Another Question: There was a companion Mod, I remember reading it allows to teleport with your ship to progenitor space. (I can not find the post anymore) Is that still a thing or did it die?
Not played much lately and have started a couple of games (difference scenarios) only to abandon them as I wasn't really enjoying it. My latest one has been a Reforged Eden ocean-world start, and it's been a little tricky... I spawn in, plop, right into the ocean just off a very small island and green blobs of death are already heading towards me from the Patrol Vessel right above me. Yikes. I dive under water - so glad that works properly to hide from things now - wait for it to move off a little and head for the shore. I frantically grab a few food items, the odd tree and a couple of surface rocks before the PV starts to head back my way - it appeared to be engaged with something off to the North - plus there are Drones heading for me. I dig a hole and climb in it. That was basically the start for me. That hole has expanded a bit where I originally camped out, and now has a small base underground. The thing is, there are still Drones and that Patrol Vessel buzzing the area, I had hoped the PV might leave for a bit, but it's just been circling the area for a good hour or so now. I've found decent resources, the ocean floor is pretty rich with Iron, some Copper and loads of Silicon. It also has some rarer stuff to like Sathium and Gold. I really hope Eleon expand on the under water aspect of this game, the oceans are lovely. Anyway, here I am with reasonable resources for a starter SV or a better HV but I'm stuck underground. I could make a break for it once I have a viable vessel ready, but it'll be touch and go with that PV staying so close. I'd LOVE to shoot it down, securing the island, but I don't think that's viable with the resources available to me. I likely could make a dash for it, if I time it well, but I sorta want to dispose of that PV. So, how would people handle this scenario? Very basic underground base, ok resources, but far from excessive and a PV staying close.
That's one of the more challenging starts, and I do enjoy it. I like your idea of hunkering down and building underground right away; I'll have to try that next time. I usually just run away, probably dying several times. I feel like the start position is deliberately under the patrol vessel's range, so moving away as fast as possible even with a throwaway HV/SV is my usual move. Once I get far enough away it's safer to start building (usually into a mountain or underground like your start). I've noticed the PV tends to lose interest if you're not in line-of-sight so dodging around hills or digging holes helps to turn it back to it's path. Plus, once you get a SV, even a basic one, you can go to orbit and get resources to build a PV killer.
It's a fun one, I've done it before but usually had a short while before the PV showed up, this time it was waiting for me lol. Gonna have to assess what I can build with the resource I have. I've taken down PV's with hand weapons before, depending on the vessel and the planet's gravity, just taking out a thrusters or two can be enough to cause it to crash. However, hit detection is RUBBISH on moving vessels, which adds to the challenge, doubt I could build enough missiles to counter that. I could build an SV now and probably carry most of my resources with me, would have to leave behind any base blocks though as I'd never be able to carry that much weight and volume on a basic SV. I have largely exhausted the easy to get to resources in the ocean - wish we had a "sea bike" or diver propulsion vehicle in the game for getting about a little faster under water... That way I'd be able to get further afield for resources while remaining undetected and safe from fire. There is an entire chunk of game under the water, with just a few additional tools. I recall when SV's worked under water, albeit not very well, complete underwater bases were a thing. It was cool.
While I could readily escape now in a moderately decent SV or a luxurious HV, I've chosen to dig in and try to take down that Patrol Vessel. I've lost a number of turrets so far but I've been rebuilding them. I have three Cannon Turrets, targetting the PV's Turrets, a Minigun Turret for Drones and some Sentries in case any troops land. I'm doing ok, but there is one (vanilla) issue... Hitting a moving PV's Turrets is very difficult! When aiming manually, I know I'm lined up perfectly on the PV's Turret - the Cannon is insta-hit after all - but many of the shots "miss" due to, I assume, how colliders don't really work so well when something's moving. Switch things around when I'm in a Cannon Turret laden CV and they rip through Base Turrets in no time. So, basically, the fight is VERY uneven here. The PV can shoot me from further away and it's shots always seem to hit the intended target. Conversely, while a BA and static defences are supposed to be better, the hits simply don't appear to be registering due to the aforementioned issue. Perhaps this is, in part, why Player CV's had their planetary weapons so heavily nerfed. On paper a Base's Turrets might be better, but in practise they're simply not hitting their moving targets so well. I mean, three Cannon Turrets wailing on a single (nearest) PV Turret should reduce it to dust pretty quickly - I know a CV's Cannon Turrets would certainly reduce a BA's Turrets pretty fast. This appears to be another case of a core weakness in the base game impacting things. While I'd like it in the game, I don't need to walk around my ships at this time - the biggest potential feature claiming the current colliders implementation needs improving first - but I would like my hit-scan guns to hit what they're aiming at - especially one that specialises in taking out blocks. I would build missile turrets, but the resources for that are not present in in the area.
Quick query: I managed to obtain a Bomb Launcher from a shot-down Bomber Drone. I fitted this to an SV of my own and it works. However, it seems to consume ammo too quickly. For example I had Twelve rounds of ammo I'd scavenged, so not much. However, it appears to use more than one round per shot as it ran out too quickly. I was simply making "bombing runs" on a PV and I was out of ammo after about six such runs.
Another query if I may... I've had a Planetary Patrol Vessel respawn for the first time, I've never had this occur before. Is this something Reforged Eden has changed, or has this been added in vanilla without my notice? Reason I ask is that while it respawning is of course welcome, there are a couple of issues: i) It respawned within five minutes of the prior one despawning after being shot down. Not an issue on its own, but... ii) It respawned right on top of me, not at a PV pad as I'd have expected...not that I've found the PV pad mind you. iii) There appears to be an odd radar (not map) ghost of the old PV that sticks around for ages* * As I'd placed my core in it, it persisted in the registry too.
Back in the day the patrol vessels, when and if they actually did respawn, they would respawn back at their POI and then have to make the slow trek back towards the player. How long that took depended on how far the patrol vessels home POI was from you. This was back when base attack drones spawned in at the drone base and had to make their way around the planet to your base to attack it. Now drones no longer spawn in at the drone base, they spawn in like a kilometer from the player (maybe actually less). I'm pretty sure when the devs changed this behavior for the drones they also changed it for the patrol vessels as well. I could be wrong, but this is what my limited experience with PVs lately has led me to believe. They copied the spawn/respawn behavior from the drones. I sure do miss the days when drones and such didn't just suddenly appear in firing range. I'm so sick of the "pop in" effect and it just keeps getting worse with more and more things.
Thanks. I do recall a time when damaged PV's would return to their landing pad and be repaired. It thought that was pretty cool. However, I cannot recall ever having the PV respawn once destroyed. I loved it when Drones would approach from the direction of their base, it led to some great gameplay. If you were able to scout the location of the Drone Base, you could place your defences with that in mind, knowing which way the Drones would likely approach your base. Same was true for Drone reinforcements for POI's. Back in the day, when this was true, I'd tweak the game so POI's would have large amounts of Drones defending them, once killed, you'd get a procession of Drones heading to the POI. The closer the POI was to the Drone Base, the more quickly its reinforcements would arrive. This meant those closer to the Drone Base POI's could be really hard to crack, with reinforcement Drones arriving in moments. Fun times. It was also great when you got the warning that a Drone wave was on the way, you could pre-emptively head out in an SV, HV or even CV to intercept them...or even place little Outposts alone the route and fly to those. I feel that way of doing things added a lot more to the game. Sure, the route might be predictable, but rather than just have the Drones - and CV it seems - pop in close by (current method) just have them set a waypoint or two then fly to the player's base. I'd love to see the old implementation return if base attacks ever get another balance pass. As an aside, I was thinking that Drone wrecks should be a container for Ammo and Fuel, but perhaps the wreck model should be reclaimable with the Multi-tool, and that's where the other materials come from. Just a random thought.
Me again... Does anyone know what's up with Drones and if it's a vanilla or RE issue? They're just not flying properly most of the time, wobbling over the landscape, tipping over and generally acting like they drunk. The odd one will occasionally appear to work normally, but for the most part they're a bit broken. I've right now got several Minigun Siege Drones approaching my base, except they keep snagging - as if they're stuck on something - yet they're approaching over an ocean. They're also facing 90 degrees off from their direction of travel, so they're flying sideways towards the Base. They seem unable to bring their guns to bear, so are being shot down with ease.
I'm experiencing the same, though I only play RE, nothing else. They are bugged I guess, sometimes they ignore the player, next time come straight at you.
Crabs drones! A new sneaky sort that want your guns to think they are going the other way. Very clever, these Zirax.
It's a bug with vanilla, with that specific drone model. It's been reported by multiple players (in vanilla) and the report's been completely ignored.
Ah, glad I read this. I was just going to report that the aerodrones seemed to be behaving a bit wonky.
It's finally been seen! https://empyriononline.com/threads/large-drones-not-attacking-correctly-00372.100320/
Good news. I'm hesitant to report bugs when playing a non-vanilla scenario. The devs used to be fairly receptive to reviewing Project Eden / Reforged Eden saves when reporting a bug, as these were very popular scenarios. I got the impression though, perhaps incorrectly, that they don't really look at reports for anything non-vanilla now. I generally don't play vanilla other than to test, such as with the recent new game starts and the space start scenario.
With your extensive knowledge of modding Empyrion, do you know why the Turret targetting delay actually exists? Is it some fundamental flaw in the game engine / Unity, some script / process that only runs every n seconds to check for targets? It's been a problem for so long now, yet is such a fundamental game mechanic, that it's concerning that it's still this bad. For example, I'm approaching a resource deposit in my "Freighter" CV. It's not meant for combat, but it can defend its self against Drones (Minigun Turrets) and ground troops (Sentries) while also having a small shield to take the odd hit. However, it has a hard time vs. just a handful of troops due to the turret targetting delay. It has FOUR Sentries on the front, the idea being I can approach an area while the front Sentries clear out any troops while the shield tanks the damage. I then park over the deposit and mine using the Drone. However, as the delay between the Sentries - all FOUR of them - switching to the next closest target get be upwards of ten seconds, I often find myself having to retreat from just three Zirax Troops on the ground. It's a little silly. I know this is likely something you cannot address through your work, but I'm interested on your insight into the whys of this long-time issue.
No. There's a fixed limit of 1 recipe per item. The deconstructor reverses the recipe. Ice already turns into water, so deconstructing water would give ice.
