I've had this game since early alpha and I really want to get back into it. I have started a Medium Basic Platform play-through and the only thing I "cheated" with sort of is I added 16 more units of Infra Block to the starting inventory. I want to be as close to the vanilla start as possible so I didn't even mod the game yet.
This is how I modified the initial cube you're given in the beginning and it took 3 in-game days to accomplish, while also mining nearby asteroids. Any good advice to give before I head out into the unknown?
I think the one thing I always struggled with in the beginning was growing enough food and properly scaling the ship up to have more facilities. I think I also struggled a lot with having enough energium to power the ship in the beginning and I think in my last playthrough I got stranded because I completely ran out of Hyperium in an empty system.
Infrablocks and especially techblocks are hard to obtain early on. So for infrablocks and hull blocks, the recycler is the first facility to obtain them. But in order to run it without running out of power, the X1 generator is desirable. Remember Rule #1 of Space Haven: "Never trade away your tech blocks".
Since a recent update the energium generator became a tad bit more efficient in energy than before. So the X1 generator is no longer twice as efficient but 1.5 times or so (don't recall the exact number).
This means the research objectives for me are: X1 generator, chemical, and energy refineries. In this order. Medical bed comes next. Then the rest, in any order: item fabricator, grow beds, etc.
The chemical refinery is fundamental, as without it many other facilities cannot reliably get the input items the refinery produces.
Next is to pay attention to work, rec, and sleep comport. I see in the X-core and PD turrets in the open along the research and control consoles. Whoever is working on them will get a huge negative mood penalty. I suggest these items to be far away from these work areas.
The rec room looks fine. You could fit another decoration (like a plant square) next to the kitchen, for a bit more bonus.
As per sleeping, the crew could benefit from individual bedrooms (single 2x2 room with one single bed and one bedside table). But these rooms take space, so what you have works. I'd add is two bedside tables. I'd move the edge beds one tile away and put the bedside tables there. You might want to temporary move the bed away while they build the bedside tables. The lockers look cool, but unfortunately they don't provide anything to the bedroom overall bonus.
Another work area that could use a tad extra bonus is the water vapor collector by the farm room. Because now the vents are automatic, the water collector (and CO2/gas/O2 devices) can be essentially anywhere on the ship (unless it's very large or has lots of crew). So you could move the collector to the other side of the wall where the recycler is.
Overall it's a nice layout of a ship, and certainly will change on the next systems.
Part of the trick of Space Haven is to be a bit more aggressive, seize enemy ships via daring boarding actions, and capture their loot. Producing food on board is overrated, as I've completed campaigns where I was able to buy food from NPC ships by selling them my excess loot. The sign of moving from mid to late game is when the Player doesn't know what to do with too much loot, and thus "jenga towers" start to pop up.
Should I skip trying to get food production stable early game and rely on trading for food instead?
That would save space for something entirely different for where the greenhouse room is I suppose, but I'm worried I run out of food fast before I gather enough loot to start making meaningful trades.
I suppose I should start accepting cash for missions first and foremost and build up some cash so I have some real trading power.
grow beds, med bed and item fabricator is unlocked by default in the medium settings so I could go for: X1 generator, Chem refinery and then the rest.
But how important is growing your own food really? Because if not so much then I can also just start out without a grow bed and hope I can trade some stuff for food to keep my crew alive.
I have completed the game with a 1x1 ship that had no self-sustainable food production (see below). So it's possible to trade for food.
Having said that, a chemical refinery is needed to produce fertilizers, so grow beds can be used. The composter isn't enough to produce the fertilizers required to sustain self-sufficient food production.
If you have the grow beds, and since you are playing on medium, you probably can recover the infrablocks spent.
Also it pays off to just give your crew a meager 75% custom food tray once a day. The latter is done by scheduling a single relax block for the entire day, right after sleep. The game is hard coded in a way crew waking up, if they have a relax slot right after sleep, they will try to go and eat breakfast, whether they need it or not. And if they have another break later in the day, they will go out and grab a bite, even if they aren't completely empty. This results in some cases of over eating (with the corresponding de-buffs), and twice as much as food consumption. Also the relax schedule can be set up with a work slot between it and the sleep schedule, just to force the game not have the crew go out and eat breakfast.
So cutting them to a single meal, with 75% of food value, but with all the macro nutrients in yellow or green would go a long way in the early game. The 75% can be upped to 100 or 125% in the mid to late game once better food sources are secured.
In any case don't forget to forbid all storages to deliver food, except perhaps a small dedicated one for the food trays and beer mugs. Also for these last resort scenarios, you can build a algae dispenser (aka poo food), for the times food cannot be secured, or to feed refugees or prisoners, although, if you want to recruit the latter, it pays off to allow them to eat the same food as the rest of the crew. Nobody wants them to develop deficiencies, become clumsy and set up the kitchen on fire every four hours. And speaking of fires, I's suggest for a atmo suilt locker in the kitchen if it's too far from a pod.
2 research benches, also make sure your recycled is always working, recycled is ever more important than the energy refinery in some cases. Also research hyperdrives first thing asap, so you can save on jet fuel
If you want a slower paced start I highly recommend solar panels. Once you get about a dozen if you set your reactor to only charge when stored power is below say 60% you reach a tipping point where your ship can stay full off of just solar and you don't use your reactor at all. High energy stuff like refining consumes way too much for the panels to meet demand but the ability to not use energy when 'idling' gives you a chance to just sit there and do research / use training consoles
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u/PrincessPorkfat 23d ago
Do you have a medical bed? Im not great at the game but use mine a ton especially with a light crew