Once your Overseer's Office is operational, the Administration Terminal generates governance events on a real-world timer ranging between fifteen minutes and two hours while you play. Critically, a settlement never stacks a multi-day inbox of unanswered paperwork while you are away exploring another galaxy. The terminal holds strictly one pending decision at any moment, pausing further event rolls until you step inside or answer your communicator prompt. Dropping by briefly at the start and end of a play session advances a town far faster than bingeing once a week.
Why decisions stay inside the game
Because each governance card triggers dynamic NPC dialogue, trait replacements, construction plot placement, or expedition timers inside the live simulation, Atlas Field Kit shows when a decision is waiting on your desk, and Field Kit cannot cast a vote on your behalf. Queuing a town rename, a warehouse collection, or a pad teleport through Save all leaves your pending governance card untouched so you can teleport straight into the office and weigh the options in person.
Five categories of Overseer ruling
Construction choices pit two proposed structures against each other for your town's single build slot, letting you pick between economic halls like Markets and Docks or residential Dwellings. Policy proposals permanently overwrite an older negative perk or add a new green buff, trading slight upkeep increases for lasting boosts to Productivity, Happiness, or Sentinel stealth. Citizen Requests ask for a small handful of chromatic materials or Units to fund a festival that lifts Happiness. Visitor Arrivals introduce a named specialist whose onboarding fee adds minor upkeep in exchange for +1 Population and a strong permanent trait, while Citizen Disputes ask you to judge between two neighbours.
Reading predicted outcomes and expedition traps
Always read the bracketed green and red outcome tags beneath each button rather than trusting dramatic citizen speeches. During disputes, look closely at evidence icons or dialogue hints indicating who stole goods or fabricated a claim, and favour the outcome that protects Happiness or avoids adding an 'Atmosphere of Suspicion' penalty. Be especially selective with Citizen Expedition requests: poorly equipped outings on hostile planets can kill two or three settlers outright, erasing hours of hard-won Population growth for a handful of Nanites you could refine in thirty seconds.