Expenses
Wages & Administration
Ships, troops, and a growing realm create recurring credit costs. Expansion that is militarily possible can still be economically premature.
Ships and troops draw wages
Distance from the capital raises administration
Starports and technology reduce administration
01
How it works
- Ship crews and troops are paid every tick. A ship's listed wage rating is converted into its per-tick crew expense.
- Empire administration rises with the number of controlled systems. Each system also adds a capital-distance cost that follows a distance-to-the-1.35-power curve, making remote expansion progressively more demanding.
- Operational Starports halve administration in their own system and provide a smaller benefit that fades across nearby systems. Expansion and Terraforming logistics technologies progressively reduce the remaining cost.
- Ships stationed at a system draw less fuel than a deployed fleet and automatically defend that system when attacked.
02
Command advice
- Include wages and administration in the cost of conquest; captured territory must eventually finance the larger state.
- Keep local defenders stationed until they need to move; form fleets to patrol, reinforce another system, or attack.
- Before commissioning many hulls, project their combined per-tick burden under deployed fuel use.