¶ Colonies, Population, and Expansion
At the core of SolPlex lies the colony. It is the main entity of the game and effectively the player’s avatar in the world. All core systems — progression, warfare, economy, and expansion — are built around colonies and their interactions.
At the beginning of the game, each player receives one starting colony, placed on a free tile of the global world map.
Key properties of a colony:
- A colony occupies one tile on the world map and cannot be moved.
- Colony progression happens through constructing and upgrading its buildings.
- Each colony is autonomous and has its own resources and internal state.
A colony brings together all major gameplay systems:
- Buildings — define development paths, upgrades, and specialization.
- Combat units — consumable units used to attack other colonies, steal resources, or destroy enemy infrastructure.
- Resources — produced inside the colony, spent on development, and can be stolen or traded.
- Artifacts — building modifiers obtained from ancient sites or other players.
- Population
- Culture
- Settlers
Below is a closer look at the key systems.
Population is a special resource that indirectly reflects a colony’s level of development and military potential. Population always belongs to a specific colony.
¶ Free and Occupied Population
- Population cannot be stolen.
- Population cannot be traded.
- Population cannot be destroyed, except indirectly by destroying buildings through military action.
Population acts as a strategic foundation: it is resilient to economic loss, but vulnerable to military defeat.
Culture is the resource that drives expansion.
- Produced by free population.
- Belongs to a specific colony.
- Has no storage limit and accumulates indefinitely.
- Cannot be stolen, traded, or destroyed.
The primary purpose of culture is settler production and territorial expansion.
¶ Settlers and Creating New Colonies
All colonies except the starting one are created using settlers.
To produce a settler, a colony must spend:
- culture;
- resources;
- free population.
Key rules:
- Each subsequent settler produced in the same colony costs more culture than the previous one.
- Production time and cooldown are fixed unless modified by buildings or artifacts.
- Settlers have higher “upkeep priority” than combat units.
- There is no limit to how many settlers a colony can store at once.
Players are not required to immediately use settlers — they can be produced and held in advance.
The process works as follows:
- The player selects an empty tile on the world map.
- A settler is sent, and the type / specialization of the future colony is chosen in advance.
- Upon arrival:
- if the tile is occupied, the settler returns home;
- if the tile is free, a new colony is founded and the settler is consumed.
A newly founded colony:
- starts with a small amount of population;
- receives a default set of starting resources;
- begins largely undeveloped and requires further investment.
Expansion is always a strategic choice — not an immediate obligation.
¶ Progression and Late Game
As a player’s empire grows, they can:
- specialize colonies for different roles;
- manage population and resource distribution;
- engage in warfare, diplomacy, and large-scale cooperation.
The Ark is a special type of colony with unique properties. Its construction represents the final stage of the game and requires the coordinated effort of many active players.