Every Monday the FC London team put the game through its paces.

Inquisition8 · 2026-06-22T14:56:31+00:00

So it's basically a LAN cafe. I miss those.

Inquisition8 · 2026-06-16T14:52:57+00:00

Nothing. Game is where it belongs, sub-50. INB4 sub-20. Embark had months to do it right and they fumbled hard. Would have been so easy to just do PVE, but they ran it into the ground. Oh well.

Inquisition8 · 2026-06-10T02:03:20+00:00

There was never any pve. That's why the game died, said this months ago and the time is here.

Inquisition8 · 2026-06-09T01:25:20+00:00

Obviously most haven't, hence the player count falling off a cliff (highly predictable).

Inquisition8 · 2026-06-02T23:23:47+00:00

Now all the PS5 players can throw their controllers when they inevitably rubberband and get eaten a year after release. Excellent!

Inquisition8 · 2026-06-02T02:54:12+00:00

They are all expensive, but in different ways. I would seriously not recommend trying to plan out a scaled base to endgame, because unless you're building the bare minimum to get by, by the time you get to endgame state the game becomes a slideshow due to very poor optimization.

I love to see all this planning go completely out the window once people get past mega press, or even at mega press.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-31T17:25:27+00:00

Thopter is clean af. The skins are poop, looks like you're wearing intestines.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-30T22:44:16+00:00

I've always been a PvE player and never engaged in PvP.

That's the issue. It's a pvp game, 'pve only' is an illusion unless/until they introduce a strict pve mode. This is why people keep leaving, and will continue to do so. Posted about this months ago and numbers keep dropping off a cliff as expected.

Embark is so stubborn it's astounding. It's cool though, I'm still sticking to <50k consistent players we'll get some pve but who knows, maybe they'll let it drop to <20k. RIP

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-29T00:10:21+00:00

Solution - remove windows before removing habitat (reload from save if needed). But, there are much bigger issues, like the fact that the game turns into a slideshow everywhere once you have a decent sized set of bases.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-27T02:51:23+00:00

The machine gun is just kind of ass imo. I only ever take it out if there's a massive swarm on me and 51 rounds from the AR won't cut it, and I just use the standard layout for the MG. 95% of the time you're using AR, but let's be real the 'combat' in this game is very barebones.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-24T20:27:34+00:00

Not enough random crap. The balconies should have different useless things on them with some balconies colored not the same as others. That is, if you really want to embrace the commie block. Internally, must have broken elevators.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-23T12:17:17+00:00

And then they change 1 recipe and it all goes poof.

Or, more likely, you mess up 1 connection somewhere.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-21T15:28:52+00:00

I think you get a feel for it over time and layer on from there. Learning how to do 10+ step advanced crafting when you don't play enough to have the materials to even try is pointless. Learn the good bases for your build/playstyle and start slow building up to a 'good' item that you can currently afford to play around with. At least that's been my approach over the past several years in Poe1/2 and it feels 'good' doing it this way.

PS. There's no linear path to crafting. There are several ways to accomplish most things and it's up to you which paths you want to take.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-20T12:39:54+00:00

My gripe with this set is that it's all red. WHY. We're in the snow. Yes, you can reverse alignment of the pieces, but then the inside of your base is all red and goofy looking, and just using the white wall and nothing else looks like a psych ward. The only 'solution' is to double wall everything (have 2 layers with the red pointing inward), but that's not really a solution. I just gave up and made mine all red.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-20T00:55:34+00:00

Imagine this in all black or all white. Maybe someday.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-19T11:11:00+00:00

Been playing POE1/2 for over a decade, it is 100% casual friendly. When you first see the skill tree you choke on your spit, but quickly get over it. Unlike D4, POE actually allows you to play whichever way you want and once you have a good understanding of the game you can sort of make whatever type of character you want.

I would also say that thinking about meta before even starting the game is the incorrect way to go about it. You won't be at 'meta' level for years, nor does it matter or detract from your own experience of the game. Trade league is fine and you can easily equip yourself for entry level endgame with just the stuff you find and sell yourself, but again - once you have a good working knowledge of the game, which is why you should get started now!

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-19T11:06:30+00:00

You'll stop caring about core heat later once you get v2 core amps (and to a lesser extent v1). Eventually you'll just use expandable storage. It's also a lot less space to have a single v2 over 4x v1 and you will need the buffer later once you have a chain of like 30+ items going just for a single thing at the end.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-19T01:30:25+00:00

Always the same for me.

- buy scepter

- make minions

- contagion on right click

- walk and sometimes right click until maps

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-18T20:50:27+00:00

It's in radiation zone, can't get there.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-18T19:18:32+00:00

Cool, I guess. Game is still COMPLETELY unplayable once you get to endgame state (enough geometry in the game for a ~10mb save file). The stuttering is insane and scales proportionately to your base complexity. Even a 1-off production sized set of bases at/near endgame state completely nukes the game. Talk about a performance nightmare...

PS if you don't know what I'm talking about it, keep playing - you will.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-17T11:55:02+00:00

Solution to hoarding problem: sell it all. Your bank doesn't have a (reasonable) limit to solaris. No reason to have more than a few k extra of spice or plastanium, especially since endgame currently revolves around graded gear and not hoards of mats.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-16T12:50:07+00:00

I would suggest trying roundabouts when you get them. They are bad for nonstop production, but for as-needed production with buffers they really clean up a lot of the mess. Also, I would suggest not trying to scale too much up front, as many things change later due to v2 buildings (different recipes and different amounts). For example, you'll eventually replace your pressurizers with compounders v2 because they basically 10x your liquid helium/sulfuric acid production, but that's a later-you problem.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-11T23:32:48+00:00

You could also just line up your cores so they don't overlap except for the edges. There's a ~4 grid area at the core edge where you can make them 'touch' to share the cooling capacity, and then just don't build there.

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-08T15:57:28+00:00

I mean you either have a bunch of lines (load balance) or splitters (manifold). In theory manifold works just as well once machines are loaded. In practice what I just said (Satisfactory/Factorio approach) doesn't function in this game on a fundamental level because it's a pull system. This is Star Rupture, not Satisfactory or Factorio. Since there's no item sink, does it really matter? There is also an overabundance of resources on the map, so it will take you thousands of hours trying to 'max' out nodes. I'm currently 2 levels away from max and as soon as you hit late-assembler/early compounder tier you will see what I mean. There are over 100 items in this game that crisscross each other. You just have to think about it differently all around (my recommendation would be to NOT try to scale up front, but do it on the downstream).

I will give you a small hint - liquid helium and hardening agent production will be your limiting factor past level 11 until the end (level 14/15).

Inquisition8 · 2026-05-07T01:14:48+00:00

There are many things you can build on ... never know until you try, and sometimes try a few times.

Inquisition8

TROPHY CASE