TripLykely

My suggestion a while back was a skill like plumbing. So until it’s unlocked connections function as is, once you have the skill a dupe can/must perform the task.

It isn’t trying to be accurate to real life; simply a video game universe with its own physics and elements that happen to be similar, and in some cases match, real life. Try not to get caught up on what’s inaccurate to real life; there’s lots of examples. Unlike real life the physics in ONI is all but defined and the solutions to the problems presented are simpler than real life. While a true to life physics and engineering sim would be fun, that isn’t what ONI is or was meant to be. edit: I think with copper the discrepancy to real life is a game balancing issue as copper is the starting metal on the starting biome on the starter planet, but I could be wrong

Do you have high pressure? Popped eardrums is a big stressor. Generally stress shouldn’t be an issue unless you play max stress. Maybe pay attention to debuffs the dupes have to identify what’s stressing them out, sounds like good amenities, maybe too many skills?

Again, I think in their current form slugs are a trap for new players, because grooming and breeding slugs seems intuitive. Easy power, many tons of cobalt (where have you seen hundreds btw, I’ve never seen over 100). Personally I like slugs, ONI does a great job with synergy between critters and industry, and I look forward to whatever evolution (morphs preferred most) Klei throws at us. It’s too cliche to angle my position behind ‘what about new players’ which is fair. In reality if a new player ranches and grooms a bunch of slugs thinking it’s easy power and food depleting their cobalt it affects me not. And given Klei’s catalogue they don’t seem to mind punishing new players with their games (part of why I like them)

Absolutely, but a new player is unlikely to a)know cobalt has great properties and should be conserved b)that copper is easily accessible doing the logical early solar setup. Doing solar early may not even be obvious to a new player as they may not realize ready-made glass is easily available. I imagine many new players would over pursue slug ranches for power as they appear an easy solution thus depleting a precious limited resource. Obvious caveat, theres been a lot of talk about slugs and I'm entirely sure Klei has something in the works to improve them (morph, diet, mechanic, something). I like the idea of slugs and look forward to further fleshing out the idea.

You’ve eliminated a lot of a finite resource, metal ore, that’s why slugs get a bad rap. In 200 cycles x #slugs x ore eaten = many tons of ore you will never get back. Do you need all of that ore, maybe or maybe not, depends on play style. On the swamp slugs are a noob trap because the ore they will consume is cobalt, which has really great thermal properties. You have no way to get more cobalt (as of now)

This. Which leads nicely into a Plug Slug morph that turns power into ore. Hard to pick apart the OP, well thought out ideas. We’re still so early in early access I’m hoping a lot of aspects get fleshed out over time (sooner than later, please)

That’s the fun/frustration of ONI. No shame in pulling out a calculator and doing some maths to avoid issues like this in the future. So much thinking is required in this silly pee simulator

Same, 65+ dupes has got to strain the CPU, but I get the fun of playing with that many. Personally I normally do 16 or 32. Anecdotal, but DLC has seemed smoother/faster than vanilla to me

For what it’s worth, I play on a potato of a laptop and can attest to improved performance by managing gases and debris. While my PC never hums late game it’s playable. It actually seems a bit quicker with the DLC than base game for equivalent cycles. Consolidating storage and sweeping the entire map as you go or once mostly cleared helps as will filtering and isolating your gases.

You’re assuredly correct

Bug or not, the default position needs to be changed or this will be a never ending post topic

Because of Mi-Ma this Meep came prepared to live on his own planet, just fartin' around in an atmo suit.

ONI has different points along its learning curve and I think you highlight one of them. You seem to have a good grasp on production chains and knowing what you need to produce for what you want to build utilizing critters and plants as well. In your next run you now know what problems you will encounter and can tweak your playstyle to avoid those issues. Assuming you want to keep this run going, its hard to give specific advice without any visual idea but from what you describe I think TheMule has the right idea and what I'd do. At 400 cycles its safe to assume you have some space somewhere on the map to design the ideal base. As you replace your old systems you can deconstruct the old base. Take your time sketching it out and plan your pipes/wires to avoid spaghetti. If you come up with a system (say main liquid line runs vertical with a bridge at every other floor) and use a general design pattern it's just takes a little planning to prevent a messy base. Very difficult to fix after the fact other than building a new base elsewhere and then deconstructing the old one.

Is your engineer prioritized to build? IIRC you need Mechatronics to build the ST so if your engineer isn’t set to build that would explain it. Hard to say from the image alone