Perfect FOOD SECTOR; Early to Late game; Feeds 6000 People (No Spoilers!) | IXION | Tutorial/Guide

IXION combines city building, survival elements and exploration, into a thrilling space opera as you explore the stars. Propelled onwards through a perilous journey, you are the Administrator of the Tiqqun space station, charged with finding a new home for humanity.
Keeping the station sound and flying will require a deft hand and strategic thinking, as you are constantly pulled between maintaining hull integrity, bringing in new resources and managing power consumption.
What choices will you make when confronted with impending disaster? What will you discover out there in the dark?
Check out Ixion on Steam:
store.steampowered.com/app/11...
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#Ixion #StayEffective #LetsPlay

[@kurtk3411]

Would love more sector design videos!

[@mikewj94]

thank you for all these strategies and guides, they’re super helpful.

[@stuartt1025]

Thank you Nilaus for all your Content and Help , i watch your Videos since Factorio and it is impessive how professional and efficient you are in these kind of games. You helped me alot in all these times and keep on with your very helpful and entertaining Content. Stay healthy and have a nice day, Thank you again.

[@VIP-ry6vv]

This is what I've been waiting for! Supporting your let's play to hopefully get this series. Edit: power becomes the biggest issue because hydrogen is not renewable. I find using multiple small storages to be more energy efficient than the drone port. Four small storages with the transport upgrade can supply the whole station with food.

[@AbandonTheWest]

I look forward to seeing how you do algae farms. Personally I have two algae farms (each) in sector 3 and 6, to feed 1-2-3 and 4-5-6 keeping food dispersed with adjacent sectors. Having all the food in one sector will take forever to get to the other side of the station, you'll have all sectors with starvation issues. Also, a correction for you, you HAVE TO completely dismantle the cell housing for the population to move to the better quarters.

[@AdamSaxton]

Really love these! Would love to see the other sectors!

[@Jules_Diplopia]

Perfect timing, I am on the verge of setting up my first farming sector. Thanks.

[@Salafir]

Love it. also would love to see an Industrie Sector

[@tinman7856]

Thank you for this Video. I don't follow your Let's play to avoid being spoilered, but those Design Videos are very nice to get an Idea what's gonna be effective without looking to far ahead in the story.

[@Nilaus]

That was the intention and also why I added "No Spoilers" in the title

[@asureaskie8955]

A fantastic and tidy design. Far, far better than the messy kludged-together sector that carried me through the end of the game, but I only had half your population.

[@achyutde13]

this design is great, would love more sector design videos, like industry.

[@CaH4eJIoO]

Amazing! Thanks!

[@Kalimac]

Yes please more design videos.

[@yaki_ebiko]

I've build one similar in my run(3 sets of crop farm running horizontally), then I just put all non-workers in a massive housing sector which when reached population specialization 2 consumes way less food and gives stability. It has like ~3500non-workers in the end and I don't even need that much food because of the sector modifier and late upgrades. (still you need the tile numbers to maintain specialization 2 for food so you still have to build it anyway.

[@JohnMeinel]

Excellent design. Im curious how Algae farms would compare but the 3x3 for the farms is excellent.

[@Nilaus]

better, but much later tech. You cannot (reasonably) leap frog Crop Farms, so you need a good farm sector. Whether you replace it later for algae is up to you

[@maniacalcoast2742]

Good stuff, I did pop and food on my own (although scuffed) and I’m trying to figure out space

[@pavanadusumilli]

The ice storage must point to right instead of up for optimized placement, it will be shorter distance for the ice to travel.

[@rokadamlje5365]

Upgrade the mess hall fully, people eat half the food... Mushrooms ftw. A few insects. All cell housing , restricted food, relaxed work, better stability with no cryotubes around. Basically dont even need to mine. Its self sufficient.

[@vazsa]

oh wow, that is very neat, i like it :)

[@lardyman2]

Need this!!!

[@happyninja42]

Thanks for the video, it really helped me stabilize my current playthrough where I can comfortably start thawing out people for my current chapter objective. One question though, I noticed you never upgraded this to an Algae Farm, even though that is a higher tier form of food production. Is Algae Farm just not as efficient even with upgrades or something? Seems like a natural progression but I haven't unlocked the Algae Farm just yet, as I was holding off on that research investment.

[@stevenwojtysiak6392]

My food zone has 3 full farms and one fusion water plant easily keeps up. Did you add the second because one cannot handle four farms or for aesthetics?

[@tri99er_]

Nice!

[@eaglechawks3933]

The problem isn't food production - it is DISTRIBUTION. You go a long way in Ixion before you get that drone center, and without it a couple of medium stockpiles simply do not have the capacity to move all that food to the rest of the sectors in your station. Prior to this high a tech level you need to run multiple small stockpiles so that you have enough transporters moving food via the road network. It is possible to design a system where you can fulfill all your requirements with solar panels providing all the energy and waste providing all the inputs you need to make enough alloy, polymer, and electronics to keep the station running forever. Spend the tech upgrading your mess halls - it is worth it.

[@samking4050]

*chef's kiss* to that layout. Is there a reason you opt for more housing over a genetics monument for more stability? Same question regarding algae farms with their increased food output by footprint and more food per water used?

[@Nilaus]

Currently don't need the additional Stability. If needed then some of the housing can be changed to more Stability

[@rauminen4167]

Well, I'd say you're going to have to have those people stored somewhere, if for nothing else for the poop. You'll need the poop. This design you can start with basically 2 research: the fusion and the farm being done - that's pretty early game. Then build on bit by bit from there. Monuments are great but they need separate research for each specialisation type AND tier, and take a bit more space. ALS you can put (and probably already have done when you get to research this) in every sector.

[@samking4050]

Thanks for the replies! I get it's early game but I don't think you can get much more than 2k until the latter half of system 3, and with all the potential research points you get there I was struggling to prioritize things to research while I was vacuuming up resources/thawing popsicles/renovating my sectors to include new upgrades. I'll need to dig into your playthrough more to see how you differed in research prioritization. Thanks again!

[@rauminen4167]

@@samking4050 Yeah, Protagoras is about a good time for this probably. Think of it as a sector 3 design that you opened to have bug farms but now you want something more permanent before you take on 1200+ more people. You won't exactly be swimming in research till the next sector, but this you can start with only very specific ones done. Upgrade later from there.

[@zargondm]

I have a sector that has Industry tier 1, Food tier 2, Recycling Tier 2, makes a ton of food, Alloy, Polymers, and Electronics. And it uses zero water.

[@brunhin2]

I have a question on the Domotic Quarter, I thought that you had access only on the longs sides for Domotic Quarter (that is the main reason I haven't pushed for that research over others yet), did the guide I saw have it wrong?

[@N0d4chi]

@Dominic Hamer It has access all around like the optimized quarters

[@tuxr4z3r]

would love to see the campaign.

[@Nilaus]

it is ongoing

[@spatrompete2601]

I would use mushrooms farm instead of cell houses as they use the waste from the farm it also enables max lvl of specialisation what gives bonus production and reducing water needs

[@Nilaus]

Mushroom farms take a lot of space and don't really generate much food. Waste is much more valuable to convert into other products than food in my opinion.

[@spatrompete2601]

@@Nilaus hmm but farm alone isn’t enough to get max lvl specialisation. Food / space / population specialisation seem to be very important to have max lvl specialisation or not ?

[@AWARHERO]

You need those batteries for the endgame anyway

[@dracoleaderable]

What about a water treatment plant for that sector? Or would that be a waste?

[@thet00nl1nk3]

Do the crop fields themselves count towards the food tier in the DLS? All this and it only got to tier 1 the last time you looked at the DLS before it was all built.

[@jimmybrewer3086]

Yes, each one counts as one. So 10 max for each set.

[@gucky4717]

I had insects for around 2000 People until Chapter 3/4, where i slowly changed to Algae. I only needed 3 full Algae Farms for 6000 people (woke everyone up). As for water, i used some ice (1 water plant) and later waste recycled to water. I skipped crops entiely...

[@cgatsby9482]

more lets play!

[@Nilaus]

it is coming. I am alternating since a lot of people don't want spoilers from the story, but may want guides

[@drblitzzz]

Wondering what the farming specialization level is for this layout? I imagine it's Level1. Are there any changes that could bump it up to level 2? (12 food buildings) Also could a water treatment plant effectively replace both of the fusion plants? That might free up enough space for some more food buildings to get the sector to level 2?

[@Nilaus]

No upgrades: 1800 people Full upgrades (also mess hall): 6000 people Water Treatment plant is 100 Power and 50 waste/cycle so not until much later

[@vilgefortz3131]

I have only one more messhall than him, which was the breaking point to lvl 2. I guess the fields count too with a factor like 0,2 or something. Otherwise you could also put aditional insect farms.

[@hardkur]

u got to farming tier 2 with these setup ? and also are algae farms not more efficient ?

[@Nilaus]

You can get Crop farm early, while Algae is much later.

[@Jetherz]

I have a 4 algae farm setup dedicated in sector 2 food spec 2 setup. with 3 medium storage for food on sector + drone. For some reason it can't supply the food on the population spec 2 I've setup in sector 5. They're always running out of food... lol... Like its not delivering to them for some reason or they dont get delivered until everyone else has. Given that it using about 130 food per meal cycle.. Any solution on this.

[@husher2527]

Can it generate enough waste for 2 water puri so it will be self sustainable?

[@thatjeff7550]

I haven't been playing this game but I have been watching your series where you play it. A question for perhaps folks looking for help: Does it make sense to have sectors specialize in one particular resource (like you building nothing but farms here) or to diversify? Since I don't play the game, I wasn't sure if there was something in the game that penalizes or benefits you to specialize. My gut says it would be better to diversify--each sector should be able to be self-sufficient JUST IN CASE something happens to one. I mean, the last thing a player would want is to lose their farming sector to disaster or something but I don't know how the game plays.

[@Nilaus]

You can play is different ways. I like having specialised areas. Both from logical separation and from tutorial perspective

[@kzar99]

there are specialization bonuses for sectors, if you choose to follow this path

[@eaglechawks3933]

The most important specialization you want is to get a sector doing space specialization at level 2 because the bonuses you get to your EVA airlocks make it a lot easier to keep your hull repaired. After a while you get to the point where the waste your people generate produces enough alloy to keep the hull repaired forever without you having to mine iron and use steel mills to make alloy. It is easy enough to get specialization level one, and I did dedicated farming and industrial sectors but they made much less of a difference than my space sector did. I put 3 EVA Airlocks. 3 Docking Bays, and 1 Probe Launcher in Sector 1 and used it to distribute everything I mined to the appropriate sectors. Works like a champ.

[@trispretty]

I need to restart!

[@Nilaus]

There are many stages of rebuilding in this game, so no need to restart

[@tri99er_]

You can just rebuild your food bit by bit. No need to restart.

[@cdmabrey1]

PLZ Each type of section

[@zangetsu2k8]

speaking of waste, why not use the water treatment center? in your twitch streasm you were struggling with ice but you seemed to have access to the water treatment center research. is it not a viable alternative to ice?

[@Nilaus]

100 Power and 50 waste/cycle. Out of the question for the first 500 cycles this is in operation

[@zangetsu2k8]

@@Nilaus so it's a late game building then. sorry didn't know.

[@eriksolce7000]

There's also an upgrade to reduce the waste per cycle to 25. Combine that with more waste per farm and waste from housing and you can rip out your industrial sector and run your entire ship on trash. Really late game tho

[@TianarTruegard]

Aren't algae farms better than the normal farms for food production? I haven't unlocked them yet in my save. I've just gotten the regular farms going. My main struggle is with getting enough alloy to keep the hull in one piece.

[@Nilaus]

better if you need to feed more than 6000 people from a single sector and you have access to the tech... This can be built very early and can support all people you can pick up in the game, so I don't see how it would be an improvement to replace it with Algae Farms when you get that tech

[@vilgefortz3131]

@@Nilaus Would've been nice if we got additional stability from having different food production, like +1 for three different and +2 for four different food sources. Would make sence and encourage us at least a bit to try all. I also just build the full farm lvl 2 food sector which will do it the whole game (assuming logisitcs don't fail).

[@lake258]

@@vilgefortz3131 two food types?! Fat chance, just feed them all with the garbage mushrooms. My station of 5K was just fine with 7 mushroom plants and just one full algae farm.

[@user-sf9po2yu8e]

Gentle soldier 60

[@poorchava]

Why not Algae Farms? They seem to be more space- and worker-efficient.

[@Nilaus]

look at the tech tree

[@theBoonarmies]

5 cycles battery power is an *at minimum* requirement later in game,

[@neilclarkwork]

I’d like to know why you prefer farms over algae.

[@Nilaus]

You need to open 2000 cryopods in chapter 2. At that point you need a dedicated farm and you don't have Algae unlocked

[@amateurishauthor2202]

A max upgraded farm with 9 plots gives about 12 food per cycle with max farm plots (might be slightly more or less, but this is roughly the number). An Algae farm gives 5 food per cycle per plot. with the research you have 6 plots per algae farm. Algae farms + plots are 4x6. 2 maxed algae farms + 8ish mushroom farms gave enough food to feed 500 people and keep a 200% saturation, which I think means enough for 10k people (I also had the messhall upgrades which really cuts down on food) I'm not a mathmetition nor do I really know the numbers, but I loved seeing my setup being able to provide for the entire ship despite taking up roughly half of the sector (a dedicated ship dock was provided for ice in the same room, it was cool)

[@Nilaus]

Late game tech is obviously better, but not available when you need to scale up. 2000 cryopods in Chapter 2 need Crop Farms and you most likely don't have Algae unless you skipped other more important tech

[@amateurishauthor2202]

@@Nilaus even in the early game, 2 crop farms with 8 mushroom farms (1 in each sector except for the farm one, and 4 in the recycling sector) will keep you covered until then, heck I upgraded to Algae not out of necessity (with 5000 pops) but because I wanted to use Algae and see how much better it would be, and I jumped from 124% to 200+%, I had one algae farm prior to this stuffed in a corner, once I had my recycling sector up I never needed to move again. can't wait to see the final form of your sector when you upgrade to algae.

[@lake258]

Big batteries are just waste of space. First half of the game you barely need to move, so micromanaging it all a bit once in a while is not a big deal. However, later when you really need to maneuver, smallest batteries are recharging literally while the station completes the maneuver and you're good to go almost instantly, while the big ones are like "what? recharging? oh boy we're just getting started..." This tech would make much more sense in this game if it would be completely reversed. First batteries are big in space and cost less alloys, store much power but slow recharging, so you're solving your capacity issue with a single bulding just like most of the other ones in the beginning of the game. And then you develop smaller batteries wich demand more alloys (also add an electronic cost like 4 per one small battery, and pump up the electronics production rate and demands in the entire game), less space effective, but recharge faster.

[@alexrybin3798]

I tried this game. Played 18 hours, its just not fun after some time. Not builder any more, but survival. Nah, not for me.

[@Nilaus]

I love the combination, but it is obviously not for everyone. The design aspect is as intricate as in Cosmoteer

[@alexrybin3798]

@@Nilaus That's for sure, i just expected more like Dyson sphere, with idea of building your station and jumping between stars. and constantly improving your efficiency.