                               Concept : Levels

 There are four basic national levels in Empire; technology, medical research,
education,  and  happiness.  The first two represent technological and medical
information and expertise built at  research  institutions.   The  second  two
represent  the  current state of the populace; how educated and how happy they
are.  Each different national level has an effect on the actions and capabili-
ties of your people.

The technological level of an Empire country increases  when  your  technology
centers  produce  technological  breakthroughs, and also by technology leakage
from other higher-tech nations in the world.  While more technological  break-
throughs  are  always  better, your nation will receive diminishing returns as
the number of breakthroughs per update  grows.   Technology  production  effi-
ciency is affected by the national education level; see the products info page
for more details.

Technology affects what your nation can build.  Ships, planes,  missiles,  and
spacecraft  units  all require certain technology levels depending on the par-
ticular model of ship or missile  you  wish  to  build.   As  your  technology
increases, you can upgrade existing ships (although not planes or missiles) to
your current technology at a certain cost.

                               Concept : Levels

Higher tech units will  always  be  more  effective  than  lower  tech  units,
although  there  is  a limit as to how much improvement that particular models
can take; biplanes can only be made to fly so fast, after  all.   In  general,
however, the higher the tech, the better the unit.

The medical research level of an Empire country increases in the  same  manner
and using the same rules as those applying to technology.

Medical research affects the ability of your populace to avoid and survive the
plague.   While the conditions surrounding the plague are somewhat complex, it
is basically driven by technology.  The more technology  you  have,  the  more
medical  research  you  must manufacture in order to reduce the chance of your
people contracting the plague.

The happiness level of an Empire country increases when your park sectors pro-
duce  happy strollers!  Happy stroller production is divided by the population
of your nation (military and civilian, but not uncompensated  worker)  to  get
the  effective  happiness  production.   Happiness  also  has the same sort of
diminishing returns built into happiness  production  --  more  goodies  don't
necessarily make people that much happier.

                               Concept : Levels

The national happiness level is actually a moving average, with the past  hap-
piness  being  weighted  significantly more than the current production.  This
means that one massive production of happiness will not  cause  the  happiness
level  to  jump by a large amount.  Rather, it will affect the happiness level
for updates to come.  If no happiness is produced, then  within  a  few  dozen
updates or so, the country's happiness will have dropped close to zero.

Happiness is required for countries which have any sort of technology or  edu-
cation  at  all,  with  greater  levels being required as the expectation (and
tech/edu levels) of the populace increases.  A country with an unhappy popula-
tion can expect a decrease in the work of some sectors.

An unhappy country will make their feelings known; when you start  to  receive
notification  of civil unrest in sectors, this is an indication that your peo-
ple there are unhappy.

The education level of an Empire country increases  when  your  library/school
sectors produce classes of graduates.  Like happiness, education production is
also divided by the population of your nation to get effective education  pro-
duction.   Education  also  has  a  similar diminishing returns built into the

                               Concept : Levels

production.

Education is moving average, with previous  education  production  being  much
more heavily weighted than current production.  This implies that a large pro-
duction of education today will not result in a large jump in  education  lev-
els.   However,  it will generally take quite a number of updates of no educa-
tion production before the national education level falls close to zero.

Education is critical for both technology and research production.  Also, edu-
cation  levels affect the amount of taxes your people will pay; the higher the
education, the more tax dollars you will collect.

See also : people, products.

