Public Works
Public Works are buildings the State raises for the community. They do not stand on a lot: they sit on the intersections between plots, so they take nobody's land and no expropriation is ever needed — but they change life for whoever lives around them.
Where they stand
Every nation has 36 intersections available, one every two squares along both axes. On the map they appear as round grey plazas between the plots.
Each work reaches the plots around it in two rings:
| Ring | Plots | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Inner | the 4 touching the intersection | full |
| Outer | the 12 in the ring beyond | half |
Effects reach the people who live on those plots. A homeless character, or one in State Housing, has no position on the map and feels nothing. Effects from different works add up, and so do those of two works of the same kind reaching the same home.
Tap any intersection and the map lights up exactly the area it would reach, dimming everything else.
The works available
| Landfill | Park | Police Station | Hospital | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compulsory | yes — one per 20 industries | no | no | no |
| Construction | $50,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Upkeep | $10,000/yr | $5,000/yr | $10,000/yr | $10,000/yr |
| Inner ring | −10 Health/yr | +10 Social/yr | +20 Security | +20 Health/yr |
| Outer ring | −5 Health/yr | +5 Social/yr | +10 Security | +10 Health/yr |
| Penalty if missing | $20,000/yr each | — | — | — |
| State jobs opened | — | — | 3 Police Inspectors | 3 Public Doctors |
Read those numbers against the natural decline. Health already falls by 10 a year on its own, and Social by 15. So a Landfill doubles the fall of Health in its inner ring, from −10 to −20 a year. A Park does not make Social rise — it slows the fall, from −15 to −5. The penalty bites harder than it looks, the benefit is gentler.
Put landfills where nobody lives, and parks where they do: that single choice is most of the strategy.
A park is also somewhere to go
The yearly Social bonus is not all a Park does. Build one and a new action opens for everyone in the nation: the walk in the park, under Social › Social Activities. An hour outside for 20 Energy, worth +5 Health, +5 Happiness and +5 Social, plus a better chance of meeting someone — twice a year, and free for anyone whose home sits in either ring. Everyone else needs a car and 1 Fuel to get there. Players with a family dog take it along, which makes the walk worth more to both of them.
That gives the ring a second, more immediate value: the same homes that gain Social every year are also the ones that walk for nothing. It is worth remembering when Parliament picks the intersection — and worth remembering as a landowner, because a park raises what the plots around it are worth to live on.
The Police Station
The Police Station is the one work whose effect is not a personal statistic but a property of the ground. It raises the security level of the plots around it, and security is what decides how hard a crime is to pull off there and how likely the criminal is to be arrested after failing.
This matters because Parliament can only vote security up to 10%. The two higher levels that used to be on the ballot — Medium at 20% and High at 30% — no longer exist as a vote. They exist as buildings. A nation on Low with a station next door reaches 30%, the old maximum; the outer ring reaches 20%, the old Medium. Nationwide protection has become something a country builds, plot by plot, instead of something it simply decrees.
Which security applies is decided by where the victim is, not the criminal: a home or a shop beside a station is genuinely harder to rob. The exact figure for each target is shown on its card in the Crime panel before anyone commits to anything.
The Hospital
The Hospital is the exact opposite of the Landfill, through the same machinery: +20 Health a year to everyone living in the inner ring and +10 in the outer one. Set against the natural decline of 10 a year, the inner ring does not merely stop the fall — it turns it into a gain of 10 a year.
The jobs they open
A Police Station and a Hospital each unlock three state posts in that nation, on top of what the building itself does:
| Police Inspector | Public Doctor | |
|---|---|---|
| Unlocked by | Police Station | Hospital |
| Requires | Degree in Law | Degree in Medicine |
| Posts | 3 per station | 3 per hospital |
| Wage | ×3 the base state wage | |
| Shifts | 3 a day per building, shared by everyone holding the post | |
The three daily shifts are a common pool, not one each: whoever gets there first takes them, and the same person may take all three if nobody else does. Several holders can also work at the same time, exactly as with any other state job. When the pool is empty the post is closed until the next year.
These posts follow the buildings. If a station falls into ruin or Parliament votes it down, the posts it carried disappear with it and whoever held them is let go on the spot — last hired first, when only some of them go.
Count the wage bill before voting. A station costs $50,000 to build and $10,000 a year to keep, but three inspectors on triple pay cost the treasury far more than that every single day. Both figures now appear as their own lines in the State Treasury Ledger, so a parliament can see exactly what it has committed to.
Building one: two votes
A Public Work takes two separate votes, and only Parliament can start either.
- Whether. A Member of Parliament proposes the work. It becomes an ordinary bill: 2 years on the floor, simple majority (Yes > No). The Prime Minister cannot impose it by decree — it costs the treasury and changes lives, so it does not skip the ballot.
- Where. If it passes, a second vote opens for 1 year. MPs pick an intersection by tapping it on the map; the free plazas turn purple and pulse.
The most-voted intersection wins. If two or more tie, one is drawn by lot among them and the nation's diary says so openly — the construction has already been decided, so an indecision about the place does not throw it away. Once every sitting MP has voted, the work goes up immediately, without waiting for the year to end.
Only at that point does the treasury pay the $50,000.
A project is dropped, at no cost, if nobody voted on the location, if the treasury cannot afford the construction, or if another work has taken that intersection in the meantime. Only one project per type can be in progress at a time.
Upkeep and collapse
Upkeep is taken from the national treasury every year, automatically. A work built during the current year does not pay it that same year — it has just paid for its construction.
- First year the treasury falls short: a warning, nothing else.
- Second year running: the work falls into ruin and is gone.
Demolishing
Parliament can vote to pull down a standing work. A Demolish button sits beside each one in the Public Works panel; it opens an ordinary bill and, if approved, the work disappears at once with no refund.
It is the tool for when industry shrinks and a Landfill is left costing money and health for nothing.
The Landfill requirement
Every nation must keep one Landfill for every 20 industries, counted in whole multiples:
| Industries | Landfills required |
|---|---|
| 39 | 1 |
| 40 | 2 |
| 59 | 2 |
| 60 | 3 |
For every Landfill missing, the treasury pays $20,000 a year, every year, until it exists.
Is it worth paying instead? Building costs $50,000 once plus $10,000 a year, against a $20,000 yearly penalty. The two meet at the fifth year: putting it off is a legitimate choice for a nation short of cash, and a losing one for a nation that stays short.
The one-time grace period
Industries existed long before this obligation did, and building a Landfill takes two votes. So the rule arrives with a two-year grace period, granted once and never again: during it nations are warned about the Landfills they lack, but pay nothing.
When it expires the normal rules apply for good. A nation that opens industries afterwards without the landfills to match pays from the first year, with no further indulgence.
Warnings go out at every year change while a shortage lasts, by two routes: a private message in the Ship's Log to sitting Members of Parliament — the only players who can do something about it — and a line in the Nation tab of the Dynasty Diary, which any citizen can read.
Where to find it all
The Politics section is divided in two tabs: State of the Nation, which anyone can read (government, laws in force, treasury ledger), and Parliament, visible only to sitting members, which holds proposals, votes and the Public Works panel.
That panel shows, in order: any open vote on a location, the standing works with their cost and a demolish button, and what can be proposed — with the legal requirement in plain sight, so Parliament can see whether it is running towards a penalty.
Citizens who are not in Parliament still see the works on the map: tapping a plaza tells them what stands there, when it was built, what it costs and what it does to the people who live nearby.
See also: Politics & Parliament, Real Estate & Construction, Taxes & Law Parameters.