The one with no shields on the temperate starter planet with Hardened steel and Armored windows around the core. You want spoilers for all the 10 drone bases ?
Just to remember: In 1.4.6+ explosives can damage shields again according to patch notes, but if the drone base is not shielded any longer then it should be even easier - at least when it comes to destroy the core or generators or the blocks around them.
The explosive device is a very bad thing to use to destroy CV/BA hull blocks. Even if the material is not the hardest one, it's the way damage distribution works that makes explosive devices uneffective. Here's a quick test to show this. The explosive device's damage and multipliers can be found in the EClassConfig.ecf : Blast Radius : 2 Blast Damage : 5000 (damage multipliers) hull/ hullarmored : 0.3 metal/ metalhard : 3 shield : 0.2 Since we're dealing with hullarmored in my test, it means that the total damage distributed can not be higher than +/- 1650 hp (rounding numbers here) ( 0.3 x 5000 = 1650 ) In the first setup there are 2 layers of hullarmored blocks (2nd layer is below) and I put the explosive device on top of the center block. This is the resulting damage distributed to blocks (numbers shown are the remaining hitpoints per block) : Only 4 blocks were damaged, for a total of 189 damage points distributed. None of the lower layer blocks received damage. This is the typical situation where we put the device on a flat wall. Here is another setup, this time 3 layers thick, and I put the explosive device in the hole in the middle. Here is the result (numbers shown are the remaining hitpoints per block) : The only blocks to receive damage are shown in red and can all be seen here ( 5 blocks total), meaning that on the layers not seen from this angle there is no damage to blocks. Only the block on which I put the explosive device got damaged on the 2nd layer. The total damage distributed out of the possible 1650 on the 5 affected blocks is 558 points. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't know how damage is spread or calculated, but one thing is sure : using explosive devices on these blocks is pure waste of time and resources. This is why I recommended to use ship weapons instead, where at least we can focus all damage on 1 block with a much higher fire rate. The explosive devices affect blocks in a radius and this is not needed because players (and even a small ship) can pass in a 1 block space. All damage to surrounding blocks is useless, and it can make surrounding devices explode/ damage the player. .
Thanks. I also cleared the POI's around the Drone Base and then i run out of Explosives, i was simply not prepared for the Core to be walled in. Next Time i bring more Firepower or bring a special Vessel.
Here's a better picture of my POI buster. Some players used to share these on the forum some time ago. I know some servers prohibit usage of these, but frankly they are so small that it makes the ride very easy in a POI. Sometimes I have to cut vertical corners to be able to go down elevator shafts with this. I remove the docking pad when I use it and I put it back on when I park it in my CV. You can see from the other picture I posted previously that it has no problem navigating in a 1 - block wide/high corridor, and no problem turning corners.
I tried HV first (not to undermine but for inside the POI) and I kept getting stuck everywhere or banging my head on the ceiling, because ... it's hovering. That little space under the HV was too much. Most of the time, the small SV is "gliding" flat on the floor, which leaves a 1 small block space overhead.
Back when I first started playing this, the first two vessels I ever made were an SV and HV pair - both generic over-engineered of course but tightly packed with equipment. The SV was designed to carry the HV - to the moon to get cobalt, to near POIs so between them they could carry away the loot with the SV did the bombardment, except for shielded POIs where the HV did the deed by tunnelling under and blowing it open from below (once upgraded with a couple of rocket turrets). They have sort of been refreshed as the game has changed so they both still work (on my workshop still). I dont really use these two any more (I have other specialized assault SVs packed with more weapons) but this thread made me think of them and maybe its time for a revamp/rebuild of them as this is what they were largely designed for - POI abuse The HV miner can upgrade to T3 to have a shield, rocket or plasma turrets and has quite a bit of cargo space and a cabin in the back, but still not much bigger than a typical 6 drill miner. Functionally two of the best vessels I have ever made even if the designs are a bit simple and dated.
Very cool design for the SV. The "mole" is nice too. I never really used HV for digging, apart from a very basic set of devices slapped on a core, with an inverted drill turret. I would mine all around the HV with the turret (upside-down because they don't pitch very low but can aim almost to ceiling, or ground when inverted) then I would get out and mine under the HV to get back to floor level. I had a small SV resting on the floor around and mined under it so it came down the hole with me. When the whole deposit was exhausted I would simply multi-tool the HV in a SV crate, then fly the SV back home. That was prior to the SV-HV docking, but I still use this method because these are very specialized designs that serve no other purpose, and my CV hangars (and CV themselves) are quite small. I don't see things that way - at all. This is the future, with warp drives / teleporters / constructors / wifi devices and blocks transfer, so come on... Presently, the military use uranium enriched projectiles that can pierce through thick armor, they also have bunker-piercing missiles. Jump in the Empyrion future and we're still condemned to pre-2000 methods to break walls and doors in buildings ? That doesn't fit. I think it's more "player abuse" when we can't use the tools the game offers us for things that sound logical for a sci-fi setup. The structural blocks are not even full masses, they are merely metal plates on a cube/ shape frame, if we calculate the mass correctly. So why should it be so hard to pierce or destroy these blocks ? For Xeno steel, I'm ok with that, it's alien and can be deemed "more advanced technology", but for all human-made materials (for alien bases... hem...) I don't see the point. When making the "puzzle" I think it's reasonable to expect players to try to force their ways in and around, I don't think it's very cool to break immersion by making things that are normally "destructible" suddenly indestructible because in a different "core" structure. I do understand the "scenario" purpose, but I dislike being stuck with this problem. There is no visual clue (just like for shields) that a structure cannot be damaged, the player only realizes this after wasting ammo and getting slapped a few times. If the Lore supports a special material to be indestructible, it could then be visible and players would make up their mind when facing this. Now that we can use decals in POI, I do expect these to be used wisely since they suffer no damage and can be turned on/ off with a control block or with signals. So instead of making a whole structure indestructible, then going back to each block and suck 1 hp (to save damage state so player can destroy these) with a handgun, the POI can be made all destructible and only the puzzle-required parts protected by decals over blocks/ doors. And decals can have custom textures that are not found on other blocks, so this can serve the "lore" aspect of an indestructible material not found anywhere else. Or they could simply be semi-transparent with some kind of shield effect, like a "secondary shield" independant from the main POI shields, just protecting the walls behind or a vault. It could also simply be a new material category that has insane amount of HP that players will simply not try to destroy, but the texture has to give some clue. It's a bit sad that players have to constantly rely on spoilers or ask on forums for solutions to POI puzzles because of this confusion.
^ I miss the warheads from space engineers - in the large block variant it will basically erase a 20+ large diameter sphere - including terrain I wonder if an alternative to non destructable blocks is to make loot get destroyed. Then, if you decide to brute force the POI, then maybe you trigger its self destruct or whatever and loose any loot if you are not careful. This way, POIs can be normal, and if you want the loot - you need to play the designers game or at least be very very careful. Maybe add a T2 forcefield that is also a local strong shield barrier. (which would be really useful on carrier CVs too). This would suit me - sometimes I just want the thing dead and I dont care about the loot as I already have too much of anything it could possibly contain and have long since got RSI in my wrist/arm from repeat clicking containers...
Loot WILL get destroyed, and in worst case it will despawn after a delay. That can be drastically modified with a very short timer, in the EClassConfig (DropContainer, TimeStayAfterDeath). Of course, this will affect all cargo/ containers using this entity as fallback when destroyed. But if the idea is to have players being more careful, then they will be more careful but all the time. When going to combat with a ship with precious inventory, the risk will be real... In a "global" rework, like a Reforged type conversion, that could be a solution, if other aspects of the game are balanced to compensate. Lose loot/ inventory easily when careless, but don't require grind to get it back. The main concern really is that some objects must remain indestructible to avoid breaking quests. Players can get a quest to "infiltrate and talk to prisoner" for example, and they go in guns blazing... well I call that "quest failure" if the poor guy gets killed by the player, very simply. This relies on quest design, to make a long story short. Put damn prisoner in a transparent indestructible cell... The whole POI can be vaporized, and there's 1 block still standing, with a guy waiting in there.
