Colony Building & ResearchBuildings · Production · Automation
The official description of colony play: "Grow a small band of survivors into a vast, self-sustaining colony… Watch fragile shelters become the machinery of the State." The colony is the economic engine behind all of your military operations.
The Building System
Per official materials and hands-on press, the colony includes the following building categories:
| Category | Function |
|---|---|
| Housing / hab pods | House citizens; affects living conditions and the Happiness stat |
| Barracks | Train and station soldiers |
| Factories | Manufacture weapons, armor, food and supplies |
| Research facilities | Advance the tech tree; unlock buildings, equipment and policies |
| Defense installations | Protect the colony (turrets and other defensive structures appear heavily in decisive-battle footage) |
| Prisons / cells | Hold and interrogate prisoners (see Prisoners & Conversion) |
Gameplay screenshots show a functional district in the colony called Victory Square, where the player receives tasks such as "complete Building Directive No. 6 at Victory Square" and "complete the High-Pressure Labor policy research at Victory Square" — colony construction is guided forward through such directive objectives.
First-Person Management
Unlike most top-down colony games, you manage the colony by walking through it in first person: personally striding up to facilities to assign workers, check research, dispose of prisoners and enact policies. A jetpack can be unlocked later to speed up movement. Press noted the cost of this design — "even simple tasks require a lot of walking and opening multiple menus" — one of the more criticized aspects of Early Access, though it also creates a unique "the ruler walks among you" immersion.
Production Chains
The colony economy runs on four outputs: food, raw materials, technology and labor. Citizens are assigned to mining, gathering, hauling, research and manufacturing posts (see Citizen Management), and their output feeds two fronts:
- Domestic needs — food keeps citizens alive (the Hunger stat); housing and facilities keep order
- Armament — weapons and armor directly decide your expedition combat power: "base upgrades directly unlock better equipment for harder fights — not just a box to tick"
The Research System
Hands-on press confirm research is divided into three major categories:
| Category | Unlocks |
|---|---|
| Colony technology | New buildings, facility upgrades, production efficiency |
| Weapons / combat capabilities | New weapons, equipment and combat skills |
| Policy research | Policies that shape social governance (governance tools such as "High-Pressure Labor") |
The standard progression loop: gather resources → research technology → build facilities → strengthen the army → run farther missions. Each facility has its own upgrade/research screen, and personnel can be assigned to research full-time.
Automation & Logistics
Officials confirm that automation and logistics systems exist in the full game — they were deliberately locked in the free Prologue and belong to the expanded Early Access content. Officials list "deeper automation" alongside mechs as advanced systems beyond the Prologue. The exact mechanics have not been fully published yet; this site will keep tracking them.
Some "Pax Autocratica building lists" circulating online contain specific costs and values the developer never published; this site does not record them. Buildings and the tech tree may keep expanding during Early Access — defer to actual in-game content.
