Making Recon & Expansion content worth the investment

[YertyL]

So...I played my first game with "Below & Beyond". I really like the new mechanics and challenge of managing several bases simultaneously. However, apart from the bugs, the main problem I see is that apart from the novelty, the investment into the new content is barely worth it. Asteroid mining is a nice bonus, although deep mining seems way too expensive in both tech and cost to be worth it: Deep Asteroid Mining + Advanced Micro-G-Operations alone costs 70k research -- compare this to e.g. (regular) deep metal extraction + mohole mine for 35k.
But the worst offenders currently are underground domes -- they cost a huge investment in tech, resources and micromanagement, and are AFAIK worse than domes above ground in every way. I think they desperately need a buff if players should ever bother with them after the novelty wears off. So, a few suggestions:

1. Change the cost of the Research & Expansion tech tree to the cost of a normal tech tree (instead of breakthrough cost). Currently, these techs are just way too expensive for their benefit
2. Underground deposits (both water and metal) are always very high yield and infinite. This would give the underground something special and would be a start in making the investment worth it compared to expanding to an overground deposit
3. Allow the construction of moisture vaporators underground
4. Elevators cost no maintenance (like tunnels).
5. Lower tunnel support cost to 5 metal 5 exotic, eliminate upkeep
6. Decrease the cost of scanning an asteroid to 2-5 electronics. 20 electronics are worth more than the likely total yield of an asteroid, it is absolutely not worth it to lose these to maybe get 3 more metals.
7. Eliminating the sanity penalty would make underground more feasible as early protection against dust storms etc. -- IMO all other investments you need are price enough. The tech that currently reduces the sanity penalty could give a small morale or sanity bonus (+5) instead
8. Medium and above domes underground (they appear in the screenshots but have apparently been cut?)

Apart from this, some QoL changes would be welcome:

1. Elevators should have the ability to both send and order resources -- currently whenever you notice you need something underground, you need to switch to the map above, order, then switch back, which is needlessly annoying
2. For asteroid landers, the ability to pick up single resources (instead of 5 or nothing) as well as a "Leave NOW with current load" button would make the missions a lot less frustrating, especially for beginners
3. The ability to filter colonists you send on landers or underground -- currently I regularly find seniors on asteroids.
4. Switch Micro-G-landers and Drone Hub Extenders in the tech tree -- the extenders need exotic minerals, for which you need the landers. I would also prefer Micro-G-Mining earlier, e.g. switched with micro-G-vehicles or Underground Domes.

 

[YertyL]

Sending colonists to asteroids currently really does not seem to be worth it, even when you neglect the cost in tech.
Currently, asteroid depots are in the range of 25-40 capacity, which an automated extractor can drain in 5-8 sols, faster with upgrades. That is very doable, especially after increasing the mining time window. On the other hand, in addition to the much larger risk and investment costs of manned asteroid mining missions, they are also very limited by the size of water depots: A size 300 water depot can only supply a habitat for 300/4=75 hours, i.e. 3 sols, even with optimal use. The higher mining speed does little when the window of opportunity is so limited. Effectively you invest a lot more resources, time and effort to then extract the same amount of resources a bit faster.

I would suggest doubling depot size on asteroids, both regular and water, to make the much larger investment into manned mining operations worth it.

I also noticed some additional tech tree wonkiness, like the recon center being the 7th tech in the tree, when it should be one of the first, at least before micro-G-vehicles. Micro-G-Mining also seems to be pretty late (after Extended cargo modules, which you also will not need without mining), and underground shuttles very early. But what is a good order there partially depends on when underground bases are supposed to be started, which is currently...unclear to me.

 

[Tremualin]

In regards to your first suggestions:
2. I think rather than unlimited deposits I'd like to see new deposits appearing and/or refilling periodically. Water should appear more often when you Terraform 100% Vegetation, and should refill once that's done.
3. I'd prefer if we had refilling water deposits.
6. In addition to what you said; you should have a no-cost option, where the recon center takes some time to scan, but doesn't cost anything. You lose some time in the asteroid, but that should be acceptable early game.

Micro-G-Mining being late shouldn't be a problem when you can buy prefabs.

 

[Dragomir7]

I'll add that having the two buttons (Aboveground/Underground) on the same row as the hotbar seriously interferes with the hotbar, to the point where some icons on the far right side are no longer clickable. In fact it also covers part of the main map and makes it difficult to click and scan tiles I0 and J0.

Solution would be to move the two buttons down to the same row, beside the Radio and Options buttons.

Hotbar needs reworking too -- including having a sorting mechanism. I've noted this in an earlier suggestion.