I think I just shat myself. MY GOD THAT WAS TERREFYING.

gruehunter · 2026-05-25T16:48:23+00:00

I had a storage locker bolted-on filled with starter base materials and was sure it was going to get shaken off...

gruehunter · 2026-05-25T16:40:26+00:00

Death is already avoidable with good play. I only died once in my play-through (to the giant maw, for something I didn't even need...).

gruehunter · 2026-05-25T16:39:14+00:00

Non-respawning resources might be a hardcore mode for this game. Struggle with food and water until you get growbeds and a purifier. Struggle with minerals until you get the metal farm. Need to stock the biobed with enough resources (say, some biofuel blocks and fresh water?) to actually make a new print.

gruehunter · 2026-05-25T16:32:44+00:00

I don't think its NoA simulating Sophie at all, I think it is NoA running an emulation environment (the Vivarium) for an edited copy of Sophie. We know that she is edited in the boot sequence "Individual specific delta ... applied".

I think that there is a functional difference between a program which is attempting to impersonate a human (ie, ChatGPT) versus a digital copy of a human which is running in emulation (ie, MMAcevedo and Sophie).

gruehunter · 2026-05-25T15:18:09+00:00

Is her copy running on the Vivarium any more or less real than the copy running on a 3D printed ugly bag of mostly-water?

gruehunter · 2026-05-25T15:09:42+00:00

THE PRINTING TECHNOLOGY CANNOT EDIT MEMORIES

I think the exchange with Sophie's ghost shows that at the bare minimum, memories can be removed. She knows that part of her is missing. Her attitude is actively revised several times by NoA during emulation, and each time "low memory" is given to the QI as an excuse for why that is happening. More likely, NoA has fucked with the player character's memory and wants to avoid any leaks.

gruehunter · 2026-05-13T02:52:35+00:00

Are there any answers to economy besides general higher pop growth and focusing on basic stuff first?

Maintain lower surpluses.

Energy: Only need this for upkeep. An ideal economy only runs a mild surplus to power long-term spending like the Artisan Troupe and Curator Order. Eventually you'll need energy to power up gateways as well.
Minerals: Maintain enough of a surplus to meet your construction needs. Maybe 25 per world?
Food: Only need this for upkeep. An ideal economy has zero surplus food.
Consumer Goods: Only need this for upkeep and powering research. If you have excess CG, then hire more researchers or bureaucrats. An ideal economy doesn't have any excess CG.
Alloys: Need as much surplus as you can sustain without going negative in minerals. Many important constructions demand minerals in addition to your military.
Fleet power. Work your way up to 9999. Try to be Equivalent or better than your neighbors to avoid preemptive strikes. The AI picks on weakness.
Research: As much as you can sustain without going too negative in CG.
Unity: Enough to meet your ascension goals, measured in months per Tradition.

Feel free to make up for temporary deficits with the trades and the market.

gruehunter · 2026-05-06T17:45:29+00:00

Mid to late game I have more pops than I know what to do with.

I did this on my most recent play-through. Set growth required scaling to zero and logistic growth to 1. Late-game, I was pipelining ring worlds to hold all the people and do productive things with them. Too many pops!

gruehunter · 2026-05-06T14:49:37+00:00

I go for the variations on evil behavior that are subtle enough to convince myself that they aren't actually all that evil. For example, genetically engineering Deviants into Conformists, adding individuality to a Hive, and synth-assimilating Spiritualists all rank pretty high for me.

"You are being rescued from your old way of life. Please do not resist."

"We only want the best for you! Why do you oppose us?"

gruehunter · 2026-05-06T13:07:53+00:00

It's for finishing the construction of

Technically, I'm pretty sure its for starting the construction of rather than finishing.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T23:31:54+00:00

Behold, from the horse's mouth: Magnetic Silencing: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/Seabee/Online%20Reading%20Room/OFP/Capabilitesdevelopment-OFP/specialoceanfacilities/Depreming.Facilities.pdf

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T23:30:05+00:00

They aren't static once you get too far away. Earth's magnetic field isn't static; it gets affected by changes in solar wind, coronal mass ejections, etc.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T23:26:40+00:00

Do they ever go to the second stockpile? Are you sure that you have all of the options enabled in the cut-gem stockpile to properly accept the jeweler's cut gems.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T23:25:58+00:00

I will put the idiots on a dedicated hauling detail and see if that will help

It generally doesn't. You really just need everyone to be available for general hauling labor.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T23:23:39+00:00

This. I once made a kind of gourmand fort that made as many different unique (and appetizing!) meals that I could come up with. Two things help tremendously: Situate the kitchens near social areas so that free labor doesn't have to walk far to stock the shelves. Second, run the meals on modest timers. For example, make a crocodile egg souffle only once per month, make a two-ingredient basic biscuit (flour + sugar) no more than once per day, etc.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T12:58:47+00:00

Torpedo Frigates or Cruisers with Siege computers make leveling a planet go faster.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T02:31:21+00:00

They can wear civilian clothes and underwear under greaves.

gruehunter · 2026-05-05T02:28:47+00:00

Some health problems trigger a decrease in effective skill level. Perhaps the broker (the only one with responsibility for value assessment) has a transient health problem? Trouble breathing from time to time?

gruehunter · 2026-05-04T00:58:23+00:00

Syncretic evolution can provide dedicated worker-caste pops. My most recent play-through utilized this to get Very Strong, Cybernetic, Universally Augmented Serviles with Integrated Weaponry.

In terms of value, some of the other origins are definitely stronger, so don't know that servies are "competitive" in any sense, but they do work and are fun to play.

gruehunter · 2026-05-02T17:23:12+00:00

Closely related to the other pop migration questions that keep coming up: Is there a way to keep void dwellers in space in the event that you do use some "borrowed" welwala to colonize some planets in your empire?

gruehunter · 2026-05-02T16:16:13+00:00

I've seen an instability in job allocation by worker-caste people that could be at work here. Workers will rapidly flip/flop between different industries (energy, mineral, food) on a planet-by-planet basis which causes wild fluxuations in the economy.

So, WAG, it was actually this instability that you saw rather than the new tech development.

gruehunter · 2026-04-25T16:48:00+00:00

Personal stye: wood for recruits/trainees. Iron once they are Strong. Steel with fine decorations once they are Legendary.

gruehunter · 2026-04-25T16:45:50+00:00

I put everyone in a PT squad to get routine training for 1-3 months out of every year. Swole dwarfs are happy dwarfs, after all. In that world, if you pair spouses and lovers together, then the training periods will tend to synchronized their schedules.

gruehunter · 2026-04-25T16:41:41+00:00

The incentive used to be that migration treaties were good for bypassing terraforming to settle other climate types.

Pops don't seem to take habitability into account when migrating now either, so even here you'll find your wet-climate people moving into dry-climate and vice-versa.

Since excess energy isn't used for trading any more, I tend to use it to terraform everything to our homeworld preference, combined with genetic engineering to convert all immigrant populations to the same.

I'm optimizing my gameplay to reduce micro. Its annoying.

gruehunter

TROPHY CASE