Systemic stressors¶

The city is not a blank slate. These pre-existing conditions shape how disruptions unfold and who they hurt most.

Stressor levels are city-wide floats (0.0–1.0). They are set at game start from config/threats/stressors.yml and drift over time based on player decisions. District YAML files use string labels (extreme, chronic, high, moderate, victim, amplifier, beneficiary) to modify local event probability for events with a matching stressor_amplifier.

Austerity and underinvestment¶

The Patrician runs a famously tight budget. Maintenance is deferred, upgrades are delayed, and reserve capacity is minimal. Systems work until they suddenly don’t.

Amplifies: Degradation and neglect, operational error (due to untrained staff or outdated procedures).

Engine effects:

• underinvestment amplifies event probability when used as a stressor_amplifier in event templates.

• extends_recovery_time: multiplies the stressor-adjusted effective downtime at remedy application. At level 1.0 with extends_recovery_time: 2.0, repair times double.

• Stressor drift: rises by neglect_increase each day at least one event has been ignored for >24h; rises by budget_cut_increase each month when public trust is below the tax-penalty floor.

Just-in-time logistics¶

Ankh-Morpork eats, and it eats now. Food arrives daily from the Sto Plains. Manufacturing relies on parts that arrive exactly when needed. There is almost no slack in the system.

Amplifies: Transport disruption, commercial disruption, supply chain failure.

Engine effects:

• just_in_time amplifies event probability when used as a stressor_amplifier in event templates.

• domain_multipliers in cascade propagation: the just_in_time level scales the cascade trust-damage delta for matching domains (e.g., food, transport). Higher just_in_time means each cascade causes more trust damage per event, modelling a supply chain with no buffer stock.

Vendor monoculture¶

Many critical systems rely on a single provider. A single firm manages most traffic control. A single clacks company carries most financial data. A single engineering guild maintains most pumping stations.

Amplifies: Supply chain and vendor failure, strategic interference (a single point of pressure).

Engine effects:

• vendor_monoculture amplifies event probability when used as a stressor_amplifier in event templates.

• Cascade scope escalation: when a cascade event has cascade_scope: neighbours, there is a vendor_monoculture-level probability it escalates to city-wide scope (e.g., at level 0.7, 70% chance a local cascade becomes city-wide). This models a single vendor failure propagating everywhere simultaneously.

• A multiplier can also be applied to cascade trust damage for affected domains.

Social and spatial inequality¶

The city is starkly divided. The wealthy hills of Nap Hill have redundant connections and rapid response. The Shades, and other poorer districts, have ageing infrastructure and are last to be restored. This inequality is built into the very pipes and wires.

Amplifies: Unequal impact, residential disruption, loss of trust.

Engine effects:

The city-wide social_inequality level (a float 0.0–1.0) is applied as a trust-damage multiplier on every negative district trust delta, scaled by the district’s inequality label:

Only negative effects are amplified. Positive trust recovery is not scaled.

Stressor drift: inequality rises when remedies are applied to high-wealth districts and falls when resilience_investment is applied to low-wealth districts.

Organisational fragmentation¶

Responsibility is split between the Patrician’s office, the Guilds, the City Watch, and private companies. In a crisis, no one is sure who is in charge, and information moves slowly between silos.

Amplifies: Operational error, delayed recovery, confused communication.

Engine effects:

• organisational_fragmentation amplifies event probability when used as a stressor_amplifier in event templates.

• delays_response: multiplies effective downtime at remedy application alongside underinvestment.extends_recovery_time. At level 1.0 with delays_response: 1.5, repair times increase by 50%.

• accelerates_trust_decay: scales scandal damage for ignored events. At level 0.5 with factor 1.2, each scandal tick is 10% worse. Applied via scandal_org_frag_mult in apply_passive_dynamics.

• Stressor drift: rises by neglect_increase each day events are ignored; rises by budget_cut_increase each month under fiscal pressure.