BATTLE MINES

Greenhouse Grog Santiago Díaz González, aka Psiweapon, 2007

This a random display of one of 8 pieces of art created by the players of Battle Mines.
If you have artwork to contribute, please contact me! rasteroid@battlemines.com

New players will always start with a Production Modifier of zero.

November 7th

Refining Enriched Uranium now causes one Pollution per unit in addition to Power concerns.

The Scrambler now has equal chance of putting idlers on the outside, inside, or scattering them willy nilly.

Message limits have been relaxed, n00bs now get one message. Go on little feller, say somethin'!

The Bunker now costs only 3 Steel.

When Reichstag/Whitehouse owners create a new vassalage, it will always be at least 8 turns long.

Power Policy can now be set to use no Reactor Fuel.

There is now a Self-Destruct button on the Player Setup page. If it is set at production, bye bye account.

The time it takes your battle legendry to get incrementally more stale has been increased from 2 to 4 weeks, so your Most Vassals score will hang around for longer.

Also I gussied this place up a bit, adding title graphics from various awesome contributors, and some minor appeal enhancements to the New Player and View pages. >^.^<

Radar is now more powerful, intercepting 100% of incoming ICBM attacks on adjacent players.

Non-communist spies can now detect if there is any Food in their victim's inventory (but like ICBMs and Enriched, not how much.)

The world just became slightly more hazardous for Tetsujin. Carrying Food will attract the interest of animals, and venturing underwater could be risky, unless a unit of Aid is carried.

To offset this, Tetsujin with empty cargo space will now trawl for scrap as they traverse the sea floor.

Tetsujin now have a maximum carrying capacity equal to the creator's Tech Level.

Godzilla is weaker, and has a more interesting routing algorithm.

Veteran players (see your title) get two votes for Speaker, others still only get one.
Note that although Speaker votes and votes on regular issues are handled seperately, both can be usurped by the Embassy.
The Embassy may have been broken before, it should work now.

Female titles! Pick your gender on the player setup page, comes in two great flavours, walnut and raspberry!

Tetsujin fighting now costs three moves straight up.

Democracy no longer allows voting any player to be speaker on the view page, instead this property belongs to the Embassy.

Policy for idles will now all reset entirely to the defaults, including land exchange and industrial policy, excluding government type.

Industrial Policy now costs only one Aluminum or one Steel to change, reflected by a radio button on the Policy page.

At last, Tetsujin come into their own.

The mechanical marvels have new rules for loading and unloading objects featuring a stack-type inventory, new abilities stemming from the objects they carry, and they can engage in battle with other Roamers. Read the revised Potshot description here, and all about the enhanced Tetsujin here. They're not yet tweaked to perfection, but send me bug reports and we'll straighten them out.

Oh, did I mention? They're cheaper now, too!

Doom 2 Oldskool Demon OC ReMix.mp3

It really has been almost 2 months..

The maximum number of Trees that can be grown is now 3, but Green Industry and Democracy each increase that limit by 3.

The Scrambler now places idle players in the center of the map.

Tetsujin can now be loaded by any player, not just their owner, as long as they have moves remaining.

They can also fly, and visit the moon, where there awaits an entirely new exhaustively developed world for you to explore!

I give you: Tetsujin!

Read about them in the Roamers section. Change your manufacturing policy to create one of these mechanical marvels! (Tech 3 required.)

Fallout has been tweaked again. Now, when an adjacent neighbor has higher Fallout than you, your Fallout will increase by half the difference between your respective Fallouts, before it is reduced. This is a much faster increase than previously, where Fallout increased by only one tenth of the difference between you and your most Fallout-ridden neighbor.

Small improvement to Theocracy: They no longer require a Church of their own to receive the +10% accuracy bonus when their opponent does own a Church.
Ie. 10% bonus for having a Church, 10% bonus if your opponent has a Church, straight up.

Doomsday Devices now cause players to lose Tech Levels differently when they detonate:

• 10 Levels are lost by the player detonating the device.
• 2 Levels are lost by adjacent players (who are also vassalized).
• 1 Level is lost by players 2 tiles away (observed or not).
• 1 additional Level is lost by any player in the world with Anarchy as a government (before the device went off).
• Technocracy shields no longer protect against the blast.

Launchpad owners can now attack anyone in the world when the Red Horseman is in town.

Fallout will not increase immediately to your highest neighboring Fallout. Instead, it will increase only by the difference between your Fallout and the highest neighbor's, divided by 10 rounding up.

Fallout dissipation remains the same. (Fallout / 10 rounding up, unless you mine Uranium Ore in which case Fallout only drops by one.)

In local warfare with other players and Roamer potshots, Enriched Uranium that is fired will now always cause Fallout, and Diamonds will always be recovered, whether they impact or not.

Losing a Reactor now increases Fallout by 4.

Green Industries now reduce Fallout by one each cycle (after other effects).

Purifiers now only reduce Pollution by one point for all adjacent tiles. Fallout purification still at one.

Godzilla now spawns on highly polluted tiles, as well as liking to move towards them.

Scramblers can no longer be activated on official holidays.

Activated Doomsday Devices now halve Scrambler progress, but Scramblers will not halve Doomsday Device progress.

Enriched Uranium and Diamonds that hit roamers will now act as in normal combat, adding to Fallout and being recovered by the landowner respectively.

There is a new class of World Leader, awarded to the player untied for most Palantirs in the world.

Fallout has been changed to dissipate more quickly. It will drop by 1 if you original Fallout is less than 10, 2 if it is less than 20, 3 if less than 30 and so on. This benefit does not apply to Uranium Ore tile, which only ever drop by one Fallout.

Nancy will now do a Fallout prediction on the Policy page.

Launchpad's nerf is altered to allow hitting anyone of higher rank than you.

A brand new validation system powered by YT is in place. Less easy to abuse, but feel free to not try.
In light of this, I invite any multiers to send me a note with the names of extraneous accounts. Names will not be revealed, judgement will not be passed.

The Launchpad is weakened to allow attacks only on Leaders, those who have dispatched a Diplomat to the attacker, and those who host a spy of the attacker. The Parliament is also weakened; Like the Launchpad, vassals taken who are not in visual range of the master do not count towards most vassals score.

Anonymous chat has been removed for now.

I have also fixed several bugs, including but not limited to: Reverse-WTC trade, syndicalist reversion, production time / delay syncing, roamers on moving land and the senate.

With all this IMPORTANT crap out of the way, by the next update we should be able to get back to fun!

Individual accuracy bonuses on roamers are removed.

Roamers tweaks are ongoing but I think things are stabilizing. Still some issues with who is where in relation to the thrice-damned dome, most awkward of all game concepts.

All Roamers are now 10% easier to hit.

Introducing a fun new tool: Assassination

The Scrambler will now destroy all Outposts.

The DDD slays Roamers where they stand, unless they have eaten at least 50 times. No items are left behind.

Roamers will now sleep, remaining inactive from 2100 to 0400 hours PDT.
There is a +20% accuracy bonus for shooting at a roamer in your territory.
They have been made a litte less prolific, and had a couple of tweaks.

Aeons after the last significant update I bring you: Roamers.

Now, this is only the first part of what is a major addition, so not only may there be bugs, but the various numbers involved which I have pulled out of my ass my not be quite what I want them to be yet. Outside of that, enjoy!

The bans on new players and the senate restrictions are lifted. BM moves to a new home, Gigantor's bm.halkeye.net!

In order to save BM's current home, venerable old Halmoni, who was buckling under the load, two awful new rules are in place:

One, no new players for a while.

Two, random production times will overrule the vote cast by the senate.

This means production will happen once each six hours, at a random time, reducing the spikes at predictable production times, though unfortunately not abolishing them due to extra-game communication.

A new home for halmoni may be in the making, but we must all be terribly patient, for 'tis but I, Rasteroid.

The Power Use Policy allows you to decide what types of power can be used during production (Coal, Fuel, free power only.) This policy setting, like Firepower, will protect you from hungry Powersinks.

For player's Senate votes to be counted, they must visit and submit to the senate page at least once before the senate convenes. Attendance is reset after the vote. Votes belonging to players not in attendance will not be counted. The Speaker is considered to always be in attendance. Everyone is set to attend for Monday, but after that attendance must be performed manually.

PSA: The "counter" method I use of preventing repeated commands is quite horribly flawed and somewhat inconsistent, fortunately on the side of safety. If you are getting repeat command errors, do not panic and rip my brains out reflexively. Instead, simply click again on the link in the side or top bars of the page you are submitting orders to, and repeat your command. If you were going to say something long winded on the Comm page, as is FREQUENTLY the case for your humble website administrator, copy the text of your statement before you submit, or for experts after the request begins to fail.

I also probably need to exercise some Zubin skills, and buy a newer machine.

Naturally doing some work on this is a high priority, but not number one!!! So~ just take a deep breath, follow the instructions above, and we can all eat, sleep, work, and peacefully live our lives, while secretly being Battle Miners to the rock solid core baby.

The people of your empire are now conceptually bound to your Battle Mine, not your land. This makes more sense from many angles: They come with you bringing your government on land exchange, they get inside and survive Doomsday, and so on. The only practical changes are some notes in the documents and tying hunger/number of feeds to the player rather than the map tile.

The FAQ and Credits page went up.

Monarchies are no longer immune to Sabotage and Suicide Bombing.

The chances of a Theocracy being lucky during production is now 1/3, same chunk as they lose from their Tech Level.

Corruption is now doubled for players in Anarchy.

The maximum length of a vassalage (re: Bribery, Churches, the Senate) is now sixteen cycles.
Churches only adjust vassalage by +/- 1.

Doomsday not your thing?

Perhaps you prefer a different brand of madness?

A big thanks go out to my best friend and arch-nemesis Mumpy, with the unveiling of The Scrambler, under the new blanket-heading Diabolical Machines. (MtG thought of it first.) Take a look.

In related matters, the last available map now shows most advanced DDD and Scrambler, and the Senate Arms Race Issue affects the cost of Diabolical Machines as a whole, not just DDDs.

If your government type hates itself (Syndicalism, Senate denounces), you can attack people of the same government as you. Also hatred between combatants now imbues a x1.1 Fireworks multiplier.

Radars are now only effective for the defender in distant warfare. Their price has been reduced to 2 Glass, 1 Steel, 1 Enriched Uranium.

Suicide bombing will now automatically take out World Trade Centers.

If a player loses their last building, all Informants and Agents in that land will be killed, regardless of survival bonuses. Spies cannot be placed in a land with no buildings.

Democrats can now vote for anyone to be Speaker via the View page.

Boreholes now count as two Mines, not one.

The way vassalage duration is determined has changed. If a player who is already a vassal is conquered, instead of starting a new 8 turn vassalage, the duration of the previous vassalage carries over to the next. Modifiers of duration (Church, Senate) will be applied each time the vassalage begins or changes hands. A vassalage will start with at least one cycle of duration.

Observing your subjects in the Palantir now reveals Land Exchange Policy.

The Doomsday Device now removes 3 Tech Levels from 1-square adjacent players, and also 1 Tech Level from players 2 squares away. These players can avoid one level of Tech loss by have a Technocratic Shield active when the device goes off.

Trees are now destroyed during terraforming.

Communists can now demote any level of Spy, even removing them entirely.

Government types hated by your government are now outlined in dark red on the map.

Random time is now the default setting for the Production Time Adjustment issue in the senate.

• Communist Diplomats and Diplomats in Capitalist nations can cause Corruption.
• Communist Spies cause -10% Corruption, Spies in Capitalist nations cause +10%.
• Communists are now able to demote their Diplomats to Agents.
• Theocracies are now stupider. Instead of -1 Tech Level, their effective Tech Level is 2/3 of their actual Tech Level, rounding up.
• The Facist bonus for hosting no Outposts is now +3 PM, up from +2.

Sorry n00b-pants.

Governments that are condoned or denounced no longer receive special bonuses. Instead, a condoned government will never be hated, while a denounced government will always be hated.

The Subsidy senate issue is now calculated differently. The average Pollution is calculated and rounded to the nearest integer; those above are considered polluters, those below are environmentalists, those on the middle receive no affect from subsidies.

The Purifier now reduces Fallout by only 1, not 2, for local tiles.

Landmines now gain one level per week. Their level dictates how many levels of Hull they will blow off invaders. Landmine level is visible next to the building itself.

Everybody's Most Vassals score will now deteriorate by one every two weeks. (On Sundays, starting two Sundays from now.)

Capitalists now experience 30% Corruption from Spies, and 20% from hosted Diplomats.
(Reminder: An exchange of Diplomats between nations will still alleviate any corruption.)

Annex now costs just 3 Glass, intiates a single turn of vassalage, and does not feed the host's people. It can then be extended as normal.

The Fridge now shields your Food from the clutches of Ramul, making it an optional trade. He will still ask for all of it if you crack the door open though.

Messages have a 150 character limit.

• The Tech Levels at which certain maps are gained has changed, and the Dock and Embassy now give two new maps.
• All maps have been moved to the Foreign Affairs page.
• The Bunker now costs 6 Steel to build, and successfully hiding in it to avoid land exchange costs 1 Food.
• Capitalists now pay one extra Tithe object when vassalized.
• Bureaucrats now receive -10% accuracy in local warfare.
• Powersinks are now unavailble for construction until they have been researched in the Academy.
• Landmines are once again visible to any Spy.
• Boreholes no longer cause double Pollution. Instead, they cause Uranium miners to lose their immunity to Pollution.

Also, a few international tunes for you:
Stereo Total - Exakt neutral.mp3
tv theme - Sherlock Holmes.mp3
(If anyone can comprehend the squeaky voices in this one, I'd love a transcription.)

Capitalists no longer get a PM bonus for an Office Tower, instead they are at -2 PM unless they have an Office Tower.

The bonuses to grow Food have been revised. Read about it here. Makes more sense now, eh Varq? ;)

When the Black Horseman rides, the people never get full.

It now costs only four Food to switch to Syndicalism (if you have had at least 10 Most Vassals.) Syndicalism will be maintained if there is four Food in your inventory at the end of production. This Food will be consumed. Otherwise your government will revert as normal.

Syndicalism now has a Seat of Power: Statue.

To clarify the "Most Common Object" used in Corruption and Banks, in the event of a tie this will be the more valuable object according to value order.

In other news, it's no longer possible to demote a Diplomat.

Reinforced Bunkers will now dent not once, but twice, before they are destroyed in combat.

Communism Diplomats can now only engage in corruption with a 10% chance of success, compared to any Agent's or Informant's 20%.

Negative PM can now count against your score.

When the Black Horseman is in town, any government change costs only one Food.

Here's a quick .mp3 post for yas, in the nuclear vein: Frank Klepacki - Red Alert 2 - 02 - Blow It Up.mp3

More than one Food may now rot during production.

Also beefing up the Senate a little, Weapons Taxation now affect +/- 5 cost per 5% DDD chunk, and Subsidies are worth +/- 2 PM instead of 1.

Maximum number of Trees is now 6. (Still 8 for peaceniks.)

• The % chance per most common object that the owner of a Bank will gain free objects is now a variable with a name: Prime Rate. This value is listed on the Comm page. I may let this fluctuate according to some external factor, haven't decided yet. For now it's 1.75%.
• Reinforced Bunkers now do not receive Technocrat-style shielding. Instead, they are capable of being dented. A dent absorbs one hit of an enemy's attack, but the Reinforced bunker is unharmed, and will be at full strength in any subsequent battle. However, if it sustains another hit in during same round of combat after denting, it will be destroyed as normal.
• Weather forecasts now stack. Tech Level 9 gives +1, a Supercomputer +2, Don the Sage +4. (Just picture him operating away at the controls, determing the weather with pinpoint accuracy!)
• Reichstagged vassals can now be attacked by other Reichstag owners. (Whitehouse too, yano.)

• Downtown can now be constructed without an Academy, though it still counts as an advanced building.
• Downtown now only cancels the effects of Tech Level, not surrounding contacts.
• The costs of Downtown and Parliament have been reversed.
• The Supercomputer now increases combat accuracy by 5%.
• The Castle now decreases opponent accuracy by 15%.
• The World Trade Center now gives +1 Trade.
• 50%+ Glass Seats of Power are now destroyed in land movement.
• The Reinforced Bunker is now destroyed by terraforming.

These buildings introduce several radical new elements of gameplay, so there may be some tweaking to come, be forewarned. Bug reports asap, hard-asses.

For purposes of how long everyone has been the same government (which impacts SOP construction), everyone is currently at zero because I just started the counters today. This means no-one will be able to build these beauties for two days, but I advise everyone reads about them!

Monarchy's production bonus due to vassals has improved. They now receive +1 PM for the first Vassal, +2 for the second, and so on. A wise man once said, it's good to be the king!

+1 PM for Technocracy, meaning their regular shield is free and the shield-dome costs only -2 PM.

Instead of only dying during combat, Informants and Agents may be slain whenever their "hiding place" is lost for any reason. Diplomats are safe, being welcomed into the Battle Mine's interior, but other Spies hide in random buildings outside. A building being destroyed by any means during play or production may cause Spy deaths, except for scrapping. Also, since Spies must hide all the time, they can no longer be warned prior to Combat, and may be slain by their owners.

This means over a long period of time, players with many buildings will rarely shake off spies and corruption, but players with few buildings will have them rooted out more frequently.

Let it be known that groups of players found engaging in mean-spirited actions against individual players will be punished. It can't be stopped, so much to my irritation it must be policed. Behave yourselves.

The Ramulgorithm settings can be thought of as haggling with Ramul.

The height of any Monument you control now contributes directly to your rank.

There, that oughta hold ya.

Oh, I also added a new satellite map and switched two around.

For rank calculation, your Production Score is now your full PM (even in excess of 10), divided by 2 rounding down.

Down side: Food has been made of less value on the Black Market, though no less inclusively demanded. I adjusted some other Black Market values while I was in there, manipulating the market a bit. Enjoy. ;)

Monarchies are now immune to Corruption.

I'm also lowering Fallout by 6 everywhere, not going below zero.

This file I have humorously renamed gigajapan, which is not its real name but you may not support the kanji on your system, so... oh also I don't speak Japanese.

My first day of work was ok. They let me play games.

Map tiles have a new value associated with them: Fallout.
When the Pale Rider is here, (Fallout+Pollution)/50 is the new chance to lose a Hull Level.
Doomsday Devices now increase all Pollution by only 20 (down from 50), but they increase Fallout by 10.
The satellite imagery in the Academy was partially reordered to include a Fallout map.
The base -10% base chance to grow Food is gone. (0% base chance.)

In other news, I'm starting a new full-time job tomorrow, so expect far less frequent updates. :(

Enjoy!

Why not invite a co-worker to join? We could handle a few more players. Maybe advise them to sign up after doomsday though.

Doomsday device detonation now not only enslaves your neighbors, but blows away one of their Tech Levels. Ouch, run away. Or stop the maniac in question! (You cannot go below Tech 0.)

Battle Mines with less than one Hull Point will now be obliterated during production.

In case you missed my note, the Summit page was fixed so that now you can whup underlings every cycle.

Trees are now more friendly: They will not count towards your combat damage in local warfare. So if your opponent destroyed two of yours trees, but you got one cannon, you would win that battle.

Anarchist Academies now never consume Power. Thanks Freesoul, or RedSpectra, I forget. :P

The Summit got some improvements, on both sides of the equation, and finally here are some tearjerkers for the weekend:

Magnetic Fields - Papa Was a Rodeo
Elliott Smith - Waltz # 2

Having the full 5 Trees (an orchard) brightens the hearts of your people, giving you +1 PM.

The Leaders of Battle Mines have some pretty compelling new perks. Read all about it here.

Also, some of the Tech Levels were partially switched around. Nothing major.

There's a new Activity readout from the satellite (of love).

Now you can select which objects to let Ramul get his incomplete mitts on without flicking back and forth to the Policy page. There's also an optional Ramulgorithm setting: Selfish will cause him to prioritize cheap objects, Greedy will make him yearn for the more expensive. Experiment with the settings to see what deals you can wheedle.

Unfortunately, Ramul has decided to reassert his gluttony. He will now always request Food regardless of other selections, and there is no option to purchase Food on the Black Market.

The Technocrat's regular shielding now costs 1 PM to maintain, while the Dome shield costs 3 PM. The Dome shield cannot be disabled.

Efforts have been made to make random events accurately reflect Dome/no Dome status. The official stance is, the Dome surrounds your buildings preventing rain, pollution and wind from entering, but it doesn't surround overflowing objects in your inventory, or the wayward sand in windy weather.

• The Technocrat's shield now costs 2 PM to maintain each production, up from 1.
• The Technocrat's Impenetrable Dome-shield is deactivated in Stormy weather. (Regular advanced building shielding is retained, but the Dome will be destroyed as normal at the start of combat.)
• A Windmill is useless within the confines of a Dome.
• It costs 2 Food to change to a Government which your current Government hates. (Inciting revolt is still always 1 Food.)
• Rank titles have been adjusted, now reflecting your position in your particular Government, rather than in the game overall. This has no technical impact on gameplay, but it makes everyone feel better about themselves.

Trees are a basic building. They cannot be constructed. Instead they are grown, like Food. Once your % chance to grow Food is calculated in maintenace, any extra beyond 100% goes into a new calculation to see if you grow a Tree. (Ie. With 150% grow chance you would have a 100% chance of getting Food, and a 50% chance of getting a tree.) Up to five trees can be grown.
Trees leave three Coal and one Food as Scrap. They also cause one Pollution if they are manually Scrapped.

Domes are an advanced building costing 3 Glass and 1 Aluminum. They have several effects.

• They are immediately destroyed in any kind of combat, counting towards buildings lost and leaving Scrap.
• They are visible from any main map, by this icon:
• Pollution spillover from neighbors is prevented.
• Chances for growing are doubled, after other modifiers.
• If a Technocracy builds a Dome, it unites with their Technocratic shield to create an impenetrable bubble. This prevents ANY warfare (offensive or defensive) before it starts, and effectively closes the nation's border.

• Congratulations to Jemaat on being the first to discover the secret beyond the Sea of Rust!
• Pollution will now max out at 100 on any tile.
• The bounty list now shows prizes correctly adjusted for Capitalism.
• People with closed borders no longer lose objects to Corruption, but still gain from it.
• Diplomats no longer cause Corruption; They also prevent their host from Corrupting their owner.

I've written a fair bit of code, fleshing out the Sea of Rust. Details are sketchy, but check out the docs for an idea of the wonders that await any brave seagoing adventurers!

Monarchy loses its large x2 Senate Vote bonus; Instead in gains +1 Vote for each Outpost the monarch controls.

New players now start with a Refinery (as well as a Mine, Cannon, and Warehouse). This gets around the problem of three-building reversion to Anarchy, in the case where they use their Food to change government as soon as they join the game. (Thanks JC.)

More Spy changes. To simplify the Spy life-cycle, Agents are no longer reduced but killed if they fail a random check in a dangerous situation.

Spies can be killed in any of these situations:

1. Bombardment (20% chance / building destroyed. 5 buildings destroyed = 100% chance of death)
2. Omniscience (100%)
3. Inciting Revolt (Agents only)
4. Performing Sabotage (Agents only)

Diplomats are now summarily executed if owner and host engage in combat; Communist Diplomats escape and become Informants.

Each production, after all new objects are produced and wind blows (but before tithing), players have a 10% chance of losing one of their most common object to each Spy of any level he or she is hosting. The object is lost to Corruption, benefactor unknown. This effect only takes place if the number of most-common-objects is equal to or greater than the number of visiting Spies.

Technocrats now always spend 1 PM to keep their shields up. There is no drawback to Theocracies for having an effective Tech of -1.

Sand miners get a small boost: In the event of Stormy or Rainy weather, the arid effects of their land on growing Food are cancelled, giving them an +10% grow chance bonus.

And for your listening entertainment, another gem from ocremix.org. This is a remix of the main theme from a fun title, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, a downward-looking shooter. Plenty of fun squirting the undead with your waterpistol. A fun game, the music written for it was in another class altogether. This song gets my blood pumping every time.

Zombies_Ate_My_Neighbors_Neighburgers_OC_ReMix.mp3

Secret_of_Monkey_Island_Metal_Monkey_OC_ReMix.mp3

There's a new Senate issue which may cause some controversy. Check the last item in Senate Issues for details.

Governmental hatred is no longer a requirement for Tech stealing, only the Palantir requirement.

Players will give extra tithes when they have a lot of Objects. For every 40 Objects in their inventory (rounding down), a Vassal will give +1 tithe Object. For idle players, it's +1 tithe per 20 Objects.

Exactly what Objects overflowed will now be reported.

Agents now have an additional 50% chance of surviving bombardment. (Cumulative with Communism.)

Base combat accuracy is now 50%, down from 60%. Every 3 buildings you have gives your opponent a 1% accuracy bonus, this is down from 4 buildings.

The Senate issue regarding subsidies has changed. Players with 2 or less Pollution are now considered "Environmental", and those with 4 or more are considered "Industrial". (Players with exactly 3 Pollution receive no effect from subsidies.)

In the future, the way the previous Speaker voted will be revealed after the Senate convenes. Runners-up will also be listed.

Technocracies no longer get tithed +1 Object.
Monarchies are now insusceptible to both revolt and sabotage.
Communism loses its bonus regarding bounties. This ability is inherited by Capitalism. (All bounties that Capitalists collect are automatically +1 Prize level, all bounties collected on Capitalists are -1 Prize level.)

The Speaker for the Senate's vote is now worth 10% of the total number of Voters, except regarding election of a new Speaker. Every Diplomat you own gives you +1 Vote on ALL issues (including Speaker.)

Monarchy has changed: Their production bonus is now simply: (Number of Vassals) x 2.
Monarchs have a new ability: All their Senate votes are worth DOUBLE the normal amount, after all other modifications.

Another policy change: There's now a Most Valued Object setting. The Object selected will be conserved at all costs (re: Overflow, War, Ramul).

Upping election stakes a little, Speakerdom is now worth 5 Votes in the next election. This number may get tied to something like 5% of the total votes later. Negotiate privately with your neighbor for votes today!

Doomsday Devices now have a cost which alternates every 5%, rather than going in chunks. So the first 5% is Diamond, next 5% Aluminum, then Steel, Glass, Enriched Uranium, back to Diamond, and so on.
DDD progress is now shown on every map.

Hey, at least you get a new phrase added to your title when you start work now.

I feel like sharing: Two songs, both similar-sounding techno with a similar tune. Very different subject matter. Thanks to maceo for turning me on to the latter a few years back. Hope your Monday was tolerable, everybody.

Battery - The Chauffeur - Newer Wave
Apologizers - Houseguest 2000

It's probably a good idea to be aware of Doomsday Devices, even if you can't build one at the moment.