Alpha 8 Basics [EARLY WIP]

Basic informations, tricks and tips for Alpha 8

Introduction

The following pages are Community driven and contain the most usefull informations how you can succeed in Alpha 8.

Sorry that i mention some things more often than once, i try to do that only where it makes sense.

Veteran players can skip the first Topic i guess^^


(As small information, this guide is still early work in progress, i work this moment on 2 additional guides to be able to focus more on the basics here and give further informations in a Walkthrough alike Guide and Guide about Building and Gardening.)
Linked it in the topics, but you now, some things are so important they can be mentioned again ^^
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1415933998
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1393335009

Beginner FAQ (One easy way to start)

This part i will remove in the nearer future, instead i work on
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1415933998
and i will add all the informations from the topic here to there


Press (Tab) to find your suit constructor
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Early game Construction

Energy




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After unlock the "Portable constructor" in the tech tree (F3)

you can build the "Portable constructor" with your "Suit constructor"
(And you get one from the Robinson quest at wreckage)

With the "Portable Constructor" you can build a "Base starter" or a simple Core and some other Structure Blocks Additional some basic tools, weapons, food and medicine.

2 Choices
* Start a base by expanding a existing POI (Point of interest) without a core





(Tip: In starterbiome you find Small wreckages, look that you choose one far enough inside the biome to make sure that you have only the green bugs as predators.
2 other often choosed pois are the Wreckage from Robinson and the Titan Front part, but Titan is hard to make it airtight and both will have spider packs spawn nearby. Anyway, if you expand a existing Poi you will have normally no Drone attacks)

* Start a base by a Base starter/or blueprint. Will result in a base that is attacked by Drones




Or as blueprint (F2), make ingots and other needed stuff and then





Add some Blocks for a shape and then one or both ways to produce energy
* Solar panels + Batterie
* Tank and Generator you can power with bio Fuel and or Prometium Cells

and then add a Large Constructor, far later you can upgrade to the Advanced constructor that can construct nearly all Items/blocks

Differences to Alpha 7

New Suit Constructor in your suit


* No more crops in Blueprints allowed

* Bio fuel is now made from wood (Wood -> Fibers -> Biofuel)

* Survival tool on attack mode = Chop wood

* Some deposits are now voxel and need no scanner. Some are still node based and need a scanner

* Hand Detector need to be in inventory and shows UNKNOWN Poi´s and deposits between 500m and 1000m. HV Detector need to be installed and you need to drive the HV

* Adding parts to a blueprint containing material not included in the Blueprint will lead to loose this material, you need to add these items into a Blueprint that ask for it.
After adding the Blocks/Weapons/other items you can switch to the Blueprint you want to order

* Foodprocessors hold food now fresh on Singleplayer too. Fridges have all the same Storeroom and have been moved into a own Blockgroup. (Rumors say that the Foodprozessor not even need energy to cool the food, but this is maybe a bug that get fixed)

*Console command "Stats" show your global (game) seed

Basic Tips.

* You can mine, disassemble and pickup drop container with your drone (F5)

* Core a small wreckage in starterbiome and make it a base = (normally) no drones, good temperatures, only weak Predators.

* You can build a CV without EVER mined a deposit. (at least on singleplayer) Mostly by Surface rocks-> Surface rocks/Sand Golems/Grey alien crates -> Disassemble Wreckages/Pois

* At least on hard you can easyer get a HV than a suit (Half XP)

* 3 Ways to prevent dying from cold
- Stay in warm Biomes (Starter Biome, Sand) avoid if possible colder biomes (Far north and south and mountains.)
- Sleep the colder night (Only singleplayer so far i know)
- Unlock and build with lvl 3 a air conditioner with your suit Constructor

* Avoid large (maybe dangerous) POI´s until you are prepared

* Nobody force you to advance to fast in the Robinson quest, so my suggestion
lvl 1-3 on foot = Wreckage
Lvl 3-5-7 with HV = Tower
Lvl 5-7-10 with SV = Titan Parts
Lvl 12+ with a decent Bomber SV and good equipment = Radar station

* Not new for A8 but often asked:
Is the savegame system broken ?
No it is not. The Savegame button "Backup" is maybe wrong labeled and should be named "Fork Savegame" because thats what you do by pressing it. The savegames replace/update themself during you play. The new forked savegame will do the same. If you want a static savegame make every time you want to play it a new fork and play this forked from forked savegame.

*Many players are not aware that there are submenues in the map
There you can easy delete markers or set waypoints for factionmembers or public
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1417197707

* The Camera is far more flexible than many players know
V = Switch 1st person to 3rd person and back
ALT = Unlock 3rd person camera
Mousewheel (if camera is unlocked) = Camera move in and out (stays if you lock again)
Pic up and down (if camera is locked) = Camera Up and down

* Put "o" on your Thumb button of your mouse, its really helpfull to fly or drive vehicles
(It rotates your vehicle so that you are even with the playfield )
If possible allways press it before you leave a vehicle
If you build a space station ALLWAYS press "o" before you place it !
Shift+o locks and unlocks a HV angle/axis (at least if you have a drill on it)

Construction

During the game you will use different kinds of constructors


The (new in A8) Suit Constructor is the smallest one you start with. Its named "Survival Constructor" and all you have in the beginning
You find it in your suit by pressing "Tab"

Its the only constructor with so few recipes that you have not different tabs to choose

With this suit constructor you can craft the portable Constructor.
And with the Portable Constructor you can Build the Mobile HV Constructor or a large Constructor

O² Production

Small O² Bottles



Big O² Bottles

and then (in any constructor except the suit one)

Trees, wood and biofuel

Your survival tool can chop wood (but use Stamina what cause hunger, btw in defense mode)
(or by a chansaw that need Biofuel, or a HV harvester that cause a bit more energydrain on the HV)


You can pick up fibers with your hands


and you can produce fibers out of wood with nearly all Constructors (except the suit constructor)

With fibers you can make Biofuel in again all Constructors (except the suit constructor)

Where you can find Ores ?

Be carefull how you read the rarity, this value says only how many you find on a area.
But even if swamp has 5 times so many Iron as Grassland, the biome is much smaller and has higher grass and trees. Means for 1-2 Rocks swamp should be better. For 20-30 Grassland will be better

Iron ore rocks

1 Swamp
0.5 Marsh
0.3 Savanna
0.3 SavannaEdge
0.3 Tundra
0.2 ColdPlains
0.2 Grassland
0.1 Sand (+ Golems)

Copper ore rocks

5 Oasis
2 DeepForest
1 Swamp
0.5 Forest
0.4 SavannaEdge
0.3 Tundra
0.2 Mountains
0.2 Grassland
0.2 ColdPlains
0.1 Sand (+ Golems)

SIilicon ore rocks

5 Oasis
1 Radiated
0.3 Sand (+ Golems)
0.3 Marsh
0.3 Forest
0.3 Tundra
0.25 Mountains
0.1 Swamp
0.1 Savanna
0.1 SavannaEdge

Cobalt ore rocks

1 Radiated

Prometium ore rocks

1 Deep Water
0.5 Radiated

Pentaxid

2 Water
2 Deep Water
1 Radiated

Additional sources

Cobalt

Grey alien Containers outpatched ?
Asteroid (no Guarantie for all seeds)
Ship/base blocks from disassembled Wreckages/Pois
On Moon

Prometium

Deposits mostly in radiated and near Titan/Drone base

Desert golems can drop all kind of ores. Sadly it looks like the last patch made them so rare that farming them can be ..... a longer task

Whare you can find Plants ?

Grain

Swamp Biomes

Tip: You can remove the grass with the drill.
Looking from above with the cam make it easyer to see the grain

Deposits [WIP]

The Difficulty settings contain options about the deposit amounts (and it looks they change the whole seed)


Same seed on easy




Same seed on hard




You can see at the right side how many deposits you found (0 in my case, i used the "map" command to show the map)

As you can see on the starterplanet are only 4 kind of deposits
Iron

Copper

Silicon

Prometium (Scanner can be in normal inventory to be used, placed him only in the belt to have him on the screenshot)

Mining

Alpha 8 knows two kinds of mining

Voxelbased
(The scanner has no task here)
(Picture taken in godmode aka No Clip mode aka Ghost mode)
Digged down in nearly 90 Degree

Rotated around the drones axis and slowly upwards like a screw
(with 3 Macros
* Autofire
* A...a...a...a...a...a...a...repeat
* Space. 20 Sec idle..Repeat)
(Picture taken in godmode aka No Clip mode aka Ghost mode)

Yes you can mine with your (F5) drone

Node based

Like in alpha 7
Higher level ores are partially node based
Have a scanner in your inventory
A drill in your hand (Or sit in a HV with a active drill)
and you can see the outlines of the nodes

(Screenshot made in god mode flying unter the ground)

Disassembling

You can use several tools to disassmble.
Or better said now in alpha 8 its named
Salvage = The structure has no Core
Pickup Blocks = The structure has your core and "Pickup blocks" is choosen.

Survival tool
Salvage = 30%
Pickup Blocks = Not possible

Multitool
Salvage = 30%
Pickup Blocks = 100% the block

Multitool T2
Salvage = 60%
Pickup Blocks = 100% the block

HV Turret
Salvage = 80%
Pickup Blocks = 100% the block

CV Turret
Salvage = 80% ??Need check??
Pickup Blocks = 100% the block

The test
5 Iron Ore = 10 Iron ingots
2 Iron ingots = 10 Steelplates
10 Steelplates = 1 Steelblock
And after disassembling 4 Steelblocks

Gardening

As first a warning
Blueprints are not allowed to contain Crops in A8


This Topic will be reduced here and moved to a other guide soon
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1393335009

Alpha 8 allow to make outside gardens.
But these are complicated, or better said you need a biome with stable warm temperatures and O²
So i suggest to build a decent greenhouse (Specially if you percive the game still as "challenging" )



3 Needs
First need is air
On a Planet with air you need noting additional

If you need air you need a 24/7 powered Base. Air in the tanks and a Ventilator


Second need is a Grow lamp

This lamp need Power 24/7 need to be placed 2 Blocks high above a max of 9 Blocks (one block range)

And third is the right temperature, you archive that by a Airtight Base.
Thats a bit more complicated, but finally easy
Every blockshape of a Airtight block is airtight as the complete block

Every block that is marked as not airtight is NEVER airtight
(The fuel Tank)


I made me the work and give you a overview
(? means it is a Blockgroup with airtight Blocks and not airtight blocks)


Water, Rocks and Soil are NOT airtight
Other vehicles count not toward the airtightness of the Base/vehicle you want to make airtight

So simply
Make 9 Plots, make walls and a roof of airtight blocks, add a airtight Door (not all doors are airtight)
and your base should be airtight.
You can see by 22 Degree inside Temperature at different temperature outside


Finally you can press "N" to see whats airtight

Advanced tips

Originally posted by 77nameless:

If you fly to orbit and come back the opaque turns into transparent.
You can set the FOW value if you want, but that counts for both FOW´s the opaque and the transparent
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1403547789
by adding the FOW line into the savegame you can do this in a allready started game (i do mostly in singleplayer after i get ingame rid of the opaque version)

Creative mode

Some people missed this mode or had some simple questions i try to answer very short
How to start a Creative game

How to find items that have no category

Important Console commands

In singleplayer there is no "Cheating" but sure you can make your game so cheesy as you wish.

Here the most important commands. But please be aware that you can screw your game easy with using console commands. By removing all tasks/challenges or simply by producing bugs.

The key for Colsole depends on your keyboard layout
Americans use "^" i mean
Germans use "ö"
If its a other please look in your keybindings

Stats
= show your Game seed


Map
= Unhide map

Map Hide
= hide map

IM
= item menue like in Creative mode access via "H"

SBP
= Spawn Blue Print. Means you can spawn ALL blueprints for free, without spawnpad and instand.

FBP
= Finish a running Blueprint Production

tt
= Teleport to. Shift + Rightclick on map teleports you there

dm
= Debug modus, allows to spawn entitys and change the time

gm
= Godmode, you can turn the fly mode on or off via "G" button

Level = 20
= will give you level 19 soon before 20. (But this can be buggy and give too less Skillpoints) so the next command is more safe

Level x+ 1000
will give you 1000 XP. You can insert so many xp as you wish, but be carefull, if you overjump a level you can loose the skillpoints of that level FOREVER. So use it slowly

[WIP] Remarks:

+ Mark Landcapes
+ A simple wood defense
+ Portable Constructor as Fallback point
+ List of Plants
+ List of monsters (+illnes and heal)
+ Detector
+ Scanner
+ Heater
+ Drone
+ Sand Golems
+ Grain 3rd person
+ Armor and booster tips
+ Tools weapons and their ammo
+ More pointers toward F1
+ Protection time first day
+ SSAO
+ Short description about content available after jumpdrive
+ Vehicle menue at POI´s


Move to Building guide
Gardening
Base building
Sensor logic

[zaphodikus]

"You can set the FOW value" ...what does FOW stand for? (opacity something for cockpits???)

[M]

- Would be nice if you guys provided a "PDF" link version of the Guide.

[Shame on you]

Edit that next time i work on the guide

[Shame on you]

ahh thx

[Phoenix-Mask]

As little information going by file i can confirm both turrets are 80% salvage value

[Church]

This game went from good to like super hard survival if you get a bad start

[Hondo]

Lots of good information in this - thank you.

[Maya]

Thank you, very helpful

[sindar58]

Roger that .. tks agin .. Great info :))

[Shame on you]

Multi boost i maybe can add as a tip for its own. But i try to write it a way that nothing depends on lootluck. Scanner heater and drone i can surely improve the hints when i edit parts that contains them