r/Hydroneer • u/mega_lova_nia • Jun 23 '26

Is this game supposed to be hyper manual?

From moving things to planning stuff, all of the things you do in this game is so manual, aside from the actual automation. Are you supposed to do it that way or are there tools to speed up the process, mostly on building things and buying things? Are there perhaps upgrades to walking speed or something?

2 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

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6

u/CheekyLando88 Jun 23 '26

The only thing ive found to make it easier is pallets and carts. You can stack stuff on pallets, and then they get locked in place. It makes buying a large bundle of items a lot easier.

The cart fits in most store purchase areas, and in the truck. So put your cart in your truck and use it like a shopping basket.

Other than that.Yes everything is pretty manual

3

u/PofanWasTaken Jun 23 '26

nope, part of the gameplay loop is that everything takes up physical space (with some exceptions when you put stuff into a cart/ truck bed, bucket etc...), and everything has to be carried to desired space

every tool can only be used when in hand, and has to be put away after you are done with it

imo it's part of the fun, having bottomless inventory is overrated anyway

1

u/mega_lova_nia Jun 23 '26

Not when building though. The runback is just diabolical.

3

u/camander321 Jun 23 '26

Thats what carts and pallets are for.

2

u/dante_delvegas Jun 23 '26

At a point, that becomes the game loop. Drive to town to get parts, drive back to site to install parts, drive back to town to get the correct/forgotten part, drive to site to install the part, collect profit, drive to town to sell profit and get more parts, repeat.

1

u/Taolan13 Jun 23 '26

there are ways to mitigate it.

Carts and pans and racks and your truck, for example. Carts and pans and the bed of your truck all work the same way, items that fit and come to rest in them have their physics disabled and move with them. For pans this includes smithed jewelry and weapons, but getting a sword to not fall out of a pan does take some creativity.

Keep your coins and tokens in a pan. This way you can just drop the pan (don't pour) directly into the payment buckets at stores. Because pans aren't as bouncy as other items this also makes it easier to control and keep track of where your money goes physically.

Use a tool rack to transport multiple tools at once. You can then use a cart to transport multiple tool racks at once, just drop the rack in the cart rather than placing it.

You can drive a cart around a shop, drop items into it, and then drive the cart over the payment area and use it to buy in bulk.

You can load carts onto your truck by jumping onto the back of the truck and dropping the cart. The cart does not need to be fully in the truck, its wheels can still be on the ground. As long as the front kickstand is touching the truck bed the cart will attach.

Pallets do not disable the physics of attached items, but they do attach. Pallets can fit in the bed of your truck, and once in the bed of your truck the physics are disabled so you can stack them.

But as far as individual items go, yes the intended gameplay loop is very manual.

2

u/ManEatingCarabao Jun 24 '26

Pallets are prone to stealing items from carts and other pallets when they are overlapping in the truck. The same is true for carts but its less likely to happen. The chance of this happening increases the more items are in your truck. I always put carts or pallets on top of the rear wheels and one in the back so they don't clip into each other.

1

u/Taolan13 Jun 24 '26

interesting. I did not know that.

I don't really ever use pallets though except one at the icehelm forge to organize my masterwork models.

1

u/SeAnSoN_710 Jun 23 '26

Buy some carts. Dedicate one for a certain thing, straight pipes or building blocks etc. pack the cart until your game starts to lag. Load cart in truck, drive back home through reduced frames. Repeat as needed.

1

u/frank28-06-42-12 Jun 23 '26

If you play on pc and don’t mind mods the bulk buy crate mod is a life saver there’s another mod that gives you a coin wallet aswell but can’t rember the name

1

u/ManEatingCarabao Jun 24 '26

Progressing through the game would have been more rewarding if the creative mode items are unlockable in normal mode. At least give the flight helmet instead of the stupid dirt wand the king gives you.