The next version will be integrated into another mod I'm working on called Planet Development Overhaul. It'll either be a part of that mod, or an optional add-on. PDO moves Stellaris away from pop and building based production, impementing proper population and infrastructure systems. It adds a lot of new empire policies, planet edicts, and allows for specialisation and automation. It also allows me to do more with a resource overhaul than what I can do under the vanilla system. So, here are the planned changes, focusing on resources (as PDO covers the other economic changes):


The basis of the mod is that the empire as a whole has a demand for natural resources to be used for energy, industrial and agricultural production. The mod looks at the size of the economy of each planet, totals it up, and calculates the resources required to effectively power the economy of the empire as a whole.


Resources are primarily found on the orbital tile of planets, and can have several different resources on the tile. It is extracted by orbital mining stations and adds to stockpiles of strategic resources. These stockpiles are then measured against the resources demanded, and a bonus or penalty is applied to the empire's economy depending on the size of any surplus or deficit of any particular resource. If that sounds confusing, don't worry, it's quite simple and hopelly clearly explained with an example.


Example: it's early game and we just have our homeworld. It's started off somewhat developed and requires 6 hydrogen, 14 industrial metals, and 4 water. We have built mining stations on all planets in the system providing 7 hydrogen, 17 industrial metals, and 2 water.

We have a surplus of 1 hydrogen (+14%), providing a minor bonus to our energy production, a surplus of 3 industrial metals (+21%), again providing a small bonus, but a deficit of 2 water (since we need 4 water, we're only getting half of what we need), providing a significant penalty to food production.


There will be many natural resources split into various groups. Resources within groups are colour coded to help identify them, and groups vary in importance and the type of impact they have on our economy. The way the bonuses and penalties have been implemented means just building mining stations where we can will result in a decent economy, but those that want to management it more precisely will be rewarded.

These are the crucial groups - they give small bonuses for surpluses and large penalties for shortages.
Fuels - Energy
Industrial Metals: - Minerals
Water: - Food

These give moderate bonuses and penalties.
Carbon: - Minerals
Fertiliser: - Food

These give large bonuses and small penalties.
Rare Earth Elements: - Minerals
Halides: - Food


I've expanded the scope of the mod quite a bit with the introduction of planetary industries and various tiers of goods to be produced. There are currently 3 tiers of products:

Tier 1:
These are mostly industrial materials produced from natural resources to be used as ingredients for the production of products in higher tiers. The products in this tier are plentiful and not that valuable. Example are superalloys, metamaterials, fertiliser, deuterium.

Tier 2:
These are mostly components produced from products from tiers 1 & 2 and mostly used to supply tier 3 products. Most products in this tier will be quite common and not that valuable. Examples are electronics, phamaceuticals, fuel cells and processors.

Tier 3:
These are produced from tier 2 products and represent the finish product. There's a great number of them and have the potential to be quite valuable. Examples are ships, sensors, various weapons, and nutrient replicators.

Currently, these industries will established themselves automatically over time according to an empire's access to the required resources/goods, and a planet's development level. Planets can establish half a dozen industries over time.

Each industry provides additional income to the planet's base income. In time, I'll implement a supply and demand system in which the value and profits from different products are based on their abundance throughout the galaxy.

While the player doesn't directly determine which industries are established, they can influence it by ensuring access to the required resources.