Did NMS Really Need More Tedium? Biofuel Reactors.. Really?

[Shyny Magikarp]

Before I start let me say I'm not that deep in the game. But I think my points still stand. The early game experience is just as important as the late game.

First of all.. having to build this in the first place was just an extra level of tedium the game didn't need. I never needed this before. My teleporter worked just fine without this a while ago. What was the major signal that this early stage of the game needed that kind of tedium?

Even worse, after I had to build electrical wiring (this just in, a world where we can travel at warp speed we still need wires?), I filled in 388 condensed carbon (which is not fun to collect or process, just boring), it said ti would last 20 minutes. AND THEN AFTER PAUSING THE GAME TO GET UP AND USE THE RESTROOM AND MAKE A SNACK, I find out the game still counts the time in which I'm paused as well???

So I only had 10 minutes left on my power source, and there is no way to remove the fuel from the reactor once inserted.

I'm sorry just... WHAT? I just don't get it. I don't understand what was the major signal that no man's sky needed more tedium? The one thing which has always prevented me from getting deeper into the game from the very beginning is the amount of tedium. Inventory, base building, resource requirements, money gating..

This to me is just such a backward design decision.

[Rockin' Shawn]

Those are only useful in ermergency situations or in conjuctions with switches.
Solar panels and batteries are way more efficient. I combined those with proximity switches, so my base only draws energy when someone's inside - I even made sure only the current room gets energy.

Make sure you put your cables along walls etc. so you don't end up with messy cables all over the place.

[Shyny Magikarp]

Originally posted by Rockin' Shawn:

Those are only useful in ermergency situations or in conjuctions with switches.
Solar panels and batteries are way more efficient. I combined those with proximity switches, so my base only draws energy when someone's inside - I even made sure only the current room gets energy.

Make sure you put your cables along walls etc. so you don't end up with messy cables all over the place.

I just don't think you're understanding my point. It was a level of tedium which didn't even exist before. Things worked fine without them. There was no strong call to add them or was a part of the game sorely lacking without it.

it's not about which is more efficient. It's about unnecessary tedium.

[King Crimson]

I totally agree with you. It has totally ruined my experience. At least you understand the concept of wiring and energy management. I have no clue as to what I am doing. I think that this whole part of the game is tedious and unnecessary. I posted this (very long) comment on You Tube and I am going to paste it here.

"I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I have no clue as to what is going on with the whole Idea of wiring and powering up the base. Quite frankly I wish there was an option not to go down this path. I liked the base building the way it was. I am a dummy and none of this makes any sense to me what so ever. I am not an electrician. It seems like such an arduous and daunting task. The only thing I can do is build a power generator and wire it to the teleporter. I was having such a good time playing the game until I reached this part. I cannot see the fun in doing any of this. If I knew what I was doing I might (maybe but not likely) enjoy it. For me the game has come to a halt and all I am doing is tearing my hair out. What I need is a Dummy's Guide. I really need a step by step instructional clip starting from the beginning from building the Generator(s) which I can do, to wiring it to components that require power to function. I even have difficulty laying down a wire. I have no idea what a proximity switch is and why you need so many wires and switches just to power a light on and off. I am the type of person that literally needs someone to guide me through every single step from beginning to end in order to understand this whole concept. Also, it really makes the base interior look really messy. Not aesthetically pleasing at all. I like to make my base interior/exterior look good, but with all these wires all over the place it looks really messy. I've also heard that some players need several generators just to power up a few devices and even then apparently some of the devices power up while others will not.

Also. I noticed that the generator generates power for a limited time before you have to re-fuel it (I may be wrong). So if you use the teleporter and spend say several hours in another system then have to teleport back to said base; will you actually get there if it has run out of fuel on the other end? or will one be lost in space forever (you know like when Scotty has transporter problems in Startrek which makes crew members on the Enterprise who are transporting have a really bad day, like die or come back inside out).

You'd think that in the future when humans are warping from one system to another with state of the art technology, we surely would have figured out the concept of wireless energy transfer. I mean Nicola Tesla was developing this at the beginning of the 20th century. Even today we can see the beginnings of that technology like wireless mice, keyboards, phones etc (even though we have to plug them in to re-charge them, but one day...….). I was really impressed with the game until this point, nice and relaxing, but now I am stressing just trying to figure all this power management and wiring out. Even Cortana can't help me (stupid B@#$h). I really, really, really need a dummies step by step guide and I need to hide these wires before someone trips on them and breaks a leg. It's an occupational Health and safety issue.

[Rockin' Shawn]

Originally posted by Shiny Magikarp:

Originally posted by Rockin' Shawn:

Those are only useful in ermergency situations or in conjuctions with switches.
Solar panels and batteries are way more efficient. I combined those with proximity switches, so my base only draws energy when someone's inside - I even made sure only the current room gets energy.

Make sure you put your cables along walls etc. so you don't end up with messy cables all over the place.

I just don't think you're understanding my point. It was a level of tedium which didn't even exist before. Things worked fine without them. There was no strong call to add them or was a part of the game sorely lacking without it.

it's not about which is more efficient. It's about unnecessary tedium.

While I partly agree, I also see that now with all these logic parts, you can do a lot of really advanced stuff. In order to do that you need some kind of current running through - energy. So...yeah...without an energy system, there's no way to have those extra features.

[Shyny Magikarp]

Originally posted by Rockin' Shawn:

Originally posted by Shiny Magikarp:

I just don't think you're understanding my point. It was a level of tedium which didn't even exist before. Things worked fine without them. There was no strong call to add them or was a part of the game sorely lacking without it.

it's not about which is more efficient. It's about unnecessary tedium.

While I partly agree, I also see that now with all these logic parts, you can do a lot of really advanced stuff. In order to do that you need some kind of current running through - energy. So...yeah...without an energy system, there's no way to have those extra features.

That's just objectively wrong. All of those systems can work without any need for power in the first place. Just pretend everything is fully powered all the time. Or, unlike a fuel machine like a biofuel reactor. just have everything like the refiner which self contains its own power supply.

[Jukelo]

What you call tedium I call fun, and NMS in many regards is too simplistic, so I'd say yes.

[Zero Sum]

Originally posted by Shiny Magikarp:

Originally posted by Rockin' Shawn:

While I partly agree, I also see that now with all these logic parts, you can do a lot of really advanced stuff. In order to do that you need some kind of current running through - energy. So...yeah...without an energy system, there's no way to have those extra features.

That's just objectively wrong. All of those systems can work without any need for power in the first place. Just pretend everything is fully powered all the time. Or, unlike a fuel machine like a biofuel reactor. just have everything like the refiner which self contains its own power supply.

First of all, you are actually the one who is incorrect. Rockin Shawn is reffering to logic gates, which requires a circuit to allow for the control of on and off. On the surface this might seem mundane, but with switches like the power inverter acting like an OR gate & the auto switch acting like an AND gate, there really is no "wireless" solution you speak of.

[Roland]

Originally posted by Jukelo:

What you call tedium I call fun, and NMS in many regards is too simplistic, so I'd say yes.

This.
The wiring systems open up a whole new bevy of silly things we can do.

OP I gotta say, you're mostly crying about a reactor when most of us built solar panels and batteries as soon as we saw what the reactor was all about.
4 batteries and 4 solar panels keep my base fully powered forever. (The batteries have yet to drop below 80% after my 3rd night with them setup)

[Gaviscon]

I prefer it, reminds me of Subnautica.

"AND THEN AFTER PAUSING THE GAME TO GET UP AND USE THE RESTROOM AND MAKE A SNACK, I find out the game still counts the time in which I'm paused as well???"

the game is teaching you a valuable lesson: time waits for no man's sky.

[Moonsong]

What has to be understood is that this is a feature some people wanted, more survival like features, more to do with base building, etc.

Apparently enough wanted it to have them implement it.

My only complaint is that it feels like the Biofuel gen eats fuel too quickly for the amount of energy it gives out.

[VooDooDad]

Hey, moderators (if there even *are* any looking into these discussions) could we please condense all threads containing "Biofuel Reactor" or even just "Power" into a single thread?

It would be so much simpler.

[TZODnmr2K5]

They should have made it OPTIONAL like in minecraft/FO4, not MANDATORY... but hopefully modders will be able to lift some of the tedium from its implementation such as prolonging the pointless time limits.

[His name is Robert Paulson]

Lmao. I gave up on the biofuel reactor the moment I sank 300 carbon into it at the very beginning of the game and only got like 4 minutes of power. First thing I did after that was get solar panels up and running. They just need to adjust the biofuel reactor consumption way down, like, to 10% of what it is now. Or we need to wait until somebody releases a mod that changes it (probably more likely).

[Arconedas]

Originally posted by this is dog :o3:

Lmao. I gave up on the biofuel reactor the moment I sank 300 carbon into it at the very beginning of the game and only got like 4 minutes of power. First thing I did after that was get solar panels up and running. They just need to adjust the biofuel reactor consumption way down, like, to 10% of what it is now. Or we need to wait until somebody releases a mod that changes it (probably more likely).

Get couple solar panels and connect few batteries to store the extra energy they generate during daytime. Bioreactors are kind of backup only.. or maybe if you use switches you can use them temporarily.

[Bamboot]

The biofuel reactor is a bad introduction to base powering due to the crazy inefficient power consumption. I, along with clearly several others, had the same initial reaction. OK.. base power, build reactor, put in hundreds of carbon.... get 3 seconds of power lol. Like it's ridiculous and a bad way to showcase their new system. Off putting? Yes! Especially when someone is logging in for the first time to an unpowered base and trying to figure out the new system. The first reaction is.. ."I'll need how much carbon to power this base? And how often?!?! FFS F this...."

That said, just grind out solar asap, and forget about the bottomless carbon sink that is a biogen. But, really, I'm very surprised given how much they relaxed many systems to alleviate the "grind" that one of their first prominent features screams for massive carbon grinding. Bad first impression and design of the biogen. Really other than for emergency purposes, it should be ignored for solar power. Which begs the question, why put a biogen in, in the first place, if it's just an unusable stepping stone.

Biogen would be decent if they:
-Made it accept all biomatter in their plant state as fuel which it then turned into carbon (serving as a carbon refiner while providing power). (So, put in frost crystals or other plant for power, get out carbon and power)
-Had much more efficiency in power output vs fuel consumption.

Otherwise, not worth using in its current state.

Go Green!