10 - Space Empires

Hello. Welcome back to APEX, and thank you for choosing the APEX Space Empire Guide. This is an advanced guide detailing your next steps in the galaxy in regard to the continuation of your corporation, and the eventual construction of your empire through space.

After a few month’s of time, you might be inquiring as to what’s up on the horizon for you as a CEO, and to say that there is ‘one size fits all’ answer to that question, would be a misstep as there are many various avenues to take when you start reaching the finalization of your mid-game goals.

One of the very first instincts many users take, is researching more advanced commodities to construct. The commodities can be broken up into four sub-categories: consumables, fabrications, ship parts, and planetary consumables. Each one of these four sub-professions are mutually exclusive enough that diving head first into one of them is a wise choice towards your path to empire building.

Let’s start with consumables. As mentioned in the previous tutorial, more advanced populations will require special consumables to live off of. By diving into this industry, you are providing the backbone for other users to jump off into more specialized construction projects. While you might not find yourself producing super specialized products, consumables can be very lucrative and you can charge a premium for them, which you can then use to ramp up your production, or invest in another product vertical.

Now, these consumable factories don’t run without sturdy walls to hold them up, so investing in fabrications is a great empire goal, as many players will need b, l, r, and a fabs to construct the buildings that they wish to build. A pro behind this empire goal, is that most of the late-game fabs required will be constructed from technician populations, and it’s only the a-fabs that require engineers to build them. Meaning that this investment has a strong possibility of efficient scaling if quantity is your goal, and most of each tier of fabrication plays links smoothly into the tier below it, so setting up logistical production chains is fairly convenient to do.

Although consumables and fabrications have their challenges to setup production for, nothing beats ship parts in terms of the sheer complexity of production. Requiring knowledge of vast production chains, building ships is considered to be the pinnacle in end-game empire building. However, it also isn’t for users that like venturing into the galaxy alone, often it is recommended to users to find five other users to coordinate with. But the pros of working together to solve a monumental task, and the benefit of fleet expansion, make it a highly incentivizing stretch goal for end game users.

But none of this would be possible without the infrastructure that make the planets run smoothly, and that’s where the option of planetary consumables comes from. In the galaxy, there are two sub-categories of planets, those that are governed and those that are un-governed. Governed planets will have a voted-in governor who will manage the week-to-week operations of a planet. Users with pro licenses can run for governor themselves by selecting the run button in the planetary administration centre. If elected governor, the governor will then make decisions on a number of key infrastructure and administrative projects based on what the users that voted them in, wanted. However, this infrastructure requires a specialized sub-set of consumables to function properly, and if these consumables don’t make it to the planet, the working populations on the planet start to diminish through immigration. So to stave off this migration, governors need to employ a network of producers to produce these goods, which will then be bought and used by the governor for the furtherance of the planet’s development. One final sub category of a CEO’s journey to empiredom is the possibility of being elected a governor of a planet. While it might not be as galaxy-spanning as a production empire, governing a planet can be quite a daunting task, and isn’t for the faint of heart.

If you gained enough community support and were awarded the governorship of a planet, your first step would be to set the local rules. You can find the local rules in the planet tile of your now-governed planet. From here, you can set production fees for various population types and industries within the galaxy. These fees will then be collected and paid out as a dividend. Careful though, make sure to set your corporation as the collecting corporation for the dividend.

After you have set the local rules your next step would be to review the infrastructure projects currently on the planet. Each population type will require a different level of need fulfillment for the population to either grow… or not migrate away. To stave off migration, a population’s specific need fullfilment has to be above 50%. If you wish to grow pioneer populations, you need to keep life support and safety fulfilled. If you wish to grow settler populations, you need to keep life supports, safety, and health fulfilled. Technicians require health, safety and comfort, engineers require comfort and culture, and finally scientists require education, culture and comfort. These needs will need to be fulfilled above 70% to see growth start to take place. Keep in mind that there is also the possibility for a population to shrink if the unemployment of that population gets too high. So it’s important to keep a watchful eye on the quantity of these populations. Another component to keep aware of when growing populations, is that engineers and scientists are the only two population types that will “shift” from lower population types. Meaning that if you wanted to grow engineers or scientists, they will come from the other populations currently on your planet.

How you fulfill these needs for your populations, or desired populations, is by building the required building needed to fulfill the need they require. You can see information about an infrastructure project by selecting it. From this new tile that opened, you can see what need it fulfills, but more importantly, what consumables this building will consume to keep the effect this building provides, active. If you wish for a bigger effect, you can upgrade the building, but keep in mind that more of the same building, will mean that the consumable requirement will go up. Another administrative line-item that requires a great deal of consumables from a governor, and is generally considered one of the more important items to maintain is the CoGC, or Chamber of Global Commerce. It is here that planetary membership votes on a CoGC effect which will provide a 25% buff to all production of a certain industry. While the governor can sway the vote through incentivizing community members to vote a certain way, the governor has the responsibility of the upkeep of the CoGC. If unkempt, this 25% buff no longer is in effect, and you might have some upset membership you might have to answer to.

One last duty of a governor of a planet is the optional implementation of a program. There are a series of beneficial programs that a governor can purchase, which will then help the planet’s inhabitants, or aggressively entice a certain population type to immigrate to the planet.

This has been the APEX Space Empire guide, and has been indicated as complete by the APEX module, so this video broadcast will now be concluded. Thank you for choosing the Advanced System for the Facilitation of Production, and Exchange for the Exodus of mankind.