Skip to content

0084 — Planetary registration tiers & registry lookup

Status

Folded into FEATURES/galaxy/genesis-devices.md.

Context

Reframes the genesis deploy-time charge as a Planetary Registration Fee with three tiers (Clandestine / Registered / Chartered) — a separate axis from the genesis quality tier — and adds a paid black-market registry lookup. The durable rule (tier fees, the +25 charter rep nudge, charter protection and the −50 assault penalty, the registry-lookup gates and fee, storage) lives in FEATURES/galaxy/genesis-devices.md; registration ties into reputation, combat/siege, and discovery/registry (ADR-0073).

Amendment B — Additive amendment per ADR-0091 (2026-06-28)

Status: Approved by Max (2026-06-27). Accepted as part of ADR-0091 (Accepted 2026-06-28).

Changes: Additive to the existing registration-tier model (Clandestine / Registered / Chartered, existing tiers, existing pricing). No existing tier semantics are altered.

  1. Registration-tier ↔ genesis-deploy linkage (M26b CANON). The deployer chooses their registration tier at genesis-deploy — not deferred to settle. Visibility is fixed from the moment the planet forms:
  2. Clandestine → HIDDEN from formation. Rivals cannot find the world to contest it; discovering a Clandestine world for contest requires purchasing the paid black-market registry-lookup defined in this ADR. The registry-lookup is the canonical "charge rivals to find/enter" mechanic.
  3. Registered / Chartered → visible + free-to-contest for all eligible real players, immediately from genesis-deploy.

The final owner remains whoever commits the first valid SETTLE (R2 unchanged). Tier and visibility are set at deploy by the deployer; ownership attaches at settle.

Why deploy-time tier is the correct timing: if tier were deferred to settle, the world's pre-settle visibility would be ambiguous — a fast rival could retrieve the public registry list, travel to the sector, and race an expedition the instant the deployer's priority window expires. Fixing the tier at deploy means the deployer controls visibility from formation onward.

Lore: a planet's genesis is detected by a mysterious alien force that tracks planetary registrations across the galaxy — the in-world mechanism behind the registry. Registered and Chartered worlds appear on those lists at formation; Clandestine ones evade detection entirely and require the paid registry-lookup to find.

  1. Deployer subscriber priority window (M23 REVISED CANON). The genesis-deployer's settle-only head-start window is tied to their subscription tier at deploy time:
  2. Free / standard deployer: 3h priority window.

  3. Paid-subscriber deployer: 24h priority window. This is a narrow, explicitly Max-accepted pay-to-win firewall exception (post-creation, pre-settlement protective perk; not a power or income gate). During the priority window rivals may still run expeditions; only the SETTLE action is restricted to the deployer.

  4. No subscription gate on contesting itself (M27 CANON). Contesting remains free for all eligible real players. The subscriber advantage is the deployer head-start only.

Payments safety: registration-tier reads are confirmed OK (M54-F2). Charge/refund flows must be double-spend-safe (idempotency + row-lock required, M54-F3). ⚑ Reconcile subscriber head-start with pay-to-win firewall documentation before public staging of WOs.