So I think I figured out the base raiding. Here's how it goes if I understand it correctly:
- As far as I know, going into bases with no mission is pointless, unless you really just want shit to shoot at and practice driving your SRV.
- Missions obtained from planetside or space stations can be on planets near you, or in another system. These will ask you to go to a base and do a specific thing.
- For some reason, these bases have lists of commodities they produce and prohibited commodities on the surface map. I'm not really sure what the point of this, but maybe there are missions related to it. None of them have a commodities market though.
- The things that missions might ask you to do may be something like "Destroy the fuel storage and terminal" which is one unit. There are also things like the power generator for the defense turrets, things like that. There can also be a red shield wall blocking you from part of the base, there may be something you have to destroy or interact with to get in.
- Some missions can ask you to interact with a Data Point or Communications Relay in a base. These things are pointless other than for these missions.
- Depending on the security of the base, and how powerful your ship is, flying over and taking out the defenses with your ship's weapons first, and then landing to drop your SRV can be a valid tactic. Be warned though, as these bases can sometimes have ships in addition to drones guarding them. Usually they aren't particularly powerful, but a ton of turrets, drones, planetary defense stations, and small ships shooting at you can be a lot of fire all focused on you.
- SRVs tend to be a stealthier approach. In the example above where I had to destroy a fuel storage and terminal, I tried the ship approach first, but it proved too difficult and seemed like a waste of time for what my objective was. I landed a little ways out from the base, deployed the SRV and was able to drive right up, destroy the tank, and drive away. Also for some reason, despite previously attacking this base, when I drove up to it in the SRV, I wasn't drawing any aggro from the turrets or other defenses, and they were all in fact green to me for some reason. I'm not sure if this was a bug or what. Still, when I had approached other bases in the SRV, I was able to draw less aggro than flying in big and loud with my ship.
- This is probably already commonly known, but your ship is invulnerable while you are in your SRV. I have landed my ship right next to a base and deployed the SRV, and while the turrets shooting at it were definitely taking shields lower, they couldn't damage it.
- Sometimes tresspassing will make a base attack you, sometimes it won't. I think this depends on if the base is within the same major faction as you or not. For instance, I have rolled up on Empire basees, and still got a tresspassing fine, but they didn't shoot at me either.
- SRV shields are fairly weak, but recharge fast. Also if you have the materials, you can repair to 100% instantly with Synthesis. I think that might get nerfed before it hits the main game, as that seems a tad ridiculous for people to just go Rambo mode, and then go straight from 10 to 100% instantly.
I've spent a ton of time just exploring interesting terrain on planets. I explored a planet with really huge canyons and that was quite interesting, saw an SRV crash site as well as crashed drones there. I just landed on a planet that was red, with canyons of ice that ran extremely deep. I didn't explore much, but I will do more of it tomorrow. There is really varied terrain on these planets, more than I was expecting.
I mentioned this in the other thread, but with Synthesis you can reload your ship's ammo. There are different types for Plama Accelerators, Railguns, and other types of weapons. However, with the upgraded versions of the ammo, you get +25% damage and +50% damage. I like that Railguns kind of got a sideways buff in a way, since you can always synthesize more ammo and aren't so limited now. I do think it might get ridiculous though if players are running around with Plasma Accelerators and Railguns dealing 150% damage though, but we'll see how that plays out for balance.
. I'm stoked for both and No Man's Sky as well. I'm actually going to get to use the HOTAS for more than one game.
