History VideoGame / DysonSphereProgram

** In the early game, you can only get Hydrogen as a by-product of oil cracking, with crude oil turning into two refined fuel and one hydrogen for every unit cracked. When you first unlock oil processing, you'll need an obscene amount of hydrogen to produce red science cubes, and oil cracking isn't efficient enough to produce the amount of hydrogen you need to research new technologies. Once you unlock X-Ray Cracking, however, you can take the products of oil cracking and feed them right back into a refinery: one hydrogen and two refined fuel turns into three hydrogen and one energetic graphite, which just happens to be the ''other'' ingredient for red science. This requires a lot of oil refineries, space, and general setup, but will generally serve well until you need gold science (which requires refined fuel products like plastic and organic crystals). Once you have gold science, however, you're ready to unlock...

** Mini Fusion Power Plants. They only run on Deuteron Rods, which require 20 Deuterium, 1 Super-Magnetic Ring, and 1 Titanium Alloy to produce. Building Super-Magnetic Rings is already production-intensive[[note]]Super-Magnetic Rings require two intermediary products, which both require a ''lot'' of Electromagnets[[/note]], and Titanium Alloy isn't much better[[note]]Titanium Alloy needs Titanium Ore, which do not naturally occur on your starting planet, as well as Steel, which is relatively easy to produce, and Sulfuric Acid, which is ''not'', requiring Stone Ore, Refined Fuel and Water in large amounts[[/note]], but the worst is Deuterium, which requires either Fractionaters for a 1% chance to turn Hydrogen into Deuterium, a nearby-ish Gas Giant that produces Deuterium via Orbital Collectors, or Miniature Particle Accelerators which are ''extremely'' energy-hungry. But if you can automate the production of Deuteron Fuel Rods, these power plants will ''vastly'' outpace the energy production of anything else you have available, even a Dyson Swarm[[note]]Unless there's a ''lot'' of sails in there, and enough Ray Receivers to channel its power[[/note]]. The Artificial Sun is more complicated to build and fuel, requiring antimatter fuel fods, meaning that once you have enough of a production capacity for Deuteron Fuel Rods, they'll become your go-to method of energy production.

** "I Forgot About That" commemorates your smart decision to build a wind turbine on a planet with no atmosphere.

* ProceduralGeneration: A seed-based system is used to procedurally generate clusters of up to 64 stellar objects (stars and black holes) to play in. So far, the number of stars and the amount of available resources can be adjusted, with more options likely to be introduced as development continues. As of time of writing, seeds can range from 00000000 to 99999999, which means that 100 million different clusters can be generated. [[https://dsp-wiki.com/Starting_Seeds This site]] provides a list of noteworthy seeds that players have found, including a list of thirteen seeds that will generate clusters with ten O-Type stars if set to 64 star systems in the cluster.

** Fractionator loops. The Fractionator takes in hydrogen, processes it, and dumps it out. Every 100 hydrogen units processed, it produces one deuterium. This is incredibly inefficient, obviously, but the hydrogen that comes out ''can be reprocessed''. As a result, setting up a loop where hydrogen passes through several or a dozen fractionators before going back to the start and passing through again, while separating out the inevitable deuterium, guarantees that you'll have a constantly supply of deuterium, at a lesser energy cost than a miniature particle accelerator, and with less research required (though you'll need to add more hydrogen every so often). The only downside is that fractionator loops require a lot of space, and the miniature particle accelerator ''is'' faster to produce deuterium.

* HardModePerks: Mutiple examples.

* TheSiege: The Dark Fog runs on an internal resource economy that depends on the matter that planetary bases extract from the planet's core. The bases in turn can't do anything without the energy that is provided by the hives. If you find yourself unable to overcome a base's or hive's defenses, it's a viable tactic to besiege it with turrets until it runs out of resources, at which point it becomes practically helpless.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: You "[[NoEnding win]]" the game by researching the final technology in the TechTree, not by finishing construction of the titular Dyson sphere. Getting to this point requires a lot of energy and resources, but there are many alternative power sources available, so whether or not you bother with the Dyson sphere at all is ultimately irrelevant. That being said, establishing a Dyson Swarm/Shell and Ray Receiver setup is necessary to produce the necessary Antimatter from Critical Photons.

* TheStarsAreGoingOut: The intro sequence shows this happening to entire star clusters thanks to the Dark Fog as a way of highlighting its threat level. In practice though, they're not ''literally'' destroying stars; it's more that any Engineers sent to said clusters inevitably stop broadcasting, having been killed at the hands of the Dark Fog, who then take over the clusters and cut them off from the [=Centrebrain=].

* VariableMix: The tracks that play planetside tend to change based off of how much of the planet is covered in machinery, with more relaxed tracks playing on barren worlds, and more upliftin enthusiastic tracks playing when in the thick of multiple assembly lines. The tracks themselves also tend to vary between planet type, from the common ones being similar, to a few unique tracks playing for the rarest types, such as the black hole and neutron star systems. Once you begin assembling the Dyson swarm/shell, the tracks will also change to reflect your progress.
* VictoryByEndurance: This is how you're encouraged to win against the Dark Fog. Normally, their hives are VERY dangerous. Even low level hives can put up quite a fight against a late game player. However they have a weakness in their logistics. They require matter to build their infrastructure which is acquired by planet side bases. Destroying their bases, and preventing the Dark Fog from re-establishing them will cause the hive to "starve" itself of matter. Once a hive has run out of matter, it can no longer rebuild destroyed parts of itself or replace its guard units. This will let you finish off a Dark Fog hive without having to deal with a constant swarm of units or defensive turrets popping into existence.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Studying Dark Fog debris can unlock a handful of production buildings that outperform anything you can research in a campaign without the cranky GreyGoo. The DF smelter works half as fast as the best standard version, the assembler is twice as fast, and the matrix lab has a whopping 3x speed modifier. The downside? You need to grind planetary bases until they reach certain level thresholds for the required debris components to drop from destroyed DF units, which on default settings can take upwards of ''20 real-time hours'' of uninterrupted fighting to accomplish, less if you happen upon bases that are of a high level from the outset and/or have cranked the DF exp-gain setting up a bunch pre-game. Crafting these buildings then requires a more or less constant supply of these debris components, so [[ViolationOfCommonSense you need to keep these hostile bases alive and in working order]] if you want to mass-produce the reverse-engineered tech.

* BerserkButton: The Dark Fog gets triggered by the electromagnetic emissions of high-tech industrialization, so the more you build [[note]]Specially, the more ''energy'' you output, the more they'll view you as a threat. If you land on a new planet and build various buildings/production lines, but don't power any of them until you're ready, the threat won't build.[[/note]], the more aggressively the planet's ground bases attack. Their space hives are usually quite passive overall, but they get cranky if you shoot down the orbital stations above their ground bases, and they go absolutely ballistic once you start launching solar sails and constructing the actual Dyson sphere.

* BerserkButton: The Dark Fog gets triggered by the electromagnetic emissions of high-tech industrialization, so the more you build, the more aggressively the planet's ground bases attack. Their space hives are usually quite passive overall, but they get cranky if you shoot down the orbital stations above their ground bases, and they go absolutely ballistic once you start launching solar sails and constructing the actual Dyson sphere.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Studying Dark Fog debris can unlock a handful of production buildings that outperform anything you can research in a campaign without the cranky GreyGoo. The DF smelter works half again as fast as the best standard version, the assembler is twice as fast, and the matrix lab has a whopping 3x speed modifier. The downside? You need to grind planetary bases until they reach certain level thresholds for the required debris components to drop from destroyed DF units, which can take upwards of ''20 real-time hours'' of uninterrupted fighting to accomplish (less if you happen upon bases that are of a high level from the outset). Crafting these buildings then requires a more or less constant supply of these debris components, so [[ViolationOfCommonSense you need to keep these hostile bases alive and in working order]] if you want to mass-produce the reverse-engineered tech.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: Individual missile turrets already fire quite a few missiles in a short time, but the average player will deploy them in bulk to throw walls of missiles at any invading Dark Fog forces. Combine this with Signal Towers and ''every single missile turret on the planet'' will open fire at anything that so much as looks at you funny.

* MarathonLevel: With the currently-limited space battle options, even low-level space hives can take upwards of 10 minutes of uninterrupted fighting to defeat, but given Icarus' constant need of recharging its batteries, you're easily looking at half an hour or more depending on various factors [[note]]how close the next viable planet is, how stable your drone resupply lines are, how early/late in the game your tech is when you attempt to take on a space hive, etc[[/note]]. And to spice things up even more, if you at any point get too close to the hive so that its heavy laser defenses decide to target Icarus instead of its drones, you'll be dead before you can react and likely lose a significant amount of progress.

* DeflectorShields: There are two types: a small personal shield for Icarus, and planetary shield generators. Planetary shields are able to help protect against Dark Fog attacks, but draw copious amounts of energy to project their barriers and only work against attacks from space. Icarus' personal shield expands into a small bubble as you upgrade it through research, allowing it to protect structures and drones close to the mecha from incoming fire.

* DesignItYourselfEquipment: The Dyson sphere - as the name suggests - will always be spherical, but the specific design of the framework is yours to choose. You can make it a perfectly arranged network of triangles, [[HighTechHexagons hexagons]] and similar geometric shapes, you can shape it to look like a soccer ball, or you can just say "screw it" and give it a completely haphazard design. The layout tools are simple but amazingly versatile. That said, it's advisable to keep the number of nodes and beams as low as possible because these components are by far the hardest to produce in bulk, so the more intricate your design gets, the longer it takes to complete.

* DeflectorShields: There are two types: a small personal shield for Icarus, and planetary shield generators. Planetary shields are able to help protect against Dark Fog attacks, but draw copious amounts of energy to project their barriers.

* TheMostWanted: The player's threat level dictates the response of the Dark Fog. Initially, the Dark Fog will ignore the player and their factories, but as they expand or attack the Dark Fog directly, the Dark Fog will see the player as a threat and increase the player's threat level accordingly. The player can also adjust the Dark Fog's settings to not attack unless you shoot first (or not even then), or just disable their presence and remain focused upon the base automation experience.
* ThePowerOfTheSun: Artificial Stars are the endgame power plant, and rely on antimatter fuel cells to power themselves. While expensive to maintain, they are the most efficient power to space ratio building in the game, beating a gravity lens boosted ray receiver by just under 2.5x.

** The Implosion Cannon is an artillery piece that launches 280mm shells, on par with WWII battleship main guns.

* MarathonLevel: With the currently-limited space battle options, even low-level space hives can take upwards of 10 minutes of uninterrupted fighting to defeat, but given Icarus' constant need of recharging its batteries, you're easily looking at half an hour or more depending on various factors [[note]]how close the next viable planet is, how stable your drone resupply lines are, how early/late in the game your teach is when you attempt to take on a space hive, etc[[/note]]. And to spice things up even more, if you at any point get too close to the hive so that its heavy laser defenses decide to target Icarus instead of its drones, you'll be dead before you can react and likely lose a significant amount of progress.

* TheStarsAreGoingOut: The intro sequence shows this happening to entire star clusters thanks to the Dark Fog, as a way of highlighting its threat level. Paradoxically, this would be happening if the GreyGoo was carrying out its original mission of building Dyson spheres, but it's actually opposing anyone trying to do just that (AKA the player). The in-game Dark Fog, unlike the player, never even attempts to mess with stars, making this move beyond GameplayAndStorySegregation into plain nonsensical territory.

* OneHitKill: The Dark Fog's heavy laser turrets need only one shot to kill pretty much anything, Icarus included. Fully upgrading the mecha's shield can allow it to tank a small number of shots, but once the shield is down, the next hit will be fatal. These things are the main reason you can only fight indirectly via drone spam instead of taking a more active role on the battlefield.

* PlanetaryCoreManipulation: Planetside Dark Fog bases generate power and construction materials by drawing both directly from the planetary mantle. Destroying such a base leaves a gaping, glowing hole in the ground that, if you build a geothermal power plant over it, generates over 300% of its base power output.

* MarathonLevel: Even low-level space hives can take upwards of 10 minutes of uninterrupted fighting to defeat, but given Icarus' constant need of recharging its batteries, you're easily looking at half an hour or more, depending on how close the next viable planet is and how stable your drone resupply lines are. And to spice things up even more, if you at any point get a little bit too close to the hive so that its heavy laser defenses decide to target Icarus instead of its drones, you'll be dead before you can react and most likely lose a significant amount of progress.

* DroneDeployer: Both the Dark Fog and Icarus make copious use of expendable drones to fight each other. For Icarus it's in fact the only way to fight at all because the mecha's capacity to inflict and take damage directly is pathetic regardless of upgrade level.

** The whole point of a Dyson shell is its ability to harvest the entire energy output of the star in its center, but even a completed shell in the game has no effect on the output of your planet-bound solar panels. This basically means that the star's radiation passes through the shell virtually unhindered, which might just give an unintentional explanation for the point above. However, this is likely intentional, to serve as an AntiFrustrationFeature.

** Unipolar magnets, AKA magnetic monopoles, are a so-far hypothetic type of exotic matter that forms mind-bogglingly dense pseudo-atomic structures. A solid sphere slightly bigger than a golf ball would concentrate so much mass in one spot that it would collapse into a black hole. In-game the stuff is found in standard ore deposits that of course don't act like this. Also, magnetic monopoles as we currently understand them are incredibly rare and thus most likely won't form mineable deposits anywhere in the universe.