Adding an ∞ queue option would awesome for things like rigs.
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We have had this suggestion in the past and usually replied that we don’t want to fully automate the production queues.
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Yes, limited production queues very much suck especially when you have 5+ of the same production. It should be at least 10 queues even if not fully automated
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Could you tell us more about why you are opposed to some sort of looping production queues?
Because, I can tell you, logging in just to push a button is not fun. It’s not what keeps me logged in. What keeps me logged in is looking at the market, deciding what to price things I’m putting up for sale, figuring where my ships need to go next, scouting planets I might establish a base on one day…
Clicking the same orders on my PROD tiles that I did yesterday is not fun, and makes me want to not play. No one wants paperwork as a game.
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You’re making solid points @777isHARDCORE! The thing we don’t want is to allow for this from the very start of the game. At the beginning we want players to get used to regularly checking in to see what happened. Also, very early on it actually means something when your first few orders finish, you can sell something etc. So you actually (hopefully) look forward to coming back.
It’s at the veteran player stage where this becomes annoying, cause you’re more concerned with macro strategy and less with individual orders. Also at that point you’ll - like you explained - probably like the game enough already to come back for other reasons anyways.
That’s why it seems to me that this perpetual production option should not just be a simple quality-of-life feature but actually be part of the game and tied to your progress as a player somehow. For example, it could be unlocked via constructing a (relatively expansive) administrative building or something.
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OK, I follow the thinking now, thanks for explaining! Pushing the button early on did feel rewarding, I’m not too veteran yet to have completely forgotten heh.
Some sort of unlock sounds reasonable. I don’t like the idea of having to commit (already constrained) plot area to unlock it, but what about making buildings upgradable? You construct some material (PAM: Production Automation Machinery?), and can somehow apply it to a building on a planet, allowing the building to loop a single recipe. The material is consumed, but it persists on the building until demolished. If all buildings in a line have this upgrade, you can also loop the queue (allowing for more complicated ratios of loops).
This would require I imagine some considerable work (no building by building upgrades now, right? plus new UI to manage this upgrading), so two simpler ideas:
- Tie the unlock to some universal progress metric. Once you hit 1,000,000 Total Equity at the end of a Period, for example, all looping is unlocked for the company. While I might plug my thread about why this won’t be an even standard for all players, it’s good enough.
- Could tie it to number of experts obtained. Obviously, more than 2, but 3 or 4 wouldn’t be unreasonable. Could even make it tiered: single building loop at 3, whole production line at 4? Only downside is often its that one or two RIGs I have powering several FRMs that I want to automate, and the experts don’t come fast.
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What if the repeating production queue is enabled based on the number of bases you have? As an example, when you open your third base, it becomes enabled?
To me, when the management of production lines starts to become problematic and “work” is driven by the growth in bases. Especially when some of those bases are just resource faucets.
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According to my oppinion automisation is a must. I would suggest to make infrastructural buildings and supporting products available, which are “expensive enough” if you are a newbie, but opens opportunities for automisation later on all level of gameplay as if you wish to invest and you have the money.
For example:
- Data analytics center
- Advanced production optimisation
- Robotics development center
- AI-managed operation
etc…
…whatever, which allows to automatise more and more production management and develop your supply chain. By upgrading those buildings, or buying those products (for example robotics) would open further options, of automisaton or like managing 1 base, 2 bases, 3 bases etc. from one headquarter base… you get the idea.
I am convinced you need to allow automisation at some extent, or the game will never advance to complex industry management on higher layers as players will quit due to annoyance. I will play a game until the point it does not feel like real work, and I can focus on the strategic elements.
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What you’re describing sounds more like a way to trade one type of consumable for another. If I’m using robotics to produce goods, I don’t need those pioneers anymore, right?
What we’re asking for here doesn’t require anything fancy from an in-game perspective. A hand-written sign on the wall saying “Keep mining FEO” would suffice. 
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Hear, hear!
First, I love this game, but at the moment there are three “chores” in my opinion:
(1) Renewing production queues (each day for me)
(2) Rebuilding all buildings each or every second month to keep the “building condition” high.
(3) Buying supplies for everything, basic/luxury consumables (this is not so much of chore though, more part of the game)
If you remove (1) by having rotating queues you still have to manage (2) and (3) to have your production going, as well as the things 777isHARDCORE mentioned in an above post, I do not think having rotating queues would automate too much, just my two cents.
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We decided to implement repair functionality but we cannot promise if it will make it into the Populous release or rather in the maintenance release after that.
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Cool, that’s good to know, would make things a bit easier.
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That’s terrific!
But… I would trade repair for queue looping any day, all day. 
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