Removing wood as a fuel source adds a lot to the game by limiting our bouncing between planets.

My latest character, an Avian, started on a world with mostly giant flower trees (fiber, not wood) and a shortage of coal. About half of the water on the surface was poisonous as well, making surface treks a pain. Lastly, there was a single, larger planet that my starter was orbiting around, and it was a snow planet, so exploring there proved to be crazy-hazardous. Needless to say, I didn't want this to be my home planet at all, but ultimately I scrounged up 100 coal for a jump.

Coal should be more plentiful than it currently is, especially since you use it not only for torches but to make Steel Bars later on. Maybe I just had poor luck with my dice roll, but when you jump for joy at seeing one coal ore here and another three there, I think something should be adjusted. At the very least, the starter planet should come with a higher-than-average amount of coal.

 

I've been stuck on the starter planet (which is a poison biome, horrible for mining most ores) for several hours because I can't find enough coal to travel a reasonably long distance since I'm having to make torches as I go, which uses up coal to find more coal. I don't have an issue with having to use exclusively coal to travel in the beginning if it wasn't as scarce as it is.

 

With how much coal I have gathered on my first and only starter planet post-update, I wouldn't say it has limited me in any way. But in theory if coal becomes less abundant, it could deter long range travel because coal is also used elsewhere.

 

I'm confused as to why so many people want to burn through the game so fast.. How long do you think this game should be before you get to the top tier? playing on 1 planet and harvesting enough wood/coal to travel the entire universe destroys the pacing of the game entirely!

You were kicked off your home planet as a outcast, forced to survive in the wilderness of space.. Day 1, become ultra elite interstellar traveler? NO, start small and build up to it, I for one have a OPINION and believe that the devs are going in the right direction with this change. You may disagree, but im sure that anyone who actually wants to see this game succeed and not just be a speed run that can be beat in 2 days will agree that this move is a good one.

 

It seems like this specific type of planet is the problem, though I can't figure out why. The ore generation should be the same based on planet I thought? Maybe it's more difficult to dig down in them or something than it is on a desert/arid/forest type?

 

Coal generation is broken right now. It's extremely scarce. It's not a problem with starter world biomes, or any biome. It's just, in general, way too rare as of this update due to an accident in the code. That's all you need to know.

 

Well there are plenty of people, myself included, who didn't find it to be scarce. I had plenty to do everything I needed. Maybe you're just bad at the game? There's no reason to be a jackass. Conversing like a normal person in a friendly manner isn't going to make you any less internet-cool. That's all you need to know.

 

The change is a welcome one. Anything that adds extra challenge is welcome.

After exploring for a while I was tending to ignore coal because It was not needed that much for anything. I only mined it if I was running low because of steel. But since it is so abundant over iron, it was rarely necessary.

This will also help with the idea of establishing a base or a homeworld. More likely than not you are going to want to set up some sort of deep mine to get to uranium. If you run low again you could possibly go back to your homeworld and mine some more instead of dropping another shaft on another planet.

Personally I think it should not use coal either. Make the jump drive out of the solar system require Uranium or better. But you can travel to the planets in the system for free. You just have to code it in that the starting system gets a certain number of planets.

Currently there is no challenge to the game at all aside from the getting established on your first couple of day night cycles. Than the game becomes easy mode.
All I end up doing is running across planet surfaces to see what there is to see and move on. After planet 10 i actually burnt out and started over because the getting to that point was more fun than actually being there.

I always keep in mind that it is Beta, I am keeping my fingers crossed that with the quest system in place there will be more challenge. And hopefully the difficulty ramps up. Perhaps an npc wants a unique resource deep in the caves of some inhospitable planet. He gives you the coordinates and you have to go there and get it.

 

it's impossible to say "oh we need to increase x material on starter planets" because literally every level 1 planet has the chance to be a starter planet. and to change the starter planets would involve changing the seed. Which then means the entire universe file has to get updated because the seed's will no longer be valid. And no one is saying you have to just use coal. Coal is nice yes. it's a 2 fuel per 1 coal deal. But logs work just as well on a 1 to 1 ratio. And you only need 200 fuel to jump to a less hazardous area.

In other words. 200 fuel is roughly 10-20 trees.

 

"Well, I had no problems, so obviously everything is okay and they're just bad at video games!"

Come on, people are reporting coal problems everywhere. And sorry, but you're the one being the jackass right now. I wasn't even using a rude tone, and you respond with a "ur bad at games" post. C'mon.

The worst kind of beta tester is the one who ignores problems and just thinks that others are playing the game incorrectly.

 

Wood doesn't work as fuel anymore, and coal generation is severely nerfed as a side effect of the hotfix yesterday.

 

I had this issue too. There comes a point where your fuel is maxed out and you have more than necessary for everything. When wood was available as a resource this happened extremely soon after starting to play the game. As long as you had 50-100 coal you would be set. Now it's actually valuable, however, the downside is that wood has drastically dropped in usefulness.

 

My big problem with removing trees as a fuel source is it puts too much strain on coal with the number of things you need coal for before opening up a new fuel source.
It's needed for lighting my path when mining. Needed to make camp fires which may be needed in place of torches if you're dealing with a snow starter planet or an underground ice biome. Then you need it for an entire tier to make steel weapons, armour, brain extractor, numerous robot parts. And if you wanted to build with steel blocks and have steel furniture it's even worse.

If they wanna remove trees as ship fuel, that's fine, but I think we really need something to replace it so coal can be more easily used for other things.

 

Rarest, sure. I just got like 500 ores in 2 hours. And i was EXPLORING the planet, not coal hunting. You are supposed to dig a little bit, and coal is basically everywhere, i' ve never landed on a planet affected by col scarcity.

And wood as fuel is a super stupid idea(like coal, but better than wood).

I suppose you are just complaining for the sake of it.

 

All it does is make building bases even more annoying and pointless.

Until we get NPCs in our house that give you quests, shops, or making big farms is actually useful or anything except just making a cosy house where we can store shit for our house, I don't like this change.

 

How so?

 

LOL you are crazy, you do not have to over exaggerate to make a point, it makes your point questionable for one. More rare than gold or silver, ha! wow. This is a resource that is easily found close to the surface and easily found everywhere if you look.

And from what I have read you are most definitely not in the majority. Most of us want the game to give us some kind of challenge and have welcomed the change.

 

Waah.

Attitude aside, I experienced a significant coal shortage last night with my brother. Just invited him to play on our server and noticed an extreme shortage of coal, figured it was just picked over. We finally managed to get 50 fuel and traveled to a nearby planet.

Managed to find a decent amount of coal but no trees. Whoops! In the end I think we had more fun looking for basic things like coal and wood than we did progressing. Getting enough coal was rewarding, not frustrating. I wouldn't mind if coal is bumped up, but hide the deposits. Make us really look for them.

Who knew you could have fun and collect valuable data at the same time?

 

Eh, if Wood can't work as fuel anymore. Why not toss it into a furnace and make charcoal. Treat your ship a s steam engine. Charcoal burns just as well as fossilized plant matter (coal)

Edit: Forgot to add, We would have to impliment charcoal first.

 

The only problem is with your luck. Roll another toon if you hate it so much. god knows you're not wasting anything of value. You say the game shouldn't be about luck. Well guess what. Random Gen IS LUCK. That's the whole freakin point of it.