[OUTDATED] Draconis Impossible Quickstart Guide - Mobile Drilling and Production in 45 Minutes

Now that DI:Extended has been launched, there is a new starter pod, which has rendered this guide obsolete. I'll leave it up, at least for now, since the basic techniques can be used in vanilla and other modes. I will work on writing a new Quickstart Guide for DI:E, but that new starter pod is a really piece of work, so it may take some time.

SECONDLY: Stone yield has been nerfed substantially. On a recent restart, I found it faster to place all 4 wheels, but only weld up one suspension/wheel, then add the Drill and hinge on the front, using the welded wheel to move slowly and collect a decent amount of resources before welding up the rest of the wheels and moving on. That also means the number of mining trips below for each step is going to off until they roll back the nerf (if they ever do).

Draconis Impossible is a brutal, unforgiving environment. This guide is written for people who are very familiar with Space Engineers and skips some basic info and illustrations I would include in my other guides. If this guide isn't easy to follow, you may want to hone your skills on some other game types before trying Draconis Impossible.
The primary conceit of this guide is to add a Basic Assembler to the Respawn Pod using a Large Grid to Small Grid hinge. If you're already nodding your head, feel free to skip down to steps 9-15 for the process.
Even the best Engineers out there will get wiped out or just blown away while playing on DI. Therefore, we end up starting over more than once, so you will likely use this method again and again. I went through a total of seven Respawn Pods before I got established enough to build a basic base and get to space.

Important Notes

Clang is alive!

Be careful when grinding on a server. With the Aww, Scrap mod, if you accidentally grind your Survival kit, Battery or other critical component too far, you won't be able to repair it. Try to grind in such a way that you won't grind anything else if the server jumps.

Servers in general and especially Draconis Impossible do not like rotors and hinges. There's a decent chance your hinge will explode when you attach it. I have made this step very early in the process, so you can respawn and try again quickly if this happens.

If you are new the server (or there's a wipe), you need to build the Solar Panel and Remote Control just for the progression unlocks. If you have already unlocked these, you don't need to build them again.

Get in the game

1. As you are descending, turn off the O2/H2 Gen. You start with a limited supply of ice and unless you spawn very close to snow you will want to conserve as much as possible. Only turn on the O2 Gen to fill your bottles, until you get a vent.
1 a. Take a look around! If it isn't dark, look for ore patches, flat areas that will be easier to explore and snow. If you aren't landing on snow, point your Pod in the direction of the nearest snow so you can remember which way it is.
2. Add NOMS to name of Fighter Cockpit 1 (the one you are sitting in) and put food and water from the cargo container into your backpack. After you eat and drink, move the food and waste back to the cargo pod.
3. Change the Interior Lights so they don't flash. I like to use the settings below. Draconis Impossible can spawn you on the night side of the planet, so some extra light will come in handy.
4. Go to the Production tab, switch to the Survival kit and queue up the following: from the scrap tab, 1,000 of each type of scrap, on the main tab, 8 Solar Cells, 4 Girder, 1 Construction Comp, 4 Computer, 1 Motor, 12 Steel Plates and a few thousand ingots.
5. IMPORTANT: Rename your ship, or it will get deleted after you log off. Note that this will disable the Respawn Pod GPS point that follows your ship.
6. CAREFULLY grind down the O2 Gen below the functional line, get the parts and weld it back up to unlock the Vent. Place a Vent somewhere on a small conveyor and set it to depressurize so you have O2 in the cockpit, Survival kit, etc.
7. Grind off the Connector and everything around it from the back of your ship. This includes the extra blocks and yes, the Emergency Rations block. We will add food production back a long time before you run out of food or water. Grind away the Hydrogen Thrusters and a few of the Small Conveyors so you have access to the Medium Cargo Container. Deposit all of the scrap and let it get recycled.
8. Mine 4 loads of stone and deposit them in the Pod. Keep in mind that you will want to drill down at an angle you can walk back up, since you don't have a working jetpack. Also, once you get past the dirt and start drilling rock, you can drill out wide so you don't have to run back up a long tunnel.
9. Use the components we queued up to build a Solar Panel. Where you put it isn't important, especially if it's already night. I like to grind away a couple blocks and place it on the battery. Also, the orange Small Conveyors running down the sides are redundant and can be ground away at any time and recycled.
10. Add a 3 x 3 Hinge Part to that back of the Medium Cargo Container. Don't weld it up for now.
11. Place a single Large Grid Armor block in the voxel just behind the Pod. You want it lined up with the Spawn Pod and a few centimeters away. It helps to stand directly behind the Pod, far away, and walk slowly back up until the Armor block goes from red to green so it can be placed. This picture shows roughly where the block should be placed.
12. DROP a Basic Assembler on the block. Make sure it's not attached, but just resting on it. Also make sure it's single conveyor port is pointed toward the Respawn Pod. To get the alignment right, stand just in front of the front landing gear and drop it from there.
13. Add a hinge to the Basic Assembler. It may push itself away from the Spawn Pod a little bit, but that's ok.
14. Grind away the Large Grid Hinge Part inside the hinge.
15. Grind away the Armor block in the voxel so that (hopefully) the Basic Assembler drops with the Large Grid hinge around the Small Grid Hinge Part.
15 a. Getting this right takes some practice and can require a few retries. If the hinge is too far away, it may attach, but then explode (see next step). Take your time and try to get it lined up as well as you can. Order up more Steel Plate if you need to and start all over again if it doesn't land where it needs to.
16. When the Large Grid Hinge is in place, use Build Vision to attach it to the Small Grid. Even if everything is lined up, this explodes randomly for no reason, taking out your Survival kit and/or Battery. At that point, you just have to respawn and try again. It should have taken you about 10 minutes to get this far, so we haven't lost a lot of time. Even if you have to restart 3 times, this method is still much faster than starting with a Large Grid base. If everything goes well, attach the hinge, then make sure you lock it in place using Build Vision.
17. Order up the parts for the Basic Assembler from the Survival kit, skipping the 20 extra Steel Plate. Make sure you drag the Ingots last in the queue so it makes the components first.
18. Mine 7 more loads of stone.
19. Finish welding up the Assembler. Until we finish the hinge, you will need to manually move ingots from the Survival kit to the Basic Assembler.
20. Add a piston and a Landing Gear to raise up the pod so we can add wheels. If you had to place a Solar Panel, this is a great place to the piston. Otherwise build out 4 or so blocks and put it there. Raise it up a bit until you can lock the Landing Gear. Once it's locked, unlock the other 4 Landing Gear (set Autolock to off) and raise higher until you can place the wheels.
21. Grind off the 4 Landing Gear around the Respawn Pod and the struts that attached them. Recycle the scrap. Place 4 armor blocks in the positions shown to mount the wheels. Wheel placement is up to personal choice, but I have found this to be very stable and not interfere with the ship drill.
22. Mine 3 more loads of stone.
23. Add 3 x 3 Wheels around the Respawn Pod.
24. Grind the armor blocks off the nose. Order up the components for a Small Grid Remote Control, Hinge, Hinge Part and Drill.
25. Build the Remote Control, if needed to unlock the Drill. If you want to keep it, put it someplace cool, otherwise just add it anywhere and then grind it away.
26. Mine 3 more loads of stone.
27. Add the Hinge and Drill to the front of the Pod. Lock the Hinge before you add the Drill so it doesn't tlit down.
28. Set the Handbrake, lower the piston and release the Landing Gear. I usually leave the piston and gear on there, but I've never actually used it. Grind away if you want, along with the Solar Panel.
29. IMPORTANT: Set the Lower and Upper limits on the Drill hinge to -70 and 70. Set the limits on the hinge for the Assembler to 0 and 50. This is also a good time to set up the Wheel Suspension to your liking. I highly recommend a top speed of 120, or even 75 if you aren't in a flat area.
30. Lower the drill and move backward slowly creating a trench. As your Survival kit processes the stone, you will be able to finish some blocks and build more. Until the rear hinge is finished, you'll have to manually move ingots, but it won't take long.

Epilogue

Keep drilling and producing ingots until you have enough to complete the Assembler hinge. Once you have it finished, angle the Assembler up to 50 degrees so it doesn't bump the ground as you drive.
I add 2 more drills up front, which works well. However, if you establish a land base and remove the Assembler, this set up is a little front heavy, so be careful.
Add an air vent somewhere and set it to depressurize so you will get O2 quickly in the cockpit and from the Survival kit.
Now you have enough materials to build the 3 basic Daily Needs blocks, Waste Water, Protein Resequencer and Hydroponics. Since they function just like conveyor junctions, I grind out the conveyors between the O2 Gen and the Survival kit and put all 3 of them there.
For whatever reason, 6 wheels is almost always better than 4. As you build up resources and get heavier, add 2 more wheels in the middle for more stability and power to get up inclines. Set the Strength of the middle wheels slightly lower so that they keep traction as you go over rough terrain.

Now you have a mobile drilling and production platform! Your next step is to explore the area around you and find your best source of snow and, of course, cobalt. I wish you all the best!

[-_Tyger_-]

Keen finally fixed the unlimited O2 in the cockpit bug, even though they didn't mention it in the notes. That means you will need to conserve ice, as you will need it for O2, and later food/water. I've updated the guide slightly, but it's more important than ever to turn off the O2 Gen right away and only turn it back on to get O2 and turn it off again.

[Oxygenated]

yeah it was build vision my bad, thanks again!

[-_Tyger_-]

@DGL I'm not familiar with anything called Build View. This guide is referencing the mod Build Vision: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1697184408 . BuildInfo: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514062285 is another popular mod that is used on DI servers.
Both of them work automatically. To use Build Vision, just point at a functional block and use Ctrl-Middle Mouse Button.

[Oxygenated]

how do you activate build view?