Pollution
From Starport: Galactic Empires
Pollution becomes a problem for colonies over time. The amount of pollution that accumulates on a colony is a result of the size of its population and the amount of harvesting going on. High pollution levels increase the chance of a catastrophic disaster. As pollution approaches 100%, disaster becomes imminent. In the event of a pollution disaster, about half the colonial population will be lost and colony morale will drop.
Two colonial structures, the Refinery Level 3 and the Church of Earth (earthlike planets only), help to slow the accumulation of pollution. A colony's research workforce can also be used to reduce the rate of pollution by assigning the research team to work on Environment. Colonies that have built a Refinery Level 3 can perform clean up jobs for emergency pollution reduction at a high price of 1 million credits per 10% pollution.
Different planet types are more susceptible to pollution than others, and will pollute at a faster rate. Earthlike planets, for example, have an intricate ecological balance and will pollute relatively fast.
On the 3rd pollution disaster of a colony's lifespan, the colony will be abandoned and lost. Colonies can also be lost to abandonment due to lack of population (pop. less than 10 for 2 days straight).
Each disaster causes the baseline morale to drop by 0.24 per hour.
| Planet type | Pollution Rate | Disaster |
| Earthlike | Fast | Water poisoning |
| Oceanic | Normal | Massive flooding |
| Mountainous | Somewhat fast | Avalanches |
| Arctic | Somewhat fast | Famine |
| Rocky | Slow | Dust storms |
| Volcanic | Slow | Magma eruptions |
| Greenhouse | Very slow | Air poisoning |
| Desert | Normal | Worm attacks |
Earthlike planets can build the Church of the Earth which reduces pollution.
Oceanic planets can build the sub which increases the effectiveness of environmental research.
Pollution Patch
In 2006 the first perma server was started. Various changes were made to SGE in reaction to new behaviors seen on the new long running servers including the pollution patch.
Pollution was added to ensure established colonies received some attention and were not left alone to create a static galaxy. It also established a new high-end economy as the perma galaxies had too much cash. Right after a galactic recession the patch was applied to all galaxies, including the currently running perma galaxies.
The patch was an unpopular change from the beginning. This was in part because stable empires were now unstable and needed attention, which was impossible to correct for the largest of the corporations. This resulted in the fall of some empires, and subsequently some veteran players left the SGE community.
Pollution remains unpopular today, largely due to the history of its introduction. Follow-on changes have resulted in more pollution control options, from building smaller planets that pollute less or even running at a negative pollution rate, to building large planets that require frequent pollution control visits.
Pollution was always part of the game, but prior to late 2006 it was caused by low morale and was solved by raising colony morale.
