Printerceptor: Huge Untapped Potential – Multiple Suggestions to Make It Truly Attractive (spoilers inside)

[SamLogan]

The Printerceptor Reboot

Hi everyone,

I really like the whole idea behind the new Printerceptor and its alternate Portal, but right now I feel the feature isn’t living up to its potential.

The items offered are not very stimulating, and the cost being based on Data Banks feels off: by the time a colony can mass-produce Data Banks, you usually already have access to almost everything the Portal sells via rockets and space POIs.

Here's the actual Portal's content :

Outside of very specific map-generation edge cases where a resource is completely missing, this ends up helping only a tiny niche of players.

 

Here's my proposal :

1. Adding tabs and categories that give access to important, underused features

Eggs
This tab keeps the original idea of the feature: a reliable way to buy common critter eggs on demand. It’s mainly there to smooth out RNG and let players stabilise ranching setups without waiting for lucky Portal rolls.

 

Rare Critters
This tab is meant as a complement to the new Flux-o-Matic narrative ruin. The ruin introduces some advanced morphs, but there are still late-game variants and critters that almost nobody ever plays with.

As an example, Gassy Moos are extremely rare in normal play (only about 0.9% of players have ever interacted with them). Unlocking them – and their new evolution – through the Portal would finally let most players try them out. The same logic applies to advanced Shove Vole and Lammoth morphs: technically obtainable via the ruin, but in practice very under-used.

 

Hazardous Critters
This category is for players who intentionally need “pests” that may not exist (or no longer exist) on their asteroid: Morbs, Gnits, Beetiny, etc. It gives an intentional, controlled way to re-introduce germ- or radiation-heavy critters for challenge runs, testing, or specialised ranches.

 

Resources
The Resources tab provides basic but important materials—raw metals, Steel and Glass—without forcing the player to go through the Starmap or heavy refining/ranching chains. It’s a safety valve for unlucky map generations (or one-planetoid playthroughs) where you’re starved of specific ores but still want to progress your base.

 

Rare Resources
This tab is aimed at late-game materials like Super Coolant, Niobium, Fullerene, etc. Instead of requiring a full rocket program and a lot of RNG, the Portal offers a more straightforward but very expensive way to obtain them. The high Gravitas Coupon cost keeps them aspirational, while allowing a much larger portion of the playerbase to actually experiment with these advanced resources and the builds they enable.

 

Artifacts – lets you directly buy existing artifacts instead of relying only on rocket RNG, synergising with the new shelf building.

Ancient Artifacts – completely new, portal-exclusive artifacts with strong or quirky effects, also meant to be displayed on shelves.

 

 

2. Replacing Data Banks with Gravitas Coupons

In my opinion, Data Banks are a very poor fit as a primary currency for the new Portal, while Portal charges are actually a great concept that should absolutely stay as the “key” that unlocks access to the shop.

On Spaced Out! you already need roughly 2000 Data Banks just to finish the tech tree. By the time a colony is producing enough Data Banks to have a surplus, you’ve usually unlocked rockets and reached other planetoids or clusters. At that point you already have natural access to almost everything the new Portal is selling, either through space exploration or geysers. In other words, when you finally have “spare” Data Banks, the Portal mostly duplicates content you’ve already earned.

On top of that, producing Data Banks is extremely heavy compared to the rewards currently offered. You need a plastic chain (even if there are more options now) and, most importantly, either an orbital research station or a Data Extractor–both are late-game, infrastructure-intensive solutions. Spending this hard-earned research currency on a few extra eggs or resources feels very weak, even with my expanded set of more interesting items. It becomes something you do because you can, not because it’s an exciting choice.

My suggestion is to decouple the Portal from Data Banks entirely and instead introduce a new building: the Gravitas Grinder. This machine destroys surplus resources, food or even critters, and in return prints Gravitas Coupons. These coupons are then spent at the Printerceptor shop. This has several advantages:

• The currency is generated from gameplay you already do (overproduction, ranching, map cleanup), not from a research bottleneck.

• It creates meaningful trade-offs: keep resources, or grind them into coupons for powerful rewards.

• It also helps performance, since you are encouraged to destroy and recycle huge stockpiles instead of keeping them forever.

Portal charges still gate access to the shop (you need to intercept a few charges from the classic Printing Pod), but the ongoing economy is driven by Gravitas Coupons rather than Data Banks.

 

a) The G.R.A.V.I.T.A.S. Sink

Illustration only – this sprite is taken from a Steam Workshop mod (ID 3557584850) and is used here purely as a visual example of my idea. It is not an official asset and does not represent the current in-game implementation.

 

b) Recycle your resources in exchange for coupons!

The idea is to add a new building – the G.R.A.V.I.T.A.S. Sink / Grinder – that lets you shred surplus resources, food and even critters to generate Gravitas Coupons. Instead of spending late-game research (Data Banks), you feed this machine with the stuff your colony is already overproducing: excess rock, wasted materials, duplicate eggs, high-tier meals, rare late-game resources, etc.

Each item has a point value based on how rare and advanced it is (common rocks give a trickle of points, refined and rare materials give a lot more). Once enough points are accumulated, the machine prints Gravitas Coupons, which you can then spend at the Printerceptor portal.

This creates a clear gameplay loop:

• you clean up or sacrifice surplus resources,

• you improve performance by destroying huge stockpiles,

• and you unlock powerful or exotic rewards at the Portal with the coupons you’ve earned.

 

 

That’s it for my post, thanks a lot for reading! 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2025 by SamLogan

[Henlikuoth]

Let's hope Klei will implement this. 

[Carib94]

This is indeed quite an interesting idea, I Agree i believe the print receptor should done a  bit more than what it currently is. Just like how you can obtain all critters via egg I believe the morphs eggs should also be including in the egg list but of course they will cost more. 

Also Im surprise no mention of plant mutated seeds, I think that would be a good opportunity for some players to get into plant mutation.

[gigamoi]

While interesting, it's not just a mere story trait you are introducing here, it's an entire game mechanic.

[imazined]

Why did I see the exact same concept two days ago in a video talking about Satisfactory?

 

[SamLogan]

9 minutes ago, imazined said:

Why did I see the exact same concept two days ago in a video talking about Satisfactory?

 

Yes, it's inspired by Satisfactory, but did the game invent all those concepts? I'm not sure that conveyors, automation, etc., were invented by the ONI devs.

You can watch Factorio or RimWorld video also, you will also see some exact concepts are already in game.

Edited November 8, 2025 by SamLogan

[imazined]

2 minutes ago, SamLogan said:

You can watch Factorio or Rime World video also, you will also see some exact concepts are already in game.

Nothing like this exists in Rimworld and I wish Rimworld had some kind of automation or shipping system. 20 labradors aren't the same as a rail based shipping system.

[Shinkarr]

You always want to overproduce everything. So you're not paying anything of value for coupons.

[BakerBob]

While I really appreciate the effort you put into this to flesh out this mechanic, I do have to ask if any of this art was generated through AI means? The gravitas sink image screams AI to me. I do appreciate the creativity put into the mechanic and translating it from satisfactory to ONI but AI art is a major detractor from your idea.

[imazined]

The lower info graphic is 100% made by ChatGPT.

[SamLogan]

On 11/8/2025 at 7:40 PM, BakerBob said:

While I really appreciate the effort you put into this to flesh out this mechanic, I do have to ask if any of this art was generated through AI means? The gravitas sink image screams AI to me. I do appreciate the creativity put into the mechanic and translating it from satisfactory to ONI but AI art is a major detractor from your idea.

Yes, this illustration is IA generated (GPT) but it's only to illustrate my idea instead of a massive text only. As it's not an asset use in a possible mod, I don't see the problem.

Edited November 11, 2025 by SamLogan