A Guide to Preparation: Spreading the Simguru's message of peace

When we want to expand to a new Control System, we have to make sure that the population know that Utopia is the best choice for their future prosperity, security and spiritual fulfilment. Our marketers and missionaries need examples of the wonderful things Utopia can do for the people, so we need to make sure our expansion targets have a full supply of Utopia Publicity, which can be obtained from any Control System.

 

THE BASICS

The sticky and/or sidebar will contain our main "Preparation targets". Collect your Utopia Publicity from the Power Contact at any Control System, although obviously it's best to choose the one closest to the target! Your allocation is based on your rank, and your allocation refreshes every 30 minutes. You can fast-track your allocation by spending a sum equal to 10,000 credits per unit. Please don't fast-track unless you have tons of cash, need that last few units to make the next rank or are sure you know what you're doing!

When you deliver the Utopia Publicity to the Power Contact in the Preparation target system, you will earn 100 credits and 1 merit for each unit delivered.

 

THE PREPARATION THRESHOLD AND CONTESTED PREPARATIONS

Each system has a threshold of Utopia Publicity delivered that it needs to hit before an expansion can take place. But unlike Fortification, which is an all-or-nothing matter, that's not the end of the story. Multiple powers can prepare the same system, or systems within the same 15LY "bubble". If this happens, only the Preparation with the highest number of points invested succeeds, all other Preparations within 15LY fail. We still pay the CC expansion cost (see below) even if we are out-prepared in one of our preparations.

So uncontested Preparations will succeed if the Preparation Threshold if hit. Contested preparations only succeed if they hit the Preparation Threshold AND have the most Preparation of any system within 15LY.

 

NOMINATIONS

When choosing where to expand his vision, the Simguru gives a lot of weight to the advice of his independent commanders. As your rank within the Pranav Antal power increases, so too will your weekly "Nominations". These can be cashed in at the Power Contact in the Preparation target in the same way as Utopia Publicity. They don't give you merits, but they will boost the Preparation value in the same way.

You don't even have to go to the system in question to cash in your nominations! Just go to the Preparations tab of the Pranav Antal Galactic Powers page and click "Pledge to Nominate" against the system you want to have your nominations!

 

Rank	Utopia Publicity / 30 min	Nominations / week
1	10	0
2	15	25
3	20	50
4	25	100
5	50	250

 

PAYING FOR EXPANSION ATTEMPTS

At the end of the cycle, expansion attempts are purchased. The system with the most Preparation (even if another power out-bid us) pays a number of CC from that turns surplus equal to the "expansion cost". This figure is viewable from the Galaxy Map > Powerplay > Expansion view, and is based on the potential income of the control system and distance to Polevnic. Average expansion costs for a good system are 100-150CC.

Once this has been done, the system with the next highest amount of Preparation is checked to see if it has made the Threshold and won any contests, and if so, another expansion attempt is purchased and so on.

This carries on until

• The surplus gets too small to buy any more expansion attempts OR
• Ten expansion attempts are purchased.

Once an expansion attempt has been purchased, Violent Protests will erupt in the upcoming cycle and Pranav Antal has a chance to take control of that system. Any excess surplus not spent on expansion attempts rolls over onto the next cycle's balance.

 

AVOIDING BAD PREPARATIONS

Since anyone can prepare any system more than 15LY from a Control System, we often get bad systems getting lots of Preparation simply because people don't fully understand the Powerplay mechanics or don't care and just want merits. We don't want to waste our precious CC on expansion attempts into crap systems, and we certainly don't want to run the risk of these expansions succeeding, so we usually try to crowd them off the preparations list.

As an example, say we start a cycle with a 300CC surplus, but merit grinders start preparing the terrible, loss-making Bumshart system (Expansion Cost 110) , simply because it's nearby. If we make sure we have 2 other, better, systems (both with Expansion Cost 110) both with more Preparation than Bumshart, we'll spend all the CC on those first, with not enough left to purchase Bumshart's expansion attempt.

But what to do if there's no other really good systems available to prepare? There are two options

• Prepare a system whose expansion cannot possibly succeed: Expansion attempts only succeed if enough combat work is put in at Violent Protests. If we can stop merit grinders from winning these battles, no harm is done. We can stop them winning by making sure that our rival powers fight against us (preparing a system right in their midst, for example), making sure that the expansion trigger is very high (Feudal, Theocracy and Prison Colony systems have a huge expansion trigger, because they oppose our expansion ethos) or preparing a system merit grinders can't get to (such as a permit-locked system)

• Prepare a middling system, and SCRAP it: An easier solution may be to make sure that everything at the top of the prep list is at least marginally useful. We'd never go out of our way to prepare a system that made a +40CC profit, but we'd certainly choose it over a system that made a -10CC loss. We probably won't fight in these Violent Protests, and we may choose to ask our friends in rival powers to oppose our expansions using the SCRAP program, but if the worst happens and the expansion succeeds, we're still in a much better position than if that bad expansion had succeeded.

• The holding pattern: If our surplus is particularly large (>700CC), it may be possible to spend all of it and still have some left over to roll over onto the next week. To do this we need to make sure all or almost all of our preparations are both very cheap and safe from accidental or deliberate expansion. We maintain a list of systems that are cheap, a long way from Polevnic (to increase the expansion trigger) and have governments that will double the expansion trigger for just such an occasion.

 

MAKING MONEY WHILE YOU PREPARE

Preparation tends to be easier than fortification, since you generally have to travel less far. Just like with fortification, be sure to fill your cargo hold with profitable goods so you can make money at the same time. Look for "Tradify" or "Prepare + Trade" threads in the Reddit, or check out the "Prepare + Trade" tab in the System Summary Sheet for the best trade routes to use while preparing systems on the priority list!