Out of power! What now?

tommy21toes

So I took a trip to the active lava zone and ran out of power due to leeches and the changes to shields and silent running (experimental). I have a nearly dead cyclops on a save game with no hope of getting back without it. What now?

I hit zero power and it said I couldn't launch my Prawn due to lack of power. Is my only recourse to load my save game and to launch the prawn at my 3% energy and start thermal recharge? If I was at 0% and saved, I'm pretty sure it would be a dead run and start from another save or from scratch. Endless drowning.

I don't think it's practical to hit a complete dead end if someone happens to save at 0% Cyclops energy and only keeps one save game. I can probably fix my game, by grinding out thermal recharges in the Prawn, and surface again at some point, but it seems like a flaw to have a sudden dead end (start over and be more careful next time) towards the end of the game.

Edit: If you take a Cyclops to a spot you can't surface in time from, and hit zero power, your game becomes a permanent wipe if you don't have another save.

elfcrisis

Yeah, I saw that possibility when travelling down there. This is the only scenario I can think of where you can get for reals stuck, and I've been impressed so far with how hard it is to actually do that in this game.

I dunno what to do about it except keep a bunch of spare power cells in a locker on the Cyclops. I had a power cell charger in mine which I could use to switch cells around and that worked okay, but I didn't know you couldn't launch the Prawn without power. That's brutal.

I think the fix for /that/ is to have an emergency manual release for the vehicle bay. Like, it lets you out, but you can't dock with it again until the Cyclops gets some power back.

Dev people, what do you think of that idea?

tommy21toes

That's a partial solution with the launching the Prawn with zero power, but you can get in that situation without anything docked. Maybe a bike or a handcrank where you can spend two minutes and max recharge back to 10% power. Something that's going to be a pain in the butt, but besides that, knowing you have an emergency recharge on the vehicle would make you think twice about getting into this situation without a bank of charged cells and a locker full of spares.

Experimental you can't recharge power cells anymore on board. Silent running is a sperate ability and no longer a speed. It drains power similar to shields and sonar. Shields are a huge hit to power. Really I wouldn't have had a problem if I just used my durability, repair gun, and didn't use any abilities. There's probably a balance issue there as well.

EkUl

This is not a bug, it's a gameplay issue.

No offending, but, shit happens. I have always a locker with lot of power cell's and i have always one power cell in inventory for emergency cases like yours.

But i like your idea very much:

tommy21toes wrote: »

Maybe a bike or a handcrank where you can spend two minutes and max recharge back to 10% power.

I prefer the handcrank because this would not need much space in the Cyclops.

DrownedOut

I've wanted manual energy sources in this game for a while now, so something like that for the Cyclops would work for me. That said, a similar deadend can occur with regular bases if your means to-and-from are destroyed (critters currently will attack even a docked vessel if they can reach it, which is why for the moment I don't build where crabsquids dwell). Which makes me wonder if there should be an non-obtrusive choice where you respawn: last base visited or the lifepod.

EkUl

DrownedOut wrote: »

Which makes me wonder if there should be an non-obtrusive choice where you respawn: last base visited or the lifepod.

This would solve definitely the dead end issue.

Now in the early access tommy21toes have lot of possible solutions via the console.

tommy21toes

Just an update. I got out just fine because I forgot that I had a locker with 5 more charged power cells on board. I didn't have the thermal recharge on the Prawn yet, so thankfully those were there or I would have been stuck. I'm guessing if you destroy the Cyclops you spawn at a base somewhere? So that might be another option, but with zero power I'm not sure how I would manage to destroy it unless I can knife it.

Charzinardinard

What about self distruct button? Something you can press that hids in the back end of the cyclops. You press it, get a 10 second countdown, and during that you are able to get into your docked vehicle and get jettisoned from the cyclops like a makeshift escape pod.

It could be something help prevent having a deadend game. You are able to keep your docked vehicle at the expense of the cyclops That way, you can attempt a run for air, and if you die, you arent stuck in a death loop 1200m down without air.

scalien

Not useful for the current situation but there is a thermal generator module coming to the cyclops for future escapades.

DrownedOut

scalien wrote: »

Not useful for the current situation but there is a thermal generator module coming to the cyclops for future escapades.

That'd still require you to have it with you. It's a good extra option, but not a definite solution to the problem.

DT_Realm

scalien wrote: »

Not useful for the current situation but there is a thermal generator module coming to the cyclops for future escapades.

You can already find the module at one of the wrecks, But it doesn't do anything at the moments besides drain your power on the cyclops really quickly

Necrovore

DT_Realm wrote: »

scalien wrote: »

Not useful for the current situation but there is a thermal generator module coming to the cyclops for future escapades.

You can already find the module at one of the wrecks, But it doesn't do anything at the moments besides drain your power on the cyclops really quickly

*Conspiracy mode: On* Have you checked your thermometer while using that module? Maybe Thermal Generator in this case means it produces heat. Possibly a required module to safely travel in cold areas...Arctic Biome for 1.0 release confirmed!