Any renewable raw metal source

[SpomJ]

We have plug slugs. They consume raw metal. So, we have:

Raw Metal -> Plug Slug -> Electricity.

Unlike what Rust deoxidizers do, raw metal isn't trash. And unlike electrolyzers, raw metal isn't renewable, even through vents. (It is, but only due space missions)

So, the solutions:

• Plant that produces raw metal (like this maybe)
• Critter, that has "metallic egg shells"
• Critter that excretes/drops raw metal (boring)
• Something, that converts refined metal back to raw (strange)
• Allow Plug Slugs eat refined metal (strange, doesn't really help with problem)

Also, there's a mod that allows using refined metal as raw, but I think it's only allowed as a temporal solution.

[pether]

I'd love to have Plug Slug morph that can enter Shearing Station to drop metal ores.

Anyway, agreed, there should be some source of food for them, and space missions come too late for that... I'd love to play with slugs a little more, but currently I cannot afford to feed them and that's a big shame

[SpomJ]

47 minutes ago, pether said:

I'd love to have Plug Slug morph that can enter Shearing Station to drop metal ores.

Breed dreckos and plug slugs? Since they have (barely) same behavior,... THAT'S WHAT I NEED.

[pether]

Maybe not cross-breed hem, but slugs are fluffy, they could enter the shearing station. Reed Fiber could break balance, but other resource could be nice there

[SpomJ]

4 hours ago, pether said:

Maybe not cross-breed hem, but slugs are fluffy, they could enter the shearing station. Reed Fiber could break balance, but other resource could be nice there

Rethought: since slugs produce static electricity using their fluffiness, shearing 'em could both disable wall climbing and reduce energy production.

[Gotheran]

This is a dilema i've noticed, specifically in conjunction with plug slugs, given their diet its awkward and mostly irrelivant to keep them as tame, and while some asteroid clusters have raw ore the majority of resources iirc is refined metals or liquid which just become refined metal anyway, permitting plugslugs to eat refined metal allows them to at least have food thats more renewable in the long run.
I had considered the idea of a space locked plant that has to be manufactured using Niobium or some other space-only material at a molecular forge, but given that plugslugs are the only critter that consumes ore that doesn't have a more valuable morph it seems a little overkill to have something that produces raw ore.

[Sasza22]

Let me plug... my slug thread:

So i`m running a colony on <50% plug slug power on the metalic cluster planetoid (the only one that has plug slugs in the cluster generation). Currently on hiatus due to some stuff but i got some free time now and i plan to play it a bit more. Atm it`s at around cycle 280 with 3 planetoids colonized and running only on slugs and hydrogen (mostly produced by the slugs as well) with a bit of help from hamster wheels.

My goal was to try how long can you go on with them slugs on the unrenewable ore. It doesn`t seem too bad. If you supplement your slug power with regular you should be able to survive until you can get mining rockets. I`m almost at that stage but some unlucky generation on the oil planetoid slowed me down.

I guess that`s not a sloution as that`s pretty expensive for just some ore but it is doable.

[SpomJ]

4 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

Let me plug... my slug thread:

So i`m running a colony on <50% plug slug power on the metalic cluster planetoid (the only one that has plug slugs in the cluster generation). Currently on hiatus due to some stuff but i got some free time now and i plan to play it a bit more. Atm it`s at around cycle 280 with 3 planetoids colonized and running only on slugs and hydrogen (mostly produced by the slugs as well) with a bit of help from hamster wheels.

My goal was to try how long can you go on with them slugs on the unrenewable ore. It doesn't seem too bad. If you supplement your slug power with regular you should be able to survive until you can get mining rockets. I`m almost at that stage but some unlucky generation on the oil planetoid slowed me down.

I guess that`s not a solution as that`s pretty expensive for just some ore but it is doable.

So maybe make a source just accessible on another (superconductive?) asteroid, that requires late-game period, but can grow on starting one?

[Gotheran]

4 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

Let me plug... my slug thread:

I don't think the issue so much is "are they worth it". if you find yourself in a planet with limited resources and options they seem like a good starting power source, but at some point they'd need to be phased out because Ore is so limited and you'll want as much of it as possible to convert to refined metal.

most other critters aren't as worth phasing out after so many cycles, hatches can be made into stone and fed igneous rock from a volcano tamer, or as sage hatches and fed some sort of extra food source your dupes aren't using. Pufts, as awkward as they are can be a cheap way to produce oxylite, slime, or bleachstone. pacu basically don't need to eat once you setup a breeder.

most critters and their morphs are more or less indefinitely sustainable without relying on rocketry and asteroid mining, you might need to setup interplanetary shipping for some things, either sending geyser outputs to your home base or relocating critters to the planet with the geyser that feeds them best and sending the products back home. But outside of care packages and the odd asteroid field that has ore instead of refined or liquid metal, its difficult to maintain a supply of ore for a critter that has no more sustainable morphs.

by the rocketry stage you've probably adopted a volcano tamer or even nuclear power and you may as well feed your ore to smooth hatches if you're fine with the 25% mass loss instead of running it through a refinery.

[Sasza22]

On 5/2/2022 at 6:02 PM, Gotheran said:

I don't think the issue so much is "are they worth it". if you find yourself in a planet with limited resources and options they seem like a good starting power source, but at some point they'd need to be phased out because Ore is so limited and you'll want as much of it as possible to convert to refined metal.

In this particular map generation i got 5 metal geysers so refined metal is not an issue. I guess i should try this challenge on a different map, it would be both harder as i wouldn`t get as much free refined metal and i could have less ore, on the other side i would probably have easier oil and i would be able to rush space mining faster (stuff to try in the future).

That particular challenge was more of a proof of concept that slugs can be used as the promary power source when pushed to the extreme. It also shows that the ore youg et form the map generation can last for a long time as long as you don`t spam mesh tiles everywhere. Also in Spaced Out you can rush to rockets pretty fast and get some nice lvl 4 research from the random databanks dropped by inspected items and analyzed geysers/artifacts.

That said i agree that limited ore outside space mining is an issue. I`d rather have volcanoes produce ore that requires further refinement than all that free metal.