I can only build a depot, not any housing. How I'm supposed to get civilians?

The documentation is terribly lacking.

By researching Steam Power you unlock Containerized housing units.
- Tips and tricks will unlock as you progress through the game normally, most important information is documented there.
- New features unlock with existing research, so take a look at the research tree to see what.

I read all the entries on tips and tricks and I still have no idea how to get civilians, I don't know if its bugged or anythign but I ahve everything researched and this is all I got:

https://prnt.sc/UWu0LG4TeRMI

I found out “the hard way” how to build them. As the mod author says, it’s unlocked by researching Steam Power, which gives access to a housing that produces them.

Now, regarding the “understanding flow,” there are issues. This isn’t mentioned in the initial documentation or on the mod’s front page (I don’t know why the mod author doesn’t just ask an AI to summarize their tips and place it there—oh well).

Then, when you start getting tips, the only one about civilians only appears when you research the steam engine! So the core concept of the mod—having civilians—is not explained for a long time. (I'm playing on ultra death world with Rampants, and steam tech only came after 6 hours of gameplay!)

You start with a depot, but you can’t do anything with it, and there’s nothing explaining what to do next.

The mod is probably awesome—it clearly shows a lot of effort went into it. I’m almost ready with my new base to finally plop down lots of houses and such. But the explanations are lacking, and it’s not because the mod is complex—it’s the information flow that’s off. As I said, at worst, just ask an AI to make a summary and put it somewhere.

I have housing, none of the housing options actually produce civilians, which one am I supposed to use? I let a frontier house run with fuel for several weeks straight and I didn't get a single civie out of it. All it did was generate demand and unregulated supply.

You need a depot nearby, and then select a recipe in the housing, adding the required objects, like money if you want to produce privates.

I did that with a frontier house, it didn't spawn any civies, just demand and unregulated supply.

It's really not that hard to understand.
1. Unlock Steam Engines (This is quite literally gets done with in 1 minute of game play as long as you have more than 1 burner miner and stone furnace)

2a. Place some containerized housing, select a recipe, and provide it with a fuel source

2b. depending on the recipe there are different inputs/outputs
Dystopian Housing gives Dissidents(100%) and Unregulated Supply (250)
Poor Housing gives Dissidents (50%), Civilians (50%) and Demand (250)
Frontier Housing gives Civilians(50%), Soldiers (50%), Unregulated Supply (250), and Demand (500)
Military Housing gives Soldiers (100%) and Demand (750) at the Cost of 125 Coins per Craft Cycle
Basic Housing gives Civilians (100%) and Demand (1.2k) at the Cost of 250 Coins per Craft Cycle

1. You must have a Depot withing range of the houses (The housing pings if you are missing a depot a couple seconds after choosing a recipe if you are missing one)

2. People will move into the housing during the crafting cycle. It doesn't happen instantly. It takes around 416 seconds approx. for someone to move in as the recipe shows for crafting time. From what I've seen its about 1 person moves in per day per house, if housing is available.

3. Houses can only "house" so many people. For Containerized housing it is 2 per house. (As far as I know overcrowding only happens if houses get destroyed or changing recipes resulting in insufficient housing)

4. Understanding Demographics. To put it simply its who is living there based on the recipe in the housing unit. BUT this isn't always the case. For instance take frontier housing as an example 50/50 Civilian/Soldier right. Well lets say you have another building is used the Civilian that is living there in one of its recipes. Well now the house has 1 Empty resident slot. Well that doesn't always mean another Civilian will move in. Its a 50/50 Demographic. So another soldier has a 50% chance to move in resulting in a Frontier Housing with 2 Soldiers living there even though its demographic might say otherwise

5. If you have too many of a certain type of citizen either find a recipe that consumes them so new people can move in, or build more housing using a different type of housing recipe.

TBH I could probably build a wiki at this point, but its really not all that complicated, You just have to slow down for 2 seconds and read what is in the Tips/Tricks Menu and the Item/Recipe Panels.

Tips and tricks menu was originally a bit buggy for me because I went into editor mode with /cheat to try and study the mechanics of the mod before starting a save so it bypassed all the trigger techs.

In the end I figured out what the issue was, I set it to peaceful with no enemies and that blocks civies from spawning because they're coded as biters.