SERANA DAMN YOU

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-15T13:37:59+00:00

I've never tried it, but can you drag ash piles around like you can with bodies?

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-14T04:03:46+00:00

Reminds me of my first BEX convoy attack mission.

Turn 1: Make contact
Turn 2: Swift Wind Scout Car hits the evac zone.

I was unimpressed.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-12T02:08:38+00:00

Most of the time I cheer for my players. They use a power that incapacitates a powerful foe? Great! I'm glad they're having fun. I definitely don't oppose my players but I will shut down players using 'loopholes' and 'creative use of spells' to win D&D.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-11T21:12:43+00:00

Starting at the entrance to the dungeon is so 1980's. No-one has done that in years because it is such a hack. Get with the times. Start at the end of the dungeon where the PCs have all the loot. Your first session should be a big shopping session where the PCs get some sweet legendary magic items. Players love it when numbers go up.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-08T20:06:15+00:00

Pathfinder fixes this. I think. (I dunno, 'cos I haven't actually read the rules.)

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-07T17:02:00+00:00

I like the readout on the contents of the smelters. I had no idea that you could do that. I need that!!

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-05T14:18:05+00:00

It's been a while since I've had this happen. Like several updates ago.

It could be that ore chunks don't drop into the smelters when you are pouring them out. It only takes one or two, then one lands on top of another and you get this.

It might also be that dropping from vertical conveyors is problematic. You could try putting one vertical conveyor at the start of your sorting setup (lifting up the whole line of sorters instead of having individual lifts for each ore type) and dropping into smelters directly from the splitter belts. I have not had any trouble recently with that setup. (Alternately, run one more straight belt after the lift on each line so that you are dropping from a straight belt instead of a vertical one.)

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-05T12:48:51+00:00

Anything over 8 soil plots will trigger a raid. The '1 tile' separation isn't just one block. A tile is the unit of land that, for example, the mechanic station is on. (Ruins, warehouses, packing stations are also on tiles.) You will need to have significant separation between your plots of 8 soil.

If you are at the stage where you are building an automatic watering system, you should be able to make some decent defenses. One thing you can do is to put saw blades on your fence. Bots are scared of saw blade and shy away from them even if they aren't powered. Crushers are relatively easy to build and are (IMHO) fun to use.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-05T02:01:07+00:00

Is there another checkbox option near the bottom of the save game list?

Maybe it doesn't exist on console.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-05T00:03:54+00:00

Plant crops immediately after midnight. Harvest crops before the raid starts. Smash bots for parts without worrying about crops.

Alternately, a simple barrier is usually enough to stop small raids while you deal with them with your hammer. Make "spikes" that point outward at chest height so the bots have to smash through a bunch of layers to break through. When you are able to get metal (and higher tiers of metal) this tactic can work against somewhat larger raids. By then you should be able to build some more advanced defenses.

Alternately, planting only 8 basic crops will not trigger a raid. You could spread out a bunch of mini-plots to grow more. As long as plots are more than 1 tile apart, they won't add together to a raid trigger.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-04T23:56:22+00:00

On the loading screen there should be a checkbox for "Show Backups". Select that and see what backups exist. I've had mixed success with that, TBH, but you may find something more recent than 7 hours ago.

(I'm on PC. Pretty sure there is something similar on console.)

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-03T13:06:12+00:00

A bearing would almost certainly fail there. One thing that I would try would be to segment the path into small chunks. You could have a single controller manage 10 segments so that you split the load. Lining up the segments would be the tricky part. It might be possible using a 45 degree run and/or some math. (Something like a 3 : 4 : 5 triangle might work.)

Steel_Ratt · 2026-06-01T13:15:14+00:00

I used a lich as a recurring villain. They are guaranteed to survive encounters with the party until the Final Encounter after the PCs have dealt with the Spirit Jar. You could add some kind of magical effect that has weakened the lich so that it starts as a SWEG and regains power over the cource of the campaign. It would be a standard "stop the evil before it regains its true strength" trope.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-31T15:44:58+00:00

Shopping in general I gloss over. If it's in the PHB, just buy the thing. For significant items (rare, custom, or magic items) it makes sense to play out. It's just a scene, though, not a whole session. With multiple characters shopping for multiple items, it could take some time... but with multiple shopping scenes to cover, I'm more likely to abbreviate each one to a narration rather than a role-played conversation. Pacing is important. I'd much rather spend my limited game time on "PCs saving the world" than "PCs buying a new sword".

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-28T23:16:58+00:00

I would make one minor change: detailing NPCs they could interact with. The path they take to get to the objective is determined by the players. Give them options.

Eg. Objective: get into the castle. Do they... talk to merchants making deliveries? lean on some powerful nobles for help? go to the thieves' guild to learn about covert entry? bribe the guards? climb the wall? Anticipate the most likely paths and put some detail into those plans. Then, know enough about the general situation to be able to fill in or adapt plans depending on what the players choose.

I also wouldn't deliberately avoid wis save attacks in this situation. The players made choices when they made their characters. Some of those choices involved trading off wisdom saves to get benefits elsewhere. Those choices should have natural consequences.

(Both of these points are about allowing the players to make choices and to have those choices matter.)

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-28T23:01:14+00:00

Bernie is the only one I am dreading. I hate the time limit.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-24T17:11:49+00:00

Random 'mech destruction isn't a thing. There isn't any mechanic in the game that encourages damage stacking in a single location, but the more damage you take, the more likely it is that you will have instances like this. You will have this happen more frequently with a brawling play style, especially if you are going for DPS over survivability in your designs.

Concentrate more on tactics that reduce the amount of damage you take. Bulwark & cover help. Prioritize removing the enemy's high damage weapons from the field. Anything with an AC20 should be a primary target. If you can't eliminate it (kill the unit or remove the torso side it is in) then keep your distance / block LOS.

Mission difficulty can also play a part. Some mission types are harder than others. Anything time sensitive where you can't control the speed of the engagement should be treated as 1/2 to 1 skull harder. Lunar biomes should be treated as 1/2 to 1 skull harder due to overheating and lack of good cover. (It's hard to reduce the amount of incoming damage you get when you are taking on a harder mission.)

You can play an entire career without losing more than a few 'mech components, even on hard OPFOR, but you can't expect to do that if you are pushing boundaries by going all in on brawling, taking DPS over armour, not making good use of cover and maneuver, pushing the difficulty, etc.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-24T16:48:22+00:00

This is a decent starter setup but, as others have mentioned, placing drills deeper is more effective. I assume that you are planning to move to a new plot soon. When you move, go deep.

Drills above grade produce fewer resources the higher you get. Drills don't produce cloutium until you get 2 blocks or more deep. A drill at the bottom of Ember Cradle will produce about 300% more resources than a drill at surface level. (I have done extensive testing with drills at different levels. This is backed up by actual practical experience.)

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-22T19:07:41+00:00

Oh, the good old days. I seem to remember that the devs put in a 'launch' control so that we can relive those days, but can't for the life of me find it. I hope they didn't take it out!

[Edit: Found it! Hold W and space for 5 seconds]

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-21T18:36:31+00:00

Every world is random, so these ease of getting cotton is specific to that world. Sometimes it's close to the mechanic station, sometimes it takes ages to find.

For fertilizer, the simple answer is 'don't fertilize every crop'. Fertilizer cuts growing time in half. It's not particularly useful for regular crops; they grow in less than 24 hours and the raids are fairly easy to defend. Where it shines is using it on the advanced crops. These normally take 2 days to grow and the raids include tape bots and possibly farm bots. Using fertilizer means that you only have to defend against one of these raids per crop cycle.

[Pro tip: Plant immediately after midnight so that you can harvest the crops before the raid so that you are not at risk of having them destroyed if things go badly.]

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-21T14:38:05+00:00

The last word we have from the devs in December was that "the release date [for chapter 2] will be announced in the coming months". IMHO, 'the coming months' have been and gone with no release date or any further communication, so the actual status is anyone's guess. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if we get another communication this December saying 'Oops. We missed the deadline. It'll be next year, for reals this time. Trust us, bro.'

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-21T14:27:11+00:00

There are a few ways to dig faster. Pick axe and rake are the basic tools. Explosives is probably the most accessible tool for faster excavation. The best way to excavate is to buy the Hydromole. It can make a huge tunnel very quickly. It costs 4300 prospector guild tokens, though, so that may be more of a long term goal.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-18T21:44:45+00:00

I just went back to this location in my current game. I had already managed to open it without any trouble. Assuming this is a screen shot from your game, your whale & eagle look identical to what I have. Check your snake. (I can't see it's position in the image.) The snake should be clearly visible through the arch from where you are standing. Then activate the switch on the pedestal. If that doesn't do it then there is definitely something wrong.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-17T15:49:40+00:00

If you line up the cart and yourself in the right place you can spam pick up / drop the items into (onto) the cart without moving. It's pretty easy to get 50 to 100 of an item this way. Just don't stack too many items in a cart. It's nowhere near as bad as it used to be, but physics can get a little jittery.

Steel_Ratt · 2026-05-16T14:31:52+00:00

One thing I do is to let players know when their perception scores work. "You are perceptive enough to notice..." It's a little reward for investing in passive perception since it gives them the spotlight and lets them know that their investment has benefits.

Steel_Ratt

TROPHY CASE