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. Please note that this section is currently written assuming you are using the command station centred economy option, which is the default setting in the default campaign types.

Metal Income

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

• The Home Command Station produces 2200 metal per second, increasing by 400 for each mark upgrade.
• Economic Command Stations produce the most out of the normal types, starting at 400 metal per second, increasing by 220 for each mark upgrade. However, they are very fragile and allow construction of only light defenses.
• Logistics Command Stations produce a much smaller amount, starting at 90 metal per second, increasing by 50 for each mark upgrade.
• Military Command Stations produce nearly nothing, starting at 50 metal per second, increasing by 20 for each mark upgrade. However, they allow for strongest defenses.
• Harvesters produce 75 metal per second, increasing by 50 for each mark upgrade. Each non-Homeworld planet has 3-8 available Harvesters, and they are claimed when you capture the planet.
• Human Home Settlements produce 520 metal per second, increasing by 260 for each mark upgrade.
• Zenith Matter Converters are a rare structure you can capture, which produce 5,000 metal per second. (but if it dies, AI Progress increases a small amount).
• Human (i.e, buildable) Matter Converters actually *reduce* your metal income, consuming 500 metal per second to produce 50,000 energy, which is not very efficient!

The high amount of metal produced by structures on your homeworld is one reason it can be a good idea to perform one (or even two) direct upgrades to your home command station at the start of the game.

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:

• Your Home Command Station has 2,500,000 capacity by itself, increasing by 500,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Logistic Command stations add 600,000 capacity at mark 1, increasing by 300,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Economic Command stations add 300,000 capacity at mark 1, increasing by 100,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Military Command stations add 50,000 capacity at mark 1, increasing by 50,000 for each mark upgrade.

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 does enough damage to an enemy, upon that enemy's 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:

• Your Home Command Station produces 350,000 energy, increasing by 25,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Human Cryogenic Pods produce 7,500 energy each, increasing by 2,500 for each mark upgrade.
• 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 produce 900,000 energy at all times, with no downside (but if it dies, AI Progress increases a small amount).
• Economic Command Stations produce 500,000 energy, increasing by 180,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Logistics Command Stations produce 175,000 energy, increasing by 50,000 for each mark upgrade.
• Military Command Stations produce 70,000 energy, increasing by 10,000 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 non-player, non-AI held planets at the cost of Hacking Points, but this is only worthwhile if you were not the one to kill the AI command station and are not planning to settle the planet in the future (thus incurring the AIP cost for the planet.) (more details on the Hacking page). Each planet can only give 2,000 science total, no matter how it is done.

Science can also be obtained by destroying a Distribution Node for a small AIP cost, and there are some additional Factions, e.g. Astro Trains, which can give small amounts of Science as a reward for killing some of their vessels, which can add up over time.

You can refund spent science via the use of Hacking Points using the "Retrieve Spent Science" at the bottom of the tech menu. This includes Science spent on Direct Upgrades. A note on refund strategy: This can be very useful and allows for some flexibility if you initially invest science in a technology that, it later turns out, has relatively few ship lines available, but is still not to be undertaken lightly, since choices to take fleets and/or hack for ship/turret lines of that tech type that you may have undertaken in the meantime will now be less effective. Refunding direct upgrades can have almost no opportunity cost if you have spare hacking, however. (For example due to lack of suitable hacking targets caused by either high Hacking availability due to added factions, or high hacking difficulty caused by very high level AI's.)

Hacking Points

Hacking Points have similar restrictions to being gathered as Science does, with each planet only giving 30 Points (Or 35 if it is adjacent to another player controlled planet), and being collected by a Command Station in a controlled system as well.

Hacking points can also be obtained by destroying a Distribution Node for a small AIP cost, and there are some additional Factions, e.g. Astro Trains, which can give small amounts of Science as a reward for killing some of their vessels, which can add up over time

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.