Hydrogen sources

[Twogs]

Hey everybody

Right now the only source of Hydrogen is Ice, which is a "finite" resource (read: You would constantly have to mine it). The other two "consumables", Energy and Oxygen, can be generated passively through solar power, Hydrogen cannot. The problem is that your space suit always will use hydrogen as fuel and a atmospheric landing with even a medium sized ship costs tremendous amounts of hydrogen and therefore ice. And I really don't want to farm a full load of ice everytime I want to lift off/land on a gravity well.

So is there anything known about new hydrogen sources in the future?

[casualsailor]

Originally posted by Twogs:

Hey everybody

Right now the only source of Hydrogen is Ice, which is a "finite" resource (read: You would constantly have to mine it). The other two "consumables", Energy and Oxygen, can be generated passively through solar power, Hydrogen cannot. The problem is that your space suit always will use hydrogen as fuel and a atmospheric landing with even a medium sized ship costs tremendous amounts of hydrogen and therefore ice. And I really don't want to farm a full load of ice everytime I want to lift off/land on a gravity well.

So is there anything known about new hydrogen sources in the future?

I don't think gameplay issues are really well thought out or even high on their priority list.

There can be infinite space and infinite asteroids with ice, so I guess they figure when you've mined your planet completely empty of ice then you'll have to setup a ice mining operation in space to keep your planet bound ships and suit stocked with H.

Besides until MP is fixed the only practical thing to do in Survival is to mine and build.

[Twogs]

This opens another question: Is it possible to force your "oxygen" generator to produce ONLY hydrogen? Otherwise yo will always lose ice to oxygen production even if you have a bunch of oxygenfarms attached.

[Malkuth]

Originally posted by Twogs:

This opens another question: Is it possible to force your "oxygen" generator to produce ONLY hydrogen? Otherwise yo will always lose ice to oxygen production even if you have a bunch of oxygenfarms attached.

It only produces oxygen if it has a container to place it in.. Ie Bottles or oxygen tanks.. If they are full (which if you have them there in first place is what you want) then they will only produce hydrogen... Again if it has a tank to place it in.

[Twogs]

Yeah but I will have oxygen tanks and they won't be always full - simply because of the normal oxygen consumption / losing some through doors et cetera. But I don't want my generator to fill up my tanks in this case, and I don't know a way of doing so

[Jarod997]

Originally posted by Twogs:

This opens another question: Is it possible to force your "oxygen" generator to produce ONLY hydrogen? Otherwise yo will always lose ice to oxygen production even if you have a bunch of oxygenfarms attached.

If you attach an Oxygen generator to a Hydrogen tank and not have any vents attached (or turned on), and not stick any Oxygen bottles in the generator, then yes, all the ice will go into creating Hydrogen until the tank is filled.

So, that is to say, if you have no Oxygen "consumers" connected to your Hydrogen tank conveyor system, the ice put into the system will go into Hydrogen production.

In other news, have you tried atmospheric thrusters for landing in gravity wells (other than those with little to no atmosphere)? If you're really concerned with Hydrogen conservation, use Ion Thrusters. :P Not the best solution, but better than "I can't take off".

[Twogs]

You suit still needs hydrogen. You can't rely solely on non-Hydrogen thrusters. Thats the problem. We should be able to tell the generator what to produce

[ExpendableGrunt]

I agree completely. If it wasn't for the Hydrogen requirement in suits, I'd be OK with the need for ice.

Either there should be a Hydrogen Farm (or similar) that would function on atmospheric planets, or the suit's thrusters should go back to burning electricity.

At the moment, Oxygen Farms are pretty much meaningless. I need to keep a Hydrogen supply just to survive, which means I'm forced to mine ice to generate it. Since you can't control what Oxygen Generators produce, then ice is my main source of Oxygen, regardless of whether I have Oxygen Farms or not.

[Jarod997]

There is a debate on how the Oxygen Generator actually works and how it should work - in the real world when you break down water (ice) you get Oxygen AND Hydrogen at the same time, but the game doesn't do that right now. There are lots of people who think it should. That itself would change things quite a bit.

Oxygen farms can help offset the balance of consuming ice to make Hydrogen in an Oxygen producing & consuming environment. The more sources of Oxygen you have in the system that don't rely on ice (which are only the Oxygen Farms at the moment), the more the Generators can focus on making Hydrogen - depending on the state of Oxygen Tanks.

But yes, you have a good point. Oxygen is required and there is a current system of producing an unlimited supply. Hydrogen is also required but there is only a limited supply which is intimately tied to part of the Oxygen supply chain.