Small Circuit Boards

[Alendi Istari]

I suspect the number one reason so many people are saying, "don't buy this game" comes down to small circuit boards. They're required to build almost everything even really basic equipment like solar arrays, transformers and batteries yet you can't make them. This makes this game EXTREMELY frustrating. Either allow players to small build circuit boards or stop requiring them to make basic stuff like solar arrays, transformers and batteries. They should only be required for mid to high tier items.

[longword]

They're really not that hard to come by - and would be super easy if they ever fix the stuff-falls-through-the-floor bug.

If you loot two or three bases you should have at least one or two small circuit boards, plus the repaired damaged one from the ATV. That's more than enough to power a good sized Workshop with Botany facilities. The tech for Transformer and Battery extensions is also easy to acquire and supports an advanced base with 500 to 1000kW load using only those first two or three Small Circuit Boards.

By the time you've got Grinder II and you're getting occasional boards from abandoned Transformers, Batteries & Pumps - which (mostly) aren't vulnerable to the falls-through-floor bug - you should be swimming in them. Literally whole storage cabinets full of them.

[Alendi Istari]

I will never get to that point because I can't even build enough transformers to power my workshop so I can't grow food so I'm about to starve to death. I only found one other base a long ride away and I explored it, with a L2 grinder, until the cold killed me without a single small circuit board being found. I also could not repair the damaged board from the ATV.

I'm done.

[urbs]

I found a heap from bases near by. But solar panels don’t require circuit boards . If you build a transformer or battery with out extension a circuit board is required. The extensions do not require a circuit board at all. I am powering up 120kwh off 1 transformer with 5 extensions and battery with 5 extension into a single transformer to distribute power to other areas

[YorKarma]

I hope the Devs dont make this game easier. Mars is supposed to be hard. If every item needed is handed to you, whats the point of playing? I look forward to the exploration, the hunt and the survival aspects of this really great game. That's why I went to Mars. IMHO of course.

[SheoGorath]

Originally posted by Alendi Istari:

I suspect the number one reason so many people are saying, "don't buy this game" comes down to small circuit boards. They're required to build almost everything even really basic equipment like solar arrays, transformers and batteries yet you can't make them. This makes this game EXTREMELY frustrating. Either allow players to small build circuit boards or stop requiring them to make basic stuff like solar arrays, transformers and batteries. They should only be required for mid to high tier items.

i for one argue that circuit boards should be craftable on 3d printer even if they are empty of components as that will give the workbench some much needed use. i find that on most abandoned bases there are circuit builds but often below ground. if you have scan on you can often see them. it you do them do a quick save and a quick load and many will appear above ground. i have found three of four on a single base that way. i'd prefer to build them though.

[Curthbert]

It would be cool if they added some kind of PCB printer and we would have to print a PCB and solder everything on it. We would have to make electronic components as well. Soldering has almost no purpose right now. Also, PCBs found in bases should have missing components and rarely just work right away.

[longword]

I got curious exactly how miserly the game was with circuit boards early on, so I started five new Campaigns. Five separate rolls of the Random Number Generator. For Science.

Ever time there was a base to the North West, where the ATV is found, and that's the same base design every time. A second base is visible to the South East, same location but a different base design each time. Including the ATV's broken circuit board, this is what I picked up on each of the five runs from just those first two abandoned bases:

• Run 1: 6x Small (1 broken), 2x Medium
  
• Run 2: 5x Small (2 broken), 2x Medium, 1x Large
  
• Run 3: 4x Small (1 broken), 1x Medium, 4x Large
  
• Run 4: 4x Small (1 broken), 1x Medium, 3x Large
  
• Run 5: 6x Small (1 broken), 1x Medium, 1x Large

On runs 3 & 4 I was feeling a bit light on Smalls so I visited a 3rd base - there were at least two available within a 90-game-minute ATV drive of the landing capsule - and in both cases I picked up one more Small Circuit Board.

It seems clear that after looting your first two, three, maybe four bases you should have no less than four Small boards available. One of those is going in your ATV but if you can't build a base with the other three that's capable of growing potatoes you're just not trying hard enough. That gets you a battery and two Transformers, good for 35kW of small solar panels with no efficiency, transformer, or battery pack upgrades. You should have all of those within a few Sols then you have practically limitless power.

FWIW I didn't encounter items spawning under the floor or terrain in any of the five runs. I wonder is low frame rate a contributing factor to that happening and thus less likely to occur at the start of the game and near home? Perhaps if an item falls too far between one frame and the next it won't get "caught" by the surface it's supposed to land on.

[woenk]

Originally posted by Alendi Istari:

I suspect the number one reason so many people are saying, "don't buy this game" comes down to small circuit boards. They're required to build almost everything even really basic equipment like solar arrays, transformers and batteries yet you can't make them. This makes this game EXTREMELY frustrating. Either allow players to small build circuit boards or stop requiring them to make basic stuff like solar arrays, transformers and batteries. They should only be required for mid to high tier items.

Sorry, but what game are you playing ?
I never needed a circuit board to build a solar panel...not for a small one or a medium one...
And just because you have not searched enough does not mean there are not enough boards out there...in fact there are way too many out there...so many that after 80 hours one has to build something to get rid of them :D
Really fascinating though... we were hunter GATHERERS before we became farmers and it seems now people tend to start farming before they have learnt gathering.
After 150 hours in campaign medium difficulty there was not a single time I would have needed any growing of food.
I suspect that the number of people that say "dont't buy this game" boils down to, the have seen "The Martian" and they think they need to have priority on growing food and because it is difficult at the start, they get frustrated.
In "The Martian" there was no unlimited number of bases on Mars...he was alone and had to use the ♥♥♥♥♥ to grow potatoes.
Unlimited number of bases with most of them having at least 2 MREs, who needs to grow anything ?

If the game is really too tough for you, start it in tourist mode. learn the ropes first....
Hell I am normally not even into "survival" games and my madman experience is also somehow "erhh...not really anything mad", just a slight bit tougher than the medium.

[roadbum777]

I have gone 9000 km out in 16 points of the compass. I have SM CBs coming out my ears. plus medium and large CBs

[hinoron1]

It can be hard to find enough early in the game, but that's why exploring and searching ruined bases is so important.

Here's a tip: You probably need fewer than you think, overall. You can build apparently infinite upgrade/addons to transformers and batteries (not just one extension to each main one, as I'd originally assumed).

My current arrangement that is doing quite well, starting from my workshop outlet, is one battery (upgraded to 900kw storage) linked to a 2nd battery (ditto) linked to a transformer (with four addon/upgrades, for a total of 36 sockets) connected to 30+ small solar panels. (and I'll probably fill in the rest of those sockets soon. Can't wait to unlock larger solar panels! That's a lot of damn cables! and cleaning dust off after a sandstorm is pretty much an entire day's work. >_>)

That's just three small circuit boards required.

Now I wouldn't mind some background code shuffling the odds of finding medium and large circuit boards more often in scrap heaps farther out from your start point, and more small ones in the heaps closer in. That would balance things out better. I'm just starting to use medium CBs now, but I've found more large ones than small and medium combined. Waste of my limited storage space.

[longword]

Steam keeps notifying me of this discussion even though the last post was two weeks ago and I unsubscribed from it. Bizarre.

But maybe it wants me to say that there's an often overlooked source of Small Circuit Boards: The Composter (fertilizer) unit in an abandoned Greenhouse, embedded in the wall to your right as you enter. I'm pretty sure Grinder I will get it and they have a high chance of dropping one of those precious Small Circuit Boards everyone is looking for early in the game.

My earlier post, counting PCBs from the first two bases, didn't include any from grinding, only what was picked up from the floor.

[SheoGorath]

Originally posted by Curthbert:

It would be cool if they added some kind of PCB printer and we would have to print a PCB and solder everything on it. We would have to make electronic components as well. Soldering has almost no purpose right now. Also, PCBs found in bases should have missing components and rarely just work right away.

yes. i think the sodler station is underused. i'd enjoy soldering components to a pcb. i found some faulty ones with some of the components missing or damaged but not many,

[hinoron1]

Originally posted by longword:

But maybe it wants me to say that there's an often overlooked source of Small Circuit Boards: The Composter (fertilizer) unit in an abandoned Greenhouse, embedded in the wall to your right as you enter. I'm pretty sure Grinder I will get it and they have a high chance of dropping one of those precious Small Circuit Boards everyone is looking for early in the game.

I think ANY scrap device or structure that normally needs a CB to build has a % chance to give you one when you grind them down. Though they're often damaged, and need to be repaired at the workbench. These devices also have a panel you can open where the circuitboard would normally be... but I almost never find one in there, and I've gotten a random-chance CB by scrapping machines I've already opened the panel and found it empty, so clearly that doesn't mean much. :P
The probability doesn't seem very high... less than 10% I'd guess.

[longword]

Originally posted by hinoron1:

Originally posted by longword:

But maybe it wants me to say that there's an often overlooked source of Small Circuit Boards: The Composter (fertilizer) unit in an abandoned Greenhouse

I think ANY scrap device or structure that normally needs a CB to build has a % chance to give you one when you grind them down.
The probability doesn't seem very high... less than 10% I'd guess.

The key point is the Composter unit can be scrapped with a Grinder I (I have since confirmed that), so it's available to new players whereas the more obvious sources like Transformers, Batteries, and Pumps all need at least Grinder II. The drop rate feels decently high to me on the Composter, maybe even 50%, but it's not guaranteed. Only problem is abandoned greenhouses aren't as common as one might expect.

I do recall an occasional circuit board hiding under the covers of Transformers & Batteries in earlier builds of the game, but I haven't seen one in a very long time. I suspect that disappeared as part of their fix for gaining duplicate circuit boards by scrapping.

[flasham]

You can always take out the circuit board before scrapping the item...then you'll always have it.