Holding Limits
This page explores how many claims, frontiers, and colonies an empire should be able to sustain.
It does not describe final game behavior. It captures the main candidate models and their tradeoffs.
Goal
The goal is to prevent infinite effortless expansion while still allowing empires to spread across the galaxy in interesting ways.
The limit model should:
- keep colonies scarce
- allow more frontiers than colonies
- allow more claims than frontiers
- create meaningful expansion choices instead of flat growth
Current Direction
One current direction is that all three holding layers should be limited, but not equally.
The likely shape is:
- colony limit is the smallest
- frontier limit is higher
- claim limit is higher again
This should allow empires to have:
- a few core colonies
- more developed frontier sites
- an even broader layer of smaller claims
Option A: Separate Hard Caps
Each layer has its own explicit limit.
Example structure:
- colony capacity: very low
- frontier capacity: medium
- claim capacity: high
Advantages
- easy to understand
- easy to balance directly
- gives the designer a clear expansion ladder
Risks
- can feel arbitrary if numbers are too gamey
- may create edge cases where a player has spare colony capacity but no frontier capacity
Option B: One Administrative Capacity With Weighted Costs
Instead of three separate hard limits, the empire has one broader administrative capacity and each layer consumes part of it.
Example idea:
- claim cost: 1 point
- frontier cost: 3 points
- colony cost: 8 points
Advantages
- flexible empire shapes
- fewer separate numbers for the player to track
- more room for specialization
Risks
- less readable at a glance
- easier for players to optimize into degenerate patterns if the costs are off
Option C: Hybrid Model
Use a hard colony cap and softer frontier and claim caps.
Example idea:
- colonies have a strict capacity limit
- frontiers and claims have higher recommended limits
- going beyond frontier or claim support creates rising upkeep, weaker defenses, slower recovery, or faster loss pressure
Advantages
- keeps colonies precious
- allows some strategic overextension
- may feel more natural for a frontier game
Risks
- harder to communicate than a pure hard-cap model
- balancing soft penalties can be messy
Growth Of Capacity
Whichever limit model is chosen, capacities could grow through things like:
- research
- governance technology
- imperial reforms
- infrastructure at core worlds
- identity or doctrine choices
- rare strategic unlocks
Open Questions
- Which limit model is easiest for players to understand?
- Which limit model creates the strongest long-term expansion choices?
- Should claims and frontiers both use hard caps, or should one of them use softer pressure?
- Which sources of extra capacity feel best in progression?