Ion Batteries

KerbalatomicKerbalatomic Join Date: 2015-07-25 Member: 206384Members
Any one know why the builder is the only tool not able to use the ion battery?
It's just annoying having to keep the standard batteries for it when all other tools use ion batteries.

Comments

  • KelliseKellise UK Join Date: 2016-07-23 Member: 220582Members
    Any one know why the builder is the only tool not able to use the ion battery?
    It's just annoying having to keep the standard batteries for it when all other tools use ion batteries.

    That's what we here like to call a bug
  • zetachronzetachron Germany Join Date: 2014-11-14 Member: 199655Members
    As this "bug" is known to the devs since months and unfixed, it's more a balancing issue. A builder with ion batteries might be seen as overpowered. Although it doesn't make any sense and one of the strange tech annoyances in the game.
  • HaliosHalios Oz Join Date: 2015-11-27 Member: 209514Members
    zetachron wrote: »
    A builder with ion batteries might be seen as overpowered.

    Of course there'll always be someone willing to decry that any given thing in a game is overpowered. Cos that qualifies as a good time to some folk.

    But it's just increased energy capacity. In a single player game. In a non-lethal (unless you're using it VERY badly) tool to build stuff.

    There is another possibility though.

    Resources don't respawn and when crafting tools it requires the basic battery as a component. Not the better ion ones. So if you discard all of your basic batteries you could be in trouble. Copper is again one of the most used components and I exhausted the safe shallows and surrounds supply just trying to build / upgrade 1 of everything. I didn't quite get there.

    I know there's more copper in the big deposits down deep so I'm not worried but this is a potential breaking point in the game. If you lost all of your tools somehow, eg. you're using the cyclops as a base and it gets destroyed, you'll need basic batteries to recover. By disallowing ion batteries in the builder - which has very modest energy requirements so doesn't suffer for it - the game encourages you to stash those basic batteries somewhere, thereby reducing the risk of you breaking the game.
  • RalijRalij US Join Date: 2016-05-20 Member: 217092Members
    How is better bateries in the builder tool overpowered? What's it being balanced with?
  • zetachronzetachron Germany Join Date: 2014-11-14 Member: 199655Members
    @Halios
    There are infinite resources for standart battery building. Sorry, but your explanation doesn't work

    @Ralij
    The "bug" exists and was posted practically since ion power got into the game and all tools could use it with a few bugged exceptions. These exceptions were fixed soon, but never the builder. And that was ages ago.

    The builder is definitely the most used tool by many. Usually I rarely ever use the battery recharger after my tools get ion batteries. Exception is the builder's batteries constantly forcing me to use the battery recharger. You can also recharge tools with the charging fins.
  • HaliosHalios Oz Join Date: 2015-11-27 Member: 209514Members
    zetachron wrote: »
    @Halios
    There are infinite resources for standart battery building. Sorry, but your explanation doesn't work

    You're referring to sea treaders I suppose?

    The wiki puts the depth of that biome at 170m - 360m.

    We're considering a you've-lost-basically-everything scenario. Swimming to that depth and making it back to the surface might not be possible.

    Your explanation of a builder with a bigger energy capacity being overpowered definitely can't account for this anomaly. Mine might.
  • SouthernGorillaSouthernGorilla United States Join Date: 2017-07-26 Member: 232057Members
    I don't see how using ion batteries in the builder tool would hurt your ability to recover from losing everything. If you can't find copper to make batteries then you can't find copper to make wire and computer chips either. So having a battery isn't really helpful.

    How is an ion-powered builder tool overpowered but an ion-powered propulsion canon is fine? That argument makes no sense. The builder tool is almost irrelevant by mid-game. Having one that lasts 5 times longer before forcing me to hit "R" doesn't give me an unfair advantage over the game.
  • zetachronzetachron Germany Join Date: 2014-11-14 Member: 199655Members
    Halios wrote: »
    ... We're considering a you've-lost-basically-everything scenario ...

    WTF-Scenario:
    You've lost everything but your inventory, waking up in your lifepod at the surface.
    You were mad enough to leave no surface base with standart battery or copper supplies.
    And also greedy enough to have plundered all limestones down till beyond 300m.
    And if this isn't crazy enough, you had the LW tank and no UHC to take you down to 500m naturally.
    So without UHC you need the seaglide to get copper.
    If you forget all tricks to get down deep without UHC and rebreather (pipes, more tanks and brain coral farming)

    Of course you were sane enough to not empty your builder and be without any battery.
    Also knowable enough to know where to get copper from the deep beyond 300m.
    And naturally you didn't plunder every piece of gold down till beyond 500m.

    Important to know that this all happens late game after getting ion tech finally and finding all ion crystals to replace every battery with ion samples. So the player should have all advanced tech in paperdoll. If he dies near Aurora radiation he can reclaim his not so deep other vehicles. If he lost all in the deep he has the rebreather for sure.

    But why should the devs force the player keeping standart batteries if they could:
    • Spawn some limestones near the player lifepod on death. Easy, isn't it, since the devs have a spawning tool.
    • Put a battery into player inventory on death. Don't wonder for god gifts if you think resurrection is normal.
    • Rework tech reasonably into all tools and tech created that need batteries or power cells, to be WITHOUT batteries or power cells. (Best solution as it eliminates all tech inconsistencies, like a Cyclops having 6 cells without needing them for creation)
    • Generally have respawning resource nodes for this kind of emergency.

    So if the devs would have done it for your reason, they took the worst solution of all.
    The best tech rebalancing would be no battery requirements and tech included batteries as the engine already supports empty battery systems.
  • TarkannenTarkannen North Carolina Join Date: 2016-08-15 Member: 221304Members
    Halios wrote: »
    Resources don't respawn

    Huh? I've had resources respawn in my game for over a year now. Granted, it's a slow process and sometimes it takes several minutes, but they do slowly come back. In fact, one of my favorite pastimes in the game is after I watch the Sunbeam explode, I'll circle-strafe the Mountain Island like a dozen times picking up Magnetite from the terrain. Many times they spawn from empty areas on the mountain out of nowhere everytime I loop, and I'll keep it up until I have enough for eight future Thermal Plants. :lol:

    Maybe it's due to my setup or the fact I'm only running 4GB of memory, but I can pick an area clean (such as one of the coral tunnels) and if I move out of my the area's visual presence, I'll always have a couple of the nodes respawn everytime I look back at it. This doesn't apply to Wrecks or Fragments obviously, but I've personally never had to do without Limestone/Sandstone nodes this way. :confused:
  • Hulkie2345Hulkie2345 New York Join Date: 2017-08-23 Member: 232598Members
    edited September 2017
    Yeah, I still don't get the argument about forced to keep one battery. This is a game breaking fail. If you lose everything some how. And mined everything where you have nothing left. That's the fault of the designers. Also, if this happen. I'd just delete the cache, repopulating all the deposits. Or use the dev console to get myself out of this issue. Or just reload before the death. Which is the most common thing people would do. Unless your artificially limiting yourself. Than that's your choice. There's ways to get out of this highly unlikely scenario. Without resorting to blocking the habitat builder from using Ion Batteries.
  • BelgarelBelgarel Join Date: 2017-07-03 Member: 231570Members, Subnautica Developer
    It's pretty difficult to make your game unfinishable. Maybe if you convert all your crystals into purple keys you could do it.
  • zetachronzetachron Germany Join Date: 2014-11-14 Member: 199655Members
    Belgarel wrote: »
    It's pretty difficult to make your game unfinishable. Maybe if you convert all your crystals into purple keys you could do it.

    There is a real danger that you use up all purple keys and build ion batteries and power cells with the rest of the ion crystals, before getting access to the blue key.

    That would be the part where you have to use the console.
  • ZeddIsDeadZeddIsDead Australia Join Date: 2016-04-21 Member: 216029Members
    Aren't there unlimited ion crystals in the power station too though? :S

    Also if I remember correctly they aren't locked behind a forcefield, so there should be 0% chance of being unable to progress with the story (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).
  • Timelord_FredTimelord_Fred Join Date: 2017-07-05 Member: 231596Members
    edited September 2017
    ZeddIsDead wrote: »
    Aren't there unlimited ion crystals in the power station too though? :S

    Also if I remember correctly they aren't locked behind a forcefield, so there should be 0% chance of being unable to progress with the story (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

    The unlimited crystal factory is in the PCF, so if someone used all crystals available before they get the key to get there, the would be out of luck.
  • ZeddIsDeadZeddIsDead Australia Join Date: 2016-04-21 Member: 216029Members
    Ok thanks, I remembered seeing an Ion Node on a pedestal, and I assumed it worked the same way as the PCF one
  • 0x6A72320x6A7232 US Join Date: 2016-10-06 Member: 222906Members
    Tarkannen wrote: »
    Halios wrote: »
    Resources don't respawn

    Huh? I've had resources respawn in my game for over a year now. Granted, it's a slow process and sometimes it takes several minutes, but they do slowly come back. In fact, one of my favorite pastimes in the game is after I watch the Sunbeam explode, I'll circle-strafe the Mountain Island like a dozen times picking up Magnetite from the terrain. Many times they spawn from empty areas on the mountain out of nowhere everytime I loop, and I'll keep it up until I have enough for eight future Thermal Plants. :lol:

    Maybe it's due to my setup or the fact I'm only running 4GB of memory, but I can pick an area clean (such as one of the coral tunnels) and if I move out of my the area's visual presence, I'll always have a couple of the nodes respawn everytime I look back at it. This doesn't apply to Wrecks or Fragments obviously, but I've personally never had to do without Limestone/Sandstone nodes this way. :confused:

    Sounds like perhaps resource gathering not being written to cache? Or maybe they respawn now, dunno.
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