The (Uranium) Spice must flow...

Aaron Smiley shared this feedback 4 years ago
Submitted

Okay first, I will say, mostly, I build ships in creative where this is not really a problem. Recently though I have started dabbling in solo survival. This problem I've noticed in multiple posts only after experiencing it first hand.

For several days, I have been looking for Uranium, gave up on planet sercing with my small rover and worked on getting into space once that was done, and finally haha!

I couldn't find it. <Cries Internally>

after three days, and knowing my luck is rotten, I have seen neither hide nor hair of even a patch of Uranium, even with using suggestions from others with this problem. I pass by asteroids slowly and use a mod to extend the ranges of my ore detector (350m for Small ones)

I will agree with what a lot of others say, pulling Uranium off of planets was a terrible idea, I find little reason to stay at my little base planet side (Only reason I don't abandon it is because no Uranium)

If the intention was to force people to rush to space, why bother with planets in the first place? and it also makes a space beginning much more advantageous over a planet start, throw a few solar on the starter ship and wonder around collecting ice for oxygen and looking for uranium, then plop down a small base right next door and become a economic Tyrant, and monopolize the market (pay us your arm and leg or you will never seen a gram of uranium trick) and control the entire system/Sector with the only Uranium powered ships, and consequentially missiles given they take uranium as well.

So rare Uranium in PvP makes those with uranium impossible to overcome with Solar/Hydrogen powered ships, in Survival, it make planets Meh at best and with the new economy update, it becomes a game of "He who controls the Spice, Controls the Universe" so I can see no situation were this new Uranium algorithm benefits the game, and may drive people away from Survival game play.


Possible solution: Back to the Past age of Uranium

Uranium:

Uranium is important for the larger ships, it the only economic/safe way to power a war ship, (PvPvE loses all interest when the opposition finds Uranium first) Solar is not only exposed but not very economic when powering a ship, and are obvious, Easy targets for guns to rip apart, now normally I power bases with wind/Solar, A Reactor is a very nice back up in case an attack comes around, but I seldom use it because Uranium was rare enough to get and it is painful to watch the already precious resource burn away with a more renewable resource available. (but now, why bother? Permanent Daylight in space anyone?)

Uranium needs to be rare in space, but not as rare as it is right now and we need it back on planets, almost just like it was, so maybe you get lucky and find some a few Km away or you may land somewhere that doesn't have any. that's where economy starts (Two people have Uranium with a third looking to buy, who undercuts who?)


Possible Fix 2: Reactor Maintenance/Critical Fail (For military members:Do your 3M! No gun-decking)

okay, don't want more Uranium ( People complain about "once you have Uranium your Energy Problems are over"), how about Self-damaging Reactors. Think about how much maintenance it requires to maintain a Nuclear Reactor currently, add more Reactor Components to the final stage of building, once the reactor starts these starts getting burned away, after a half hour a few are gone, an hour more are gone. suddenly we have a few people deciding "eh it will be fine." then as time withers on, the reactor becomes unstable, power grids fluctuate, (Systems randomly turn off?) and an eerie green flame starts escaping the reactor. Then suddenly alarms blare and you see the Nuke Tech running madly out of the engineering room and watch in horror as the reactor splits the Dreadnought in two (Mods for explosions exist, and is possible in reality) all because the Nuke Tech decided "why do today what can be done tomorrow?"

this way, it will be an expensive drain on resources (Maybe consider adding a new component for the Reactors which are more expensive to build) and not just in Uranium, we could also add Ice to fuel simulating a water turbine reactor, which is the principle current Nuclear Reactors use "hot Plutonium rod heats up water, steam turns a turbine which generate power. in the future we condensed it to a 3x3x3 area


Possible Solution: the power of the sun, in the palm of my hand

a new reactor, one that isn't a <cough> interesting thing to build like the Hydrogen Engine (It is slightly laughable, I may rant on that later and offer my own insights) bring back the Uranium how it was, reactors are the same, but add a new resource (We have the technology) and make the Fusion/Fission Reactor to harness the power of the sun, a massive particle accelerator (and I do mean huge, 6x6x3 maybe) but features twice (May be more?) the power, granted this new rare resource (Rare as in Uranium right now) could be secured. Makes reactors relevant again by not needing to hunt for several days for its fuel. but this massive power is now what we hunt for, the pinnacle of power generation, and with the Reactors behind us we can have real fights for the new and rare material.


Conclusion: Respectfully, give us the Uranium back!

this current problem is a pestilence that makes the game a grind and makes multiple problems, where only a few places are possible to base, none of them planets, economy would become a Dune game and PvP only possible in Creative. I think some of my solutions could add a new interesting way of game play. despite the possibilities I have presented could add a new feel in the game, it all starts with Uranium in greater quantity. To borrow a saying from another game.

The Spice must flow

Replies (9)

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Agreed ur is hard to find these days, some get lucky and stumble upon it, then mine the crap out of it ;)

But.... It is not then end , as on Planet (earth Like) you sell some stuff and buy some Ur/Pt (Expensive)

until you have enough to make a dash to space (take enough ice ) ice can be scarce as well.

I have played this game from the start when launched and my opinion is as follows...

Some changes were for the better and some leaves us wondering why go to space as at all (lately)... I can buy all i need on (earth) planet.

I accidentally switched of my Survival kit...so now i will never get back to my little paradise as wherever i spawn it is like 70 to 102 km away from base , :) wish there was a function to reverse this , hehe...

So my only gripe really is when you loose a med-bay or survival kit you will not be able to spawn close to your base ever again.

If you switch the survival kit off to go help a friend at his base by spawning at his kit, you are doomed as you can't get back 3400 km ! without admin or a good friend. (what to do ?) how can Keen fix this ?

About the uranium clan's ...yes it's a bit nasty ...

The traders on earth Planet ....some have ships to sell , i have seen , but have not found one yet, only ores etc,,, to buy.. and sell ores etc.

Annoying thing i found is i can fill my ship with hydrogen but not my bottle, even if i select (character)..

but even then you can buy (deducts SC) but you cant fill any bottles.

............................................................

So the cure for multiplayer is buy what you need buy trading, it accumulates fast.... and after all i don't need 500 ur for my little wagon, as h2 and ur combined takes me where i need to go....

The grind to get to a small station is killing me, so sort of slacked of on space engineers, knowing they wont change it, you have to mine stone and struggle,, unless you are lucky and get accepted by a huge clan (not)

for Solo play get ready for a few days of nothing, unless you spend like 4 to 6 hrs a day on SE.

Been there done that. 1000 hours +

BoSSie

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Just got done looking for uranium an moons and in asteroids (creative mode with very maneuverable LG ore detector at max setting). Found none, gave up.

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Why limit how we play the game in survival?? Make it rare, deep in planets, or give us another way of tracking in asteroids with a long range Geiger counter or something like that. Spending hours on end flying by asteroid by asteroid is just stupid. Give us some X-ray telescopic scanner maybe.

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I used to think Hydrogen Power was weak. Now i think everything is pretty balanced. I'm not a troll, however i think wind power + solar power + hydrogen power + uranium power are currently balanced as is.


A good engineer will work within the parameters & constraints set by the game, to find solutions for his problems!

I play on official keen servers and i have to say i searched for uranium pretty late. Not because i needed it, but because i required an alternative if my hydrogen tanks exploded. I still run my mini station on hydrogen-tank + batteries.


5 solar panels in good conditions produce roughly 750 kw. An h2/o2 generator needs 500 kw. I used solar power to produce hydrogen. After i connected the hydrogen engine to the tank, 5mw of power were at my disposal, but that was not enough so i connected 3 more engines. Now i have 20mw of power. 5 more mw than a small reactor provides. I'm currently doing ok.

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Triton having uranium gave me hope. Finally!!! A reliable place to go when looking for the stuff.


Now its been hot-fixed out. *sad space engineer noises*

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Gotta agree there!!!!!!!!!!

if they had Triton as the Only Uranium Planet it would've been Great!!!

Uranium Needs to be kept cold anyway to be in a stable form.

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Its not that rare. I have scanned several hundreds of asteroids and could find uranium always.


If the game is too easy there is no economy, no trading and people get bored fast. There is a meaining when you find something rare and people want to fight to get, give something for trading etc.


Dont make the game too easy. Its alreay is way too easy imho.

I can build a jump drive ship in less then two days from scratch on every vanilla server, so whats the point in playing that game ?

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the point is not everybody knows the game and have 2000+hours.... but... lately Ur are found more plentyfull in space, so thanks too the Devs!

I see quite a number of new players on our servers and they seem to enjoy SE , that goes for the Vet's as well. once again tks DEVs, thumbs up!

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What I don't get about removing uranium from planets is it is a move away from realism. After all, why would planets (really just ultra huge rocks in space as opposed to moons - smaller rocks in space - and asteroids - really small rocks in space) not have any uranium when moons and asteroids do? I can get the scarcity angle, or better yet bury the deposits deep, but no uranium at all? Our universe just isn't put together that way.

Please, put uranium back on planets. And, dial up the probability just a tad.

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A lot of the reason that they pulled Uranium off of planets was as a low-effort method of introducing a form of progression. And it does function as progression, even if it's not really all that realistic or fun to play with. They want you to go to space for the more effective blocks, instead of having everything you need without leaving the atmosphere.

Uranium in space really isn't as rare as you make it out to be. You find a vein, mine it, and spend roughly half an hour raking in the dough until everyone finds their own. Or, more likely, leaves for deep space to avoid getting offline raided. It's essential for serious combat ships, but you'll generally find uranium during the search for assembler-tier component resources. Part of the problem with the Economy update is that it's almost always easier to make something yourself than buy it from someone else, and this is no exception.

Your first solution essentially reverses both gameplay addition and problem created by it. Not that it's bad, but I think Keen is trying to go in the direction of "explore to find new resources and get new tech", and putting uranium back on planets is a step backwards from their PoV.

I'd love it if there were more infrastructure required around reactors. While they were originally used as a token block that emitted power, having coolant and turbine could make the power systems actually interesting. I would say something about multi-crewed ships, shutting off reactors, and mid-fight repairs, but my brain is refusing to put them into a coherent sentence right now.. I'm sure you get the idea though.

Fusion reactors are also a pretty great idea. When I heard about the Hydrogen engine, I thought they'd actually make another tier of power (maybe even with resource placement that builds on planet -> space progression). I feel like it was a massive missed opportunity for them to make something that is reasonable, realistic, and useful (pretty rare to get all three, in SE) instead of whatever that thing is.

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taking away uranium off planets it good, its a very small challenge to move on.

If you have everything around your first base there is no reason to do anything else. Thats simple and boring.

I would go even more steps and move gold and silver to moons and asteroids but uranium only on alien planet or other planet with very high gravity.

Also jetpacks should be nerfed on planets. Its pretty much unrealistic to fly with tons of steel in your backback and feel no weight.

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While I understand removing uranium from planets/moons, but removing it from asteroids as well I do not understand as much. Not saying they removed all of it from the asteroids, but they removed most of it, by the looks of it. I still have yet to find a viable source of it since the colossal nerf.

Also, uranium is not just the most powerful fuel in SE. It is an ingredient for rocket ammo.

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