Chapter 5: The Long Lost Road to Science
Once again, I was greeted this morning with a sore back. I wasn't carrying much, but I was still carrying a lot of things I shouldn't be carrying while being asleep. Since I'm speaking about it now, I might as well get started to making that storage/
shipping container for my found junk. As a reminder, I looked up its ingredients on the tool.
shipping container
A relatively dull-green trunk made out of metal. Large, seemingly compact given its purpose, and capable of carrying a lot of weight before threatening to bottom out.
Durability: [||||||||||] [ 50/50 ]
It is closed. It is capable of holding 500 kilograms. It has room for 500 items.
Requirements for shipping container
* Requires inert metal x8 (9) -- 100% of project quality
Total complexity for this project: 15.0
A quick metal stuffing later, I have a somewhat decent container; however, my
consideration of it says so otherwise with a quality rating of nine (!). With completion of the shipping container, my datapad gave a beep. With a glance at it, I see that I've discovered a job related to shipping containers.
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[ job: box man ]
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make the boxes, then haul them
(progress: 1/5)
Awards 75 skillpoints
Repeatable 1 times
Available every 1 day
You could do this job right now!
Awards a trophy
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Where am I suppose to haul them though? I don't even have a lab to haul my discovered artifacts in! I can check to see how I'm going to make one. Obviously the basic tool isn't going to have the blueprint for a lab, so I look it upon to the datapad to show me which tool makes it.
laboratory is crafted with structure crafting tool.
Found 1 matches for laboratory.
And to make the structure crafting tool?
structure crafting tool
Boasting a single detachable structure drone, this tool is used to construct buildings and building components.
Durability: [||||||||||] [ 10/10 ]
Requirements for structure crafting tool
* Requires weak power emitter x1 (0) -- 40% of project quality
* Requires solid-phase metal x4 (0) -- 20% of project quality
* Requires inert casing x4 (0) -- 40% of project quality
Total complexity for this project: 15.0
Guess I'm going have to make a list on what to gather up. Obviously the solid-phase metal is the easiest thing to get considering I only have to find it. As for the others...
weak power emitter
A faintly glowing coil topped with a small control box, this device contains the energy equivalent of a small sun, but can only release an extremely tiny fraction of that energy at once. Massive, but not unlimited, energy stores are possible due to the self-sustaining low-output fusion reaction on a miniature scale that kretherson converters provide.
Quality: 0
Requirements for weak power emitter
* Requires inert metal x2 (1) -- 60% of project quality
* Requires any energy x5 (16) -- 40% of project quality
Total complexity for this project: 10.0
inert casing
A boxy case for a device or assembly made of some inert metal.
Quality: 0
Requirements for inert casing
* Requires inert metal x2 (1) -- 100% of project quality
Total complexity for this project: 8.0
Before leaving, I
labeled the
shipping container Junk and put all the junk I had in there. After
opening the
container, I put every junk and fish I had in there. Already that fish smell was going away. I thought about
selling the
container, but I have a feeling I'll need the container a bit longer in case I find more junk or junk artifacts. Besides, the whole thing was worth 390 credits and that's including the box.
I went outside and get to work on finding the materials for my
laboratory. I set each harvesting tool to gather the required material with a simple
configure command.
Harvesting the inert metals was the easy part when I have a source of it right outside my home. It's finding the solid-phase metal that could give me grief.
Up north from my home, there was a ranch along with a laboratory. Could there be a fellow scientist living near me? I take a quick note that there were pieces of ruined equipment scattered around the area around tiny pockmarks in the ground to myself before asking the question should I take some time to
explore here or head up to the mountains for the solid-phase metal?
The possibility of finding something from a rich area as this are too good to pass up. As I walked around here taking quick mental notes, I took this time to
read the last page
on the
handbookOnce a colonist has established his place after planetfall, he might want to communicate with the outside world, this is made simple and easy through the use of ever-advancing development subnet communications arrays, one of which is supplied to every colonist with their wristpad.
A colonist can communicate with the Central conversation net 'chatnet' through usage of the 'chat' command followed by the text that the colonist wishes to broadcast.
The chatzone channel can also be turned on and off through the usage of 'chatnet on/off' and recent message history can be viewed through the command 'chatnet history'.
Other conversation nets exist such as 'comedynet'.
If a colonist wishes to send a personal message to another colonist, he could use the 'page' command which has the syntax 'page <receiver's name>' followed by the text he wishes to broadcast to that colonist. Note that this will fail if that colonist does not exist or is offline.
Just as I reached the last sentence, a mossback strangler emerged from a moss patch. I wasted no time to
stop and
kill the
strangler. One slug
fire later, I resumed my exploration. Or at least I would if another didn't emerge right after I've killed that one. This one took two bullets, but my quick trigger finger saved me. The second strangler has two meats and a hide for me to have. With all of that quick firing, the rifle has been damaged slightly.
Before I finished exploring the area completely, I found a cracked battery pack. With a careful survey, I found a blueprint chip for a 16T-BL main battle tank. With my curiosity satisfied, I continued over to the mountains.
Remember what I said I was heading over to the mountains though? I ended up in a tundra.
Guess I'll try the desert. Just maybe there's solid-phase metals there. After passing though another tundra and a jungle with a scrapyard, I finally found an area with solid-phase metals. Originally I was going to get just enough, but I'm going to get more than that and put them all in a container. As I was returning back home, I ran into a sign. With a quick
look at the sign, I read it.
A sign, it might have useful information on it.
The sign reads: Here was the base of Wer6, before he moved. Hey Korvain, sorry I took everything, but I am living with someone..
While finding my way back, I made two more discoveries, more locked cases, and an obscure lumber that was classified as onifaxa. With that discovery, I was paid six hundred credits total and fifty skill points.
Still looking for my home, I encountered another interesting area with an abandoned stormy dorg jetcycle. I examined it without much delay, but there was nothing much I can do to it without a plasma torch.
abandoned stormy dorg jetcycle (aka abandoned, stormy, dorg, jetcycle, stormy, dorg, and jetcycle)
While it isn't immediately clear what exactly this twisted, mangled mockery of a vehicle was, it is however in enough large and arguably intact pieces to where salvage of some of them can even be deemed feasible. Perhaps you could invest in a recovery of some valuable parts?
1
Durability: [||||||| ] [ 67/100 ]
Obvious commands:
con*sider/app*raise abandoned stormy dorg jetcycle
See if you can learn details about this item.
drag abandoned stormy dorg jetcycle to <something>
DRAG this object in a direction, towards an exit, or into a vehicle or building.
[ It looks like you can retrieve items from this wreck with some sort of cutting tool, maybe a plasma torch? ]
Not too long after I discovered that, I found an indecipherable q-disk. My discovery? Another q-locked weapon case.
Another interesting area in a sunlit wood, and another area to explore. As I walked there, I walked into a fight between a clinging stinger and a ground-gawk. Within the area, there's two rec domes and a ruined 12T-LL transport truck. It's a shame I couldn't go in the truck to see if there's anything in it though. But not being able to find my home is getting annoying now. I should know it like the back of my hand.
I took this time to think after discovering a blueprint chip for a tactical feed module. After I took this time to think, I
traveled* back home. When I made it back home, I went to work on making the structure tool and the requirements to build a
laboratory.
laboratory
Durability: [||||||||||] [ 500/500 ]
Currently 0 occupants of a maximum 1.
Installed Modules: none. 100 module capacity remaining.
Requirements for laboratory
* Requires simple structure base x2 (0) -- 25% of project quality
* Requires inert beam x4 (0) -- 20% of project quality
* Requires inert siding x6 (0) -- 20% of project quality
* Requires structure power core x2 (0) -- 35% of project quality
Total complexity for this project: 55.0
*Note: After travel, you must put in a number. To see which number is which, just type travel to see an index of all the memorized locations. You will always memorize your home. I could take the time and make all the equipment I need to build it now, but all the traveling I did took the wind off of me. Yet, I was getting tired of carrying around locked cases.
I went to work on gathering the materials near me (seriously) to build the lab. First was the two simple structure bases which it was nothing but lumber and inert metal. The inert beam and siding are self explanatory of what I needed to make them, inert metals. The two structure power core will also take inert metals, energy, and a weak power emitter in which I need more inert metals.
All of the sudden, my little plot of home don't have enough to supply for the whole construction of the lab. While looking for more inert metals, I took this time to make any discoveries on areas that I've been already. I only made one though, a discovery of a different kind of native lumber
I lost track of time as I build the required materials for the building, but when it was all done and over, all I could do is look at it while receiving a confirmation of a seventy-five credit payment. I wasted no time to
lock the laboratory to make sure nobody else can enter. In it, there was only the research terminal, the only thing I would need to unlock the damn cases that has been mocking me. Speaking of cases, there's one more thing I need to do: make more shipping containers and last minute discoveries before starting on research.
I made two of those, a stimulant leaf called uqevomupu and a blueprint chip for a klobb machine pistol.
Making it back in the laboratory, I took careful time to
label everything container I found by four names: Junk , arti, tech, and weapon. When I finished, I went on and made my first artifact discovery.
Avery starts researching the q-locked weapon case using the research terminal.
Avery looks up from a research terminal triumphantly. His work on the q-locked weapon case has yielded a new product, a sonic projector!With this was another discovered job, the 'research associate' job.
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[ job: research associate ]
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Unravelled the mysteries surrounding a pre-human artifact.
(progress: 1/5)
Awards 75 skillpoints
Repeatable 10 times
Available every 4 hours
You could do this job right now!
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Before I could make research another artifact, my eyes became heavy. I leaned on the research terminal and fell asleep.
(I'm open to some suggestions. I know I will do some researching and finding more artifacts, but I don't know what else I can show/teach that is basic. Maybe I'll switch the point of view to some other alt to show more highlights.)