Change the Brain Extractor, please.

Using this item is the least enjoyable thing I've done in this game by a long shot. It fires whenever it feels like it, and when it does fire, I've watched many of my shots go directly through monsters without harming them, which is incredibly frustrating. (This is in single player, so lag isn't a factor.)

This game has been a blast so far, but please make the Brain Extractor more user friendly. Increase the range, reduce the energy cost, up the fire rate, just, anything, please. We have to use it to farm a 7% droprate brain, so we're going to be using it for a while. I've been having a blast with this game, but this brain grind is killing a lot of the enjoyment for me, and I'm sure it is for others as well. Thanks.

 

It would also be nice if this item had more use than just grinding for one single item that is needed for one boss battle.

 

It fires when you have enough energy (as with all ranged weapons). Pay attention.

 

the biggest annoyances is that it uses energy..

 

I found it not too horrible actually, I'd just use my L/R set to damage the critters then do the killshot with the extractor. Again be nice if there was a use for those extra brains though....floran zap brain meatssss for eatssssss

 

I'd just like to see an actual use for inferior brains, like using them to fuel something(not the ship that'd be silly), or being able to sell them for a small amount of pixels.

 

Got mine after 6 inferiors. RNG is RNG.

 

As people have mentioned, the Brain Extractor uses energy, so you can't spam it like a regular pistol.

As for the shot passing through, were they directly next to you? There seems to be a dead-zone right in front of ranged weapons that causes their shoots to miss you completely, usually having the barrel poke out behind you does it. I've seen this a lot when fighting AI with guns where I can sit right on top of them and there's nothing they can do since their shots pass right through me.

 

I'm not entirely sure, but it felt when using the weapon you had to *directly* click on them for it to hit.
Maybe it was just my perception after a hour (took 40 inferior to finally get a superior brain), it got kind of annoying, and I lost a small fortune of pixels no timing my shot out, and having the beam go through them, and dying (personal failing on not keeping my health up).

If it set to only work when the creature is directly clicked, that should be changed, if it isn't, then the hit area needs to be increased slightly. More length or something, so it seems less like the beam is going right through them.

As well its reload time or whatever needs to be increase, currently it does feel like it only shoots... some of the time.

A constant beam that drains energy might actually make the whole process a little more fun and the weapon more interesting.

Also it should have other uses, like getting processors from Robotic mobs, other things to craft inferior brains from.

 

How about food? Brain food!

 

Used on a member of one of the major races, it could have a chance to drop blueprints for racial stuff (food, armour, furniture) instead of brains. That'd be neat.

 

That's a neat idea. Have a machine that you plug inferior brains in to extract information. Small chance to spit out blueprints.

 

Like a brain scanner? I love the idea. Adds a little bit more reward for the for the grind.

 

And quite likely to lead to the depopulation of the entire universe.

I like Reon's idea though. Could be less of a brain scanner and more of a 'thinking machine' that researches the blueprints instead of extracting them. Makes more sense considering that most of my inferior brains (somehow that doesn't sound right...) come from monsters. You need to add more brains as replacement parts instead of as fuel.

 

Well, yes. Whole planets are deforested, their precious resources completely extracted, the fauna would be extinct if not for respawns - worlds unlucky enough to be visited by player characters are left lifeless husks anyway.

 

We aren't the cure, we are the disease.

 

You have a point. The game should really be called 'Space Locusts' instead of 'Starbound'.

 

That sentence would be nearly a reason to stop playing x.x To my defense I must say that I only kill animals that attack me themselves.

The brains you get by using the brain extractor should really correspond to the life form killed. Upper life forms from towns or dungeons should give superior brains, while the animals should not (wondered how a dumb looking bunny-gargoyle-thing could have a superior brain^^).
The brain scanner also sounds like a great idea, but should be limited to superior brains. Maybe superior brains should be dropped more often, so that it becomes a resource for that machine (so if you find a dungeon with hostile NPCs you get a lot of brains for your brain scanner). Inferior brains could be at a high number combined to a superior one, also in that machine (like smelting of ores). So that you kind of take a large number of useful cells of inferior brains to build a superior brain from them.