Refined materials and maintenance capacity

Refined materials and maintenance capacity are two of the resources that limit building in Star Wars: Rebellion. Refined materials are consumed when something is built, while maintenance capacity is a pool that supports everything already built. Both depend on mines and refineries.

Raw and refined materials

Mines draw raw materials from a system, and refineries convert them into refined materials. Every facility, ship, troop or Special Forces unit needs refined materials to produce. They are drawn from the available supply as the construction yard, training facility or shipyard needs them. If the supply is too small, building slows until there is enough, and once a unit is finished the materials spent on it are used up.

Building either a mine or a refinery takes 20 units of refined materials. Each refinery can process the output of one mine that the player controls, wherever that mine is, and the two need not share a system. The manual therefore calls a one-to-one ratio of mines to refineries the best use of resources. Processing is slower on a system where popular support for the player is low.

Maintenance capacity

Maintenance capacity measures the ability to support all of a side's units, such as with fuel, food, ammunition and spare parts. If capacity runs short, some units must be removed.

Raw and refined materials flow in every day, but maintenance capacity is a fixed pool. Each mine and refinery pair adds a one-time 50 units to it, and each unit, facility or ship takes a one-time amount out. The units are withdrawn as soon as the build order is given, and the maintenance monitor shows the unused total. Mines and refineries are the exceptions: they need no maintenance.

• When several units are ordered at once, the maintenance for all of them is deducted at the time of the order.
• Stopping construction returns the maintenance the project was using, and so does starting a new project in its place.
• Scrapping a facility, ship or troop returns its maintenance and some of its refined materials.
• If capacity runs too low, nothing new can be built except mines and refineries, which still need refined materials. If it falls below zero, facilities, troops or ships start to be scrapped. When capacity cannot cover the player's ships, squadrons, troops and facilities, the game itself starts choosing what to scrap.
• The agent droid reports when a build order exceeds the available capacity.

Monitors and management

At the top of the Command Center, three monitors show the raw materials waiting to be refined, the refined materials on hand, and the unallocated maintenance capacity. The manual says the raw materials figure ideally stays low, which means material is being refined as fast as it is mined.

The agent's Manage Production option places new mines and refineries wherever an energy slot and a raw-material slot are free, starting with those nearest the construction yards. It works to balance the two and to maximize maintenance points, but does not scrap anything to do so. It keeps working until no slots remain or it is switched off.