Income development creates an upfront-investment problem

Campaign-development options identify hive and mining worlds as the upgrades needed to increase global income. The problem is recursive: money is required to fund the investments that are supposed to finance later fleet expansion. The fictional mechanic models a recognizable force-generation constraint in which productive infrastructure must be financed before it can sustain a larger fleet. This moment sets up the closing diagnosis that buying ships too early left the campaign starved of resources.