Sins of A Solar Empire - Gameplay - Resources and Structures

Resources and Structures

Sins of a Solar Empire has three main resources to gather: Credits, Metal, and Crystal. Credits are the general currency used by the three races in the game, and are gained by completing missions, collecting bounties, creating a trade network, and taxing planets. Metal is the most common resource in the game, and is gathered by building extractors on asteroids; it is used to construct basic ships and structures. Crystal is the rarest resource, which can be mined from asteroids like Metal; it is used for advanced technology and building certain advanced ships. A Black Market feature allows players to convert unneeded Metal and Crystal into Credits or vice-versa. Selling or buying too much of either resource can cause market prices to rise and fall dramatically.

Certain more intangible resources include Supply Points and Capital Ship Crews. Supply Points are used up when ships are purchased, and cannot be accumulated, acting as a population cap for the player's fleet. They can be increased by researching increases in fleet logistic capacity, but this simultaneously lowers all resource income, as more resources are required to maintain larger fleets. Capital Ship Crews work like Supply Points and are needed to field capital ships (in addition to 50 fleet supply points); the number of Crews available determines how many capital ships the player can make. Thus (for example), a player in early game may be able to field no more than a small number of ships given the low Supply Point ceiling, and even fewer (as few as one) capital ships given the inherently low Capital Ship Crew ceiling; later once the player's economy has grown and new resources have become available, the player may perform Supply Point research and permanently reduce by a fraction the size of their economy in order to permanently raise the ceiling on the size of their fleet, as well as performing Capital Ship research in order to raise the ceiling on the number of capital ships their fleet can contain. Capital Ship Crew ceiling can be increased to a maximum of 16, thus giving the player the ability to construct a maximum of 16 capital ships. Supply Points ceiling can be increased to a maximum of 2000 points. If the fleet size option is on "large", then the maximum is 2,500. The only alternative ways for a player to increase their supply without increasing their fleet upkeep are: a late-game Vasari research topic (that provides a small percentage-based boost), the TEC's "supply pact" in Diplomacy, which mutually increases supply for both factions and also reduces fleet upkeep costs, and the Vasari Loyalist's upgrade in Rebellion that gives them a flat bonus of 75 Fleet Supply for not being allied with factions other than Vasari Loyalists.

Players can construct planet-based improvements and orbital structures, the latter of which is divided into "logistical" and "tactical" structures.

Logistical structures interact with the economy in some way and include metal extractors and crystal extractors to mine metal and crystal resources respectively, making planets into resource producers; frigate factories for manufacturing frigates and cruisers; capital ship factories for constructing capital ships; trade ports for interplanetary trade to raise credits; refineries to boost crystal and metal production; broadcast or media centers to spread own cultural influence to enemy planets; as well as civilian and military research labs that are required for researching items in the tech tree and developing new technologies.

Tactical structures are defense and support structures including weapon emplacements; hangars that can launch fighter and bomber strike craft; repair stations which consume their anti-matter reserves to repair friendly ships; and phase inhibitors which prevent enemy fleets from escaping the vicinity of the planet's gravity well. Each faction can also produce a long-range superweapon that can attack other planets. The TEC has the Novalith Cannon, which fires a supermassive nuclear weapon to inflict considerable damage directly on enemy planets. The Vasari have the Kostura Cannon, which fires an EMP burst warhead that disables and damages every enemy ship and structure in a planet's orbit as well as making a temporary phase stabilizer node there which allows you to jump your fleet directly to the attacked planet. The Advent have the Deliverance Engine, which spreads their cultural influence to the target and can provoke a planet-wide revolution. Each faction also boasts additional special weapons which are race exclusive. The TEC have the Shield Generator which generates a shield to protect the planet around which it orbits; the Advent can construct the Antimatter Recharge which replenishes the anti-matter reserves of friendly ships; the advanced Vasari Empire have the Nano Weapon Jammer, which increases the cooldown time of enemy weapons, as well as the Phase Stabilizer which can enable ships to travel directly between two such structures.

Planetary development research (as opposed to orbital structures) are of six types which include infrastructure development, which increases population (and taxability) of planets; emergency facilities, which improve the survivability of populations in order to assist in staving off destruction from bombardment; and exploration, which surveys and maps planets, providing access to hidden planetary features which can have negative or positive effects on the planet (for instance, the discovery of rare resources on a planet during exploration may improve revenues from all trade conducted within the gravity well, or the discovery of pirate hideouts on a planet may harm all trade revenues), and perhaps most importantly, exploration may serve to reveal advanced technologies left by bygone civilizations; any planet can be made the capital planet of the player's empire by the change capital upgrade.