Wiki / mechanics / map-and-territory
Towns: acquire & upgrade
Status: Draft. Live in the sandbox campaign. Every number on this page is TEMP: they are first guesses that are still being tuned.
Land has two verbs. ACQUIRE takes an unclaimed town next to yours. UPGRADE raises a town you already hold by one level. You cannot build here: a town comes with a fixed set of buildings, and you either take more towns or make the ones you have bigger.
How you use it
Acquire
- Unclaimed towns next to your turf have a ? mark on the map. Click one.
- The card shows the town's BUILDINGS (marked "fixed") and WOULD MAKE: the cash, Influence and soldiers the set would earn, before grip.
- Under Establish a foothold here. you see the price and the number of days. Press ACQUIRE. You pay the full price now, and the claim joins your expansion queue.
- Queued towns show their place number on the map. The claim being worked shows a ring and the time left. When it finishes, you get the toast "
is yours."
Upgrade
- On your own town's card, UPGRADE TO LV n · $price · nD is the gold button in the BUILDINGS header. The town level shows as LV n on the YOUR TURF strip.
- Press it. You pay now, and the button changes to UPGRADING · nD. When it finishes, every building in the town works at the new level.
- When the town is maxed out, the button reads TOP LEVEL.
OUTFIT → TOWNS lists every town you hold, one row each: level, cash per day, Influence, soldiers and manager. The detail panel has the same UPGRADE button and the buildings grouped by kind. Below the towns, Claims under way has a CANCEL CLAIM button on each claim.
How it works
Acquire
| Rule | Live |
|---|---|
| Target | Only an unclaimed live town (owner neutral, not civic). Expansion never takes another outfit's land |
| Connection | The town must border your territory, or a town earlier in your queue |
| Payment | Full price when you queue. Not enough cash. Queued claims are paid upfront. |
| Price | Set by N = towns you hold (your home counts) plus claims already queued. With one town, your first claim is N = 1. Queuing several at once gives no discount |
| One at a time | Only the first claim in the queue counts down. The rest wait their turn, already paid |
| Landing | The town transfers through the normal ownership door, and grip starts at 0 |
| Reorder | ↑ / ↓ on the queue. The active claim stays first. Cancel it to change direction. |
| Cancel | Refund = price × days left ÷ total days. A claim that has not started yet gets everything back |
| Beaten to it | If another outfit takes a queued town first, you get a full refund and a text: " |
| AI | Uses the same door, the same prices and the same queue. It keeps a cash reserve on top of the price |
Upgrade
| Rule | Live |
|---|---|
| What climbs | The whole town, one level, and every building in it with it. There is no per-building upgrade in this mode |
| Effect | One level doubles every per-day number of a building |
| Price | A flat fee set by the town's current level. What stands in the town and how many towns you hold do not change it |
| Time | Grows with the level (see the numbers below). The town keeps working at its old level until the upgrade lands |
| One at a time | One upgrade per town. A second press reads Already going up. |
| Cap | Level 4 is the top. Research does not cap the town level |
| Refusals | Not our land. · Already going up. · At the top level. · Needs $N. |
Grip after a claim
A new town starts at 0 grip and earns less until grip settles. WOULD MAKE shows what the town earns before grip.
Numbers (all TEMP)
| Number | Value | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Claim price at N = 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 | $2,000 / $3,500 / $5,000 / $7,000 | foundation.claim_ladder |
| Claim price after the ladder | $7,000 + $2,500 × (N − 4)^1.0566, rounded to $50: N = 5 $9,500 · 6 $12,200 · 7 $15,000 | foundation.claim_cash / claim_cash_step, settlement_economy.claim_cash_growth |
| Claim time | 10 days | settlement_economy.claim_days |
| AI cash reserve on top of a claim | $600 | peaceful_expansion.ai_reserve_cash |
| Town upgrade price: LV 1→2 / 2→3 / 3→4 | $7,000 / $9,500 / $12,200 | foundation.town_upgrade_cash |
| Town upgrade time | 20 days × current level (20 / 40 / 60) | foundation.upgrade_days |
| Top town level | 4 | foundation.max_building_level, base_building_cap |
| Level multiplier | ×2 per level above 1 | foundation.level_mult |
| Grip gain per day | 1.5 (4.0 in a town where one of your people stands with his following) | foundation.control_gain_per_day / control_gain_anchor |
| Spawn set | Base buildings only; about 1 town in 15 keeps one special | foundation.set_base_only, set_rare_special_one_in |
See also
- Map & territory: the board and the town card
- Economy: cash and how towns pay
- Orgs: outfits and the seat
- Mechanics
Locked vs leftover
| Locked (document this) | Leftover / do not claim |
|---|---|
| Two land verbs: ACQUIRE and UPGRADE | A BUILD verb or catalogue on a fixed-set town |
| Claims paid upfront, worked one at a time | Paying a claim as it starts (the older non-settlement mode) |
| Whole-town upgrade at a flat fee by level | Per-building upgrades, or a price that grows with towns held |
| No research cap on town level | Research "Town" nodes gating upgrades |
| Price ladder by towns held plus queued | Price from the town's slot count (older mode) |
| The landing toast still says "Build using its local slots." even though there is no BUILD verb in this mode |