Useless Stellar Extractors?

[MechWarden]

It's been several weeks since this was added, and it feels like they are still a waste of time. Sure, you can get something out of it, but if you do any travel back and forth from your freighter, it seems like it just eats away at what is gathered.

I did a push to get to the center of the galaxy on this Permadeath play through so my freighter is in one galaxy and I bounce around to the first one. Kind of have to given I get pulled back to Euclid whenever I do a Nexus mission.

Is it just the galaxy bouncing that is messing things up, or are other people getting extractors that occasionally just forget to hold their stuff during typical gameplay as well?

[MechWarden]

Първоначално публикувано от Jananton:

Първоначално публикувано от Similar:

I just came back to my freighter and one of my refiners had three materials in the input slots, except the materials had no amounts, were greyed out and I couldn't remove them. The refiner said 'incompatible recipe' or some such. It was basically just locked in a useless state and couldn't be fixed, so I deleted it.

Had the same thing just now, but you don't need to delete the refiner, just save and reload and the refiner is well behaved again.

I wish that someone who really knows what the intended behaviour of these extractors should be (hello Hello Games) would explain them, sending bug reports without knowing where to look for seems a little silly ;-)

The intended behavior is pretty simple.

They passively run and generate resources at the cost of power*.
(*power that is not listed, but stupidly abundant. There are even less things to spend power on thanks to the push to the new Cultivator rooms, cutting the need for power for hydroponics trays. So why even have hidden power stats anymore is beyond me.)

At least for extracting in a Yellow Star system, it takes 23 hours and 20 minutes (effectively 24 hours) to generate 350 units of Chromatic Metal (which 350 is max capacity), or at a rate of 15 units an hour (as listed in menu), or 1 unit every 4 minutes (which it is how it operates). The other 3 types of star systems yield different gases (as listed here https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Stellar_Extractor_Room).

It should just work on its own, logged on or off, or while at the freighter or off the freighter. It should gather resources until it is full.

You know what else works on its own for hours at a time when provided with power? Mineral Extractors and Gas Extractors that are planet side. Last I heard they work just fine and are much easier to use once setup. I don't know why HG thought it was a good idea to use Refinery mechanics for Stellar Extractors, generating a (buggy and) timed instance for each and every Stellar Extractor Core that you have to individually have to click on to get your stuff. Or somehow put faith into it just dumping things into your inventory when warping to a new (different?) system.

It really isn't that complex or hard to understand.

[NZ.Zero]

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

350 Chromatic Metal in a 24 hour period,

Yeah but they're designed to only work while playing. Either way, an activated mine is massively better, and you can add as many tanks as you like too, so the storage is waaay better. Basically the stellar extractors are obsolete at launch. (And that's if they worked which they don't obviously)

Edit.. actually they might be useful for early game stages, but only til you get enough data modules to unlock the mining parts.

[Krash Megiddo]

I don't use stellar extractors for resources. No one should depend on them for anything. I still build one on my freighter because its cool looking machinery chugging away in the background.

[MechWarden]

Първоначално публикувано от NZ.Zer0:

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

350 Chromatic Metal in a 24 hour period,

Yeah but they're designed to only work while playing. ...

No, that is not the case at all. They operate on an independent timer, just like refineries and the planet side extractors. You can pause the game and they will still work. You can leave the game and come back (if it didn't bug out) and find it has collected more materials.

Before the last patch, you were able to easily generate materials over night. Now it is a crap shoot on if it has worked at all!

It makes very little design sense to have a 350 unit cap output bin (when most Survival and Permadeath things have a 250 unit cap) and a collection time that just so happens to math out to a 24 hour operation time if it were to only work while playing. The resource generation is inline with the other planet side extractors, and those don't stop working while the game is off.

Първоначално публикувано от NZ.Zer0:

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

350 Chromatic Metal in a 24 hour period,

...
Edit.. actually they might be useful for early game stages, but only til you get enough data modules to unlock the mining parts.

It is useless early on. A person would be spending Salvaged Freighter Modules on many other things well before touching a Stellar Extractor, and the output would be so terribly tiny (especially if it was only to operate while playing) that it would feel like an insult and waste of time and resources.

[Jananton]

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

Първоначално публикувано от Jananton:

...
I wish that someone who really knows what the intended behaviour of these extractors should be (hello Hello Games) would explain them, sending bug reports without knowing where to look for seems a little silly ;-)

The intended behavior is pretty simple.

They passively run and generate resources at the cost of power*.
(*power that is not listed, but stupidly abundant. There are even less things to spend power on thanks to the push to the new Cultivator rooms, cutting the need for power for hydroponics trays. So why even have hidden power stats anymore is beyond me.)

[remainder thorow explanation skipped]

It really isn't that complex or hard to understand.

That there's a hidden powerdrain is new to me, always something to learn.

Your explanation is roughly as I thought the extractor would work, but when you google for it there are some very different ideas ventilated, so I dropped that question in here.

Well, as a conclusion, I won't mothball my gas-farms I build in almost all my saves, looks like a lot more reliable, at least for the moment. ;-)

[MechWarden]

Yeah, when placing it, it has an energy bolt and 50 listed on it, but freighters have like some absurd and unlisted amount of kPs. The wiki (https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Power) lists it as 10,000kPs, which is more than enough for what most any player can want.

[NZ.Zero]

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

They operate on an independent timer, ...

Ok ok interesting. I never got more than double digits from them and assumed that was why, guess they just never worked properly :)

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

It is useless early on.

. ..fair enough.. so basically they were obsolete at launch then.

[NZ.Zero]

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

It makes very little design sense to have a 350 unit cap output bin

Yeah I agree. However they shouldn't make it any higher because they risk making the entire planetside metal/gas mining part of the game obsolete if they do. This is something that's been done over and over in the game, making it easier and easier by introducing more and more simplified technologies. (Can't think of an example right now but others with a longer history will know what I mean).

Nee tech isn't always negative and in some cases the new tech has added to the game because the build is better (i.e. when mining units and oxygen harvesters were made obsolete) but replacing the whole surveying/ mining metal part of the game with a high yielding easy build room would mess up a large part of the gameplay.

[Krash Megiddo]

Първоначално публикувано от NZ.Zer0:

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

It makes very little design sense to have a 350 unit cap output bin

Yeah I agree. However they shouldn't make it any higher because they risk making the entire planetside metal/gas mining part of the game obsolete if they do. This is something that's been done over and over in the game, making it easier and easier by introducing more and more simplified technologies. In some cases the new tech has added to the game because the build is better (i.e. when mining units and oxygen harvesters were made obsolete) but replacing the whole surveying/ mining metal part of the game with a high yielding easy build room would mess up a large part of the gameplay.

Good point. I would care about these extractors if they extracted something useful like Tritium or silicone powder. For now they are just cosmetic to me.

[SaD-82]

Първоначално публикувано от Krash Megiddo:

I would care about these extractors if they extracted something useful like Tritium or silicone powder.

Or GekNip out of Geks. Then there would be - finally - a use to those useless, little maggots.

[NZ.Zero]

Първоначално публикувано от Krash Megiddo:

if they extracted something useful like Tritium

Now THAT is a really good idea. It also makes more sense than them extracting crometal which is pretty nonsensical considering the asteroids that are in space. Tritium is a fantastic idea plus it works well for smallish quantities, plus it's actually useful right from early on through to the end game, and it doesn't interfere with anything else.

[MechWarden]

Първоначално публикувано от NZ.Zer0:

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

They operate on an independent timer, ...

Ok ok interesting. I never got more than double digits from them and assumed that was why, guess they just never worked properly :)

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

It is useless early on.

. ..fair enough.. so basically they were obsolete at launch then.

They worked noticeably better the last update. I actually had some that were full. And I wouldn't say they were obsolete at launch, since they were somewhat usable, but they are near worthless now until fixed.

Първоначално публикувано от Krash Megiddo:

Първоначално публикувано от NZ.Zer0:

(already quoted)

Good point. I would care about these extractors if they extracted something useful like Tritium or silicone powder. For now they are just cosmetic to me.

They do! They generate the other 3 gases, Nitrogen, Sulphurine, and Radon for the Red, Green, and Blue star systems! (in that order). You'd have to warp to each system to change what it collects (and have all three drive types, which takes awhile to grind), but once setup it would be easy to get the gases you need for advanced crafting.

Also who wants Silicate Powder? Just set your Terrain Beam to wide, dig a hole, Restore it, and repeat, and you'll have more than you need. Lastly almost every NPC ship pilots seems to sell Tritium, so hit up a high economy system and bug everyone for some. Though I think that got nerfed some, since I can't find people or markets selling several thousand at a time anymore.

[almighty_hood]

so i dont know if this is accurate or just a random happening but i have started to notice a few things about these extractors.

seems to me at least, after building 1 its taking a good 24 plus hours before it starts to work on collecting anything.
also now i have 35 of them i have noticed that over the last few days since my above post that the extractors with npc's standing in front of them have collected stuff most of the time, however this is not 100% because on occasion a few without npc's standing at them have had stuff aswell. as to these npc's i have about 5 or 6 working on the extractors which makes me wonder perhaps only extractors that have npc's in front of them are used at least until the 350 cap is reached? maybe they rotate through the number of extractors you have or something? because i have seen them on random extractors though tbh i have not spent enough time watching them to see if they do actually fill an extractor to cap then move on to another?. i guess it would kind of make sense that way, but then the seemingly unlimited amount you can build makes that not make sense at the same time..

honestly these things are so confusing im not sure if any of the above is right or just my imagination lol..

also im abit confused by the gases collection aswell.
only 3 gases ingame, sulphurine, radon, nitrogen and they all get collected.. the thing is if you refine sulphurine you get radon and radon turns into nitrogen and nitrogen back to sulphurine. this to me seems abit redundant to collect all 3 via extractors when they turn into each other anyways, and then for some unknown reason chromatic metal is collected aswell which is not a gas and can only be made by refining certain metals.. the system just doesnt add up right in my mind lol.

is it just me or do others feel they are just abit of a strange addition?.

*mechwarden*
"They generate the other 3 gases, Nitrogen, Sulphurine, and Radon for the Red, Green, and Blue star systems! (in that order). You'd have to warp to each system to change what it collects"

i am currently in a red star system my extractors are collecting both sulphurine and nitrogen at the same time.

[Krash Megiddo]

Първоначално публикувано от MechWarden:

Also who wants Silicate Powder? Just set your Terrain Beam to wide, dig a hole, Restore it, and repeat, and you'll have more than you need

I know how to get SP and tritium. Forcing us to dig holes for SP is why I don't build stone structures. It annoys me. Having alternative ways to collect resources is why I like base building in NMS. There must be a dozen different ways to gather carbon and ferrite dust.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

I tend to agree with Crash that they are more sizzle then steak. To the extent they do work, it means parking your freighter in a system that will produce what you want and never moving it.

I just use the atmospheric refiners at a land base that gives the resource I need. Much simpler and I only need gases. Chromatic metal is just too easy to come by. Frigate missions tend to drop tons of activated metals in your lap and refining them is pretty quick and easy (since realistically you never need that much). Plus you can just buy the stuff.

The gases tend to be hard to come by. I really only ever need Radon. I only re-refine the other gases into radon anyway.