Economy & Resources
Every ship built, every lab running, every missile in flight traces back to three resources. Metal, Crystal, and Deuterium are the lifeblood of empire - and Energy is the invisible constraint that governs how efficiently you harvest them all.
Resources
| Resource | Primary Use | Produced by |
|---|---|---|
| Metal | Ships, buildings, defenses | Metal Extractor |
| Crystal | Research, advanced ships | Crystal Synthesizer |
| Deuterium | Fuel for fleet travel | Deuterium Refinery |
Production Formula
Hourly output for a resource building at level L on planet type P:
production = baseOutput × L × planetBonus(P) × efficiencyFactor^L
Where efficiencyFactor = 1.1 for resource extractors (solar plant uses 1.05). This means production is slightly super-linear - a level-10 extractor produces more than 10× a level-1 extractor.
The raw hourly rate is then multiplied by all active bonuses before being applied:
finalProduction = hourlyRate × efficiency × researchMul × commanderMul × habitabilityMul × socialMul × moraleMul × sabotageMul × crisisDebuffMul × policyMul
Production Multipliers
Bonuses stack multiplicatively - a high-level empire stacking several of these simultaneously can produce dramatically more than its raw building levels suggest.
| Multiplier | Source | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Research bonus | Warfare/Engineering techs | +N% per tech level |
| Commander (Industrialist) | Commander archetype | +15% all production |
| Habitability | Commander biome preference | ±10% on preferred/disliked planet types |
| Mentor bonus | Having an active mentee | +5% all production |
| Specialization nodes | Economist/Scientist tree | Varies (up to +35% per node) |
| Morale | Planet morale level | 0.70× at morale 0, 1.00× at morale 50, 1.10× at morale 100 |
| Sabotage debuff | Active espionage sabotage | ×0.80 (–20%) for 4 hours |
| Crisis debuff | Active crisis event | ×0.80 (–20%) while active |
| Civic policy | Active production policies | Varies (e.g. +15% metal from Metal Surge) |
Planet Type Bonuses
Each planet type applies a multiplier to specific resources. An Asteroid world produces double the metal output but reduced crystal and deuterium. See the Planet Types reference for full modifiers.
Energy Balance
Buildings consume energy when active. The production efficiency formula is:
- Energy surplus (balance > 0): 100% efficiency
- Zero balance (balance = 0): 90% efficiency
- Energy deficit (balance < 0): efficiency reduced proportionally by the shortage percentage - at 50% deficit, production runs at 50%
Maintain a positive energy buffer - especially before building energy-hungry shipyards or defense platforms.
Interplanetary Research Network (IRN)
The Interplanetary Research Network building links Research Labs across your planets. Each linked lab contributes 50% of its level in research points per hour to your primary lab's output:
totalResearchPoints = primaryLabLevel × 100 + Σ(linkedLabLevel × 50)
The number of linked labs is determined by your IRN building level. Specialization and research speed bonuses apply after this base total.
Storage Capacity
Resources accumulate up to a cap determined by your Resource Storage Facility level. Once full, excess production is lost. Upgrade storage or spend resources before your cap is hit.
The storage formula:
capacity = baseCapacity + storageBaseAmount × level × 1.5^level
Ship Build Time
Ship construction time for a batch scales with shipyard level:
buildTimeMs = floor(template.buildTimeMs / speedFactor) × count
Where speedFactor = 1 + shipyardLevel × 0.05. Each shipyard level reduces per-ship build time by 5%. The civic policy ship_build_speed stacks multiplicatively on top. Each ship class has its own base build time defined in its template (e.g. Fighter: 45 min, Cruiser: 2h 30m, Dreadnought: 12h).
Fleet Fuel
Every fleet mission consumes Deuterium for propulsion. Fuel cost scales with distance and fleet size:
fuelCost = Σ(shipCount × fuelPerKUnit) × (distance / 1000)
Deducted at launch. Astrophysics research reduces fuel consumption via the fuel_cost effect target.