Gathering and crafting
DrownedOut
Habitat Join Date: 2016-05-26 Member: 217559Members
Habitat Join Date: 2016-05-26 Member: 217559Members
Cutting this one out of a larger feedback post too for all the same reasons I did the Cyclops feedback. Plus that the topic kinda speedily landed on copper anyway. Again, community commentary appreciated.
I’ve not been happy with several developments regarding recipes and materials since the compass got changed from needing magnetite to copper wire, so I’ll have sat out the give-it-a-chance period. I get most of it as being to ease up on gathering and crafting, like how copper wire is acquired earlier than magnetite, but that’s just it. I like gathering and crafting and a lot of the changes are for people who view it as a means to an end, if not a grind. The result is that the game now communicates that it itself views gathering and crafting as a grind. I can hardly be expected to enjoy a gameplay aspect I’m told not to.
What makes gathering and crafting fun to me are factors like variety, coherence, a minimum use for all ingredients, a balanced availability of ingredients, logical use of the available ingredients, no 1-to-1 recipes because those feel pointless (unless it’s food), no freebies because those feel like exploits, no recipes that give more than one item because that’s part freebie part against my control (unless the multitude is essential to the item’s functionality, like pipes or torpedoes), and no effort feeling like a waste. In that light, the following displease me:
As for the new computer chip recipe, I dislike it because it’s a less fun recipe, because it only worsens gathering, and there’s probably that I’ve sat through every iteration of the silver problem and I’m… tired of how it doesn’t get solved and how there’s no explanation for any of it. At this point I’m going to have to assume silver shot someone and gold donated a kidney to explain the reluctance to amend the discrepancy.
I remember when sandstone was easily found in the GP. Then that was changed to less than one per plateau right during the Power Nap & PRAWN updates, which significantly increased the need for chips. That’s when silver became a struggle, with a side dish of quartz (and that table coral bug still in effect). A related complaint was the overabundance of gold. There were requests to prioritize making sandstone distinguishable, requests to add sandstone to the “walls” of the GP, requests to change the gold:silver ratio in sandstone , requests to have other outcrops hold silver, and of those there was an awkward attempt at changing the ratio, we got a handful of (moving!) barnacles, while sandstone didn’t get a separate appearance until silver was sidelined. Meanwhile, only good place to get drillable silver is reaper territory, which is like a megaphone message you’re not actually supposed to ever bother with it. (No offense to the people who in the other thread argued UWE wants copper to be locked behind drilling but I’ve heard that exact argument before with silver and look where we are! Fool me once, won’t fool me twice.)
Why was improving the silver distribution an objection, when to this day shale’s a laugh because it only houses materials I can get easier elsewhere if it means avoiding gold? Why does gold need to be in, let alone main, three geo-outcrops? Why does the adv. wiring kit need to be three pieces of gold rather than a nice balance of materials? I’d’ve much, much, much rather that the wiring kit recipe got changed from two silver to silver + gold, because that makes sense in relation to the (old) adv. wiring kit recipe and works perfectly with sandstone. And then there’s how the removal of quartz from the recipe does nothing to solve its shortage, while the addition of copper wire big time reduces the ability to get low tech like signs, picture frames, and signals and worsens lead acquisition while, as said before, the nuclear reactor just got a whole lot less worthwhile. Sea treaders are no solution because I already was visiting them regularly before because, y’know, signs and picture frames. I like visiting them, but not this forced.
So, here’s a list of considerations towards a more balanced gathering that should mean crafting doesn’t have to be compromised.
I'm well-aware UWE's on a tight deadline and that almost nothing of this would be a wise investment before V1.0 and that anything after V1.0 is a maybe at best. But it can't hurt to vocalize a point of irritation and, well, see how others feel.
I’ve not been happy with several developments regarding recipes and materials since the compass got changed from needing magnetite to copper wire, so I’ll have sat out the give-it-a-chance period. I get most of it as being to ease up on gathering and crafting, like how copper wire is acquired earlier than magnetite, but that’s just it. I like gathering and crafting and a lot of the changes are for people who view it as a means to an end, if not a grind. The result is that the game now communicates that it itself views gathering and crafting as a grind. I can hardly be expected to enjoy a gameplay aspect I’m told not to.
What makes gathering and crafting fun to me are factors like variety, coherence, a minimum use for all ingredients, a balanced availability of ingredients, logical use of the available ingredients, no 1-to-1 recipes because those feel pointless (unless it’s food), no freebies because those feel like exploits, no recipes that give more than one item because that’s part freebie part against my control (unless the multitude is essential to the item’s functionality, like pipes or torpedoes), and no effort feeling like a waste. In that light, the following displease me:
- The compass recipe change from magnetite to copper wire.
- Never been a fan of using a bladderfish for the air bladder. It’s an obvious leftover from a fauna-centric crafting system and doesn’t fit the current one. How about a brain coral sample instead?
- The reduction of mercury in the world instead of more uses for it. I’m surprised it’s still not part of the thermometer and some other temp-related builds. What with my loathing for tech overreliance on computer chips, the removal of nanowires also seems a poor choice as it could help lighten up the pile-on on the other tech pieces.
- The computer chip recipe change is for in a moment, as this entry is for the over-need for computer chips. I reckon several recipes are placeholders, but, like, why’s the grappling arm two adv. wiring kits + one titanium? It doesn’t even compute the target distance and the rope must be make-believe! Wouldn’t the dive reel, two benzene, and maybe a wiring kit make more sense? The chip’s an equally “just there” ingredient in the torpedo systems, chargers, scanner modules, and energy efficiency/gain modules. Not bad per se, just overdone. The repulsion cannon being a propulsion cannon (which already has an adv. wiring kit) + chip is a disappointing recipe, while the MK2 and MK3 recipes being identical and adding up to three chips is both boring and frustrating. A separate adv. computer chip would make me more tolerant to such a role in an upgrade, while the aforementioned nanowires seem like a more fitting repulsion cannon ingredient to me.
- Why does the Cyclops shield require a power cell?
- I’ve tried enjoying ion batteries and ion cells as they are, but I just “can’t”. The fact I’m basically to throw away all my old stuff, of which one already has all one needs by the time one reaches the PTPG, while being put on an additional copper hunt is the definition of demotivating. As a result, I never make them. If nothing else, I’d like ion batteries and ion cells to be the one recipe you can both make in the fabricator and upgrade from regular batteries and cells in the mod station.
- Removing uranium was a good change because, yeah, it was a pointless step (and I can’t think of more uses for uranium either). And so I thought this’d make the nuclear reactor a bit more viable. Who’s idea was it to add glass to the rod recipe and ensure I’ll not look at it again?
- I don’t like the changes to the rubber recipe and the lubricant recipe. I get there’s a conflict between the seed’s size and collecting effort, but one seed for one lubricant? That’s a boring, superfluous recipe. EDIT: Can’t it at least be two? (In which case, I abs wouldn’t mind seeing benzene reduced to two blood oils. Never liked my creepvines gave me one short of enough for two benzene.) Same for rubber, although there I’d be more interested in seeing another ingredient added. Two rubbers per fabrication annoys me as it’s not crucial to rubber’s use, but I wouldn’t mind as much if the recipe became one seed + two veined nettle. It’s got no use at present anyway.
- I reckon several are placeholders, but furniture recipes could do with some variety. If nothing else, lead for the waste disposal and fiber mesh for beds would help. Also would like another ingredient in vortex torpedoes the way gas torpedoes have. Salt'd be acceptable.
As for the new computer chip recipe, I dislike it because it’s a less fun recipe, because it only worsens gathering, and there’s probably that I’ve sat through every iteration of the silver problem and I’m… tired of how it doesn’t get solved and how there’s no explanation for any of it. At this point I’m going to have to assume silver shot someone and gold donated a kidney to explain the reluctance to amend the discrepancy.
I remember when sandstone was easily found in the GP. Then that was changed to less than one per plateau right during the Power Nap & PRAWN updates, which significantly increased the need for chips. That’s when silver became a struggle, with a side dish of quartz (and that table coral bug still in effect). A related complaint was the overabundance of gold. There were requests to prioritize making sandstone distinguishable, requests to add sandstone to the “walls” of the GP, requests to change the gold:silver ratio in sandstone , requests to have other outcrops hold silver, and of those there was an awkward attempt at changing the ratio, we got a handful of (moving!) barnacles, while sandstone didn’t get a separate appearance until silver was sidelined. Meanwhile, only good place to get drillable silver is reaper territory, which is like a megaphone message you’re not actually supposed to ever bother with it. (No offense to the people who in the other thread argued UWE wants copper to be locked behind drilling but I’ve heard that exact argument before with silver and look where we are! Fool me once, won’t fool me twice.)
Why was improving the silver distribution an objection, when to this day shale’s a laugh because it only houses materials I can get easier elsewhere if it means avoiding gold? Why does gold need to be in, let alone main, three geo-outcrops? Why does the adv. wiring kit need to be three pieces of gold rather than a nice balance of materials? I’d’ve much, much, much rather that the wiring kit recipe got changed from two silver to silver + gold, because that makes sense in relation to the (old) adv. wiring kit recipe and works perfectly with sandstone. And then there’s how the removal of quartz from the recipe does nothing to solve its shortage, while the addition of copper wire big time reduces the ability to get low tech like signs, picture frames, and signals and worsens lead acquisition while, as said before, the nuclear reactor just got a whole lot less worthwhile. Sea treaders are no solution because I already was visiting them regularly before because, y’know, signs and picture frames. I like visiting them, but not this forced.
So, here’s a list of considerations towards a more balanced gathering that should mean crafting doesn’t have to be compromised.
- It’s been argued for lead to be removed from limestone, but you need lead to get started. What you don’t need to get started is limestone’s titanium. I’ve twice played keeping limestone busting to a minimum (no beacons, signs, or picture frames, and only two batteries before looting the rest) and I know for a fact that it is not missed. Scrap metal and double scans are superior titanium sources. Without drilling or coming close to clearing the map, it’s easy to gather enough for three roomy bases, a Cyclops, and still a basement overflowing. There should still be an outcrop spitting titanium, but that can be, like, shale, creating room in limestone for whatever else, like silver.
- As an aside, how about if cut-open doors would qualify as scrap metal too? If I go through the trouble of opening a door and nothing is on the other side, at least I'll have more titanium. Besides, that disk sometimes gets a little in the way.
- Quartz can’t remain a core building material with how hard it is to acquire in sufficient amounts. Compare titanium, which has scrap metal and scans to back up the natural supply. It seems logical to me that similar gestures should exist for, if not quartz, then glass. If there’d be crates like those holding handheld fragments that instead hold one or two shards and if shards can be found in wrecks, the Aurora, and Degasi bases, that would truly make a difference. Plus, it’ll delay that staleness that currently exists once you’ve got your two fragments and you know every new crate you find is just two new titanium pieces.
- Just a remark about the lead abundance, how about lead crystal for decorative purposes? One lead + one quartz and you can make a vase or figurine or something. I’d also appreciate a radiation gauge so knowing whether I’m in danger or not does not require exposure. Lead + salt + chip seems a good recipe for that.
- The update for Lifepod 6 and 7 to hold loot is a commendable breath of fresh air among the “data box + datapad” rule. Very happy with that. I’d like this to be furthered and more importantly used to get some midgame materials to the player early. 3, 6, and/or 17 easily could have a piece of magnetite, while 13 and 19 seem fair for diamond to me (I miss having a lifepod in the kelp depths somewhere and you’ve got numbers left; such’d be good for diamond too). Abandoned waterproof lockers in the general vicinity of a lifepod which story allows for it would be nice too.
- A piece of furniture I’d like to have is a (lead crystal?) display case. Subnautica’s got some gorgeous models I’d prefer to not all hide away in a locker. Such a case wouldn’t be a bad look in the Aurora (lab and quarters) and maybe a wreck. As a bonus, you can throw loot in there too.
- Occasionally, I build a growbed atop a compartment because it’s pretty and saves space. I don’t know what the plans for fertilizer are, but I’d love a compartment that’s actually designed with planter spots atop and it wouldn’t hurt to be available right away to get kelp farming started.
- How about reefback plating strewn around in the world with barnacles(!), plants, and planter spots on them? I don’t know what the status is on that plan to add planter spots to reefbacks themselves, but static plating should be possible.
- I’m crossing the line of whiny (or more probs passed it months ago), but I truly believe in giving sandsharks the same outcrop ability as sea treaders. I don’t care what they dig up. The Dunes-GP border is one of my fav spots and excellent for such harvesting.
- I’ll talk about the suit system some other time, but how about gloves that give a 20% chance that a second material drops from an outcrop? Something like which explanation is they help detect what the player might’ve otherwise discarded as sedimentary rock after being distracted by the first material.
- EDIT: In real-life, platinum is used in several organic conversions as catalyst, including PANI which SN currently uses gold for. So how about adding platinum as as second ingredient to lubricant so it can stay one seed but also not be a spiritless 1-on-1? If silver is moved to limestone, then platinum can get a spot in sandstone.
I'm well-aware UWE's on a tight deadline and that almost nothing of this would be a wise investment before V1.0 and that anything after V1.0 is a maybe at best. But it can't hurt to vocalize a point of irritation and, well, see how others feel.
Comments
Quartz is the low-key pain right now personally. Copper for me is whatever, because I really don't mind putting on music and farming absurd amounts of copper by the sea traders because why not, but it's a lot less fun wandering with my seaglide trying to find even just a few bits of quartz that remain endgame even after only making a base or two and all the subs.
--And that isn't to say copper isn't a problem. Crafting is very much copper heavy right now, but at least farming it is easy and available in the endgame, and early on you can still get a bit more than what you need from limestone outcrops if you know where to look.
Resource gathering is more of a problem personally when there isn't a good way to legitimately farm the material. I guess there's large resource deposits, but even then I really avoid using the drill arm when I can because its such a pain to have to get out and collect every bit you drill off, especially when the deposit is bordering a cliff or something and all that stuff I just spend my time drilling rolled off into an abyss I can't be bothered to fling myself into for 3 of whatever material. Let's be real here, somethings wrong if players avoid using something that's suppose to make resource gathering easier.
And you can't say, oh well you're suppose to just have one of the default arms to pick the bits up when they fall off from the drill arm when SO MANY NODES ARE ON THE SIDE OF CLIFFS OR CAVE WALLS. No. You need the grapple to get to a lot of nodes. And besides, it's basically required for decent mobility in the thing.
I would really like if some fragments gave a glass, even if its a slightly rarer drop. Going off of that I wish they'd give a variety of materials instead of just more titanium I don't need.
Regular batteries and power cells should upgrade into Ion ones. No question. I was severely disappointed when I saw they weren't. I wanted that locker full of the stupid amounts of batteries you get from the boxes scattered around in wrecks and by the aurora to be worth something. Don't make me throw like 20 batteries and 10 -ish power cells in the trash can because they're completely inferior and not upgradable.
Editing additions:
In saying that, I made like 8 Ion power cells anyways for cyclops and backups. and a couple batteries as well. They're good, but damn does it feel bad when you have all these extra batteries you'd been saving and you find out, "Welp. I guess those are completely useless."
Too many computer chips. It's the tech equivalent of "TITANIUM EVERYTHING!" Need tech? just stick a computer chip on it and voila! It just got more advanced. Woo.
I don't know if I agree with giving the sandsharks the same ability, but it'd be nice if they actually did something and weren't just another arbitrary "threat" to avoid.
Totes, I'm certainly not suggesting to over-complicate mere furniture recipes (or advocating for more glass use). Titanium as the basic building material is necessary to keep the flow going and SN's got a good supply for it (glass as a basic building material shows how it's not done; copper used to be good before the chip recipe change). But a little bit of variety is necessary to prevent feelings of arbitrariness. As per my suggestions, I'm only thinking of materials that are easy to gain anyway and (relatively) don't have much use.
It's not even just rolling into the deeps. I also find that several resources, like copper and gold, camo incredibly well if they roll into the grass. There was this one recent GP deposit I only easily could locate three pieces of. The rest took me over a minute, and then I spend another minute or so searching for feeling itchy at the thought of missing one. It's something I've left out of the post, but I wonder if it'd be possible for the PRAWN to A.) (temporarily) keep count of the loot number, and B.) to get a search system so it can see loose resources (B.'s open to numerous variations, including a dedicated HUD chip). I like drilling a lot, especially now that we've got such pretty models and the physics have gotten a lot better, but there's some QoL'ing that still can be done.
Yeah, glass (and others?) as a scan resource crossed my mind too. Reminds me of someone else's suggestion that loot boxes could occasionally hold tech resources instead of only water, blocks, health kits, batteries, and power cells. It'd be welcome to me and I don't think it'd harm the steady titanium supply either even if it'd be 50/50.
That's sort of my line of thinking with the sandsharks. Creatures become more fun if there's a chance for (one-sided) interaction. Right now, only stalkers occupy a middle ground where they can be dangerous and better avoided, yet also gain value from their teeth and ability to point out scrap metal. I want more of that, like being able to tap energy from ampeels and crabsquids with a few well-placed power transmitters (or varieties thereof, like a specialized rod) or wing layers of mesmers for camo purposes (ie preventing stalkers from seeing my camera drones. Where's my module for that!?). Sandsharks are diggers, so why not co-opt their existence to ensure more respawnable resources? (I want regular respawning anyway, but I can accept that at, like, up to 150 days and then sandsharks'd be good for some immediate gain.)
@orobouros:
Did you notice some of my suggestions specifically were to even things out with recipes I don't like? Like finding magnetite in lifepods to get a handful to early game, exchanging one silver in the wiring kit for gold instead of the chip, and making farming an early game element too so people who don't want to don't have to keep going into the Kelp Forest (again, not accounting for fertilizer gameplay and possible changes in growth speed; My own interest here is that I dislike wrecking the environment and with plants not regrowing, I'd like to minimize the damage with early farming. Plus, why else bother with the bioreactor as early as it's located?). I know and am sympathetic to why UWE made these changes and I have no desire to prioritize "hardcore" wishes, but all the same I plain don't like these recipes for everything written down in the OP's third paragraph. My hope is that, at least in theory (as I don't know if UWE even can implement them), the suggestions make for a fair compromise.
I think to know why seeds can't be made smaller. Because it gets in the way of the (current) farm model. Creepvine needs four spots, unless that'd be changed, but I think that'd give a badly manageable, uneven, and ugly layout. I know there was a Trello card that expressed a desire to reduce the seed size, so that that hasn't happened isn't for lack of UWE taking that option in consideration. Kudos for changes to the system that allow non-square spaces to make things like the seaglide much more viable to carry around, but seeds are probs out of the question as is.
EDIT: The seed bits are with keeping in mind that I really, really want UWE to making the seats in the lifepod working so people can delay hunger and thirst while waiting for night to pass or to get a chance to read up all they scanned, which even as an experienced player find overwhelming
Not fond of being told to "bite my tongue". It's a tad rude and as I've said, I've given everything UWE's changed (or never updated) a fair try. I do miss uranium because now my "power mineral wall" is one short, but I've embraced that. I miss magnesium even more -- always hoped for flash torpedoes -- but this too gained my approval. I am wary of how these are steps to undressing the crafting system, but it's all for the better still. With this one exception, you don't hear me about how UWE's default decision to move tech earlier deadens mid-to-late game quite a bit, because it's necessary for certain kinds of players and I've got nothing better either. I had this weird thought reducing the seaglide size would unbalance it, but I've seen the light. I'm even suggesting for some other recipes to become simpler and/or easier (filtration machine's not a kind find atm). But the new computer chip recipe gold:silver needs? No. They're an undressing of the crafting system that takes the fun out of it and, whether elegant or not, is still patchwork. It's all been nothing but patchwork and indecipherable decisions being made. I wouldn't even know if I have an easier time making chips, because what's happening is that I used to make all modules available and deck out all my bases with convenient tech, but not enjoying crafting them anymore means I've only been making the modules I 'need' and any base not my main one is bare (I do have gold surplus that keeps me wary of more gold, but I also used to have silver surplus). Even getting a fabricator on my Cyclops, usually a priority, ended up a "well, I've done everything else already" act. And maybe that's whiny, but there's no harm in offering feedback (that I hope is constructive).
1. Not enough need for Mercury Ore - why was it even added to the game?
2. Overabundance of Computer Chips - Gold and Silver are at a comfortable level now, but Copper is woefully needed for recipes now.
3. Not enough Copper for Copper Wire and Computer Chips now - See above, but also they should remove Titanium from Limestone. There's so much Scrap Metal and spare fragments that give Titanium as well, it's not needed.
4. Unlocked fragments giving Titanium - See above! Also why do fragments always give exactly two Titanium; is a Seaglide fragment the same size as a Scanner Room fragment? Couldn't they randomly give some other part of their recipe? (Surely a Seamoth fragment, with its cracked windshield or engine, would give up a random Glass or Lubricant sometimes.)
As far as your bullet points, I simply must disagree with #8 regarding changes to Creepvine Seeds. The old recipes were frustrating and tedious, needing two Clusters for one Rubber or three Clusters for one Lubricant was insane. With these new changes, you don't need to make four trips between the Lifepod and a Creepvine forest just to make Swim Fins, a Knife, a Radiation Suit and a Seaglide.
A single Creepvine Cluster has between four and six seeds, which warrants the 2x2 inventory space... but while a single Cluster is larger than a Titanium Ingot, it made no sense originally that two Clusters (8-12 Seeds) made one layer of Rubber, and three Clusters (12-18 Seeds) processed into one tiny bottle of Lubricant. Even Bleach and Disinfected Water (the same model size as Lubricant) raw materials take up less space than the old nonsensical recipe demands.
You disagree with the change in Creepvine requirements, and that's fine. I personally don't understand why, but the only way I would agree to returning Lubricant and Synthetic Rubber recipes back is if they change Creepvine Seed Clusters to a 1x1 size. For as many Seed Clusters are needed over the course of the game, there's simply no need to bombard your inventory space for items results that originally took 1/8 to 1/12 the space of the materials required - How did 12 Seed Clusters (48 slots) turn into just 4 Lubricant (4 slots)?
1.) Def a "survivor" of early game plans that didn't all go through, but it's salvageable if it's made integral to temperature-related tech and if nanowires make a comeback. It's not like mercury is in any way gated but for its diminished distribution. As an aside, is drillable mercury in the game? I know there's a model, but I've found no trace of one spawning in my games.
8.) Fair enough, although I take the liberty to say I liked having my runs, just speeding in and out with my loot, and now it's ill-advised to even do a half one because it'll clutter my pre-base space. It does seem I've gotten my GP-Dunes fragment run back, so I can consider it a one for one.
As per OP's third paragraph, my interest isn't with double costs (I find double recipes inoffensive, but I prefer combining) but with no single ingredients. And best I can think of - might have said this before - is the addition of platinum to the game as an ingredient for organic conversion (lubricant, benzene, PANI), fertilizer, and maybe if we get more oxygen-intensive gameplay oxygen-related stuff. Kick titanium out of limestone, add silver to limestone, rebalance the tech needs (ie, less chips, and plz return silver to the chip and make the wiring kit half gold), add platinum to sandstone (or replace silver altogether), and then the titanium, platinum, and silver backup can be divided between shale (replacing gold and diamond, the latter which has a pointlessly low chance of dropping atm; either go for it or don't), basalt, and hopefully static barnacles and sandshark outcrops.
P.S. It'll be a very happy day when benzene is added to the PANI recipe and blood oil can go in the bioreactor.
But I always wondered why all those creature eggs and other plants never get into play so far. Maybe a lot more plants/seeds and creature dna samples should get included into the tech tree. Not only the resources we have so far. To make hunting for creatures and their eggs as well as all those plants, together with breeding and farming a bigger strategy and gameplay.
Another tech/resource issue is the need to use resources more than a few times. Some resources are needed endlessly, while most others only are needed once or twice in the whole game. Maybe most tools shouldn't have a battery change, but a built in battery and once empty the tools should be rebuild. So a lot of rarer resource uses could then get lots of multiple uses. The welder rebuilding would need far more crash powder then for example.
Mercury is not a requirement for thermometers, even liquid ones (source). Electronic thermometers use a thermoresistor, which changes electrical current based on temperature(source).
I would really dislike having to rebuild my tools, that was the whole point of rechargeable batteries. Crashfish powder already has another use in flares, which might be nice to lay a trail in wrecks. (I think I saw on Trello that they were going to make them white instead of annoying red.) Other resources just need to be either added to more recipes, or just cut from the game.
Agreed; much of what I've said I don't even consider pre-V1.0 material. Though it would certainly improve my gaming experience now if I "knew" that the things that get in the way of my enjoyment aren't (for the most part) permanent, the way I've been enjoying table coral a lot more ever since knowing that I'm supposed to get four pieces a slab and only don't because of a bug that'll get fixed in due time.
There certainly should be more uses for plants and more plants that get the multi-use treatment like creepvine currently solely gets. Purple brain coral has its obvious potential in oxygen supply if that ever becomes a better system and I reckon tree leech had something to do with amino acid, which is currently removed. I wouldn't mind a few plants with passive perks either, like plants that'll keep preds at bay (what if you could have extract on you?) or plants (rouge cradle?) that, like, fluo-resonate with plankton or some such and give a nice firefly effect to a garden. Could help distract crabsquids.
(Sorry, I've not got much on eggs.
Gotta agree with @narfblat that consumable tools are iffy unless they're cheap and something which use lies in their disposability. But I do like the thought of making more tools, which is why the Cyclops' auto-repair module is one of my fav current recipes. I love the "comeback" of the repair tool to act as ingredient! More of that would be nice in my book (hence my proposal for the grapple hook to include the dive reel)! An auto-repair unit for the moonpool could easily use the repair tool too, maybe the propulsion cannon for the propulsion arm, I kinda was thinking of a stasis rifle for that Cyclops stasis field installation I proposed in the other thread, etc.
@narfblat
I sorta know that. It's kinda like, my view on crafting is that it's never going to be realistic, so in lieu of that I'd like it to be consistent (and varied) to adhere to an internal logic (that is fun). In that sense, mercury as component of heat-related tech works for me.