That is excellent news! I will actually have a reason to build a base now Also, @Fractalite ,I think a few weeks back you asked about a planet I had posted some screenshots of, but I wasn't sure what the planet was. Well, I finally tracked down a similar planet! It's called Strange Temperate. I especially love the striations (I think that's the right word) in the mountains. Looks awesome! It's definitely one of the most scenic planets I've found so far. In pursuit of Aux Cores, I went into Zirax territory, located a Barren planet, and went down to look for Silver. Oddly enough, the very first POI I found was a Silver Deposit. That was a bit of a surprise. Took my tree harvesting HV and converted it to a mining one, flew it down with the SV and collected a bunch of silver. So far, I've built two Aux Cores, both in CPU mode, which return a good 660,000 CPU! (Unless I missed a decimal point there), which allowed me to upgrade a few Positron turrets, add 4 extra Laser Repeaters, added 3 salvaged Heavy Missile Turrets firing the 250mm Helldart missiles, and added a T2 Repair Bay to the internal hangar to keep the Bandicoot in fighting shape. Tried to take on a Zirax Destroyer with the new upgrades and realized I still need a bit more firepower to take one down without worry. So I instead took out a few pirate ships, and a red ship called the Thunderstrike. Continuing plan is to keep exploring planets, record vendor/POI types and the stuff they buy and sell, and especially keep building Aux Cores until I've gotten all 10 possible. After that? Not sure, maybe going after Legacy ships for the Quantum Cores I've heard about?
I decided to release the V2 modification to the Hsiftac with twice the height in the hangar bays while retaining the ability to liftoff from a 4g planet. Hsiftac V2 V1 is on the left, V2 on the right.
Moved Empyrion install to my new M.2 drive on my new PC, and cranked the graphics up all the way. Can't wait to get back in the game.
Now up to 4 Aux cores on my main RE CV. The first two helped me to upgrade weapons, the third helped me upgrade shields (increased by 20k or so), the fourth went to thruster improvements. Replaced four clusters of large thrusters with Drive Thrusters, which helped increase the forward speed to 100m/s (even with a heavy load) and enough turning speed to consider attacking small, agile OPVs like pirate Corvettes and such, which previously would turn and burn and outdistance me before I could take them out. Starting to build a new CV, which will act as the mobile base to my current CVs light cruiser - type playstyle. I'll use my current CV to scout and fight OPVs, and gather loot, which will be stored on the new big CV. The big CV will generally stay in a system near the current area of operations. So initially it will be posted in a Starter System. When I start moving away from the Starter Systems (more than 100LY or so), I'll move the big CV to a safe system nearby. Since I have no imagination, I'm making the big CV in the style of an aircraft carrier, but not like a carbon copy. It will have a big flat deck area for landing large SVs, and an asymmetric design that puts the 'tower' off to one side of the deck. On the other side will be a row of discrete storage boxes (much like on the Polaris Mining Foreman ship), each with 640k storage, and built in an RP-like manner so that it seems possible to move large amounts of cargo in and out easily. Hoping to put at least 20 of these in so I have more storage than I'll ever need. I also am adding a tall cradle-dock for transporting oddly shaped CVs, like my current Aquila CV, which has its engines on long spindles to improve thrust torque. No pictures since the big CV doesn't look like anything yet, and the Aquila hasn't changed (visually) very much.
Tried my hand at SV interiors for my largest current SV. Still not sure about the color scheme. Also feel like a lot of space is wasted, but at least it doesn't feel super cramped. Managed to fit two small private bunks (behind the wall on the left) for RP purposes. Continued working on the big CV, mostly on the cargo pods. I think they look decent for now, but still not completely satisfied. Only managed to fit 10 of them onto the CV so far; about half of what I hoped for. Re-parked the Aquila on the dock so it's easier to walk from one to the other. Big CV with smaller CV (Aquila) and a couple SVs docked. Big CV without anything in the CV dock. Still looks pretty basic, needs a lot more detail and stuff added before it's done. But it's functional and could be spawned in Survival now, albeit with reduced ability.
First encounter with the new re-furbed Abandoned Factory. Those turrets pack a punch. Very immersive - will be going back to finish the bugger off tomorrow; a hasty retreat was in order after many holes shot in the armour.
Killed by an abomination through a wall. They really are abominable. ( in an assembly yard ) The new abandoned mine POI is very good though - very immersive again and challenging at some points.
Modified my Andromeda CV into a new Miner variant, and went around mining and selling ores to refineries for some quick profit. Worked on some SV interiors, trying to make them less boring than my previous ones. This interior is for a single-seater mining CV with no warp drive or shield, but plenty of storage space. Intended for safer systems where hostiles are not an issue. Might do a bigger version with warp and shield eventually. Also started on some new ships. One is a Light Freighter with 3x 640k containers, now with a mostly complete interior. Also started a Heavy Freighter, intended to have 10x 640k containers. Barely started as of this morning, but should be a relatively quick build I think.
Today I experienced first hand just how big a pain it is to tend autominers on a Mercury-like barren scorched world. Oh, thought you'd just reach through the CV door to access the autominer? That's so cute. Now get down that hole and start walking. You don't have long to finish before it's hot enough to boil sulfur out here.
I finally decided to do something that I have been putting off because I knew it would take a LOT of time. Convert my XL landing pad into a space station because the thing is so blasted big I can never find a plain large enough to spawn it on. Currently I have converted all of the concrete blocks to steel and removed all the textures from the build. Now I am in the process of removing all of the structural support blocks (do not need then for a space station) and hollowing out the bottom so I can put additional docking facilities there. I wish there was a debug mode that showed how far the gravity generators extended, I think I will need 6 of them to cover the entire station but that is just a rough guess. .... Back to work.
Seriously! We need that and a debug mode showing how far wireless connectors reach. I know that the motion sensor item displays a bounding box for it's activation -- I wonder if a similar approach could be made for grav gens and wireless connectors?
Finished (mostly) my Heavy Freighter. Has crew accommodations for 20, warp drive, shield, etc. 10x 640k cargo boxes for lots of loot storage. Planning to pair it up with the Andromeda Miner (might change the name to Ursa Miner just for the pun) which now has Ice Drills for the sweet dense ice asteroids. Hopefully this will lead to rich asteroid drills soonish. The main plan being: take the Aquila (basically a Light Cruiser) to scout out resources and neutralize hostiles. Mark the location on the galaxy map, then come back with the Heavy Freighter and the miner. Fill up the freighter using the miner, then take it somewhere for processing. Not 100% sure about the checkerboard pattern, but it sorta works. Also not sure if I should subdivide the big hallway that connect all the containers. I kinda like the current look as it really shows how long the hallway is. Some shots of a ship interior. I think these are from the Light Freighter.
Working on, among other things, a combat-focused midsize CV for fun. Not sure if I'll use it in game or just save it for a potential faction OPV or something (if I ever get that far). Most of my ships have been Steel/Plastic and rely on sheilds to prevent getting shredded, but as this one is combat focused, I went with Combat Steel/Hardened Steel so it doesn't die instantly when the shield goes down. Trying to get better at having enough surface area for turrets without it just being a flat plane for half of the ship. Not sure it worked for this ship, as the turrets and weapons are all crammed onto the front and top of the ship, with only a few turrets and torpedo launchers on the ventral side. Still a rather basic shape overall, but it helps give it enough interior space for the big shield enhancers and other big components, though the rest of the space will be mostly RP crew quarters, server rooms, that sort of thing. Kinda wish there were more specialized components to fit in there, or larger classes or weapons or something.
Today I discover that, if you want it to be, Empyrion is also one of the better mech games out right now. They're HVs. They get stuck in terrain, trip and fall over, sometimes fall in holes you need to boost or climb out of. They also turn quickly, have excellent aim elevation, and are great for peaking around terrain to shoot at POIs. I stuck the docking pads on the rear instead of the feet for better hover clearance.
I've been mostly busy getting back up to speed with things after a long gap, also recreated my old custom scenario pretty much from scratch. All my old blueprints still work fine so I can jump right back in but, I've created a new long range SV anyway. Something new to fly around with:
Still working on converting my extra large landing pad into a space station. Since structural integrity is not a thing in space I have removed around 17,290 blocks from it. The bottom has turrets as well as the top now. It currently still has the landing pad aesthetic with combat steel for the habitat section and regular steel for the pad. I still need to texture it, but I think it is coming along.
