I find that my empires often fail due to lack of resources. More specifically, once I've built up a large navy capable of defending an empire that spans more than a handful of systems, I struggle greatly keeping enough minerals on hand to keep all of my ships maintained.
Am I just building too many military ships? I try to build the bare minimum to keep my colonies from revolting, but that often seems inadequate to protect them from hostile empires, so I usually end up with quite a lot of additional military ships.
What are some guidelines that you successful empire builders follow when growing your empire beyond your first handful of systems?
There is a point, mostly mid-game, where it is essential that you restrain yourself from building. I mean anything, not even an auto mine.
As your empire grows, your minerals simply do not. While you could potentially grow forever you still have a finite amount of resources. A saved resource will count as a mined resource
As Thanos once said: Little one, it's simple calculus. This universe is finite, its resources, finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting.
How do I sort it? After my core worlds are safe and stable I adopt what I call the build and replace strategy. A new colony will be provided with all the necessary starting pack set for 10 million people which is build using the existing counterparts on the closest colony which will be replaced once built on your main manufacturing hub. Spaceport, fuel, ordnance, all set to be on. Few construction factories and auto mines to start as well. The intake of colonists will be disabled for a while and the colony simply will have to run itself. Building slowly what it needs on-site and recovering minerals and fuel from nearby systems. Good sectors could have 2 or 3 colonies of these kind and share resources. If you are lucky the Sector Capital may be able to build its own ships in 30 to 50 years, otherwise, it will be provided with the minimum amount needed to avoid unrest.
Exploration is the key and the Galaxy Map a great tool if used properly, I wish it had more options!
Use the galaxy map like you are playing Civilization. You don't put your cities all next to each other but you still want to cover enough ground to ensure territorial defenses. Ultimately you build only where conditions allow you to have access to the right resources.
Bottom line, my guess is that you are lacking in colonization planning. The colonization window in Distant Worlds for instance could be a good starting point for you to get comfortable with what just said.
Thanos words are basically untrue as they do not account for all those resources which are categorized as renewable, fortunately, Aurora's universe works the way Thanos thinks.
