What aspect(s) of the game do you think need to be improved?

[6Havok9]

Hello dupes and dupettes,

I'm here dropping this question regarding things that need to be improved or fixed. It's not about adding more, it's about fixing what's already existing. "There are mods for that" is not allowed!

Imho there are two major offenders:

1) Scheduling system. Probably the weakest aspect of the game. It only gets more annoying as you try to diversify or specialize schedules, dare to try and use the somnium story trait or have to deal with bionics. As your colony grows you end up really not wanting to deal with this system, and if playing spaced out with a decent number of dupes you eventually hate it and want to pull your hair out. It's a complete mess that requires way too much effort to reorganize, rewarding you with nothing but a "thank Pod it's over for now" feeling. Spreadsheets from the last millennium are better in every way. Easy rearrangement of schedules should be a default feature. Else you end up looking like N.T., at least you can get his keepsake now, which might turn out to be useful.

2) Diseases. They are almost always a non issue. The only threatening disease is not even germ based: it's radiation sickness, which is spaced out only and only at the highest difficulty setting. And it's not even listed as a disease on the top left of the UI, you need to look around for dupes with green faces! They could be removed completely and nothing would change, or maybe it would result in a minor FPS improvement. I think they need to be more impactful, including the related duplicant traits.

Much love and cya

Edited December 2, 2025 by 6Havok9

[asurendra]

IMHO decor system needs some love. Stacking tons of decor buildings in great hall isnt how it should work. But its only viable option right now

[Sebastiangperez]

Research Queue, 

[CrutchPunk]

We either need an expanded skill tree... Or another use for skill points once you've bought out the whole tree... (New/Advanced research, maybe?) 

ROOMS! We need more rooms! Why isn't there a Storage room?! and only 1 room dedicated to destressing dupes?! (Why only calming stress relief?! Why not a WRECK ROOM?!) -- I'd love rooms tailired to treating certain stress responses.

Underwater navigation, aka SWIMMING. Either as an ability they already have (no more walking under water), or a skill they can learn/unlock... even a neural vascilater exclusive trait would work.

Refining the job system. Allowing you to specialize the dupes workload without having to tediously adjust schedules AND priorities for each one.

Also, like they said... research queue, and revisit decor/germs systems.

Lastly... Adjusting the priorities/task order to be more intelligent. -- It makes no sense for one dupe to run to the edge of the colony, deliver materials, run away and another dupes runs there to build it. 🙃

[Alexander Block]

Analog sensors, analog logic. Custom chips to pack a lot of logic into a small space. A chip catalog on the account to easily replicate existing chips.

More realistic electrical systems, introducing the concepts of voltage and resistance. The way transformers work now is terrible.

More realistic ecosystems. Wild animals should demand food and reproduce, increasing their population if food is plentiful, or die out if food is scarce. Herbivores eat grass, predators eat herbivores, and grass consumes herbivore excrement. A prehistoric planet is a good step.

[CrutchPunk]

  

1 hour ago, Alexander Block said:

More realistic ecosystems. Wild animals should demand food and reproduce, increasing their population if food is plentiful, or die out if food is scarce. Herbivores eat grass, predators eat herbivores, and grass consumes herbivore excrement. A prehistoric planet is a good step.

Agreed! I wanna see an expansion of the pred/prey system... How could other critters exists that have neither? I feel like the whole critter ecosystem somewhat ignores previously existing critters, and needs a revamp.

[goboking]

I could argue (again) that diseases should have a hard mode that can be toggled on/off, making them - and doctors, by extension - something players looking for a challenge can't ignore.  

I could express my desire (again) for fire and everything we need to detect, suppress, and exploit it - and firefighter hats for our precious little dupes.

I'll instead vote for more world traits.  World traits add a lot of replay value to the game, in my opinion, and I'd like to see some new ones introduced at some point.

[gigamoi]

It's not much but, given the choice, I would improve how the clothing layer interacts with cosmetics. Many, many, MANY blueprints become pointless at the very second you get to craft snazzy suits. I love many of those, yet, rarely get to see them.

 

Also, +1 on both scheduling and "jobs". The fact that you can't reorder schedules makes them hard to manage and I would love to be able to easily copy/paste individual duplicant priorities.

Edited December 3, 2025 by gigamoi

[Carib94]

I agree with most of this thread on improvements in certain aspects such as diseases/germs. Decor, Clothing layers, research que, and Schedules.

How about we buff/upgrade some recreational buildings. I know they recent buff hot tub, sauna, and water cooler for heat resistant for cold, but they are still not the best. Right now the best rec buildings are the jukebot, and arcade. What makes these 2 so great is that they can handle multiple dupes a the same time, short usage time(15 secs), and buffs that last more than 1 cycle.

I personally think that some food/water recreation buildings like the expresso, soda fountain, and most definitely the juicer need their buffs to last longer than 1 cycle. For all that effort to provide the ingredients for the juicer and the buff only last 1 cycle hell no. Also the juicer should have different recipes as well.

Wind tunnel and Hot tub should have less usage time imo I think 60 secs is fine. Beach Chair....that thing usage time should be 60-90 secs.

Lastly I think that when dupes use these buildings and they exceed downtime slots they should stop using the rec buildings and get to work, but their progress on those rec buildings will be saved and next round of downtime they will finish the errand at those buildings.

Just my ideas. 

Edited December 3, 2025 by Carib94

[Sebastiangperez]

16 hours ago, CrutchPunk said:

Refining the job system. Allowing you to specialize the dupes workload without having to tediously adjust schedules AND priorities for each one.

Does anyone remember they implemented a Job Board, was similar to what now is abilities. 

[goboking]

On 12/3/2025 at 7:40 AM, Sebastiangperez said:

Does anyone remember they implemented a Job Board, was similar to what now is abilities. 

I miss that thing.  Not because of its functionality, but aesthetically, it and a water cooler made for a nice break room for my industrious little dupes to catch a breather. 

Edited December 4, 2025 by goboking

[Sebastiangperez]

5 hours ago, goboking said:

I miss that thing.  Not because of it's functionality, but aesthetically, it and a water cooler made for a nice break room for my industrious little dupes to catch a breather. 

I Miss the Old Reservoir design, for some reason the entire design of the game changed maybe because they fire the old designer and bring someone new? i know that you can bring it back with a mod but ... what is the point of that? 

 

Edited December 4, 2025 by Sebastiangperez

[Xaekai]

I think when supplying materials for a building, they should locate the resources as if they were already standing from where the jobsite is, and not where they are currently standing, and then go for those resources! For example, recently I had a leaky oil fissure right next to an ice biome, and I like melting the ice for extra water resources vs the mass loss of mining ice. So I kept redoing a snake of radiant pipes throughout the area, moving it closer as the nearby ice blocks melted. And they kept bringing the steel from halfway across the map even though the floor was already littered with it.

What's the point of the scheduling system if you can't turn off that "nighttime" color filter? When the map darkens at the end of every cycle. Reee. The sun is not visible! The sun was never visible! The game even makes it a point on the checklist to print 20 dupes, but the use for that many would be so the work can go non-stop but I can't really run a 24 hour operation when I have to wait for that annoying thing to go away and the end of every cycle. I consider this a severe accessibility issue, it hurts my eyes and gives me a headache.

Oh! Door access classes, so like "access groups" / door ACLs. So new dupes who don't have good stats yet don't waste their time in the dangerous new workzone out in space. You could set all the relevant doors to no access for "Newbie" group just once, and you'd only have to add the new dupe to that class, and remove them from that class later, rather that changing every single relevant door on the map for every new dupe.

The ability to reorder the overlays bar (and thus their corresponding F-key hotkey shortcuts as well). The fact that liquid pipes and gas pipes are F2 and F5, not adjacent, annoys me.

The materials overlay last state should be saved with the game! I spend a lot of time looking at the gasses overlay, and having to change the setting back every time I load the game is annoying.

You should be able to clickhold drag to reorder the entries in the schedule menu. The schedule menu should be much taller, or an option provided to make it so.

The consumables dialog is quite large, so you should be able to pan around it with middle mouse button hold, like you can with the main view, when you're hovering over it.

I often have situations early game before I have a full atmosuit setup where I have insulated door somewhere dangerous and dupes wouldn't have gotten hurt if they hadn't needed to wait for the door to reopen, if it had just stayed open a few seconds. Or I'm having a bunch of dupes relocate debris on the floor of a room and even though there is lots of traffic they keep missing the door being open just barely and then have to wait again.
You should be able to configure a hang time/delay that the insulated door will stay open before closing once a dupe opens it and goes through.

Edited December 13, 2025 by Xaekai

[Overheal]

An "Enable Manual Use" checkmark on the Automated Storage bin would be nice. 

[Gurgel]

I would like a few more custom scenarios in the workshop.

[Kderosa]

6 hours ago, Gurgel said:

I would like a few more custom scenarios in the workshop.

Yup.  I'd go one step further and say the inner planets (SO) are in need of a reworking to better integrate the new biomes and to provide some challenges for players who can reliably survive a hundred cycles and launch a rocket. The current configuration seems to be skewed to making it easier for beginner players (e.g., the Terra start in SO which has a large subzero cold biome and slush geysers to help beginners dead with the heat.  More experienced players don't need that hand holding.)  I'd like something along the lines of the lab-planets but not necessarily as contrived (i.e,, simply turning the planet sideways).  Similarly, the other inner planets really don't have to be starter biome planet rehashes - the starter biomes really aren't needed post cycle 100-200.  Some of the fun that is sorely missing from the base game is the randomness and surprise of the biomes once you've ventured outside the starting biomes which required that you adapt on the fly.  This is the experience the non-starter inner planets should provide to be, dare I say, less boring and more fresh for intermediate/advanced players.   Any environment can be made suitable for colonization with some insulated tiles and an AT cooling loop.

[Alexander Block]

@KderosaYes, Spaced Out's biggest problem is predictability. The second time, the same start will be much less interesting, because it will be the same. In this regard, even vanilla is better, because the desired geyser can appear in a remote corner of the map, and most of the geysers are random.

[Kderosa]

In addition to the above there are many QOL issues and mid/late game issues that could use improvement, here are the three biggest:

Rockets: The SO rocket system is chock full of annoyances most of which can be fixed by the simple addition of a dupe assessable cargo/storage module. This would free up space in the spacefarer module to carry four dupes on Away Team missions instead of multiple rockets. 5000-7000 kg of built in O2/oxylite storage to feed atmosuits in the starfarer module and 1000 kgs storage of H20/PH20 for bathroom use (this would be suitable for 50 cycle trips) plus space to add some storage bins, storage tiles, and reservoirs.  Improve the permission system to allow Take Only, Load Only, Both, Neither states and tie it in to the star map location sensor to eliminate fiddly micromanagement. Some smaller sized bottle/cannister fillers would be nice too. This simple addition eliminates 95% of rocket fiddliness.

Solid Storage: Please add a Smarter Storage Bin with a low limit sensor like the reservoirs have and perhaps direct conveyor ports for direct feed. The cherry on top would be to improve the permission/lock-out system like above to prevent dupes from take materials without the ability to load and vice-versa. The current priority system doesn't really cut it.

Map Size/Configuration:  Have an option for a bigger universe. Move the temporal tear, the opener, and the regolith planet to this expanded space which shouldn't be reachable without a hydrogen rocket. Make it so the player has to establish an on-going colony on the regolith planet, for example, to reach the tear and properly end the game. In the existing set-up, the end game is too easily attainable in the mid game for experienced players.  Plus, and most importantly, there is hardly any use for the rare resources from the outer planets/POIs currently (vanity builds excluded).  Maybe add some improved buildings that require construction using the rare resources and the advanced industrial goods produced therefrom that are more suitable for this late game use.

50 minutes ago, Alexander Block said:

@KderosaYes, Spaced Out's biggest problem is predictability. The second time, the same start will be much less interesting, because it will be the same. In this regard, even vanilla is better, because the desired geyser can appear in a remote corner of the map, and most of the geysers are random.

Exactly, the exploration element is gone.  The randomness of the procedurally generated worlds is half the fun and requires tactical thinking. Now the predictability of the game creates a bit of a slog which gets boring for a game that takes 1000+ cycles to  play without rushing. You can see this play out with the streamers who largely focus on early game play and hokey constraints (one dupe/cycle, can't use building x, etc.) because the lack of randomness makes colonizing planets other than home planet largely repetitious and as I pointed out above, other than perhaps to get super coolant, the outer planets are very low priority - the game can be easily completed without anything from them.

Edited December 11, 2025 by Kderosa

[Charletrom]

1 hour ago, Alexander Block said:

@KderosaYes, Spaced Out's biggest problem is predictability. The second time, the same start will be much less interesting, because it will be the same. In this regard, even vanilla is better, because the desired geyser can appear in a remote corner of the map, and most of the geysers are random.

I agree. I usually spend weeks creating a custom set of asteroids with more randomness before each new play-through. The process requires a lot of patience and familiarity with the worldgen system.

 

An in-game map editor with the ability to share user-created maps would be so great.

[Alex_D]

I only play vanilla (no Spaced Out). Among other things already mentioned, I'd like to suggest a few things. For example a smaller gas tank. The current one is 5x3 and hold 1000 kg. Maybe a 2x3 and holds 400 kg can fit in smaller rooms or inside smaller contraception.

I'd also like to suggest automation ports for rocket oxidizer and fuel tanks. If the port is not wired, then it's as now. If it's wired and it's green then the rocket module will fill up to the selected amount. If it's red, then the module will not accept any more fuel regardless of limit and any fuel provided will pass by and return.

Some buildings could have a checkbox that says "disallow manual use", example the automatic dispenser. If selected only autosweepers can interact with it, like the autoloaders or receivers.

And finally, I'd like a rocket fuel and oxidizer estimator, like Prof. Oakshell's calculator. I'd like to have a text that tells me something like "for the selected destination and rocket configuration XXX kg of fuel and YYY kg of oxidizer are needed", and if not enough tanks or oxidizers the text can say "there aren't insufficient tanks in current configuration to reach selected destination".

[gigamoi]

14 hours ago, Charletrom said:

I agree. I usually spend weeks creating a custom set of asteroids with more randomness before each new play-through. The process requires a lot of patience and familiarity with the worldgen system.

I do that too. Requires a lot of familiarity with worldgen indeed. I like predictability though. I do that for variability and new content integration. For instance, I like replacing the frozen top layer of SO non-moonlet clusters starting asteroids with FPP content plus feather biome and mix the bottom barren with the garden biome (wetland biome goes wherever march/swamp are). I also replace the minor volcanoes there with the FPP geothermal pump just for fun.

Some content from FPP and PPP synergises well together. A "lab" asteroid playing on unusual but function combos from different packs could be nice.

 

11 hours ago, Alex_D said:

Some buildings could have a checkbox that says "disallow manual use", example the automatic dispenser. If selected only autosweepers can interact with it, like the autoloaders or receivers.

There is definitely a mod for that... but that mod should definitely be added into the game. I can't high prioritize any duplicant operated building without duplicants then prioritizing delivering materials to it despite the fact that, the building being high priority, said delivery have already been automated. So I end up with useless autosweepers where I need them most and no delivery service nor autosweepers where I need them less. That's crazy!

Also, on that topic:

15 hours ago, Kderosa said:

Solid Storage: Please add a Smarter Storage Bin with a low limit sensor like the reservoirs have and perhaps direct conveyor ports for direct feed

Ho yes please.

Edited December 12, 2025 by gigamoi

[Sebastiangperez]

Sweep by type / material / item , there is a mod but, this need to be in the base game.