Tips and Tricks from players to players.

[crgzero]

I decided I'd share a few of my tips/ideas for others that might not of thought of this theirselves or are just generally having problems.

With the upcoming alpha release a good amount of this thread is probably not applicable any more. I have no home net and I post with the Android steam app so maintaining this post and updating it is far to hard to do with a phone. I thank everyone who's contributed, I sincerely hope that our contributions have helped someone. This is a good game with greatness in its future. Danke shoen.

I'm not very creative, I've a feeling it's also not very pretty. Oh well. Function over form.
Also keep in mind this is an Early Access (or EA) game, things change. I read the forums A LOT and try to test things, so if we say something works and it doesn't, don't get angry. Give me some time or heads up and I'll check it out and change whats posted here as needed. (like pulling your core to fool drones or parking under water, it no longer works)


Scanning over some of the threads on these forums it seems people are running out of resources quickly. The common theme I see is that people try to build a good base all at once, it's not really necessary.

• If you're intent on a base right off, only build enough to put up a turret to protect your crap so you can go mining without worries.

Generally I'll build just enough to slap a generator, fuel tank, then a platform 4 blocks up, and large enough for a turret. That doesn't take a lot of materials and will keep your base protected easily.

• Also, get in your turret, fire it off a few times, then exit. After that, at least in my experience it seems to work fine.

My latest playthrough I've seen my turret shoot down 2 of 3 drones but never fire once on the 3rd. I had to deal with it. I wasn't upset as I wanted the xp, but still they are occasionally wonky.

• It seems most of the time drones aim for your SV/HV cores, bury it and/or keep a spare. You can remove your current core which gives you your materials back and move it to a different part of the ship to protect it.
  
  
  
• I've not tested it myself, but some folks have said that if you remove your core while mining your ship won't get ganked as often since drones home in on the cores. Just remember to keep a spare and you lose power to your ship with no core.Tested several times, no longer works.
  
  
• Sausages last a good long while without refrigeration. Something to think about.
  
  
• Parking underwater no longer protects your ship from drone attacks. I've lost 2 now on 2 different saves. This last ship I put a lot of effort into and now I feel like crap.
  
  
• Your character is still safe in fairly shallow water, as long as your head is covered, your ship however, is not safe any where.
  
  
• Hover Vehicles, or HV works GREAT now. It comes down to personal choice on whether you want an SV or HV, SVs only require a bit more resources and can fly into space, but HVs can mount turrets and can defend themselves.
  
  
• You can power up your base by pressing the "Y" button, alternatively, you can press the "P" button and power up individual parts of your base.

I built a small one and put it through it's paces. I think the total weight was under 2 tons, design included a turret. I went up the steepest mountians and hills and only flipped over once. I was going full tilt straight up the side. I just hit shift and I flipped right back over. Other than just not wanting to mess with one there's no reason not to build an HV now. I'd post a screenshot of it but Steam is giving me ♥♥♥♥ and didn't save my SS.

I can't think of anything else useful at the moment. If you have anything useful to add, please do.

crg


added by ---------Candytripn-------------

• Salvage salvage salvage! This is the biggest thing I've found after running a few games. you can get so many parts from the wreck sites or alien bases.
  
  
• Biggest help is to find the rear half of the wrecked Titan(I think its titan.. the CV you find) and salvage the Large Thrusters. That will get you parts you need to make the Advanced Constructer without having to leave the starter planet. I didn't get everything I needed from the Titan's engine to build the constructor, luck? I dunno, had to mine an asteroid to get the brown ore, err bad with names to make those parts myself--crg--
  
  
• The Advanced contructor should be the first thing you strive for, as the automated building is the biggest help there is. (craft a thruster, and it automatically crafts all the parts you need for the thurster first!)
  
  
• Also, the rail gun on the SV is great for sniping turrents on alien bases well before you get in range. Take them out without any danger to your ship.
  
  
• Carry spare cores when exploring. After taking out the enemy core on a base, place yours for a free pre-constructed base!
  

added by -------------Draven---------

• A tip for easier construction of ships, build a platform and then on it place Elevator blocks as many as you think you will need, this allows for you to build on the bottom of your ship, and also hover around it if need be at least a little. This is mostly for easier bottom construction, but you can leave the platform up and land your ship on it to allow for easier repair of anything under your ship.

added by ---------------hampstead38---------------------

• I like to locate my initial base near an iron deposit. On the front end, I use a fair amount of iron to put my base together.
  
  
• On a mining run, I leave at daybreak and go to a node that has a mineral/resource I need. I mine until I have enough time to make it back in the light. For the sake of efficiency, I forage on the way to and from the node.
  
  
• Carry extra drill power packs.
  
  
• One of my goals in base development is self sustaining farming. I like to have at least five "units" of each plant. During the night, I harvest plants and fabricate food for storage. I personally like canned vegetables and canned meat.
  
  
• Harvest what you need for healing packs and carry extra.water x1 and alien plasma zr1 x2, found on plants makes the small medkit, you can also you can also use pixie stalk bundles to heal yourself, found on Akua freely --crg
  
  
• Having tried numerous base locations, I like building on water, specifically, an inlet on a major water body. The major water body is essentially a "road."I mainly build on water because I suck using the leveling tool ---crg
  
  
• Ignore the hovercraft and build a small vessel. Until developers fix the hovercraft, it's easier just to fly. HVs work great now.
  
  
• Spend some time airborne on each planet as a scouting missions to locate nodes.
  
  
• Until drones are tougher, think of them as free pizza delivery units, bringing you supplies you need.
  
  
• Stuff a cargo unit with foraged food and let it spoil to make nutrients.Nutrient solution is needed for growing plots and seedlings --crg

added by --------------Brianmi------------------

• Ideal location to build is where IRON and PROMETHEUM are in close travel distance (ideally short walk) as you'll need lots of both eventually. Third on list is Magnesium since then you can make massive ammo to level up quickly by shooting everything that walks or crawls...
  
  
• Before going gonzo on a base (unless you just want to craft your dream...) simply push leveling up so you can use a ranged weapon to take out a bases defenses (sniper rifle, then laser rifle), then clean it out and punch out it's Core and stick in your own, whala, you have a huge base. The Epsilon Factory is IDEAL because it has a hangar to fly your ship into, power and a constructor to set you on your way. Simply add a Medic STation and a Food Processor and a Fridge and you're good to go.
  
  
• Use the BACKUP GAME and keep a backup before doing anything dicey. That way if you fail (e.g. blow up your perty ship...) you can just exit, delete the game, copy the Backup to be the primary game file and try again.
  
  
• Once you have a SV (which again should be asap) then recon the entire planet, just steer clear of enemy bases for now, but locate all the resources for the entire planet. Check map and fly the way the sunlight will travel, zigzaggin up and down to scout entire planet under daylight. In a one day cycle you'll cirle the planet and be home knowing where EVERYTHING is.
  
  
• I now land right near resources I'm mining and just check on my ship every 10 seconds or so by popping my head out. Always dig into a mine from the uphill side and Mine a gradual slope into the area so that you can run right out to check on ship.

added by -------------Hummel-o-War Moderator--------------

10 tipps for building HVs

• When having placed the starter block, put your cockpit right over the core block (with the hover engine sitting below the core block) -> the hover engine needs to be as forefront as possible to avoid problems while climbing a hills
  
  
• Build your front like a shovel. Dont add a lot of cube blocks on the lower front of the cockpit.
  
  
• The heavier your HV is, the more hover engines are needed NOT for the flight level, but for the suspension
  
  
• HV now has a max 3m flight level. This should be enough to climb even steep terrain
  
  
• . SPACE = rise the flight level gradually
  
  
• C = lower the flight level gradually
  
  
• If you tipped over, hit SHIFT and your HV will roll back to standard position (you need a RCS equipped to use this feature!)
  
  
• Hit SHIFT+Space to do a quite HIGH jump. This will help with big obstacles and hills.
  
  
• Any vessel, be it HV or SV, should look like a "pyramid" when looked from behind/from the front. If you are building "boxes" or "pencils", tipping over will be more frequent...like in the real world.. ;-)
  
  
• Finally: for moving a HV, you only need 4 thrusters (6 are needed for SVs): Front, back, left, right. You may also use Directional Thrusters instead of Normal Thrusters (but thats up to personal preference)

---------------added by Phaeteon---------------

• Staying in your Med Station can keep you alive while starving. This method can be used to overnight "farm" Hydrogen Bottles from the H2/O2 generators for a massive amount of power.Food is to plentiful and easy to come by, for now. No reason to starve. Also keep in mind that while Hydrogen is relatively free, it produces less power per pack so burns quicker.---crg---

---------------added by WOLFMAN1469-------------

• Move Items Quickly - Shift Click to move inventory items quickly
  
  
• Manage Items Stacks/Batches - Right click inventory items to half grab or single drop item stacks, and Shift Clicking in the Constructors will que a Batch of the item selected.Shift clicking in the constructor queues stacks of 10 --crg--
  
  
• Don't Waste Promethium! - Save Promethium by delaying mass production of Fuel Packs till you have a H2O2 Generator set up AND can make the Large Fuel Packs. Then Mass produce Large Packs to put in your H2O2 Gen. (Keep in mind you will need Prom/Small Fuel Packs for tool rounds). In a short time use Hydrogen Bottles to make Hydro Packs.AS the game is set up right now, it's not very dangerous and you can mine promethium in relative ease and get gobs and gobs before you even leave your starting planet. In the future I can see this being more realistic. ---crg---
  
  
• Don't waste Magnesium! - Since Magnesium Ore converts to powder at 1/1 not 2/1 like the other Ores to Ingots and is used in Construction, Food, and Medicine in multiple recipes. Having also not yet witnessed a Magnesium Meteor. Magnesium is actually EXTREMELY valueable. So when hunting time comes use the infitnite rounds of ship or base turrets not limited firearm ammo.
  
  
• Dont Waste Iron - Our game character unfortunately hasn't figured out recycling yet so when eating canned food he/she just throws the can away like a litter bug and doesn't keep the metal plate. So when your at home try and eat fresher items and save the less perishable cans for when you journey out.
  
  
• Food Math - Do it.
  Wolfman's tips will be more viable in the future when the game becomes harder and more dangerous, for now though mining and keeping fed is cake, you gotta be pretty wasteful or negligent to get into to much trouble as the game stands now.

----------added by FondleMonster-------------

• Here's a no brainer to the guy running out at dawn to mine. bring 10+ drill charges. bring drill. bring like 8 sausages/salami (don't remember name) and bring worklight 2. dig into materials, and determine how wide the sphere or ore is. place worklight 2 on ore, then mine under the light. BAM the light floats. makes life so much easier to night mining

Great Seeds!

--------- Submitted by cYBAJOe --------------

• 1900267
  3 x iron 2 x silicon 1 x promethium and 1 x cobalt all within view at start.

[Pandas love bamboo]

I love me some sausage.

[Bocephus666]

Yup sausage all the way until I can make canned meat

[Bluford]

Salvage salvage salvage! This is the biggest thing I've found after running a few games. you can get so many parts from the wreck sites or alien bases.


Biggest help is to find the rear half of the wrecked Titan(I think its titan.. the CV you find) and salvage the Large Thrusters. That will get you parts you need to make the Advanced Constructer without having to leave the starter planet.

The Advanced contructor should be the first thing you strive for, as the automated building is the biggest help there is. (craft a thruster, and it automatically crafts all the parts you need for the thurster first!)



Also, the rail gun on the SV is great for sniping turrents on alien bases well before you get in range. Take them out without any danger to your ship.


Carry spare cores when exploring. After taking out the enemy core on a base, place yours for a free pre-constructed base!


Not as much time in as others, but those are what I've found so far :)

[crgzero]

Parking underwater no longer protects your ship from drone attacks. I've lost 2 now on 2 different saves. This last ship I put a lot of effort into and now I feel like crap.

Pulling the core also does not help. The second time not only was I in very deep water, I also pulled my core (after crafting a new one).

Your character is still safe in fairly shallow water, as long as your head is covered, your ship however, is not safe any where.

Went and raided a base, came back to a drone hovering over my ship and my ship beat the hell. Lost my cockpit and mobile constructor. Oddly that's all I lost, basically that meant my ship was farked and so was I because I was on the other side of the planet from my base.

[RoY]

Well am fairly new to this but have built a pretty big base, much bigger than needed and a nice hovercraft but don't seem to be suffering from being able to find resources yet.

[Draven]

A tip for easier construction of ships, build a platform and then on it place Elevator blocks as many as you think you will need, this allows for you to build on the bottom of your ship, and also hover around it if need be at least a little. This is mostly for easier bottom construction, but you can leave the platform up and land your ship on it to allow for easier repair of anything under your ship.

[hampstead38]

Here are a few of mine:

1. I like to locate my initial base near an iron deposit. On the front end, I use a fair amount of iron to put my base together.

2. On a mining run, I leave at daybreak and go to a node that has a mineral/resource I need. I mine until I have enough time to make it back in the light. For the sake of efficiency, I forage on the way to and from the node.

3. Carry extra drill power packs.

4. One of my goals in base development is self sustaining farming. I like to have at least five "units" of each plant. During the night, I harvest plants and fabricate food for storage. I personally like canned vegetables and canned meat.

5. Harvest what you need for healing packs and carry extra.

6. Having tried numerous base locations, I like building on water, specifically, an inlet on a major water body. The major water body is essentially a "road."

7. Ignore the hovercraft and build a small vessel. Until developers fix the hovercraft, it's easier just to fly.

8. Spend some time airborne on each planet as a scouting missions to locate nodes.

9. Until drones are tougher, think of them as free pizza delivery units, bringing you supplies you need.

10. Stuff a cargo unit with foraged food and let it spoil to make nutrients.

[Draven]

Originally posted by hampstead38:

Here are a few of mine:

All really good, except 7. HV's are much better since yesterday their minigun turret isn't very good, at least at range but it can be usable up close and seems ok against drones cause they hover. We should compile a huge list eventually. I think this thread is a great idea.

[hampstead38]

Until drones get tougher, the turrets on the hovercraft really don't represent much "value added." I can park a small vessel near a mining code, listen for the shots, pop up and knock down the drone, salvage it, and go back to mining. I'll run over my SV with the repair tool before taking off, but rarely do I actually lose a block.

In my current game, I have every resource but haven't started a capital ship build. I'll go ahead and build a few HCs, but for rapid travel to and from nodes... it's tough to beat the SV. Of course, if drones start swarming and getting tough to kill, that changes everything.

[brianmi]

Originally posted by Draven:

Originally posted by hampstead38:

Here are a few of mine:

All really good, except 7. HV's are much better since yesterday their minigun turret isn't very good, at least at range but it can be usable up close and seems ok against drones cause they hover. We should compile a huge list eventually. I think this thread is a great idea.

Disagree. HV is useless to me. Nothing you can do on a HV you can't do on a SV. HV is waste of resources since eventual goal is to get off planet and only SV makes that possible. As mentioned Rail Gun lets you outgun any base defenses at safe distances. Once you build a SV you'll never use the HV again... Mount all 4 (or just 3) guns across the front of your SV and you will rule the planet in no time.

My tips:

1. Ideal location to build is where IRON and PROMETHEUM are in close travel distance (ideally short walk) as you'll need lots of both eventually. Third on list is Magnesium since then you can make massive ammo to level up quickly by shooting everything that walks or crawls...

2. Before going gonzo on a base (unless you just want to craft your dream...) simply push leveling up so you can use a ranged weapon to take out a bases defenses (sniper rifle, then laser rifle), then clean it out and punch out it's Core and stick in your own, whala, you have a huge base. The Epsilon Factory is IDEAL because it has a hangar to fly your ship into, power and a constructor to set you on your way. Simply add a Medic STation and a Food Processor and a Fridge and you're good to go.

3. Use the BACKUP GAME and keep a backup before doing anything dicey. That way if you fail (e.g. blow up your perty ship...) you can just exit, delete the game, copy the Backup to be the primary game file and try again.

4. Once you have a SV (which again should be asap) then recon the entire planet, just steer clear of enemy bases for now, but locate all the resources for the entire planet. Check map and fly the way the sunlight will travel, zigzaggin up and down to scout entire planet under daylight. In a one day cycle you'll cirle the planet and be home knowing where EVERYTHING is.

5. I now land right near resources I'm mining and just check on my ship every 10 seconds or so by popping my head out. Always dig into a mine from the uphill side and Mine a gradual slope into the area so that you can run right out to check on ship.

In summary, Minimal base, level up ASAP, Ranged Weapon, Take over a base, scout planet, RULE IT ALL!

It should only take about 4 game "days" to be master of your planet, tho you'll have to level hard sometimes to be that quick...

[Bluford]

I find the HV pretty useful when I go mining or salvaging. I have two turrets on mine and they generally take out any incoming drones on their own while I happily mine away, sure the SV can get you to nodes easier and faster, but you have to keep an ear out and rush up so drones that snuck up on you down destroy your ship. I take both out, but when I want to just zen out and mine a lot of stuff, its the HV. Hearing those turrets come on, I only have to remember to go find my flying loot box before it despawns :)

[Draven]

Yeah I just left my HV outside the Weapons factory on Akua while I went in, I managed to get an artillery on it by salvaging some of the titan, man was it nice to hear that thing go off while I was 4 levels in, knowing my ship was safe. I managed to get 2 of the 3 free flying loot boxes too before they despawned, took me awhile to get out of the building.

[Hummel-o-War]

Originally posted by brianmi:

HV is useless to me. Nothing you can do on a HV you can't do on a SV.

HVs have Turrets. If you place them while mining, you get at least a base defense. SVs will be shot to pieces as they can not defend themselves ;-)

[Hummel-o-War]

10 tipps for building HVs

1. When having placed the starter block, put your cockpit right over the core block (with the hover engine sitting below the core block) -> the hover engine needs to be as forefront as possible to avoid problems while climbing a hills

2. Build your front like a shovel. Dont add a lot of cube blocks on the lower front of the cockpit.

3. The heavier your HV is, the more hover engines are needed NOT for the flight level, but for the suspension

4. HV now has a max 3m flight level. This should be enough to climb even steep terrain

5. SPACE = rise the flight level gradually

6. C = lower the flight level gradually

7. If you tipped over, hit SHIFT and your HV will roll back to standard position (you need a RCS equipped to use this feature!)

8. Hit SHIFT+Space to do a quite HIGH jump. This will help with big obstacles and hills.

9. Any vessel, be it HV or SV, should look like a "pyramid" when looked from behind/from the front. If you are building "boxes" or "pencils", tipping over will be more frequent...like in the real world.. ;-)

10. Finally: for moving a HV, you only need 4 thrusters (6 are needed for SVs): Front, back, left, right. You may also use Directional Thrusters instead of Normal Thrusters (but thats up to personal preference)

[hampstead38]

Perhaps my experience is different, focusing entirely on single player. I haven't found drones particularly difficult. If I'm mining, I can normally hear the first few shots at my parked SV. I pop out, kill the drone, go back to work. On a planet with frequent drone attacks, I repair any damaged blocks but rarely have to replace one. If drones were powerful and/or aggressive, the HV might be more useful to me... but not at this particular game build.

I built a "pencil" SV prototype called "The Needle." I haven't had any problems with flipping over. I'm at about 1 RCS per 2.5 tons of mass and have good maneuverability. I try to park on relatively flat ground. Occasionally, the SV will slide around a bit but if necessary, I drill out a niche so the ship will drift into a "wall" and stay still.