Abandonment

Days	Penalty
7 - 13	0
14 - 20	-1
21 - 27	-2
28 - 34	-3
35 - 41	-4
42 - 48	-5
49 - 55	-6
56 - 62	-7
63 - 69	-8
70 - 76	-9

City abandonment is the primary reason for city decay. Cities must be visited by an avatar to prevent abandonment. A morale penalty begins to grow 7 days after the last visit by an avatar who is online, starting at zero and increasing by one every 7 days. At first, the morale penalty is not significant. In time, the morale penalty outweighs all positive morale factors. This inevitably causes the population to dwindle to nothing.

Abandonment Prevention

Some cities have immunity to abandonment:

• Non-capital cities are immune to the abandonment morale penalty while they have a sector capital city.
• Sector capital cities are immune to the abandonment morale penalty while the empire has an empire capital city.
• The empire capital city does not count as a sector capital city, but a city can be both at the same time.

For the purpose of preventing abandonment, city visitation can be satisfied in two ways:

• A non-empire avatar passes through the city's solar system. All cities in a solar system are visited by the presence of an avatar who is online, regardless of political stance.
• An empire avatar is online. All cities in the empire capital city's solar system are visited when an avatar of its empire is online (at logon, avatar switch, and hourly).

Decay

Decay is the final consequence of abandonment. When a city finish decaying, it is gone forever.

This is because abandonment gives morale penalties, and a negative morale will make people leave the city. Once a city has no population it is deserted, a deserted city will start to decay.

For more information, see the Decay page.

Abandonment Math

It is possible to calculate the number of days a city can be abandoned before it starts to decay.

MoraleMod = Total of all morale modifiers, including possible abandonment penalty, but excluding loyalty moral bonuses.
APenalty = Current morale penalty from abandonment, if not present it is 0.
ADays = Number of days abandoned, if not present it can be between 0 and 6.
AbandonmentInterval = 7

DaysLeft = ((MoraleMod + 1) * AbandonmentInterval) - (ADays % AbandonmentInterval)
DaysMax = ((MoraleMod - APenalty + 1) * AbandonmentInterval)

As used in HazeronAdviser.

Loyalty morale bonuses do not work well when it comes to abandonment, unless an officer is in the system to prevent neglect.

Here is a simple table to show the maximum number of days, depending on morale modifiers. Add together the morale modifiers (excluding abandonment penalties) and follow the table.

Morale Modifier Total	<0	0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+5	+8
Maximum Days Abandoned	7*	14**	21	28	35	42	49	56	63	70
* If morale is negative, the city will most likely revolt once neglect set in. ** Morale is also 0 when the city has no population.