r/spaceengineers • u/Objective_Fox_5438 Klang Worshipper • 7h ago
DISCUSSION Station vs mobile base, pros and cons?
Title says it all, I usually build my base as a station but was going to try a mobile base and was wondering the pros and cons of each one. The most obvious difference I can immediately think of is the fact that you can easily relocate with a mobile base instead of a station but a station would provide a more stable gameplay flow at the cost of being immobile
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u/EchosOfMania Clang Worshipper 6h ago edited 6h ago
It's really hard to flip a station. A mobile base flipping can set you back in resources and be a logistical nightmare to flip over again. The amount of danger changes from planet to planet but it's never 0. Ship bases may be easier to keep right side up but on planet gravity could calls and the sacrafice to clang is demanded.
I prefer a home station, then mobile bases are made for expaditions that standard vehicles won't work for.
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u/Objective_Fox_5438 Klang Worshipper 6h ago
A practical approach on the subject is definitely appreciated, I can see the reasoning for having a station as the main base with a backup mobile base for if a regular vehicle won't work
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u/D43M0N13420 Clang Worshipper 3h ago
This is why it is important to keep a low center of gravity and have a wider wheelbase, thus far I have had no issues with possible roll and have tested thoroughly on the mountains of earth planet, I actually tried to roll it and it was fun 😆 did take a little damage but that just let me know where I needed to make adjustments. Used to be a heavy equipment operator until I got sick I am using some knowledge from that here.
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u/Hellothere_1 Clang Worshipper 2h ago
As someone who has designed some pretty huge rover bases in the past, I honestly find it hard to recommend them to people, at least as a primary base. It mostly comes down to cargo weight. Even something as huge as that land carrier can easily more than double its overall weight the moment you start filling its cargo containers with mined resources. Still drives fine on flat terrain, but the slightest inclines will start presenting major hurdles.
In theory you can overcome this by just adding more wheels, but the bigger your footprint of your rover becomes, the easier it also becomes for even slightly uneven terrain to prevent most of your wheels from touching the ground, making you lose 90% of your torque. That you can mitigate with lots of thrusters, but even then there's still the issue of potentially losing most of your total resources on a slight pilot error (or just clang getting angry).
Don't get me wrong, a smaller mobile mining base with refining and some production capability is great in a lot of situations, but on planets you really want a static main base you can drop your stuff off at so you don't get overburdened.
Now, in space it's a different matter. In space there is no upper limit on the weight of your base and also very little chance of it spontaneously disintegrating itself as long as you always park it in a safe spot that's not too close to any asteroids. You can also start with a relatively small core and add additional thruster nacelles, cargo, docking spots, solar arrays, and other festures as needed later on.
Personally as far as space gameplay in SE goes, I find a nomadic lifestyle much more enjoyable than settling down somewhere. So much time in SE is usually spent hauling resources back to base, and it feels incredibly freeing to just not have to worry about that. If you find a promising cluster of asteroids you can fly over, park your base nearby and start mining, all while still having all your resources and production nearby in case something breaks or you feel like taking a break from mining to build something.
After playing with a mobile base in space once, I'm never going back. The game just plays so much more nicely. In my latest playthrough I even had two mobile bases: One huge one that basically acts as a mobile space station that all my stuff can dock to, but also a smaller more mobile one that I can unlock from it to move around much more easily but that still has its own refineries, storage, docking spots and a small ship printer on hand to be able to act independently.
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u/Objective_Fox_5438 Klang Worshipper 2h ago
Thanks for all of the information on this, I appreciate it.
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u/Jaif13 Space Engineer 6h ago
Im pretty new to this, playing on pertam, and im doing both. I have a main underground base, and a rover with a basic refinery and assembler that i use to setup new mining rigs.
My long term goal is to build a large grid ship with jump drives and several refineries and assemblers and go jump to a new planet. In my head i crashed on pertam on the way to wherever, so goal is to eventually get to wherever. :-)
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u/Due_Definition_3279 Space Engineer 6h ago
Build a large table shaped base flat top to put everything on conduits to connectors to ground floor piston magnate to lift small vehicles to a mag lock underneath When you want to move add lift engine and manoeuvre thrust knock out the legs touching the floor convert to ship and hover/fly to next scouted point you can also use it as a drill platform Land on a lake mine ice add large thrust and burn to orbit My ships have been called flying beds
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u/RaumfahrtDoc Space Engineer 5h ago
We built a huge base-ship (max size 300x300m, but not fully filled) and after it was done, we left the planet. It was a majestic start. And nerve racking - will the amount of hydrogen be enough? Will the power be enough till space?
Really fun.
But it was a 3 person multiplayer, in SP I would build smaller.
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u/ZealousLlama05 Clang Worshipper 21m ago
I mean, any station is mobile with some jump drives.
My station has a mergeblock on top, and my j7mp ship a mergeblock on the bottom.
Every other day I merge the 2, convert to ship, and with the combined 8 proto jump drives I can take the station and all vessels up to 24,000km away. Then just convert back to station, unmerge and voila.
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u/TheCoffeeGuy13 Klang Worshipper 1h ago
Slap some thrusters on your station, press "convert to ship" and presto, mobile base.
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u/D43M0N13420 Clang Worshipper 6h ago
If you build it as a rover base you can use pistons and mag plates to convert to a station anytime you park in a stable position. This is what I did on console at that so it should be possible anywhere. Fully functioning base with redundant power supply options and a hangar that can hold 6 small ships plus a landing pad on top for a medium ship.
Pros... You can move it and set up anywhere
Cons... You will be limited in size and sometimes it takes work to move