Are O2 masks working as intended?

[chemie]

Deliver metal; mask is auto made

Dupe task mask

Dupes comes back and drops mask on the floor (I have a pile of them on the floor now)

Repeat with new metal and new mask.  Are they meant to be one use?  Or is it just bugged?

[RonEmpire]

My Feedback after seeing this station  is pretty negative as far as my reaction and its use.

1.  It's not very intuitive on how it works.   The direction of the mask I had to rotate  and it took a very long while to figure out what is going on since the mask needs  ore delivered and oxygen charging.    It's possible to get stuck between two stations as well.  Had to disable the building to get the dupe out.

 

2.  The fact that the dupes uses mask for a brief moment and then runs back and drops it on the floor  makes it a complete waste.  As the mask seems to be dissolving on the floor when nobody is using it.   Disposable mask ?    I couldn't tell if it was emitting the oxygen  back into the room.  it was just decreasing in kg  and not saying "emitting".

3.  Since metal ore is a very limited resource   this is not a very viable or effective use of the mask.

 

 

[Boonpflug]

I think the main issue is that the mask is both:

1. not re-usable when the O2 it not used up

AND

2. being returned when passing the other way

 

If one of those were not true, the system would make sense.

But I would much prefer if they would be returned, and then reusable by anyone. Maybe they could spread infection for some more downside on top of the metal usage.

[chemie]

1 minute ago, Boonpflug said:

I think the main issue is that the mask is both:

1. not re-usable when the O2 it not used up

AND

2. being returned when passing the other way

 

If one of those were not true, the system would make sense.

But I would much prefer if they would be returned, and then reusable by anyone. Maybe they could spread infection for some more downside on top of the metal usage.

Even Option 1 would be a big penalty on metal for a single mask usage. It would add up.

The only good part of the small map is that you might as well oxygenate the whole thing.  My issue with the oil map is without exosuits, I can even dig down to the oil.

[Bromster]

I agree, it would be much more usable if the station stored the masks themselves and were refilled actively afterwards. It seems like you could potentially just end up with a ton of masks on the floor eating up all your ore.

[Boonpflug]

7 hours ago, chemie said:

 

 

7 hours ago, chemie said:

Even Option 1 would be a big penalty on metal for a single mask usage. It would add up.

The only good part of the small map is that you might as well oxygenate the whole thing.  My issue with the oil map is without exosuits, I can even dig down to the oil.

Yes, It would cost something, but at least it would be usable and logical. As most early game stuff, it is not really sustainable, but you should have plenty of metal to start with. At the moment, I find them illogical and almost unusable. From desperation, I also went with oxygenating the whole swamp, and even put "breathing rooms" into space.

[TheMule]

I don't have access to alpha DLC, so this is a question for those who have. Try and build this:

- mask station going out (imagine to space), immediately followed by a door with permission exit only - this is to prevent dups dropping masks on the way back;

- mask station going in, immediately followed by a door with permission enter only - this is to prevent dups dropping mask on the way out;

- make a U turn of sort, like dups being forced to go down to avoid the mask stations, then up again, thus creating a longer path for them.


My understanding: unmasked dups going out use the mask station (if available). Masked dups use the longer path. It seems that the station doesn't allow already masked dup thru (this might be a bug/to be changed in the future).

Masked dups coming back use the longer path. Should a dup's mask expire when outside, the dup can come back via the inbound mask station, gaining a brand new one, then get back to work outside via the longer path.

Inbound dups would keep carrying the mask inside until it expires, that can't be avoided. It's also no big deal since that doesn't change the overall oxygen consumption.
 
 

2nd question. Has anyone tried storing masks underwater? Do they offgas? I'm thinking, putting 100 of them in a underwater bin, a sweeper moves one to other bin (storage set to the correct amount to store 1 mask only). This a oxylite sort of thing, to store large amount of oxygen but releasing it in a controlled way. Masks could be shipped to other colonies.

I can also think of a bin on top of a mech door with water in it. Automation opens and closes the door depending on the pressure and the bin with masks inside is flooded when O2 pressure is up to the desired level.

[Sebastiangperez]

Maybe they must work like the Atmosuits like a low level or initial level
Another option is merge masks and atmosuits in the same building ? they can hang both.

 

[Slvrsrfr]

1 hour ago, TheMule said:

2nd question. Has anyone tried storing masks underwater? Do they offgas?

try a door beneath it that drops into a tiny pool. with automation? would that work?

[chemie]

6 minutes ago, Slvrsrfr said:

try a door beneath it that drops into a tiny pool. with automation? would that work?

But why would you store them under water?  Once dropped, they are never used again.

[Slvrsrfr]

rip, what a waste...

so on this planetoid you have to give away the most abundant metal to bugs, and one-time use masks? outstanding. good training

[chemie]

10 minutes ago, Slvrsrfr said:

rip, what a waste...

so on this planetoid you have to give away the most abundant metal to bugs, and one-time use masks? outstanding. good training

Also turning sulfur into food or sugar...also not renewable

[Slvrsrfr]

seems the maps are rather light on it as well

Just now, chemie said:

Also turning sulfur into food or sugar...also not renewable

 

[chemie]

3 minutes ago, Slvrsrfr said:

seems the maps are rather light on it as well

 

Because they are so small...

[Slvrsrfr]

the patches are not especially broad or wide, and I am unsure of the typical density, likely no higher than say 400kg tiles..... not much around period.

and it's 500kg apparently according to the tourist playing atm.. so it's really in short supply, as an overall ratio on planet, yup small beans standard for the fare around these parts

[Gurgel]

I think this type of feedback is pretty much what the alpha is about. Keep going!

[beowulf2010]

22 minutes ago, Gurgel said:

I think this type of feedback is pretty much what the alpha is about. Keep going!

Exactly. It's amazing how many people expect a fully featured balanced game in Alpha... 

Mask functionality? That's why they're allowing us to help with the Alpha. 

World generation sustainability and spawned resources? That's going to be a Beta focus. 

Sure, bring things up as you see them, but don't start making over-exaggerated judgemental claims of "rip" in the first week of closed Alpha... 

[TheMule]

5 hours ago, chemie said:

But why would you store them under water?  Once dropped, they are never used again.

Well you can have dups pick them up and wear them, just like suits. But also they offgas oxygen. From what I've seen, they don't have an overpressure value tho. So I was wandering what happens if you store them underwater.

[lunazone]

My recommended solution is to have it so the masks get scrapped when returned where you get like 90% of the original metal, and the oxygen is restored back into the machine.

Also using the masks in the new starting space biome is a little painful since duplicants form massive pools of liquid carbon dioxide because the surface is so cold. I'd like it if meteors were re-enabled on the starting planet, but the cold may be part of the challenge so I'm not sure.

[Bryce]

I agree the mask station isn't working very well with the current implementation. We're planning on making tweaks, so threads like this are helpful!

[TheMule]

 

Something seems to have changed. Now dups load the masks back into the station?

 

[_Q_]

This should be more like atmo suits stations are working, or loaded with oxylite or oxygen canisters. Taking from the surrounding area will not work very well in some cases.

[pether]

1 hour ago, _Q_ said:

This should be more like atmo suits stations are working, or loaded with oxylite or oxygen canisters. Taking from the surrounding area will not work very well in some cases.

...and oxylite will not work well in other cases.

IMO using surrounding oxygen is a good idea. Not perfect solution, but this is early game building and it should be easy to setup. I'm fine with that part. Enourmous cost of ore is what's the biggest issue here that drives me away. In a game where we recycle everything, masks should be reusable as well.

[Alfons100]

I disagree on that Oxygen masks should outright consume ore the longer you have up. They're already far inferior to Exosuits in protection but in turn they're much more convenient to place, so why should we be punished so heavily by them costing the most finite resource, metal ore?

[_Q_]

1 hour ago, pether said:

...and oxylite will not work well in other cases.

IMO using surrounding oxygen is a good idea. Not perfect solution, but this is early game building and it should be easy to setup. I'm fine with that part. Enourmous cost of ore is what's the biggest issue here that drives me away. In a game where we recycle everything, masks should be reusable as well.

I usually have oxygen in working areas anyway. The only 2 cases this whole building is worth it atm would be the vacuum while leveling the surface, and some work in liquids while building around the geyser, and in both cases its not really required as super being duplicants can hold breath for hours on end and still work just fine. I didn't even notice that structure earlier and build my base as usual without it, so the whole oxygen masks idea is not working. I can always run pipe with oxygen and vents and make it longer as the working area spreads around. The whole idea if heavily flawed atm. Metal cost is acceptable as you can get more metals from volcano sooner or later.