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[Dorsidwarf]

Is the server dead?

[Damiac]

How does one typically get started in this game?  I have a game going, where I build a simple little mining ship, and wanted to build myself a little base of operations.  However it seems I can only build on a planet?  The problem is, if I go a little ways away from my base, I have a hell of a hard time finding it again on that giant planet.  I saved the coordinates, but it doesn't give me any sort of marker to go to.

Is it possible to build a base out in space, without buying a space station?

Also, when mining, do you set up your salvage weapons in any particular configuration? I made an array of seperate salvage beams, and although they all fire, it seems like only 1 of them actually does anything.

The game also runs like garbage on my PC, but then, I have an integrated graphics card, so I'm surprised I can even run it at all.

[The13thRonin]

How does one typically get started in this game?  I have a game going, where I build a simple little mining ship, and wanted to build myself a little base of operations.  However it seems I can only build on a planet?  The problem is, if I go a little ways away from my base, I have a hell of a hard time finding it again on that giant planet.  I saved the coordinates, but it doesn't give me any sort of marker to go to.

Is it possible to build a base out in space, without buying a space station?

Also, when mining, do you set up your salvage weapons in any particular configuration? I made an array of seperate salvage beams, and although they all fire, it seems like only 1 of them actually does anything.

The game also runs like garbage on my PC, but then, I have an integrated graphics card, so I'm surprised I can even run it at all.

Ram the asteroids ancient Greek style to collect their juicy nougaty center!

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the destruction of your entire ship and the death of your space-pilot should you actually attempt this.

[Mech#4]

At least how it used to be when I played it; to create a space station you have to use a station control block or something similar. It's the same type of thing that's needed to create spaceships but for stations.

As for mining lasers; again how it used to be was if the mining blocks were next to each other at the top, bottom, left, or right, then it would combine the power of the lasers to fire one strong one. If you want to create multiple mining lasers all firing then you have to place them diagonally from each other, X pattern style.
Where O's are below.
OXO
XOX
OXO

[Eric Blank]

What you can do is set up in a derelict space station. Better if its not "decayed" but you can still use decayed ones as a place to set up a factory system. That's basically all you'd need it for, early game.

There's not much I can suggest for navigating on a planet except either learning the terrain, using cryptic marker posts, or dropping a core right there where you built your base, so you can just navigate back to the core.

[Damiac]

Drop a core? What do you mean, a ship core? I had a build block on the planet, which didn't seem to help much.

When you start a new game, what do you do first to get yourself set up?
What do you usually do as far as mining?
What are good intermediate goals to shoot for before I start trying to build ships to blow up pirates, and what not?

[Eric Blank]

I meant drop a ship core, yeah. You should be able to see it in your navigation tab/on the screen.

Building neat things probably shouldn't be an early goal. Your first goal should probably be to set up a permanent home base. You can do that on any planet or station by putting a faction module on it, creating a faction for yourself (under the options tab of the faction screen you can open by pressing 'h') and pressing r while looking at the faction block. Click on "enter faction signature", the radar signature should turn green and if selected as a target (with f) it will say your factions name after the name of the station/ship/planet. After that, enter the faction blocks menu again and select "make faction home" (it needs to be a station or planet; ships can't be your home base.)

Your faction home is indestructible under normal circumstances. Set up a room indoors where pirates or whatnot can't snipe you and you're good.

For early game I'd go about mining for a little while. If you press 'p' it will open the galaxy map, showing the sector you're in at the center. Use wasd+eq to navigate the selection around. Normally there would be at least one gold ring orbiting the star In the starting system, though it isn't guranteed; gold rings denote asteroid belts. You can mine asteroids, and sell what you got at a shop for quick cash.

Don't go on early game expeditions without a radar jammer, though, and have it activated at all times. Pirate ships will ignore you if you have a radar jammer on your ship, enabled, but turrets won't so watch out. Expect to die regularly. Remember that exiting a ship resets the radar jammer, so don't get out of the ship to use other objects if you're not absolutely sure its clear. Access them through build mode if they're on the ship.

Sorry, missed this; a good Intermediate goal would be to set up a defensive turret network around your home base. Since anything docked to a factions home base is indestructible, they don't need to be all that tough, just able to hit their targets and cause permanent damage. This might be completely unnecessary if pirates never attack, but then you can just pop the turrets off home base and put them on your assault craft when you're ready to go bust a station.

[Damiac]

Ah, so rocketing off into space immediately and settling on some random planet was maybe not the best way to start?  I don't even have a faction module...

I'm thinking maybe I should just start over, and try to settle near the starting shop this time. 

This seems like a cool game, but even after doing the tutorial I feel like I was thrown into the deep end...

[Eric Blank]

The tutorials are pretty crap as far as advice, yeah. Not sure when it was last updated. You can run back to the starting sector (should be 2,2,2) and trade for what you need there, then return. Or abandon your home and drag everything with you to a better location if need be.

Asteroid belts have the highest concentration of shops, too; search a nearby belt and see if there's a shop nearer you than the spawn sector shop.

Oh, also also; after setting up home base with a faction block, use that same block to set territorial control of the system; it grants you a mining bonus, so instead of 1x ore and crystal shards from a block that contains the. you'd get, uhh... 5x or something, can't remember.

Only works if you're mining with the salvage beams though.

[Damiac]

Wait... so how else do you mine besides salvage beams?

Well, maybe my question should be, how do you mine? Do you just have a bunch of mining cannons mounted in 1 clump for a powerful mining beam, or do you set them up in some kind of array?

[Eric Blank]

I use an array, set up as a checkerboard pattern. However, at the beginning you're probably going to be using just one array until you can purchase/manufacture enough salvage modules.

Later, I would build an array of 5m long salvage beams, and then put a second array behind it, so that the gaps in the first array are covered by the second. So if the first goes xoxox, the second is oxoxo. Fill the negative space in the checkerboard with cannon modules and slave the cannon computer to the salvage computer (press v on the salvage computer to highlight it and while highlighted, press c while looking at computers you want linked to it. You can also do it in the weapons menu (press 't' while in a ship) and link them by dragging and dropping the slave into the slot immediately to the right of the master computer) Im not sure if any other combinations are really useful for salvaging, but this way you can have a salvage beam that runs non-stop.

When i say it only works with salvage beams, I mean that you can enter build mode through a build block on a planet and remove the blocks through build mode, and you can also do it by hand with the astronaut's tools (by right clicking on a block until it disappears) But for each ore/crystal block you'd only be getting one unit of resources; it doesn't grant the bonus salvaging the planet surface does.

[LoSboccacc]

howe does warping trough sector black hole works now?

Last time I tried I got into one and exit another, only to be sucked back in and started just yoyoing between the two of them unable to escape their gravity pull - or something of that effect

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Wait... so how else do you mine besides salvage beams?

You could also use a block that is for mass construction on stations or planets.  You can use the advanced mode to make a large cube it acts over, then clear that out, and everything gets sent to your inventory.

[Eric Blank]

Apparently the way the game was changed, black holes spit you out at a sufficient velocity that you should be flung away from them, maybe into the next star system but hopefully nearby. Faster than the server speed limit, even. But if you activate your thrusters your speed gets reset to the server speed limit, and you'll have to fight your way out.

[Damiac]

That helps a lot, thank you.  I guess I probably should just start over.

Hmm, so combining salvage beams and cannons makes fast firing salvage beams, can you combine missiles and salvage beams to make salvage missiles, for large AOE mining?