[President_Elect_Shang]

I would have to give that thought; however, just off the top of my head. The SFTC is only using 2 of the three resources. Minerals which I will probably rename to MC (Mega Credits). Then Organics which I made focused more on colony demand but also used in scarce amounts for ships/bases and in larger amounts for troops. I won't rename that one but if I were to I would rename it FS (Food Stuffs). That leaves a third element unused. I could make that into CP (Crew Points or Crew Personnel). Then I could charge based on that. Unfortunately I do not know of a way to keep the cost of an item down (i.e. you only pay a few hundred crew points) to build something then inflate the maintenance cost of that item. I may not need to inflate it. It could be argued that the high initial cost isn't just crew but workers and support personnel who are building the item/ship/base/whatever. Another problem is the maintenance can be explained away as crew rotation and/or new members replacing those that had to leave the service and/or wanted to separate. However, there is no way to control the originating source. See what I mean? A Spaceport ships all production and I have never heard of a way to limit that. So your restriction based on planet population wouldn't work. More experienced crews could be simulated by Military Academies which raise the experience of the ship. Then you wouldn't need to worry about tracking crew experience. Also the AST allowed you to build captains. That could be brought back and implemented the same way I did my XO Weapons. They are 0 HS items with 1HS damage absorption. Then you could give the captains bonuses as in AST and call that experience. You could also take that one step further and make whole bridge crews. It would be simple to limit a ship to just 1 Science Officer. You could also make a science hull size ship that can handle 2 science officers instead of 1. That would add another dimension to the value of hulls because you could make whole components that will only work on a science hull. Now add another component called a Command Center and make it so that you have to have an Admiral with the Command Center. Make the Command Center big and poof; you have an admiral in charge of your ships/fleet! Oh dinners ready...