Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

[G.E.C]

Watch out for Jawed Terrors and giant carps!

[BearytheBird]

Is it possible to make an underground base with actual lighting, or will I just have to use lamps everywhere?

[pisskop]

electric/gas powered engines will work.

The cheap way is to use a swapable battery on a frame and use its dome light. put a box on it and casters and there you go…

Gas powered engines are likely the better way to go, although with all this hype about Z-levels you may be able to create a topside solar area and keep your goodies charged

I havent played the xperimental but Im awfly tempted due to all the fun things Im hearing about evolution and zlevels. is it worth it? What should I set the evolution to to not get crapped on in the first 7 days? a 7 day grace period sounds fine.

[Random_dragon]

Is it possible to make an underground base with actual lighting, or will I just have to use lamps everywhere?

If you get your hands on some atomic lamps…that’s about your only option. Drop atomic lights everywhere, install them tastefully on vehicle frames…or if you’re using Vehicle Additions Pack, install mundane vehicle lights powered by a vortex generator.

[deknegt]

[quote=“pisskop, post:11783, topic:42”]electric/gas powered engines will work.

The cheap way is to use a swapable battery on a frame and use its dome light. put a box on it and casters and there you go…

Gas powered engines are likely the better way to go, although with all this hype about Z-levels you may be able to create a topside solar area and keep your goodies charged

I havent played the xperimental but Im awfly tempted due to all the fun things Im hearing about evolution and zlevels. is it worth it? What should I set the evolution to to not get crapped on in the first 7 days? a 7 day grace period sounds fine.[/quote]

One thing that always manages to get me in the experimental z-levels system is getting a massive jumpscare when your guy/gal/abomination hears something coming from a z-level down, which gives you quite a few yellow coloured markers out of nowhere, often right next to you too.

Or i’m just a wuss that’s easily scared…

Also, you can’t freeze-frame huge ass wolf spiders that were hiding the basement anymore, they’ll jsut follow you up ready to mess up your day.

[KliPeH]

So should I be canning food right now? It’s summer day 9. And also, do I need to either board up all my windows or put glass panes in them to preserve heat inside the house?

How long are your seasons? If you’re using the default 14(?) you’ve got plenty of time till winter. That means if you continously consume your resources without hunting/gathering more food and water you’ll run out of them by winter and be in the situation I’m in right now.

1. Generally you’d want to eat the perishable foods first, and leave boxed stuff for later (pasta, non-perishable meat, canned goods etc). Eat your vegetables / eggs / cheese / bread and try to make a non-perishable variant for your meat for later (aspic, meat jerky, smoked meat, sealed jars of meat).

2. Water is not a problem. Winter is when it rains the most - that means 3-4 funnels with gallon jugs under them will last quite a while and ALWAYS provide you with more water. Focus on food.

3. Warm clothes - when Autumn comes you’ll probably see if your regular setup is enough to warm you up. Obviously clothes that used to cool you off in summer won’t be enough, so it’s always good to keep a spare winter coat, a pair of winter boots, a wool scarf, gloves and warm pants. If you’re in a situation where you spend all Autumn feeling ‘Comfortable’ I think lining the clothes you used with wool/fur should do the job.

4. (Optional) Stock up on firewood. It really depends on what you want to do all winter, but if you wanna hole in and train some skills I suggest felling a couple of trees so they keep you warm and provide a source of light and the means to cook your food. Get yourself an axe and chop 2-3 trees down, that should be enough. A cart to carry all the wood is highly recommended.

Is it possible to make an underground base with actual lighting, or will I just have to use lamps everywhere?

TL;DR Create a light-rig underground (frame with a floodlight / headlight / aisles with light) and power it with storage batteries you charge via a generator above-ground.

Making a basic generator is quite easy.

[spoiler]What you’ll need:

Hacksaw
Wrench
Powered welder / makeshift welder / acetylene torch
Pair of welding goggles

Mechanics lvl. 2 / 4 / 6

x1-5 frame of any type - to install the components on. Depends on the number of panels and storage batteries you decide to install.
x1-9 solar panel - the more you install, the faster you’ll charge the batteries. Mine ran on 4 for the most part, recently I’ve installed 5 more, but that’s because I’ve got 3 batteries to charge.
x1-3 swappable storage battery case - the part you need to be able to swap and change between your storage batteries.
x1-3 storage battery - where you store power, also the part you swap between the generator and the rig.

Place the whole thing outside so it charges while it’s Clear/Sunny. You can either charge it solely on sunny weather (basic), or convert gasoline to power with an engine (and a gas tank), an alternator and a vehicle battery (more time and resource consuming).
The most basic generator would look like this:

###
0 0 0

– frame with solar panel

0 – frame with swappable storage battery (and its case)[/spoiler]

After your battery charges rem(o)ve it from the generator and install it inside the swappable storage case on your light-rig. All it takes is mechanics skill lvl 1. If you want to improve it add more rows with solar panels or replace the existing ones with their reinforced variant.

[deknegt]

Out of personal experience I can say that running an ordinary petrol/diesel engine works extremely well in a pinch when you don’t have solar panels.

In my save I got a V8 Diesel engine ~8L (7 fuel use) which can fully charge a truck battery in around half to 3/4 of a day, and use up less than 5% fuel doing so… I’m not sure if the game calculates whether an engine uses up more/less fuel whether it’s stationary or not, but you can certainly build your own fuel powered genny until you get your hands on solar panels.

Advantage of fuel is also that you can plop the entire rig down in the basement without having to ferry around batteries.
Disadvantage is resource costs, but if you’re near a town you’ll be able to just go out with a vehicle / shopping cart and just siphon vehicles for new fuel…

Personally I even built my own petrol powered V6 trike fitted with trunks and various tanks. That way I can fly through a town, siphon fuel, immediately store it inside one of the tanks (keeping the jerrycans empty for siphoning). On a decent run I get enough fuel to run my trike (on petrol), my to-be deathtruck (Diesel), and the light/fridge/kitchen rig inside my actual base (Diesel).

Seeing i’ve got enough wood and sheet metal, I might also set up a bunch of outside fuel tanks for storage, so that I can truly hoard fuel like a madman

[KliPeH]

In my save I got a V8 Diesel engine ~8L (7 fuel use) which can fully charge a truck battery in around half to 3/4 of a day, and use up less than 5% fuel doing so… I’m not sure if the game calculates whether an engine uses up more/less fuel whether it’s stationary or not, but you can certainly build your own fuel powered genny until you get your hands on solar panels.

~5% gasoline to power a truck battery? Huh. How much fuel would it take to fully charge 3 storage batteries, and how long would it take? I’ve got 9 panels charging 3 storage batteries, a car battery and a truck battery, and the whole thing charges about 1-2 percent each day (Autumn). The whole thing is at 34% right now.

Should I just waste the fuel to fully charge everything so I have enough power for winter? Should I remove the batteries so the storage batteries charge faster? The power thing isn’t very urgent, I just want to make my base into something comfortable quite soon.

[deknegt]

[quote=“deknegt, post:11787, topic:42”]In my save I got a V8 Diesel engine ~8L (7 fuel use) which can fully charge a truck battery in around half to 3/4 of a day, and use up less than 5% fuel doing so… I’m not sure if the game calculates whether an engine uses up more/less fuel whether it’s stationary or not, but you can certainly build your own fuel powered genny until you get your hands on solar panels.

~5% gasoline to power a truck battery? Huh. How much fuel would it take to fully charge 3 storage batteries, and how long would it take? I’ve got 9 panels charging 3 storage batteries, a car battery and a truck battery, and the whole thing charges about 1-2 percent each day (Autumn). The whole thing is at 34% right now.

Should I just waste the fuel to fully charge everything so I have enough power for winter? Should I remove the batteries so the storage batteries charge faster? The power thing isn’t very urgent, I just want to make my base into something comfortable quite soon.[/quote]

If your mechanic skill is high enough, it takes little time to just build a fully battery rig decked out with one big engine and a plethora of truck batteries to ‘fill up’… Swapping (truck) batteries in and out of a frame takes little time, although it might need a little torch action to install them again. (Hacksaw for removing).

It’s really what’s useful in your case. In the long run solar power is the best ‘generic’ power source since you only need clear/cloudy skies to get power… Diesel comes a close second because in the latest experimentals you can eventually craft bio-diesel (although it’s a very arduous process to get the ingredients).

Naturally if you can somehow find yourself nuclear power, you’re pretty much set for life. Or stuff like vortex generators if you got vehicle mods installed.

Like I said, a fuel based rig is a good set up until you can get your hands on a decent amount of solar panels to go fully sustainable. Fuel supplies tend to be common if you’re near(inside) towns/cities, and for the first winter you’re probably good on fuel…

It also helps level up mechanics, give you a good hands-on learning experience on how to build vehicles, and generally give you fun because building vehicles is awesome.

[sagethor]

Do solar panels work indoors / underneath a roof?

[Zireael]

Do solar panels work indoors / underneath a roof?

nope.

[KliPeH]

Does sitting on a chair/sofa/bed or being near a table affect crafting/reading time or focus gain/loss?

Or is the sole purpose of chairs and tables to add a “home”-ish feeling to houses and serve as a decent source for wood and nails? Surely reading sitting on a chair is nicer than standing, but maybe this wasn’t implemented yet.

[Random_dragon]

[quote=“KliPeH, post:11792, topic:42”]Does sitting on a chair/sofa/bed or being near a table affect crafting/reading time or focus gain/loss?

Or is the sole purpose of chairs and tables to add a “home”-ish feeling to houses and serve as a decent source for wood and nails? Surely reading sitting on a chair is nicer than standing, but maybe this wasn’t implemented yet.[/quote]

It’s mostly as something you can sleep on that’s less comfortable than a bed, but better than the floor. Chairs also can be dragged around easily, whereas beds can’t be moved.

[Iosyn]

You can always deconstruct them, of course. But then you need to sew the hundreds of rags back together into a quilt or sheet-- and crafting your own bed takes an annoying amount of construction skill.

[Azrad]

Do trees like pine trees grow back. Same question with flowers like dandelion.

Never mind on the dandelions. Seems like seeds can be crafted from the flowers.

[Malaxxor]

So, is there any way to make a hand-drawn plow/reaper/sower? Or do I absolutely need to drive whatever vehicle I build? I don’t even care if I need an engine and gasoline, but I would like to build a single tile plow, which I can then grab and pull around.

[Random_dragon]

So, is there any way to make a hand-drawn plow/reaper/sower? Or do I absolutely need to drive whatever vehicle I build? I don’t even care if I need an engine and gasoline, but I would like to build a single tile plow, which I can then grab and pull around.

Let’s see, since plows occupy the “under” spot, where wheels go…you can build single-tile vehicles, with say a solar panel, battery, and controls, and it should work.

[Azrad]

Tried dragging a plow, engine on, plows on. Doesn’t work. Using the plow seems to take some speed off a vehicle, as my three plow vehicle that had an electric motor did not accelerate when the plow was on. Adding a large electric motor gave it enough speed to move and work.

[Malaxxor]

[quote=“Malaxxor, post:11796, topic:42”]So, is there any way to make a hand-drawn plow/reaper/sower? Or do I absolutely need to drive whatever vehicle I build? I don’t even care if I need an engine and gasoline, but I would like to build a single tile plow, which I can then grab and pull around.

Let’s see, since plows occupy the “under” spot, where wheels go…you can build single-tile vehicles, with say a solar panel, battery, and controls, and it should work.[/quote]

Hm, that doesn’t seem to work, unfortunately. What I tried is a single tile vehicle consisting of the following:

Extra-light frame
Motorbike battery
0,66 1-cylinder engine
small gasoline tank
Plow
Vehicle controls

I can activate the plow, but when I drag the vehicle around, the plow doesn’t work, no matter if the engine is started or not. However, if I add another frame and put the controls, a wheelbarrow wheel and a seat there, it suddenly works, well as long as I’m driving the vehicle, I still can’t drag it around. When the engine’s turned on, as well as the plow and I try to drag it around, it doesn’t work, yet if I sit on the driver’s seat and steer from there, it works. For some reason or another, the vehicle requires me to sit in place.

[Random_dragon]

Ah, crap. I guess it has to be driven under its own power, not moved by grab-and-drag. Doh. ._.