Is this normal?

[dondada]

This area was completely clear the last time I played and when I reloaded it now has a nest, but it shows that they aren't aggressive or looking for my base... which is right next to them?

[Nosferatu]

Your base seems to be nearly on hold. I don't see any assembly machine working.
Most of your current pollution comes from your miners which are far north.

Get into Map View (M) one of the buttons that appear below the minimap is Pollution.
It shows you have far your pollution cloud is reaching and gives you an idea when trouble is about to start.

[dondada]

It is on hold, sort of, but even when it is at peak production my pollution was at zero.

[Atraps003]

Can you provide the save?

[dondada]

Can you provide the save?

How do I do that?

Does this work?

https://limewire.com/d/NIIDX#EUGOzgzCq9

[Atraps003]

It's normal. Pollution is not zero but it's very low. The efficiency modules you are using are very good at keeping pollution low. I re-uploaded your save with a few pollution settings tweaked which will cause more biter attacks.

[Nosferatu]

Push that button to make the pollution cloud visible:

2026-02-18 09_17_29-Window.png (17.53 KiB) Viewed 257 times

You pushed through early game nicely.
They will come for you once you scale up production but containing them will be an "engineering problem"

[dondada]

Can you expand on what you mean by engineering problem, and how much more am I realistically going to have to scale? It would appear as though I can push through to automating yellow and purple science whenever I want to, and I would naively assume that I have enough resources available to complete everything without expanding. How wrong am I?

[derspiny]

how much more am I realistically going to have to scale?

It depends.

If you're comfortable with research slowing down substantially as you add purple and yellow science, then you don't have to expand production of your existing intermediates at all. You'll add new ones, but the upper bound on production will eventually be determined by your existing capacity, and you probably won't generate much additional pollution as a result.

On the other hand, if you want to sustain your current research rate while adding new science packs, then the additional demand for purple and yellow science is significant. One purple science per minute costs around 20/min copper ore, 53/min iron ore, 12/min stone, and 69/min crude oil, before productivity bonuses, and all of those resources need multiple processing steps, each of which adds its own pollution plus pollution from power generation. That's over and above the pollution you're already generating. Yellow science is even more expensive.

On the third hand, if you want to expand your capacity - perhaps to pursue the infinite science packs at a rate faster than a crawl - then you'll be adding capacity to your whole factory, and adding pollution along with it. At some point, efficiency modules will not be sufficient to stop your pollution cloud from expanding substantially, especially if you also use productivity modules to improve resource efficiency. A factory capable of producing 60/min of the six Nauvis science packs will consume more than 3k/min crude oil, 1375/min copper, 2700/min iron, 400/min coal, and 800/min stone, along with at least half a gigawatt of electricity, and will have a couple hundred buildings making intermediates (and pollution) in the process.

Which of those goals you go for is very much a decision you get to make for yourself. There is no right answer, but the answer you pick will impact your strategic options for dealing with biters.

Can you expand on what you mean by engineering problem

The other options for biter management include containment and extermination, each of which comes with different tradeoffs (vs. your strategy of prevention) in terms of player time spent, resources spent, and reliability. Balancing those options is fundamentally about measuring, making a plan, and then checking the results - engineering, in other words. I'm being a little coy here because I hope for you to explore those options for yourself, but if you want an avenue to explore, have a look down the tech tree past radars (if vanilla) or Vulcanus (if space age).

[dondada]

I appreciate the vagueness. I'm enjoying the game immensely and playing at my own pace. I know I can go faster, or expand more quickly, but it's fun just min/maxing my existing setup. I was intending to double or triple my output of red circuits in order to start tending towards automating purple science.

I'm not trying to get the biters to become more aggressive, but at the same time I was wondering what to expect once I do expand. At the moment they are a non-issue. I can kill their nests very easily, it just takes time. When I originally started building I walked concentric circles and eradicated every nest I could see but now they have all started to come back, which is fine, but it brings up the conversation of whether it is even worth my time to clear them out again if I know they are just going to come back, and at the same time I know they aren't going to get harder.

Presently while I plan the expansion of red circuits I've removed my limits on wall production and armor piercing ammunition. I don't really have any defenses for much of the factory because I haven't needed it, so I was planning to overhaul defenses & walls as I expand and then just be done with it.

[derspiny]

It's worth keeping your pollution cloud clear of nests, since aggression is mostly a function of nests absorbing pollution. If there are no nests inside your cloud, you won't be attacked; if there's a nest absorbing pollution, you will be attacked eventually (with the danger scaling to much pollution it's absorbing, roughly).

Attacking nests outside of your cloud is more debatable. Biter expansions only happen within a limited distance of existing nests, and biters have to be able to path to the expansion location to set up a nest there, so pushing biters back will delay their intrusion into your cloud or allow you to pollute more without attracting attacks. On the other hand, killing nests is one of the things that drives biter evolution, and while it's not a big contributor, killing nests when you don't need to can put you at risk of more dangerous attacks later on.

Having said that, even the worst biters aren't that hard to manage in the late game, and building up your defences in response to biters' actual behaviour is an entirely reasonable way to play.