System Development

System Development Projects are a type of System Improvements that increase the system level, boost the system production (FIDSI, approval, manpower, etc.) and unlock Spaceport slots.

## Access to System Development Projects

Stage 3, 4 and 5 of the Economy and Trade tech tree have to be unlocked to access the Basic (L1), Advanced (L2) and Endless System Development Project (L3), respectively. No  is required to build them, only certain amount of turns (1, 2 or 3, respectively) and resources selected in the System Development Screen are needed.

The selection of the resources for these projects can be done only once per project level, when set and confirmed it cannot be changed. L1 allows selecting 1 resource, L2 allows 2 resources and 3 can be used for L3. If multiple resources are to be selected then each has to be different, i.e. you cannot select Jadonyx twice for L2 to get +120  boost from building it.

## System Level

Beside providing production bonuses, the System Development projects raise the system's level which affects bonuses from other, typically late-game, system improvements (e.g. Intensive Cultivation). The Autonomous Administration improvement can only be built in level 4 systems. Some quests require to raise certain amount of systems to a certain level.

## Production Bonuses

Resources used in the System Development projects dictate which attributes and how (flat bonus, per Pop, percentual) are boosted. In general, Tier 1 resources provide flat production bonus, Tier 2 increase per Population production and Tier 3 resources provide a percentile boost.

### Luxury Resource Effects

The effects of all the luxury resources are listed on a dedicated page.

The number of resources required depends on their tier (above), as shown here:

 Advanced System Development (L3)
 Endless System Development (L4)

Note how the all-important Level 4 is about a 4:2:1 ratio (Tier 1 to Tier 3). In other words, an income of, say, 5 of a Tier 3 resource needs to be balanced by an income of about 20 of a Tier 1 resource, to keep usage even. (More, if you've used a particular resource for more than one level's slots.)

That said, by the time you want to make Level 4 starports, you have probably already built most of your early systems to Level 2 or 3, and other systems you might occupy may also be built up already ... you probably won't be building all your newly-gained systems from scratch.

A final factor is that particular resources tend to cluster in particular regions of the galaxy. Stated another way, you already have a good idea of most of the goods income you'll have to work with for Level 4, at the point you choose its components. Still, you might find a particularly nice new system with 2 or 3 of some resource, which can really boost your balancing for a desirable component.

### Strategic Resource Effects (Material Expertise)

Factions with the Material Expertise trait (The Vaulters) can also use the Strategic Resources for System Development projects. The effects of these are also listed on the same dedicated page luxury resources are listed on.

Again, the amount of required resources depends on their tier, although the costs are slightly different from the luxury resources listed above.

 Advanced System Development (L3)
 Endless System Development (L4)

## Spaceport

Building the first level System Development project will open a Spaceport in the system. It allows you to send system's population to other parts of your empire. To send population using the Spaceport just drag the desired  from the planet(s) to the Spaceport slots in the lower left corner of the System Management screen. There is an icon to select the destination system just to the right of the Spaceport's slots.

Level 1 System Development opens 2 Spaceport slots, level 2 adds another one, and the third level adds 2 more, giving a total of 5 slots for moving population.

The receiving system does not need to have a Spaceport.

The population will move to the designated system in a civilian vessel that is completely defenseless. You can see these on your galactic map if you mouse around after sending one off. In the early game, they follow the same starlanes that your military ships would if you moved them from System A to System B. Later, when tech improves the speed of civilian ships and/or free movement (outside starlanes), they may cut across open space. You have no control over the path they take.

Only move population through (probable) safe paths in order to help ensure they survive. If these civillian ships pass through nodes which an enemy (any faction in cold/hot war status, or pirates) has a 'guard' action active on, they will stop it, and can freely choose to shoot them down for a dust bounty of 300  per destroyed). They usually will do this unless they have a "happy" relation with you (which sometimes happens to cold-war opponents when they demand tribute from you, or have been given gifts).

Conversely, it's easy to decimate pop that you don't want by arranging their flight path to go through hostile systems, or send them to a system of yours that's under attack. Note also that you can eliminate population units by sending them to a destination system; if the system if full, the population units will wait patiently in orbit until there is room for them to inhabit on the planet below. If the system below is vacated, rather than redirecting to another system, these pop units will be deleted.

## Notes & Strategy

* System Development projects/improvements built in a system cannot be scrapped.
* System Developments built in a system by other factions before it was taken over are kept, including their bonuses. To see which the System Development bonuses are really applied to the system, look in the improvement overview in the Star System Management screen.
* Unlocking the System Development projects should have high priority for you since it's great for boosting freshly colonized systems (using Jadonyx for  bonus or Redsang for  bonus). At the same time you get the ability to move population around your empire which is important when having designated population breeding/manufacturing systems.
* Industry and Food boosts are usually the most desirable but actual selection depends on the resources being available in sufficient quantities or being available at all, since only a subset of all the resources is present in a single galaxy.
* Higher level System Developments should be reserved for higher tier resources (if available) to get per  or percentual bonuses. Benthic Gems to fight  penalty are also a good option when going "wide".