Hardspace Shipbreaker

[naednek]

Oh, same here!

I had re-visited it after one of their more recent updates, but stopped as I didn't want to reveal too much of the story until the full release.

• Ship Saving - Save your in-progress salvage for later!

nice

That's what made me quit. I would have refunded at that point but I was too late

[Unagi]

Do folks prefer using a controller or keyboard and mouse?

I'm the wrong guy to ask, but I have no problem doing keyboard and mouse.

AWSD
Q/E - rotate
space/ C - rise/fall
CTRL - brakes


Using a controller to line up the laser is just too much for me.

[jztemple2]

Do folks prefer using a controller or keyboard and mouse?

I'm the wrong guy to ask, but I have no problem doing keyboard and mouse.

AWSD
Q/E - rotate
space/ C - rise/fall
CTRL - brakes


Using a controller to line up the laser is just too much for me.

Thanks! I've picked up the game last night and have been trying both ways. It does seem like kb+m are easier to use.

Turns out I originally bought this game last September but did a refund since it was still in Early Access and missing features. I'm enjoying it more now.

[Kasey Chang]

I've always used KB/M during the entire early access, with both Q/E together as the brake.

[wonderpug]

FWIW I'm pretty sure I used a controller and I thought it worked really well for the 3d movement.

[jztemple2]

Since I'm having issues with corrupted saved games in Sniper Elite 5 I've gone back to this game. I'm enjoying the gameplay more than I thought I would. I blew up my first fuel tank tonight, luckily surviving it, and saw for the first time a shattered hole in the side of a ship. Pretty cool. I managed to get out a reactor without it blowing up as well.

[jztemple2]

OK, I'm confused. I've had a couple of instances of a fuel tank connected through a ninety degree elbow to something on the wall which said something like "fuel connector". I thought it was something I could cut but that just set the whole thing on fire and eventually the fire reached the tank and boom! I tried pulling the fuel tank out but that didn't work either. What am I doing wrong?

[Kasey Chang]

OK, I'm confused. I've had a couple of instances of a fuel tank connected through a ninety degree elbow to something on the wall which said something like "fuel connector". I thought it was something I could cut but that just set the whole thing on fire and eventually the fire reached the tank and boom! I tried pulling the fuel tank out but that didn't work either. What am I doing wrong?

There's probably a fuel cut-off switch somewhere you can reach to turn off the fuel flow first. The pipe should then "go dark", telling you it's okay to cut.

[jztemple2]

OK, I'm confused. I've had a couple of instances of a fuel tank connected through a ninety degree elbow to something on the wall which said something like "fuel connector". I thought it was something I could cut but that just set the whole thing on fire and eventually the fire reached the tank and boom! I tried pulling the fuel tank out but that didn't work either. What am I doing wrong?

There's probably a fuel cut-off switch somewhere you can reach to turn off the fuel flow first. The pipe should then "go dark", telling you it's okay to cut.

Thanks, I'll look for it!

[jztemple2]

I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying the game. I thought this would be one of those car mechanic sims type, but there's a lot of challenge in trying to dissect a ship without killing oneself:


There's even a challenge in trying to get a large piece of stuff into a processor:


About the only things I'm not enjoying are all the dialogs from my co-workers, which appear to be unskippable. I just want to go out and take things apart!

[Kasey Chang]

OK, I'm confused. I've had a couple of instances of a fuel tank connected through a ninety degree elbow to something on the wall which said something like "fuel connector". I thought it was something I could cut but that just set the whole thing on fire and eventually the fire reached the tank and boom! I tried pulling the fuel tank out but that didn't work either. What am I doing wrong?

UPDATE: Turns out you can just pull the fuel tank off. That'll "elbow" is self-sealing, once you take the tank off with the grapple. Chuck that into the barge. The rest you can deal with as you please.

[jztemple2]

I'm working on another Javelin Heavy Cargo. It's got the big fuel tank in the skeleton structure between the two hull halves:



Ah, there it is! The fuel cutoff:


When I turned it off suddenly I could pull on that big tank and it would move. Thanks!

[Kasey Chang]

Just hit Rank 14, videos being uploaded. I'm doing Open Shift with drain disabled (i.e. easy mode), which means I do NOT have to periodically go back to the hab (shift is indefinite instead of only 15 minutes long, and I do NOT have to go back for more oxygen periodically). If you have infinite time, you'd take a little different approach than if you have only 15 minutes per shift, but maybe not THAT much. I generally take apart ships very carefully.

So far the differences I've noticed from previous version:

* airlock can still blow apart if you don't decompress them early (the usual trick is to shoot out one of the doors with the laser)
* airlock console is worth a lot more than the door switches, about 100 times more even though they look the same.
* Otherwise, decompression was tuned down a bit from earlier versions. Decompressing an airlock doesn't move the ship (much)
* They added a coolant can at each "big nacelle" so you can use it to pre-freeze some of those flame spots... nice. Those have
always been a bit of PITA for me, being relatively late additions.
* The ships "fall apart" unless there are bits and pieces gluing them together. Sometimes it's cutpoints, sometimes it's the "seams" (aluminum members), soemtimes, it's actual interior bits like the ceiling storage bins or the corner storage bins. The early ships really fall apart pretty easily, but later ships they left in the "sticky" parts as a challenge.
* You get tethers earlier and more of them. It used to be you don't get more than 30 and that's near endgame. RIght now I have 50 and I'm only rank 14 out of 30.

Good thing you can still do the triple dunk (drop ECU, Reactor, AND Thruster together) to save time on the Javelin, rather than dropping them individually.

[jztemple2]

I just hit rank 10 and I'm playing in open shift as well with no O2 depletion. I never played in Early Access so I don't have to unlearn anything . I'm really still enjoying the gameplay, even having to figure out how to get the various parts into the right disposal places.

[jztemple2]

I've just run into a bug where I can't change modes on the scanner, here's what I posted about it on an already existing thread

I've had this issue come up with not being able to cycle through the different scanner settings, and yes I've bought the upgrades and for several ships I've been able to cycle through all the three different modes. Now it doesn't work. I've reassigned the keybinding, that still doesn't work either. I've gone to the scanner upgrade screen and clicked on the upgrade buttons just to see if that helped, but it didn't. Any other suggestions?

Anyone here run into that? Any proposed fixes? I've bought the upgrades and have used them on several ships. And I've reassigned the keys. Nothing helps

[Kasey Chang]

Did you try the mouse wheel? That usually works.

[jztemple2]

Did you try the mouse wheel? That usually works.

Yes, I've been using the mouse wheel to change scanner modes on several ships, then it just quit working. I changed the keybinding to other keys, still didn't help. I searched the Steam Tech Support forum for the game and found this bug has been in existence since last year, exactly as has happened to me. Numerous bug reports have been filed on it. Apparently it occurs if you upgrade your scanner before you get a message about upgrading the scanner in the email. Once that message hits, it resets the new scanner modes but since you've already upgraded, you can't upgrade again.

Very disappointing.

[jztemple2]

This is what I really need for controls in this game

[Kasey Chang]

Ah, that explains the problem. I don't upgrade my scanners much as I only use it to look for "leftover" loot I forgot to chuck into the barge. I usually already have a plan to take apart the ship without scanning it.

[jztemple2]

This game is causing me to have a pain in my neck! I'm unconsciously craning my head around to look under and around walls as I maneuver near the ship. A couple hours of that I need some aspirin and a lie down

I'm working on the Gecko Station Hopper and I'm at the point where I just have the remaining giant aluminum box.


I figure it's too big to put in the furnace, heck it won't even budge anyway. So I'm trying to cut it apart with my splitsaw but I've not yet developed an effective technique, so I'm ending up with a lot of slivers of metal

[stimpy]

On a scale from 1 to Elden Ring, what's the learning curve on this?

[jztemple2]

On a scale from 1 to Elden Ring, what's the learning curve on this?

I don't know Elden Ring, but this isn't too tough to pick up. You start off on easier to disassemble ships and you have a voice in your ear giving you help. Also for each significant new tech (which is valuable and can also kill you) you get a training session that eases you into the actual procedure. Quite a lot of it is just using common sense and thinking about how things move in zero G.

[jztemple2]

I'm very impressed how different the Gecko Heavy Cargo interior design is different than the Station Hopper. Very cool how the different designs present different challenges.

On a scale from 1 to Elden Ring, what's the learning curve on this?

I don't know Elden Ring, but this isn't too tough to pick up. You start off on easier to disassemble ships and you have a voice in your ear giving you help. Also for each significant new tech (which is valuable and can also kill you) you get a training session that eases you into the actual procedure. Quite a lot of it is just using common sense and thinking about how things move in zero G.

I should also mention that if you are on Discord, there is a surprisingly usual "questions" channel on their Discord site. I've gone there a number of times to ask questions and folks have been quick to respond and pretty helpful.

[Kasey Chang]

I'm working on the Gecko Station Hopper and I'm at the point where I just have the remaining giant aluminum box

I figure it's too big to put in the furnace, heck it won't even budge anyway. So I'm trying to cut it apart with my splitsaw but I've not yet developed an effective technique, so I'm ending up with a lot of slivers of metal

My technique so far with that is laser the seams from the bottom of the middle section so you tear away the middle floor, then remove the contents through the hole. Then you can split the box by lasering the seams from the top depending on how much you want to carve off. You'll get a lot of "salvage destroyed" because you're technically destroying aluminum, but those are used as seams between tiles and you had to destroy them to free the tiles. It's only 1200 each seam anyway.

[jztemple2]

I'm working on the Gecko Station Hopper and I'm at the point where I just have the remaining giant aluminum box

I figure it's too big to put in the furnace, heck it won't even budge anyway. So I'm trying to cut it apart with my splitsaw but I've not yet developed an effective technique, so I'm ending up with a lot of slivers of metal

My technique so far with that is laser the seams from the bottom of the middle section so you tear away the middle floor, then remove the contents through the hole. Then you can split the box by lasering the seams from the top depending on how much you want to carve off. You'll get a lot of "salvage destroyed" because you're technically destroying aluminum, but those are used as seams between tiles and you had to destroy them to free the tiles. It's only 1200 each seam anyway.

I asked over at Discord as well and one guy pointed out that you can use the Stinger to melt the beams holding the sections together. Is that what you meant or are you describing using the SplitSaw? In the image he posted he noted that the little green circle are where you melt the vertical posts.

[Kasey Chang]

On a scale from 1 to Elden Ring, what's the learning curve on this?

Learning curve is not hard. It's more about forgetting little details at the most crucial moments, or not examining all the tools available near you.

For example, on some ships, notably the Atlas class, you have these large "Quasar Thrusters", which are multi-part pieces you have to disassemble. But you're not told how. Examine the parts. You found that there are two access panels you can pull off (and process). Then you find 1 cut point in each, and each recess also has 1-2 tiny little coolant pods. When you zap the 2 cutpoints, the end cone comes off. Barge that. THEN you see the inner turbine, fed by 4 fuel pipes, with 4 cutpoints right at the turbine. The implication is if you cut that, to pull out the turbine, you're looking at flames, and eventually, kaboom. So what do you do?

Spoiler:

Remember the coolant pods? Pull that out, whack it against the thruster so it's "leaking", keep holding it but move it around so it freezes all four pipe joints to the turbine. Now chuck that into the furnace or whatever.

Now you can laser the 4 cutpoints without any fuel leak. Pull the turbine out (and barge it), go all the way inside and hit the purge valve. Poof! The thruster now splits into two halves.

Pull off the lights if you want, then get the two large pieces into the processor, laser off the fuel booster thing so you can drop that into the barge with the two fuel pods. Then the last piece is a hull piece you can remove when you can.

Things do get a little more interesting when they added generators (and fuses) but it's not that bad.

Atmosphere, on the other hand, is still a bit unpredictable, as you sometimes find things that are unsecured. For the exploration and cargo ships, you sometimes find asteroid shards. It's great for mineral, but loose in the cabin? It will wreck everything. There are also heavy stuff like forklifts that can fly around if you decompress the wrong way. The best way is to use the atmosphere regulator, but those aren't always available (on higher hazard ships they're often busted) so you have to "force" a decompression by blowing up doors, THEN you have to PLAN for things flying off which has OTHER consequences.

[Kasey Chang]

I asked over at Discord as well and one guy pointed out that you can use the Stinger to melt the beams holding the sections together. Is that what you meant or are you describing using the SplitSaw? In the image he posted he noted that the little green circle are where you melt the vertical posts.

I mean the stinger. I personally RARELY (if ever) use the splitsaw.

Though I usually cut the "floor" (toward the barge), not the ceiling. Easier to dump the contents that way.

If you want to watch a couple of my videos I demonstrate all those techniques.

[jztemple2]

Do you use demo charges? I've rarely used them, only on the one ship that was part of the demo training.

[Kasey Chang]

Do you use demo charges? I've rarely used them, only on the one ship that was part of the demo training.

Only for those grade 3 cutpoints I can't pop otherwise, like those ion rings on the Javs, the rear nacelles on the Javs, and so on. Often, you can destroy the "beam" attached to the cutpoint, thus freeing the item without destroying the cutpoint.

Sometimes, on VERY rare occasions, or if you're trying to set a speed record, you MAY want to pop a section with explosives by dropping a charge to pop a cutpoint from the outside, but those would be EXTREMELY rare. Hal's not wrong in saying they *can* improve productivity... but only if you have like 20+ charges and you have tethers in place so they are zipped off by tethers as soon as they come loose.

Hypothetically you can set enough charges in 5 minutes then 10 minutes clean up the mess you left behind. It won't be pretty, not the "full buffalo", but it'd be fast.

But I generally use demo charges VERY sparingly.

There MAY be an occasion where you cannot find a safe way to decompress the cargo hold of a Gecko. In that case, move loose items to the cargo hatches at the top, then use explosives to pop both cargo hatches all at once. Either physics screw up (push the entire ship into the barge) or it realizes the air is escaping through a big hole and the whole hatch pops straight up (hopefully you have tethers in place, and you aren't in the way of whiplash) and the loose items fly off, but otherwise, the ship should be safe.

[jztemple2]

Picked up a USB foot switch:


I have too many keys being active on my keyboard for my left hand and I was forgetting to use the brake and instead was trying to reverse thrust to slow down. So now I just press with my right foot on the switch to brake. It also means I can hold myself in place while doing stuff. Pretty nice.

[Kasey Chang]

I have no problem stopping as I'm well trained since the Early Access days to hold both Q and E to brake.

Just hit rank 24, and seems I'm getting started in Act III...

[naednek]

On a scale from 1 to Elden Ring, what's the learning curve on this?

Do you know how to tell the difference between Trash and Recycle?
Do you know how to sort trash and recycle?

If you answered yes to both, You're already a pro

[jztemple2]

I blew up my first class two reactor last night. I detached it and was pulling it out and realized too late that I hadn't quite made the exit path wide enough . It cost me two levels of the nine. And such a mess!

Today I'm doing my first ghost ship. Wish me luck.

By the way, do ghost ships appear in free play? It would seem to be a shame if once I finish the campaign I won't see any more ghost ships.

[Kasey Chang]

"FInished" the game. Did "Industrial Action", then one more ship, and that turns out to be enough bits and pieces to finish Buelah.

EDIT: With class II's, I don't even separate the thrusters, reactor, and ECU. I drop them together. No time limit at all.

[jztemple2]

"FInished" the game. Did "Industrial Action", then one more ship, and that turns out to be enough bits and pieces to finish Buelah.

EDIT: With class II's, I don't even separate the thrusters, reactor, and ECU. I drop them together. No time limit at all.

Unfortunately, with the scanner bug continuing to exist in my campaign game, even if I "finish" it I might not be motivated to continue.

I had considered dropping all the components into the barge, but doesn't that loss the cost of the piping?

[jztemple2]

I still suck at depressurizing. After some research in the Steam Guides I think I understand the best (or at least a good) technique, but sometimes I forget to depressurize the cockpit or airlock and cause myself some damage. I'm getting better though

[jztemple2]

EDIT: With class II's, I don't even separate the thrusters, reactor, and ECU. I drop them together. No time limit at all.

I tried this on a Javelin Tanker. I had to do a lot of cutting so I could get the ECU out of the hull, but it worked!



UPDATE: Surprised to realize that I have almost 44 hours on this game and I'm still working on the Career.

[Kasey Chang]

I had considered dropping all the components into the barge, but doesn't that loss the cost of the piping?

Piping is relatively cheap compared to true components like computer, airlock console, and such. By this time you're shipbreaking 30-40 million crafts. You can afford to lose a few hundred K for your safety.

[Kasey Chang]

I still suck at depressurizing. After some research in the Steam Guides I think I understand the best (or at least a good) technique, but sometimes I forget to depressurize the cockpit or airlock and cause myself some damage. I'm getting better though

Think volume. One airlock's worth of air won't do you much damage. A cube's worth... probably not unless something hit you in the helmet. A whole cargo bay's worth... will probably kill you.

Then you have to consider how big of opening are you leaving the air. A whole cargo bay's air is dangerous if you let it all go through a door or an airlock, but less dangerous if it's going through the top hatch(es) of a cargo Gecko.

And finally, hide as far from the opening as possible, while you can still aim the laser at whatever you're zapping to release all the air. In a cargo gecko, I often hide next to the cargo containers or even underneath the central walkway.

COROLLARY: search the entire interior for "loose items" that can affect decompression. Often you will find asteroid shards. THOSE are real ship killers if they knock fuel or coolant lines loose, then fly around causing sparks, then ship goes kaboom. Move them to near the opening you are planning so they can't do much bouncing around, preferably tethered.

[Kasey Chang]

EDIT: With class II's, I don't even separate the thrusters, reactor, and ECU. I drop them together. No time limit at all.

I tried this on a Javelin Tanker. I had to do a lot of cutting so I could get the ECU out of the hull, but it worked!

Melt 4 seams to release the "back wall" containing the ECU and joint to the rest of piping in the Javelin. If you disassemble from front to back, you can tether the rear hull to the backwall and release the ECU/Reactor/Thruster that way.

Things get more complicated with the Gecko as they often have the ECU mounting in the "front cabin" with long pipes going back to the "rear cabin" and the reactor can be encaged in those octagons. But again, melt the seams to release the octagons and the two engineering rooms if need be, then you can even use the rings to pull the assembly into the barge using the "proxy push/pull" effect.

HINT: The proxy push/pull effects exploit a physics bug: while the force YOU can exert on a grapple or force push is limited, you can amplify the force by grappling an object, and use THAT to push the objective. The mass of the object you're trying to push by proxy will be negligible even if it won't budge with 5 tethers normally. You can exploit this in many ways, up to your imagination.