Newbie Question - Metal and Crystal income

[eruanion]

Bought the game through the humble bundle sale.  After doing the tutorials, I am doing my first game (using the "beginner" script).  I am in the late game (AI homeworlds are in striking distance) but I had a question.  I'm confused by what I'm seeing on my economy monitor every time I lose a bundle of ships and my constructors go to rebuilding.  My metal and crystal reserves hover around 1900 each while the net income seems to be negative by several thousand each, as shown in the attached screenshot.  I don't understand quite how this could be.

[PokerChen]

 If you had an unlimited amount of resources, the net change would be the negative number. However, you have nothing in the bank, so all construction effectively pauses until there is enough to subtract them - this pause is not accounted for in the net income.  The reason the actual resource count does not hover around zero is probably because the income and the expenditure don't update them constantly, the income update ticks over every second or two, while space-docks can make a ship every game-tick with enough engineers.

[Draco18s]

Essentially what the game does is something like this:


--start of tick--
1500 resources
Space dock: -200
Space dock: -200
Engineer: -400
Engineer: -400
Engineer: -400 *paused, insufficient funds*
Engineer: -400 *paused, insufficient funds*
Starship Constructor: -1000 *paused, insufficient funds*
Needler Turret: -50
Needler Turret: -50
Resource Node: +500
Needler Turret: -50
Needler Turret: -50
Engineer: -100
Engineer: -100
Engineer: -100
Engineer: -100
Engineer: -100
Engineer: -100 *paused, insufficient funds*
Engineer: -100 *paused, insufficient funds*
Engineer: -100 *paused, insufficient funds*
Engineer: -100 *paused, insufficient funds*
Resource Node: +500
Resource Node: +500
Resource Node: +500
--end tick--
1500 resources

Just as an example.  Actual processing order I've heard is based on when they were built.

[eruanion]

So it does mean that I am essentially broke, and that all of my construction is being slowed down for lack of metal and crystal, right?

[Diazo]

Yes, the small numbers underneath are the current net supply(positive) or demand(negative) of metal and crystal.

The large number above is how much metal and crystal you have in the bank.

So yes, you have bottomed out on both metal and crystal and your economy is significantly slowed down at the moment.

You can use the resources tab in the stats menu (one of the buttons in the bottom left, next to the map button) to see what is being a resource hog.

This lets you turn stuff on and off if something is time critical.

I can't see any repair beams out, but I see a mobile repair station. Note that just after a fleet retreats is can have very high repair costs while the repairs are under way but that repairs get completed very quickly (and are a lot cheaper) then building replacement units.

D.

[eruanion]

Thanks for your answers.