Making some wiring kits.
Stepping out the door, we are immediately confronted with-jesus christ it's a shark get in the seamoth.
I head out in my new upgraded Seamoth towards the wreck I remember from earlier, right on the 200m border. But on the way, lurking along the bottom, I notice things. Lithium deposits are good since they give me the ability to make plasteel ingots, which is necessary for a lot of things I want to do. But also, parts of the Cyclops.
Also bits of the Power Transmitter, not sure what I'd use that for. Do my nuclear reactors melt down? Maybe it's for the thermal generators? Also more Cyclops bits. I like this area, it's visually appealing, either way.
Anyways, returned to the wrecksite.
Large predator with lightning. Not good. Gonna have to be careful about this.
Alien containment? Am I in X-COM too now?
Welp, more scanning lifeforms then. And hoping none of them are Chryssalids.
That's lava. It's much more clear than the last time I saw it.
SPACE GUNS!
Behold the conquering hero, Gasopod, First of His Line, Ruler of the Area Around the Moonpool. This guy has at least made the Moonpool a safe entry and exit; it has ladders on the sides, in case you fall in while trying to get stuff out of your vehicle/add upgrades/whatever. It's good it does, because I've actually fallen in a couple times.
While hunting up for silver around the Mountain Island, I decide to hang out underwater a bit, and...Cyclops parts. The last one I need.
Then some asshole Biter ruins the moment, but I've unlocked the Cyclops. Now I need to build it.
Going back to the mobile vehicle bay, let's see what it takes.
Reduce to starter material level, that's...50 Titanium, 5 Lithium, 10 Quartz, 5 Stalker Teeth, 6 Creepvine Seeds, 2 Gold, 1 Quartz, 1 Silver, 2 Table Coral Samples.
But first...SPACE GUN.
The stasis rifle freezes normal-sized enemies, even groups of them depending on how long you hold the trigger to get a large effect, in a bubble of slowed time briefly. This gives you time to get away, scan, or otherwise take action, but does no actual damage. It's not effective at long ranges due to shot travel time in most cases, though, making using it nerve-wracking. I prefer just avoiding enemies, but if that's not possible this is better than trying to knife them.
Remember this name. I think it's the equivalent of "placeholder", considering you hear several different stories about this guy. Also pictured: sharks.
There's a wreck very close to the Aurora, but nothing in it worth having. What am I doing over here? Hunting up more Titanium.
Huh. Not seen this before...
You remember that weird rain of boulders? Here, it's, uh, in reverse. All of those ones with five or six floaters are actually moving
upwards.
Oh great, the mess is back at home. But I have the mats now, so.
Get Cycloped, nerd.
With a giant splash, it lands in the water, leaving no trace.
So here it is.
The "board Cyclops" marker is for the swimmer entry, which is a pair of hatches in what would be the peak tank on a ship; forward and bottom. The first opens up parting in two directions when you're close (presumably it interfaces with your PDA?) leading to an interior hatch that will leave you inside a small area forward with a door.
Here's what it looks like on entry.
There are five two-by-six lockers in there, though you can actually build stuff inside the Cyclops including your own lockers. The ladder leads directly to the bridge; the second hatch beyond is for the vehicle bay, and then beyond that, the lower half of the engine room.
Incidentally customization controls are on the bridge for naming and coloration. I painted it red, for better visibility in low light, or so I thought.
Vehicle bay opening up. With the Seamoth at what altitude you deploy relative to the seabed doesn't matter so much, but deploying a PRAWN should be done from less than the length of the Cyclops above the seabed so you can get back in it. The hatch visible here is the rear one, while above you can see the enameled glass and a hatch for vehicle entry and exit.
Looking down at the Seamoth docked with the Cyclops.
An essential feature given the vehicle's size: The Cyclops has three camera views you can switch to, in addition to looking straight out the front glass bubble, which makes manuevering easier. These are a Keel camera for judging depth off the bottom and side clearance, a camera just forward of the screw for judging location of the screw in comparison to the rest of the Cyclops (I scrape the screw on projecting bits of bottom while trying to follow a slope more than any other collision), and finally a camera on the conning tower for side clearance and top clearance, which you wouldn't initially think you'd need to use much underwater. You'd be wrong. I've actually had to use the top camera several times during surfacing from trenches or passage through caves.
Also pictured: being able to see the inside of my base from outside. This is a bug I encounter fairly often, alas.
