Player Skills Broken?

[monsterhart]

I thought it was going to work the same as NPC skills when I chose it on Adventure mode, but instead of giving boosts they apparently prevent the use of equipment without the skill. I've got about 15-20 hours of play now and still haven't figured out how to get skills. There's no level system, and I've done tons of quests, tons of fighting, tons of mining/harvesting/foresting, and nothing seems to increase them. I'm stuck with a wooden bow that I can't even make more of. I assume that requires a skill too, since I have tons of resources saved up already.

[dtt.scanner]

You have to spend your experience on the skill tree. You can use hot key Alt-T or navigate to it on the main menu. I love the skill tree and prefer to use it in my games. While you start out weak (literally can only use wooden tools and weapons), ultimately you are much stronger than without the skill tree.

Don't forget that replication is a separate skill, so even if you skill up a weapon, you won't be able to make it if you don't skill up the replication skills also.

If you start with scripts unlocked, you will be able to make and use all of the items as soon as you have the appropriate skill level. I prefer to lock the scripts, and only have and use the scripts that I find while adventuring -- either from dungeons or from NPC towns that I discover. The downside is that the high level SC armor scripts do not show up in dungeons, but you can still purchase them from level 4 towns.

[monsterhart]

Ah thank you, I didn't know there was a skill tree. When I realized it wasn't like NPC skills and actually limited me I thought it would be like FF2 or The Sims style where skills progress naturally while you use them, since there was nothing indicating experience gain nor level ups. I had made a new game right after posting this with the default settings for Adventure Mode and was already further along than the first at the time you replied and didn't want to jump over to the first game to check it out at that time. I meant to reply that same day, even wrote up my reply in my head as I played the game, but before I knew it it was time to go to bed then I forgot until now ^^;

So the system does work. I had a ton of points at the time I quit because I had played for quite some time, and was able to max out the first stage of Replication and Tool Use (correct name?) with less than half. Then I stopped because I thought I better read up on the skills instead of risking wasting all my points.

In the new game I'm just struggling with finding blueprint scripts for tools and everything. All the towns just have wood or copper scripts, or no scripts. Although I have gotten the golden pick from the questline at least.

I tried my hand at designing a weapon (which I hadn't needed to do in Story Mode), too bad I can't also design my own tools. I get a ton of diamond from those big birds and in dungeons, and I figure that must be the strongest material so I bought a greatsword hilt and made a diamond greatsword with 2 diamond that does 250 damage before I even got to the second town; which was much further than the first game but had copper weapons/tools instead of also having wood; and I still haven't found anything better in dungeons or anything. Bought the hilt at the third town, which also has iron and steel armor for sale, but no scripts for sale.

Just thought to sell the 10000+ meat adding up in my inventory and buy my minions and I all steel armor. Had a minion with half aluminum and some gold and silver pieces as well as a silver sword and diamond shield; he had all the best armor pieces I found in dungeons because he was melee; but he magically vanished at some point. Maybe he died and I just didn't notice in time... but when I noticed I had been at my colony for hours building so idk when that could have happened.

I do dungeons whenever I see them, but I mostly just get resources I don't need. On rare occasion I get a weapon or armor, and even more rarely a script. The scripts I find are usually nice though.

I got the large tire script before the vehicle mission, and there's aluminum by the starting town as well as iron, copper, coal, and gold. Although no resources anywhere else I've been in the game; except silver at this random spot in the middle of the forest biome I found while lumbering; so I've been forced to buy all my petroleum and such. Anyway when I got that vehicle mission I designed a basic vehicle I call an Offroad Van with the aluminum and large tires and 4 passenger seats.

It's kind of slow, so I should probably add more engines. However I remembered from the vehicle I made in my Story game (which was unusable garbage that I trashed for my Jet ASAP) that fuel cells ran out super fast so I put 4 in so the battery lasts a loong time and the durability and traction is great. Now that I think about it I should have built it in the Build Mode game...

I'm lucky it works so well given it's a first draft. I built several versions of my Jet in Story Mode before I went broke, and discovered Build Mode while searching online for ways to get resources faster. Took about 100 more tries to get it perfect in Build Mode.

I forgot though, as I quit the game after it glitched on that submarine mission a couple years ago and just came back to it. Memories of back then haven't all come back to me yet. After repeating that mission the remaining missions were a breeze even after this long, so I beat Story Mode in a couple hours or so, and that's why I'm just now trying Adventure Mode for the first time.

Which reminds me: I never did figure out submarines, and couldn't find a good one online either. You know of a good one I could download? I know enough about air and land vehicle aerodynamics to make good ones of those, but I don't know anything about subs.

I tried many times to make one work in Build Mode for that mission, but they were all useless. I eventually used one I downloaded online but it was destroyed instantly by those bosses and didn't run perfectly smooth either. The way I beat them (both times) was by luring them to the shore with my plane, then ranging them with my bow (long and tedious).

[dtt.scanner]

You may want to look at some of the things other people have designed in the in-game workshop. It is a lot easier than designing your own, unless you really want to get into that.

Diamond sword is likely the best you can get until you get energy weapons. I tend to equip with Blaster2 or Assault Rifle 3.

I also beat the cyber sharks by luring them to shore and taking them out with turrets.

It sounds like you have the right idea using a build world to create your designs first.

In adventure mode, the level 3 and level 4 NPC towns will be farther from you on the map. You need to be on an 8km map or larger to be sure of getting the high level towns. Higher level scripts will be found in higher level dungeons and towns farther away. If you are playing on a 40km map, you will have to spend a lot of time exploring to find the high level locations. Do a sweep at around 4km radius from your start town, and frequently check on the main map in case you pass a ? on the map. It may be a faction town or it may be a friendly town.

I only do the first quest to get the sleeping bag script and wooden tools and weapons, and then adventure to get the rest of the scripts. I am usually leveled up to max before building a colony, and I get the colony scripts and equipment (prefab) in the level 7+ dungeons. Energy weapon and tool scripts are usually in the level 9-10 dungeons. Blaster2 and Assault Rifle 3 you can pick up in level 4 NPC towns (highest level) along with the best armors.

There are also supply pods you can pick up that give you food and items you can use or sell. Occasionally they will have a useful script or armor. They will look like gray canisters, tree trucks, and small piles of sticks or stones. The supply pods will randomly appear near where you are adventuring, so if you are in one area for a while, keep your eye out for them.

[Gladi8er65]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=855542874

This one runs smooth and can even be used as a boat on the surface also never had anything ever destroy it.

[dtt.scanner]

I have Gladi8tor's submarine too, and it is my current go-to for a submarine. I tried designing something smaller (no weapons, more lights) for mining purposes, but as you say balancing them is an art. I really need something small so that I can replenish air in tight spaces. The lights are so I can find the sub... not so much for illuminating the tunnels. I know Gladi8tor could whip something out in no time, but currently you can't add new items to the workshop. We're all hoping that there will be a fix for that. Hopefully with the 3rd party programmers fixing the MP access, the Devs will get on board to fix the Workshop connectivity.

It is a good idea to max out the fuel cells on scout vehicles, but remember that you want to design them so that you can build them easily in new scenarios, so you may not want to build them with higher than level 2 fuel cells. Other vehicles that are meant for later in the game can be equipped with higher level (3 and 4) fuel cells. Aircraft burn through fuel very fast, especially if you equip with energy weapons. You should think about using large numbers of chain guns and missiles instead of lasers, since they don't use up your energy reserves. You can stack them on top of each other so that it looks like just a few but has increased firepower from the multiple turrets. I'm not sure what the limit is, but keep in mind that you have to have the resources to build it in-game, so moderation is usually best. The same is true with fuel cells... you can overlay them so that they don't take up extra space, but still max them out. You want to offset them a little so that you can still grab them individually in order to balance and distribute the weight. You want your vehicles to be balanced with the center of mass or they will do crazy things.

[monsterhart]

The Workshop was already closed when I started playing, and all the stuff I tried didn't work because it passed the parts limits and there didn't seem like much variety or anything new. So I had been checking out various PE websites which have ISO sharing. Lots of newer stuff, some nice stuff, but couldn't find a great sub. I'll check out the sub that was linked here, hopefully it's createable.


I got Assault 02 and I've been using that instead, less Damage but the fire rate is higher so it might be doing more DPS, plus it's ranged. It just broke though, and I've never seen a Titanium ore depository, nor can I get my colony minions to fetch some for me. So that's trash until I can get some so I can repair it.


I'm playing 8x8, the default settings. When I finish this one I'll go back to the first one I started that was 40x40 and skills on. I've followed the road past all the puja and paja towns to the next player town but it's also a low level one.

I think I'm near the end of the map at this point. I've also completely revealed the main (grassland) biome and found a couple other towns, but they were also low level (1-3). I've also revealed the second one that all the puja were in (forest) and scouted some of the swamp and deserts (paja land) past them.

I found a couple traveling salesmen too. One didn't have anything I hadn't seen in towns already, but the other (near the last puja town) had tons of useful stuff I didn't have, including scripts for things like the water vacuum, all the seeds in the game (I think), and all the train parts. She had a fusion power station too (but not the script) so I bought it for nearly 40k, had to sell all my meat and some other stuff. A couple minutes later I ran into a traveling NPC that gave me a resource gathering quest (which I already had the resources for) that got me the script for free, so I wasted that money for nothing... xD


Found a yellow human town in the swamp. They 1 hit destroyed my vehicle (a dune buggy I made so it would be faster with the lowest quality engine) and killed me in my aluminum armor, then instant killed me before I finished reviving 2 more times as well. I was not expecting civilized humans to be hostile, and I couldn't even attempt to run since they attack and 1 hit kill before the game gives me controls back when reviving...


Highest dungeon level I've seen is 4, even all the way near the edges of the map. I've cleared the N and E edges already, parts of the S edge, and I'm near the W edge. At least in the 4s I'm guaranteed at least 1 good script, on rare occasion even more.

I also found a terrible plane in a dungeon that was part of a quest given by a traveling NPC on the road, so now I can go back to the swamp and try to finish mapping it. I've found a couple plane part scripts in dungeons, but no propeller so far unfortunately. I've also been getting all the stash's I see around while exploring, and yeah I got a couple scripts from those.


Speaking of quests, I'm at an impasse with the main quest right now. The monsters asked me to just straight up wipe out an entire Puja town, I was already working on peace with them and had given them resources twice (4 times now) but the annihilation quest doesn't go away. I assumed it would undo the peace work I've done if I actually attempted it so I ignored it for a long time, but then decided to save and then try it and see what happens.

I was right and it does really upset them and undoes my peace work, and they then just order me to carry out a genocide of the Puja. The programming for the quest must be incomplete though, because it just says A for the Title and B in the Description. I was very unhappy with that so I just loaded. Is that really the only option, or will peace talks eventually work? As in they stop asking for more resources, ally, and the massacre mission is completed with a different more positive way to progress.


Another thing that's bothering me is the ground limitation for the colony. I think they should be able to be built underground, but regardless I built my colony above ground. I even built a foundation to put it on, so it's elevated above ground. I built all the initial colony stuff on the first floor, and filled out the remaining space with (7) rooms for the colonist beds. Then when I got more stuff I built a second floor for them, but there was a ton of extra space and I didn't have a farm yet so I though it would be nifty to have an indoor far.

When the 7 rooms were full I built a third floor for the remaining 9 rooms for colonists. The third floor also included a balcony around 2 sides, and on a third side for about 1/3 of the floor an outdoor patio/recreation area. At this point I have about a dozen turrets around the dome, and a couple dozen soldiers. Plus I equipped all of my colonists with the best equipment I can make, which is a combination of gold, silver, and guard armor, plus some aluminum from dungeon drops, and rifles, silver swords, and copper shields.

I'm also in the process of training all my soldiers, which have blue sword and shield and gun, as well as green Defense and HP, and a brown Attack. When my colony is attacked I usually go there so I can collect loot, but I don't even fight. Even the largest waves of pujan or human assaults are wiped out instantly by turrets so I just sit there rapid clicking Ready and then collect all the loot.

One time I was running around mapping and stuff and didn't feel like going back to base for the attack, and this is where the annoying part comes in. Despite thick steel walls and enough fire power to instant kill anything, 3 of my buildings were destroyed somehow and several more damaged. One was the Enhancer which had my gold pick in it, it had just finished getting to highest enhancement and now was just gone but whatever I can just redo it I guess.

The annoying part is that one was one of the colonists beds on the first floor, and I can't replace it because it claims to be underground even though it's not. Although now that I think about it I suppose it's because of the farm room on the second story, but that dirt isn't even connected to the ground and the whole base is above ground. So I just have to wait until the farmers finish planting and harvesting all the seeds I have in there so I can destroy the dirt, replace the bed, and then rebuild the farm I guess. Still annoying...


Why do you mine underwater though, can't you find enough resources on the surface? Or for example near my starter town there's copper under the beach and coal under the ocean, so I built a mine for the copper then dug sideways to connect it to the coal so I wouldn't have to deal with the water. In Minecraft when I needed to dig in the water (because of a treasure map location or something) I'd just build a rectangle of voxels then dig a doorway sideways to create an air pocket because water wouldn't multiply into a gap unless the gap is surrounded by water, or if it was shallow I'd just build a solid tower to the surface then hollow out the center to create a mineshaft. Would something like that work? I think I'll test some stuff in Build Mode...


I'm not sure what you mean because fuel cells don't have levels. Did you mean just having multiple fuel cells, or perhaps you meant engines? Yeah I figured out the overlapping trick when I was designing my planes in Story Mode, really helps with stuff like that. Mirroring helps with balancing, although aerodynamics plays a part as well. Like my Jet has everything in the back so all the weight is there, but it's perfectly balanced because of the jet propellers placement, angle, and the shape of the body.

[dtt.scanner]

Peace talks will eventually work, but you have to make peace with ALL of the factions in order to get the achievement. Ignore the request to destroy the towns. It is the last quest, and if you destroy all of the faction towns you get the destroyer achievement. The peace achievement is much harder and takes longer. When you talk to the faction representatives, their first response is always to fight, but if you immediately talk to them again, they will say they are tired of fighting and want to make peace. You don't actually have to attack anything.

There are fuel cell resources that you use to make the fuel cell machine parts. The fuel cell parts come in 4 levels. You can only have one engine per vehicle, so you can't stack those. Aircraft and ships can have multiple propellers, but vehicles have one engine.

I mine underwater to build underwater bases. Getting it started is less dangerous (even if you have a mask) if you have a good sub to resupply your air. You can place equipment under water and under ground if you know how to do it (using an exploit), but it is still a huge amount of work. You also then need a good sub to access your base.

[monsterhart]

Is there any reward for completing the genocide mission and if so do I get it in some other way?


In create mode there is only one level of the fuel cell part for vehicles. You must be thinking about ships or aircrafts. Or maybe you have a mod or something?


Interesting... I'd like to learn more about that. I did those water experiments this morning btw. This is what I learned:

It seems when water is spawning voxels do not prevent water spawn, and voxels and water can take up the same space. The game has one aspect of dynamic water, which is that water flows filling up empty space. While voxels prevent initial flow, nothing can remove water once it exists in a space so the aspect of dynamic water where it recedes is broken.

This is why I was able to dig under the water in my Adventure Mode game to get the coal, because water had never spawned in there to begin with. However once I dig into a point where water exists in the same space as a voxel it then flows into the space flooding it forever. This is also my explanation for why digging down from a sand bridge makes water magically appear; because it was there in the same space as the sand already; but it doesn't move up and out of the way when voxels are placed in the space like dynamic water should.

Minecraft has a very rudimentary dynamic water, but even that works better than this. If it's this broken and they can't even prevent water from existing in the same space as voxels I'd prefer they remove the flow feature too. At least then you don't get those permanent flooding situations. I'm just glad I ran these experiments in build mode instead of accidentally discovering it in my game and having to reload possibly losing progress.

[dtt.scanner]

You are correct about all of your water assessments. Once water is allowed into a space, it forms a "water table" in that space which remains even if you fill it with dirt/rock. Minecraft is much easier to work with water. This dynamic is a little different on multiplayer servers, but for SP mode, your assumptions are correct.

In PE, you need to have all of your channels in place and berms where you want the edges to be before you let the water in. There is also a taper on the waterflow. It will recede and taper to nothing after around 20 voxels per voxel height. If you want to make channels and canals, it is very tedious keeping the water flow up over long distances. You pretty much have to go a level deeper every so often in order to keep the water flowing, similar to Minecraft. You can coax the water level higher (longer run) by using dams to allow water to build the water level back up behind the dam, and then release it to fill the next chamber. It is a tedious process, but you can get 2-3x longer run with the water if you do this. Note: once the water level reaches it's max height, there is no longer any actual "flow" and the water becomes less turbulent/easier to swim in. You will sink in turbulent water, but you can tread water once it is stable (for the most part).

You cannot make a waterfall !! Don't bother trying. The water will drop invisibly (or at best in globs like a lava lamp) and then attempt to fill to the height of the source anything below it... unless it has room to run out. You can, however, make downward pipes, and they will eventually fill to the upper level (you would be able to swim down the tube). You can use header blocks at the lower levels to set the water height. Similar to Minecraft, there are no hydraulics. Water will not rise higher than the header block, even if it comes from a higher source block.

One last thing. Water does bubble against the containment voxels (it doesn't have a smooth edge like normal water would have). If you want to have a nice water edge, you have to make your channels one voxel wider on all sides, let the water in, and then backfill the walls by one voxel so that the water can "enter" that block and form a smooth edge.


Regarding the destruction of the Puja town. In order to get the achievement, you must destroy all of the buildings in all of the faction towns. Then you unlock the destroyer achievement. If you befriend all of the factions and increase their attitude to the highest level, you get the ambassador achievement. Once you do either of these things, you are finished with the quests and just have adventuring/building/designing your colony, and of course sharing your ideas.

[monsterhart]

MP servers don't exist anymore right? I always read talk of MP but the option doesn't exist in game and I've researched it multiple times and never discovered any way to play MP.


I noticed the taper too when I found a large cavern under the ocean which was filled with air before I opened a hole to a voxel that had water in the same space. However since colony parts cannot be placed with any voxels above them at any point, the entire roof would need to be removed all the way to the surface which would cause the entire thing to flood... So I don't know how you can place the colony parts before letting the water in. ...Unless you dug a giant hole on land to place a colony, then placed voxels above it, then intentionally flooded the hole above the placed voxels. Then you would never be able to adjust the layout or anything again though, which might be a bit tedious.

Funny you mention not being able to create waterfalls, because the waterfall I unintentionally created in the cavern is how I noticed the tapering. I was just digging through the ceiling under where I knew a natural sand bridge was on the surface to get to the surface and just a couple voxels deep (countless voxels from the surface) it started flooding down because water was in the same space as the last voxel I drilled out. I didn't notice any invisibility or globing, it just flooded like a pillar of water straight down and then spread out to the walls and tapered off in the directions where the walls were too far away. I tried manipulating the flow but the water ignored both voxels and blocks.


I meant a reward in game, like scripts or something. You already mentioned the Steam achievements, which I knew about even before that because they're not hidden achievements so I see them on the game page before I click Play every time.

[mr.devolver]

Fan-made multiplayer:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/237870/discussions/2/4224890554460952119/

[dtt.scanner]

The multiplayer fix (link posted above by mr.devolver) is posted as a sticky at the top of the Multiplayer discussions. It is 3rd Party, so you have to download the patch from him (Morse) from the developer site and unzip it into the root PE folder. Then you will see the multiplayer option restored, and you can type an IP address in the field below where the servers used to be listed to connect directly. He is currently working on LAN capability, but I don't know what progress has been made.

Kudos to Morse and to all of the fans of the game for sticking with it.

Building underground and underwater involves using an exploit for placing the equipment into the void, and then excavating out the space. It is explained in more detail in another thread. In this case you can only place the equipment if there is NO SPACE (caves, mines, etc.) between the platform and the surface. Water does not count, so you can build underground, under water (I have tested this) as long as the ground is solid up to the sea bed. I have been told that building blocks WILL hold back water, but it has to be a minimum thickness of 3 blocks, and again they have to be placed before the break is made. I have not tested this with blocks, but if it works then you could theoretically build something underwater (under the sea bed) using building blocks, then excavate around it to expose the building to the water, and it would be possible to then have air-filled buildings on the sea bed. It would be a very long, complicated building process. It would be much easier to leave the build underground (not exposed), and still access with submarine tunnels or Fast Travel.

Regarding the waterfall. If you connected directly under a lake or an ocean, then the water source would flood enough continually to have a constant flow. If you connect to the side or through a canal, you get the effect that I mentioned. In any case, an exposed waterfall will flood if not completely enclosed, so you still can't have a "pretty waterfall" without having a lot of wasted space.

[monsterhart]

Unfortunately it didn't work for me. Morse doesn't know why, and there was no error or log dump...

I only discovered the game a year or 2 ago. I can't remember exactly when, but the multiplayer was gone already so I never got to try it. Still the most amazing game I've ever seen. I wish Minecraft would hire the programmers and make a Minecraft 2 with PE graphics and tech, or buy out the company and make a PE2. Since they have a great marketing team and already have a huge fanbase, then the game would take its place as most epic on Earth.

I guess I'll have to look up that exploit.

[dtt.scanner]

Post a note on the Patch thread about the problem that you have with the patch. Be specific about where it is failing. As far as I know there are no active servers to connect with, but you should at least be able to create a character and get to the MP Lobby. BatCat's server is down, as far as I can tell. No one else has offered to host one yet. Fingers crossed.

[monsterhart]

Nope, it doesn't change the game at all. There are no specifics, game just doesn't notice that anything was added/changed at all. Someone else just reported the same thing.