Question about colony development and game physics

[on_off_player]

Is it possible to reach the surface of the meteor, having all the dupes healthy and happy, without building the base super-efficient but also super-ugly like? Also without useing the weird "horizontal gates and water insulating gas" thing.

[OxCD]

3 hours ago, on_off_player said:

Is it possible to reach the surface of the meteor, having all the dupes healthy and happy, without building the base super-efficient but also super-ugly like? 

Yes

3 hours ago, on_off_player said:

Also without useing the weird "horizontal gates and water insulating gas" thing.

I don't get what you're talking about 

[Sasza22]

You can easily build a base with all the dupes being healthy and happy and only after that go for the surface. The base doesn`t have to be optimized (my usually aren`t) there`s enough resources available so you can waste a lot and still be fine. You can take your time and make the base look pretty as well. There are multiple designs possible so you can make it look however you want.

5 hours ago, on_off_player said:

"horizontal gates and water insulating gas" thing

You mean the water locks right? It`s a semi exploity way of stacking liquids people use to not lose a miligram of gas to space. But you can just a regular mechanical airlock and you will be completely fine.  A small bit of gas will be lost to space each time dupes open the airlocks but it doesn`t matter as you can produce tons of oxygen easily.

[babba]

Healthy dupe = Not dead 

Happy dupe = Not dead 

Currently running 28 aquatuners ( took me 6000 cycles) and want to upgrade to 32 with a planned, dedicated 50k power cable for the aqua park. Dreaming of having one arbor tree seed, I want to make radbolt rockets in 2000 cycles. 

if you don't want to make water airlocks, then I can recommend Oil/Petroleum airlocks. You only need to wipe up fluids from the floors and empty them with bottles in to the door lock pit, it's easy and no magic. Oil/Petrolocks basically will survive any player accident scenario, as long you stay under 500 Celsius. 

Best is to have your dupes running through a fluid pit in suits, to protect them from heat.

You can build ladders to the surface top in the beginning, just make sure to vastly clog up the top exit, to prevent that all your Oxygen escapes in to space. 

If you rush to the surface top, make sure to build your colony base at the top too...to avoid co2 suffocation. If you play with 3 dupes, then the game is much easier than with 40 or 200.

You don't need to be efficient in the game, play how you like. As long you keep the dupes at 30 Celsius, have food and Oxygen for them...You can do whatever you like, just make sure that 1 dupe always survives. 

May the dupes be always with you, good luck @on_off_player  

[GuyPerfect]

1 hour ago, babba said:

Healthy dupe = Not dead 

Incorrect. Healthy dupe = not sick.

1 hour ago, babba said:

Happy dupe = Not dead 

Incorrect. Happy dupe = morale quota met.

Remember, some of us aren't emotionless slave drivers. (-:

__________

I think ultimately the OP is concerned about exploring the game's content without building an optimized resource chain or fiddling with weird mechanical exploits. The answer to both is yes: you can explore all of the game's features without establishing a sprawling infrastructure.

8 hours ago, on_off_player said:

Also without useing the weird "horizontal gates and water insulating gas" thing.

Mechanized Airlock is sufficient for 99% of gas-exchange situations, so you won't need to flood a passageway with liquid unless you're completely anal about nothing getting through uninvited. Just bear in mind that some gas will get through each time the door opens, so if you have something like Slimelung on the other side, you may want to reconsider how you approach it.

I recommend establishing an Atmo Suit Checkpoint as a threshold between your colony and the outside world. Atmo Suits allow Duplicants to travel far from the colony: it provides good protection from extreme temperatures and enables prolonged activity in low-breatheability environments. Once you've got a couple of those set up, you'll find the rest of the asteroid will quickly open up to you.

[on_off_player]

Thank you guyrs. I was watching tutorials for midgame development, and got really concerned because most of the videos are about exploiting video game physics. I was concerned.

[GuyPerfect]

YouTube is a place where people who are really familiar with the game like to plan big and make videos about it. A typical player won't be doing anything particularly intricate. As an example, this is what my latest game looks like at the start of cycle 65:

  

The most complicated part of this whole setup is the way I put a couple of Gas Pumps in a box with an Electrolyzer because I like to keep my resources in pipes. Don't let fancy-pants video creators dissuade you from taking your time and doing things your own way.

[babba]

7 hours ago, on_off_player said:

Thank you guyrs. I was watching tutorials for midgame development, and got really concerned because most of the videos are about exploiting video game physics. I was concerned.

Your welcome

I normally only watch a few chunks of a test review videos here and there, this enables me to get surprised by actual game content and games mechanics, as I play a game myself . A lot of ONI videos are performed in the sandbox editor anyway, as they need to make videos fast...to upload at least a video once per day in order to gain rank and video visibility on the video platforms.

The game editor is great ( and a kind of ONI game by itself ), but I promised myself to not start it anymore a few years ago...In order to enjoy the games survival mode I have no clue of exploits, it would ruin my personal game fun and enjoyment.

I have nearly dug out the entire map now, a thousand cycles or so and I will have got rid of the sour gas finally

Lots of food in stock

Aquatuner party, with air lock entry/exit ( made with bottle emptiers )

Last chunks to dig out, in my only colony

The basics in the base are nearly done, soon I can enter my mid-game age. Year 8000 - 16000.

[Omdev]

On 2/13/2022 at 10:54 AM, on_off_player said:

Is it possible to reach the surface of the meteor, having all the dupes healthy and happy, without building the base super-efficient but also super-ugly like? Also without useing the weird "horizontal gates and water insulating gas" thing.

Of course!

For example:
(193 cycle, two asteroids, 12 dups)

 

On 2/14/2022 at 2:34 AM, GuyPerfect said:

As an example, this is what my latest game looks like at the start of cycle 65

Sorry for the personal question, but you don't like stairs?

[Spoonwood]

On 2/13/2022 at 2:54 AM, on_off_player said:

Is it possible to reach the surface of the meteor, having all the dupes healthy and happy, without building the base super-efficient but also super-ugly like? Also without useing the weird "horizontal gates and water insulating gas" thing.

As others have mentioned, the answer to both question is 'yes'.

I will add though that in the base game there can exist a strategic reason to go to the surface pretty much as soon as one has abyssalite mining, a carbon dioxide pit, and a critter dropoff.  If you play for the carnivore achievement on Verdante, Aridio, and especially Arboria since it doesn't have any pacu, you get only one hatch and other sources of meat don't offer you much (things differ for those asteroids in the DLC since you have access to sweetles and may have access to the teleporter... also those other sources of meat *can* suffice, it's just sort of thin margins).  Also, the 100k map (it's a mod where most areas are 100 Kelvin) which is even worse since hatches will freeze early on pretty much, so you have literally no sustainable source of meat.  So, going to the surface to wrangle shove voles very early can make, since they can make for a sustainable meat source on any base game map.  They don't need fed, since if groomed, they will each lay one egg before they die if you have your rancher grooming them.  Oxygen masks probably would be good to research while doing this, though I'll add that many of us wrangled shove voles on the surface early on in a colony before oxygen masks existed in the base game. 

Another strategic reason to rush to space could be for heating purposes.  Or for a small bit of glass (the windows in the gravitas building are made of glass... they use to be made of steel).  The regolith that falls from the sky eventually becomes hot.  If one can transfer that regolith to a suitable room, it could get used to heat water and steam for steam turbines to run for a bit of power.  Or if playing a cold asteroid like Rime or the 100k map, such hot regolith could get used for other heating purposes.

That all said, your space program in the base game won't get off the ground early pretty much no matter what you do.  There's two big holdups:

1. It's a lot of morale points to get someone with the skill to fly a rocket.  It takes at least 51 cycles if I remember correctly (I might easily be wrong on that number).

2. The steam engine costs 2000 kg steel to make.  If I understand correctly, you'll also need a research module for 200 steel and a command capsule for 200 more steel.  Additionally, you'll likely want several research modules, so you basically want 3000-4000 steel for your early rockets.  Additionally, you probably need some steel shielding for at least your telescope, so realistically you might be looking at 5000 kg steel or more before you have a functioning space program.  It will take a while to get the lime for that using just eggshells, and it's probably better to dig out to fossil in the tide pool biomes or down to the oil biome and crush it for the lime (and the sedimentary rock you get also is good too). 

Additionally, steel (and iron, which is needed for steel) also costs a bunch of energy to make, and there exist setups where using crude oil or petroleum can be power positive for both making steel and iron in a metal refinery if cooling the crude oil or petroleum goes into a steam room below a steam turbine. If one uses water as coolant and dumps it on ice, or uses polluted water from a cool slush geyser as metal refinery coolant, neither of those are power positive (though they are simpler and quicker to setup).  Naptha can also get used as coolant, but it's not easy to obtain and it needs plastic to make.  And getting some plastic for a steam turbine takes time also.  If your planet has the irregular oil trait getting such coolant can be quicker, but oftentimes it's just best to take the time to dig down to the oil biome.  And digging down there becomes more efficient with atmosuits (and reduces scaldings, which might not be relevant if playing on Rime).  And atmosuits need some refined metal and reed fiber, and some power.

So, though it's possible to go to space early, unless playing a rocket speedrun, I wouldn't recommend rushing a spaceship program early.  I'd recommend having a good setup for steel production first.

In the DLC, yes, you can get a space program off the ground early.  You don't need any steel for a carbon dioxide engine or sugar engine for a rocket.  You can get some of the more advanced techs if you go to space early... if you can get some plastic early, and can get glossy dreckos early.  But even without that, some of the resources on your third planet might be more advantageous to have sooner rather than later.  So, in the DLC it definitely can get recommended to get one's rocket program up and running as soon as possible, even if it's not necessary or usually advantageous.

[GuyPerfect]

On 3/29/2022 at 2:13 AM, Omdev said:

Sorry for the personal question, but you don't like stairs?

I don't like ladders because the *deep breath* blessed occupants are obsessed with dropping stuff the femtosecond anything happens. By using tiles exclusively, the resources will always be that much closer to their destinations.