Stellar Extractor limit?

[Jaggid Edje]

Is there a limit of how many stellar extractors you can have on your freighter base?

I have 4, but when I went to empty them just now 2 of them were full, with 350 chromatic metal in each, and the other two only had 1 (in each). Glitch? Limit? Or does the work of all 4 fill 1 at a time?

Confused.

[Grimmslayer73]

We're all confused... No one really knows how they're supposed to work. I built 10 of them. Sometimes only 6 have 350 in them while the rest have 1. Sometimes they are all empty. Sometimes they all have 350 until I empty 1, then they are all empty.... It's a guessing game what will be in them each day vs what I actually pull from them.

[Jaggid Edje]

Thanks for the clarification, @Grimmslayer73. I had searched for an answer but the threads I turned up where all posts talking about the extractors with no one mentioning how they actually worked (or didn't work as the case may be).

I think I'll have to build a few more extractors, just to have more with at least a 'chance' to be full. Though I don't really care about the Chromatic metal, for the gasses it just seems easier than worrying about setting up extraction farms planetside.

[R3DSH1RTS]

Originally posted by Grimmslayer73:

We're all confused... No one really knows how they're supposed to work. I built 10 of them. Sometimes only 6 have 350 in them while the rest have 1. Sometimes they are all empty. Sometimes they all have 350 until I empty 1, then they are all empty.... It's a guessing game what will be in them each day vs what I actually pull from them.

I think they share the inventory. Like, i have 5 or 6 indium extractors on a planet, and when i harvest them, they ALL emtpy out, but they give me the TOTAL of extracted mineral.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by R3DSH1RTS:

I think they share the inventory. Like, i have 5 or 6 indium extractors on a planet, and when i harvest them, they ALL emtpy out, but they give me the TOTAL of extracted mineral.

That is not quite accurate for surface extractors. They only 'share' inventory if you have them all connected with pipes. If you do not, then it's separate inventories to collect. You are basically collecting the contents of an entire pipe-connected network.

For the Stellar extractors, there's no pipe network and no storage silos. And you do empty them individually.

[theicewind]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Thanks for the clarification, @Grimmslayer73. I had searched for an answer but the threads I turned up where all posts talking about the extractors with no one mentioning how they actually worked (or didn't work as the case may be).

I think I'll have to build a few more extractors, just to have more with at least a 'chance' to be full. Though I don't really care about the Chromatic metal, for the gasses it just seems easier than worrying about setting up extraction farms planetside.

We have different understandings of what "worry". To me, there is no worry about planet gas extractors as they work stable and never glitch out where you lose resourses.
Now Stellar Extractors is what worries me because you never know whether you'll actually receive your resourses. Planet gas extractors also give you WAY more than Stellar ones on the freighter.
To me, due to their instability, Stellar Extractors is one of the most pointless additions to the game.

[Grimmslayer73]

Originally posted by R3DSH1RTS:

Originally posted by Grimmslayer73:

We're all confused... No one really knows how they're supposed to work. I built 10 of them. Sometimes only 6 have 350 in them while the rest have 1. Sometimes they are all empty. Sometimes they all have 350 until I empty 1, then they are all empty.... It's a guessing game what will be in them each day vs what I actually pull from them.

I think they share the inventory. Like, i have 5 or 6 indium extractors on a planet, and when i harvest them, they ALL emtpy out, but they give me the TOTAL of extracted mineral.

If they actually produced consistent results I might agree, however that has not been my experience. Sometimes I can empty them all, sometimes I can only empty 3 or 4 and the rest gets deleted. They seem to have similar problems as refiners... sometimes they randomly work correctly, sometimes they don't. I tried separating them in groups. I tried building only 2 or 3. I tried building the groups far apart. I even tried having only 1.... Same thing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In the end, the few hundred units I am randomly able to harvest is really not worth the time figuring them out.

[Jaggid Edje]

@theicewind, semantics. I just meant the hassle of having to take the time to set them up and to regularly visit them (vs. the freighter, which I go back to multiple times in every play station). So I guess "hassle" is a better word than "worry".

I don't do production chains to mass-produce Stasis devices and/or fusion igniters.

The only thing I use those gasses for is to 'finish off' the production chains once my frigate fleets have collected a lot of the items/resources already. So, basically, I only need to stock the materials to fill in any gaps in frigate mission returns. i.e. the hit-or-miss returns from the stellar extractor won't be a big deal (for me).

[R3DSH1RTS]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Originally posted by R3DSH1RTS:

I think they share the inventory. Like, i have 5 or 6 indium extractors on a planet, and when i harvest them, they ALL emtpy out, but they give me the TOTAL of extracted mineral.

That is not quite accurate for surface extractors. They only 'share' inventory if you have them all connected with pipes. If you do not, then it's separate inventories to collect. You are basically collecting the contents of an entire pipe-connected network.

For the Stellar extractors, there's no pipe network and no storage silos. And you do empty them individually.

Oh. 'kay then.

[Eightball]

I view stellar extractors as a rather hit-or-miss piece of equipment, random results over time and intended to be so.

As to their mechanics it could be that, no matter how many you have operational they actually fill one at a time (the one resource in EVERY collector could be a game pass to see how many active collectors are in place before filling them in order).

I suppose the test might be to check when you collect from them and they are not all full if the same ones are always full first (since you need to collect from them individually you can tell which is which).

Just a guess.

[Jaggid Edje]

@Eightball, my results from the original post where 2 were full and the other 2 each had only a single resource were after being out of the game for 12 hours. Since I started playing, all 4 are filling at an equal rate while I'm actually in the game.
So maybe what you're saying is what happens with resources generated when NOT playing, and they just work normally....as one would expect, while you ARE playing.

The distinction between the two states of play could also explain why "no one knows" how they work; if most people aren't actually checking them as soon as they start up the game and then again while they play, they'd never notice the different behaviour.

[TachyonTraveller]

Stellar Extractors have two problems, and it all boils down to clocks. The game needs to keep track of every Stellar Extractor clock and produce resources when they roll over.

I'm not certain why they empty although multiplayer has been suggested as an issue - the Extractors conflating whose are full and whose are emptied can cause them to transfer resources across Freighter bases, at least it has been claimed they do this. If a player is 'higher' in the Freighter base listing then the game gets confused about whose inventory is whose with these. I am not sure if that has been fixed.

That leaves the clocks. The clocks sometimes get 'stuck'. This prevents the Extractors from generating resources. Staying in Extractor interaction until the clock runs over can get them producing again though it requires more patience to wait for each rollover. I believe this is caused by clocks trying to roll over at the same time beyond the game's ability to tell the difference, leading to a glitch.

Extractor inventories are persistent based on Freighter build cell - if you remove an Extractor and then replace it then the inventory will be restored. So they need a little babysitting - you need to reset the 'stuck' clocks and stay out of multiplayer or they don't work right.

My base runs five groups of sixteen Extractors and I have successfully filled all of them. I see them as more of a novelty for now but this is Hello Games. When things go wrong they make them awesome. So I'm retaining them as an investment for what they have the potential to become.

The problem is telling which Freighter base is which and detecting and correcting duplicate clocks. When Hello Games fix this they will be awesome and this is Hello Games - it is *certain* that they eventually will. If they also make the multiple inventories more accessible then they will become awesome. The problem is generation, accessibility and reliability and the devteam will certainly find a way to solve it over time.

[Prescient Stones]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Is there a limit of how many stellar extractors you can have on your freighter base?

I have 4, but when I went to empty them just now 2 of them were full, with 350 chromatic metal in each, and the other two only had 1 (in each). Glitch? Limit? Or does the work of all 4 fill 1 at a time?

Confused.

I have two, and find it necessary to babysit the first pull on each, then leave them alone. Mine are independent. meaning if one is emptied the other still has accumulated resources and continues it's cycle. If I don't watch the first pull, I could have just parked in a new Blue system and checked out till the next game session and it will still be empty; unlike a planet side Mineral/Gas Rig or for that matter anything growing on land/sea/space.

[Grimmslayer73]

Originally posted by TachyonTraveller:

Stellar Extractors.....

That makes a lot of sense and explains a few things. Thanks! I don't share you're optimism about them fixing it though. They leave too many things at that novelty phase...

[TachyonTraveller]

Yeah, I hear you there. But be fair. They might intend for those things to be novelties. Expecting everything to be fully developed isn't fair on them - they only have so much time and game development is hard. Look at what this game has become from where it started - it's astounding. This is a bug, not an incomplete or underdeveloped feature. Bugfixing is something they have a reliable track record for, which is why I am optimistic on them fixing this. :)

[Dersh]

I know im late to this discussion but...

I find Stellar Extractors NEVER work for me regardless of whether I babysit them, stay in the system for extended periods of time, or even stand on the ship with the game running for 24 RL hours. Mine have never produced anything at 1 Stellar extractor, 4, 10, 40 of them, doesn't seem to matter.

These things are even worse in reliability of resources disappearing than refiners, portable gas extractors, or nutrient machines. I thought FOR SURE after so many years Hello Games would fix the refiner resources disappearing. And don't even tell me its a feature working as intended as it happens even when I am standing there with the refiner inventory open.