The problem I was trying to solve was astro diversity. In space strategy games, expansion is predictable: players hunt the astros with the highest income or fleet production, and everything else gets ignored as filler. I wanted players to actually have to think about which astros to take, not just sort them by best to worst.

Food is not a usual resource in these kinds of games. Resource management systems can get tedious fast. Adding another number for players to worry about doesn't make a more interesting game. So I needed a good reason to add food to Nebula Control.

Food is there to remind players that empires need more than the best production astros to function. It shouldn't be something players are constantly thinking about.

Here's how it works. Every astro has a fertility value that varies by type and orbital position. An astro may be rich in credits or production capacity but have poor or no food production. Others won't be as rich but can produce a large amount of food. Targeting only high-production astros will cause a player to run into food deficits as they grow their empire. They will need a high food-producing astro at some point.

Food is stockpiled as an empire-wide resource. All consumption is pulled from that stockpile. This keeps the resource something that sits in the background most of the time.

That changes if you expand too fast, or your breadbasket astro gets attacked and you run out of food.

When you run out of food you enter a Shortage, which cuts construction, production, and research capabilities by 25%. If the Shortage lasts for 24 hours then your empire enters a Famine and those penalties increase to 50%. After another 48 hours of Famine, your empire enters a Crisis and those penalties increase to 75%.

These tiers give players a warning and a chance to correct the issue before the huge penalties hit.

Right now this is how food works. If testing shows food still isn't important enough, I have a backup plan: fleets would consume food.

That would both limit fleet sizes and tie food directly into combat. Players would need to plan their food production around the fleets they want to maintain, not just their empire size.

If food has to matter more, I'd rather it matter in combat.