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0087 — Colony specialization affects defense & research

Status

Folded into FEATURES/planets/colonization.md (rollup 2026-06-21) — the Military ×1.5 / Research ×1.5 / Balanced +10% identity now lives canonically in colonization.md § Other growth modifiers; this ADR is retained as the decision record.

Accepted (Max 2026-06-16). Resolves the pending decision colony-specialization-defense-research-unapplied. Built + proven live (dev 6c88aa1): defense ×1.5 scales combat damage-reduction + shield HP; Balanced is +10% all-round; the research-point yield accrues (research spec ~1.87× a non-research colony). The research-point SINK is a new pending decision (colony-research-points-sink) — until it lands, Research produces an unspent resource (honestly advertised as "feeds upcoming tech systems").

Context

planetary_service._calculate_specialization_bonuses defines per-specialization production, defense, and research multipliers, but only the production multipliers are applied. The defense (Military ×1.5) and research (Research ×1.5) multipliers are computed and returned but never consumed, so Military and Research specializations are currently pure downside (production penalty, no upside). NEON 2026-06-14 made the Specialization UI honest about this, surfacing the gap.

Decision

Give each specialization a real identity by applying the previously-dead multipliers:

  • Military (defense ×1.5) — applied to the planet's effective defense in siege/combat: the multiplier scales the planet's defensive contribution (turret/shield/drone effectiveness) when the planet is attacked. Single application point: the planet-defense term in the siege/combat resolver.
  • Research (research ×1.5) — multiplies a planet research-output mechanic. Research output is defined as a per-tick yield (mirroring the production accrual path) that feeds the player's research/tech progression; the ×1.5 is applied to that yield. The yield mechanic is the new build work this ADR authorizes.
  • Balanced — gains a small all-round bonus (a modest, uniform multiplier across production/defense/research) rather than being a strict ×1.0 no-op, so "balanced" is a genuine generalist choice.

The UI re-advertises the defense/research benefits once applied.

Consequences

  • Buildable as a Phase 4/5 package: (1) thread the defense multiplier into the siege/combat planet-defense term; (2) define + wire the planet research-output yield and apply the research multiplier; (3) give Balanced its small all-round bonus; (4) re-enable the bonus advertisement in the Specialization UI.
  • Until built, the UI stays honest (current state). The research-output mechanic is net-new and should be specified (yield rate, what it feeds) during build.
  • Balance numbers (the ×1.5 multipliers, the Balanced bonus size) are canon as of this ADR, operator-tunable later.