The Investments display is available in games where the tech tree is enabled. It is here where you get to spend your hard-earned cash. Whether you are the "official" or each player on your team is handling his or her own investment portfolio, all tech tree research and development happens in the Investments display.

To toggle the Investments display

If your team has an "official" investor for your game and you are automatically donating to him, then you will have no need to see this display unless you just want to see what has and has not been built, upgraded, researched, and developed.

Investment Types

Building: When you build new structures, you gain new or enhanced game functionality. New buildings are available when you click the Construction button. Note that you start out with one Garrison; all other building must be built.>

Upgrading: Nearly every structure, ship, and piece of equipment can be upgraded to advanced versions. Upgrades are available when you click an available structure button.>

Researching Global Items: Global items are technologies that affect all ships and stations on your team. These are items such as better boosters, better armor, and greater ammo capacity. After researching a global item, that item will automatically appear in the Loadout screen.>

Developing New Items: Development of new items such as cloaking devices and weapons that take advantage of upgraded ships is available. You can even develop brand-new classes of ships such as frigates and cruisers. After developing a new item, that item will automatically appear in the Loadout screen of the appropriate ship.>

Investing

To invest your money in an item

Invest.>

Building

There are five structures that you can build that offer new and unique investment opportunities. At the start of a tech tree game, you'll only have access to the Garrison and Construction buttons. Because your team automatically owns a Garrison when the game starts, you can immediately start researching and building items that the Garrison offers. To build your miners, tower layers, mine layers, and other building types, you use the Construction button.

As new structures are built, their corresponding buttons will become yellow, signifying that you now have access to that structure's technology.

When you fully invest in a new structure, a constructor is prepared. On the right side of the Investments display, the structure's button will note, "Preparing Constructor," and a progress bar proceeds across the graphic. Once the constructor is prepared, it is launched and you will see a "Constructor en Route" note on the structure's button. The constructor travels to an appropriate location for the structure.

Some structures require a specific to build on. If the appropriate asteroid has been located in an enemy-controlled sector, the constructor will attempt to fly there and build the structure. To see what sectors contain the required asteroid, select the constructor, note the sectors with the red border around them in the Map display, and then command your constructor to build on the asteroid in that sector. Constructors are very weak and undefended, so a defensive force to support the constructor en route is probably a wise idea.

If you are not allowed to fully invest in a structure, you will probably receive a message stating, "No Asteroid Available." This means that you must locate the specific asteroid needed for the structure to be built.

Once the constructor has begun building the station, a progress bar proceeds across the graphic as the structure is built. You will also see a swirling mass around the asteroid as the constructor drills into the asteroid and converts it to the specific structure.

Once the structure is built, a number will appear on the structure's button showing how many of that structure are built.