would lower his A-L Scale Value.
2.b.ii. Likewise, if I were to event a massive series of strikes on Badger's planet, Earth, he would probably burn them all to death with napalm, because he is an evil facist and hates poor people. This is authoritarian and would raise his A-L Scale Value.

3. Note that in some kinds of government (such as Constitutional Monarchy and Democratic Republic) you get these pesky things called legislative bodies. Legislative bodies usually comprise elected officials (ministers, senators, etc) who are responsible for representing their constituents on matters of state by voting on acts of state proposed by the executive branch (president, prime minsiter, etc, or in constitutional monarchy the monarch).
3.a. Legislative branches can vote against such moves by the executive branch, preventing them from happening. If you don't like it, launch a civil war or something. Bear in mind though that democratically-elected officials will (tend to) represent the views of their voters...

"High" Politics and the League
1. Planetary politics are one thing, but there's also galactic politics to think about.

2. The League of Planets is a United Nations-style organisation that includes all of the planets except for those on the farthest fringe within its ranks. The League is described in more detail in subsequent posts.
2.a. The League should feature in all of your plans, because if it is provoked into action, it is an extremely powerful.
2.b. You all start off with one League Seat and this entitles you all to one vote on League issues. Note that while any member planet can bring an issue to the table, only the President of the League can call a vote on that issue.
2.c. Learning how to manouevre within the League and slave it to your own Machievellian schemes is an important part of being successful in PW, but I'm not going to tell you how to do it.

3. The League loves to ban stuff. There are many "hidden" branches of the tech tree that you cannot access because the technologies in question are banned by League convention. Controversial new techs may be called to vote by League Presidents, and may subsequently be banned.
3.i. By random event or discovery or such, you may have the option of beginning research on banned technologies. If you do this and the League finds out (you may get random evented for inspection by League Enforcers), or if you do this and another player planet finds out via esionage and rats you in to the League, expect all hell to break loose.

Diplomacy
1. You can conduct diplomatic discussions / enter diplomatic agreements with any colonised planet in PW, just bear in mind that the vast majority won't want to unless their own interests are served by it, and that agreements with planets on the other side of the known galaxy are somewhat pointless.

2. Gigantic alliances such as the "Democratic Alliance" or the "Communist Coalition" which I for some reason spawned in previous threads are not going to happen this time round.

Colonisation
1. Expanding your territory in PW is key; it gets you more resources, more cash, more P and increases the chance of you getting commodities. You can do this through military conquest, but it's safer to do it through colonisation.

2. To colonise a planet, you must build Colony Ships. Colony Ships are very large, unarmed, one-use vessels designed to transport colonists to a new world and then provide them with everything they need to establish a colony.
2.a. There are different sizes of Colony Ship. The fewest colonists that you can establish a new colony with is 1,000 P. There is no upper limit.
2.b. When selecting a planet for colonisation, bear in mind not only its type and size but also its location. If you select a planet on the other side of the known galaxy, defending it properly splits your forces, and exchanging resources between them is difficult.
2.c. Speaking of defending your colonies: this is absolutely vital. Young colonies are utterly defenseless on their own and will become pirate fodder unless you defend them with ships and troops.

3. Once your Colony Ship(s) reaches a planet, it takes one turn to establish a workable colony. This colony's sole building is the Colony Hub, which provides basic facilities for all. You are advised to build structures and begin developing the colony asap.
3.a. The colony is treated as a second planet with its own economy, industry, etcetera.

4. You will see that most systems on the map at the start of the thread are already inhabited. To fine new uninhabited systems, you must conduct exploration missions into uncharted territory. Note that sending out exploration missions is dangerous; you risk losing the ship(s) sent out completely. Equipment such as advanced sensors enormously helps exploration attempts.

5. The League Guild of Stellar Cartography demands that exploration data be shared universally.
5.b. It's impossivle to get around this rule as it's there solely to keep me from having to take care of about twenty different maps for twenty different players.

Society and Civics
1. Standard of Living is the major factor determining how happy your populace is. Civic structures such as schools, parks, etc, all help to raise Standard of Living. Some like Entertainment Complexes raise morale.

2. The morale of your populace is crucial. A population with high morale is loyal and strong, a population with low morale is disloyal and torn by internal strife.

3. Religion can be something to worry about. There are four different religions in PW. A religious populace may choose to put their god before their ruler unless you satisfy their needs (religious facilities etc), and fanatic or fundamentalist members of a religion my turn objection to your ruling into action against the state.

4. If your populace loves you and respects you as a leader, they will more readily accept change in government.

Planets
1. There are many different kinds of planet in PW, each with their own P rates and base RM rates, which can be found in a list in a subsequent post to this one.
1.a. Perhaps new planet types will be found as the thread progresses...

2. Getting the right planet type is crucial in engineering a colony toward a specific role (such as producing P to be shipped off to your hideous industrial hell world or something).

3. A planet's Size Factor tells you how large it is. 1 is the smallest world, equivelant perhaps to Mercury in size. 5 is the largest range of world, equivelant in size perhaps to Jupiter.
3.a. Moons have a Size Factor of 1/2.

4. You can change a planet's type via terraforming, but terraforming ships are expensive, and the planet must be terraformed in stages (it is impossible, for example, to transform a Barren World to an Earth World in one step).
4.a. You can try to terraform moons, but it probably isn't advisable. KoL knows why.

Research
1. You all produce RP or research points via educational buildings such as schools and libraries.
1.a. Get roughly the right ratio of schools / libraries / colleges to the population as a whole and you'll get bonus points. Too many schools and you lose points, too few and you don't get as many points. This stops you from just building tens of thousands of schools and getting loads and loads of RP.
1.b. All technologies have a cost in RP attributed to them on the tech tree. You could in theory research the entire contents of one tier of the tech tree if you had enough RP to do so.
1.c. The cost of technologies will rise with each new tier of the tech tree entered.

2. Research facilities produce more RP than the educational facilities but you will recieve no bonus points from them.

3. A Science vessel contributes 2 RP in itself (no bonus), and has a chance of earning you bonus technologies by observing new things in the galaxy (send it travelling a lot).

4. The exchange of technology in player-to-player (or player-to-NPC) transactions is permitted but ill-advised. You'll lose all the advantages of having a Death Star if you trade the technology out and find next turn that everyone has one.

5. Technology can be stolen from you through espionage.