Automation & Quality of Life
SpaceDwarves is an idle game, so it hands you tools to run the boring parts on autopilot while keeping the interesting decisions in your hands. Automation arrives through eight tiers, each unlocked from the Guild Administration research branch and each removing one manual step. The design philosophy: automation unlocks early, and you can always override any automated decision.
The eight automation tiers
| Tier | Name | Unlock | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manual Collect | None (game start) | You tap buildings to collect output. No automation. | Start |
| 2 | Auto-Collect | ga_01 Corporate Charter |
Produced resources move into the Warehouse every tick — no collect tap. | Early |
| 3 | Auto-Transport | ga_02 Logistics Standards + a Cargo Shuttle Dock |
Shuttle routes are established and maintained automatically from stock levels. | Early |
| 4 | Resource Priorities | ga_03 Resource Priority Framework |
You set per-resource target thresholds and overflow behaviour; the system routes to hit them. | Early |
| 5 | Production Balancing | ga_04 Production Balancing |
System auto-allocates workforce and line throughput toward your production goals. | Mid |
| 6 | Auto-Refine / Chain Automation | ga_07 Imperial Logistics |
Full chains run end-to-end (Mine → Refinery → Factory → Assembly); bottlenecks are flagged, not stalled silently. | Mid |
| 7 | Auto-Upgrade Suggestions | ga_08 Upgrade Advisory Engine |
The advisor surfaces the top upgrade recommendations each cycle, approvable with one click. | Late |
| 8 | Full Sector Automation | ga_09 Full Sector Automation |
A designated sector runs hands-free; offline cap rises to 72 h. | Late |
A tier becomes available once its research node (and any required building) is complete. Unlocked tiers can be toggled on or off individually; your “effective automation level” is simply the highest tier currently enabled.
How the key tiers behave
- Auto-Collect clears the manual-collect requirement — output is already in your stockpiles each tick.
- Auto-Transport keeps shuttle routes alive based on resource levels and your resource-priority settings (needs a Cargo Shuttle Dock).
- Resource Priorities flags each resource as
deficit,ok, or an overflow action (stockpile/ export / halt) against your min/max thresholds. - Production Balancing steers workforce and throughput toward a chosen production goal (e.g. maximise Steel), fully visible and overridable.
- Chain Automation runs whole production chains autonomously and toasts you when a chain bottlenecks.
- Upgrade Suggestions generates up to 3 recommendations per cycle
(≈ every 60 s), widened by the
upgradeAdvisorySlotsresearch bonus. - Full Sector Automation marks one whole sector autonomous. The base is 1
automated-sector slot; more slots come from the
automatedSectorSlotsresearch bonus (and can be purchased with Credits).
Automation templates
You can save and re-apply named templates for repeatable setups. Slots are per scope, and VIP raises every limit:
| Template scope | Free slots | VIP slots |
|---|---|---|
| Resource Priority | 3 | 8 |
| Transport | 3 | 8 |
| Production Balance | 2 | 6 |
| Chain Automation | 2 | 6 |
| Expedition Doctrine | 2 | 6 |
Templates let you switch a sector or expedition between saved configurations quickly. See VIP for the full perk list.
Automated Trading
The Automated Trading research (ga_13) powers the
Trade Lodge auto-sell engine:
each Trader-class dwarf assigned to a Trade Lodge runs one auto-sell rule that
sells surplus down to a reserve every 60 s. Auto-sell efficiency rises from
20% of market value (no research) to 100% when the node is maxed.
Quality-of-life systems
Daily-login streak bonus
Logging in on consecutive days builds a streak that grants +5% to all production per day, up to +50%. The bonus is applied at the workforce choke point, so it lifts mining, refining and manufacturing alike. Miss a day and the streak resets.
Offline progression
When you’re away, the game fast-forwards production on load using a diminishing-returns curve:
- The effective offline window follows a 24-hour half-life curve toward a hard cap.
- The base offline cap is 8 hours, extended by Guild Administration research.
- Full Sector Automation (
ga_09) raises the offline cap to its 72-hour ceiling.
Production simply accumulates up to your storage caps during the offline window; wall-clock systems (like the Traveling Merchant) resolve once on load. See the Core Loop for the full offline model.
Overrides, always
Every automated decision is visible and reversible — you can re-allocate workers, re-route shuttles, change recipes, or dismiss a suggestion at any time. Automation is there to remove tedium from solved parts of your empire while you focus on new asteroids, expeditions and research.
Automation slot counts, efficiency curves and offline figures are first-pass / balance-TBD. See Data Tables and the Research Tree for the underlying nodes.