As new players may or not know, Supreme Commander FA's resource mechanics are far different from Supreme Commander 2, and any other normal live action strategy. In Supreme Commander 2, resources are only drained if being used to build something, and it is a one time expense, not an over time one.

For some players, (Such as myself.) were very confused with FA's resource mechanics.

I am here to give you tips with your resources, and tell you a few secrets you can use to your advantage.

Everything in FA needs resources to be created. If you have no resources, you will be in deep trouble, and probably be defenseless!

Tip:
"How do I use my resources without draining them entirely?"
Slow down your building. If you're doing many things at once, your resources will drain faster then normal, and may slow down any other productions.

Mass:
Mass is needed to create buildings and anything else really. As mass is a physical resource used to create metal and such. Do you want to create a factory? You're going to need mass!

Energy:
If you want the mass rolling in, you need the energy rolling in! Energy powers everything, it will power shields, engineer's building beams, mass extractors, and a few units who need it constantly to.

Be careful! Remember, if you drain all the energy, you will stall your economy! By the way, lets talk about stalling!

Stall:
Stalling is dangerous, as it is very hard to recover from one, it makes building slow, and forces you to make buildings to recover from it! But, do you want to know how to trigger one? Here is how!

Mass is full, and energy is being drained at a rapid rate, it will soon empty your entire energy storage.

All energy is gone, with no energy, mass can't be produced, making the mass go down too. (If something is being built at the moment, of course.)

With both at 0, you will be forced to create resource buildings just to recover, OR stop whatever you are doing.

Recovery can take around 3 minutes, depending on what you do.
(3 minutes can be the difference between life and death, that is plenty of time for your enemies to build up an army.)

While stalling, units and buildings will become almost impossible to build.


Now that I have covered the basics, lets talk about the resources in detail!

In this section, I will talk about tips and secrets to help you out!

As you may have read about it, Mass is needed to make everything pretty much.

Tip: Upgrade Mass extractors ONE AT A TIME. Do not upgrade three at once! If mass extractors are being upgraded, they drain mass instead of produce!

Secret: Making experimentals and Tech 3 HQ factorys are expensive, a good idea is to minimize drain, you can do this by upgrading 7-8 mass extractors to level 2, remember though, upgrade one at a time.

Tip: Energy is needed to make mass, if you don't have any energy, you won't make any more mass, which will lead to stalling.

Tip: You may think storage is useless, but it could save you from stalling if you're constructing something with your remaining resources.

If you want to do ANYTHING at all, you're going to need Energy, and LOTS of it. Thankfully, I know how to do that, and will teach you as well.

Secret: 16-32 Tech 1 Energy Generators + a Hydrocarbon Plant can support a small base.
Also, constructing Energy Generators next to a building which produces mass, or requires energy to function, will give both building a boost such as:
Less Energy drain.
More Mass production. (If next to Mass Extractors)
More Energy production.
Quicker cooldowns. (Artillery)

Tip: Shields are powered by energy, so if you want your entire base shielded, you will need more then the above.

Tip: Everyone knows that a lot of engineers can make a build go way faster, but be careful! Engineers's assist beams drain resources. Too many, and you could drain too much energy, and possibly stall your economy. Your pro could become a con.

Maybe this guide is not very good for the skilled players, but it will help new players!