When I first saw Integrated Economy I thought it was great, buy it and place your new ships in surrounding systems. Potentially buying more than your fleet support but spreading them between two or three systems. A centrally located shipyard could slap down infantry and PDS in surrounding systems without tying up carriers and Command Counters in shuttle runs.

Then I noticed the card says, "In adjacent activated systems", IOW if I'm reading this right I could only place units in the surrounding systems with CC in them. So if I play the Production Strategy on my first action then I will be unable to place units outside of the activated Space Dock(s)'s system, since I will have no CCs placed yet. Conversely any units I do place in the surrounding systems (either through a later use of PS, or just activating the system) will be unable to be used offensively since they are now in activated systems. Am I reading that right?

That is correct. It's a balance thing, just as one would not be able to use units just produced normally since the system would be activated, units produced by IE have to be placed in already activated systems.

One houserule you may consider, though, is to do something similar to a Tactical Retreat, where if you want to place your units in another system you can activate the system using a CC from your reinforcements during the build.

The reason for the rule is so as not to allow you to do a regular build tactical action in a system and "bypass" the normal restriction of not letting the ships move immediately by placing them in unactivated systems.

gotcha. I'm still digesting the 3rd Ed rules (my previous exposure was first or second at a Con), Looking at the Transfer action, since I'm designating two systems, with IE could I build in one system and post some units in the second system designated by the Transfer Action? I can't attack with them on the same turn, but at the least it allows me to use a centrally located shipyard to rapidly reinforce a border system?

Transfer actions are a good way to take advantage of this tech.

@Sig: I wouldn't use this houserule. More often than not I wanted to reinforce fleets in hot systems with that tech, but when I activated them, I got some PDS shots on the existing fleet. And besides, transfer actions shine for this one

Stefan said:

I'm not saying I'd use it either, I just threw it out there as an option for people. Heck, I don't even know if it would be fair or balanced, to be honest.

Jump over to the wiki and have a look at PsiComa's Shattered Ascension technologies. He made a great change to Integrated Economy!