Resources
This page gives an overview of the current idea space for the resource model in Living Universe Online.
It does not describe final game behavior. It summarizes the broad direction and links to the focused idea page.
Goal
The goal is a resource model that:
- makes different systems and territories feel economically distinct
- supports meaningful trade, logistics, and specialization
- avoids tracking so many individual materials that the economy becomes opaque
- can be extended with new resource types as the game grows
Core Problem
If all systems produce broadly the same things, territory becomes interchangeable and expansion loses strategic purpose.
But if the resource system is too granular — tracking raw elements and micro-materials — the economy becomes spreadsheet noise that most players will not engage with.
The right model sits in the middle: a moderate set of strategically meaningful resource categories, each tied to specific classes of stellar objects, so that different regions of the galaxy feel economically distinct without being unreadably complex.
Current Direction
Resources should be defined at the level of individual stellar objects, not at the level of the solar system as a single production entity.
A gas giant produces what a gas giant would produce. An asteroid belt produces what a belt would produce. A system's economic identity is derived from the combination of objects inside it.
This means two systems in the same region can feel very different depending on what stellar objects they contain.
The current direction targets around 15 core resource types grouped into three rough layers:
- Bulk development resources — used in high volume for basic expansion and infrastructure
- Strategic industrial resources — used for advanced manufacturing, fleet construction, and specialized infrastructure
- Rare and exotic resources — used for top-tier fleets, major constructs, and late-game progression
See Resource Types for the full candidate set.
Why Source Matters
Tying resources to stellar object types creates regional specialization naturally:
- a system with multiple gas giants becomes valuable for fuel and logistics
- a system with dense asteroid belts becomes valuable for shipbuilding
- a system with unusual stellar objects becomes a high-risk, high-reward frontier target
No system needs to be hand-labelled as "good for trade" or "good for war." That identity emerges from what stellar objects are inside it.