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[Terethall]

Is it possible to get them functioning in vanilla without a catalytic core? If so, my last three playthroughs (I do 1-2 per patch) have made them useless, as I haven't gotten a catalytic core, including after getting several items from the historian and sinking tons of story points there. I'll get like three taps and no catalytic cores.

This seems weird; seems like it should be possible to meet the transplutonic demand with some combo of AI cores, story points, colony growth, good market conditions, etc. etc.

[Wyvern]

I mean... technically-yes? If you toggle on use reserves to cover shortages and pile some transplutonics in, you should be able to get it running long enough to get your extra industry started constructing, at least...

...Of course, then you'll have to deal with the -5 stability penalty for being over industry count once the transplutonics reserves run out, but them's the breaks.

Kindof a pity, overall; if the tap was something you could get running early, it'd be really nice to have an extra industry slot on a size three or four colony. But by the time you can feed the thing, (if you can feed the thing), it doesn't really matter anymore.

[IDA Frigate Captain]

Sadly, transplutonics refining is capped to Colony Size -2, meaning the most base a player can make without the catalytic core is 4 (6-2) + 1 (Alpha AI) + 1 (SP) + 1 (Industrial Planning) = 7.

As remarked above, stockpiling a ton of transplutonics before installing the hypershunt tap would allow it to be run for a while. I wonder if populating a bunch of size 3 worlds with a waystation each would accumulate enough tranplutonics to keep it going with a regular stockpile run (that is, you visit each stockpile world and take their 500 transplutonics kept in the waystation, then dump it all on your hypertap world)?

Also, search more asteroid belts for mining stations. That's where I got 2 of my 3 catalytic converters.

[Amoebka]

You can't even get them functioning with the core. Any trade disruption immediately sends you into -5 stability and huge negatives, and they happen often enough to completely offset the benefits an extra industry would bring.

Third most worthless item in the game, up there with drone replicator and cryoarithmetic engine.

[Kohlenstoff]

Third most worthless item in the game, up there with drone replicator and cryoarithmetic engine.

The cryoarytmetic engine is one of the most valuable items. If you select your system considering this you can be much safer during the beginning of colony growth. And even later on it does nut hurt to have some larger fleets flying around.

[Scorpixel]

You can't even get them functioning with the core. Any trade disruption immediately sends you into -5 stability and huge negatives, and they happen often enough to completely offset the benefits an extra industry would bring.

Third most worthless item in the game, up there with drone replicator and cryoarithmetic engine.

At least the replicator can be put temporarily on colonies you're not certain you can defend in orbit when you've been cheeky and colonised early.
Cryoarithmetic would be much useful if defence fleets actually mattered for hostile activity, better than nothing for hot habitables i guess (if you don't care about the Path).

[Amoebka]

Third most worthless item in the game, up there with drone replicator and cryoarithmetic engine.

The cryoarytmetic engine is one of the most valuable items. If you select your system considering this you can be much safer during the beginning of colony growth. And even later on it does nut hurt to have some larger fleets flying around.

Cryoarithmetic engine increases hostile activity from pathers and increased defence fleets do absolutely nothing to reduce it in any way. Patrols blowing up hostiles doesn't count, you have to do it personally. It only protects against faction expeditions, which are rare and irrelevant in threat compared to the pather doomsday clock.

[Kohlenstoff]

Cryoarithmetic engine increases hostile activity from pathers and increased defence fleets do absolutely nothing to reduce it in any way. Patrols blowing up hostiles doesn't count, you have to do it personally. It only protects against faction expeditions, which are rare and irrelevant in threat compared to the pather doomsday clock.

There are more tactics than yours. For me these have been proven valuable during any playthrough.

Since i have given something to the Pathers i have only Pirates left. And these and any other threads have been never a real problem thanks due this and my decision to invest in military bases and upgrading them to orbital command asap. You can see how i just build the colonies of my last playthrough and how i can leave them alone even at early starting phase.

[Megas]

Taps are worthless to me, other maybe selling it to an enemy planet and force-spawn a Pather cell on their planet.  They give +8 to pather interest (and Pathers only need +7 to spawn a cell on a size 4+ planet).  Also, to meet demand, I need catalytic core and possibly alpha core to boost production.  Maybe AI core to reduce demand too, if that is not bugged.

It only protects against faction expeditions, which are rare and irrelevant in threat compared to the pather doomsday clock.

That is what I use would cryoarithmetic engine for, faction expeditions.  Since I never use AI cores (except in Automated Ships) and only use one item per world, I never get Pather cells on any of my worlds.  With Hostile Activity at zero, faction expeditions are the only thing I need to worry about.  In this release, they have been rare and small, but after about 15 years, they started to grow bigger (sending two fleets instead of one), and I am not sure one world systems are expedition proof long-term.

I would consider an engine for a one-world system with a hot world, if I had nothing more important to use.  That being said, I have a hard time justifying it.  I already use two forges and a synchrotron on three of my five worlds (which I need to feed Military Base or High Command, the big resource hogs), so that leaves two worlds left for other items.  The fullerine spool (from Eventide) is nice, so that probably leaves one world left for whatever random item I find.

Faction expeditions in the past are why I am encouraged to put everything in one system so that they can defend themselves without player intervention (i.e., babysitting).  If not for that, I would colonize wide and have one or two colonies per system, not three or more in one or two systems.


I do agree drone replicator is worthless (aside as possible tribute to Kanta), when it gives +4 to Pather interest.  For it to be useful, the battlestation/star fortress needs to be knocked out before enemy expedition can interact with ground defenses.  Losing the battlestation for months hurts since it provides a huge chunk of stability.  Thus, better to buff fleets with more bases in-system and upgrade the station when needed to stop the fleets before they blow it up.

[SCC]

I have never used a hypershunt tap. It comes too late, even if colonies themselves take too long to take off.

[Nettle]

There is an implication that hypershunts, and possibly the tap itself, might prove vital to the story later on. Maybe the tap will get some unique effects instead/additionally to its current industry limit increase.

[Megas]

There is an implication that hypershunts, and possibly the tap itself, might prove vital to the story later on. Maybe the tap will get some unique effects instead/additionally to its current industry limit increase.

It needs to be overpowered to be worth tolerating +8 to zombie Pather interest and their whack-a-mole game, if player is expected to host the tap to progress the story.  (I expect giving the PK to them will hurt the player in some way in a future release, so I do not want to rely on that like we can today.)

Tap should give +4 interest like everything else.

[Grievous69]

I have never used a hypershunt tap. It comes too late, even if colonies themselves take too long to take off.

Same, I legit even forgot what the effect does.

[Nettle]

It needs to be overpowered to be worth tolerating +8 to zombie Pather interest and their whack-a-mole game, if player is expected to host the tap to progress the story.  (I expect giving the PK to them will hurt the player in some way in a future release, so I do not want to rely on that like we can today.)

Tap should give +4 interest like everything else.

I see people bring up Pather interest much more frequently than I would expect. Is it really that big of a deal? Doesn't seem to me like its worth to hinder your colony performance just for the sake of keeping it low. If push comes to shove, you can always just pay them off.
And I can understand why hypershunt attracts so much LP attention, you are harnessing energy of entire stars after all.

[Megas]

If I use a bunch of items on five size 6 colonies, I may roughly double my income from about 500k to a million.  Even 500k per month is more than enough after I stockpile millions (unless I restore hundreds of large ships).  I do not see the need to optimize colony income to the max if it means more babysitting or chasing things when inconvenient and less doing what I want when I want to.