newbie Do we have a compendium/list of known designs?

[nogurenn]

Hi. I'm a bit getting stuck when I start branching outside the starting biome and adjacent ones (the one with H and Cl, and the slimy one). I could go as far as: (1) transferring H and Cl to gas reservoirs and drecko farms, (2) disinfecting liquids by housing them in liquid reservoirs in isolated chlorine rooms, and (3) mining the slimy biome with exosuits and hand sanitizers. For vents and geysers, I just end up overpressurizing them by housing them inside boxes of insulated tiles with airlock doors. It's especially true when I find geysers and vents. I understand that, for example, a cool slush geyser could provide cooling for practically anything, especially when fortunately near something like a cool steam vent.

I could really use some designs I can reference with. jahws's guides on Steam are really helpful, but I think it'd be enormous help to have the community's list of designs for anyone who needs it. I've tried the usual Google and Klei forum search, but it turns out Klei archives threads and posts to a rather recent time frame, regardless of how helpful the content may be (people told me about the MOGOM before and there's no way a newbie could find that acronym easily). I'm one of those people that get paralyzed thinking about the problem, and it evidently shows when I play this game. I get through it, but a reference is always handy (e.g. I learned how to sustainably enter mid game by studying jahws's guides and construction patterns).

[goatt]

You have to ask a more specific question with a more specific need. What’s your next goal?

[Cypher-7]

here is a great resource. @JohnFrancis has done an amazing job putting this together.

[Zarquan]

1 hour ago, goatt said:

You have to ask a more specific question with a more specific need. What’s your next goal?

I honestly disagree with the idea that he needs a specific need or idea.  Being able to browse a selection of machines can lead to ideas and devices he hasn't thought of yet, so a collection of machines is a useful tool even if you do not have any ideas you wish to discuss.

[Saturnus]

But who would quality control the designs to find out which actually work as intended and have adequate fail safe mechanisms? An upvoting system is just a popularity contest, and wouldn't work very well.

[goatt]

1 hour ago, Zarquan said:

I honestly disagree with the idea that he needs a specific need or idea.  Being able to browse a selection of machines can lead to ideas and devices he hasn't thought of yet, so a collection of machines is a useful tool even if you do not have any ideas you wish to discuss.

I thought he said he got stuck, as there is something stops him going further, so I asked what is it. But you are suggesting browsing other people's design can inspire, and I totally agree with that. I'm doing that all the time.

[KieraGreywolf]

As a person who has a similar issue, I think what the OP means to say is, once you finish the initial base you become paralyzed by the possibilities. You know that eventually you're meant to start refining rarer/harder to get materials into better metals and so on to eventually breach the surface. But... How exactly do you DO that and not royally fudge the whole thing beyond saving?

I, myself, have slowly overcome that by just poking tentatively at google and watching youtubers (namely CrypticFox) play the game from the initial alpha/beta release until current times to give myself a guide line. However, even then, I'm still very awkwardly and nervously attempting a telescope set up right now. My anxiety at messing up and fudging the whole game 400+ cycles in is making me go agonizingly slow. (Though, it also means I'm certainly getting my bang for my buck in playtime. Haha.)

But, yeah, sometimes you don't even know what you need. Just being able to scroll through a list of different creations for say:
- O2 generation
- Decontamination
- Ranching (both manual or automation)
- ANYTHING automated
- Cooling set ups
- Steam creation and containment

And so on, helps you realize, "Oh! That's a problem I hadn't even considered... Oh dear. I should get on that." Or just gives you inspiration for a new project while you wait on materials to be made for another one.

[Zarquan]

1 hour ago, Saturnus said:

But who would quality control the designs to find out which actually work as intended and have adequate fail safe mechanisms? An upvoting system is just a popularity contest, and wouldn't work very well.

This is a major problem facing some of the "softer" sciences.  No one wants to spend their lives verifying other people's work.  ONI is full of enthusiasts, so I believe we could probably pull it off.

I think we could have a system where some expert reviewers could review a device and comment on it, endorsing it with keywords, such as "functional," "efficient," "easy in survival," etc, or point out points of failure.  If you were a reviewer, you could have your curated list of designs organized by keyword linked in your signature.  Perhaps if you trust other reviewers, you could also link their curated lists as well.  Then people can go to their trusted reviewers to find lists of builds.  This would work kind of like a journal.  Unfortunately, it sounds like a lot of work, but it would be beneficial to the forums.  (Note "reviewer" does not have to be an actual role on the forum, the forum can do this now.)

The modding community does things like this, and it seems to work pretty well for them.

[FiannaTiger]

57 minutes ago, KieraGreywolf said:

My anxiety at messing up and fudging the whole game 400+ cycles in is making me go agonizingly slow. (Though, it also means I'm certainly getting my bang for my buck in playtime. Haha.)

This is why my third base was at 1200 cycles before I launched my first rocket.  First base was during the first alpha build we had access to and I didn't get past 3 cycles (too many other things going on with life) and 108 cycles for the second base when I was trying to figure a few things out and messed it up so I started over.

@JohnFrancis videos have been a great help, along with watching other streamers, and now am getting to the point when I watch certain streamers I cringe at some of the choices they do, knowing what I know now, and on what I've made mistakes in the past as well!

[Lacost]

I guess one big problem for such a compendium would be the Early Access itself. Currently, there are so many patches that fundamentally change the base game, that once perfectly fine designs won't work with the next upgrade.

 

Just look at all the builds containing a borg cube that have become obsolete. Or anything related to automated ranching before the critter sensors were introduced. I would even say that a compendium should only be put together once ONI runs on the (hopefully) stable release build so that designs will still work a few months in after their creation.

[JohnFrancis]

@nogurennI had the exact same though when i first started playing. All the tutorials were hopelessly out of date, incomplete or just inefficient. It took lots of google searched, forum lurking and debug testing to figure out a decent play style. I put together an up to date tutorial but then the updates hit and lots of things change and now large chunks of it are out of date. Steam turbines completely changed, critters no longer fall though doors, germ system massively changed (No notes on that one). The new skills system alone changes what is possible in the early/mid game so completely I don't think anyone has figured out how to exploit it at even close to full potential.

In summary until they actually release the game fully and the massive changes stop I don't think a database that is not aggressively updated would work. On the bright side that time is near, after it hits it will just be a case of optimizing and I'm sure standard designs will start becoming a thing.

[KieraGreywolf]

31 minutes ago, Lacost said:

I guess one big problem for such a compendium would be the Early Access itself. Currently, there are so many patches that fundamentally change the base game, that once perfectly fine designs won't work with the next upgrade.

Indeed! Always changing. It's what makes the game both incredibly replayable and yet also incredibly frustrating. Will be both excited and sad to see an end to early access. Can't wait for DLC though. Curious what they have in mind. Perhaps picking up and moving to a new asteroid with new environments?