I don't know about other empires, but as I understand it you're supposed to start with +5 hypermatter per month. Mandalore doesn't. Additionally, none of the 10 or whatever planets they start with have it. Finally, none of their neighbors or adjacent systems have it either :/ It's not like the end of the world, but it is obnoxious and sucky.

I attacked a neighbor just to conquer their ecumenopolis because another discussion said ecumenopoli have hypermatter. After I did, there was no hypermatter production there, so RIP. It only produced consumer goods, food, minerals etc. And there was no building in the districts that produced hypermatter either. It's like it's been removed or something while maintaining the need for it, which is bizarre.

I'm at a constant -12 and growing and it's hard to sustain my economy while spending literally 50,000 credits buying hyperfuel. Repeatedly.

Alternatively I can let my hyperfuel hit 0 and my fleets are then 50% slower than everyone else's, it's really a sucky situation.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a known bug?

Thanks