so i've been brainstorming up some ideas for colonies but before i commit i just gotta be sure i've got everything in mind and that i'm going to be doing it correctly.
my plan is to write the colony write-ups in the fashion of world factbook entries, with most information provided succinctly and categorically, with histories and descriptions detailed in their own sections
here's a list of the info i think it's pertinent to develop, roughly in order of importance for our purposes here. this isn't all there can or has to be and some of these things i haven't included in some of the drafts i've made since i don't know what's reasonable or canon yet, but this is the gist of it. if i'm missing something vital please let me know
a name
relationship with federation (i.e. satisfied/dissatisfied with state of affairs and current levels of aid/imposition from galactic/district government)
council party strengths and voting demographics
voter turnouts and estimated levels of voter apathy
notable historic events (i.e. periods of high growth or decay, attacks or occupations by bugs or separatists, notable figures or organizations from there, natural disasters)
natural environment and atmosphere
industries/exports
natural resources
population
GDP
population demographics
date of establishment
travel time to earth at light speed
orbital and rotational periods
what i've been taking into consideration
oil, fossil fuels, and natural gas will be exceedingly rare, due to the extreme rarity of earth-like planets and planets bearing carbon life
coal and oil and natural gas will not exist on terraformed planets. it takes millions of years for natural material to be buried deep enough to form organic fuels
colonies will need to be as self-sustainable as possible
energy will come from primarily renewable sources (primarily geothermal and hydroelectric when available, supplemented by solar and wind), then nuclear sources
the ideal colony will be capable of providing food and clean water for itself. even if self-sufficiency is impossible due to environment and population, the colony should be able to produce enough to supplement its emergency reserves, to be able to survive without import or aid for 1 earth year
at this point in time, with the recent failures of the fleet and the mobile infantry and the rise of the progenitor collectors attacking colonies, growth of the arachnid territories, and numerous separatist organizations being established and expanded
colonials will be extremely dissatisfied with the current government and eager to create change
although voter interest will be high, voter turnout will be historically low due to conditions of destruction in invaded colonies preventing regular electoral procedure, extreme high fatality rates from increased progenitor collector and arachnid attacks, and oppressive separatist regimes limiting freedom of movement and preventing attendance to voting stations
colonials will be skeptical of the ability of the federal armed forces to protect them, and will be seeking new options either through party policy change, or private interests and radical organizations
a few already exist on the old forums and the old wiki i've been looking at for reference. one thing that might be worth doing is scouring the old wiki, and ripping off all the page templates so that we have some templates ready to go for our new wiki. wikipedia also has good very detailed templates for planets, countries, and states that we can appropriate if we can't come up with a good one on our own
http://ackua.site.nfoservers.com/starshiptroopersrp/old/forums/the-vault.29/
http://starshiptroopersrp.wikia.com/wiki/SSTRP_Wiki
the ideal outcome in my eyes is to have enough established colonies so that we can put them together into districts/sectors, then bring back that old galactic conquest map we used to use, with an added facet of colonial morale and colonial interest affecting economics and resources for each faction