4X space empire builder. Since there will be hundreds planets under player's control I want the planets to be quite simple (no production queue, automated building of infrastructure) and instead go for AI Corporations. There would be like 8 corporations total in your empire (not necessarily all of them from the start) and they produce things (so like 8 production queues total no matter how many planets you have). These corporations would use resources and factories of the planets. You, as the emperor, would grant charters, licences and contracts to these corporations and this way affect them.

Goods & Production

- civilian market (consumer goods - required for people to be happy)

- industrial market (machinery - required for planets to be productive)

- government market (ships, equipment, etc - everything the player needs & orders directly)

So, there is no problem of "wasted production queue", if the player does not order anything corporations will simply pump out consumer goods.

Production capabilities & resources

The player grants charters to corporations (only one corporation can have a charte for a planet), charter is basicly a "monopoly" that corporation has on that planet. All factories on that planet add to the corporation's production capabilities and all resources on that planet belong to that corporation.

In addition each corporation has "base production" so they always can produce some stuff even if they got no charters.

How you buy stuff

You always need only money to pay for things. But the corporations would require resources to deliever. So, on one hand you don't need to worry "OK, I have 5 bricks so I can build this building", you just need money, on the other you will be constantly monitoring corporations if they have what they need. It's less about corporations not being able to deliever (they could always buy resources from shady alien traders or use "resources alchemy", etc) but more about the price they ask for it.

So, you as the emperor make the contract to buy 12 destroyers and the corporation tells you how much it will cost and when it will be delivered (there might be delays if they suddenly lose required resource, it's just a prediction). And then you pay them. Those money goes to the corporation. Most of these money they spend on production but part of the profit goes to "corporation upgrade" like better machinery, unlock of metallurgy and so on. And taxes payed to the emperor :)

Since the player is smarter than AI it probably can abuse the corporation, in such case it might simply go bankrupt :) And the player has one less corportaion to abuse then :) Alternatively the emperor might resort to subsidy a broken corporation or reduction of corporate tax or other sad countermeasures.

Specialization of corporations

Each corporation is like a "hero" in RPGs, they have abilities, specializations, can "level up" and upgrade.

Have I missed/overlooked someting? Something I should add/remove? Other ideas?

OK, I will simplify it (usually when I simplify it ends up better :))

Planets

There is population and factories on planets, new factories are auto built every turn (based on population).

You can grant a "charter" to a corporation, that corporation would then control all factories on that planet; if no charter was granted factories are split evenly among all corporations.

Corporations

There are several corporations (like 5-8), each has exactly *one* shipyard (and one production queue). You can order ships there (and pay the corporation). If you have not ordered anything they produce consumer goods and sell to population (which boosts happiness). How fast/much a corporation can build depends on how many factories they control. What they can build depends on their abilities/upgrades.

Abilities/upgrades of corporations

From time to time corporations would "level up" and get a choice of an ability/upgrade. The player would choose which upgrade they get "CEO of corporation X approaches the Emperor and asks for advice" or something along these line :)

This will allow specialization, unlocking of new production technologies (like an assembly line to produce energy shields) or simple boosts to production (since you can't have everything, or at least not everything at once, high tech corporations would tend to be less productive (they spend their upgrades on unlocking stuff instead of production boosts)).