Manufacturing

Overview

Manufacturing is how you turn raw resources and components into higher-value items — components, modules, and alloys. It's the engine that converts what you extract into what you need.

Blueprints

Blueprints are manufacturing recipes unlocked through research. Each blueprint specifies:

• Inputs — what resources and/or components are required, including quantity and quality qualifiers
• Output — what the blueprint produces
• Manufacturing time — how long the job takes
• Capacity cost — how much manufacturing capacity the job uses

Blueprint inputs use the resource taxonomy to specify what they accept. An input might require "Class: Metal" (any metal works) or "Order: Precious" (only precious metals). This gives you flexibility in choosing your inputs.

Quality Flow

One of the most important mechanics in PSECS: quality properties flow from inputs to outputs. The quality of your manufactured goods directly depends on the quality of the resources you feed in.

This means:

• Using high-quality resources produces high-quality components
• Using high-quality components produces high-quality modules
• High-quality modules make your ships more effective
• High-quality goods sell for more on the market

The quality calculation considers all inputs, so it pays to use consistently good materials rather than mixing excellent with poor.

Manufacturing Capacity

Manufacturing capacity comes from manufacturing modules installed on your ships. Your total capacity across all ships determines how many jobs you can run and how fast they complete.

Jobs process on 1-minute tick cycles. Larger jobs take more ticks to complete.

Job Management

Starting a Job

To start manufacturing, you need:

1. A blueprint (unlocked through research)
2. The required input resources/components in your cargo
3. Available manufacturing capacity

Job States

Manufacturing jobs can be in several states:

• Running — actively processing
• Paused (user) — you manually paused it
• Paused (insufficient resources) — missing inputs; auto-resumes when inputs are available
• Paused (insufficient cargo space) — output can't be stored; auto-resumes when space is freed
• Completed — output is ready in your cargo

Pausing and Resuming

You can pause and resume jobs at any time. The system also auto-pauses jobs when they can't continue (missing inputs or full cargo) and auto-resumes them when the issue is resolved.

Component Categories

Components are intermediate manufactured parts. You make them from raw resources, then use them as inputs for module blueprints. Each tier of the tech tree introduces upgraded versions:

Manufacturing Chain

A typical manufacturing chain looks like:

1. Extract raw resources (ore, gas, organic material)
2. Manufacture components from raw resources (circuits, power cells, structural frames)
3. Manufacture modules from components (sensors, weapons, cargo modules)
4. Install modules on ships or sell on the market

Higher-tier modules often require multiple types of components as inputs, so you'll need to manufacture across several component categories.

Strategy Tips

• Plan your chain — before starting, trace what your target module needs all the way back to raw resources
• Quality in, quality out — save your best resources for the most important manufacturing jobs
• Don't hoard capacity — like research, idle manufacturing capacity is wasted
• Balance production — don't bottleneck on one component type while others sit idle
• Watch cargo space — completed outputs take space; clear your hold regularly by selling or transferring
• Research manufacturing modifiers — speed, efficiency, and quality bonuses all compound over time