Whats the use for some very late game materials?

[SharraShimada]

So, we build everything to get into space, finally have a launch site, build a rocket, research the last 6 fields to get even further into space, and in return, we get some "spacey" materials like niobium and fullerene to make thermium and super coolant.

 

Sure, i see the benefits for those materials in heavy industries and such, but i wonder whats the real use for it, in a state of the game, we already build everything to even get to this point?

I already build my whole industry to make steel, plastic and so on. Of course, because without it, i would never enter space at all. 

So, everything is already running. Heat is not the problem at all, and everything runs really smooth (in terms of gameplay, not in terms of FPS). 

What need do i have for supercoolant or 900°C-metal? 

Currently the hotspots, in terms of heat, are my 2 launch sites, when a rocket starts/lands. Yes it gets hot. For a few seconds, and then it goes down to 300°C and cools down to ~200°C really fast. In a worst case scenario, some of my steel-buildings get a little bit overheated, which cost me ~50kg of steel ro repair them, before they cool down below overheating temp, an thats it. 

At this point i have excess steel, because i dont need it that much anymore. 

 

So im curious, what do you use super coolant and thermium for, what you can´t achieve with common materials, and already have done so?

[Zarquan]

They have better physical characteristics than any other materials in the game for different purposes.  Here are a few examples of uses:

One thing you can't do easily without space stuff is make liquid hydrogen for rockets, but you can fairly easily with supercoolant. 

Supercoolant is also useful as a general purpose coolant or heat transfer exchanger medium, as it has higher thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity.  It makes your aquatuners more powerful. 

Thermium can be used to put pumps in rooms like an oil boiler, which usually hang around 500 C.

[mathmanican]

1 hour ago, SharraShimada said:

So im curious, what do you use super coolant and thermium for, what you can´t achieve with common materials, and already have done so?

Maybe we'll finally be able to build the batteries like the forum pictures show. Then we can finally build the satellite base we've been neglecting because we don't want to run a wire to it, nor put up a new power plant. 

I'm with you on a missing point to the space race stuff. I sometimes have similar questions about all the stuff you get from the ruins in Don't Starve. The stuff is fun and all, but you can do everything without the upgraded items just as well. It's already a similar game play mechanic that Klei has tried and proven successful. Some people will love the space materials, and other will enjoy the game till they get nice sustainable bases - without ever going into space. 

[Iriswaters]

It is a bit funky having the great materials arrive at the point where you have no structured goals left to achieve.  Though you can always make your own goals, and a lot of the fun of the game is setting your own goals, having the external ones be there makes them feel more 'real' than ones you set yourself.

Thermium, supercoolant and insulation have a LOT of uses in advanced automation.  There are a bunch of things that become a ton easier once you have them.   Like cooking sour gas and playing with steam engines and such.   Along with producing LOH, though the main use of LOH is getting into/further out into space.  

Space provides a bunch of options for pushing your existing resources further, allowing for more long term sustainability, and larger numbers of dupes.  It is nifty if you are interested in paying around with really wild and wooly experiments.  But it all does kind of come too late to be as useful as it could be.

Shrug.

[Lancar]

If i were to hazard a guess, the space materials will probably at some point tie into machinery enabling us to finish the game by piercing that forcefield in the trailer. I'd wager that Klei is keeping that part to themselves until they're done polishing the main gameplay and preparing for the release version and end early access.

[Sasza22]

The space materials can be useful in improving rockets. You can get some super coolant using the steam rocket and use it to get LOX and LH for more advanced rockets. But why more advanced rockets? Gassy Moos? More advanced materials? The end game is still not there so maybe we will get another goal.

For now you can just overload on wheezeworts and work on advanced stuff like an oil cooker, sour gas condenser with some steam turbines along the way. Along with some visco locks to make it cleaner. This might lead you to full sustainability for infinite cycles.

[SkunkMaster]

Right now you can farm other stuff, like magma, and the gas giants have pure rare materials, allowing you to bring full storage containers of niobium or fullerene. - just to give a few examples.

 

For me the point is to build a even bigger base ? Even more dupes doing even more different work, having even more machinery running. And maybe a reason for klei to finally give us conductive heavi watt wire that can handle 40kw ? - who knows

 

 

 

[Nitroturtle]

16 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

The space materials can be useful in improving rockets. You can get some super coolant using the steam rocket and use it to get LOX and LH for more advanced rockets. But why more advanced rockets? Gassy Moos? More advanced materials? The end game is still not there so maybe we will get another goal.

For now you can just overload on wheezeworts and work on advanced stuff like an oil cooker, sour gas condenser with some steam turbines along the way. Along with some visco locks to make it cleaner. This might lead you to full sustainability for infinite cycles.

As someone who has actually setup a successful Gassy Moo farm, I'll add that they are laughably useless currently.  It's a significant amount of effort to get it setup in the first place, and there's no way it's actually worth the effort.  I had a full stable running through 3 sets of Moo's (since you have to retrieve new ones each time) and ended up just scrapping the whole thing.

I agree with the posts here, the end game is kinda pointless at the moment.  I scrapped my stable, built a huge 4 rocket silo with full cooling and everything.  Then I just ended up getting bored and stopped playing that game.  I have no need for anything from space.  The missions take far too long and the rewards are so small in comparison to the effort and materials spent farming.  By the time you're able to setup a full farm operation, you have no need for any of the things you can farm.  I do hope they add more to the end game.

[Lurve]

One of the things I like about Klei games is they tend to have very deep gameplay.  It takes more effort to build a rocket in this game than most people are willing to put in.  Yet it's there, and probably just a stepping stone to some other late-late-game system.  In Don't Starve, I've yet to make it through adventure mode.  I always make some stupid mistake beforehand.  Yet I'm glad it's there.  Too many other games crap out at that point, relying on mods or multiplayer to actually make use of the game you're only just now good at.

[ruhrohraggy]

Seems to me right now, that the space materials themselves are the end-goal, and they are not currently needed to reach any further goals. (Other than get to the furthest object in space)

After that, you gotta set your own goals to stay entertained. Clear the whole map? Fully automate all aspects of storage, food, and power? See how many dupes you can pack in there, or how many rockets you can get going at once.

I find building and optimizing systems a pretty enjoyable experience, and my time to launching rockets keeps getting better and better each time.

But yeah, sometimes Klei seem a bit tightfisted with rewarding players for their efforts. Not all of us are masochists...

 

[Nitroturtle]

One thing I'd like to add to my comment above regarding being bored at the end game, is that I'm far from bored with the game in general.  I'm sure others share my thoughts on this, but I fully enjoy starting new bases and working through everything to get them sustainable and launching rockets into space.

I know I'm not the first to mention this idea, and it's not the first time I've personally posted about it either, but I'd REALLY love it if we were able to land on other planets and build additional bases.  This would incorporate the whole restarting thing, while allowing us to take advantage of the gains we've had in our existing base.  They could even alter the mapgen based on the planet types.  Imagine being able to land dupes on a magma planet and build a mini-base using all the new space materials.  I feel his would truely be an end game that could keep me playing the same map for months.

[ChickenMadness]

13 hours ago, Nitroturtle said:

As someone who has actually setup a successful Gassy Moo farm, I'll add that they are laughably useless currently.  It's a significant amount of effort to get it setup in the first place, and there's no way it's actually worth the effort.  I had a full stable running through 3 sets of Moo's (since you have to retrieve new ones each time) and ended up just scrapping the whole thing.

I agree with the posts here, the end game is kinda pointless at the moment.  I scrapped my stable, built a huge 4 rocket silo with full cooling and everything.  Then I just ended up getting bored and stopped playing that game.  I have no need for anything from space.  The missions take far too long and the rewards are so small in comparison to the effort and materials spent farming.  By the time you're able to setup a full farm operation, you have no need for any of the things you can farm.  I do hope they add more to the end game.

I've started playing with sandbox on so I can cap off space at cycle 1 and forget about it. Normally I'd spend 100 cycles building the space wall to protect the biome and then ignore space and carry on building what I want.

It is very annoying how they force you to focus all your efforts on space and protecting the asteroid from comets (comets start attacking you from cycle 1). But then there isn't much you can get from space anyway.

6 hours ago, Nitroturtle said:

One thing I'd like to add to my comment above regarding being bored at the end game, is that I'm far from bored with the game in general.  I'm sure others share my thoughts on this, but I fully enjoy starting new bases and working through everything to get them sustainable and launching rockets into space.

I know I'm not the first to mention this idea, and it's not the first time I've personally posted about it either, but I'd REALLY love it if we were able to land on other planets and build additional bases.  This would incorporate the whole restarting thing, while allowing us to take advantage of the gains we've had in our existing base.  They could even alter the mapgen based on the planet types.  Imagine being able to land dupes on a magma planet and build a mini-base using all the new space materials.  I feel his would truely be an end game that could keep me playing the same map for months.

This is everyone's dream. Would give the game infinite replayability.

Can easily be achieved without lag by putting a loading screen between the 2 colonies and pausing which ever ones you're not working on. 

Like a save / load.

[Nitroturtle]

1 hour ago, ChickenMadness said:

I've started playing with sandbox on so I can cap off space at cycle 1 and forget about it. Normally I'd spend 100 cycles building the space wall to protect the biome and then ignore space and carry on building what I want.

It is very annoying how they force you to focus all your efforts on space and protecting the asteroid from comets (comets start attacking you from cycle 1). But then there isn't much you can get from space anyway.

I feel like they don't intend for it to be a race, or at least I hope that's the case.  The last set of changes with reducing regolith and the addition of shovel voles certainly helped.  Making it so meteor showers don't start until the surface is breached would make it perfect in my opinion. 

2 hours ago, ChickenMadness said:

This is everyone's dream. Would give the game infinite replayability.

Can easily be achieved without lag by putting a loading screen between the 2 colonies and pausing which ever ones you're not working on. 

Like a save / load.

Honestly, I'd be perfectly happy with that type of implementation.