Anyone have tips for drilling?
garath
Texas Join Date: 2017-02-08 Member: 227730Members
Texas Join Date: 2017-02-08 Member: 227730Members
I found a huge copper deposit on a nice flat spot of the ocean floor and mined it to obtain 6-8 pieces of copper. I used these to make beacons to mark other nice copper deposits. I marked four deposits on not so flat spots in the Grand Reef. I knew those copper pieces would likely fall off never to be seen again. No problem. I took a Gravsphere with me. I placed it right next to the copper deposit and went to town mining. I finish mining and expect the Gravsphere will have collected 6-8 pieces of copper. But what do you think I found instead?
The @#$#@ Gravsphere had grabbed maybe a half dozen fish and a limestone deposit. It hadn't attracked even one single piece of copper.
So, I tried to follow the "fall path" of the copper to see if I could get the mined copper that way. Nope. Not a chance. My best guess it they "clipped" through the world and fell into oblivion.
Does anyone have any tips for using the Gravsphere to mine? Or, are all the deposits *not* on flat ground pretty much impossible to mine?
The @#$#@ Gravsphere had grabbed maybe a half dozen fish and a limestone deposit. It hadn't attracked even one single piece of copper.
So, I tried to follow the "fall path" of the copper to see if I could get the mined copper that way. Nope. Not a chance. My best guess it they "clipped" through the world and fell into oblivion.
Does anyone have any tips for using the Gravsphere to mine? Or, are all the deposits *not* on flat ground pretty much impossible to mine?
Comments
Might be something after 1.0 eh
I tend to gather only the small resources while diving, which is really fast and without danger with the reinforced diving suit. For copper you have a far better method with the Sea Treader's route and the rest is just map knowledge where large masses of small resources are to be found.
The only exception of unavoidable drilling is the few pieces Kyanite you need and the drilling of ion crystals at the PCF.
For me drilling is a complete failure in comparison to resource pickups. Only people who want to feel the experience might like it.
Thanks! I'll head to the Sea Treaders when I play tonight.
^^ Exactly. Wish they would just move the ore to the PRAWN storage as you mine instead of making it break off.
Or maybe (additionally?) change the function of the Gravsphere so that you can select what you want to pick up?
Even then it would be too much extra work for almost nothing. The time I need to drill a big ore resource is about the time to get double or triple the amount diving through a mini resource field that is dense. Yet you would expect the opposite. That drilling is good for advanced and fast resource gathering or only good for resources otherwise unavailable.
But the game doesn't use any of the 2 possible drilling advantages. Neither is it fast and making you resource rich, nor are there much resources you don't get otherwise. I mean that little Kyanite is a joke. And a machine to produce ion crystals in drillable form and not just a simple small crystal is also a joke.
My suggestions for drilling to work:
... ???
OOps... wrong kinda drilling.
You could replace them with tiny ones stacked in a pile, (which makes more sense, IMHO) so you can pick them up by hand, if they're worried about there being enough ion crystals in-game at that progression point.
Depends largely on the resource. If we're talking titanium, glass or uranite then I entirely agree with you!
Copper, magnetite and gold are awesome to mine though, since pick-up spots for these are scattered and unreliable (e.g. you find a lot of lead/titanium when looking for copper).
Especially copper...previously I've always lacked in copper until I got the Prawn drill arm. The Devs seem to have increased barnacles on Reefbacks lately however (4-5 per Reefback), so in this playthrough copper hasn't been an issue.
The above suggestions about mining by @zetachron are still great though.
I wonder if the DEVS will ever allow us to actually click on barnacles. Isn't that one of the longest running bugs in the game?
I thought that was fixed in Ghost?
The ultimate solution for Copper, as well as Lithium, is runs to the Sea Treaders, finding the beasties, and follow them and harvest the outcroppings they stir up before they sink back under the surface. A very good source of Copper and Lithium. A bit tricky with just a stock Seamoth with just the stock 200m max depth, but possible.
It's definitely better than it was. I think I would say it has gone from being completely impossible to now being possible but erratic.
Important one for Copper is Beacon is changed to "Silver + Titanium". Compass is still "Copper Wire + Computer Chip", which is 4 Copper, but you only need to make one so you have a compass when outside a vehicle. Thermometer is still present as a blueprint but it's no longer in the menu of the Fabricator; so you only have temperature data on vehicle HUD's.
If I need a lot of Copper, I used to go to the Sea Treader's Path and follow them. The outcroppings they stir up that slowly sink away give Copper and Lithium. However, I've not done that since the Ghost Leviathan update, so that may have changed too.
The biggest issue I'm seeing now is the usual one of how to deal with the beasties, especially packs of Bone Sharks and the new Ghost Leviathans. Some discussion in others topics.
BUT I've just made the Cyclops. Just moving it a bit to park it by my base and playing with Silent Running burned 10% of the stored batteries. That's damn silly charge consumption. For what the Cyclops was designed for, that it has so little endurance is just wrong.
I've made 1 spare Powercell and found 2 more. But at those power consumption levels, it looks like I'm going to need anywhere from 6 to 12 or more spare Powercells to carry on the Cyclops.
So far for recharging Powercells, I've use the Moonpool and the Solar Module on the Seamoth. Drained Powercells on the Cyclops are going to be a pain, especially as you can't get an integral recharging module until you go down to the Lava Zones and find Kyaninte. And I've never been down there, but I think you need the PRAWN Drill Arm to get it.
So prior to that, for recharging it's going to be using the Solar Module on the Seamoth or a bank of Powercell Rechargers in a base, 4 or more to recharge 8 or more Powercells at a time. That's going to be a lot of Powercells.
I haven't found the Drill Arm in the wrecks to the south, southwest, west, northwest, or north. I've not explored the Grand Reef as much as I'd like to because of the threat of Ghost Leviathans. Also still looking to unlock Alien Containment and Modification Station. Wrecks remaining: any aft of the Aurora, Mountains, Bulb Zone
Just reinstalled and started a new survival game last night after having not played for a good 6-8 or more months (really can't remember when I last played Subnautica) and it's a shame to hear the Cyclops is still essentially pointless apart from using it as an semi-mobile base of operations / storage area due to excessive power consumption. I really feel that once I have achieved the feat of constructing a cyclops, my game should focus more on being able to do a lot more long distance exploration for a long time before needing to stop and restock and replenish. Instead you end up spending most of your time just trying to find resources to keep it powered and yourself fed and hydrated from all the time spent resource gathering....not fun.
- Hyp3rion
I enjoy the Cyclops. With some issues here and there. But I think I know why. I'm in freedom mode. If that's required to make the Cyclops usable, that's bad game design.