User:Hordes/The Great Steelening
Steel. STEEL.
Mining steel ore
The most straightforward way to get steel, requiring no infrastructure. However, ore is ultimately limited per map. As you mine more ore, each deposit will be further and further away, increasing travel time to and from the deposit.
EMPERICAL TESTING (i took a stopwatch on a mining 8 pawn, then rounded to nearest second)
Mining Speed and Mining Yield are heavily impacted by the Mining Stat - especially for values below Mining 8. Difficulty also impacts mining, through the mining yield storyteller setting.
- 1,920 ticks (32 secs) to mine an ore at Mining Speed = 100% (mining 8).
- 40 steel at Mining Yield = 100% @ Strive to Survive
- 1920 ticks / 40 steel = 48 ticks per steel at mining 8
- [1920 ticks / (40*0.6) steel] / 0.04 speed = 2000 ticks per steel at mining 0
- Each "swing" takes 80 HP of steel ore, regardless of mining skill
WALK TIME MATTERS MORE
Deconstructing stuff
Ship chunks and ruins made of steel can be deconstructed to get steel back. Walls, urns, tables, and concrete are all items that can be dismantled. These ruins are extremely limited in quantity, so this is purely an earlygame resource.
Ancient dangers contain... danger, as well as ancient cryptosleep pods, which can be deconstructed for a good chunk of steel, along with its other goodies.
NUMBERS
Construction Speed and type of thing deconstructed. Each item gives half their constituent steel, rounded randomly. Exact math depends on what you're deconstructing, but bigger items are generally more efficient.
- 135 ticks (2.25 secs) ticks to deconstruct a wall at Construction Speed = 100% (Construction 8).
- 2.5 steel per wall at any construction skill.
- 135 ticks/2.5 steel = 54 ticks per steel at construction 8
WALK TIME MATTERS MORE. While very slightly less work efficient than mining steel, there is no reason not to deconstruct when both options are inheriently limited. It's safer to deconstruct ruins early in the game rather than later, as raids are less dangerous.
Traders
Bulk goods traders and faction bases can come with steel. Trade caravans come with 200-300 steel, faction bases come with 300-600, and orbital trade ships come with 500-800 steel. The amount of trade you can do is ultimately limited by the traders. Caravans come completely at random, until you have allied with a faction, where it costs goodwill per. Orbital traders come completely at random and require a comms console to trade. You must create your own caravan to a faction base, which only restocks once every 30 days. Large quantities of steel are extremely heavy, so pack animals are often required to be reasonable.
On the colony's end, your means of making money, the negotiator's Trade Price Improvement, difficulty (the setting Trade price disadvantage), and the distance/quantity of faction bases affect how viable trade is.
Smelting
Electric smelters! Smelting steel slag chunks or the weapons and armor of raiders is a renewable way to create usable steel. The health or quality of the item doesn't matter, and both biocoded weapons and tainted apparel can be smelted
While selling high-HP weapons and non-tainted apparel to traders may net more steel, this forces you to go through the inconvienences of trading. Combat suppliers will buy weapons, but won't sell steel. Bulk goods traders will sell steel but not buy weapons. Faction bases take time to get to.
Steel Slag Chunks
- 400 ticks (6.67 secs) per chunk at General Labor Speed = 100% (healthy average pawn)
- 15 steel per chunk at any quantity
- 400 ticks / 15 steel = 26.67 ticks per steel
WALK TIME MATTERS MORE
LIMITED
Smelting Weapons/Apparel
- 1,600 ticks (26.67 secs) per item, for any item at General Labor Speed = 100% (healthy average pawn)
- 7 steel for autopistols & revolvers, the items with the smallest yield. Larger stuff = more stuff
- 1600 ticks / 7 steel = 228.6 ticks per steel
- 1600 / 15 = 106.7 ticks/steel.
Notably, smelting weapons will lower the wealth stat, due to the high Market Value of each weapon. Weapons will only sell for 0.2x their market value, but their full Market Value is used to determine raid points.
Deep drills
You need to find ore deposits first with a ground penetrating scanner.
NUMBERS
Research Speed to find the deposit. Deep Drilling Speed to drill ores.
- Average of 180,000 ticks (50 mins) to find a deposit with scanner at Research Speed = 100% (Int. 8).
- 53% to get a steel deposit, not accounting for travel distance. Avg 9000 steel/deposit
- 14,000 ticks (3.89 mins) per extraction cycle at Deep Drilling Speed = 100% (mining 8).
- 35 steel per cycle (modified by mining yield??????)
- 14000 / 35 = 350 ticks per steel at mining 8
- [14000 / 40] / 2.44 = 143.44 ticks per steel at mining 20