Again, if you don’t own Dyson Sphere Project, you really should be picking it up. Or, don’t, and then you won’t have a bar set so high to disappoint with other games! I’ve completed it a half dozen times now, its really that good.

For the last year or so, the devs have been trying to add PvE content into a procedurally generated 3D game, in a similar vein to Factorio. (There have been a pile of QoL patches along the way, the game is way more intuitive now.) This has been labelled Dark Fog, and came out in early December. I’ve waited a few weeks because a) Steam Sale!!! and b) bug fixes always come after major content. Smart move, let me tell you.

The concept of Dark Fog is actually quite simple in theory, but amazingly complex in practice. In your starting area, the enemy has a starting base on your planet and one in space, with a few more planet-based bases in the system. You don’t have the ability to view other systems, but they are also infected to a degree. Now, the kicker here is that the enemy itself adapts to your progression, and increases its threat based on a set of variables – for the start, it’s power generation. It progressively increases its attacks until you can build enough strength to wipe it out. Which, as a progressively challenging enemy, becomes progressively more difficult to achieve.

In order to defend against these enemies and conversely counterattack, you are giving new items to research (approx 20% more “things”). If you are familiar with that concept, anytime to add a “thing” to a production chain, you are effectively adding a multiplicative factor of complexity. I’m not terribly far into that path now, just started the 3rd research tier, but I’d easily say it’s added what amounts to a sub-game to my regular path, or for those older-school folks, this is a large expansion of content rather than simply DLC. 

In practical terms, this means that not only is the main bus longer, but you’ll need to protect the bus from attack, effectively building defensive walls around it. That’s simple! (says you), until you realize that building the wall needs material to construct, material to continually arm, and importantly, precious power to keep active. The secret sauce here is the Signal Tower, which acts as a planet-wide extender for your relatively short-range missile towers. You’ll need at least 5 missile launchers + enough signal towers to destroy an enemy base, and then you’ll need a geothermal plant (which is mid-tier tech), in order to prevent future incursions. It’s a relatively complicated dance to learn at the start.

Swapping to other planets, you’ll have 3 or more bases to destroy, using a similar setup. Build a missile factory (iron, copper, coal), build a dozen or so missile towers, and extend your Signal Tower network until you take out the base. The higher rank those bases, the more missiles you will need, but more an issue of scale.

And that’s just the planetary portion. The space/hive portion is even more complicated as these bases you’re destroying are feeding an ever growing space fleet. Which effectively puts you against the clock to a) build up enough defensive power to survive, b) build enough offensive power to destroy it and c) not tick them off by accident (don’t attack relays!!) And even the smallest of space ships is the equivalent of 5 planet bases, so you don’t really want any fleet attacks.

My current run is about the mid-way mark, where I’ve cleared out 2 of the 3 planet’s bases, and I’m about to install a interplanetary logistics hub (to get silicon & titanium to my home planet). The steps that follows generally go:

• Clear out planet #3.
• Build a power generation hub with solar panels + batteries (in this case, that’s planet #2)
• Build gas planet harvesters (40)
• Build a Deuterium harvest cycle (planet #2)
• Start terraforming planet #3 to build a planet-wide construction hub.
• Transfer production from planet #1 to planet #3
• Get purple cubes
• Scale up production hub
• Explore other systems for raw / rare materials
• Build Dyson Sphere frame
• Get green cubes
• Fill in Dyson Sphere frame
• Collect solar power
• Final planet scaling
• Get white cubes
• Win!

Somewhere in that, I’ll need to figure out the math for a planetary defensive shield + attack base. I’ll reserve some thoughts for when I hit the later portions of the game, in regards to speed, complexity and difficulty.