I threw out the old upgrade system in Death Automation. It simply didn’t fit the way I wanted automation to work.
On its own, the idea was familiar enough: buy buildings, upgrade them, make them faster or more efficient. There was always another level to buy and another number to improve. But once I tried to build a lasting automation strategy around it, the friction became obvious.
My automation was based on building counts and ratios. You worked out how many buildings each part of the production chain needed, set things up, and let it run. Upgrades kept changing what those numbers actually meant.
The same number of buildings could suddenly process more resources, consume inputs faster, or produce a different amount of output. The ratio you had just set up no longer matched the chain’s needs. So you went back and adjusted it. Then bought a few more upgrades. Then adjusted it again.
Coming back to your setup occasionally is part of the fun. A new bottleneck, a new building, or an event should give you a reason to rethink your production chain. That’s a big part of the game I want to make.
But having to make another tiny correction every five upgrades? That gets annoying fast. You’ve barely had time to enjoy the setup before you’re fiddling with it again.
An upgrade should feel good to buy. Too often, mine came with a small maintenance job attached.
So I scrapped that version of the system.
In the current development build, normal upgrade purchases have been replaced by building milestones and permanent prestige improvements. Buildings earn bonuses as you reach ownership milestones, while prestige gives you lasting choices that carry into future runs.
I also changed the automation itself. Production targets now work with resource budgets and projected sustainable income, so you can plan how much of an available input a production branch should use. That gives automation a way to respond to the changing economy instead of relying entirely on a fixed building ratio. Your settings also survive prestige, so you can keep refining a strategy across runs.
Milestones and prestige still change the balance of your production chain. There will still be decisions to make and setups to revisit. I’m testing this direction because I want those moments to feel worth your attention.
The old system gave me plenty of upgrades to click. What I want is a production chain that’s satisfying to build, satisfying to improve, and satisfying to watch run for a while.
And sometimes getting closer to that means throwing out a system you already built.
Leave a Reply