Page 2 • Dyson Sphere Program • Gaming • Eurogamer.net

Deleted user 18 March 2021 11:17:25

the items i'm finding that are big in demand are iron, copper and coal.

I have 2 belts of iron plates running down my bus with a separate run off to churn our loads of rings which is fed back into the bus and onwards to create magnetic coil rings. 2 belts of copper plate

I have a whole sperate area for churning coal into energetic carbon because damn this shit is popular. i did have loads of power stations munching through coal but i'm moving over to a 'solar belt' due to the carbon demand.

I've finally got graphene setup as well and i'm starting diamonds, both need carbon hence my transition to going full 'gree' with solar-wind

I can get lost in this game for hours

Edited by crashVoodoo at 11:24:22 18-03-2021

Deleted user 20 March 2021 12:15:38

Finally got yellow science up and running ...

Edited by crashVoodoo at 12:16:04 20-03-2021

neems 20 Mar 2021 14:04:16 5,635 posts
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Nice, your set-up ( what I can see of it) looks a lot cleaner than mine. Mine looks like an explosion in several pipe factories.

Deleted user 20 March 2021 15:10:39

The organisation is coming together but my initial setup looks like a snake lair. Now that I've unlocked planetary logistics towers, the one in the middle there, Im dotting them all over. I'm now going to start abusing them I think because they make things loads easier.

I have small mining ops all over the globe where I mine the raw materials and dump them into a station that are set to supply.

I can then just plop down a new station, demand ore, pipe off to a battery of smelters and then feed the output back into the tower which is them made available through my.logistics network. I love it

Now I have the yellows, I'm going intergalactic with my logistics.

neems 20 Mar 2021 17:00:33 5,635 posts
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I've skipped planetary logistics and jumped straight to interplanetary, although I didn't initially notice that the ships only have capacity for 200 resources. Something tells me I'll need more than three ships.

Benno 20 Mar 2021 19:39:22 11,854 posts
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Tried the first 20 minutes of this and it felt a bit too much like work. Does this pass at any point? I am new to this genre (factorio style games) so maybe they're just not for me

Deleted user 20 March 2021 19:42:23

Oddly enough the idea is such that you automate like a boss so you don't have to work for it.

If you find yourself running all over all the time then you're doing something wrong.

Your starter setup will probably resemble a jumbled up snakey mess but after you get head around it you should have a nice pipeline of stuff where you need/want it for easy pickup

Edited by crashVoodoo at 19:50:43 20-03-2021

neems 20 Mar 2021 19:52:25 5,635 posts
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I do an awful lot of micro management, but really the idea is that you set up everything to maximise efficiency, first locally, then globally, then interplanetary. I gather you can travel to other star systems? The task is so mammoth that automation is a must.

I'm loving it personally.

Deleted user 20 March 2021 20:15:32

Yeah I've got 2 massive mining operations on a local lava moon and have to keep nipping over for the titanium and silicon.

Got one more trip to drop off the interstellar station and shuttles and then that's it. Deliveries inbound.

Edited by crashVoodoo at 20:15:58 20-03-2021

RaymondLuxuryYacht 20 Mar 2021 22:58:04 464 posts
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OK, it's clicked, I am addicted! Have spent pretty much all of today tinkering with this, fell out with Mrs RLY because I spent so long playing it while I was supposed to be doing jobs or something. Thanks chaps for the encouragement, it is definitely worth getting over the initial hump. Only got as far as blue matrices and things are looking very snakey to say the least, but damn me this drags you back in.

Flying_Pig 21 Mar 2021 11:51:34 16,956 posts
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I bought this yesterday and struggled for the first hour or so - constantly having to use my robot to collect resources and craft materials (same as Benno by the sounds of it) but after watching a few videos last night I now get how this game is meant to be played - the focus seeming to be on maximising automation for the materials you need.

I think the game is a but thin on explain this and also how to get the conveyors and selectors working.

But now I get it, I'm itching to get back in

neems 21 Mar 2021 12:55:09 5,635 posts
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Wait until you need Titanium.

Deleted user 21 March 2021 19:10:13

Yeah titanium and silicon are the first real hurdles.

I've spent an ungodly amount of time on this today. I now have full interstellar logistics shuttling titanium and silicon in.

I've restarted my building again from the equator section as it's 16 squares wide and has scope for expansion. 6x6 creating iron ingots and dumping them into a planetary logistics tower, back out and into 6x3 creating steel and then again back into the tower.

Repeated this for copper, rings, magnetic rings, gears, and motors. All this shit is now requestable anywhere on the planet. I have so much more I want to do.

RaymondLuxuryYacht 21 Mar 2021 19:18:29 464 posts
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What stage do you get off the first planet? I've just researched red matrices, and am currently using vast amounts of resources trying to squeeze a few morsels of silicon out of stone.

Flying_Pig 21 Mar 2021 19:50:05 16,956 posts
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Totally hooked now. I've only just got to the blue block stage, but am unlocking so many extra components. Unfortunately my existing logistics and manufacturing set up didn't really account for further expansion, so the next step might be tricky...

Shame I've got work tomorrow

Deleted user 21 March 2021 20:05:38

Drive engine upgrades are what you need.

DE1 unlocks flight on same planet.
DE2 unlocks sail mode so you can exit the atmosphere and 'sail' to other objects in orbit of the local star.

I haven't gone beyond that yet, since my research has slowed down due to my refined oil setup being inadequate now and needs a rebuild.

Lukree 21 Mar 2021 20:18:38 583 posts
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Btw do not transport pure titanium - process it and then deliver it processed!

RaymondLuxuryYacht 21 Mar 2021 20:25:30 464 posts
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@crashVoodoo Thanks - got DE1, will work towards DE2 now. If, that is, I don't succumb to what I always do with this type of game - endlessly restarting and replaying the early game trying to get it 'just right', to the point of never actually seeing the mid- or end- game...

Deleted user 21 March 2021 20:27:59

@RaymondLuxuryYacht yeah don't do that. The started planet is just to get your bearings, feel free to bin the planet off and continue elsewhere and then come back and bulldoze your original mess. That is currently what I'm doing except on the other hemisphere :-)

I think the only time you'll get it just right is when you gone past the early stages into mid/late game and you understand the scale at which stuff has to be built to.

Edited by crashVoodoo at 20:38:13 21-03-2021

Deleted user 21 March 2021 20:30:48

Lukree wrote:
Btw do not transport pure titanium - process it and then deliver it processed!

Same with silicon. Additionally if they're substantial setups, just lob down a logistics tower and shuttle ore to it when the veins are dry. This is what I've done with my new iron and copper setups.

Edited by crashVoodoo at 20:34:07 21-03-2021

neems 21 Mar 2021 21:43:49 5,635 posts
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crashVoodoo wrote:

Lukree wrote:
Btw do not transport pure titanium - process it and then deliver it processed!
Same with silicon. Additionally if they're substantial setups, just lob down a logistics tower and shuttle ore to it when the veins are dry. This is what I've done with my new iron and copper setups.

Yeah this occurred to me after I started shipping ore 😀

I am currently shipping both but I will sort it at some point, I have bigger fish to fry.

Deleted user 22 March 2021 00:18:12

discovered a bit of a game changer with the energy exchanger & accumulators. they're giant duracell rechargable setups.

i've got rid of ALL of my windmills and my solar belt on my home planet and replaced it with 3 energy exchangers at one of my poles that discharge the accumulators (essentially batteries) into my grid.

i've re-created the solar belt on my lava planet connected to 4 energy exchangers at a pole that charge the accumulators. this planet is going to be renamed to energiser moon

both ends are hooked to an interplanetary logistic tower (ILT i'm sick of typing it), the lava one is demanding empty batteries to charge them and the home planet is demanding full batteries.

when i finally progress onto a new planet i can just drop in with an ILT and some exchangers and just ship in a fuckton of batteries as required.

Flying_Pig 22 Mar 2021 08:23:49 16,956 posts
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I thought I'd have a quick half an hour on this last night just before 11pm. Suddenly 2 hours had passed...

At least I've unlocked the red cubes - I just need to build the infrastructure to make them now.

Is it also worth expanding my blue cube manufacturing or is that now broadly redundant?

Scimarad 22 Mar 2021 08:26:13 9,964 posts
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@crashVoodoo

I think it goes without saying that you have to ELO the top of your planet, given the option

Deleted user 22 March 2021 11:10:32

So much i want to do in this game. Everywhere I look in my initial setup i just hampered by the lack of space that I left myself and I have snaking belts going all over. I tried to recreate a main bus thing like I had in factorio but that is just not efficient enough for the scale required here.

I've just brought electronic chips, the next blue ones and processors back online 'at scale' and pumped them into a tower to shuttle everywhere.

Going to ramp up the Duracell production as I only have 400 and they took ages to craft in my little robot replicator. I want a surplus if charged ones to be swapping with the empty ones and not just 'in transit'

neems 22 Mar 2021 16:12:00 5,635 posts
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I am investigating the possibilities of infinite hydrogen generation, both for ease of red matrix production / research but also power. I only just discovered that you can burn hydrogen in a thermal generator, and you can daisy chain the generators together and skip the conveyor belt.

Looking at deutorium rods for long term though, seem very powerful once you get the supply up and running.

Deleted user 22 March 2021 19:54:59

I recommend hydrogen rods as a good easy power source for the mecha as well. It burns really slowly but the charge rate is great. Have a few as a backup and you easily forget that power is a thing.

Hydrogen + titanium ingots

RaymondLuxuryYacht 22 Mar 2021 20:09:24 464 posts
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OK so I restarted, OCD got the better of me again... at least now I have a small but super-neat iron ore to iron ingots layout...

Flying_Pig 22 Mar 2021 20:27:23 16,956 posts
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I got my red cube production up and running nicely but couldn't figure out why my red cube research wasn't working like my blue one.

I bit of googling and I've realised that for research which required red and blue cubes needs for them to be red into the same matrix thing.... Unfortunately my blue cube production is miles away from my red one -_-

I think I also need to consolidate my item storage into one location. Things are ok for the early (pre-blue cube) stuff, but since then my production is much more adhoc and dotted around everywhere.

There's a part of me which is also itching bin the whole lot and start again, but instead I'm just promising myself my next planet will be tidier...

Deleted user 22 March 2021 23:35:09

You need matrix labs to create the jelly cubes and then another set of labs to actually consume them for the research hashing.

I have 36 for creation, 12 each of blue, red and yellow jellies dotted in various places. These are then shuttled to one of the poles where I have another 18 (as seen in my screenshot) to consume them for research purposes.

Ok the topic of restarting, just start using the other hemisphere of your home planet if you need to. Transition your old setup to new locations and slowly erase and rebuild new infrastructure.

Edited by crashVoodoo at 23:38:23 22-03-2021

Dyson Sphere Program • Page 2