There is a break point where nobody saves money because the fed fleet has a hard cap. Of course this is before you get to end game and have stupid amounts of fleet cap available to you. Generally medium fleet contribution should get you your money's worth in fed fleet. Overall I find federations to still be worth it but some need a couple levels ups to become worth it. It was implemented a while back to represent the upkeep of the federation fleet. I checked a random end-game save, and my allies where giving me about 300 total energy from the commercial pacts. No, unless you are a really minor part of your Federation or you have a STACKED Megacorp inside, this is not making up for the -15% energy you lose. Considering the only reason you would EVER sign a Commercial Pact is because a STACKED Megacorp wants to build branch offices, this is at least USING the mechanic. Here's another thing that you get in a Federation that the game doesn't tell you: Free (no influence) Commercial Pacts with ALL Federation Allies. Good news for Martial Alliances in the early game if they can get levels quickly, since fielding a fleet the same size as the Federation with all it's size increasing bonuses would probably cost vastly more than they could afford even without that 15% energy.

Bad news for Trade Leagues, since that is a Federation specifically designed for increasing your economy yet they still get hit with a -15% global energy, and they have nothing to show for it for a few Fed levels except maybe needing one or two fewer amenity buildings in the early game. The good/bad news is that this is universal for all Federations and never changes.

This also reduces energy from non-jobs, like Dysonspheres, Solar Panels, Trade Income, Branch Offices, basically all of that.ĮDIT: Trade may be an exception, alongside commercial pacts, see lower posts. This is post-job output, meaning it is a multiplicative modifier with energy from jobs such as technicians, so a mere +15% job output doesn't negate it. The game basically never tells you this, but being in a Federation incurs a -15% global energy income.

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