Faction economy is generated through the payout system that existed before. 

It occurs through a system in which if a faction owns a planet, they gain 30,000 credits per resource point per turn, and 50,000 credits per diplomacy point per turn.

Planets have different diplomacy and resource values depending on what their business is. 

Diplomacy values come from how much a planet is worth in its non-material sense. Take for example, a service economy in the real world. They don’t have a lot of resource base, but they have a lot of financial institutions that make them money. 

Resources are just how much the land and people are worth on a planet. 

The values of a planet can be increased depending on if they sit on a certain hyperlane, if they belong to a certain sector, etc. Furthermore, these values can be changed intrinsically. 

The diplomacy value of a planet can be increased via producing financial economic buildings found in the Financial District. 

Meanwhile, a faction can levy their resources by extracting them, then selling them on the galactic market or using them to construct things internally (thus not needing to spend money buying resources). 

There is a trade-off, however.

Building financial buildings on a planet increases its worth, thus its base diplomacy will rise. This can be dangerous, as if you build too many financial institutions on a planet, they may see themselves as no longer needing to be a member of your faction. As such, make sure to counter this by constructing buildings that increase your influence on the planet.

Meanwhile, mining buildings can create environmental issues that will lower your influence, making your grasp on the planet weaker due to geological or civil unrest. 

There are alternatives to making credits, however. Faction interactions and trade are two big facets.

Check the next section for an explanation.