What technology do I need to be able to build an electric mining drill?

[pendantry]

... I can't find it in the research tree :(

Yes, I'm a newbie! Help the newbie, you know you want to!

[The Chaotic Coder]

Unless you're playing with mods, you should be able to make it without any tech.

Open the crafting menu ("E" by default) and look in the 2nd tab over (Production items, that is, devices that produce stuff), a few rows down.

[pendantry]

Originally posted by jchardin64:

Unless you're playing with mods, you should be able to make it without any tech.

Open the crafting menu ("E" by default) and look in the 2nd tab over (Production items, that is, devices that produce stuff), a few rows down.

Ah, I see what I'm doing wrongly. I'm trying to play 'frugally', not manually producing stuff. And I need an assembler-2 to make that, not an assembler-1.

Thanks for the help!

[The Chaotic Coder]

You're welcome. :)

Assembler-1 can only produce items with 1 or 2 components. So for anything with more than that, you need the level 2 assembler. It can produce items with up to 4 components, and anything more than that takes the level 3 (but you won't need that until you're much farther down the tech tree).

[pendantry]

Wait... an assembler-2 has four components, so to make an assembler-2 I need an assembler-2? Catch-22! I guess I have to make the first one manually :/

[The Chaotic Coder]

That's right.

When you get far enough along, you'll have to make at least one oil refinery by hand as well, as it takes 5 components and you need to have plastic (made from the oil you're refining) to make the assembler-3.

But those are the only cases were hand-crafting is mandatory. Everything else can be done in machines.

[pendantry]

I'm looking at the 'Lazy Bastard' achievement... build no more than 111 items manually. I made a few too many copper cables at the beginning (didn't realize that you get two for each copper plate)... hope that hasn't ruined my chances of the achievement, it would be a bummer to launch a rocket and find that I'd missed that boat!

(Is there a way of finding out how many items you've made manually in a game?)

[The Chaotic Coder]

I don't know if there's a way to find out how many items you've hand-crafted, but you might want to restart your game if you haven't invested too much time in it already.

You need to be VERY thrifty with your hand-crafts for the Lazy B_ achievement. I don't remember the number exactly, but a while back I think someone calculated that you only have about 5 or 6 "extra" hand-crafts -- that is, if you do the bare minimum possible amount of hand-crafting it adds up to something around 105. I could be wrong though.

[N'fol]

It probably makes sense to play without worrying about achievements your first time through so can feel free to experiment without worrying about messing up your achievements. The game is complicated enough for a new player.

But, if you really want to go for that achievement, KatherineOfSky's guide is helpful.

[pendantry]

This is my second run through, I've already got the 'smoke me a kipper' achievement. I'm playing in a 'deathworld', to see how that goes (the bugs seemed pretty tame in the normal mode). I'm not too fussed about the Lazy Barsteward achievement, I figger if I don't get it this time around (I suspect I'm going to die, there's not a lot of resource where I am!) I'll get it another time. I think this game is likely to keep me occupied a bit longer than the average one!

Thanks for all the input!

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by pendantry:

(Is there a way of finding out how many items you've made manually in a game?)

In the top right of the screen, above the minimap, there's a bunch of buttons, and one of them displays the achievements. You can see your progress, and optionally "pin" the progress frame for one or more achievements to be always visible.

[pendantry]

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Originally posted by pendantry:

(Is there a way of finding out how many items you've made manually in a game?)

In the top right of the screen, above the minimap, there's a bunch of buttons, and one of them displays the achievements. You can see your progress, and optionally "pin" the progress frame for one or more achievements to be always visible.

Fabulous, thank you!