Colonies

Colonies produce Billion Credits (BC) which must be invested in various ways. After spending the required amount on maintenance, treaty tributes, transport, spy wages for sabotage and espionage, and other such expenses, the leftover can be spread between five posts in each colony:

• Shipbuilding - the planet will produce starships or stargates, using the class design currently selected for this colony. The relocation option allows to send finished ships directly to a different planet; otherwise they will wait in orbit around the colony that built them.
• Planetary defenses - the colony will produce and maintain a planetary defense shield, missile bases, and upgrade them as force field and weapons technologies progress.
• Industry - the planet will build and operate factories, increasing its BC output. Factories however produce toxic wastes as a byproduct, which requires spending more money on cleaning them up, so focusing too much on industry is not necessarily cost-effective. Spending in excess of the colony population's ability to build and operate factories is added to the planetary reserves.
• Ecology - the colony will spend resources cleaning up toxic waste produced by its factories. Spending in excess of what's necessary for cleanup is used to terraform the planet's atmosphere and soil to improve its environment and eventually reach Gaia status. Spending in excess of the empire's terraforming capabilities is used to fund population increase in the colony.
• Technology - the colony will contribute to the empire's research effort.

The player can adjust the ratio between these five posts. Spending too little on defense, industry, or ecology can be detrimental to the colony, though spending too little on shipbuilding and technology can hinder the empire's efforts to achieve supremacy.