Archive / Systems

Buying a Country (Nation Purchase System)

Type: Systems — Player Mechanic (Political/Economy) Author: Perry Jones Published: Jun 28, 2023 Source: Medium Status: Canon (published)

Overview

Players can purchase entire nations in Maf. There are three categories of nations, forming a clear escalating hierarchy of scale and space presence:

1. Planetary Government

Any nation-state, city-state, or jurisdiction bound entirely to a single planet. Tech level can range from agrarian to pre-industrial to pre-space to space-capable. May have satellites without an active/manned space program. (See Planetary Governments for the confirmed roster of 42+ named examples, including Jonesboro.)

2. Space-Traveling Civilization (STC)

A nation with an active space presence, but limited: no more than 3 permanent orbital stations and/or no more than 3 permanently stationed ships. Those ships are built for space travel only and cannot enter a planet's atmosphere.

3. Starnation

A nation whose borders are defined in space rather than on a planet. Must control at least 2 occupied solar systems, have 4+ dedicated space-only ships (atmosphere-incapable), and maintain at least 2 active orbital stations. May or may not hold any planetary territory at all. (This matches the "Starnations" index seen on the official site, which lists 129+ pages of individual starnations — not yet cross-referenced in detail.)

✅ RESOLVED (creator decision): "3,000 Corporations" stated a conflicting figure of 4+ orbital stations for a Starnation. The creator has confirmed 2+ orbital stations is canon; the 4+ figure from "3,000 Corporations" is superseded and should not be used going forward. The original unedited text of both articles is preserved in /raw-sources for reference.

Purchase Pricing Formulas

All prices are in US Dollars (real-world player payment, distinct from in-game Helvatica Dollars — consistent with the real-time/game-time economic split already noted for loan interest).

Planetary Government: (Population in millions × Median Income × (1 − Tax Rate)) ÷ 10,000

  • Worked example: Nation of Desteria — pop. 55M, median income 55,000 Helvatica Dollars, 15% tax rate → $257.13 USD

Space-Traveling Civilization: (Population in millions × Median Income × (1 − Tax Rate)) ÷ 7,000

  • Worked example: STC Baylus — pop. 175M, median income $125,000, 34% tax rate → $2,062.50 USD

Starnation: (Population in millions × Median Income × (1 − Tax Rate)) ÷ 1,000 (Note: the article's own worked example divides by 1,000 despite an earlier line in the same article stating "divided by 1,000" appears after a computation that reads as if divided by 1,000 was intended — but the stated Starnation formula description text says "divided by 1,000" while an earlier general description implies a different divisor. Logged exactly as published: the formula description says the total is divided by 1,000.)

  • Worked example: Interstellar Republic — pop. 14 billion, median income 283,000, 32% tax rate → $2,694,160 USD

Cost-Prohibitive Alternative: Empire Builder Role

Since Starnation purchase prices are expected to be out of reach for most players, an alternate path exists: select the Empire Builder role and request a Starnation instead of buying one outright.

  • If granted (subject to availability), the player receives a Starnation of 2–4 solar systems, randomly selected from what's available
  • Empire Builders may purchase additional solar systems at $1,000 USD each

Worldbuilding Significance

  • Establishes a clean three-tier political/scale hierarchy that should be used consistently when classifying any new nation/faction going forward
  • Confirms real-money nation ownership as a core, explicit game mechanic — ties directly into Maf's "games that pay the player to play" positioning (per the official site's marketing language)
  • Cross-references the "Starnations" index already glimpsed on the official site (129+ pages) — worth a dedicated deep-dive later

Open Questions

  • The Starnation formula's divisor is stated ambiguously in the source article (text says "divide by 1,000" but this seems inconsistent with the scale pattern of the other two formulas, which divide by larger numbers as nation-tier increases) — flagged as published, not corrected
  • Full Starnation index (129+ pages on the official site) not yet processed
  • Relationship between purchased Planetary Governments and the "Ranch" designation (privately-owned sovereign entities) from Planetary Governments — are Ranches a pre-existing category, or could any purchased Planetary Government be designated a Ranch by its new owner?