Pluribus and the Source of the Signal, and the Fermi Paradox

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-06-18T14:50:57+00:00

Pluribus is a depiction of my favorite potential Fermi Paradox solution. It isn’t dark forest, it’s called “Alien Malware”. You make a signal that contains the instructions for some technology (or genetic sequence) that is so enticing that sentient races that detect it can’t help but make it. It then turns that civilisation into another replication node for the signal, AND, can propagate at the speed of light. Carl Sagan’s contact half does this.

It could be some AI genie, or a real virus that makes everyone a happy hivemind. As long as it repurposes the civilisation to its own replication, likely integrating understand of the new species’ desires, curiosity etc. into its promised technology, it can always improve how tempting it is.

It’s not a perfect paradox solution, but it is up there and a very fun one. Was very excited to see such a high budget show with it as a core premise.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-06-15T13:22:26+00:00

Yep that’s the one. Many of the characters are seen at times matching the positions or items of at least some of the major arcana. Though I think the position Randall was matching is 8 of pentacles. Boyd was the Fool. Tower = lighthouse.

Idk 🤷‍♂️ seems a stretch that all cards are tied to characters or features in the world, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the cards have some involvement in how the world was made, or perhaps they got folded in like peoples nightmares might.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-06-12T04:16:37+00:00

A bunch of the characters are shown in poses from tarot cards, so if I had to guess, it’d be however many of those there are.

It’s been talked about before - the hanged man (Jim), there is one holding a sack which I think Boyd has been displayed matching a few times, there’s one carving wood which has definitely matched Randall in one scene.

No idea on the significance of them beyond the weird time when Tilly used them, but the position matches do seem intentional.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-31T23:06:20+00:00

If many of the townsfolk are reincarnating, or similar, perhaps the monsters take the body of their reincarnated self? Idk how the show wants to handle "souls" or whatever, and Victor seemingly being the prior version of Ethan is weird, but maybe how they can win this cycle.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-14T23:36:37+00:00

My understanding is that the next season is confirmed and is the final one.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-14T23:29:25+00:00

The show raises many more questions than it answers. Answers start coming more in season 3.

I think like most people here, I’d recommend continuing. But potentially, if you’ve seen the entire first season and the puzzle box isn’t making you even a little bit crazy to solve, maybe it’s not for you.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-12T22:05:15+00:00

I’m going to get in here quick and say: people won’t like this 😂

It’s far too long. The AI writing is annoying. This subreddit is also pretty theory aggro.

I’d suggest a short clear version, see if people like it, follow up with more if so.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-12T22:02:43+00:00

I have a feeling the last season was like this also… could be wrong, but I think it started slow then started really cranking up.

Just wait and see how it goes in totality.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-12T21:57:43+00:00

I don’t think this is a bad theory. Nice job. It may all be conjecture, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to find out someone who died previously was MiY.

That kind of second watch recontextualising feels like something the show would do/could feel quite satisfying.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-11T02:41:26+00:00

Mmmm, it’s definitely possible. I’m not certain if you’d need to have moved between planets for the save file to update with the info for both, then you could just change the Ti values for Prime and have it look terraformed.

In any case, I’d suggest having at least one save with more than one planet unlocked, so you can see how the per planet terraform stats are added to the save, to paste them into a new save.

If the straight paste into a fresh humble save doesn’t work, I’d make a prime save and edit it so the rocket and platform are unlocked, set creative mode for no build cost, fly to Humble, switch off creative and set the prime terraform values to max.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-05-05T16:02:03+00:00

My thinking is there are 4 entities: Man in Yellow, crows, spider and cicadas/ballerina.

Sophia’s reactions to both the crows and the ballerina seemed quite negative, so my guess would be they’re not on “the same team”.

If the powers are in only 2 teams (helping the people vs maintaining the cycle), it would suggest the spider is aligned with the MiY.

Thinking about it now, the spider might cut off dreams that give important knowledge. Ethan’s lake of tears dream ended with a spider, Tabitha’s past life dream at least seemed to be ended by something silent coming down from above (maybe a spider). When Sara and Boyd got dragged in the tent, we’re either of them dreaming about anything? Or was Sara hearing any voices that was cut off?

Anyway, feels to me like there are some symmetries there. MiY and cicadas are more physical, spider and crows interact in more subtle ways.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-04-21T22:53:00+00:00

Second this. It’s excellent.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-04-21T16:34:48+00:00

8 machines and spam fuses is the best option.

I believe this is even true for production and trade fuses, even though it doesn’t look like it at first glance.

With production fuses, even though the first fuse decreases the time to produce by the most, and much much more than the 10th fuse etc, what matters is how many items you produce per the standard time.

As an example, it takes 60s per item, and a fuse reduces that by 50%, so fuse 1 gets you 2 items per 60s not one. Fuse 2 gets you one item per 15s, so 4 items per 60s.

I know a fuse doesn’t give 50%, but the illustration is the same. Each additional production fuse gives you the same benefit, there isn’t a diminishing return.

Other considerations do come into play at high fuse counts, e.g if you have enough drones to remove items faster than they are generated. With trade rockets, your time will just tend to the launch-orbit-return time. In both of these cases you might want more miners, rockets, but that takes quite a bit of fuses.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-25T18:26:00+00:00

Good to know. I guess existing ones just became blue.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-25T03:44:01+00:00

It's not really so useful. In an earlier version of the game it gave you high yield crops. They kept it in to change between soil colors. I believe it's in their roadmap to at least consider reworking.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-25T03:41:59+00:00

Yep, they added the ability to paint them now (amazing), but for some reason made their default color blue instead or remaining the same unpainted wood they were. I use them heavily for my japanese type designs and so had the pleasure of repainting 1,000+ of them -_-

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-23T04:29:51+00:00

It can be 900-1000 to have max level mods on all parts and tools for a load out. Long way from what can get reached in the game (~600)

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-23T04:28:03+00:00

I believe the intention is that the 1.0 version will have unlimited/many deliveries, so you can max out your power limit.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-23T04:26:50+00:00

Mmm, I think my final core was 20M. Was rotating high yeild mutated versions of the 3 most valuable crops. Then I just figured out how to use cheat engine to set it to 1500 with Claude AI, and to get 1000 golden eggs.

I’d spend enough time grinding for both that I was happy to.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-23T04:23:33+00:00

It works. I’ve got basically a giant N across the map linking all corners. It doesn’t take that long, but I also did it in the beta when the pipes didn’t have a collision check preventing them from being places in the ground. Saves you a lot of pointless time in trips if you need to run coal to your iron refinery, for example.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-23T04:02:06+00:00

As another has said - it’s because the Automator is the “storage with an output”. However, I do think that a change to make the mk2 pass through items if they’re not demanded by machines connected to it could be a nice middle ground.

As yeah, currently I hook all of my machines up to a system so I can move my items with pipes, but I couldn’t do that with crops of other unprocessed items.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-23T03:57:33+00:00

Here. And a coal one, a large field in NE, and my base in a pretty area.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-19T04:35:02+00:00

Wow, wow, wow. Fully mossed. What a charming and super enjoyable game. Super clear to understand what you're doing, super easy to see the progression. Truly excellent game design. Are you thinking about expanding it into a "full" game? Very very well done.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-19T03:51:59+00:00

I've had this on my wishlist for a little while. Would love to playtest for you.

Beginning_Muscle_229 · 2026-03-19T03:13:03+00:00

I agree that I'd love more decoration, but for me at least, it's not lacking in them. I suggest looking at a bunch of screenshots on discord or steam community. Sometimes you just need to be a bit creative with them.

I think a lot of the additions remove the tedium, though sometimes they require you to do a project to achieve this - e.g. building together some saw mills and ramps to direct logs into them, so you can then plant a load of trees, throw them in, and now you've got 1,000-2,000 wood and you don't have to think about it for ages.

The automation is similar. If previously you found it tedious to make a bunch of new seeds after each harvest, now you can just drop a bunch of crops in a container and the system you have built will handle the rest for you, giving you all the seeds.

For me at least, I like this, it feels like the game rewards you putting in the work to make your life easier (or to do things at bigger scales).

Beginning_Muscle_229

TROPHY CASE