AI War 2:Economy

There are currently four resources used in AI War 2 currently, and here they are all explained a bit more in depth.

Metal

Metal is the primary resource in AI War 2. It is the only one required to actually construct any units. It is generated every second, and the sources can never run out.

Metal Income

Metal is usually produced by a number of structures, such as Metal Harvesters and Command Stations.

• Harvesters produce 60 metal per second, increasing by 30 for each mark upgrade, up to mark 4. Each non-Homeworld planet has 3-8 available Harvesters, and they are claimed when you capture the planet.
• The Home Command Station produce 2200 metal per second, and can only be upgraded by spending science directly on the Home Command Station.
• Economic Command Stations produce the most out of the normal types, starting at 250 metal per second, increasing by 150 per upgrade up to mark 5. However, they are very fragile and allow construction of only light defenses.
• Logistics Command Stations produce a much smaller amount, starting at 60 metal per second, increasing by 20 per upgrade, up to mark 5.
• Military Command Stations produces nearly nothing, but allow for strongest defenses.
• Human Home Settlements produce 520 metal per second and are upgrade by 160 per harvester upgrade. Like Harvester, spending science on Home Command Station will also upgrade those.
• Matter Converters actually *reduce* your metal income, consuming 500 metal per second to produce 50,000 energy, which is not very efficient!

Salvage

Unlike AI War Classic, salvage does not exist in this game for the humans.

Storage

You can only hold so much metal! Each Command Station you build further increases your overall capacity:

• Home Command Stations adds 2,500,000 metal by itself.
• Other station types add 300,000.

Metabolization

This is an effect that some units have, mainly the Metabolizing Gangsaw, but also the Hive Golem's Yellow Jacket drones, and the War Harvester mercenary units. If one of these units damages an enemy, upon that enemies death it will give you 20% of the targets metal cost, up to 5,000 metal maximum.

This effect can mean a good chunk of your metal income can be through combat. Factions other than the player do not use the same economy, and thus gain nothing from this effect currently.

Energy

Energy is somewhat like a global cap on the amount of stuff you can have built overall. A few things add to the Energy balance, while most units, such as ships and turrets, take away. You cannot build something if it would push energy below 0.

Energy Production/Consumption

A few structures produce energy:

• Home Command Station produces 350,000 energy.
• Human Cryogenic Pods produce 7,500 energy each.
• Matter Converters produce 50,000 energy, but also consume 500 metal per second. If you have no metal left, the Converter ceases to produce anything (and thus can put you into energy debt).
• Zenith Power Generators are a rare structure you can capture, which produces 600,000 energy at all times, with no downside (but if it dies, AI Progress increases a small amount).
• Economic Command Station produces 400,000 energy, increasing by 45,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Logistics Command Station produces 200,000 energy, increasing by 25,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Military Command Station produces 20,000 energy, increasing by 5,000 for each mark upgrade.

Almost everything that does not produce energy will consume it.

If energy goes into the negatives, a Brownout will occur. This causes all forcefield generators to stop functioning for 60 seconds, even if the brownout ends before that.

Science

Science is a resource that is gathered by Command Stations on captured planets for a finite amount of 2000 per planet. It is used to improve technologies, effectively increasing marks of all units using the improved technology. There is no maximum limit for stored Science, however the total amount of Science available in a galaxy is finite. Science can be also gathered from an AI held planet at the cost of Hacking Points (more details on the Hacking page). Each planet can only give 2,000 science total, no matter how it is done.

Hacking Points

Hacking Points have similar restrictions to being gathered as Science does, with each planet only giving 30 Points, and being collected by a Command Station in a controlled system as well. Hacking points can also be obtained by destroying a Distribution Node.

Hacking Points are used to perform Hacks, such as the before mentioned Covert Science Extraction, downloading schematics for a new ship line for one of your flagships, or contacting mercenaries through beacons.

More specific details on the possible Hacks, and general mechanics are on the Hacking page.