Gone are the days of redirecting your economy on a dime and whim! Apparently test tubes and laboratory AI don't INSTANTLY transform into manufactured goods or shipbuilding... infrastructure is like... a thing?!

So yeah, sorry, the sass is just for my amusement!

The economy model is now a bit more sensible... what you build on the planet will customize it, you can then layer on citizens of various types to further specialize. Furthermore, population = production 1:1 at the moment. Food is universal though... though you get bonuses by placing farms next to cities which create food.

So, you could have a factory planet with cities... that is fed by smaller agro-colonies. But you can't have a research planet suddenly become a factory planet using sliders or wheels. You can try with enough Citizens but that will never be an optimal strategy compared to just focusing on another planet as a factory or eventually building new buildings/replacements.

Furthermore, you should be aware that planets with high population do take a morale hit and efficiency penalty... but keeping these planets happy with buildings is generally inefficient. Its better to just double down and deal with a miserable population. At least for now... we'll see if the next expansion brings in some sort of new penalty for unhappy peoples.