Drone Sphere (CivBE)

Wonders

Drone Sphere
Wonder in Beyond Earth
Cost	550
Maintenance	None
Requires	1 Floatstone Swarm Robotics
Specialist slots	None
Effect	+5 Diplomatic Capital
Notes	Worker actions and Explorer Expeditions are completed 50% faster.

The Drone Sphere will permanently tie up 2 Floatstone resources.

Quote

"Within the Drone Sphere I am reminded of nothing less than the apex of Versailles with each man and woman a Sun King or Queen, surrounded by fawning courtiers."

- Élodie, Remarques

History

Consider the urban sociological environment as a series of known but unresolved tasks. Materials and goods must be conveyed from depot to project. Physical plants require upkeep and service. A population must be liberated from the necessity of maintenance in order to focus on higher Potential Realizations. At this point, the necessity of a fleet of self-maintaining, centrally directed drones becomes obvious. The Drone Sphere must exist in order for its builders to focus on matters of higher meaning.

Precursors of the Drone Sphere must have existed on pre-Mistake Earth, as those cultures possessed the necessary resources and rudimentary AI to build limited versions of these. With a new world's resources and the sophistication of networked neourban facilitators the true Drone Sphere became a reality. The control towers themselves became architecture, the silent and unmoving fingers which cast the spell that sent this flying hive to life. But the true heart of the Drone Sphere was the Langstroth Frame, where the racked AI cells directed assemblers to construct and repair drones, as they conferred with each other on new ways to optimize the lives of their human masters.

And what a reality for those living within it! Automated servitors filled the sky, laden with goods or garbage, replacing and repairing and upgrading in a seamless symphonic hum of rotors and servoarms. Trash was taken out and drinks refilled, all with nothing more than an idle request aired to the listening AI. And the ancillary benefits for security! Anomalous actions were instantly detected and handled, and then reported to the masters. Who could forget the time an arboriformer performed an improvised cephalotomy on a trio of agents?

Images