DA custom wares

DA-Eco adds three custom production wares whose only purpose is to act as secondary resources for vanilla production. They’re the mod’s marquee feature — the mechanism that binds the whole economy in a circular dependency.

The three wares

Full definitions at libraries/wares.xml:1887-2083:

Ware id	Display name	Volume	Prices (min / avg / max)	Primary consumers
da_adv_schematics	Advanced Schematics	100 m³	210 / 280 / 540	Advanced Electronics (14 units/cycle), Antimatter Converters (19), Claytronics (54)
da_mil_schematics	Military Schematics	50 m³	90 / 120 / 250	Advanced Composites (31 units/cycle)
da_laborunion_contracts	Labor Union Contracts	25 m³	38 / 50 / 115	Antimatter Cells (38 units/cycle)

The secondary-resource mechanic

X4 engine rule: if a production module has a <secondaryresource> block referencing ware X, and the module’s storage contains enough X, the production cycle runs at:

• product=2.0 (double the output units per cycle).
• cycle=0.25 (finish 4× faster).

Net effect: 8× production throughput for that cycle, as long as the secondary ware is stocked.

DA-Eco applies this pattern to every vanilla production ware. Every ware definition gets:

<effect type="secondaryresource" product="0.1" cycle="0.25"/>
<secondary>
  <ware ware="da_adv_schematics" amount="14"/>  <!-- or mil_schematics / laborunion_contracts -->
</secondary>

The amount per secondary is calibrated to ware-value ratios — expensive downstream wares need more schematics per cycle than cheap upstream wares.

Which vanilla wares consume which DA ware

The 3 DA wares each attach to specific vanilla wares based on economic tier:

Advanced Schematics — high-tech wares

Attached to modules producing:

• Advanced Electronics (14 units per cycle)
• Antimatter Converters (19)
• Claytronics (54) — biggest consumer, drives most Adv Schematics demand

Military Schematics — military-industrial wares

Attached to modules producing:

• Advanced Composites (31 units per cycle)

Labor Union Contracts — foundational wares

Attached to modules producing:

• Antimatter Cells (38 units per cycle)

DA-ware production modules

Each DA ware has 2 production module variants:

1. _01 (default) — inputs claytronics + energy cells (vanilla recipe path)
2. _02 (Terran-specific) — inputs computronic substrate + silicon carbide (Terran chain)

Module characteristics (all 6)

Every DA-ware module has these signature values:

• cycle=0.5 (base cycle multiplier — very fast).
• product=5.0 (base output multiplier — 5× baseline).
• Workforce boost is the HIGHEST in the game — workforce optimal fully applied gives 5.0× production while consuming very little input.

Combined with full workforce:

• ~10 units per 5 min cycle without workforce.
• ~50 units per 5 min cycle with full workforce — a 5× improvement just from staffing.

DA-ware production is deliberately workforce-dependent: without habitation on the station, the modules barely produce. With full staffing, they flood the ware market.

Circular dependency created

The DA-ware mechanic creates a closed loop:

DA schematics ── produce by ──► Claytronics (or Computronic + SilCarbide)
                                        │
                                        │ needs workforce (habitation)
                                        ▼
Claytronics production ── boosted by ──► DA Advanced Schematics
                                        │
                                        │ workforce needs food + medical
                                        ▼
Food/medical production ── boosted by ──► DA Labor Union Contracts
                                        │
                                        │ needs Antimatter Cells
                                        ▼
Antimatter Cells production ── boosted by ──► DA Labor Union Contracts

Every part of the economy needs every other part. A player who tries to run a self-sufficient “one huge station does everything” strategy gets bottlenecked immediately — DA-ware modules require workforce which requires food which requires cross-galaxy production which requires DA-wares.

Trading and ownership

All 3 DA wares are declared as producible by 20 faction owners:

• All 6 vanilla races (Argon / Antigone / Paranid / Split / Teladi / Terran)
• Segaris Pioneers, Boron, Hatikvah, Ministry of Finance, Alliance of the Word, Godrealm of the Paranid
• Pirates: Duke’s, Riptide, Fallen Families, Free Families, Scale Plate, Yaki, Vigor
• Storyline factions

Modded factions cannot produce DA wares (owner list is hardcoded) but can trade them normally.

Kha’ak and Xenon are excluded — Kha’ak don’t run production and Xenon operate on separate rules (see Xenon specifics).

Bigger factories mechanic

Separately from DA-wares, DA-Eco unlocks the “bigger factories” pattern in libraries/parameters.xml:

• <limits production="1→25"> — vanilla lets a station host 1 identical module per type; DA lets it host 25 (in practice limited by ProductionLimit=5).
• <maxlimits production="3→25"> — same principle for hard caps.
• production chance=100% on gen-modules (was 15-65%) — every attempted module generation always succeeds.

Combined with factionlogic_economy.xml Request_Factory ProductionLimit 1→5 and Request_Production_Module WantedProductions 1-2 per tick, NPC factions naturally grow their existing stations by 1-2 modules per tick until they hit the 5-module-per-type cap.

Result: a mature Argon Hull Parts factory has 5 Hull Parts production modules on one station (vanilla had 1 per station, needing 5 stations).

Placeholder module asset note

The README.md mentions:

These are using placeholder station modules for now. The wares are secondary resources that stations can use to double production amount and are produced in modules.

The 6 module macros live in assets/structures/production/. Visually they reuse vanilla generic-production module models (cost + time to model custom station modules was prohibitive). Functionally they work correctly — the “placeholder” label is only about visual assets, not gameplay behavior.

Design intent

Why did DeadAirRT add these three specific wares?

1. Break the “self-sufficient homebase” strategy. A player building one big station gets no DA-ware boost — they need to trade for schematics (or build separate DA-ware factories). Rewards distributed logistics.
2. Give workforce a strong reason to exist. DA-ware modules have the game’s largest workforce boost. Without habitation, they barely function. Encourages hab-heavy station designs.
3. Add a mid-late-game economic mission target. Once basic Hull Parts / Weapon Components are flowing, players pivot to producing DA-wares → high-value trades → funds capital ships.
4. Give NPCs the same tools. NPCs auto-build DA-ware modules per the bigger-factories mechanic, so the ambient economy benefits without any player action.

Related pages

• Mechanics overview — where DA-wares fit in the overall design philosophy
• Storage sizing — how station storage is auto-sized to fit DA-ware volume needs
• Library changes → wares.xml — the ~700-patch scope