Magnesium and 3 questions

[Gamedan]

So, I think I'm doing decent (still alive even though one game I slammed myself into the ground - watch those landings!)
Where are elements/ores such as magnesium - I found a wiki that said it was cyan-blue veins in rock so is it special rock only on roids?

And do all quests, adventures, missions have a "badguy" to fight? Should I always build a better pew pew?

And I figured out how to build better refineries but when I try to place them they don't fit nicely on the floor - the light armor blocks are not complete - do they need to be complete or do i need to build a better floor?

Thanks for the help I've received so far!

[glabifrons]

If you just started playing and you've only slammed yourself into the ground once, you're doing quite well!

There are two wikis, both in dire need of updating, with it varying which one is better than the other. This one shows where you can find the various ores in a table:
https://spaceengineers.fandom.com/wiki/Planets
The only ores you can't find on planets are Platinum and Uranium.
Moons have everything except Uranium.
All can be found by the various discolorations each planet/moon has visually, but you can't tell which ore it is without an ore detector (or digging down to the ore and visually inspecting it).
Until you've seen both a few times, it's hard to tell Magnesium from Cobalt, but there is a visual difference.

There are also ore nodes (not sure if that's the official term), they look like enormous rounded boulders just sitting on the ground. These are great to find as they're easy to hollow out and get a decent amount of ore quickly. On Mars, they're everywhere (Mars is probably the easiest planet, as long as you find ice).

I'm trying to remember which scenarios I've played, but I'm pretty sure they all have something shooting at you at some point. Even The Lost Colony has turrets set as traps to protect hidden booty. Frostbite has lots of stuff that wants to kill you and ends in a big battle. Learning to Survive has a surprisingly tough battle at the end. I don't want to spoil it for you, but don't try it with a small grid ship like I did!! I'm trying to remember First Jump... if it's the one I'm thinking of, it provides you with all the weaponry you need.

All that said, you're probably best off playing solo games with the Star System map first, to get a solid handle on game mechanics (sounds like you're probably already pretty good on that though). Some of the other maps where you start on a pre-built base on a planet have nearby aggressors, IIRC, so you have to already know how to repair and fight in those maps.
I can't remember how many hundreds of hours I had before I played my first scenario. I think only one of them hand-holds you through each step.

Also, I may be mixing up First Jump with Learning to Survive above... been a while.

[Gamedan]

Originally posted by glabifrons:

If you just started playing and you've only slammed yourself into the ground once, you're doing quite well!

There are two wikis, both in dire need of updating, with it varying which one is better than the other. This one shows where you can find the various ores in a table:
https://spaceengineers.fandom.com/wiki/Planets
The only ores you can't find on planets are Platinum and Uranium.
Moons have everything except Uranium.
All can be found by the various discolorations each planet/moon has visually, but you can't tell which ore it is without an ore detector (or digging down to the ore and visually inspecting it).
Until you've seen both a few times, it's hard to tell Magnesium from Cobalt, but there is a visual difference.

There are also ore nodes (not sure if that's the official term), they look like enormous rounded boulders just sitting on the ground. These are great to find as they're easy to hollow out and get a decent amount of ore quickly. On Mars, they're everywhere (Mars is probably the easiest planet, as long as you find ice).

I'm trying to remember which scenarios I've played, but I'm pretty sure they all have something shooting at you at some point. Even The Lost Colony has turrets set as traps to protect hidden booty. Frostbite has lots of stuff that wants to kill you and ends in a big battle. Learning to Survive has a surprisingly tough battle at the end. I don't want to spoil it for you, but don't try it with a small grid ship like I did!! :sefacepalm: I'm trying to remember First Jump... if it's the one I'm thinking of, it provides you with all the weaponry you need.

All that said, you're probably best off playing solo games with the Star System map first, to get a solid handle on game mechanics (sounds like you're probably already pretty good on that though). Some of the other maps where you start on a pre-built base on a planet have nearby aggressors, IIRC, so you have to already know how to repair and fight in those maps.
I can't remember how many hundreds of hours I had before I played my first scenario. I think only one of them hand-holds you through each step.

Also, I may be mixing up First Jump with Learning to Survive above... been a while. :se:

Thank you! If you have time can you answer another question - I can make a better refinery than the basic one but when I try to place it it will not "click" onto the floor like the basic one - my floor is unfinished light armor boxes so maybe I need a bigger floor or finish my light armor boxes?

Thanks again!

[glabifrons]

No problem.
The full refinery is huge, so it's possible there's something in the way. It could be something as tiny as an interior light, simply because SE is grid based, meaning every building/vehicle/grid of blocks is defined as a 3-dimensional array, so only one item can be mounted in a block-space in that array (Minecraft also has this design, only in that game there's only one grid).
It's also possible that *you* are in the way. This is easy to do by default with a couple of the larger items as it's difficult to get close enough to place, yet far enough to be out of the way.
There's a mod in the workshop that makes that distance adjustable with the mouse wheel, along with lots of other cool stuff. I think it's Build Info (with leak finder). It is a *huge* improvement for just the variable distance block placing alone!

[DivineEvil]

Magnesium is a generic material that can be found everywhere, but is less common than Cobalt. Fairly sure the Basic Refinery can refine it.

Silver and Gold are uncommon ores that are also available everywhere, but they often laid deeper in the ground, so if you find a cluster of discoloration, but your handhelf drill does not pick up on the content, its probably one of those, or both. You can use vehicle-based Ore Detectors to pick up on those. You'd need high-grade Refinery to turn these into ingots, but they refine pretty quickly.

Platinum is a high-end rare ore, that cannot be found on planets. It also laid deeper, refines slowly and produces very few ingots.

Uranium can only be found on the asteroids outside of planetoid gravity fields. Its very rare, heavy, refines slowly and poorly, but is used as extremely efficient fuel in powerful Reactors.

Mission Scenarios typically offer various vehicles, which should be good enough for the job when used right, but you're of course free to improve them if you want. Some scenarios simply offer you different starting conditions and have no story to follow, as to give you a functional base on one planetoid or another.

Completion of blocks is unnecessary in any extent, other than their individual functionality. As long as you can access any control panel on the station/ship to confirm if Refinery is displayed in terminal or inventory tab, it is part of that grid. It will get power from the grid through any connected block. You can then access it inventory through one the conveyor hatches, or linking them to other inventories using conveyor tubes.

If a device does not show up in the terminal or inventory screens, then it was placed as a separate grid.

[glabifrons]

Another tip, since you're building a refinery: As soon as you can get enough gold for the superconductors required, install 4 Yield Modules on the back. The orientation doesn't matter as long as both ports of each one are attached to the refinery.
With all 4 installed and active, you will double your yield (the amount of processed metal you get from the ore you put in). There's actually a well known bug with iron, you get more iron out then the amount of ore you put in! Something like 1kg in = 1.4kg out!

[Gamedan]

Originally posted by glabifrons:

No problem. :cozyspaceengineersc:
The full refinery is huge, so it's possible there's something in the way. It could be something as tiny as an interior light, simply because SE is grid based, meaning every building/vehicle/grid of blocks is defined as a 3-dimensional array, so only one item can be mounted in a block-space in that array (Minecraft also has this design, only in that game there's only one grid).
It's also possible that *you* are in the way. This is easy to do by default with a couple of the larger items as it's difficult to get close enough to place, yet far enough to be out of the way.
There's a mod in the workshop that makes that distance adjustable with the mouse wheel, along with lots of other cool stuff. I think it's Build Info (with leak finder). It is a *huge* improvement for just the variable distance block placing alone!

Thanks for the tip, i used my jet pack to raise myself up and it fit nicely after I "jiggled" it a bit!

[CynicDragon]

Snapping the large refinery directly to a conveyor block, seems like the best placement method to me