Portable Oxygenator is a HUGE let down!!!

[wildwinds]

So I finally managed to get everything together and crafted a portable oxygenator and boy was I disappointed when I did.

It consumes a prodigious amount of power so I'm still reliant on carrying consumables around with me, either power cells or small batteries. Or be stuck to a tether which defeats the object of a portable oxygen source.

Considering the abundance of resin on every planet it's better to just craft oxygen filters and / or stick with a vehicle.

When you factor in the absurd research point cost and the amount of effort it takes to build the infrastructure and gather the necessary materials to create a nanocarbon alloy, the portable oxygenator is a big let down and a bad joke!!!! It should be power free like the full size oxygenators and vehicles.

[Temposin]

i don't use a PO or tethers, no point going anywhere when you can only bring a few things back with you so i'm always with my rover

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by Caz:

I see a lot of people defending bad game design.

Say it ain't so! But why don't you say which posters in particular are "defending bad game design."

Originally posted by Caz:

As it currently stands, the PO feels more like an early game alternative to tethers than it does a late game item. I will use tethers over the PO 100% of the time as things currently stand, both because it's easier to use tethers and getting the mats for them is both easier and uses less inventory space to achieve what the PO should be doing.

Except you need a steady supply of compound to keep building tethers, which is kind of a hassle if you're trying to build a long tether line. Once you build a PO, however, you can use it forever. I'd even go so far as to say it might be a little bit overpowered. That's not to say there isn't hassle with using the PO - it has to be toggled on/off to avoid draining your power, and you need to keep a much more careful watch of your air supply than you would when using tethers. My power supply already gets strained enough when using multiple tool mods, so I probably wouldn't want to run it while I was digging. For that, tethers feeding you air and power from your base win out.

I will also give the advantage to tethers where orienteering is concerned, and easily. Yes you can breathe when you get lost, but you can't GET lost if you're following a tether line. And so my preference is also for using tethers, but more because I enjoy the logistics of managing a consumable item, and I value the orienteering aspect of tether lines. Otherwise, if I could orient myself perfectly, and I could spare the nanocarbon alloy to build a PO, I'd probably use it 100% of the time.

Where it does seem to win out, however, is overland exploration. Say you're on foot far from your base, and your rover is destroyed or disabled. Or sinks through the ground never to be seen again. Yep, you'd be pretty much dead unless you had a PO. With one, you could pretty much run around indefinitely until you found one of your beacons.

[Gugnarr the Mighty Thewed]

I find it works fine.

I can leave it on my rover, or tractor, and it will drive the tethers, and with a solar or generator or battery, it runs for ages.
Or i can have it take up one slot, turn it on, and a couple secs later, O2's full.

And with 2 solar panels, i can leave it on, and forget it.
Turn it off when it gets dark.

Works fine.

[Del]

Smart idiot - term used by a dumb genius who can't figure out something so simple an idiot can understand it.

Bad game design - free portable oxygen that takes up almost no space and requires no maintenance or input to function.

[Xilo The Odd]

yeah i myself just use a small tank, im either getting air from my base or a vehicle late game. portable oxy is for very specific tasks that, could easily be done in other ways. usually by a buggy or medium rover.

[Sire]

Originally posted by 3delinquent:

Bad game design - free portable oxygen that takes up almost no space and requires no maintenance or input to function.

This is actually great design because by the time the Portable Oxygenator becomes viable, oxygen isn't a concern anymore and you can easily just have 4-6 Oxygen Tanks on your back or keep making filters. The problem is this just becomes an annoyance at that point when you're making bigger moves and colonizing other planets. Oxygen is NEVER a late-game issue but a system that shouldn't be around at that point.

[OKOK]

PO IS DESIGN like a power generator is just lousy. Turn on turn off. Turn on turn off. Repeat until sick of it.

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by Sire:

Originally posted by 3delinquent:

Bad game design - free portable oxygen that takes up almost no space and requires no maintenance or input to function.

This is actually great design because by the time the Portable Oxygenator becomes viable, oxygen isn't a concern anymore and you can easily just have 4-6 Oxygen Tanks on your back or keep making filters. The problem is this just becomes an annoyance at that point when you're making bigger moves and colonizing other planets. Oxygen is NEVER a late-game issue but a system that shouldn't be around at that point.

Cheat items are not "actually great design."

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by OKOK:

PO IS DESIGN like a power generator is just lousy. Turn on turn off. Turn on turn off. Repeat until sick of it.

Don't use it, I guess? You don't have to use it. I use tethers myself, but I'm not going to call the PO "bad design" because it doesn't let me ignore oxygen forever the moment I craft it.

[Del]

It would be much more reasonable on all counts if the small generator would go into power saving mode when everything is fully charged and only use resource when power depletes. It would save at least some of the turning on and off.

An extra oxygen tank and a small battery does help with that somewhat and without using up all your inventory slots.

The portable oxygenator is for autonomous activity where you don't have a vehicle or tethers to provide oxygen. I agree there is no point to using it if you have a vehicle and/or tethers close by.

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by 3delinquent:

It would be much more reasonable on all counts if the small generator would go into power saving mode when everything is fully charged and only use resource when power depletes. It would save at least some of the turning on and off.

An extra oxygen tank and a small battery does help with that somewhat and without using up all your inventory slots.

The portable oxygenator is for autonomous activity where you don't have a vehicle or tethers to provide oxygen. I agree there is no point to using it if you have a vehicle and/or tethers close by.

Agreed there. The generators would be significantly more useful if they were smarter about turning off when they aren't needed.

[OKOK]

In short it is dumb.

[nottrusted]

The ridiculous part here is the fact that the normal Oxigenator doesn't even needs power to provide oxygene to a tether line....
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1666498107
Given how much more rescources a PO needs to be build, I'd call that a major oversight or bug.

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by nottrusted:

The ridiculous part here is the fact that the normal Oxigenator doesn't even needs power to provide oxygene to a tether line....

Given how much more rescources a PO needs to be build, I'd call that a major oversight or bug.

I'd rather say it's the oversight that the regular oxygenator doesn't, if not require a steady power supply, at least require a powered platform to operate. It's like they went out of their way to make the game as brain-dead easy as humanly possible.

[Del]

The regular oxygenator should require the RTG to power it. Currently it doesn't but it would make sense if that changed. That would however require a slot in the shuttles for an RTG or the oxygenator would be useless for that purpose...