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I'm somewhat resigned to the "black box" of the Distant Worlds economy, so I just manage what I can to keep a positive cashflow going, and it seems to be mostly working. But there are times when I overspend and I'm stuck with a negative balance for a while, meaning I can't queue research, build new ships, or develop my infrastructure. Fair enough! Part of Distant Worlds 2, as with many of these kinds of games, is waiting for resources to accumulate.

In a recent game, I was watching my balance closely so I could queue up 2nd tier techs, 500cr at a time, with my cash balance flitting around between -500 and +500 for the last year or so. I just had to pop the F10 button at the right time to open the research screen and queue up a tech before my balance melted below 500 credits. But at a certain point I look up -- it can't have been more than a few days elapsed ingame -- and suddenly I've got a positive balance of 100,000 credits. What the...?

So after hunting around in the messages -- nothing and I verified that I wasn't filtering any messages -- I eventually see the entry for Bonus Income, prominently featured on the F2 empire tab, in the top panel, along with information about available Cash, and then Cash Flow. This rather cryptic entry, which the tooltip describes as "non-regular sources (e.g. Resource-trading, Tourism, etc.)" currently reads +107,906, and I have no idea where this money came from, why it was given to me, and when I can expect that sort of windfall again. By doing a search in the manual -- which then refers you to the Galactopedia, where I mostly hit a dead end for want of search options -- it seems that sometimes the private economy will give you a money dump when you research something they like, which is what seems to have happened here when I completed Expanded Space Stations? Should I have been able to see this prior to finishing the research? Is it always associated with Extended Space Stations? If not, why was it in this game? Because if I'd known there was a 100,000 bonus available, I would have chased it much earlier!

So I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but does anyone know if there's a way to source this absurdly well-timed +107,906? And, more importantly, to anticipate it in the future? I'm happy to provide a saved game if it's any help.

Most likely your private sector started to retrofit allot of ships or building new ones. This can sometimes generate allot of cash in a short time period.

You should be able to see how much money you generated this way on the economy tab.

Most likely bonus income from the Private Economy ordering a lot of new ships.
They spend the money, you get it.
Bonus income is is a much better way to get money out of them then taxes.

Ah, very good, Jorgen and zgrssd! That seems to be it exactly, clear as day on the economy screen. I'm just surprised at the sudden jump, but it makes perfect sense that the construction surge resulted from the tech I'd just researched. I think I'm also a bit surprised that the player is the direct beneficiary of private sector spending, but that just goes to show how little I understand the economy. I should probably dig deeper into the documentation before leveling "black box" charges. : )