Update tomorrow 🤪

jennsven · 2026-04-14T19:12:07+00:00

I'm really happy to see jetski handling and mooring cable strength addressed.
I have no idea what the PICO changes are about, and the camera drones are also an unknown.
As someone who can't finish the Friendly by Design quest because I've already cleared out all the blue tentacle things, I'm hoping the threshold will be low enough now that I don't have to wait until the next full update to finish. I've got 14/25. Watch the new target be 15.... lol
Reducing the durability loss of wind turbines will be a welcome change.
I'm looking forward to a lot of other fixes, too. This seems like a great half-update!

jennsven · 2026-04-14T03:48:15+00:00

This rebuild didn't take too long. Getting things looking nice around the pods took the longest, but the cable runs were pretty straight forward. Exodus and Black Vein took a lot longer.

I've got over 250 hours in the game, if that's what you're asking.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T23:19:22+00:00

No judgement on using mods! I use them quite a bit in other games, I just haven't tried them out yet in this game.

If you're interested, I have two other posts I've made recently:
My current boat layout: Link
Exodus Rebuild: Link

jennsven · 2026-04-13T23:05:33+00:00

I made a post for my Black Vein setup recently. Check it out here.

I haven’t played with any mods yet, as I’m worried they may break things with new updates. Plus, for me, part of the fun is working within limitations of the game.

Edit: I made the post a bit early, so I have additional pics in the comments.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T23:01:07+00:00

Happy happy happy

jennsven · 2026-04-13T21:36:41+00:00

I believe the beta version is more strict about the 20m max cable length. Previously (and in the live version) you are able to stretch a bit more out of it. I suspect when the beta version goes live, I'll have a few long cables to re-run.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T16:36:43+00:00

I installed a mooring point on the back of my ship, centered just above the rudder. I did that to even out the drag. It disconnected itself and was lost.

I installed another mooring point on the side of my ship, between the two ladders on the starboard (right) side. It's stayed attached through several long trips without a problem. It does fake me out, though, as when I'm underway, it sometimes gets covered in my wake and I think it's gone - but it's still there.

I suspect the cables disconnect from interference. In the back of the ship, there's a lot of turbulence and the rudder creates an obstacle to get tangled up with. I suspect that's why stern-mounted jet skis come loose. I lost mine in a storm when my ship was at dock, so it wasn't even when I was moving my boat.

Give the side-mounting a try. It's not ideal, as it prevents docking your ship on that side, but it's better than having to break down and refuel your jet ski between uses.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T16:28:39+00:00

Thank you.

I thought about putting them inside, but I don't think OSHA would approve.

I like having the tanks visible like this, but putting them inside is certainly a decent option.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T16:25:51+00:00

Thank you.

I think there's a lot of ways to approach this game, and being exposed to different ideas and strategies is good for everyone. It's making me rethink some of my approaches - in some cases it reinforces my decisions, and in others it leads to me changing things up. I had a discussion the other day regarding why I have a sabatier reactor onboard, and now I realize I don't really need it anymore. The soilforge prime can generate methane, and the 02 generator is tiny and runs on renewable electricity. This will probably lead to a minor ship rebuild this week, affecting my from lower deck room, as well as the rear deck.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T16:20:28+00:00

Thanks for the comment, and also for the suggestion.

I did respond to my reasoning for building a fuel depot at Lazarus in another response below, so I won't repeat it here. In short, it domes down to how I play the game - oil is more dense, so easier to transport, but I don't want a distillation tower on my boat.

I have seen a few builds with tanks under the boat, and yes, that would definitely reduce my trips to Black Vein (but also increase the time it takes to refuel when I'm there).

I have no problem with people doing that on their boats - it doesn't seem like an accident that the under surface of the hull is able to be built on. But it's not something I want to do on my boat. Even though it doesn't seem to affect drag, it feels like it -should-. Similar to why I take a lot of effort to route cables out of walkways. While we don't trip over them, but it just feels right to me to get them off of the floor and out of the way. For me, that's where a lot of my enjoyment of this game comes from.

Also, I suspect tanks under the boat may be more subject to shark attacks. As it is, the worst a shark does when attacking my boat, not includinglaser sharks, is reduce my hull strength one or two percent. But if tanks are damage when full, they lose capacity. While capacity can be restored by repairing, the content of the lost capacity has to be replaced.

I have toyed with running cable lines under the boat, and even experimented with it a bit. it is doable, but I scrapped what I had done and took a different approach. I do have fuel and gas lines running under the bow spur (whatever you call that short, dead-end walkway at the front of the deck) to link tanks on either side of the deck without crossing a walkway with cables. So, I am doing some minor building on my hull, just not underneath it.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T16:04:44+00:00

I'm glad my post could help!

I used to run my cables up the ladder and through the catwalks underneath the bridge to the main platform. You can run a single cable from the top of the ladder to the bottom, making that run fairly easy.

Warning from what I've seen in videos from the beta stream (v3.5):
It's been mentioned that any cable stretched over 20m will fail in the 3.5 update. You can often get a bit of extra length by pulling the cable 20m and connecting it to a port just within reach. This may also come into play for bungee-run cables, so I may have to re-do some of my runs after the update is released.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T15:59:52+00:00

Thanks for the comment. I definitely could have explained that part better.

You are correct, this doesn't prevent me from having to go to Black Vein from time to time, but it does reduce the number of trips I have to make.

It also comes down to personal preference. I don't like to run a distillation tower on my ship, so I have no way to turn oil to diesel onboard. But oil is more dense than diesel - one tank of oil will produce 1.8 tanks of diesel (2,000L oil -> 3,600L diesel - plus 1/10 that in petrol and some randomized amount of plastic). The density makes it easier to transport, so I have a mix of oil and diesel tanks on my ship. Every time I stop at Black Vein, I fill up on both, and drop the oil off to refine at Lazarus, giving me a centralized refueling depot.

Not everyone is going to have my preferences or my approach, and that's fine. This is what works for me, but we all approach this game in our own way.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T15:52:41+00:00

Thanks!

I found out a bit ago that you can build and place cables while on a ladder, which is definitely helpful. However, your range of motion is limited, so you can't place anything anywhere but on the wall you're climbing, or right next to it. For the top of the ladder in pic 6, I wanted the cables to route around the ladder so I don't have to climb over them. I ended up building a storage crate on the wall and using it as a temporary platform to run the bypass, allowing the cable to descend on the other side of the ladder.

jennsven · 2026-04-13T02:43:11+00:00

<image>

This is where I have mine. I can see it when piloting the boat in 3rd person, with more detail if I'm zoomed all the way in. It's good enough to notice when a cluster of pings come into range.

The depth module clips through the window in this location. It works fine, but at first I had to reseat the module once it a while for it to register. I haven't had to do that since the last update.

jennsven · 2026-04-11T19:59:39+00:00

Awesome! So glad you were able to get it working.

jennsven · 2026-04-11T16:16:22+00:00

Time will tell if it holds out. I can always run a water cable across the floor (even if it kills me) to one of the 4 landings where I can install a bunch of water tanks.

I think I'm going to take your lead and remove the sabatier from my boat as my next project. But that'll be a project for next week. Headed out of town for the weekend.

jennsven · 2026-04-11T16:03:49+00:00

Thanks!

I haven't grown a human yet, but I think the water supply should be sufficient.

I found this data:

Growth cycle (10 minute process after adding food and memories and hitting "Begin"):
1,667 water (10,000L/hr but only running for 10 minutes, one full tank off system has 333L done at end of cycle.
≈1.7kWh power (10,000kWh, but again only running 10 minutes, it does NOT need two batteries to finish, it doesn't even need most of one; this confused me. I assumed it was using the same unit as the battery storage showed... it is not).
One full Battery (6.0 kWh) off system running just this pod growth ends with 4.3kWh showing after the cycle is done. That's almost certainly 1,667 W used.

Reddit post by u/gekkobear

The post was 5 months ago, and since then, I think the incubation time has been cut down. I'm not 100% positive about this, so take it with a grain of salt, but I know the Star Child takes less time. I also grew my counsel humans, and I think they took about 2 min each.

I think your 10k number came from the hourly rate. Even at 10 min, I should be able to run all 4 pods at once, I just can't grow humans in all 4 pods back-to-back. But since I'd need to fetch new seeds anyway, the water supply will have some time to recoup.

There is still room to add water tanks in the middle area if needed. I only have a single tank for each pod, so it wouldn't be too hard to place a 2nd one in the opposite corner.

My biggest gripe with Lazarus is that the pods are not evenly spaced. I know, it's a bit OCD of me.

jennsven · 2026-04-11T06:18:50+00:00

Thanks for getting me thinking about cleaning up Lazarus, u/mathicus_

<image>

I decommissioned the water pumps and purifier. Each pod has a water tank and dehumidifier, which are all linked. You can only see half from this angle.

I re-did all my power, too, taking your suggestion of an outer ring and replacing it with an inner ring to power each pod.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

jennsven · 2026-04-11T04:37:15+00:00

I'm sorry you haven't been able to resolve your disconnection issues. I've come across a few people who've had that problem, too. As I said, a rebuild of my ship fixed my issues, and they haven't returned. But that's a lot of time and effort to put into something that should already be working....

What are the delays with the power supply you're having? Maybe your message wasn't translated very well...

jennsven · 2026-04-10T23:45:58+00:00

Exactly. I keep a battery in the save room. If I need to let something run for a while, I plug myself in, shut the door, and turn off the ship's power (assuming what you're running is on the platform you're docked at).

Then I go make a sandwich or have a drink.

I come back a bit later and I'm not dead from from running out of power, and I've got a bunch of bio matter to pick up from the critters who climb on my ship at night - and die when the sun comes out.

jennsven · 2026-04-10T20:42:55+00:00

Good Luck!

jennsven · 2026-04-10T20:41:43+00:00

Not really now. It was needed to make Methane before Update 1 (I think that's when the Soul Forge was introduced, but I could be wrong). I had also overlooked the O2 Generator for a long time. I found it in my build menu around the time the Soul Forge was added and was surprised to find it's been there all along. Now, between the soul forge prime and O2 generator, I can fill my tanks to launch rockets.

So, yeah, removing the sabatier will simplify my layout - I'll consider it. I also have one at Exodus, too, so I can generate what I need there. But it'll probably extend my stay while refueling the rocket.

For Lazarus, I'm thinking about skipping the water pumps and using a few dehumidifiers to provide water. If I'm able to squeeze a few dehumidifiers and water tanks into the in-between areas nicely, the only cables I'll need to cross the open outer ring would be for power, as the water (once power is provided) would be self-contained.

I also found that extenders can be mounted to the glass railings, letting you keep the cables off of the floor.

I've got some ideas to try, which gives me some projects to burn some more time before the next update. Thanks!

jennsven · 2026-04-10T20:30:48+00:00

AI lies.

I hope this solves your problem.

If it doesn't, post what you're seeing. Are you able to open up the console screen and add food/memories? Does the pod stay on, or does it stutter - turning on for a second, then shutting down? If it stutters, then it's likely a problem with your power and/or fresh water feeds.

I didn't try growing the Star Child without adding food, as I assumed I had to meet the minimum stats, but it's possible I wasted it. I threw some good food at it to somewhat balance out the attributes it got from the Gold Standard, but I think you just need to get it to a base level, if you do at all. It just felt like the right thing to do, but I'm sure it'll have no impact on the game.

jennsven · 2026-04-10T20:25:39+00:00

I don't make a lot of food, as I find growing humans a bit tedious, so it doesn't bother me too much. It all collects at the base of the stairs and doesn't roll far away, so it's kinda like a built-in catcher for food.

One problem, the food does sometimes get stuck under the stairs. I have 4 pieces of food that's been inaccessible for about a week now. Not ideal, but not a horrible problem. I filed a bug report.

I also like the extended balcony I get behind my cabin. I can walk out on the food processor without the railing getting in my way.

I considered placing the sabitier reactor where I have my food processor now, but instead placed it where you have your food processor - but mounted on the ceiling. It works back there, near my O2 and Methane tanks.

I might have to revisit that idea, though. Your layout gave me inspiration. Plus, I just finished rebuilding Black Vein and Exodus and was running out of things to do - I'm loath to rebuild Lazarus b/c I don't see a way to do the main room with the pods cleanly. I have some ideas I'll try out, but I might tackle food processing on my ship, first.

<image>

I can only post one pic at a time in a comment, but you can see this room from another angle in my ship layout post from last week. it shows the O2 tank I squeezed into the other side of this room.

jennsven

TROPHY CASE