Oil Finding Tips
If you're having trouble finding oil, there are a couple of things you can do that will help you find some.
Here are a few tips that may help.
Things That Require Oil
First lets look at what you can't create:
- All vehicles, except space rockets and sailboats.
- They either require oil for construction or for fuel
- Space Rockets can be constructed using fertilizer instead of oil.
- Sailboats can be constructed completely from things foraged from the environment.
- EV suits
- Spacecraft
- Harsh environment city
Tips
Increase Resource View Range
- Open the Settings (Shift+F12) window
- Go to the Render tab
- Increase the Rock View Range slider to maximum.
This will not have any effect until you move far enough to cause the rock icons to be regenerated. Then you will see the resource icons much farther away.
Remove Foliage
Foliage will hide rocks, using the Defoliate Area landscaping tool can reveal these rocks and some of them might be oil.
Check Other Resource Zones
Explore your home world. Most people have a lot more time than they think to get to know their world. Contact with other players rarely happens quickly. There is no rush when you are joining into a game that has been in progress for months or years.
- Your home world has three resource zones in which to explore for natural resources
- Amount and quality of natural resources varies in each zone. A resource that is rare in one zone could be abundant in the next
- Resource zone divisions are marked on the map as grey longitude lines
- The distance between resource zones is shorter as you get closer to the poles. It takes much longer to circumnavigate the globe at the equator than at 60°N or 60°S
Use a Sailboat
The sailboat is one of the few vehicles you can build and use without oil.
- Get in your Sailboat. You can operate the sailboat from either of the back two positions.
- Go to top-down view
- Zoom out to get a good view
- Set resource overlay to show stone so it's easier to see your detection range
- Raise the sail and start sailing alone the coast
Use a Space Rocket
The space rocket is one of the few vehicles you can build and use without oil.
- Buy some units of hydrogen for extra fuel
- Get in your space rocket
- Go to top-down view
- Zoom all the way in
- Set resource overlay to show stone so it's easier to see your detection range
- Start your Space Rocket and start flying around
- Height: 500-1000
- Speed: 50-70
- Using top-down view, point it down at the ground while you fly
Check Other Worlds
There is always a chance that there is a second habitable or semi-habitable world in a solar system.
- Build an observatory
- Sit at the navigator station
- If there is any Outer, Inner or a second Habitable planet or titan, fly there in a space rocket and try to set up a little colony
- Most Outer and Inner worlds are semi-habitable and should not require building blueprints with life support
- Construct an airport terminal on the world and on your homeworld to form a trade connection
Ask for Help
The community is always willing to help, so be sure to ask. In the worst-case scenario that there is no oil anywhere, there will always be someone willing to give a crate full of oil via teleport or maybe a nice neighbor.
Even if they turn out yo not be very, you likely won't have lost anything of value. And you can conquer your homeworld back someday if desired.
Visit Other Solar Systems
If all else fails, you can still look to the star. While a space rocket is low-tech, it is capable of deadheading to other solar systems. This would be the hardest thing to try, but it is possible.
Things of note:
- Navigating the stars without a navigation systems takes practice. Charting the stars and comparing them with the starmap.
- Travel time while deadheading is roughly 10 minutes per parsec plus 20 minutes.
- Bring extra hydrogen for fuel.
- You won't know if a solar system have habitable worlds until you are at least half way there.
- Avoid any solar system with a super giant sun, as a space rocket cannot escape its gravity.