[Blarg]

Not efficiently, as I remember, especially as the scientists and engineers you have to pay to make and research them cost money too. You have to beat that cost to come out ahead. There are a lot of things you can build that just use up the potential profits you could make building something else and wind up getting you way behind.

I do remember four items stand out in particular for making profit, and a couple for making some profit that are so slow building and not really all that profitable that it just isn't worth it. The two best items are produced very quickly and don't use any hard to renew resources, and two are not quite so profitable but still make good money, but they use up resources that must be gained slowly and haphazardly in battle, and those resources are better used for fighting aliens and powering ships.