Early game storage suggestion

[dreamrider]

In the early game, try to convert scrap to Ti nodules as little as possible. Rely as much as possible on environmental Ti (limestone outcrops, and scanned fragments).

DO collect the scrap, toward later mass building needs, but store it in a big pile without converting it. Among other things, this means less objects for the game to track, and the scrap pieces seem to be less prone to clipping through the terrain.

But you say..."But...but...but, piling up scrap attracts stalkers!" True. But choosing the right location for your stockpile seems to help or prevent that.

The best place i have found to pile up scrap is on the dry land immediately alongside the "safe" side of the Aurora. Absolutely safe from stalker raiding. AND there is a coral tube nearby that turns up at both ends, where you can store incidentals like quartz crystals.
But that is a long way from Lifepod 5 and your probable early base / hut options.

The 2nd best place I've found to pile up scrap, and my favored choice, is at the very highest peak of the Safe Shallows, on the west end of the long ridge. This is towards the western side of the central SS area. There is a small depression in the top of the ridge, and there is enough room to make a very large pile without any bits dropping off the sides of the cliff.

This spot is not all that far from the most common LF5 spawn points, and easy to find / recall. There is even a large patch of Writhing Weed up there that make it pretty easy to spot and travel to at night without lights.

{b]Honestly, stalkers do not seem to bother the scrap pile there.[/b] Maybe the water over the top of the ridge is too shallow for them to be inclined to go there. I've got maybe 40-50 pieces of scrap up there now, many game days in, and stalker haven't messed with my scrap pile once AFAICT.

Also, once the pile gets big enough, you can climb up on it and stand up. Makes a great observation point...of lots of water. Wonder if the Skyrays will come down to roost.

[Dirak2012]

You can get an habitat builder quite early 🤔 why would you just pile resources like that?

[Amanoob105]

Not too bad advice for anyone very new to the game and still not 100% sure where to get silver and gold, but once past that point it's just better to build a quick one-piece "shed" and fill it with lockers.

[admiral1018]

You can get a habitat builder in about 15 minutes into the game. After that, build an I-tube below the lifepod and add wall lockers. Doesn't even need to be powered or anything.

[LHGreen]

You WANT to attract Stalkers, and that seems like a pretty good idea to make it happen. You need them to chip their teeth on the scrap so that you can collect them. Stalker teeth, and acquiring them, is the most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ material in this game, imo, so anything that makes collecting them easier is welcome. Maybe you should rename your thread to "early Stalker magnet suggestion".

Also, why not just fabricate a few underwater lockers? You don't even need to build a room for that. You can't reclaim them once they're made, but they're cheap and quick, and you don't even need the habitat builder.

[Gon]

Teeth are easy to get. Build a scanner room and discover sixteen billion of them in a place you'd swear their weren't any.

[admiral1018]

You can build an outdoor Stalker aquarium too. Teeth galore!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2354165510

[dreamrider]

@Dirack 2012,
Because if you plan on extensive building later, having your principal construction material scattered hither and yon is inconvenient, and it is little trouble during the early exploration over the surface and fringes of the SS to just pick it up as you go along, and drop it off while you are returning to LP5/initial shelter to eat and/or fabricate/cook/refine water.

@Amanoob105, Admiral1018,
I have a very fine, initial shed very near LP5. X-tube, 588 storage. I just don't want to fill it with 300-400 units of reclaimed Ti. I keep a little working stock Ti there, mostly nodules from outcrops and fragments, and everything else. I reclaim the scrap Ti bit by bit when preparing for some major building.

The scrap pile was begun almost immediately, well before I had the H. Builder and the shed.

@LHGreen,
I haven't had any problem collecting teeth. There's generally at least one or two around any spot where you see stalkers playing with scrap, or around random scrap found on the borders between SS and KF. I have a wall locker full. Also, I can pull out 1-2 pieces of scrap, drop them in a selected spot near stalker territory, and farm teeth pretty readily. Especially if I have a couple hatched stalkers later.

Unless you are going extravagant on Observatories, and extra Seamoths and Cyclops, you only need about 10+ teeth. Maybe 20 to allow for replacement vehicles.

As I said in the original post, that big pile up on the ridge in very shallow water has NOT attracted ANY stalkers. In 15 hours of play, probably 14.5 hours of pile accumulation.

@Gon
Exactly.

@Admiral1018 (again),
Very nice stalker ranch.
Bet that took the processing of quite a pile of titanium scrap, huh? ;-)

[Dirak2012]

Maybe it's because I never do extensive building. 🤔
But I don't seen any need to gather materials in advance.

[??]

I couldn't seem to find stalker teeth them when searching took me the longest grind to get a item...... and

Originally posted by admiral1018:

You can build an outdoor Stalker aquarium too. Teeth galore!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2354165510

how did you make that???

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Acorn:

I couldn't seem to find stalker teeth them when searching took me the longest grind to get a item...... and

Originally posted by admiral1018:

You can build an outdoor Stalker aquarium too. Teeth galore!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2354165510

how did you make that???

At a guess. The area is as it looks, a base of foundations with "walls" of "I" and "corner" corridors and a "ceiling" of "X" corridors.
The stalkers were likely home grown and then released into the enclosure.
The grav spheres that can be seen I would guess are to help keep a hold of the scrap metal and/or the stalkers themselves.

[dreamrider]

What I DON'T understand about that picture is why the Grav Traps are not picking up a lot of the teeth. I know they will grab all sorts of other loose stuff. Heck, they will pull outcrops and mineral lumps off walls. I sometimes use one to "vacuum" a cave.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

What I DON'T understand about that picture is why the Grav Traps are not picking up a lot of the teeth. I know they will grab all sorts of other loose stuff. Heck, they will pull outcrops and mineral lumps off walls. I sometimes use one to "vacuum" a cave.

There's a limit to how many things the traps can grab, so if they were already maxed out on stalkers and scrap then there won't be any room on them left for the teeth.

Add in how many teeth there are and even if they had picked up some teeth.....

[dreamrider]

FWIW, at least 4 more Stalkers have been killed in the vic of my LP5 / shed / Grav Trap campsite. 2 by me when they got caught in my kitchen Grav Trap.

If we could make steaks out of these guys, I'd be set for months.


Question for the experienced fan crowd:
On a related issue, are friendly stalkers worth raising / keeping around?

I've got a dozen eggs so far.

I have a fair number of teeth already (a locker full), and I anticipate finding more. I'm a pretty thorough scavenger, and so far I've only been in the fringes of the Kelp Forests.

Are the stalker good watchdogs? Will they mob a wayward leviathan? Will they eat all my local game fish? Will they fight with pet gasopods being raised in the same tank? Will they fight with pet gasopds when both are released?

Can't do an Alien Containment yet, but will be able to soon.

[wardenwolf]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

On a related issue, are friendly stalkers worth raising / keeping around?

Only if you want to for looks or fun or to farm teeth. I normally don't even bother killing them when I play, and I bring scrap to them if I need more teeth in a hurry.

[dreamrider]

Well, I'm not really TRYING to kill them. Just if they get caught in my G Trap, or attack me. They won't seem to leave the local gasopod family alone, though, and that doesn't go well for them.