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Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:19 am
by Paingod
I've spent a couple nights on this now and like the new changes.

Hostile critters seem greatly reduced in number, though still around. I love that there's ore/rocks sitting out on the bare earth to find and harvest. I've put together my first HV and SV without having to go mucking around in a mine. In fact, I haven't even researched drill technology yet. Sure, it's slow - but it also encourages exploration.

The starter world seems to have at least quadroupled in size. I've only managed to explore a small portion of it with my HV. I've found biomes for snow, plains, forest, desert, and radioactive. It is pretty darn relaxing to cruise the surface on the motorcycle or HV. It seems like they've smoothed travel out a little and I wasn't getting jammed up on so many things.

My first base has grown somewhat organically. The game is set to trigger the first drone attack shortly after your base is established. I had to fend off the first couple of waves by hand before I got my cannon turret up. I need a more comprehensive solar array and greenhouse expansion; tasks for tonight.

The only thing I'm not liking is the complete lack of "Promethium" on this world. No way to make batteries or fuel cells for a Multitool - so construction is all one way; if I screw up, that's resources wasted. The only reason my HV and SV have power is from drones dropping power cells. I'm going to need to head into space and check nearby moons.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:54 am
by Apollo
I had so much trouble finding Promethium that I used the "Map" console command to make sure my world had some! Turns out that there's tons of Promethium out there, but almost all of it was clustered around POI's, like the Titan wreck and near alien bases. And BTW, you still need an Ore Scanner to make the pockets of Promethium show up, unlike all the other ores I've found.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:06 am
by Paingod
Ah. I'm missing the scanner. Never made one. I actually just built a Detector for my HV but hadn't installed it yet. I'm hoping it does the same thing.

Thank you!

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:14 am
by Sepiche
The places I've found promethium are:
1) Most commonly under radioactive biomes... I'm pretty sure all radioactive biomes will spawn some, or at least I haven't seen one without promethium
2) More rarely under mountain biomes
3) Fairly common on the moon

I think I lucked out in my game and there was a radioactive zone right near the first wreck with 2 promethium deposits. Once I got a light armor suit, I was able to head there and mine it without trouble.
Paingod wrote: Hostile critters seem greatly reduced in number
They do seem reduced in general, although I came across the Titan wreck over the weekend and as I was exploring it, a horde of about 40 of those little spiders from the surrounding area started going ballistic. I ended up having to take to the air in my SV and make strafing runs to clear them out. Gave me a lot of experience though.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 8:59 am
by Paingod
The Titan Wreck is a virtual wasteland of Spiders! I was there last night and had a ball with my HV. The turret was mowing down soldiers, and my Harvester was grinding up Spiders. It's a shame you have to be directly involved in the killing to get the experience. Turret kills just don't count, and I can't afford to not have my turret auto-kill things that can shoot at me.

I've finally made a trip to the moon, where I harvested my first Promethium. I kept the one vein on my starter planet "pure" so I could auto-harvest it later, maybe. I have that set to "No" for "Auto-Harvest Depletes Resources" so when I get them up and running, it'll be a permanent gain.

The plus side to all this is that I was finally able to craft ammo for the MultiTool and then able to deconstruct my HV without parts losses, so I could restructure it. It's still a glorified lawnmower, but at least it doesn't look like someone jammed a bunch of mismatched parts together with chewing gum.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 11:34 pm
by Apollo
My dilemma right now is building a CV.

The first time I built one, a couple of years ago, I went with the "Aircraft Carrier" design since that would be easy to build but would still look good. The ship I built was truly huge, with four separate shuttle bays for my SV's, but the interior layout was beyond boring. Last year I went with a variation on the good ol'"shoebox" design with what ended up looking like a giant Winebago with tail fins and a large engine pod extending from each side. While it was not as large as my first CV, it had a far more interesting looking interior including an art deco restaurant lounge with seating for 50 on the uppermost deck. :mrgreen:

I'm terrible at designing complex structures, which is why I like to go with simple, straightforward designs. However, I have now built an example of the two most obvious designs I could think of. I'm eager for suggestions if you guys have any.

I've thought about going with a round Federation style ship, like this excellent example:


And as far as REALLY big CV's go:


Though, if I were capable of building anything, I would definitely build the Battleship Yamato:

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 1:48 pm
by Sepiche
I think the top one looks the coolest, but in order of difficulty to build I think it's probably: 1, 3, 2

My designs aren't much better, although I tend to start by building a simple, blocky shell, then fill out the interior with whatever rooms I dream up, and then add to the exterior to make it look cooler and add armor.

And forgive me if you already know this, but I just wanted to be sure: you do know you can download those ships off the Steam Workshop and use the blueprint feature to build those ships without having to lay out the blocks and everything?

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:15 pm
by Apollo
Sepiche wrote: Sat Jun 23, 2018 1:48 pm ...And forgive me if you already know this, but I just wanted to be sure: you do know you can download those ships off the Steam Workshop and use the blueprint feature to build those ships without having to lay out the blocks and everything?
Yes, I see now that I wasn't clear about exactly what my dilemma was: Building my own CV vs using the factory to build one of the awesome designs from the Steam workshop. While I love the CV's others have made, designing and building my own CV is my favorite thing about playing Empyrion.

I think I am going to build a very small CV to travel to other planets and mine the resources I need, then use the factory to build a large CV from the workshop.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:00 pm
by Lorini
Am I hosed? If not, then how can I get out?

Image

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:46 pm
by Sepiche
Lorini wrote: Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:00 pm Am I hosed? If not, then how can I get out?
Looks like you have plenty of bio fuel, so just start digging upwards at a fairly steep angle and you should be able to get to the surface pretty soon. In the future, from the surface, hit F5 to spawn your drone, and your drone can fly down into your mine and use a drill without you actually having to enter the mine yourself.
Apollo wrote: Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:15 pm Yes, I see now that I wasn't clear about exactly what my dilemma was: Building my own CV vs using the factory to build one of the awesome designs from the Steam workshop. While I love the CV's others have made, designing and building my own CV is my favorite thing about playing Empyrion.

I think I am going to build a very small CV to travel to other planets and mine the resources I need, then use the factory to build a large CV from the workshop.
Ah, yeah, I go back and forth about that myself. I do like the feeling of making the ship myself, as, no matter what it looks like, it feels like mine, but some of the ships that people design and post are so much more functional that what I could ever do.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:31 pm
by map
So following the "tutorial" I spawned a HOV from the factory.
It's sitting on the ground in front of me , but I have no way to get into it.
What am I missing?

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:31 pm
by Sepiche
map wrote: Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:31 pm So following the "tutorial" I spawned a HOV from the factory.
It's sitting on the ground in front of me , but I have no way to get into it.
What am I missing?
There should be some sort of block that looks like a seat or cockpit. Walk up to that and hit 'F' to climb in. When in the cockpit or while looking at the HV from the outside, you can hit 'Y' to power it on, or 'P' to open a more detailed control panel.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:53 pm
by Apollo
"O" is another good key to know when you're starting out: It levels whatever craft you happen to be piloting at the moment.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 7:07 am
by Paingod
Lorini wrote: Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:00 pmAm I hosed? If not, then how can I get out?
I had this happen more than once before someone here clued me into using the Drone (F5) to do mining for me, like Sepiche notes. It's got a pretty good range and can be used to do building/painting as well.

I wish I could build myself an awesome ship. Most of my designs end up 95% utilitarian and pretty darn boring inside and out. I love the advanced ships I see around. I suppose it's easier to maintain a complicated design now that you can repair by Blueprint and not just one piece at a time. That's a thing now, right? I haven't tried it, but thought I read about it.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 9:59 am
by Apollo
Yes, you can now repair your ship to match the original blueprint, which makes repairing complex designs infinitely easier. I also noticed that there is a "Save Template" button when you open a blueprint, allowing you to make modifications and then save them so that your next repair will repair the new additions as well.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:15 am
by Lorini
They just issued a new patch making the start of the tutorial better. Wish they'd have done that a couple of weeks ago :?

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:14 pm
by Dave Allen
Can I build a holo-viewer that will project a browse-able wiki window in the game?
I spend so much time alt-tabbing out to the game's wiki it might as well be an included game feature. :roll:

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:16 am
by Paingod
Lorini wrote: Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:15 am They just issued a new patch making the start of the tutorial better. Wish they'd have done that a couple of weeks ago :?
I never stop being impressed at the speed of updates in this game. There's always something new, it seems.

I with they'd hire an animator/artist so the "placeholders" can be spruced up.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:11 am
by Madmarcus
Every time this thread becomes active I think that Empyrion looks like the adult Minecraft that I would love. Luckily I move in a month and won't have a computer that can run it. My wallet is safe for now.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 10:05 pm
by Dave Allen
When I windowed out to consult the wiki, I was surprised how slow Firefox was running. Then I noticed my gadget monitoring ram usage was at 96%.

My current system build (June 2014) had 8gb of g.skill DDR3. This is the first game I've played that's proved it inadequate. I just ordered another 8gb ($65) stick from Newegg.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:07 am
by Paingod
That's gotta be a bug or memory leak. I can't verify it right now, but it doesn't seem right.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 11:07 am
by Sepiche
Yeah, I've noticed the same thing since the last patch. Hopefully they'll make a optimization pass at some point and track that down.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2018 8:32 am
by Dave Allen
Dave Allen wrote: Wed Jul 04, 2018 10:05 pm When I windowed out to consult the wiki, I was surprised how slow Firefox was running. Then I noticed my gadget monitoring ram usage was at 96%.

My current system build (June 2014) had 8gb of g.skill DDR3. This is the first game I've played that's proved it inadequate. I just ordered another 8gb ($65) stick from Newegg.
I've added another 8gb ram and now I'm averaging 57% usage. That did the trick :D

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2018 11:31 pm
by Hyena
I have been crashing after about 8-10 minutes in-game. I'm guessing it's overheating because my rear fan is out and I have the side panel to the case open to help. But it has been a bit choppy for me since the last patch, too, so I just ordered another 8g stick, a 1050 Ti 4g video card, and a new cooling fan to combat the crashes from overheating.

Hope that does the trick, as I LOVE this game.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:50 am
by Hyena
Update. Parts came in yesterday, got em installed, and WOW does this game look better.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:29 pm
by Sepiche
New update! https://steamcommunity.com/games/383120 ... 2280617915

TL;DR: Inventories and storage have been updated requiring some buildings to have external storage linked to them, and volume of stored goods is a consideration now. Also new inventory transfer interface.

Factions!: Planets are occupied by various factions that you can befriend/enrage getting various benefits/penalties, and factions will also control and fight over territory.

Lots of other small additions including iron sights and boarding ramps for ships.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 8:24 am
by Paingod
While Subnautica may be a beautiful and atmospheric survival experience, I think this game is my absolute all-time favorite survival game. I've logged hundreds of hours with prior builds. Development is slow, but the game is consistently worth it.

There's something magical about crash-landing on a planet with nothing and then getting to a point where you're exploring between stars in a battlecruiser - and you worked for it every step of the way, building it by hand.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 9:20 am
by Tampa_Gamer
+1 here as well. I am swamped in end of year work, but am hoping to get back to this over the holidays. The item I am most excited about in this latest alpha version is the new faction system/territory. In my opinion, if they throw resources into fleshing that out it could skyrocket this game over and above all of the other games in this genre of survival/craft/build games out there by making the world a living thing that the player is merely a part of.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 3:01 pm
by Paingod
Indeed.

I look forward to watching a trade vessel limp into port after a brawl with pirates and get repaired one block at a time over the course of two game days. Maybe I could pick up a mission to pick through the pirate's wreckage ... :D

Not sure if that's the plan down the road, but it would be cool.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 4:30 pm
by Hyena
This was my first real attempt at a survival game when it first came out on steam a few years ago. I agree with the idea of starting out with a crashed ship and a survival kit, only to be exploring distant stars soon after. I LOVE finding crashed ships and abandoned alien constructs, then gutting their core to claim it as my own. One of my favorites to convert was the tail section of the Titan. It was almost like a ready-made base with protective walls, easy to access interior, and a GREAT place to place a defensive turret on the captain's tower. Nothing gets within striking distance, and it has nearly everything you need to start.

And now with the story lines they've added, it's even better. I have logged so many hours that I now feel completely comfortable using a few cheat codes to warp in and explore places, finding the alien storage containers with advanced weapons and such, and I've even cheated with ores a few times to make some of the more impressive CV's on the blueprint store. All of my homemade ships look like someone stripped a go-cart clean of all aesthetics, bolted a Gatling gun to the top, and left all the innards exposed to the elements.

I'm looking forward to trying out the new stuff. After Fallout 76...and Flashpoint for BattleTech...and Kenshi...and man, I need to get a life.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:15 am
by Baroquen
Oh, cool. I just saw it was on sale today on Steam ($9.99) and was wondering about it. Perfect time to stumble on this thread.

Looking forward to trying it out soon.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:42 am
by coopasonic
I picked this up after losing interest in Astroneer and reading through the thread apparently the game is now more broken than it ever was, or at least that is how my first attempt seems. The initial tutorial mission, where apparently I was supposed to find a wreck with materials, I never got the POI. I just pushed on to the second tutorial mission where I built some scanner to investigate a signal, again no POI. I said screw it and went on to the third tutorial mission... building a hover vessel. Tried building something by hand and... wtf. I made and placed the core first as that was the first check box. well if the core starts out on the ground I can't see how to put stuff under it. I found another menu with cool prefabs. Build one of those despite having approximately none of the required materials and it looks really cool... and I can't get into it. Further looking and I see I have 75 skill points... oh look, I am level 25... Wait, every single thing is already unlocked. Hmmm maybe that is why nothing has hurt me so far in the game. All my stat bars have been at 500/500 the entire time. Is there a survival element to this game at all?

Nevermind. I started a new game this morning and it is working much better. I have completed the first two tutorial missions successfully. The vehicle would be next and I am a little scared to go into that again, but we'll see.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:56 pm
by Apollo
coopasonic wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:42 am ...Nevermind. I started a new game this morning and it is working much better. I have completed the first two tutorial missions successfully. The vehicle would be next and I am a little scared to go into that again, but we'll see.
This is one of the games I spend time with every year in order to try out the new updates. But building vessels from scratch can be a bit tricky sometimes, so I've become a big fan of adding resources to the "Factory" and building one of the pre-designed ships. And if you don't like everything about your new ship, you can always modify it to suit your taste. Anything I design and build myself ends up looking like a flying toaster. :oops:

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:08 am
by Paingod
coopasonic wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:42 amNevermind. I started a new game this morning and it is working much better. I have completed the first two tutorial missions successfully. The vehicle would be next and I am a little scared to go into that again, but we'll see.
Vehicle construction can be wonky for beginners. Heck, each time I return, I screw it up all over again and have to re-learn it.

I would strongly recommend using the build mode to create a ship, and then the Factory to produce it - ensuring you don't waste resources. Of course, I've never done that myself, so I'm not even taking my own advice.

My first craft is typically a basic hovercraft so I can jump up there to escape hostiles while I search for raw materials. My first small ship is generally a brick I use to get into space. The real factory floor is in space, where you can move around without gravity.

I think the biggest and most useful thing to remember in this game is that the camera drone can be used for base construction, ship construction, and mining. Unless they changed that in the last year.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:17 am
by coopasonic
I did get my first hovercraft built, basically a floating brick... and it was subsequently scuttled by drones around the big ship. In my quest for ore to replace it I ran across an abandoned mining facility and dropped down into a "moat" encircling a turret. I could find no way out of the moat and I was about 8km from my base. I did have a motorcycle at base so I could have recovered after (starving to) death, but I just wasn't that interested. You can obviously build some really cool stuff in this game, but it turns out that isn't really enough for me.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:29 am
by Paingod
It is very much a free-form survival and building game with little other substance. I liked the challenge of starting from a survival kit to exploring the stars in my own hand-crafted capital ships. They are adding more integrated NPC experiences - trade, missions, etc... but it may not be there yet.

You might also benefit from setting your turrets to self-defense. Bases, Hovercraft, and Capital Ships can have mounted turrets that will automatically fire on anything that comes in range and meets your criteria. Ammo isn't cheap, but it's workably priced in terms of resources to usefulness. The HV's become really nice platforms when they keep you safe without you having to intervene.

Was there anything in specific that made it "meh" for you - like some really annoying element - or just the general game play?

I hope you'll be willing to give the game another shot at a later date. I've personally sunk hundreds of hours into the Early Access and hate to think it was so off-putting that you would regret the purchase.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:27 pm
by coopasonic
Paingod wrote: Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:29 am Was there anything in specific that made it "meh" for you - like some really annoying element - or just the general game play?

I hope you'll be willing to give the game another shot at a later date. I've personally sunk hundreds of hours into the Early Access and hate to think it was so off-putting that you would regret the purchase.
I guess maybe it is more of a been there, done that feeling on my side. I've played so many different survival games that it's hard to get excited about another one. I can't think of any particular issue with Empyrion... I mean other than the small frustrations of not knowing how everything works. Like finally figuring out that elevator shafts are traversable without the box and wondering why that information isn't made clear before you get to your third ship with an elevator, having to switch modes on the tools for all the various uses, the finicky nature of the building tools.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:40 pm
by Paingod
Aside from the quirks of the game, the "been there, done that" is understandable. I try and really limit how many similar games I buy to avoid that feeling. It's the reason I have just one version of Assassin's Creed (Black Flag). I try to be pretty selective in my purchasing because of this, even if I love a genre. I just don't want to overwhelm myself with it.

Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:07 pm
by Punisher
Apollo wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:56 pm
coopasonic wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 8:42 am ...Nevermind. I started a new game this morning and it is working much better. I have completed the first two tutorial missions successfully. The vehicle would be next and I am a little scared to go into that again, but we'll see.
This is one of the games I spend time with every year in order to try out the new updates. But building vessels from scratch can be a bit tricky sometimes, so I've become a big fan of adding resources to the "Factory" and building one of the pre-designed ships. And if you don't like everything about your new ship, you can always modify it to suit your taste. Anything I design and build myself ends up looking like a flying toaster. :oops:
Dont discount the toaster style fighter!


Re: Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:55 am
by coopasonic
Started playing it again last week with my 13yo son. We got stuck in the basement of some facility and couldn't get out so I turned on the teleport function as a necessity... I made my son an admin so he could do the same... it was about 3 minutes before he was cruising the world in godmode. I keep trying to convince him that it ruins the game and if he wants to play that way he should just go to creative. I want to overcome. He wants to explore and mess around.

We recently learned that you can attach a core to a (core-less) structure and steal all the things. This should get us a capital vessel much more quickly. :twisted: