How do automations actually work?

[tracian]

I must be especially dense today, but I can't figure out how Automations are supposed to work and I can't find a guide anywhere.

I mean, the obvious useful setup would be: "buy the highest-level stuff as soon as it is possible, and when the next color becomes available go buying that" - but I can't find any way to do that, nor anything remotely similar.

Can anyone explain like I'm five, please?

[Kyouko Tsukino]

All automations that are about buying things will buys the lowest item available. Since all things increase costs gradually, this means it will buy things evenly anyways.

[fractalgem]

Originally posted by tracian:

I must be especially dense today, but I can't figure out how Automations are supposed to work and I can't find a guide anywhere.

I mean, the obvious useful setup would be: "buy the highest-level stuff as soon as it is possible, and when the next color becomes available go buying that" - but I can't find any way to do that, nor anything remotely similar.

Can anyone explain like I'm five, please?

The first automation just purchases color wheel upgrades whenever you have money to buy one.
You should set this to purchase all colors whenever it can. Check all the boxes.

Auto Ascending should usually be left checked, except maybe, MAYBE, right around the time you first get it.

Later automations become a bit more complicated, like letting you create a looping list of when to promote (For instance, when you don't know what else to do, set prestige gain multiplier to 1000, and promotion gain to 20 levels in each category. You can expirament from this starting point and adjust depending on your current point of progress.)

[tracian]

Thanks, guys, but my question was a bit different. I meant: "what the beep does stuff like '10%' mean?"

Of course I know percentages... but the point is: ten percent of WHAT, applied WHEN to WHAT AGAIN, and HOW does it relate with the other boxes?

[malogoss]

10% of what?
What upgrade are you talking about?

[Kyouko Tsukino]

Ascensions. They're the only automation section that have a percentage attached.

So the percentage is, by simple logical chain, percentage of ascensions you want to buy. Since it will buy the most it can of the cheapest it can, I never saw a point to setting it at anything other than 100%.

[malogoss]

Okay, I think there's a chance I figured what you are talking about.

Automate buyables (colors)

It can be set to off or 10% or 50% or 100%.

Off is self explanatory.
10% means "buy if the cost represents 10% or less of your current score"

50% and 100%, same idea, replace 10% with 50% or 100%.

[Imago]

The % is the amount of your current total revolutions (the most basic currency) it will spend.

For a while 10% is okay if you're still playing partially manually so you can do things like ascend red and then buy a bunch of it, but soon you'll just leave it on 100% forever.

[tracian]

Oh! I see now!

Thanks for the help, guys!

...but wouldn't have it been way more sensible if the dev took the time to explain it?