I just tried a "hard" Masperon game start - purely as a test, not my main game. I like my games properly difficult as many of you might be aware, and most of my .yaml editing has been towards this goal. Anyway, I think I encountered a slight glitch in my game start - invulnerable drones! Game started as normal, I looted the pod, not much in it of course, and proceeded to explore. I find a neutral POI fairly early on and decide to settle there, though I first have to take care of the Drone (small Plasma) and a second one (small Cannon) buzzing around nearby. Anyway, I emptied my entire 150 .50 Cal rounds into those two drones and both were still flying. Somewhat surprised by this, and wondering if something was wrong, I gave myself an additional 250 .50 Cal rounds using the Itemmenu console option. However, these additional 250 rounds got all soaked up too! I've now deleted this save and might start another and see if the problem occurs again, if it does I'll make a formal bug report of course. However I am getting a degree of "restart fatigue" of late, so may well just continue with my more established game. I had thought I might start another daily log type thing with Masperon adventures, but repeating "I shot a drone, it didn't die" 200+ times isn't exciting lol. Scoob.
Goofing around with a new mining barge today, I wanted an open-cockpit design with a second seat for a turret operator. Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel.
Scoob! I had a similar problem - for a small time. Then I realized that I was waaaaaaay under-range. The T1 pistol only shoots up to 44m on Masperon. Do not get me wrong, you are a smart guy so you may have already thought about this, but could you be missing them? Edit: Oops, that is Oooooout of range
Heh, yes, initially I was out of range as that 44m is very short (I'd suggest too short really) and I'd not adjusted for that. However, I was really rather up close and personal with the Drones as they were all buzzing around within the POI area. I'd held up in a little storage room with shutter doors on the POI, so I'd open the door dash out, loose a clip at a drone, before dashing back. I'm sure there were a few misses due to drones being on the extreme edge of that 44m range, but I'm pretty sure I landed a fair amount of hits based on the amount of XP I accrued. Anyway, not to worry, I was just playing around and it was way to late for me to really be concentrating 100% I've been to Masperon many a time of course, but starting there on hard...well, the T1 pistol just doesn't cut it lol. I suspect there's a degree of luck involved. If I'd found an Assault Rifle and some ammo at that POI I'd have been good. A Core and a Cannon Turret find would have secured the POI with ease of course. I'm certainly going to have another go at a Masperon start, though I'd like to continue my unmodded Akua game for a bit too - I was just prepping my resources for a CV build, churning out 100's of Steel Plates from my hoards of Iron Ingots. Happy Christmas everyone Scoob.
You would enjoy my guide then: http://empyriononline.com/threads/how-to-survive-masperon-and-other-dangerous-feats.8676/
It's a good guide, it's missing the "Edit your .yaml to make things really hard" paragraph, but it's ok I might have another play a little later today, I've just started my CV build in my "main" SP game, but something a little more challenging might be fun. Oh, your guide would be good advice for one of my custom Omicron and even Akua starts, minus the O2 requirement. I've been chased by several Plasma and Cannon drones before early-game, being forced to hide out in a lake and deploy the Survival Constructor there. Fun times Scoob.
I finished the second mining rig today, and kept it short enough that it will fit through hanger doors. As an experiment, I mounted the drilling turret upside-down so it can rotate towards the ground better. The upside-down camera when using the turret can get a little disorienting, but I think it works out. HV-Mining-Sled
I am glad you were able to stumble your way through it - I wrote it at 1 or 2 in the morning. I have been going back and editing it to try and make it less redundant "Exhausted rambling" and more "Coherent." Still, it should be quite servicable for people that are having trouble adapting to new paradigm - shifts in mining, access to resources, the timing of things, or are just plain struggling with the new planet. It takes a great deal more inventive thinking than just "I am going to operate solely on the formulaic and build stuff" and might also help with other strategies. "Edit your .yaml to make things really hard" I would love to write my own guide on this, but as I have yet to play around with the file specifics, do not know how. In an echo of some of things we have discussed many times before(and will again) I wish they had an "advanced" tab under the generic difficulty settings that would really let you add or subtract things to the experience. On a related note - please please please, if you choose to edit the Masperon file, and if you are not too busy struggling to stay alive, remember to take screenshots of the hoards of drones trying to kill you!
I ran into the same problem, I could solve it by creatively rotating the block in question. (So that only one side of the "double face" is visible)
It's a solid guide as it stands, sure, if you're anything like me you could spend to rest of your life editing and tweaking it, but it's fine as it is. Heh, I started another Masperon Hard game, managed to secure a POI "Supply Station" fairly early on. I initially had to set up camp in a plasma Crater created by one of the two Plasma Drones protecting this POI - though I think the second one was "pulled" from a nearby resource deposit. I'd opened it out a little more to place my Emergency O2 Gen and Survival Constructor, and proceeded to make little raids on the POI. Typically I found no guns or anything immediately useful, rather I found some Ore and Ingots - though very little Magnesium. However, this gave me enough to first create an Assault Rifle and ammo, then a Core and Large Constructor. With this at hand, I assaulted the POI once more. It was at this point I realised how used to some of my own edit's I've become. Expecting wave after wave of drone reinforcements to this POI, I was a little disappointed when they stopped after only a handful. Sure, I'd have struggled vs. more drone waves, but the loot would have come in handy. With the POI now secured, I'm being fussy regarding placement of equipment. Initially I just dumped the Large Constructor outside the base, next to where I'd placed the core (surrounded in Combat Steel, something I looted) but now I'm dismantling the various small structures that comprise this POI and creating a better protected area for my Crafting and Storage. This POI is great, very nicely done, but not practical and with LOTS of exposed parts. Still, more loot for me Scoob.
People can say what they want about Auto mining but as soon as I reached level 12 I built a auto miner. LOL The only other mining I will do will be with a HV . Mining with HVs is way more entertaining than doing it by hand. I can't see myself going back to mining with a normal drill.
And at least in SP there are plenty of cores around. I started out with 5 - limited, but barely enough, even if i would have bee stuck to them. But after looting three fortresses on Omicron, the count stands at 11. And as there are more POIs left, and i didnt even visit other planets, i would say: they are as abundant as before.
@Fractalite Well it's not tentacly but it's more open concept than my other designs. Spoiler Agh! Where did these come from?! Spoiler I might have to adjust the configuration a bit. This little guy is something I came up with after being distracted by the thought of a spherical craft. Alas, a pure sphere was not at all stable...which isn't too big a deal until you want to park the thing and get out. Spoiler
Well, today I gave up on my hard Masperon game start. I had a well-established base, ample resources (for the most part) food and energy were not an issue, nor were alien attacks. I was doing well and had hit that "safe" point where nothing could challenge my Base. The problem? Well, I'm at the stage where I want to be building armoured SV's and HV's for POI assaults, as well as start work on my CV. However, the lack of Sathium has basically spoilt this plan. Sure, I should be able to get small amounts of Ingots and raw Sathium Ore from POI loot, though I've found precisely zero so far. I can also get the odd component from POI's / Drones. I've gained more exotic items such as Power Coils and the Ores/Ingots to make more, so I have ample number of these for my HV Miner and more advanced weapons and equipment. What I'm missing is Sathium. So, no Armoured blocks bar those I've found, the oh so critical Flux Coils cannot be made blocking me from lots of higher-end stuff, I'm simply not finding enough of these through normal play. I've been dashing around doing tasks to attempt to secure Sathium or components, but I just hit a sudden "I'm BORED of this" point. I want to be building stuff, but am blocked from doing so. I LOVE the new Masperon hard game start, however pretty much all higher-end tech is reliant on the Sathium the original starting planets have orbiting around them in plentiful supply. Masperon not having this key resource turns things into a forced grind for me - which stops it being even remotely fun. I had planned to leave the planet...but guess what I need for warp-capable CV construction... My next game start I'll make sure there's Sathium available, either on the planet, or more likely on the moon or in orbit. Being resource-starved like this with the ONLY option being combat vs. very tough POI's - in vessels that are not well-equipped due to the lack of said resource (lol) is sorta frustrating. Going on drone killing-sprees can me fun, but also gets a bit old when I'm just after their parts lol. How are others finding this? Have you been lucky, discovering sufficient quantities of Sathium to sustain you? Or have you been unlucky like me, and haven't found a single Sathium Ore or Ingot, but have relied on found / looted components instead to build what you need? Are you managing to loot enough of these components for your building needs? I'm British, so I'm going to have a cup of tea and rethink my plan - likely something that involves blowing up even more drones... lol Edit: Next POI I hit gave me a small amount of Sathium, only Space drones appear to drop the Flux Coil though. Odd to have the usually rare Power Coil in good supply, and be able to make more, yet the "common" Flux Coil is proving challenging. Only comes as loot on Space Drones, not planetary drones sadly. Scoob.
@Scoob : The only plan, i can think of in this regard, is, to build a sathium-cheap CV in creative mode, blueprint it and put all the hardened blocks in. This way you could escape to find some of this precious yellow stuff elsewhere. Its a bit like cheating, but then... its probably an act of self-defense.
