With the Tides of Avarice expansion, X4 introduced Closed Loop Production.

Closed loop is an (optional) alternate production method, styled to work with the theme of Riptide Rakers and their recycling economy.

Production here means building station modules and ships/equipment from parts (e.g. building station modules from Hull Parts and Claytronics in build storage).

Most Argon station components, turrets, etc, gained alternate construction “recipes”, using more hull parts and claytronics and omitting things like Field Coils. These items can be built now using “universal” production (the normal recipes), or “closed loop” (the new alternate recipes). Most equipment/modules for other factions do not have closed loop production variants.

Closed Loop production fits well conceptually with the Scrap Recycler and Scrap Processor modules introduced at the same time.

The “loop” part is that you could build a ship, blow it up, salvage it for scrap, turn that scrap into metals and claytronics, then use them to build a new ship. Closed loop, requiring no other inputs.

That said, you can use Closed Loop regardless of whether or not you ever make use of the recycler modules on any station. “Closed Loop Production” is just the name of a choice for the “Production” part.

Production methods

With all DLC, there are now three production methods to choose from:

• Universal: standard production using original “recipes” from X4 Foundations base game
• Closed Loop: alternate “recipes” for most Argon items (added by Tides of Avarice DLC)
• Terran: alternate “recipes” for many items that use only Terran economy components (added by Cradle of Humanity DLC)

You can set a default production method for your empire in Global Orders, and can also set it on a per-station basis in Station settings.

Note: you can freely mix-and-match production across your empire, setting a global default and then overriding it at specific stations.

An example:

Building defense modules on a station generally requires Advanced Electronics, Field Coils, Shield Components and Turret components to assemble the module’s turrets and shields.

Some of those are only produced in low quantities across the galaxy, and can be very hard to source in sufficient quantity until you get your own production of them running.

With Closed Loop set as the build method for your station construction, most Argon turrets and shields will not require any of those components, needing instead additional Claytronics and Hull Parts (which are much easier to source).

Setting

You use/activate Closed Loop for station production (ship building) by going to the station information and choosing Closed Loop as the station default for Production Method.

You use/activate Closed Loop for station construction (station module building) by choosing this in the Station Build screen settings.

You can also specify a global default in the Global Orders screen.