Satisfactory Early Access – Episode 09: Drilling For Oil and Hard Drives

Having closed out my affairs on the second story of the HUB base, I have finally decided to set my sights elsewhere. My most recent space elevator project has unlocked the tier 5 upgrades, which amongst other things includes the ability to scan, mine, and produce products from oil.

With a concrete(fossilized?) goal in mind, I loaded up my tractor and started my journey into the (relative) unknown.

[G^G] Satisfactory Early Access – Episode 9: Drilling For Oil And Hard Drives

Episode Index

Blazing The Trail

I actually ended up getting a bit side-tracked before I made it over to the oil fields. Prior to the video I explored the nearby area a bit, and found a crashed drop pod just outside of the hub base. I decided to save opening it for the video itself, and after hooking up a few biomass generators to the main capsule I was able to open up the door.

Inside was a non-descript hard-drive. I immediately took the drive to the M.A.M. to kicked off the reasearch project, and while the research ticked down I made my way back towards the oil fields.

Since the goal was to establish a trucking route between sites, I laid a fair bit of concrete along the way. Towards the end of the trek I ran into a fairly large lake that required most of concrete to get across, but once I was across I had made it to the oil fields. After ramming my truck into the local wildlife for a bit, I was able to settle in and start developing the land.

Oil Fields – Initial Construction

The construction process itself was fairly straight-forward. Drilling for oil followed pretty much the same convention as ore, it just required an oil drill as opposed to a miner.

I initially thought about doing some refining on site, but after seeing the power requirements for the various refineries I decided to simply ship oil back to the HUB base instead of refining it on site. This approach has the added benefit of simplifying trucking process since I was only moving one type of material. Unfortunately I had not yet completed the hub upgrade that allowed me to use oil to power my factories, so once I had connected the oil drills to the truck station, my work was done.

Alternate Blueprints!

With the away base in the oil fields established, I made my way back to the HUB base and looked into what the M.A.M. produced. It turns out that there are all kinds of alternate blueprints that allow you to use different resources to make various items! For example instead of using copper to create wire, you can actually find a blueprint that allows you to use iron.

My 3 options were Iron Wire, Rubber Cables, and Heavy Modular Frames. I ended up going with the heavy modular frames since the iron wire and rubber cables wouldn’t immediately benefit me in any meaningful way. However, now that I know that these alternate blueprints exist, I am eager to start exploring again!

Lessons Learned

1. Vehicles are Losing Their Luster – While I do enjoy the spectacle of watching trucks go in and out of the base, I’m starting to question their value relative to belts. Now that factory automation has provided me with a glut of resources, I am starting to think that super long belts might be preferred to trucking routes for both personal and resource transportation along established routes.
2. Exploration Matters – These alternate recipes could potentially be game changers depending on which options you find early on.
3. Bring Portable Power – Whenever you are out in the wilderness, make sure you bring a portable power source so you can open drop pods. I have been using biomass burners, but long term I imagine eventually switching to fuel generators will be more convenient in the long term.

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I hope you enjoyed my content, and until next time… stay efficient everyone!

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