# Stations

This document defines the intended role of stations in the simulation.

Stations are persistent constructions in the world that live in a localspace, provide services, participate in the economy, and act through station commanders.

## Core Principles

- every active station should have a commander
- stations are major market actors
- stations exist at meaningful nodes in space
- stations provide local services and strategic value

## Station Identity

A station lives at one location.

It does not spread across multiple construction points.

Station growth happens by adding modules to the existing station at its current construction location.

To create another station, a faction needs:

- another valid location
- another station
- another station commander

Before station construction itself, the faction should secure the chosen site through the appropriate local claim or founding process defined by the universe model.

Station identity and capability should primarily come from module composition, as described in [MODULES.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/MODULES.md).

## Station Roles

Stations may serve as:

- markets
- refineries
- production centers
- logistics hubs
- shipyards
- military outposts
- defensive strongholds
- staging points

## Spatial Role

Stations are constructions that exist inside one `localspace`.

Stations may be built at valid construction anchors such as:

- planets
- moons
- Lagrange points

Their localspaces are where:

- docking happens
- cargo transfer happens
- defense happens
- local construction happens
- player and AI interaction happens

Localspace defense and contestation are described further in [COMBAT.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/COMBAT.md).

## Founding A Station

The intended founding flow is:

1. claim or secure a valid construction anchor
2. wait for the claim to activate
3. create station construction storage
4. publish buy orders for the required construction materials
5. deliver materials
6. have constructor ships build the station from those materials

The construction storage should act as the early economic interface of the future station.

That means a station can begin expressing demand before the full station is operational.

Those construction requirements should be expressed through real goods as described in [ITEMS.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/ITEMS.md).

## Commander Requirements

A station without a commander should be limited.

Without a commander, a station should not be expected to:

- manage buy orders
- manage sell orders
- adapt production priorities
- coordinate logistics
- respond intelligently to shortages or dock congestion

Important boundary:

- a station commander is responsible for station operation
- a station commander does not own ships

Ships may still serve a station through assignment, doctrine, or market incentives, but that is not the same thing as station ownership.

Station founding does not require a station commander at the first moment of construction.

However, a fully operating station should require one to function normally.

The commander must be brought to the station rather than appearing automatically.

This implies stations will eventually depend on population and worker logistics.

Workers should be treated as a real station resource, not as a free abstraction.

See [WORKFORCE.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/WORKFORCE.md) for the workforce model.

## Market Role

Stations are the main local market-makers of the simulation.

A station commander should:

- publish buy orders
- publish sell orders
- manage stock reserves
- control production priorities
- request imports and exports

Stations should be the primary place where the economy becomes concrete and visible to the player.

That means stations should expose:

- current shortages
- current surpluses
- active buy orders
- active sell orders
- dock activity
- production intent

Market visibility should be treated as open knowledge, subject to access and information rules defined elsewhere.

The baseline assumption is that station market intent is visible, not hidden by default.

Actual participation in trade and docking should still be policy-controlled. See [POLICIES.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/POLICIES.md).

## Ownership And Presence

Station ownership is not local-bubble exclusive.

Ownership does not imply one faction per localspace.

Friendly or otherwise permitted factions may build stations within the same system so long as they use different valid construction locations.

## Services

Depending on modules and category, a station may provide:

- docking
- storage
- refining
- manufacturing
- repair
- fitting, rearm and resupply later
- habitats

The exact conversion and factory behavior behind these services is described in [PRODUCTION.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/PRODUCTION.md).

## Workforce

Stations track their own local population.

That population determines workforce availability and therefore station efficiency.

For now:

- every module benefits equally from workforce
- each module has a workforce target for peak efficiency
- stations retain a small baseline efficiency even with zero workers

Population growth and decline follow the rules in [WORKFORCE.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/WORKFORCE.md).

## Relationship To Other Documents

- [UNIVERSE-MODEL.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/UNIVERSE-MODEL.md)
- [COMMANDERS.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/COMMANDERS.md)
- [ECONOMY.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/ECONOMY.md)
- [SHIPS.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/SHIPS.md)
- [WORKFORCE.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/WORKFORCE.md)
- [ITEMS.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/ITEMS.md)

- [MODULES.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/MODULES.md)
- [PRODUCTION.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/PRODUCTION.md)
- [POLICIES.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/POLICIES.md)
- [COMBAT.md](/home/jbourdon/repos/space-game/docs/COMBAT.md)
