Sports & Olympics
Disciplines & training
| Discipline | Training energy cost |
|---|---|
| Athletics | 25 |
| Swimming | 30 |
| Boxing | 35 |
Skill gain per session scales with age (full effectiveness up to 30, tapering to near-zero after 50) and fitness, and slows as your skill approaches 100.
Skill decays if you stop training. Go 2 game years without a session in a discipline and it starts falling, and the yearly loss grows the longer you stay away — 2 points the first year, then 4, then 6, and so on. Left alone long enough, any skill reaches zero. Only a training session resets the clock: winning races does not count as activity, so an athlete can collect trophies and still be losing skill the whole time. The drop is reported in your Ship's Log, and the game warns you in Things To Do during the last year before it starts. The same rule applies to the Third Age disciplines.
Past 70 these three disciplines are effectively closed to you — but three others open up instead: golf, bocce and hunting, with their own tournaments and prizes. See The Third Age.
Races
| Level | Frequency | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Local | Every year | Open to all |
| National | Every 2 years | Qualification from locals |
| Olympics | Every 5 years | Qualification from nationals; 3 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze medals awarded (one per discipline) |
Race score = skill × age factor × fitness factor × a random variance (0.85–1.15, tightened by some items); NPCs fill empty slots but can never place first. Each nation pays its own Olympic medallists a prize it sets by law (default $10,000 / $5,000 / $2,000 for gold/silver/bronze, cap $1,000,000) and separately earns a flat treasury bonus of $20,000 / $10,000 / $5,000 for every medal its athletes win. A yearly Sport Fund (default $1,000) is transferred from the state treasury to the sport federation to help fund prizes. Betting on races uses a pari-mutuel pool, minus a Betting Tax (default 5%, cap 30%); bets are fully refunded if a race is cancelled.
The Sports Federation President
There is no election. Each nation's federation is led by its living athlete with the highest presidency score, and the ranking is recalculated live — the moment someone overtakes the President, they take the post. The Federation Leadership Race box on the Federation tab shows the President and the two closest challengers.
| Result | Presidency points |
|---|---|
| National race win | +1 |
| Olympic medal (gold, silver or bronze) | +2 |
| Local race win | 0 |
| Olympic race finished off the podium | 0 |
Points are summed across all three disciplines. Every medal is worth the same 2 points — the colour only matters when two athletes are tied. In that case the higher place goes to, in this order:
- the athlete with more Olympic medals in total;
- then more golds;
- then more silvers;
- then more bronzes;
- and if everything is still equal, the sitting President keeps the post.
The President sets the training fee and the race entry fees from the Federation tab; prizes are dynamic and can't be set by hand. Every time you become President counts as a term, worth 5 points in the dynasty Rankings.
Olympic medals also unlock two legendary rewards: The Athlete Life Aspiration (win an Olympic medal) and the Athletic Grand Slam Trophy, for a Local win, a National win and an Olympic medal in the same discipline. Taking part in the Olympics without reaching the podium counts for neither.