Occupation

This page explores a mechanic by which an attacker can land forces on a stellar object and extract a portion of its production — without permanently capturing it from the original owner.

It does not describe final game behavior. It captures the current direction and unresolved design choices.

Goal

The goal is an occupation model that:

gives attackers a sustained economic reward beyond a one-time raid or debris harvest
preserves the existing principle that colonies cannot be permanently captured
creates ongoing strategic tension between occupier and original owner
gives defenders agency even when they cannot militarily eject the occupier immediately

Core Problem

Raiding produces a one-time resource gain. Bombardment destroys infrastructure and creates debris. Neither creates a lasting relationship between attacker and target. Occupation fills this gap — it is a persistent state that rewards sustained military commitment and punishes the defender economically over time.

Without occupation, there is little reason for a powerful attacker to maintain presence at a target after a successful raid. Occupation gives them a reason to stay — and gives the defender a reason to fight back over time.

Occupation vs. Capture

Occupation is not permanent ownership transfer.

The original owner retains underlying ownership of the colony. Their name, development history, and claim are unchanged. What the occupier controls is physical access — they have troops on the surface and ships in the system, and as long as they maintain that presence, they extract a cut of production.

Occupation ends when:

the occupier withdraws voluntarily
the garrison is defeated militarily
the colony revolts and ejects the garrison
a diplomatic resolution is reached

This is consistent with the existing design direction that colonies cannot be permanently taken. The original owner always retains the ability to reclaim — the question is how costly and how long that takes.

How Occupation Works

The landing phase

Occupation cannot be initiated from orbit alone. After clearing surface defenses, the attacker must land ground forces. This requires a dedicated ship class — troop transports or landing craft — that carries soldiers to the surface.

A fleet of battleships and corvettes cannot occupy. The attacker must have brought the right ships for the objective. This adds another dimension to fleet composition decisions: a player planning to occupy must include transports in their fleet, which consume capacity and are vulnerable.

The conquest cache

Once occupation is established, the colony continues operating normally — the original owner still develops it, produces resources, and manages it. However, a fixed percentage of all production is siphoned into a conquest cache that only the occupier can access.

The cache accumulates on the colony. The occupier must send transport fleets to collect it. These transports travel to and from the occupied colony and are vulnerable to interception — by the original owner, by third parties, or by rivals of the occupier.

The extraction rate is a design variable. A higher rate means more reward for the occupier but faster stability decay and stronger defender motivation to resist.

Maintaining the garrison

The occupier must leave a garrison behind — ships or ground forces committed to holding the colony. These forces are unavailable for other operations while stationed there.

This creates a natural limit on occupation. A player can only maintain so many garrisons simultaneously before their military is stretched thin. An empire that tries to occupy a dozen colonies at once will find its garrison forces spread too thin to defend any of them effectively.

Stability and Revolt

Every occupied colony has a stability value that decays over time. When stability reaches zero, the garrison is overwhelmed by a revolt and the occupation ends — the colony returns to its original owner.

Factors that accelerate stability decay

Duration of occupation — the longer the occupation, the faster resentment builds
Extraction rate — higher resource extraction means faster decay
Active resistance by the original owner — sabotage operations, covert actions
Bombardment of the occupied colony — the original owner can bombard their own colony to destabilize the garrison (a sacrifice play: it damages their own infrastructure but may end the occupation faster)

Factors that slow stability decay

Low extraction rate — a lighter-handed occupation buys longer tenure
Garrison investment — a larger or better-equipped garrison suppresses unrest
Development investment — an occupier who continues developing the colony (improving infrastructure rather than only extracting) may delay revolt

On revolt

When the colony revolts, the garrison takes casualties and is ejected. The occupier loses their presence and their cache. The original owner regains full control — but the colony may be damaged from the conflict.

The revolt mechanic means a defender who cannot immediately eject an occupier militarily still has tools. Playing the long game — harassing transports, conducting sabotage, accepting some bombardment damage to accelerate instability — is a viable strategy for the weaker side.

Bombardment and Occupation

Occupation clarifies the purpose of bombardment in the broader conflict model:

Pre-occupation: the attacker bombards surface defenses to weaken them before landing
Coercion: an attacker threatens continued bombardment to pressure a defender into accepting occupation terms without a full military contest
Anti-occupation: the original owner bombards their own colony to destabilize the garrison — accepting infrastructure damage in exchange for faster stability decay
Denial without occupation: an attacker who does not want to commit a garrison can bombard purely to destroy production capacity and weaken a rival economically

Holding Tier Interaction

Not all holdings may be equally occupiable. One direction:

Holding type	Occupiable?	Notes
Claim	No	No infrastructure or population to extract from
Frontier	Possibly	Limited extraction, unstable — occupation likely short-lived
Colony	Yes	Full extraction mechanics and stability system apply

A claim can be expelled (as established in the colony conquest doc) but not occupied. A frontier might be occupiable but barely worth the garrison cost. A developed colony is the meaningful occupation target.

Transport Convoys as a Strategic Target

The conquest cache must be physically collected. This creates a recurring logistical commitment for the occupier: transport fleets traveling to and from the occupied colony.

These convoys are a viable target:

The original owner can intercept them, denying the occupier their reward while the occupation continues
Third parties can raid convoys opportunistically
An occupier whose convoys are consistently intercepted may find the occupation economically unviable even if the garrison is secure

This creates a middle path for the defender: if you cannot eject the garrison, deny its value by making transport impossible.

Open Questions

What is the default extraction rate, and can the occupier adjust it? Is there a tradeoff between extraction rate and stability decay speed?
Can the occupier develop the occupied colony — build new infrastructure — or only extract?
Is there a diplomatic resolution path — can the original owner pay tribute to end the occupation, or negotiate a reduced extraction rate?
What happens to the conquest cache if the occupation ends before it is collected — does it revert to the original owner, disperse, or remain as a contested resource?
Can a colony be occupied by more than one player simultaneously, or does occupation require full control?
Does the occupier's garrison count against their fleet limits?
Are there mechanics for allied assistance — can an alliance member help eject an occupier on another player's behalf?
What happens to a colony mid-revolt if the original owner sends a liberation fleet — does the revolt bonus stack with the incoming military action?