Stellaris Planetary Automation Explained 

I saw this setting and remembered how mismanaged all the planets were for the AI and immediately gave up on it. Really didn't expect it to be that useful.

Took me so long to properly understand how automation works. Certainly makes managing dozens and dozens of colonies a lot simpler

If you have duelist jobs, TURN OFF AMENITIES AUTOMATION. It doesn't care if you're missing out on your ship cap.

Absolutely love what they did with Planetary Automation in the recent updates. As a Void Dweller player it especially makes managing numerous Habitats much easier.

It's worth noting that with spending only energy on planetary automation, you can set your construction ships to automatically build space stuff earlier in the game, as you won't be micro managing mineral spending between buildings/districts and space resource stations.

I have played 400 hours of Stellaris and never knew you could right click that automation button. Is that a new feature?

Thank the Stellaris Gods! Now I can play 15 hours in a row rather then 12 hours without fainting😇

For gestalt empires it automatically balances maintenance drone job number around 0 amenities. You don't need to allocate resources just hit the gear button and it'll do the thing.

I would love to see someone do a Fully Auto challenge run. Auto planet build, auto research choices, and auto ships and then beat the crisis on grand admiral.

Montu: "energy credits are much easier to get" Me who always ends up treading rare ressources for energy because I'm unable to manage my empire's economy properly: "I'm quite unsure"

Amazing, thank you. I knew this button was here, but I never knew there was a right click! I would recommend the UI devs change that, because it is inconsistent with every other button in the game (unless I'm missing armies of right clicks). Better to open the panel if that is clicked, and have an "on off" button on the panel that cycles the automation and the look of the button.

I remember back in the age of tiles, for me expansion was just claiming start systems and colonizing one planet to uses as a sector capital and then automating everything. sure there were a few deficits during the initial development but it always worked out. I miss that level of automation.

The new automation updates have made playing as a devouring swarm much more fun for me. Now I just strip a planet clean after conquering it and I let the AI do its thing

As being self taught in automation, using it in my resource worlds, I failed to see the full potential of it and didn't knew about the automation settings. Sadly the "Upgrade Buildings" option doesn't seem to work with gaia seeders, otherwise Idyllic Bloom would be way better. Edit: Holy moly! I used a Plantoid+Lithoid Build I created (by drawing much inspiration from your "get the most of your slaves" and "master-crafted technocracy" videos btw) with syncretic evolution and gaseous byproduct lithoids, and after buying enough monthly gases to compensate for the upkeep of the tier 2 gaia seeder, it upgraded! This is really gamechanging to my build as I can now avoid paying hundreds of exotic gases that required years of accumulation and directly create a gaia world just by upgrading technicians/slave output! Thank you very much, Montu.

Good on you for mentioning Sector automation. This is the reason planetary automation is so feared and hated. Sector automation has been absolutely terrible for years. Last time it was "usable" was before 2.0 when you disallowed redevelopment, constructed the first baseline of buildings and used the auto-upgrade mod with a resource threshold high enough not to interfere with your megastructure construction needs.

Thus should make managing an empire a lot easier. I often find myself doing sim city a lot of the time.

It's not perfect, but planetary automation can solve a lot of problem your average stellaris game might throw at you. Ofc if you play a much more aggressive format it might fall a bit short, but even then the ability to ignore exotic resource cost for building stuff is really strong. Edit : wait there are settings for this?!

Definitely learned new things about the planetary automation. I tend to use it on my non core worlds once I've reached my personal micromanagement threshold, which is usually between 6-10planets

Always the best videos Montu. Thanks for making it simple!

Wow... This changes a lot for my play styles. Thank you for all the work and info!

As a mod player, the AI mostly don't know what those mod builds do and simply doesn't build them, unless the builds can be characterized by the build list (those boxes that are above the build list).

Thank you so much! I'd pressed the button before but couldn't figure out why it didn't do anything, so this was tremendously helpful. I also never knew about the options menu.

Thanks, man. This type of content is super helpful.

I really like automation for the same reason I play with 0.25 habitable worlds - I don’t want to manage that many planets after about like, 10. It makes the game a lot more fun. I would like it so that I can filter the outliner to show me just my non-automated planets (e.g. just my special ones)

I'm getting ready to jump back into Stellaris and I'm VERY glad that I spotted this video.

I was wondering about this feature, thank you for the explaination.

I find this vid insane cause I ask this in the r/Stellaris and it turns out that not that many folks didn't realized that right click was possible on the Planet Auto Button. Well, now at least I know that I can prep the Planet to Auto build itself without it sending me notices about having unemployment while I'm at war.

Good job with all your instruction videos!

I've been playing the game for just a bit less than this video has been out, and I've barely any idea what I'm doing so this will really help, ty.

waited for this video for so long

Thanks bro, your channel has helped me a lot. I just bought Stellaris the other week on sale and it's becoming one of my favorite games. I finally got a victory because of your guides, you the man bro 🤜🤛

It has a setting... IT HAS A SETTING? Thanks Montu, if not for your video perhaps I will not ever discover that

This helped me so much, I was stuck with stagnating planets after trying it out by myself. Did not know why they weren't building anything until you showed me how to allocate the recourses. Cheers mate!

This was very helpful. Thanks

Thank you so much for this video!

seems like i should begin to use it , great video as always!

wow! i never use automation because i remember getting burned by the old automation Ai really badly they used to mess up your entire planet/sector i got to try this new system out! especially the upgrade, crime and amenity system

How does this interact with something like Rogue Servitors? EDIT: Or habitats? Will it automatically upgade habitats if the resources are there for it?

Amazing video, Montu...

What in the hell, had NO idea that right click menu was even a thing on automation!

Thank you so much. I hated managing too many planets, and thus expanding. This makes things soo much easier.

Thank you for the video it was very helpful

Really? HALLELUJAH! I NO LONGER HAVE TO MANAGE +40 PLANETS!

I'm still frightened to turn it on. I've been playing since launch and am thoroughly traumatized by what automation used to be like.

My first full playthrough on pc was as a terravore empire on a huge galaxy and I honestly wouldn't have been able to get through it without automation. I figured out quickly what settings worked and the only irritating part of it was buildings I didn't want to get upgraded being upgraded (but that seems to have been changed since). Besides that, it felt good having over a hundred planets that I didn't have to do more than check up on every now and then.

I have OCPD and micro _everything._ However, I had *NO* idea you could right click that button to customize the automation, this is fantastic!!! _Thank you._ I would definitely do the same settings as you except maybe amenities, depending on the Empire. Or assembly manual if playing non-cyborg. I might be unhappy if AI prefer to upgrade a building over building another identical one if there's a slot available but this honestly saves so much time. Something I already don't have enough of with my condition lol

I like how you explained this

so you need a Governor for every single Planet?

thank you for the video, as always great quality :) a hivemind player was here

THANK YOU

Thank you for front loading the tutorial

I’ve been using automation since it got reworked and I love it! This is so helpful in multiplayer where you can’t pause to micromanahe

A very interesting video! Good explanations of all crannies and nooks of automation. I'll probably will never use all of it because it sounds that the automation itself must be micromanaged. :D

So basically you still have to manually manage employment, deficits and automation options for this to work anywhere near optimally. All in all, it’s only a resource trade cheat, isn’t it?

I used it for amenities, very good on robot civilizations. Also for pop housing, building slots, and pop assembly. Use shift click and control click.

Theres a whole nother menu behind the automation button? what the...well I might use it now.

I love this button I've used it for a long time. The grid now assigns you your job

Nice never knew all that about automation.

Well explained!

I succesfully used the sector and automation the first time and only noe after the Session I get the notification for this video -.-

I came to this video when I saw my pops are disabling their law enforcement and entertainer jobs. This is a HUGE help

I usually turn them mid game, it's really useful once you have to many planets to micromanage

this video saved me.

ay thanks for the video, sitting at 33 planets and it's... a bit much lol. This was the best explanation I can find, and now I'm feeling confident that using automation won't bork my empire up!

yes it does work it surprised me on my last game

Very helpful video! I haven't used automation in a long time because of how shitty it was. I'll definitely be trying your advice on my new play-through!

Theres a mod in the workshop called Better Planet Automation, I recommend trying it out if youre tired of building stuff yourself. Its very good

I avoid sector automation, and have to direct the planet types so that the automation doesn't overload me with alloys lol The homeworld will always make research buildings with automation but I'd still direct districts. Also I found if you build extra districts, it will help siphon pops to those specific planets with more extra jobs available. I tend to let it build the pop building then just clear all blockers myself since there wont be pop for real work. Don't use local stockpiles since if I let it run from the start of the game it ends up with 300-500k+ for collective stockpile Good to use the stockpile for infinite resource storage

Thank you for explaining how the automation works, dont see how i shouldve figured that out otherwise. Looking at the rules, and how the planets youve shown were built, i would very much prefer to keep building my planets myself - but i cant really ignore the cheaper buildings. which probably means that this feature will INCREASE the amount of micromanagement i will have to do -.-

Never really do automation i mostly have my core sec. which i manage myself and perhaps one or two frontier sectors with two or three worlds which i let auto-manage completely, worked well for me so far. I always manage my core sec. which has most of my worlds since i focus my worlds/ habitats etc. as close to my homeworld as possible instead of spreading, especially useful when whe got the orbital ring to build truly mean fortress systems that need shittons of fleets to break even one system - essentially i build a heavily fortified core, some frontier sectors, most of the time around 2, and have other fortresses built on strategic hyperlane junctions to slow/stop enemy fleets to utilize my core world relay network to rush my fleets where needed, takes time and isnt really viable for multiplayer casual matches i found, maybe works for others but for me its my go to strategy in sp. Species build is trade/research traits for credits and science and government xenophile, materialist, pacifist or the fanatic pacifist/xenophobe for isolation plays paired with the aquatic 30 size world origin with anglers and mastercrafters as civics most of the time. What are your species builds and i talk about your own creations not some meta build online, what did you people use/ what worked for you?

I have several hundred hours of gamepley and still don't know how to use that button. Thanks for the explanation!

I did not know I could right click the planet automation and tell it to do specific things. My planets were always making rare resources even if I was gaining +20 a month of each. I'd normally stick all those to a specific planet. As soon as I started getting a dozen or more planets I set them up to start with, wait till they get around 5-10 pops them let automation take over, check-in here and there to see if something is wrong

I only ever use the sector automation in very late game, and set them to base production

Last game I play I had over 30 planets I was controlling myself...had no idea this was here. I was neutron sweeping worlds only cause I didn't want to manage anymore haha

Stellaris channel PLEASE showcase his tips already!

I would like to see an option to create planet templates - designate a planet into a profile_1 and the AI creates distrcticts, buildings and assignes workers into the expected frame.

Does it still work as of the new updates ?

Awesome, the late game can be tedious when all I wants to do is conquer. Thanks for the vid

Seems like in most cases you would want to use only the shared stockpile - the local stockpile seems like it can mechanically let you prioritize building in a certain sector, but I feel like that, for me, will mostly happen unintentionally as I let the global stockpile decrease

التحكم في إعدادات الأتمتة !!!! 😲 ... لم أكن أعلم ذلك .... شكرا جزيلا لك 😉👍 أنا جديد في اللعبة 🤷

Your profile picture gives me memories

Finally! The day is here! Now I only have to fail at developing 1 planet instead of all of them.

I didn't know it subbed the energy credits for minerals

Useful fo Habitat rush

This save me a lot of APM on multiplayer games

Probably the only thing I miss from the old automation system was a sector building a construction ship and filling the sector with stations on its own. It's a small thing, but it's so annoying when you see there's unclaimed resources and your nearest construction ship is 10-15 systems away.

Question, if you turn on the pop assembly automation but enact the "ban robot assembly" planetary decision, will it respect that and only build cloning vats if the building is available to it?

the power of free market!

LOL at the intro

If you stop automation and then cancel the building built by the automation will you get the regular resources back or do they go into the stockpile?

I wish the automation started building stuff when all jobs are full, NOT when there's actual unemployment...

That trick to automatically build industrial districts at the cost of energy seams like a great way to prepare a world to be turn into an ecunemopolis at a discount. Also, I think this would work well with exploiting deficit situations approaches. For example, having a mineral deficit alternative approachs allows you to sacrifice 25% of your cg and alloys from jobs (effectively 35% since the deficit also gives a 10% debuff) to save 50% of their mineral upkeep. That's not a bad deal really, since it means you can have very few minors and to put more pops into metallurgy instead. The problem with that is that without minerals income, you can't build anything. But from what I get here, as long as I can keep my minerals in the positive temporarily for months at a time, I could build things with energy instead. Very nice.

This is so gamey... I would feel really dirty using this constantly to keep getting cheap buildings and I honestly might just get really bored doing it over and over too. I would do this automation for my planets if I ever went tall and was in the late game with no motivation to keep managing pops, but probably not any other time.

Damn I only heard the update "improved automation". I never knew there were actually settings

What are the energy to mineral costs? For example science lab?

Sound very much like a bug, building without using the actual resources required.

at the start when you have 5 planets I usually do things manually but after a while, especially when you have more than 15 planets, I turn automation on for most of them.

I haven't tested this with a different play through, but I took HIve Mind with Progenitor Hive, and it wasn't building offspring nests to produce pops. Once I picked up cloning vats, it would build those; still wouldn't build offspring nests. I'm not sure if that's a bug or a feature.

That's pretty cool, clearly highly misunderstood how it works as I thought it was a button to manually set a plant to work under sector automation. Sounds like it's actually pretty good at it's job.

Holy cow they hide this on console edition 3:22