Close the loop on old systems -

[boohboomagoo]

Honestly -  I've played this game 3000 hours.  I love it it's relaxing, I love the cathartic slow build system you've made where the map uncovers and honestly i love building and engineering and maybe even a little of the science!  you've created.  even though i've overcooked many bases by running a few too many machines at once...  I had one thought.

in regard to food production.  The new expansions have done a ton in regard to getting a diverse diet.  I love how each item has been thought out and they all have different needs.  But honestly.  some of them... if not... most of them.  have really unsustainable loops.  waterweed, for example.  needing chlorine as fertilizer?  -  there needs to be some sort of closeable loops for each food production technique.  I wish your team wouldn't favor one or the other - I feel like some have gotten more love than others and i find myself doing say more meal wood / bog blossems / grub fruit -

The more complicated stuff... almost never?  because it's simply too difficult to close all the supply loops to really get the perfect production chain going.  

I HATE to ask you to consider making the game easier... because I know your team is like... the type of people who say... lets unscrew this stuck screw with a knife instead of finding a screwdriver... i'll be fun.... type of people...

But it do think it's worth considering getting loops set up for reasonable production of phosporite/chlorine stone/ slime -

Yes puffts do all of this - but the puffst are slow as heck... and I remember i tried this on a map and i think i had something like 15 or something puffts and the loop was not closing... and it just felt novel... not sustainable.  

If i want to make a colony that only eats vegitarian on an ice planet.... I should be able to do that... and the machines should be added to get the chains set up.  (also not all maps even have pufts?  I think the spaced out dlc ones you have to literally fly them between asteroids) which again... I've played 3000 hours and I think i've done that 1 time thought it was unreasonably hard.... and then i baked my base... 

I think the point is.  with your "mini" DLC pack direction you're going in - please consider closing these loops that have been left open.  I love the sandbox you've created and I'd love to lean into these "luxury" systems you've deveoped.  If I pay for the DLC- I do think you should do us a favor and help me by toggeling down the difficulty a bit in some of your more ornate systems.  it's a trade off / incentive to get the new stuff!   Getting a bunch of new systems that only work on an ice planet... is... well... it's fun - but I'd love for you to consider ways to close the loops left on other planets and make some of the more "advanced" systems.... less complicated when you're using tech from the new expansions.  

[NeoDeusMachina]

I am not sure what you mean by "most" food being difficult to produce in a closed and sustainable way. Imo, all food loops can be closed in a sustainable way. Granted, some require more effort than others. Or did you mean we should be able to do that with buildings and be able to skip ranching entirely?

I have just finished setting up mushroom quiche production for 48 dupes and "all it took" for the more complex fertilizers was 2 puft princes ranched in chlorine for bleach stone production for the waterweed and 5 pufts in pO2 for slime for the mushrooms. They make eggs for each other. The pO2 is from polluted dirt (sublimation station) produced by slightly more than 2 ethanol distillers. Wood + dirt from a single pip ranch. The seeds are fed to breeder pacus for omelette. Polluted water and chlorine from 1 vent of each type that I had on my main asteroid. All plants are domestic, and production can further be optimized with fertiilzer, mutations, or grubgrubs, lowering the number of plants required in your farms.

If you really dont like pufts for bleach stone, there even a new building that does just that. Actually, there are so many different ways of getting the same resources sustainably, it's kind of up to you to pick your preferred way. Again, some ways are less convoluted than others, so it really depends on how much efforts you are willing to put into it.

Food production is typically at the center of my resource chains. I find it really entertaining to figure out how to set it up sustainably, and I generally pick any random food I feel like making in a given playthrough and figure out a way to do that. And you can do that with all of them on pretty much all maps. Exception being -maybe- some vanilla maps if you get unlucky with the starmap.

Just a note on the phosphorite production since you have mentioned it in your post - dreckos produce phosphorite from literally thin air (balm lillies) and other plants. One of the new critters also produce it.

In any case, if you have specific resources or food loops you struggle settting up sustainably, just ask for help. There are a lot of people on the forums who can pitch in and give you ideas on how to do that.