Matrix Games Forums

Platform: Steam
Build version: started with v1.3.3.4 Beta + Expansion and all DLCs
Severity: Medium-High
Annoyance factor: Very High
Saved game:
In my current game, I’ve queued a ton of mining stations to be constructed. Some already have a CS (Construction Ship) assigned to them, but a lot of them, and I mean A LOT, do not. Yet, at the same time, there’s a ton of automated CSs that are idle, not taking those missions. And it’s not because of construction resources shortages (there aren’t any construction resources shortage in the empire at this point). Or because they’re stuck in a nebula: they’re not.

This is a big problem: if the CS aren’t assigned to queued jobs, that makes the game unplayable (at this point in the game, I won’t manually assigned all the build orders to CSs individually).

Here’s a sample of the queued unassigned build orders:


And here’s sample of idled CSs:

Do you have money and resources at stations for construction ships to pick up and actually fulfill your missions?

Check that the private sector has enough money. I've seen them struggling from time to time. Not sure why.

Xmudder wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2026 7:50 am Check that the private sector has enough money. I've seen them struggling from time to time. Not sure why.

Gotcha! all six construction ships are idle, 2 locations with resources in the red, 300k private reserves.

... and when I reload the save it immediate builds 2 mining stations.

Another one, same game. 12 idle construction ships, several shortages and plenty of places to build. Only 60k private reserves though, not sure why they are so poor. Also no peacetime mission recently. Did not resolve on reload.

Xmudder wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2026 7:07 pm Another one, same game. 12 idle construction ships, several shortages and plenty of places to build. Only 60k private reserves though, not sure why they are so poor. Also no peacetime mission recently. Did not resolve on reload.

I've been trying to pin this down. Quit to desktop and reload resulted in no notifications, but the icons on queued mining stations changed to construction ship en route - may be a display bug.

One planet had a huge backed up queue of private ships, but that resolved itself.

Things got better once I researched fast mining.

loaded a game in 1.3.6.3 12 potential mining sites with red resources, more than 12 available idle automated construction ships. Mining sites are in or near my space. 2 luxuries in the yellow, 4 in the red, Caslon, Aculon, and Polymers in the negative but with a substantial stockpile. 170k private economy cash reserves. Manually queued up 12 construction ship, unpaused.

Nothing happened. 3 mining stations completed as I ran the game, none started.

I just noticed that the diplomacy window shows what they can offer me, but not what they are buying from me. In most cases I am making much more money in trade than they are.

It's possible there's a performance threading issue where there's a lot going on and some ship orders end up getting delayed. Reloading saves tend to help with this.

Sounds like you do have enough cash. Even though some of your construction resources in the red, you mention that you have stockpiles. To confirm, do you have planets/spaceports with enough construction resources for your construction ships to pick up what they need to build your queued stations?

Also, it's quite possible the private economy might reserving cash for things, such as ship construction and such, especially if a new tech has been researched and many ships need to be retrofitted or rebuilt.

MaximKI wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2026 8:42 pm It's possible there's a performance threading issue where there's a lot going on and some ship orders end up getting delayed. Reloading saves tend to help with this.

Sounds like you do have enough cash. Even though some of your construction resources in the red, you mention that you have stockpiles. To confirm, do you have planets/spaceports with enough construction resources for your construction ships to pick up what they need to build your queued stations?

Also, it's quite possible the private economy might reserving cash for things, such as ship construction and such, especially if a new tech has been researched and many ships need to be retrofitted or rebuilt.

I checked. A bunch of the construction ships are sitting where they built something, unmoving and with no cargo. I found one empty construction ship (medium) next to my home base, the rebuilt space station. It was also empty despite the space station being full up on construction good and Caslon, but short on luxuries. Most of the planets and stations I checked were the same. One of them was at the storage limit for a luxury good produced on that planet.

There are 9 inhabited planets that are lacking the resources to build a spacestation around them. I am selling almost 2.5 times as many resources as I am buying (50k sold, 20k bought). Private sector spend 260k on ships last year.

I have 32 construction ships. 16 are idle. 12 mining locations queued up.

That's weird. 27 planets, 171k cargo in transit, 125m people in transit, 487 private sector ships (70 passenger)... and 0 tourists, despite having 15 resort bases (and potentially 55 more).

I only have 2 scientists, despite being a technocracy. Games in recent builds usually end up with 5.

restarting didn't change anything.

Loaded saved game under command update, ran it for a bit. No change in behavior, no new mining stations built despite being queued and in the red.

Forced all idle constructors to refuel (and reload), several immediately dropped out because they had the full 360 fuel. What they did not do was build anything I had queued up.

I have 32 construction ships, but only 7 mining stations being built. I have 9 locations for new shipyards that are too low on resources to build. 30 idle spaceport yards of 47. 2 new state ships being constructed, no civilian ships being constructed. Some state ships being upgraded, no civilian ships being upgraded. Private cash 182k, private cashflow +184k. No tourists in transit despite 13 resort bases and 70 passenger ships.

Still no idea why the private economy froze up like this.

edit: I turned on all the notifications, including "retrofit civilian ships" and was spammed with dozens of "retrofit of mining station completed" No idea what was so important to upgrade, as my recent techs (Structured Research, Officer Training, System Governance, Holographic Entertainment) aren't used in mining stations. I'm going to chalk this one up to the obsessive unnecessary upgrading but I've commented on before.

It did result in new mining stations being built, at least. So it seems to have unblocked the queue.

saves available, but over 10megs compressed.