How to make the automations beaverer.
I had a colony that was right on the verge of Scrap collectors. That + Metalsmith meant that I got to resource counters at just the right moment. 50 ish beavers, a decent stockpile of basic resources, but tight on science.
I quickly made a resource counter for everything I was producing and a dozen Inventor huts. Once I set sustainable limits on the production buildings, my science was going through the roof and I never had to thing about running out of anything. It really was magic. I have several hundred hours in the game, and it felt incredibly OP. A feeling I love and hate. I set all the counters up on a remote hill so i can watch the lights all at once.
As far as the decision to add this element to the game. Great job devs! Very stable, almost intuitive, and the only thing players must to do adapt is learn how to replicate the behavior of a sluice with a couple sensors. It's a bit clunky, but automatons is a huge mechanic and it will take some big play testing to everything smoothed out. The buildings look awesome. The ability to enter any color hex code was super sweet. Bottom line, people can enjoy the game the same way they have always enjoyed it, or they can nerd out with a bunch of new logic based toys.
While playing, I couldn't help but to thing that the whole thing could tie into the world a bit more. What if there was like a "Manager" hut? The player sets the limits, but the manager has to make it around to all the storage buildings for that resource and do an "inventory". If the count doesn't change the state of the switch, then he just moves to the next items inventory. If the switch needs to change states, he walks to the building and flips the switch. Perhaps the counters could just be limited to specific warehouses.
Manager huts could be like haulers and builders where you can add and remove beavers as needed.
Or maybe beavers that work in buildings assigned to a specific sensors have to go take readings from the sensors from time to time.
Whatever the specifics, i think that making the beavers interact with the automation buildings would make it feel more like the game we have all been playing for years.
Any thoughts?
Once again...Great work devs! Your efforts have kept me coming back time after time. I'm a little confused about how a game can be so playable for so long and not actually be released, but I'm along for the ride.
edit:not sure what happened to my pic
Posted Mar 4, 2026, 10:41 PM UTC