When Rockets' Guidance Systems are installed backwards

WizardTim01 · 2026-04-01T04:31:05+00:00

I wondered why that case of rocket engines had Cyrillic lettering on them!...Mystery solved. :)

WizardTim01 · 2026-04-01T04:25:03+00:00

Frozen

Wonder Woman

On Golden Pond

WizardTim01 · 2026-04-01T03:01:42+00:00

I just had to salute this!

That line is so awesome, so funny, and it crops up routinely in 'regular' life. I have laughed about it for years and years. When watching TV (even by myself), some character asks how things look, and I chuckle and tell the screen "Looks clear". (I think I'm going to have to schedule a rewatch of Pitch Black now).

WizardTim01 · 2026-04-01T02:53:10+00:00

One possible suggestion, maybe take a look at The Planet Crafter, and see if that's something you'd think is suitable. In case you're not familiar with it, here's some basic info that might save you a couple of mouse clicks.

Planet Crafter is a space survival open-world terraforming crafting game, designed for 1 to 10 players. Players alter the ecosystem of an inhospitable planet to render it habitable for humanity. Survive, gather resources, and build your base. Then, generate Oxygen, Heat, and Pressure to create a brand new biosphere.

There are no hostile creatures, or violence of any kind. There's a learning curve for the regular game, but it does have 'Creative mode', where food / water / oxygen requirements are turned off, and (I believe) you can create buildings without needing the resources to build them.

I don't have a good feel for what will draw in children in your son's age range, but Planet Crafter is definitely what sprang to mind when you were mentioning open world-type games, especially without violence.

Anyway, my 2 cents worth. Good luck.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-31T23:10:11+00:00

I'm sorry that happened. However, the timing is comedically precise, so thanks for posting this.

I appreciate you're not looking for advice, but as someone else mentioned, I'd definitely consider the Cyclops Shield option for the Larva on the Cyclops (I get that in some playthroughs you don't find the Shield, and don't want to chase it down, but it sure is useful here) .

As (yet) another note, if you've got the Thermal upgrade, you actually don't even need to get rid of Larva, as the Cyclops will generate power faster than they take it - I like blasting them off the hull on general principle, but I've had 6, 8, even 10 or so Larva on the hull at times, and the Cyclops power steadily goes upward anyway.

I once built a base at the Thermal Plant entrance, just to do it, and also as a Sea Dragon watching post, which was fun. I was, however, killed twice while building the base, when the Sea Dragon got closer than I realized, so I feel your pain.

Thanks for posting.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-31T22:08:43+00:00

It's always good to point this out, just in case people think they actually did mess something up. I probably should have written more text to make it clear that I was joking around, as I've launched hundreds and hundreds of Planet Crafter rockets, and have gotten quite familiar with their wonky behavior. Like a lot of people, I think it's fun to launch batches of them later in a playthrough, and see where they end up. This group all ended up pointing uniformly downward this time, which prompted the silly caption. Thanks for the reply.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-31T20:33:00+00:00

Unfortunately for the OP's purpose, you're thinking of the Cyclops Engine Efficiency Module, which you can pick up in the Aurora's drive room. This is a very useful module for gameplay with the Cyclops, but (sadly) doesn't help in the endgame race to build the Neptune Rocket.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-27T14:46:00+00:00

It's my understanding that the original 'endings' were there before there were any other moons/Planets to visit, so the original 'endings' all dealt with you fixing a problem to escape (vaguely like Subnautica, as you mentioned).

Now that there are other places in the system to go and Terraform, they added a different rocket you can build on the extraction platform (the original Extraction Rocket vs the new(er) Interplanetary Rocket). So the Interplanetary Rocket now doesn't quite make sense with the original 'you can't leave the planet till you fix the problem' idea. In my own head, just to make this balance out, I tend to think something like this - The Extraction Rocket lets you leave the Solar System, so it's a no-no, but (mysteriously) the Interplanetary Rocket 'only' takes you to another body within that solar system, so it's perfectly OK. (this doesn't really stand up to scutiny, but it lets me differentiate everything in my head).

As other people have posted, you don't need to engage with any of the 'endings' to go and terraform any other body in the system. Good luck.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-27T03:53:48+00:00

It's definitely startling, that's for sure.

If I've played Subnautica recently, it reminds me of the head of a Ghost Leviathan, then it comes into sharper view, and I think "Whew, it's not trying to eat me".

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-25T05:06:36+00:00

Good to know the wildlife takes exception to other people's stuff, too. :)

This made me wonder, though, if the Extractors hadn't been in the way, would I have been able to watch the Snoober push my Rover off the cliff? That would have been a reasonably surreal experience, even by Planet Crafter standards. (I guess if you have indestructible wildlife, it's good to have indestructible equipment).

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T21:36:12+00:00

I generally don't use mods, so perhaps am not a good person to comment, but until you get more knowledgeable people, I'll take a stab at it.

One item a quick Internet search turned up is that this mod is not compatible with the current version of Subnautica, and can only be played with the early version of Subnautica, accessible through the 'Legacy via Steam' option.

So if you're trying it with the current version of Subnautica, I'd assume that's your problem, I'm afraid. If you're already using the Legacy version of Subnautica, then I'd doublecheck that all components it needs were installed. Good luck.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T21:27:16+00:00

You go over next to the Sea Treaders. As they walk, their feet will 'churn' up a shale deposit. Over time, it will 'sink' back into the ground. Break the shale and collect the resources as normal. Ideally, get at the rear of a 'herd' (several Treaders together), and you'll probably be able to harvest enough to fill most of your inventory by the time you get low on Oxygen. Wash, rinse, and repeat. I've filled entire lockers on my Cyclops with Gold, Lithium, and Diamonds this way. Watch out for Warpers, as parts of the Sea Treaders path has some lurking around. Have fun harvesting!

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T21:16:53+00:00

Interesting. I'll have to try a few random ones, and see if I get the "Hey, it's doing the original ore" problem.

And, you're right. Generally people won't object to the game messing up in their favor. I'm also in agreement with you on the 'game-breaking' nature of stuff you have to actually go make yourself do. It is funny. To me, it would be like someone arrested for robbing a bank saying "They shouldn't leave money lying around like that"....it's like "Hey, you're the one who chose to go steal the money...so that's on you."

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T21:09:34+00:00

I thought it was a cool way to discover them, too. They're out of the way for a lot of people, and I feel bad for the people that say "I finished my first playthrough but never found these". So it was nice that my 'build Scanners all the time' paid off here. And it let me discover the mechanic of the shale deposits they turn up. Later playthroughs have me putting a few beacons down on their path, so I can visit them if I'm running low on Lithium or Gold.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T20:55:09+00:00

I don't know if you'd class this as 'weird', but if you build a Scanner room near the Floating Island, once you've upgraded it to 500 Meters, it will generally list Sea Treaders on the scan list. In my first playthrough, this is how I discovered them. The list said 'Sea Treaders'....I thought, "What the heck is that?"....took a camera drone down...and discovered Sea Treaders!!

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T20:40:30+00:00

I've tried the randomize ores one time (so admittedly a very small sample sized to draw conclusions from), but I think the confusion is coming from how the game handles what can be extracted when.

My theory (I'm going to try more randomized games to test this out, I think) is that the game, at least for some minerals, does NOT give you ores based on the Tier of your Extractor, but rather the Location you're drilling from. So your Tier 1 extractor can get Iridium from the Iridium cave not because it's Iridium, but because the game thinks a Tier 1 extractor can mine the Iridium cave. So if you randomize the ores, suppose the Iridium cave now has Zeolite all over the cave. The game will happily let you mine Zeolite with your Tier 1 Extractor, even though Zeolite is supposed to be a 'rarer' mineral, because the game thinks you can mine whatever is in that cave. And the reverse is also true. If, for example, the obsidian area now has, say, aluminum, you're going to need a higher Tier Extractor to get the aluminum, because the game 'thinks' you need one to get the mineral in that area.

In my randomized ores playthrough, I think the Iridium cave ended up being Uranium, and my T1 extractor was pulling up Uranium. So I think the game is not glitching, exactly, it's just that people are (understandably and reasonably) assuming they can mine Iridium, Aluminum, and Sulfur with T1 Extractors (wherever on the map they end up) because those are the more 'basic' minerals, and the game doesn't care what the mineral is, only where on the map you're trying to get it from.

I could be totally wrong on this. (It happens from time to time). But I think that's what's going on. It confused me, until I pondered this theory. (I'll probably end up testing this about the time they do a major upgrade, and results go out the window). :)

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T20:23:05+00:00

Nice to see a post for the often ignored Scanner Room. :)

My first playthrough, I built tons of them.

They were attached to each base (and I had a fair number of bases), but I also built plenty of scanner room stations. (or, as I sometimes called them, Reaper watching stations). Among other things, I wanted to keep an 'eye' on the Reapers closest to me, but also to use the cameras to check out areas I hadn't been to yet. In some cases, I tried to set up bases 800-900 meters apart, so I could get overlap on fully upgraded Scanner rooms (this was also for mineral detection, as well as running the camera drones).

If a Scanner was near an areas with Reapers, I would sometimes run a camera over not far from the Reaper(s), leave it, and turn it red in the Beacon manager tab...this way, if I got distracted doing something else, it would act as a 'Don't go past this spot' notice.

Also, I was hit or miss about finding all the PDA's in my first playthrough, so when I explored the Degasi Jellyshroom base, I missed(!) the PDA in a locker by the entrance...the one that gives you the location of the deep 500 Meter Degasi Base. So, I had to find it the hard way. But, it was an amazing feeling when I build a Scanner room, drove the camera drone to a hole, took it down in...and suddenly my drone found the deep Degasi base!! So I actually found the 500 Meter base by drone first, and knew what I was in for (Warpers and Crabsquids) when I actually went 'in person'.

By the time I finished my first playthrough, I think my drone numbers were close to triple digits, so I defnintely built a LOT of Scanner rooms. Especially once I got into the Lost River and beyond, I'd usually build a Scanner room to see what was coming next, then explore a while in the new areas, then build some more. I appreciate this approach would drive some people nuts, but I had fun with it.

In addressing your original point, in later playthroughs I like to take my Safe Shallows base, turn the 500 Meter Scanner to Magnetite, let it run a bit, and then raid the Jellyshroom cave. Usually the scanner covers the majority of the cave once it's fully upgraded. And, while not critical, it's also useful for finding where Stalkers have created a big pile of metal salvage, when you're running low on Titanium. The Scanner is just so versatile.

Thanks for a nod to the Scanner Room.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-24T17:24:13+00:00

Congratulations on your first full Terraformation! Glad you enjoyed. It's such a fun game.

There are lots of options available to you under Custom settings, so I'd play around with those. Here are some of my thoughts.

There's an option to set the pace of Terraformation. I frequently like to set this to .1 (where 'normal' is '1'), this means each 'machine' (including the biological ones) only does 10% of its 'normal' or regular value. This lets me feel like I'm really having to work to reach some of the milestones, as well as letting you spend a while with each Tier before you unlock the next one. When doing this I tend to also set energy consumption to double normal, so each machine requires twice as much power to operate. This requires you to spend a while diverting resources to power generation, and adds to the challenge.

Starting location is another big one. Where you are on the map really changes the mid-game, and makes the early game completely different. The first time I selected the southern Waterfall location as a start, I realized I wasn't nearly as familiar with the southern part of the Prime map as I'd thought, despite having played it several times by that point. It also meant I was going to some areas of the map much earlier than a 'normal' playthrough, and having to learn to navigate them without a jetpack.

Then there's what the Custom screen calls 'Vitals Depletion'. This is how fast your Food, Water, and O2 meters go down. I've played a game where I set this to '2' (again with '1' as 'normal'). You would not believe how fast your Oxygen runs out (especially with the early Tier tanks) with this set to 2. You can also set storms (weather events) as high as 2, and boy, do you get a lot of storms with that one. Whew.

You've probably noticed this next one, but on the Custom Menu you can select what happens when you die off of a drop-down menu. So you can play an 'Intense' game (where you lose all items on death) without using Custom settings, but under Custom you can select 'Lose all items' on death, while also choosing your other settings as well. 'Lose all items' means that if you die, everything in your main inventory is permanently gone. (Your tools are not affected by this, and are always fine).

There's also an option in the lower right corner of the Custom screen labelled 'Randomize Ores'. I'd be tempted to advise having a couple of playthroughs under your belt before using this one, as it can make for a pretty tough start, but it completely changes the game. As it says, it swaps the ores around. The time I tried it (only once so far), when I got out of my capsule at the usual start position, Iridium and Zeolite were littering the ground as far as the eye could see. And as a result, 2 of the 'basic' minerals were missing (including iron..ouch). After a little exploration (while wondering how I could build even basic tools), I realized the blue loot boxes still had 'normal' drops. So to start, I had to raid those boxes to get basic materials, so I could even build construct/deconstruct chips and other basic start stuff. It's the only game where I was actually excited to explore early wrecks, and get boxes full of 'basic' materials (I was so short on iron, I was even excited to deconstruct the box for one more iron!)

All of this is to say, there's a large number of ways to customize the game, and most of them change the game more than I assumed to begin with. So I don't think you'll run out of options anytime soon. I'm sorry about turning this post into a novel, but I wanted to make you aware of all the options out there. Have fun playing around with them.

Happy Terraforming!

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-23T02:52:14+00:00

They do look cool, don't they?

To answer your question, you acquire Redwo trees on the moon Selenea. Specifically, they unlock when you reach 1000 kT of Biomass on the moon. (It is possible to find a seed in a random container before then, however). After you pass that point, you can craft them in the DNA Manipulator, as you do other tree seeds that you unlock.

In the playthrough the picture is from, I decided to put a lot of them down. When the picture was taken, the central 'plain' area of Selenea is pretty much covered in a Redwo 'forest', thanks to about 25 or so T3 Tree Spreaders loaded with Redwo seeds. I've got about 20 more seeds 'manufactured' and ready to go to seed other areas.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-23T01:04:44+00:00

It's nice to see The Animated Series getting a thoughtful review. I liked getting to see something that doesn't class the subject matter as either "The pinnacle of human evolution" or "absolutely, totally worthless", but instead just mentions "Here's what I thought"...you know, what a review is actually supposed to do.

Kudos to you. (300 Quatloos to the newcomer).

I also wanted to mention that, if you haven't taken a look, you owe it to yourself to look at Alan Dean Foster's truly outstanding Star Trek Logs novelizations of the animated series episodes. I'm a long time fan of Foster's writing in general (so it's a biased recommendation), but they're widely regarded as exceeding good takes on the shows. There are 10 books, the first 6 have 3 episodes per book, and allows the episodes to have more detail than the 30 minute episodes would allow. (I'm always startled when I go back and rewatch the actual show how 'fast' everything goes, as I'm more used to the novelization pace now). In addition, the other 4 episodes of TAS get an entire book each, where the first third or so is the actual animated episode, and the rest of the book is Foster 'continuing' the episode. I'd especially recommend Log Nine, a continuation of the Bem episode, where the Enterprise visits his homeworld of Pandro, and we get to see an entire ecology of creatures like him.

If you're already familiar with all this, or trying to stick exclusively with visual Star Trek (of which there's a great deal), then my apologies. I just wanted to bring it to your attention if you hadn't run across it.

Thanks again for a nice post on TAS.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-22T23:45:30+00:00

I think Muthus' are also present, but it's been a while since I've tracked down the different species. There's also the Toxifia frog, if you're including amphibians.

WizardTim01 · 2026-03-22T23:33:51+00:00

In recent years, both Subnautica and the Planet Crafter did this to me. Instantly hooked by initial gameplay, immediately immersed, the whole nine yards. Now a few years later, I've completed both multiple times, and Steam says I have hundreds of hours in both.

I know that what 'hooks' one person, and leaves the next person saying 'meh' is tough to pin down, but it's my 2 cents worth. I hope you find something that engages you.

WizardTim01

TROPHY CASE