I'm making a new series of tutorial and getting started videos for Empyrion. The first is of course getting started on your first day. Feel free to suggest other topics.
Episode 2 is up, hints and tips for building in general. (I'll be doing a video for each type of build as well.)
Outstanding video sir! I feel like a &$%#ing IDIOT - I have been using the console to move the time around, I had no idea that there was a handy little icon on the settings menu for moving the time. That will help me so very much when building new wrecks, ruins, and artifacts. Thank you.
Damnit Lift, I gotta offer some constructive criticism. Your second video was an excellent intro to building in creative, I even learned something I did not know, but the first was a bit rushed. The clipping speed could be over-whelming to someone who is brand new to the information, OR has already tried, found it challenging, and then found your videos out of frustration. If you can, slow it down to the measured pace of the second video. You hit some bugs(which was hilarious) and you did not mention some key points - time of day, the importance of using seaweed for the drill(you did mention where to get it, but not why,) what you should do if you want to build your base above ground, the importance of the day vs nighttime - the fact that predators do not come out during the first night, and the possible differences in starting difficulty strategies, etc. One thing I really really liked, though I do not know if it was intentional or not, was the attacking of the raptors and dying. DO THAT AGAIN. The last patch cycle saw the triceratops and alien assassin increase in speed, now it appears the raptors are dangerous(not only faster, but increased range?! Wow.) Along with mentioning that some animals will decide to turn and fight(along with friends,) I think it is useful for people to know what to do when they die, and although you did mention the importance of creating a base for the use of the large constructor, the other reason for a base is the clone chamber(which, although you might be waiting for an additional episode to introduce, might be nice for beginners - even over the large constructor.) Leave out the attacking of drones, and POI's and save that for a sort of enemy round up tutorial. One thing you should keep IN is the fact that a timer starts after you power on your base that leads to incoming attack waves - and I think it might even start after placement of even the fuel tank or p-gen. As silly as it might be to us, from the outset, be sure to remember to say what key to press when doing "x." Example: even when you first land, "Press F to access your escape pod." Last but not least, the motor bike is very handy for the beginning. A short tutorial on how to ride and drive it would be measurably helpful.
A lot of people also spent a lot of time in creative removing blocks with the R&R tool. (It's not like you'll find that in the list of key configs.) This is really awesome feedback and will help me improve (or try to, if I remember as I'm recording, LOL) the series. Thanks for taking the time to write it. BTW the raptor thing was an ad-lib. I figured it would be most triumphant in the highly unlikely event I succeeded, and good for a laugh if I didn't. It was only afterward I realized it was a good opportunity to talk about recovering your stuff.
Nice video. Perfectly paced - not to fast, not too slow. You cut right to each item in the base and explain its purpose without any delay. Fantastic job mentioning the pressing of "P" for the control panel and I loved the bright bold white letters indicating how to turn lights on and off. I enjoyed the fact that you very fluidly handled the turret not immediately firing on the raptor, nicely finessed. The end, with the slow addition of the chill techno music, was a nice touch - gives people a helpful hint that things are ending. I noticed a few, comparatively, small things: When you are talking about the blueprints, you were using large stacks of materials - it might be nice, in some future video, to mention the super handy feature of right-clicking to separate a stack in half. I did not know this handy feature for some time, and it lead to some.... awkward storage situations. Also, I like the fact that you mentioned the advanced constructor as an upgrade to the large constructor and the increased number of blueprints, but you forgot to mention that it also builds 33% faster than the larger constructor(at least as far as I know in 3.x.) You forgot to mention that the growing lights need to be 2 blocks above the growing plots for the sprouts to grow. I dun be needin my Durians! As far as placing turrets; the turret base being 3x3 and that they can reach the ammo as long as the turret and the ammo box are physically touching a surface in a given base(including an example, like, "even upside down".) I loved the explanation of the control panel, but that will inevitably lead to more questions that people will have(specifically regarding groups)... maybe for a "advanced empyrion strategies video?" The drone attacks section was nice, but short. Further explanation of the difficulty settings relative to the drone frequency and duration would be useful - but I also understand that this is a "base basics" video. Edit: Also, Whenever I play the game, the unfriendly npc predators do not seem to show up until the second night even on the most difficult settings - you mentioned that you will need a base even within 1 hour, and that could stress some people. And at some point mention the precise toggle for the drone attacks - that they can occur once you even place a p-gen, let alone have a base powered on. Edit 2: Another thought occurred to me; the trickiness of the placement of blueprints. That they can be placed so that parts of the the structure could appear underground, or, far more troubling; unsupported. _____ I hope these notes are handy. You are doing a terrific job, and as far as I know, are the ONLY one doing it. It is much needed even with the alpha and beta stages of the game, and you appear to have an excellent grasp of the mechanics of youtube.
Yes your feedback is useful and thanks for taking the time to write it out! Heh, splitting stacks, coming from minecraft this was automatic. It would have been surprising to me if it didn't work that way, LOL. I plan on doing one specifically for base-building so that will be where I go into more details about things you might want to know about each type of block and setting up the control panel. And a "fighting stuff" video will cover more on the drone attacks. The settings in the yaml appear to be by time, which is what I mean with the "one hour" thing. If you run around the planet and never let the sun set (I like to do this on Akua since there's no need to settle down) I think it's still the "time elapsed since playfield loaded" (or "time elapsed while on playfield") which determines when hostiles can spawn. I haven't quite nailed down the triggers on drone attacks yet, for example what qualifies as "night" on the night triggers. Is "night" when the sun sets, or at midnight, or a randomly chosen time between dusk and dawn? And from which perspective? Is it when "night" is where you are located, where the target base is located, where the drone base is located, at 0,0 on the map? BTW if you place a turret (or any part) out on an arm of blocks and then remove the blocks, as long as that piece is touching the ground and survives SI it will still function as part of the base.
Another helpful thing I have learned since watching this series: the the timing might be based on the start of the play field... nice. But then here is something tricky; it is likely more of a fluke, but I just started a game on seed 526362 on Omicron and I played for several hours before the critters came out - it did seem to correspond with the night time, but they randomly appeared in the middle of the night(there goes my theory.) Then to make things more interesting, I have all the difficulties on hardest setting, but still no drone attacks with a full and running base? Weird? I am trying to pin down all the variables here - at least how they interact with each other, but am not having much success.
Episode 4 goes through basic construction of a hover vessel, what the extra parts can do for you, and some of the things you can do with your HV.
Episode 5 covers the new hover mining. I am in the process of getting the blueprint(s) uploaded and annotations added.
