-We play as a person digitally uploaded into a mech suit (since humanity apparently went into the Singularity in the game's backstory, and are no longer flesh-and-blood).
-We have drones that instantly construct whatever buildings we have, and can store a ton of said buildings in our inventory that are bigger than we are.
-We can fly right up to stars, including neutron stars and black holes, and not be affected whatsoever.

Not everything in DSP follows general logic, so I wouldn't worry too much about it tbh.

The logic is easy: this is a game. As a game mechanic, DSP's proliferation is more interesting than Factorio's production modules which make buildings magically produce more.

Think of it a lubricant. You are greasing the moving parts of the machine so that it is more efficient.

The real question is, how can you spray your spray bottles and end up with more spray?

We might consider proliferator a representation of numerous ways in real life that technological advancement enables us to do more with less. Remember mainframe computers? They used to fill an entire room, consume massive amounts of electricity, but have less computing power than a laptop today, or even a cell phone. Improved gas mileage in cars is another obvious example. Seen in that light, proliferator doesn't bother me.

One unrealistic feature is the relationship between meters, astronomical units, and light years. They are greatly condensed compared to the real definitions .

At sufficient levels science is indistinguishable from magic, that's how.

The juice must flow.

If you want realism, go outside.

Otherwise just enjoy the fact that you are a robot, creating Dyson spheres, combating a giant AI hell bent on your destruction.

I don't ever bother with the proliferator because, to me, it feels like a gimmick. I freely admit that feeling this way is sort of like watching Star Trek for a bunch of years and only when you get to the episode where Captain Picard beams himself into a nebula do you say, "that could never happen!"

Originally posted by Andy:

I don't ever bother with the proliferator because, to me, it feels like a gimmick.

That's OK-- I did the same myself for a few games after pro was added.

But I eventually gave it a try, and found that it added some welcome complexity and discipline to building out balanced production lines. So don't use it at all if you like. Or try using it just on research matrix cubes and see how it goes.

I also never use proliferator it just adds unnecessary complexity, doesnt make much sense and is hardly worth the effort in 100% of cases it is just better to build larger production lines instead.

Originally posted by ChaosMind42:

I also never use proliferator it just adds unnecessary complexity, doesnt make much sense and is hardly worth the effort in 100% of cases it is just better to build larger production lines instead.

I have similar feelings
When I realized it ups the power usage by, is it 100% for a production increase... then it's only worth it on the most expensive products anyway

To be fair, on the largest production lines you need so many fewer buildings (using +product) that the power usage gets close to breaking even.

Let's say I'm making white science using all possible rares, but using old school buildings (arc smelters, assembler mk.III, matrix lab, and chemical plants), at 180/minute.
And that includes the extra building needed to make the proliferator.

So even though any individual building is using 2.5x the energy there are so many fewer buildings required due to the stacking effect of +product proliferation along the very long production chain from ore to white science than the total energy use is only 1.15x of baseline. (And, of course, the whole thing is a lot more compact)

It's not logical.

It is bad game design.

The devs should have simply halved the input requirements for anything requiring two or more of the same input and also gotten rid of the bs requirements where you need the lower tier item to make a higher tier item instead of adding this dumb bs to the game.

I'm surprised we don't have to make an abacus before making an electronic circuit.

Originally posted by josmith7:

To be fair, on the largest production lines you need so many fewer buildings (using +product) that the power usage gets close to breaking even.

Let's say I'm making white science using all possible rares, but using old school buildings (arc smelters, assembler mk.III, matrix lab, and chemical plants), at 180/minute.

# needed; Unproliferated

# needed; Mk.III +product

215

111

Arc Smelter

162

114

Matrix Lab

147

84

Assembler Mk.III

27

18

Chemical Plant

15

8

Miniature Particle Collider

12

4

Oil Refinery

547.7 MW

629.1 MW

Power consumption

And that includes the extra building needed to make the proliferator.

So even though any individual building is using 2.5x the energy there are so many fewer buildings required due to the stacking effect of +product proliferation along the very long production chain from ore to white science than the total energy use is only 1.15x of baseline. (And, of course, the whole thing is a lot more compact)

Sometimes even less power, depending on where you use it.

Making 60 rockets per minute for example using proliferator mk3 on just the assemblers reduces total power consumption from 507MW to 456MW

Yeah, this is literally only thing I can say I dont like in the game.
Not quite obvious how can I paint a bottle of milk with blue paint and magically make it into 2 bottles on milk, multiplying matter x2.