Why does a Recycling Facility Level I require metal to build?

[Xebec]

IIRC a long ago, Recycling Facilities didn't require metal to get started -- enabling you to start a far away city or territory without having to transport a large amount of metal (just IP and machines).

Is it intended balance that Recycling requires metal and that it's really hard to get metal 'from scratch' in the game?

If you were able to convince a minor empire to Unify with you, it's really hard to get them doing anything unless they're close enough to transport metal in quantity. (Especially as the cards that give you free metal seem to be very rare these days).

[Soar_Slitherine]

If you were able to convince a minor empire to Unify with you, it's really hard to get them doing anything unless they're close enough to transport metal in quantity. (Especially as the cards that give you free metal seem to be very rare these days).

In the trade menu, there is an option to buy items in the currently selected zone instead of the SHQ. If you just need the 100 metal to get a scavenging economy started, it shouldn't be overly hard to afford that in a lot of cases.