WTF is up with the antenna setup?

[threedotonefour]

I come to the game completely blind and get told I need more altitude when I build the antenna. Guess I need to build higher. 6 floors up, still the same message. Maybe it should be built on land, on top of a mountain?

After playing for many hours and nothing working, I finally look it up online.

AND IT IS THE F***ING RECEIVER THAT HAS TO BE HIGHER UP?!?

How does this make any logical sense? This seems to have been complained about for years - why do the devs insist on making it so counter-intuitive. From an electrical standpoint the location of the receiver should not matter AT ALL. And even if the devs insist it should, why the hell doesn't the message tell you that THE RECEIVER SHOULD BE HIGHER, NOT THE ANTENNA in clear text?

This is really disappointing in an otherwise cool game and I have no idea why the devs still haven't changed how it works.

[Xas]

The receiver itself, at half or slightly above foundation level,
the three antenna, a wall height high suffice to make the simple tool work.

[threedotonefour]

But why? In real life a radio receiver should not care where it's placed when it's wired to an antenna. Is there some game mechanic reason for why it refuses to work on the ground floor of the raft?

[Xas]

Lets try be sensible and not get the cables wet, perhaps.

[Subsonic]

Originally posted by Xas:

Lets try be sensible and not get the cables wet, perhaps.

Well that's just practical thinking--not sure a video game can handle that.

[Derpykat5]

From a different perspecitve, the game never mentions the antennae at all in those error messages. It just says "wrong altitude".

I would argue that it's as intuitive as it needs to be, and associating that error message with the antennae over the object displaying the message is the leap in logic.

[mota]

Originally posted by threedotonefour:

But why? In real life a radio receiver should not care where it's placed when it's wired to an antenna. Is there some game mechanic reason for why it refuses to work on the ground floor of the raft?

AFAIK a real life antenna on a boat needs to be above the top of the waves, not only above water.

[Derpykat5]

Actually... I just went in-game and tested it myself. The receiver says "requires higher altitude" and nothing else on the screen if you turn it on when it's on the first layer of the raft. Why does an object need to refer to itself?

When you place the receiver at the proper altitude, it gives you a full readout of each antenna and what any errors with that specific one are - cross referenced with the numbered connections on the bottom.

So you're upset about missing something - which is understandable - but it's not really a failure of game design and it's far from "counter-intuitive"

[threedotonefour]

Originally posted by derpykat5:

From a different perspecitve, the game never mentions the antennae at all in those error messages. It just says "wrong altitude".

I would argue that it's as intuitive as it needs to be, and associating that error message with the antennae over the object displaying the message is the leap in logic.

But in the real world, which one is the one that is often placed higher up to get better reception? The antenna or the receiver?

[Derpykat5]

Originally posted by threedotonefour:

Originally posted by derpykat5:

From a different perspecitve, the game never mentions the antennae at all in those error messages. It just says "wrong altitude".

I would argue that it's as intuitive as it needs to be, and associating that error message with the antennae over the object displaying the message is the leap in logic.

But in the real world, which one is the one that is often placed higher up to get better reception? The antenna or the receiver?

I don't work with those so I don't have a clue. I might assume that the antenna goes higher, but when the error message never even mentions the antennae I'd rethink it instead of continuing to build upwards. Considering how resource intensive it is to build additional floors, I'd at least try it.

Consider this;
The error message in question also never mentions a required height
It doesn't distinguish between any antennae
It doesn't change at all as I move the antennae up floors.

Face it, it's a lot less "counter-intuitive" than you are saying it is.

[SirShreds]

I imagine at some point modders will adjust this. I was disappointed when i started rebuilding my raft once i had a bunch of materials, and started to make a Captians bridge and a tower for my "sensor suite" only to find out the receiver couldnt be kept in the same room.

i think its cause they want you to be able to visually see the wires but dont want them clipping through a bunch of floors? But ya I agree its a bit of a counter intuitive system, and it also makes laying out your ship ugly and akward.

[apple cider]

Originally posted by threedotonefour:

Originally posted by derpykat5:

From a different perspecitve, the game never mentions the antennae at all in those error messages. It just says "wrong altitude".

I would argue that it's as intuitive as it needs to be, and associating that error message with the antennae over the object displaying the message is the leap in logic.

But in the real world, which one is the one that is often placed higher up to get better reception? The antenna or the receiver?

you've gotta think outside the box on this one, we're a person in the middle of the ocean, do you think we have the state of the art radio technology in the middle of an ocean? i think the most probably explanation to this (talking in reality) is if the reciever is on the first floor, it is not able to recieve the radio waves from the antennas due to interference or blockage (possibly from the water). the other explantion is that, they don't want you to get the reciever that easily and instead want to make it a little bit harder to use (as wood is more scarce at that time) so they make you build a new floor

[Illusori]

I think it's just a bad assumption by the devs that you'll build the receiver and power it before you build an antenna, and they wrote the error for that context where it's clear the receiver is the thing that needs moving.

I've never built it that way, and it confused the hell out of me the first time.

[NobodyNeuOnyx]

Originally posted by derpykat5:

From a different perspecitve, the game never mentions the antennae at all in those error messages. It just says "wrong altitude".

I would argue that it's as intuitive as it needs to be, and associating that error message with the antennae over the object displaying the message is the leap in logic.

No it's not. The logic is literally wrong in-game and that's the issue.

[asmuda]

Originally posted by SirShreds:

I imagine at some point modders will adjust this. I was disappointed when i started rebuilding my raft once i had a bunch of materials, and started to make a Captians bridge and a tower for my "sensor suite" only to find out the receiver couldnt be kept in the same room.

i think its cause they want you to be able to visually see the wires but dont want them clipping through a bunch of floors? But ya I agree its a bit of a counter intuitive system, and it also makes laying out your ship ugly and akward.

Actually it's already been taken care of. One mod allows wireless antennas, a second allows placement of the antennas anywhere. :)

[Naféasonto Ku'Jashir]

Just get the mod that disables the restrictions, they are dumb and unnecessary.