Building an empire
It's all about resources

The goal of this game is to build an empire for yourself, seek out the other races in the Echo Cluster and destroy them in the pursuit of galactic conquest. To accomplish this mission you must develop an economic base upon which your empire can be built. Your average empire consists of three key components: planets, starbases and ships.

Of these three components, planets are the base on which an empire is built. The 500 planets in the Echo Cluster contain all the resources you'll need to construct your empire with. Starbases and ships have to be built by you with those resources, and should be seen more as the body of your empire. They are the tools used to develop, expand and improve your empire and ofcourse to wage war on others. As you will quickly discover, your homeworld alone does not hold enough resources to build anything resembling a decent fleet with.

The planets in the Echo Cluster hold the resources for your empire. Every planet has minerals in it's core, ready to be extracted by whoever colonises the planet. The minerals, once extracted, can be used to build starbases and ships. Most planets also have a native population of some sort, providing you with money once you've colonised the planet and tax the natives. Money is the second important ingredient for building an empire. Planets also allow you to spread your colonists around. The colonist populations will grow on most planets, and can also be taxed for money if you wish. Last but not least, you can build factories on planets that will provide you with supply units. These too are an important part of your economy.