Hi there,
in my humble opinion, the trade classifications - like Agricultural, Industrial and so on - are a bit too arbitrary - being tied to the UWP statistics too much without consideration for special circumstances - for example, why shouldn´t a world with a few thousand people and LOTS of robotic factories not be considered Industrial, or for that matter, why can´t Industrial worlds have breathable atmospheres?
I don´t like whining without coming up with something better, so I thought up an extension to the World Creation rules to cover that. You determine three additional characteristics - Minerals, Fertility and Infrastructure, and use these to calculate the trade classifications.
Minerals is determined by rolling 1d6, adding World Size and subtracting Hydrographics (I figured that minerals on the bottom of the ocean would, by and large, be too difficult to mine); also, you add 1 per full 4 Tech Levels to reflect mining technology.
For Asteroid Belt worlds, you simple roll 2d6 and add the TL bonus, since there, mineral deposits are much easier to access.
Fertility depends on the Atmosphere digit:
2d6 for Atmospheres 5, 6 and 8 (thin, standard and dense) plus a TL bonus for farming technology - +1 at TL 4-6, +2 at TL 7-9, +3 at TL 10-12 and +4 at TL 13-15.
1d6 for 4, 7, 9, D, E and F, with a TL bonus of +1 at TL 7-9, +2 at TL 10-12 and +3 at TL 13-15 (i.e. 1 less than usual)
0 for 0-3 and A-C (hard to grow crops in vacuum, or in insidious atmospheres...), with a TL bonus of +1 for TL 10-12 and +2 for TL 13-15 (for large-scale hydroponics).
Infrastructure is determined by rolling 2d6-12 plus the Population digit, plus half the TL, treating anything below 1 as 1.
(FYI that would give modern-day Earth a Mineral score of 1d6+3, a Fertility score of 2d6+2 and an Infrastructure score of 2d6+1)
Then you calculate the trade balances in three ares: Mineral, Agriculture, Industrial and General.
Mineral Trade Balance (MTB) is Minerals minus Infrastructure - i.e. does the planet need to import minerals for their industry, or do they export?
Agricultural Trade Balance (ATB) is Fertility minus 3 plus the Size digit minus the Population digit - i.e. you compare agricultural effecitivy to population density; a Fertility of 3 is enough to feed the population if the Size and Population digits are the same.
Industrial Trade Balance (ITB) is Infrastructure minus Population digit, i.e. can the industry satisfy the demands of the population.
General Trade Balance (GTB) is simply the sum of the other balances - MTB, ATB and ITB.
Now for the classifications:
Any world with an ATB of +3 or more is considered Agricultural; with an ATB of -3 or less, it is Non-Agricultural.
Any world with an ITB of +3 or more is considered Industrial; with an ITB of -3 or less, it is considered Non-Industrial.
A world with a GTB of +5 or more, or with both a positive ATB and ITB, is considered Rich; with a GTB of -5 or less, or with both negative ATB and ITB, is considered Poor.
The other Trade Classifications stay as they are.
Right now I´m working on putting together new Speculative Goods tables, one (of 20 goods) for each combination of positive and negative trade balances - so that, for example, most agricultural products will NOT be available for export on Non-Agricultural worlds.
BTW you may have noticed that MTB doesn´t figure into trade classifications; it will figure into these tables.
in my humble opinion, the trade classifications - like Agricultural, Industrial and so on - are a bit too arbitrary - being tied to the UWP statistics too much without consideration for special circumstances - for example, why shouldn´t a world with a few thousand people and LOTS of robotic factories not be considered Industrial, or for that matter, why can´t Industrial worlds have breathable atmospheres?
I don´t like whining without coming up with something better, so I thought up an extension to the World Creation rules to cover that. You determine three additional characteristics - Minerals, Fertility and Infrastructure, and use these to calculate the trade classifications.
Minerals is determined by rolling 1d6, adding World Size and subtracting Hydrographics (I figured that minerals on the bottom of the ocean would, by and large, be too difficult to mine); also, you add 1 per full 4 Tech Levels to reflect mining technology.
For Asteroid Belt worlds, you simple roll 2d6 and add the TL bonus, since there, mineral deposits are much easier to access.
Fertility depends on the Atmosphere digit:
2d6 for Atmospheres 5, 6 and 8 (thin, standard and dense) plus a TL bonus for farming technology - +1 at TL 4-6, +2 at TL 7-9, +3 at TL 10-12 and +4 at TL 13-15.
1d6 for 4, 7, 9, D, E and F, with a TL bonus of +1 at TL 7-9, +2 at TL 10-12 and +3 at TL 13-15 (i.e. 1 less than usual)
0 for 0-3 and A-C (hard to grow crops in vacuum, or in insidious atmospheres...), with a TL bonus of +1 for TL 10-12 and +2 for TL 13-15 (for large-scale hydroponics).
Infrastructure is determined by rolling 2d6-12 plus the Population digit, plus half the TL, treating anything below 1 as 1.
(FYI that would give modern-day Earth a Mineral score of 1d6+3, a Fertility score of 2d6+2 and an Infrastructure score of 2d6+1)
Then you calculate the trade balances in three ares: Mineral, Agriculture, Industrial and General.
Mineral Trade Balance (MTB) is Minerals minus Infrastructure - i.e. does the planet need to import minerals for their industry, or do they export?
Agricultural Trade Balance (ATB) is Fertility minus 3 plus the Size digit minus the Population digit - i.e. you compare agricultural effecitivy to population density; a Fertility of 3 is enough to feed the population if the Size and Population digits are the same.
Industrial Trade Balance (ITB) is Infrastructure minus Population digit, i.e. can the industry satisfy the demands of the population.
General Trade Balance (GTB) is simply the sum of the other balances - MTB, ATB and ITB.
Now for the classifications:
Any world with an ATB of +3 or more is considered Agricultural; with an ATB of -3 or less, it is Non-Agricultural.
Any world with an ITB of +3 or more is considered Industrial; with an ITB of -3 or less, it is considered Non-Industrial.
A world with a GTB of +5 or more, or with both a positive ATB and ITB, is considered Rich; with a GTB of -5 or less, or with both negative ATB and ITB, is considered Poor.
The other Trade Classifications stay as they are.
Right now I´m working on putting together new Speculative Goods tables, one (of 20 goods) for each combination of positive and negative trade balances - so that, for example, most agricultural products will NOT be available for export on Non-Agricultural worlds.
BTW you may have noticed that MTB doesn´t figure into trade classifications; it will figure into these tables.