Best upgrades for first ship?

[Stefandreus]

...and some clarifications
So i saw there's the mono-container, but is this thing worth it or only if you have discovered a LOT of Obonto station?
Like, my idea, you first process stuff, see what they want and sell.
But if you only discovered one or two stations, isn't a processing unit alone enough?
Plus to have a side of a ship unbalanced...
Like, i'm a newbie in this game, so from what i experienced until now the arm is useful (but sometimes seems bugged?), the laser/microwave, on another hardpoint, then i don't know if a drone is worth it
Anyway i'm starting a new save, so i think the beginning phase is to sell raw stuff, obviously
At that point MPU is useful to get more fuel from water and stay in the rings even if you fill the cargo with processed ore right?
(talking about the 70% one)
Also, are there more minerals in deep rings vs outer rings? Or it's random? (percentage minerals/water)
thanks in advance, sorry for the confusion

[RandomNoun]

things like cargo containers or drones are probably not that great to add to your starter K37, although I've had a cargo container on one and dealt with the weight imbalance, its not terrible you just have to account for it. The tug drones would probably be useful to a limited degree but that ship doesnt have a lot of processed or storage space or a very large cargo bay.

The starter ship can be a good salvage tug and a good fighting ship but if your goal is to increase your cargo capacity I would suggest you start looking at other ships to pursue that end. The most I'll upgrade that ship before I'm looking at getting a prospector or a cothon is to set it up with a microwave emitter, an ARM for salvage and a mass driver for defense, with one of the cheaper processors or even that new ore purifier at the most for a cargo upgrade.

There isnt a big difference in ore value the deeper you go, but you have a better chance of finding denser distributions of rock compared to the shallows, there are more pirates out there too though so be careful

[Stefandreus]

Originally posted by RandomNoun:

things like cargo containers or drones are probably not that great to add to your starter K37, although I've had a cargo container on one and dealt with the weight imbalance, its not terrible you just have to account for it. The tug drones would probably be useful to a limited degree but that ship doesnt have a lot of processed or storage space or a very large cargo bay.

The starter ship can be a good salvage tug and a good fighting ship but if your goal is to increase your cargo capacity I would suggest you start looking at other ships to pursue that end. The most I'll upgrade that ship before I'm looking at getting a prospector or a cothon is to set it up with a microwave emitter, an ARM for salvage and a mass driver for defense, with one of the cheaper processors or even that new ore purifier at the most for a cargo upgrade.

There isnt a big difference in ore value the deeper you go, but you have a better chance of finding denser distributions of rock compared to the shallows, there are more pirates out there too though so be careful

yeah i was thinking in changing ship, but i'm not sure if to go with the other one with 6 crew and 14t of storage
basically i'm a bit confused, since there's a lot of content, there's that gigantic ship with only containers, but i don't know, as i said still a newbie, but anyway at the moment i put on a MPU and i have arm, plus two microwave emitters
yeah, prospector, that's the name i think
don't like the HUD very much, but maybe it's worth it
i just salvage one, but i sold it, is that one similar to the first ship but better?
Thanks...love the game but the amount of stuff could be overwhelming :)
In the meantime i'll keep go diving and sell refined stuff to obonto if they ask for the right stuff, i guess i should get and refine material first and then go there to save time?

[RandomNoun]

Originally posted by Stefandreus:

yeah i was thinking in changing ship, but i'm not sure if to go with the other one with 6 crew and 14t of storage
basically i'm a bit confused, since there's a lot of content, there's that gigantic ship with only containers, but i don't know, as i said still a newbie, but anyway at the moment i put on a MPU and i have arm, plus two microwave emitters
yeah, prospector, that's the name i think
don't like the HUD very much, but maybe it's worth it
i just salvage one, but i sold it, is that one similar to the first ship but better?
Thanks...love the game but the amount of stuff could be overwhelming :)
In the meantime i'll keep go diving and sell refined stuff to obonto if they ask for the right stuff, i guess i should get and refine material first and then go there to save time?

The prospector feels like it was intentionally trying to compete with the K37, the vulture variant specifically is very similar as it has the same hardpoint loadout. It distinguishes itself by having an arrangement of RCS thrusters that are better for recovering salvage rather than being useful for mining rocks and its got more processed ore storage at the expense of a smaller cargo bay volume. without changing a lot of the equipment your K37 has a vulture variant of the prospector class is a good upgrade to start with.

If you are doing Obonto trades you can go about it two ways, either you go to a station first and see what they are asking for then go out and get that in a focused way, or you can wait until you've filled all your cargo and check in with them after. Either way is valid but if you take too long doing the former there is a risk that in that time the Obonto may decide it wants something else. They switch up every in game week or so, its possible to get unlucky in your timing.

[Stefandreus]

thanks, so do you recommend prospector as my next ship?
I mean, the cargo is bigger, i'm certainly not an expert but it seems the natural progression
other ships are too...much for me? I'm still learning, so i guess i could try that
Yeah with Obonto, better to process a few minerals (i was asked for palladium, iron and platinum in my playthrough) and give them what they want
i have a question...what delta V represent in game? Like i kinda know what it is in orbital mechanic, but in this game what does it do?
thanks again

[RandomNoun]

Originally posted by Stefandreus:

thanks, so do you recommend prospector as my next ship?
I mean, the cargo is bigger, i'm certainly not an expert but it seems the natural progression
other ships are too...much for me? I'm still learning, so i guess i could try that
Yeah with Obonto, better to process a few minerals (i was asked for palladium, iron and platinum in my playthrough) and give them what they want
i have a question...what delta V represent in game? Like i kinda know what it is in orbital mechanic, but in this game what does it do?
thanks again

I do recommend the prospector class, although specifically the vulture variant as a more natural progression from the K37, especially if you like having an ARM in your build. If you are willing to give up the ARM drones are a natural alternative but they can be expensive and you'll need to stock drone components for them which can cost a lot to refill.

The dV metric in game is a calculation based on your total propellant, the mass of your ship, the thrust parameters of your torch and RCS thrusters and their rate of propellant consumption. It tells you how much change in velocity you can affect with your ship measured in meters per second. Its the more useful indication of how much you can speed up or slow down before you run out of propellant and need to be towed back to the Enceladus station than just how much total propellant you have as it factors in how much mass you've gained from mining ore.

4000 m/s of dV is the value of dV that will get you back to the station in 12 hours, you can go below that value but the closer to zero you get the longer your trip back can be, up to 96 hours before you need search and rescue to tow you back. Whatever your "transit reserve" value of propellant claims to be is what would equal 4000 m/s of dV. The larger your total amount of dV is when you start a dive the longer your dive can be and the more maneuvers you can make as you fly around

[Stefandreus]

ok so basically should i increase my propellant tank? i tried in another game but it was too heavy i guess, anyway is dV correlated with the "limit" of 50 m/s?
Or that's just a technical detail of the ship?
Yeah in fact i don't know even what the reserve is for, shouldn't be used when main fuel goes out? LIke in cars?
LOL this game has so much depth, i'm sorry but yeah i was also thinking about general launch in rings...is it better to make an Hohmann Transfer and travel from there, or get directly into destinations?
I noticed the price is decreasing, since my crew is leveling up, but yeah the "ring dive launch" section has some parameters that i don't get
...even the geologist tab, i guess he does an average of mineral based of what i actually harvested, but i'm not sure
So i should stay above 4000 m/s? I guess i have to be careful with sudden accelerations and deceleration right? Or going above 50 m/s, stuff like that?
So no penalty for going below 4000 m/s except...more time to get back?
sorry as you can see i'm confused, but thanks for your patience

[RandomNoun]

This is indeed a very in depth game lol its ok to have a lot of questions about it. The discord server is a more real time resource than the steam forums can be, I'm over there a lot too but there are probably more people who know more about the game than I do available as well.

That 50 m/s limit is for your autopilot, you wont be able to go faster than that using autopilot controls unless you change the tuning setting for it in the tuning menu. There is another 200 m/s limit that will trip an emergency autopilot return to the station to watch out for with your manual controls as well

The transit reserve isnt a separate store of propellant or anything, but I do recommend you limit the value to a fraction of your total propellant in the same way a car usually alerts you to how many miles/kilometers you have left to go. You can affect that value by increasing your tank size but you can also change out your torch or RCS thrusters to something more fuel efficient to change it, or lowering the mass of your ship can help to a degree.

A hohmann transfer will always be the cheapest insertion option from the station, a lot of what you are paying when you leave the station comes from buying things like propellant, ammo, or nanodrone components. The rest has to do with fees for the Xaser burn depending on your depth and other incidental costs. Any astrogation maneuvers you do from that point on while you are in the rings wont cost you any money, just time and propellant to get up to navigation speed. In the astrogation menu of your ship that sliding bar that usually stays set to 50 m/s can be adjusted to get places faster or slower but getting to that speed in the direction you have to go can still run you into rocks so you need to keep an eye out or make sure your runway is clear first.

If you can afford to dive deeper from the station go for it, otherwise if you are tight on cash its probably the smarter choice to start at the shallows and do a follow up maneuver to a deeper waypoint from there.

For the geologist tab that is where you can do things like filter what your arm, any drone controllers, or your onboard computer will select and changing the minimum value will also affect what those components will target. Anything you deselect for your onboard computer will remove the information box from around the ore based on those filter settings completely. If you have any cargo containers that's where you would control what processed ore it stores using the toggle buttons for the specific ore types you can collect

Its the acceleration and deceleration you want to be mindful of, the cost of increasing your velocity to a certain speed will end up being what you need to spend if you try to come to a complete stop so the more starts and stops you do the faster you will run through that dV metric.

Along with the transit reserve data point in your hud there is the transit time piece of information to reference so as you get below 4000 m/s of dV your transit time will give you an accurate amount of time it is going to take to get back to the station with your ships xenon drive you can switch to as you run out of propellant on the way back.

[Stefandreus]

wow, can't thank you enough, i guess should play and learn by playing also
right now i can't afford a better ship, but in regard to control what ore i collect, it's only for external cargo, not the ship's cargo bay, right?
Because i would like to, for example say "process all minerals except for berillium" but i don't know if i can't do that with only a MPU and basic storage

[RandomNoun]

Originally posted by Stefandreus:

wow, can't thank you enough, i guess should play and learn by playing also
right now i can't afford a better ship, but in regard to control what ore i collect, it's only for external cargo, not the ship's cargo bay, right?
Because i would like to, for example say "process all minerals except for berillium" but i don't know if i can't do that with only a MPU and basic storage

Yes, the MPU isn't discriminating enough for that kind of control, you can only turn it on or off, which you should do once you've filled all your processed ore storage to be able to fill your cargo bay. Otherwise the MPU will just dump everything outside of your ship after it finishes processing it if it doesnt have anywhere to put it. There is a power icon you can toggle in the mechanics menu of your OMS when you press the 'j' button (not sure what the button is for controllers though) Most equipment can be turned on or off in that menu

I'm glad to help, this game can be overwhelming when you are new at it, but its so much fun even as you are figuring it out. Good luck in the rings Ringa!

[Stefandreus]

Originally posted by RandomNoun:

Originally posted by Stefandreus:

wow, can't thank you enough, i guess should play and learn by playing also
right now i can't afford a better ship, but in regard to control what ore i collect, it's only for external cargo, not the ship's cargo bay, right?
Because i would like to, for example say "process all minerals except for berillium" but i don't know if i can't do that with only a MPU and basic storage

Yes, the MPU isn't discriminating enough for that kind of control, you can only turn it on or off, which you should do once you've filled all your processed ore storage to be able to fill your cargo bay. Otherwise the MPU will just dump everything outside of your ship after it finishes processing it if it doesnt have anywhere to put it. There is a power icon you can toggle in the mechanics menu of your OMS when you press the 'j' button (not sure what the button is for controllers though) Most equipment can be turned on or off in that menu

I'm glad to help, this game can be overwhelming when you are new at it, but its so much fun even as you are figuring it out. Good luck in the rings Ringa!

thanks again, one last thing, i get the "update location" thing, but it's possible to permanently lose a location?
I went on a mini-moon that it's under "lost locations" but i wasn't able to found it again
Maybe should check the radar better? I had similar situations, but always able to found and update coordinates again, so maybe should upgrade the radar
anyway thanks a lot, i'm grinding a bit of ore for the Obonto, when you have three or more it start becoming profitable to have an MPU, even without Obonto it's still more money, like you have both refined and raw ore, so even if Enceladus bought that stuff at lower price it's better than nothing because you have that plus the unrefined
anyway IMHO this system is a bit weird, like there should be some kind of separate market that buy like the Obonto but at Enceladus, on week basis, and even the option to stock only a part of your cargo to resell, maybe it's details but it would benefit if you only have two Obonto that for example buy Iron and Platinum but in the meantime you've processed Berillium too
And as i said, the option to sell Iron immediately, but put Platinum in stock
Also, i forgot, the prices of minerals are the same in the stock market or those are a different thing? It should be the same but i didn't check, and honestly i didn't bother that much on the stock market

[RandomNoun]

Any point of interest your astrogator loses track of will return to the pool of "Big Lidar POI's" to find again later, its never permanently gone, it just might show up somewhere else completely. Using the lost location point can get you close to where the point of contact is but the radius you may find yourself in compared to your destination will be much larger, and if its been too long you might not find it there at all. Odds are you are using a Lidar system which requires line of sight and can be blocked easily by surrounding obstacles, I usually recommend the microwave radar for people who are more interested in finding points of interest or ship contacts as it can penetrate rocks to a point in a way that helps your astrogator find things behind objects immediately surrounding you in a way that the Lidar options cannot.

When you return from a dive anything you sell immediately from that dive summary will be sold at current market price there is no difference in selling there or from the mineral market except for maybe a change in price over time if you wait long enough before you sell it. You can choose to store what you brought back but it will store everything, except for anomalies which will be sold regardless of what you do with the minerals.

I mostly dont bother holding on to minerals to wait for a more profitable time to sell them, the price fluctuations are marginal and its hard to keep track of the changes while you are out on a dive. There is a kind of meta benefit to storing your minerals which is to keep your total cash value low which will modify your chances of finding certain rare salvage derelicts while you are in the rings. having under 5 million $E will help your chances but its by a low percentage change so unless you really want a certain ship to show up its better just to sell what you have when you return from a dive

[Stefandreus]

thanks again!

[Stefandreus]

Originally posted by RandomNoun:

Any point of interest your astrogator loses track of will return to the pool of "Big Lidar POI's" to find again later, its never permanently gone, it just might show up somewhere else completely. Using the lost location point can get you close to where the point of contact is but the radius you may find yourself in compared to your destination will be much larger, and if its been too long you might not find it there at all. Odds are you are using a Lidar system which requires line of sight and can be blocked easily by surrounding obstacles, I usually recommend the microwave radar for people who are more interested in finding points of interest or ship contacts as it can penetrate rocks to a point in a way that helps your astrogator find things behind objects immediately surrounding you in a way that the Lidar options cannot.

just for information before i start searching elsewhere, how is the microwave radar called?
I currently use the High resolution LIDAR, i didn't found stuff with microwave
is that with a beam in front of the ship?
Thanks again, i think i lost that anyway

[RandomNoun]

Originally posted by Stefandreus:

just for information before i start searching elsewhere, how is the microwave radar called?
I currently use the High resolution LIDAR, i didn't found stuff with microwave
is that with a beam in front of the ship?
Thanks again, i think i lost that anyway

"MLF Long-wave Radar"
It's the cheapest option in the list, which is why it is usually overlooked. You'll lose fidelity on the ringoids with it, they end up looking like clusters of dots. You won't get any Doppler color shift either, but anything with a high albedo will stand out easily and if you overtune its sweep cycle the ghosting effect can kind of give you an impression of movement change from one sweep to the next which should make up for the loss in Doppler

[Stefandreus]

Originally posted by RandomNoun:

Originally posted by Stefandreus:

just for information before i start searching elsewhere, how is the microwave radar called?
I currently use the High resolution LIDAR, i didn't found stuff with microwave
is that with a beam in front of the ship?
Thanks again, i think i lost that anyway

"MLF Long-wave Radar"
It's the cheapest option in the list, which is why it is usually overlooked. You'll lose fidelity on the ringoids with it, they end up looking like clusters of dots. You won't get any Doppler color shift either, but anything with a high albedo will stand out easily and if you overtune its sweep cycle the ghosting effect can kind of give you an impression of movement change from one sweep to the next which should make up for the loss in Doppler

thanks, one last question, you mentioned about decreasing the ship's mass, which was my thought before, basically i don't know if it's affected mostly by cargo you have or any equipment (engine, reactor...etc.)
basically to be ready for Obonto i tried to mine and process before going to them several ore, but i guess it was excessive, even having the remass purifier, i guess going and ask for what they want and search around is a better strategy?
Other than this, what can i do to decrease the ship's mass? I tried once to increase the propellant tank but it was too much maybe? So i stay with the basic and the engine (the main one) that only uses the reactor
So yeah, basically if only cargo affects ship's mass or there's something else
thanks a lot, again, i'll try the long-wave radar, i'll admit i don't usually pay too much attention to doppler colors anyway while in "critical" situations...when i should

EDIT: ok i tried different configurations, but i don't know if i should upgrade the reactor 20x to the other one, i still don't get the correlation thruster-reactor-heat
Like in the simulation it showed me excessive heat, so that's a limit for the current ship or the thruster is excessive?
Tried this Nakamura, but i don't know if it's better or not, honestly at this point i should directly upgrade the ship
anyway if you can explain to me how i can see what's better for my ship in terms of efficiency and how the game works (in a few words) i'll be glad
I know it's a lot, but as i said i don't know if i should strip the ship of everything and sell it and get the prospector or still wait, since i don't get if every ship has its upgrades or i can install on my ship every piece that it's even too much
anyway, sorry for many question, just lost a Obonto station (they go away...) so i guess i'll downgrade the cargo bay