Help needed new player questions

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by shortName, Oct 12, 2023.

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  1. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    First question:

    Can I make it so that some devices in my base (on a planet) automatically switch on/off depending on darkness/light (day/night)?

    I configured most lights and other devices to be turned off through a manual switch to save energy. (It's not necessary but I like not to waste energy.) This allows me to easily turn the base on standby when I'm not at home, saving energy, and to turn it back on when I'm there. At least for the lights, I'd rather have them off during the day, and they can better be switched automatically. Even the hoverbike switches its lights depending on darkness.

    For other devices, like Constructors, I'd like them to switch off once they have finished production (when they're switched on standby, or automatically). With my manual standby switch, I guess I'll have to wait before they're finished before switching to standby for otherwise they'll forget what they were supposed to construct.

    There's no point in powering them when they're idle. Is there a way to do that?

    Is there a way to detect the presence of player(s)in a base, or by its owner, so that things can be automatically switched depending on wheather the base is occupied or not?


    Next question:

    If I can get a multiplayer server to work, would it be possible to 'load' (convert?) my single player game such that I can keep playing the same game on it?


    Third question:

    What about ground water? I didn't dig deep yet but if I were to make an underground base, how do I deal with the ground water? Maybe it hasn't been implemented, but it should be, so I might make a feature suggestion if it hasn't. It could be nice to have fresh ground water and at the same time, you might have to deal with it so that the base doesn't get flooded ...

    In general, bases might get water damage, get swept away or whatever when it rains too much ...


    Fourth question:

    Can I change the properties of multiple/all lights, like changing their range, all at once? Can I set default properties for lights so that I don't need to change them after placing them?


    Fifths question:

    Is it somehow possible to display messages that show up for longer? Like when you pick up something, the info message goes away way too soon. Same goes for some messages in the tutorial.


    Sixth question:

    Do trees and other plants multiply (after cut down)? The answers I could find to that were unclear.
     
    #1
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2023
  2. Insopor

    Insopor Commander

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    First question, no there are no sensors for daylight. Nor for construct completion.
    You can use a motion sensor to only turn things on when you're present. If one sensor isn't enough, you can add multiple to an OR gate.

    Second question: no.

    Third: no ground water.

    Fourth: place all lights in the same device group and you should be able to.

    Fifth. There is a log in the pda, but I don't think it covers anything but mission data.

    Sixth, trees do not grow back.
     
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  3. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    Thanks, I've found it! I'll stick to the switch for now, I'd probably lots of motion sensors ...

    Aww, it would be really nice if we could just move over to a server ...

    Maybe I'll make feature request about ground water.

    I found it; that's nicely done :)

    Yes, there's nothing in it like message log that has all the messages that were displayed.

    Really? Then how are we supposed to fuel things without turning every place into a desert? I need fuel for my ship, for devices, my base, for everything. I've been using biofuel, mostly cutting down only the dead trees, and my base is solar powered with fuel only as reserve.

    And usually, one of the advantages of biofuel is that it comes from sources that regrow. Also, trees usually regrow. How can it be that they don't?
     
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  4. ChiefSgtBradley

    ChiefSgtBradley Ensign

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    Well regarding the fuel: explore and find a promethium deposit, put an autominer on it. With promethium you can make more efficient Fuel. And Autominers don't deplete a deposit per default.

    And then there is also solar power.
     
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  5. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    Well, yes and no ... I don't have the resources yet to build autominers. I've heared about them not depleting deposits, yet there is a difficulty setting about it, and I think was set to deplete them by default.

    Promethium is a resource I have found a limited amount of. I only found, by chance, some stones under water and no deposits yet. So it's still quite limited. There's other way to power the multitool and the drill, so I don't want to waste it.

    Perhaps I could mine asteroids, but I didn't find enough gold to make an EVA boost yet. I'll have to see ...
     
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  6. Slam Jones

    Slam Jones Rear Admiral

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    You will definitely need to make the switch to Promethium before or around the time of your first CV; trying to run a CV on biofuel is an exercise in futility.

    What I usually do is build a warp-capable mining SV and use that to gather Promethium and such. Should be at least a few asteroids if your starter system I'm pretty sure. If you're lucky, there might be a promethium asteroid in your planets orbit, which means you won't even need a warp drive to get to it.

    I usually play Reforged Eden mod, but I think in vanilla you can unlock the mechanical SV drills at like level 10-15 right? You'll want a few of those strapped to an SV for mining in early-mid game, as soon as you can afford it. Just make sure you also put a Detector on the SV as well, and keep pinging to check for hostiles. If hostiles approach, flee back to the planet and come back later when you have a shield and a few minigun turrets.
     
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  7. Insopor

    Insopor Commander

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    SVs in vanilla have no mechanical drills. Laser drills are unlocked at level 20 and require materials you probably won't find on starter.

    The best early-game asteroid mining solution is to get an SV with an airtight interior and a drone hatch. You can use the drone and a drill to mine asteroids from the safety of your SV. No need for an EVA boost.

    For reference, I have an SV designed just for that on the workshop. It's called the E-M Sutzara. It can be upgraded to have a warp drive without upgrading from T1, but it spawns without warp so it's easier to get resources for. It also has a hatch as described above.

    I'm not saying they should use it (they can if they want), but I think it's a very efficient design that makes early game stuff much easier.

    If they're doing default survival, I'm pretty sure some of the other planets have promethium, and they're in the same sector so you don't need warp.
     
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  8. Slam Jones

    Slam Jones Rear Admiral

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    Ouch, didn't realize they made it so difficult on new players! Mechanical drills definitely feel like a logical step between hand mining and laser mining, I'm a bit amazed that they don't exist in vanilla.

    Agreed on using an SV with interior and drone hatch for early-game asteroid mining then. Seems the safest option, and should allow the player to get back into the seat and fly away if danger should appear suddenly (as it so often does).
     
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  9. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    Well, I have considered exactly that, and it doesn't seem possible because there don't seem to be any harvesting devices for SVs or CVs. I'm stilling running into shortages that keep me back. I got lots of iron, copper, sufficient carbon, some silicon, a little titanium, and that's pretty much it, plus like 20000 or steel plates from buildings I took down. I got only 72 cobalt ore and currently have no way to get any more. Perhaps I'll find some on the other planets. I have yet to explore the swamp and the one they used for dumping their trash on.

    I'm considering spawning a HV with a wood harvester on the swamp moon to barge about the swamp. Maybe that'll show these disgusting moskitos who the boss is when the swamp gets dried out. And I'm guessing that I could put both drills and a wood harvester on it at the same time maybe ...
     
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  10. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    Right, I can only build mechanical drills yet. Digging out deposits has me worried that the HV will get stuck in the hole sooner or later. I got two drills on it because it takes ages to mine meteroids. For deposits, I'm considering 3 or better 4 drills to dig a better sized tunnel. But with resources limited, I'll have to see if I can do that.

    For a better drill, I'm guessing I might go back to the combination of both hovering and bulldozing engines to be able to get to the site hovering high and then switching to bulldoze mode to be able to get into the ground. But that'll require a CPU extender, and I could currently build only one. Does it matter for drilling when the CPU is inefficent? I might loose what I'm I'm trying mine because the CPU is too slow to pick it up ...

    Oh! I had no idea that I could do that! I've seen drone hatches and defense drones, but mining drones?

    Cool, maybe I'll try that :) Or maybe I'll build my first self-designed SV with drones ...

    Yes, it's the vanilla game and survival mode, with volume consideration switched off. I have found over 300 promethium ore on Akua. That's quite enough to power the multitool and the drill for a long time. I'll have to look into how reasonable and feasible it would be to run other things on it. Using a HV with drills is a lot more efficient than using the manual drill for meteroids. For deposits it's maybe not.

    My base runs on solar power, and its fuel reserves haven't been touched yet. If I cut down everything on the swamp moon, I should be able to make lots of biofuel :)
     
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  11. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    #11
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  12. Insopor

    Insopor Commander

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    Yeah, those are laser drills. They're pretty good.
    There are no mechanical drills for SVs.
     
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  13. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    But why is their template not showing up in the constructors?

    Since there are no drones for SVs either, I can't mine asteroids until I find more gold, whenever that may be ...
     
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  14. imlarry425

    imlarry425 Captain

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    I had no idea that I could do that! I've seen drone hatches and defense drones, but mining drones?

    There are no "mining drones" yet ... the suggestion was to use your personal drone (press F5) to mine with the handheld survival tool, mechanical, and laser drills. A drone hatch lets you stand in an airtight compartment, press F5, and then navigate your personal drone outside to mine the asteroid. If you haven't found the personal drone yet plan to find mining in space and on the ground much easier. Watch out for wild animals and Zirax attack craft sneaking up on you while you use it!!

    why is their template [laser drills] not showing up in the constructors?

    In some cases, you need to unlock the technology before it will show up in the constructor menu. Likewise, some constructors can't build certain items- look closely in the tech tree for a legend of what constructor is required to build certain items. In vanilla, the handheld and SV laser drills both require a large or advanced constructor.

    (file uploads- some file types aren't supported for upload, but jpg should work .. once you upload you need to hit the "Add Images" button for the selected file to place it in your message)
     
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  15. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    Oh I thought a drone hatch was for drones to be able to emerge from a base or a CV to defend it. I've used my drone for mining, it's really cool. Without an EVA booster, I can't get out in space, so such a drone hatch could be even more useful as when you have the booster.

    So far, the asteroids showing up in the detector are all ice asteroids. I didn't check closely because there's no point without the booster. But yesterday, I found a little more gold and when I get back to my base, I think I can finally build one. --- But what if they're all just ice? Without crucial minerals like Cobalt, I remain stuck.

    Some items need better descriptions, like I only found by chance that I can dock my HV to my SV. Its description says CV or base. If I had known I could do that, I'd have done it much earlier. The wiki says we can't build boosters, so it must be outdated or we couldn't build an EVA booster ...

    I've unlocked it in the tech tree, that should suffice. If it needs another unlocking, it shouldn't appear in the tech tree before it's unlocked.

    I tried png and jpeg. When I use the upload botton, it asks me for a file, and after uploading it, nothing happens.
     
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  16. imlarry425

    imlarry425 Captain

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    Assuming you're using the "detector" device on your SV .. it shows up as a weapon on the toolbar and greatly expands the range for finding stuff. If your starting system has a moon, cobalt (and wrecked CVs for salvage; engines have seriously good components you can reused or toss into factory) can often be found there. Cobalt can also be found as a ground rock in the radiation biomes- look for a dull gray rock with blue splotches.

    Used to be there wasn't a pingable detector on SVs ... you hunted asteroids by looking left-to-right for the flash of the thing spawning in. That was a really grind :)

    The EVA is the only craftable booster, the others are for sale in trade stations or found in loot. Luckily they don't take much gold to build. You can even make brief EVA to mine in your duct tape lt armor, bring lots of hot beverages to drink and duck into the cockpit frequently to warm up.

    If you unlocked the laser hand or sv hand drill already my guess is you need to build a large constructor. The hand laser drill (lvl=7) and sv laser drill (lvl=20) are found under the weapon tag in the constructor and you can type "drill" in the search box to filter it down. If you've got it unlocked in tech tree and have a large constructor but still can't find it that sounds buggy.

    After "add image" and then "upload" for a jpg you still need to click either "insert" or "insert all" - if that didn't work it's some sort of bug, maybe a pop up blocker?
     
    #16
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2023
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  17. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    The starting system has lots of moons but almost no Cobalt on the starter moon, and even iron was difficult to get at first. The few CVs I found basically didn't have anything but steel plates. There was one in space that had thrusters and a warp engine, but it kept saying something about a core, so before I found out that I need to place one, I had salvaged the warp engine and didn't get it.

    To build laser stuff you need resources that are hard to come by. I still haven't any for vehicles and I don't see what the advantage would be. The mechanical drills on HVs show that they are unsuited for mining because the holes they make are way too small, and the HV usually can't point them towards the ground enough to even get started. Then the HV gets stuck in the hole and after some doing, you have a huge hole and it keeps saying that less than 10% of ore are left which you'll never find.

    I might try the laser drills, but I doubt that they're any better. The wood harvester is also pathetic; before you cut the tree, you're more likely to run it over, and they're as slow as the survival tool and the chain saw. Using two doesn't really make it faster, and with three, the HV tries to drive into the ground.

    As to attaching images, when I select one to attach, I expect it to show up in the post where it put it. Anything else means that the forum is broken. Same is when I put an URL for an image. This forum is broken in that regard; it can't handle images.
     
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  18. Slam Jones

    Slam Jones Rear Admiral

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    Add Images > Select Image > Upload > Insert


    [​IMG]

    Be sure to Insert the image after you upload it :)


    Edit to add: What browser are you using? It seems to work fine on Firefox, but maybe other browsers have issues?
     
    #18
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2023
  19. shortName

    shortName Lieutenant

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    Aww, is that you? :)

    Why would I need to insert it again after I already did? That doesn't make sense.

    And why don't the URLs work?
     
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  20. Slam Jones

    Slam Jones Rear Admiral

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    Image from URL:

    [​IMG]


    Make sure you use the BBCode version of posting an image. That is, use the [ img ][​IMG] tags (without spaces ofc) to encapsulate the link. Hope that helps!

    [​IMG]

    For reference, I use Imgur to host images, and it provides the handy links as shown above.

    And yeah that other picture is my current goofy-looking avatar lol
     
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