I’ve returned to Empyrion after a few years, since my return (about 15hrs or so) I’ve realised I’ve accomplished sweet bugger all other then have the makings of a small base with walls and roof, some solar panels and a small constructor. I thought to myself, where did all that time go. Most of it was trial and error with building, blocks falling off roofs etc, rocket drones smashing my two beginner turrets, getting poisoned and not having the mata to craft the antidote. Right now I’ve just repaired the free HV in 1.5 story, and I feel like I’m the turtle of turtles lol. Still haven’t found any promethium yet, maybe it’s much much further away from my starter area. I’d be interested to know how you all play, rushed? Fancy builds?
Raw Promethium is usually found in irradiated biomes on temperate starts, so usually quite far. I don’t build fancy, usually. My fanciest build is the Hyperion on the workshop.
Every playthrough I try to not rush... survive, build a HV, build a SV, explore the starter planet, build a fancy-ish base & garden, explore the moon, level up during storyline, build a CV, establish everything and raid the Zirax off the planet - then leave the planet with an open end...
My style would best be described as more like easy-going than casual. I play as a kind of "just chill" aim. I do set small goals, like "get enough resources to build X", and "Mine all the resources on this rock", but don't get in a rush to do anything. I generally make a small base at the beginning, with the intention to move later, but almost always end up adding to the base, making it bigger and bigger. Then, when I have everything mined, and tons of food, Off I go to explore.....the next thing. I do try to get an SV as quickly as I can, just to make travel easier.
I never really liked the early game, hence i always rush it and get to midgame asap. Having a little space station as base/resource bunker/crafting spot and then flying around with CVs and some SVs parked on it is what i really love about this game. Exploring planets, depositing auto miners so i can build bigger projects, seeing the galaxy is what really gets me hooked every time.
Travelling. We leave the starter planet as soon as possible and move through the galaxy. Visit all the different planets and POIs, decimate LEGACY, be always curious what the next system has to offer. The Free Colonist bases are all lovingly designed, my respect. And we move on. We are currently in Kriel space. We would like to see Kriel POIs and ships in "real", not only in Vids from J.Randall
Nice! I’ve just unlocked the warp drive today, just need to do some exploring to get some mats to make it then I plan to be semi-nomadic making mini bases only for survival
I enjoy the early game survival aspect the most. Almost 2400 hrs and I've only played one game where I left the home system. Sure I've built plenty of CV's, raided just about every POI there is more than once, done 70% of the storyline about 7 times but I still enjoy those first 3 or 4 days from game start the most. Finding that first iron ore rock to craft the Portable Constructor with (oh, I've had games where it was almost sundown on day 1 before finding a damn iron rock), scraping together enough resources to make that first bare-bones HV. Getting the shotgun, getting the sniper rifle, the light armor suit. Taking on Spiders and those lake critters with the Survival Tool. Avoiding Raptors. Discovering and fixing up one of the many shelters as a first (usually only) base. Doing some more exploring to scrape enough material for a lvl 5 starter SV. Finding those first bits of promethium and cobalt. Finally getting the multitool and drill. Exploring the planet with the SV; landing and looting CV wrecks. Shooting down Zirax drones. Having a race to see if I can get a fridge up and running before my mushrooms and meat spoils More recently I've graduated to ice world starts and ignored the storyline freebies (damaged HV, SV and Heidleberg wrecks). Barely surviving those first few sub-zero days and nights while constantly looking out for the Zirax patrol CV (yup, I've been mown down more than once by that thing; had more than one HV have its genny shot out). Staying warm with hot beverages. I've almost frozen or starved to death in several ice start games now. Hunting for Ice Golems from my crappy SV is another favorite thing. Finding oasis and hot springs to swim in That wonderful feeling when you switch the power on in that first windowless concrete shell of a shelter; the hum of the generator; watching the temperature meter climb up to room temperature while it's -35 C outside. Patiently awaiting that first harvest of plant protein from your Ahax grow pots Watching the first hail come down from the comfort of your shelter Usually by the time I've shot down the Patrol CV (from a base with 4 projectile cannons), found enough gold to craft an EVA upgrade and visited the orbiting trading station and checked out which wrecks are at the Polaris minefield I'm already getting the itch to ditch the game and start a new one: maybe an Omicron (non-breathable desert) or default Akua (no comfy crash site zone or story items) next time around. Which wrecks or shelters will I find this time? Will I get caught out in the open by the patrol vessel and get shredded? Let's find out...
@DarkMaid, Great story, it made my imagination fly to all these rare and inhospitable worlds. Robinson Crusoe came to my mind
Before the changes to the story missions were done I basically did the same kind of stuff over and over, being: Getting everything up and running and go raid as much as I could. The last game I played I got engaged with the missions and I thought to myself : this is getting better than ever. Somehow they gave me a reason to keep going beyond my regurar plays. This made me think that a good BGS would contribute so much to the game, it's cool to have scripted missions but it would be nicer to have an additional BGS (story driven perhaps) that could make the game richer an more profound in regard to the possible purposes the player has in the galaxy. Sorry I digressed... The point is that my focus has traversed from a more sandbox approach to an interest in what the story and the galaxy has to offer. And after fiddling a little with those things I always go back to building until the next patch arrives
Because of the current state of the game, a lot of restarting new games are required to see all the updates applied, that's why in my play style I don't focus on elaborated bases (which would require to restart with the same seed nr. and respawning them at the right place), instead I take a big multi-purpose CV with a mining SV, warmonging HVs, exploration and light combat SVs. Doing so I'm pretty quick to setup a new game in any environment. My main bases are saved as blueprints so I can get them in suitable places, or I build new ones, but with my gameplay I don't stay long in one place, so base building is not my stuff, I rather use temporary bases which some POIs offer or actually invaded enemy POIs.
That's fine. This Andromeda has a history, and things are still happening. Without this background - which you learn through the storyline - it wouldn't be a living galaxy, but just a bunch of stars with random people running around.
Generally I build ~2 major bases every playthrough. 1 on the starting planet and another (usually a space station) somewhere around my mining area. This time in Experimental I didn't bother and just followed the storyline primarily but skipped the base tutorial portion. I went from starter HV -> Harvester/Mining HV -> Production HV -> General Purpose SV -> General Purpose CV. It was interesting getting around the issue of not having a BA constructor and the logistics of storage space. The portable constructor is truly an amazing piece of Future Tech. Didn't have a lot of Legacy or Abandoned POIs on my Arid starter so that was a bit limiting as well. I was lucky in that I had 2 CV wrecks (1 on the moon another on the planet) that had a lot of intact thrusters. I didn't leave the starter sector until I had a good supply of o2, fuel and my CV. I will say that while the storyline isn't great and has it's problems I greatly enjoyed the renewed sense of purpose it gave me in game after having played for quite some time. I go through the motions every time and I get to "end game" and I go looking for Legacy ships and I'm sad to admit I have never encountered one since they were added. Even in Legacy space I've only ever found a few Legacy ground POIs and the dead worlds which has been kind of disappointing. Build wise I usually use either what I make myself in creative which is generally skewed more toward utility than aesthetics or an authors work if I locate something that already fills my needs. I find generally the workshop has a lot of great T2 and T4 builds or at least these are the easiest to locate so a lot of my own builds I use are either starter (very low Tier 1 CPU) or intermediate builds. I am working on my skill and style to eventually get to fancy builds. I hope to eventually be able to at least put together a decent HV which still eludes me atm.
