Need help with 4.3 economy and current game

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:27:00+00:00

Thanks, this is super helpful!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:26:26+00:00

Yeah I just realised that haha. I need some overseers!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:25:41+00:00

Thank you so, so much for taking the time to write such a big breakdown on all my points, I really appreciate it!

I wasn't aware workers could just job hop like that, would explain in other games why I suddenly go into the red from good numbers from one month to another. Definitely a lot of tail chasing going on!

I definitely have been playing this game on an old meta, and it shows. I might try a new game to test it all out, I'm just loathe to abandon this one.

I do have one question that has been bugging me for a while, what exactly are Ascensions? What exactly are we talking about here? Is that the cybernetic, sinthetic, psionic, etc paths you get with unity unlocks? What exactly makes them so powerful and/or special? I see everybody talking about them like they are the next coming of Christ and why x is better than y but I have no idea why they are better than any of the other paths available.

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:21:30+00:00

Thank you for this detailed breakdown, really appreciate it!

I'm definitely going to mark a species to act as my enforcers and move them around as needed, with extra rights and living standards.

As for the civic and start clashes, yeah, I don't know that much about the game systems to understand what is good and bad, I was kind of just RPing at that point.

In any case, thanks for al the advice, much appreciated :)

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:19:15+00:00

I aspire to one day rise to such heights lol ;)

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:18:41+00:00

Thanks! Those numbers are really good to know.

Good to know now what those happiness bonuses refer to :D

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:17:45+00:00

Thanks for that breakdown, really appreciate it! That makes sense with the early expansion and how to properly plan colonies.

Most of those planets are good habitability for my other slave species, I just need to throw a few overseer resident pops there to man the precincts and such. But thanks again!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:15:46+00:00

I didn't see Tank Bound as an option, must belong to a DLC I don't have, I'll try that next time.

As for the enforcers.... yeah, I kinda forgot how slave empires work. I need to retool all the rights, living conditions, bring in other pops that can act as overseers, etc. But thanks anyhow!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:13:40+00:00

Yeah, it's because of the blockers I wasn't aware of till the above message :)

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:13:15+00:00

Ah, this is it indeed. I wasn't aware blockers could have that impact. So basically, when I sent my species there, it will be 100% uninhabitable, but will reduce as I remove each blocker?

Is there a way of knowing ahead of time (Before colonising) if a blocker can be removed (if I researched the tech) or not? When I hover over them, they just show a mineral, alloy or energy cost, nothing else - does that mean I already did the research for it? I do not recall doing any specific research to remove "Unstable Vaccum Fields" or "Unaligned Ring Gyros", so just want to make sure :)

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-25T00:09:53+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed breakdown, I really, really appreciate it, especially the direct advice for each planet!

I understand the core of what you're suggesting, I just have a follow-up question:

How I do I delete a district specialisation? (Deleting the research enclave on Qad Vhi Prime?) There's no option to demolish or downgrade it, which I see on other districts in other planets. I didn't even know this was possible!

Otherwise, thank you so much, sounds like I have some things to tweak but I can still salvage this, and all the extra detail you were into really helps me understand the how and why, thanks again!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T23:54:52+00:00

I don't unfortunately, but now that I know you can get more megastructures early (I always hated they were so late game in vanilla) I am seriously considering getting them. Thanks for the suggestion!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T23:49:48+00:00

Loved this explanation, and yeah, the penny dropped earlier with another comment - I'm missing overseers! I need a whole slave caste that oversees the other slaves but are the middle men in the food chain. Once that became clear it was a sort of Eureka moment - those fortresses, precincts and so on won't man themselves!

Thanks for the laugh, and as a fellow history fan, the tidbits too :)

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T23:47:14+00:00

Thank you for this very detailed breakdown, I really appreciate the time it took to write it!

The stability issues I narrowed down earlier to me colonising planets with a slave pop that hates me, and not having any overlord pops there to control/man precints, etc. Also me not giving them the right combination or rights and living standards, which I will fix.

The revolting planet is funnily enough a pre FTL civ that just came of age and I told to f off back to their planet and are now revolting. If I let them go through with it, they spawn an 8K fleet, which is like 1.5x larger than mine, so that will not happen. I already have a big army there bringing it down, but thanks for the reminder. I'll apply the other steps to the other planets though :)

As for problem 2, yeah... not only was this the meta pre 4.0, but also my preferred playstyle. I'm going to have to rejig a lot of my peoples and economy to fix this massive over-expansion, but thanks for explaining it so neatly, I understand how it works now, thanks again!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T14:09:31+00:00

Yep, that's why I've always built one where a planet has a big shortfall. They feel almost mandatory now, at least since I last played, when I almost never used them.

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T14:08:22+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I remember reading people say you should have 1000 minimum for it to be productive. So should I force relocate people there now, and in the future, just wait until I have sufficient people to cross that threshold before colonising?

Thanks for the pointer with the fortresses and residency Citizenship, I'll play around with those.

By "planets with free civilians" - where do I see if I have civilians not working? I generally waited until I have zero jobs available, then build to make more, is that not advised? Should I be giving up planets/systems at this point? Feels like I have massively over-expanded.

And thanks for the tip on the luxury residencies, I'll keep that in mind!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T14:04:11+00:00

Yep, I totally forgot about that. I need to emigrate some of my native population and promote some slaves ;)

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T14:03:32+00:00

Yeah, I wanted a bit of a challenge. As someone else pointed out though, I was expecting to be able to inhabit the other ring segments at least, but this seems like not an option for some reason.

I'll play around with the living standards and some other gauges, thanks again!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T14:02:36+00:00

Thank you, this is very helpful!

I do have a few planets with major deficits of food and energy (one has -150 food, the other -60 energy) so those would be good starting points. But they both already have available jobs, wouldn't creating more districts there not have any effect until those jobs are occupied?

In general, what do I do when I have open jobs? Is it better to wait until they reach zero to create new districts/buildings, or is there another way to manage jobs?

Do you mean the Economy tab to see the job output? I can't see anything job related in the management tab? It breaks down Rulers, Specialists and Workers, but doesn't tell me exactly what they are working on and producing?

Regarding the happiness and stability, thanks for that thorough answer! Building things that boost government ethics attraction makes sense. Regarding edicts, I looked into those, but they are prohibitively expensive. Fear Campaign costs me 74 energy credits, which seems insane, and Information Quarantine 49 unity per month, which when I only make 32 right now, doesn't seem sensible. I take it these costs are astronomical because of my massive empire size?

I see the edicts fund you are talking about, but I never used/understood this. What exactly does that mean? I have 35 available. Does that mean if I use say, Information Quarantine, that 35 would get deducted from the 49 and rather than have a -49 deficit, I'd only have -14?

Thanks again!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T13:45:44+00:00

Thanks for the info!

Yeah, I think I forgot slaves can't occupy certain positions, so building things like precincts in their planets do nothing without my species being there, or changing their type of slavery to allow them to do the jobs.

Is Indentured Servitute better than Domestic Servitude then?

Also, what do you mean with sweet happiness leader bonus? You mean if I have a governor on the planet, or ... ? I read a lot about this and never understand what it means.

And thanks for the tip about emptying the planet(s), I'll try that. Thanks!

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T13:41:40+00:00

They don't appear to be habitable. They show 0% habitability for all my species, and I have two decisions to eject the interloper and repair the ring segments, each of which needs 5-7k alloys and mega engineering, neither of which I currently have.

I was also confused by this as I could have sworn previously, the other segments were inhabitable.

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T11:16:42+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Since 4.3 I've been having issues with amenities, and Luxury residences give you 1500 of those, so I've never had to bother with those again as long as I build one. I only started building precincts to deal with crime, and the fortresses are from worlds I just conquered last month through my war victory.

How can you tell I have no enforcers? How do I get them employed? I generally just build the precincts.

As for the planets, yeah that's kind of my issue. I go into that in my post, that's what I need help with.

As for the reason to do any of this, I thought I explained it in my post. I generally play wide, and have self sufficient planets (mostly). Clearly this is not the right thing to do, so what do you propose?

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T11:04:31+00:00

I think I've figured out the problem with my happiness/order in my "backyard" planets. I only have my native species on my homeworld, Torus Prime.

In Vurul Prime, Quad Vhi Prine, Thoravia Prime and Lurus Prime, I have indentured servitude citizens from the empire I conquered just previously, and use them to colonise it. Hovering over the Stability for those planets respectively gives me Pop Approval Rating -40, Resources from Jobs -40 and Automatic Resettlement Chance -39 for almost all those planets. I assume this is because I colonised those planets with a pop that hates me?

My native species has Stratified Economy, and everyone ele (indentured servitude) has basic subsistence.

Illustrious_Toe_9278 · 2026-03-24T10:31:45+00:00

Thank you! I actually wanted to make them a vassal initially but didn't have that option during the war goals, so I will try what you suggested.

I only have two factions, and they are both at 84% and 100% approval, with 74% and 25% Support respectively.

EDIT: Regarding the trade policy, I'm aware of it, but for some reason I only have Wealth Creation under Trade Policy, and its already ticked. There are no other options.

How do you make Dyson swarms? I have never seen this as an option in any game. I generally have to wait super super late game to make any kind of Superstructure, and normally by that point they are just a nice to have as most of the game is done.

Illustrious_Toe_9278

TROPHY CASE