Oh boy, years ago I used to really love them. Mainly because the mechanic was simpler and they were pretty op lol. But I could also set them all up on the same planet and admire my achievement. It's not like it was that easy to get all of them. It still took work and effort and the rewards for engaging with that mechanic were really good.

But now? With that whole genetics system? And the queens having limited life spans and when the queen dies the whole hive dies off? Oof. I have to constantly babysit my bees and wait for larvae and identify them hoping for minor improvements in stats... and I can't just leave and take a break exploring without storing all of my bees away in a box lest my best stock just dies off in my absence.

I'm sure there's great reward waiting on the other end of this grind, but compared to how easy it is to get resources by just running around with a mining laser and setting up various extractors and blast furnaces... yeah.

I want to love bees again, so I'll definitely keep trying with them now, but just the agony of inventory management (so many duplicates of just plain honey bees with minor stat variations) and constantly scrutinizing their stats makes my brain melt. Not to mention the pain of having adhd and the risk of me getting distracted for a couple minutes too long, losing me lots of treasured bees, is frustrating.

It just feels much too finicky, tedious and punishing for an entirely optional game mechanic. Once I'm engaged with it I can't just leave it running in the background while I do other things, it demands all my attention in a game that has so many other things to do. I don't know if I have the stamina to try to find out if the rewards at the end are worth it. I miss the old bees.

So to anyone who's made it far in the current bee mechanic: Does it get better? Is it worth it? Is it fun? How do you engage with this system in a way that is enjoyable and satisfying to you? I want to know if there's a better approach I could be taking to it.