Spaced Out Feedback

[proteantablet]

A few notes after trying out the new DLC for a while:

• [BUG]: the job list loses track of which duplicant is on which asteroid after some time, and just puts everyone in one list.
   
• Duplicants should give up their cot when they move to another asteroid.  I keep finding dupes sleeping on the floor because of this.
   
• The default material for building should be a per asteroid setting.  eg, I have one asteroid with a ton of sandstone and very little sedimentary rock; I have another asteroid with a ton of sedimentary rock and very little sandstone.  I keep forgetting to switch materials when I switch asteroids, and running out in the middle of a build or forcing my duplicants to run all over the map scrounging up crumbs of material.
   
• It would be a helpful hint if warp pipes had dangling "ends" for liquid pipes and ventilation ducts, not just conveyor belts.  Because they only had conveyors, I assumed that they only work with conveyors, and it took me more hours than I care to admit to realize I could use them with liquids and gases too.
   
• I haven't 100% confirmed this, but I think my colony may hit a dead end due to lack of access to fiber.  Neither my starting asteroid nor the one connected by teleport/warp have anything that can produce fiber (eg, Thimble Reed or Dreckos); I've explored the whole map except the parts at the bottom that are too hot to visit without an exosuit.  Unless resource requirements have changed, this means I won't be able to build exosuits, and without exosuits I can't go to space.  (not 100% confirmed because I haven't tried to build a rocket or Exosuit Forge yet)
  
  If this is a dead end, I feel like the game should prevent this (the whole point is to go to space, after all, and I shouldn't discover after a few dozen hours that I can't do that), maybe by making sure that a biome with fibers is always available, or maybe via occasional Printing Pod drops of Reed Fiber seeds / Drecko eggs.

[larkvi]

I completely agree with the first three suggestions, and had the same issues.

Re: thimble reed. You don't actually need spacesuits to go to space anymore. Setting up the rocket interior is really confusing and fiddly, but you can set up power and oxygen supplies and food and go to space with dupes with no suits. Dupes can work for a short time in vacuum with no mask or the new mask building. There are two accessible early planets: one is the one you can warp to, but the other has both thimble reed and dreckos, both of which can provide fiber.

[bambalad]

I agree with just about all of this. The problem I had with the portal tubes is that even though input/ouput is stated and displayed in the arrow; the color is what I always went by and that for some reason does not display correctly; plus I generally don't like the idea of it because that is what rockets were supposed to be for.

Not being able to create fibers but for one rare ingredient is very irritating indeed but you don't need exosuits to enter rockets anymore. Have to provide your own oxygen in the cockpit, by building inside it, ,  and can use a gas mask station for temporary breathing in the same way you would use exosuits.

[proteantablet]

• Addendum: I have confirmed that exosuits are still not available without fiber.  I bypassed the technology and built jet suits instead.  While apparently (see below) not needed for rockets, they were critical for survival of my colony: the asteroid that is providing me with petroleum and coal is very hot, and I needed suits for my duplicants to be able to safely set up and operate my industrial base, especially before I had enough materials/research to build cooling systems.
   
• My first attempt at a rocket was comically disastrous: the game didn't tell me to suit up my duplicant, so I didn't.  When I launched the rocket, the outcome was ... predictable.  I also didn't realize I could turn the rocket around to save him, but this is probably not the DLC's fault, just my assumptions from prior versions where rockets were more "realistic" (I could complain about this, but ... this is a game where steam engines destroy heat, so whatever ).
   
• The comments above seem to indicate that it's possible to build *inside* a rocket??  That was totally not obvious to me.  Guess that answers the issue that I logged in to report (how to feed duplicants en route in order to reach more distant destinations).  I think there's some UI improvement needed here.
   
• My rockets always say that I need to load cargo.  They say this even if there is no cargo module installed; I haven't totally figured out the new rocket system, but as far as I know, you need a cargo module in order to load cargo.
   
• The behavior of the Telescope is somewhat opaque to me.  Previously you constructed it and then it acted as a separate research tree.  Now, it revealed one destination and then said it was "complete".  I'm guessing I need to build more telescopes on more asteroids, but haven't tried this out.  I think a little more explanation of how to use it in the UI would go a long way here.
   
• Similarly: after landing the rover, I had to guess that maybe I could use it to build and dig by issuing commands the normal way.  There wasn't any indication from the game that this was possible or how to pilot it (it doesn't even have the "move here" button that dupes have).  I also correctly guessed that it was not possible to recover the rover, but I wasn't totally certain until I deployed it for real.  IMO, these are both important points and could be indicated in the UI (the first when clicking on the rover, for instance; the second in the description of the rover rocket module).

[proteantablet]

Addendum addendum: after spending a while fiddling around with the rocket, I'm able to keep a Duplicant alive on the way to the destination ... but not happy.  There isn't any way I could find to fit oxygen production, food storage, and a toilet on the rocket.  Food storage takes a 4x4 square (ration box), oxygen production needs another 4x4 square (for the manual generator) plus at least a 2x1 rectangle (for the battery), and another 2x1 for either an Oxygen Diffuser or a Sublimation Station.  Although looking at this again, maybe you can leave off the battery and just let the dupe spend the whole trip (when not eating / sleeping) on the hamster wheel?  At least they'd get some exercise...?

Also, another UI miss: I used a Trailblazer to land a duplicant on the surface.  I was planning to follow it up with a resource drop via the orbital cargo module, at which point I learned that you can't drop resources unless there's a duplicant on the ship.  I'm pretty sure the resources were also lost when the rocket returned (they were not in the module and weren't available to my colony), which seems like a bug to me.  The module was still attached to the rocket, it was just empty.  (although how the rocket piloted itself back without a duplicant ... I'm not sure, best not to ask?)     I feel like I should have gotten a warning that I had remaining landers on the ship that would be unable to launch ... although I'd be less annoyed if the cargo had remained to be sent back with another trip.

Oh, and the first night my duplicant spent on the new asteroid, the rover (with a dead battery) suddenly popped back into life and started doing work, even though its stats said it was dead.  Zombie robots -- creepy but useful!  At least it didn't still have the dead eyes; I'm not sure my poor duplicant could have taken that.

[Myrrhb]

On 12/14/2020 at 8:33 AM, proteantablet said:

• Similarly: after landing the rover, I had to guess that maybe I could use it to build and dig by issuing commands the normal way.  There wasn't any indication from the game that this was possible or how to pilot it (it doesn't even have the "move here" button that dupes have).  I also correctly guessed that it was not possible to recover the rover, but I wasn't totally certain until I deployed it for real.  IMO, these are both important points and could be indicated in the UI (the first when clicking on the rover, for instance; the second in the description of the rover rocket module)

This, so much. There is nothing to give any idea that the rover can do anything. I literally came here by googling to find out why i couldn't move the Rover and because there is zero explanation. Klei really needs to add tutorials, info cards and Database information for the DLC. Currently the Rover's Database entry is "Battery. Battery capacity: 180000J". Great, thanks, that really helps~!

[proteantablet]

I think I'm done with the DLC for now.  Fun concept, I'll check back in when it's a little more complete.

 

Some last comments:

• I haven't built one of the cargo attachments, but my understanding is that you build them next to the rocket, connect them to a cargo module, and then attach input/output pipes.  Discoverability was a little lacking here as well IMO; they're buried at the bottom of their respective menus and you have to read the fine print to figure out how to use them.  Given that (according to the in game text) they have to be built next to a rocket platform, maybe they should be built from its UI, same way that other rocket components are?  In fact, I think it might make sense to build them from the module that they connect to (solid/liquid/gas cargo).  Would be a nice bonus if you could highlight the legal building area.
   
• IMO: the trailblazer module should really have a small amount of cargo attached to it.  I wasn't able to establish a second colony because I had no[*] way to supply it with food (the biomes on the next available asteroid were almost completely lacking in readily accessible food, and the orbital drop module can't hold edibles).  Contrast this to the start of the game, which gives you a free box of packaged meal rations.  It's fine if the asteroid doesn't have food available, but I should be able to take some with me, and maybe send supply drops before I have all the rocket infrastructure working (my command module actually had a ration box with food in it -- why can't my duplicant just stuff its pockets full of food before embarking on the trailblazer??)
  
  [*] This is not an insurmountable problem (I could rush-build Meal Lice, ship eggs in an orbital drop container, rush build a printing pod and hope food comes through, or just starve one duplicant after another to build incremental stages of the colony until it's ready to be self sufficient).  But I don't believe that Klei wants it to be quite as annoying as it is.  There seems to be a missing piece here.
   
• The "solo" command module allowed me to assign two pilots.  The text seems to indicate that only one can fly at a time.  Seems like one of these things is wrong.

[rafaldrive]

Hi! Love the new content!

Few things to improve:
1. planets are too small
2. planets are also too focused on few types of biomes, more variety would be better. I get the idea of encouraging travel to other planets, but it's just a bit too firm.

Keep going, guys!