specialization effects

[Mastan]

which specialization is best oil processing or the stardust water pump ?

[Sunderbrass]

For the oil processing, you either need to build your base next to an oil source or loot a whole lot of car trunks for fuel. Pretty sure all of the oil sources are in the desert region. Pumps gather the oil fairly slow and the process of refining it into fuel is fairly slow. You also need to go out and mine the stardust ore to mix in the furnace with the fuel. The ratio is 50 stardust ore and 15 fuel to create 50 stardust. I have this specialization and I tend to have way more fuel than stardust ore to use it with. But I have two pumps for oil and four refineries going.

I also have the stardust water pump. The big issue with it is that it uses storage batteries to produce the stardust. It takes 20 acid plus some other ingredients to make a battery. The pump will use up the battery and give you 80 stardust. It can hold four batteries at a time. Personally, I'd rather not use one critical resource to produce another. That said, I find it easier and more enjoyable to farm acid than to go around gathering the stardust ore.

So which is best is really going to depend on your resource availability, base placement, and which resources you prefer to farm.