Gunbeard

[quote]Whenever I make a mixed fleet of just one cap and a variety of smaller ships, I find that the smaller ships get destroyed and I have to constantly spend resources to rebuild them.[/quote] One word: Attrition. Absorbing firepower is important in any battle.. you need bullet magnets to hold the enemy's attention long enough for them to be worn down. For this you need a constant supply of fresh grunts. Keep churning out the cheap combat units so you maintain the attriti

I saturated the metal market and watched the value decrease rapidly, so my guess is they use a stock market model based on Derivatives. I'll be experimenting with it over the next few days so I'll know more then.. but you might try a test game by setting up a strong economy and experimenting with the market to see what repeatedly starts up and downtrends.