Is dimensional storage not useful enough early arly enough?

[Maehlice]

Does anybody else feel like this ...

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I don't feel like the amount of effort I spent collecting Mercer Spheres has been offset by any effort saved by doing so.

This from the perspective of building and expanding a strong Phase 2 factory.

One stack at 15 ppm is pretty slow. The amount of time & resources needed to unlock that and get it up to even just 2 stacks at 30ppm doesn't seem worth it to me.

And then on top of that basically needing 1 Mercer Sphere per item line ... it just doesn't seem worth it at the time it first becomes available.

(It's certainly nice to have an Ender Chest in your pocket for sure ... it just doesn't add much to base-building I don't think.)

[Wolfgang]

Heh, that is what you think now. Trust me, once you build bigger things you will be thankfull that you don't have to run back to your base to collect stuff and run back to your project site. Collect the spheres while you explore for harddrives, look out for SAM Ore and get Steel going as you will need it.

It is invaluable for even mid-game factories. I am really glad I built my storage system with 44 of the dimensional depot uploaders of which I currently only need maybe 28. But the amount of building stuff I am burning through makes it all the more usefull.

[NocheLuz]

I upgrade the upload speed quite early. It did serve its purpose. I still have to carry some of the material to build the new factory but the Dimensional Depot that keeps uploading the material really saves me from running back quite a lot of time.

Not to mention, Mercer Sphere is very easy to find. I got over 30 of them just by exploring in my starting Biome. That should be enough to at least upgrade the upload speed to 30 items per minute. And build quite a number of uploaders on your factory.

[Mozzy]

It is massively useful for just 1 single unlock, whether you build any dimensional storage boxes at all.

TLDR - once unlocking upload from inventory, the impact on early game is huge
1- basically expands your inventory by +1 from every type of item in the game (including animal parts, berries, etc)

2- expands max inventory another +5 because even if blocked uploading, you can place 5 stacks of items into the transfer UI boxes.

This means even while useful later on when you have max 72 char inventory, early to mid game impact is far more impactful. You can explore and just drop whatever animal parts, random ores you don't normally keep in personal inventory, mercer spheres, slugs, etc.

Whether you download a single item for dimensional use, one of the clear benefits is uploading items you scrounge while exploring. 3 slug types, mercer, somersloop, berry and flower, random ores you don't have nodes unlocked for early on (sulfur, bauxite, caterium, etc) are all worth taking and saving. That's all stuff clogging early game inventory you'd need to return to base to offload. Now you just upload, and speed doesn't matter because you can xfer while continuing to explore.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Some of those Mercer Spheres and Soomerslops (I think that is what they are called or something) I just left alone because some of them look awesome as decorations as is programmed and one Mercer Sphere is in the water making it glow green so I won't touch it unless I need to but for right now, that is my best environmental decoration.

[Lawn-Mower]

I just pick em up while HDD hunting, so because they're secondary I don't feel like I've even spent all that much time acquiring them.. I've only explored a few biomes, but I have most from those biomes, and a fully upgraded depot is a very nice thing to have. I'm still early Phase 2.

[SourHammer]

I went out with the scanner for a couple hours and found 25 of them Im close to completing the alien technology tree in the mam, All I need is to unlock computer manufacturing to complete it.

[Kairi ♡]

It's most useful in multiplayer, as your friend can be at base and give you anything, while you are away.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

I don't feel like the amount of effort I spent collecting Mercer Spheres has been offset by any effort saved by doing so.

This from the perspective of building and expanding a strong Phase 2 factory.

One stack at 15 ppm is pretty slow. The amount of time & resources needed to unlock that and get it up to even just 2 stacks at 30ppm doesn't seem worth it to me.

Uhm... you literally only need two Mercer spheres and some SAM ore to unlock this feature. How is that not worth it? ;)

To get a little more out of this you should try to get 9 more Mercer spheres (so 11 in total) and of course more SAM ore: this allows you to unlock 1 extra stack of items, it increases the upload speed by 50% and you'll get an upload option from your inventory.

That's where I am and honestly? It will quickly become invaluable as soon as you're going to build remote sites. Right now I'm >< close to firing up my 2nd base which is dedicated to oil production. The only reason I could "just" build that was... the dimensional depot.

While I was making my way onto the site my base was uploading dozens of items. So by the time I got there.. I had enough to build a Miner Mk2, Mk2 conveyor back to a main local lake and of course 2 coal power plants (3-tiered each).

Honestly, I see where you're coming from; but the very moment you'll need to build stuff something on the other side of the map (oil & coal tend to do that).... that's where this feature will shine.

Originally posted by Maehlice:

(It's certainly nice to have an Ender Chest in your pocket for sure ... it just doesn't add much to base-building I don't think.)

HA, a fellow Minecraft player, eh? :)

[Evilsod]

Hard disagree.
It won't help you much for factory building early on since it can't hold enough resources.

But it can help you massively for exploration. Especially while your inventory size is still quite limited. You can hold a stockpile of every single item you find on your journey, which not only lets you keep going for longer, but it also means you have instant access to almost anything you'll require to retrieve HDDs. It's an absolute game changer for that.

[FriendCalledFive]

The limitations made me stop worrying about my factory and go out and find spheres. I have found 86 and have unlocked all but the last couple of storage expansions. It is a complete game changer.

[Steijn]

It's incredible when you play with multiple people since it lets you share resources easily. other than that it can save you walks between factories.

[Huren Ogeko]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

Does anybody else feel like this ...

---

I don't feel like the amount of effort I spent collecting Mercer Spheres has been offset by any effort saved by doing so.

This from the perspective of building and expanding a strong Phase 2 factory.

One stack at 15 ppm is pretty slow. The amount of time & resources needed to unlock that and get it up to even just 2 stacks at 30ppm doesn't seem worth it to me.

And then on top of that basically needing 1 Mercer Sphere per item line ... it just doesn't seem worth it at the time it first becomes available.

(It's certainly nice to have an Ender Chest in your pocket for sure ... it just doesn't add much to base-building I don't think.)

Its not really an early game thing. I unlocked up to 30/min and personal inventory upload just after unlocking coal power. Which is fine for the stage of the game I am in as up until this point I was building within very close walking/running distance away from starting base storage.
now that I have it I hooked up only the basics. concrete plates for starters then wire, cable and rods as this is 99% of what I am building things with at this point. the other stuff I can carry the amounts I need in inventory but those critical basics are currently being fed into depots right from my constructors.
I also manually upload nobelisks and ammo and some assembler made parts so I have spares if needed as I dont yet have enough spheres to hook everything to a depot quite yet. But as I explore around I am always finding more spheres so I will eventually hook up the other stuff or maybe upgrade the upload speed and capacity.

so for what they and when I was able to unlock then they seem pretty decent and every little bit of help they give me is appreciated.

[GeminiEclipse]

I've found it more useful in phases 3 and 4 rather than 2. There's less materials to worry about and less secondary bases to make. At least where I start anyway.

[Zaflis]

I haven't built any oil production yet but almost everything preceeding that. Dimensional depot has 3 stacks of every material with upload rate 60/min. Yeah i've searched around grasslands for spheres a little bit...

Also nearest SAM ore was surprisingly near, however deep down.

[Maehlice]

To unlock the tech requires very little, but the amount of time and effort spent expanding it takes a not insignificant amount of effort. Not hard effort, but time spent nevertheless.

Originally posted by Evilsod:

Hard disagree.
It won't help you much for factory building early on since it can't hold enough resources.

That's an agreement then, lol. From the perspective of base-building at the time it unlocks, it doesn't add much.

Once you start exploring, it's a god-send to say the least. I don't have my finger on the pulse of the community, but I feel like most people don't really start exploring heavily until Phase 3 -- well after the tech has been unlocked.

But during Phase 2 when it becomes available, it may not be worth it to invest any time in it until after the Phase 2 factory is up and running.