So I tried something a little different tonight. I downloaded Seuss' Pitch Black Skybox mod from the steam workshop, and started a new map with 7 large asteroids
This mod does more than it sounds - it not only turns the skybox pitch black, but removes the sun and all ambient light from the level. The only light is that which ships and bases provide.
So naturally it's kind of dark, to put it lightly.
I cannibalized some parts of the standard starter ship to build a spotlight and some "interior" lights on the exterior of the ship to increase its visibility. Since I knew the game starts you more or less pointed at the asteroids, I cautiously accelerated to 10 m/s and started inching my way into the gloom... too worried that to go faster would risk smashing into something before I could react.
It was flying blind. And worse, frequent paranoid stops and starts would chew through my extremely small uranium supply in short order. I decided I would cannibalize more parts to make a small scout vessel to search for an asteroid. My power is a currency, and it would be spent much more slowly pushing around a 5 ton ship than a 155 ton one.
I am forced to cannibalize more structure, the glass in front of my cockpit for silicon, the connector, the gravity generator, a couple thrusters, and though I tried hard to avoid it, my medbay. There was just no way around it. But doing so, I managed to build a simple small scout with a couple spotlights and a battery. I couldn't complete a reactor on it because I had nothing to cannibalize for the gravel to make reactor parts other than my main reactor - which was right out. Main reactor goes down, I can't refine, the lights go out, all kinds of bad things happen.
So I manage to build it up, and connect it to the ship to charge the battery.
I had to grind down the ship's connector and rebuild it behind the scout, then ootch the large ship forward until docking was achieved. Then set the battery to charge.
I also had to basically cannibalize everything but the cockpit, the connector, the gyros, thrusters cargo bay, assembler and refinery, but I made sure to build a beacon in the big ship before I left, so that I could find it again - the lights don't reach forever in the inky gloom.
Thus prepared, I tentatively groped my way out into the darkness.
It took
quite a while of yo-yo-ing out and back, out and back, around and around, every minute fraying my nerves a little more, but suddenly rock loomed up in front of me, and mineral blips appeared to my ore detector. I was surprised how close it was to the mothership, actually.. only 1.5km away. I must have traveled quite a distance before I got the idea to build the small ship for scouting.
Stopping only enough to chisel off a little gravel to make reactor components, I leave the scout ship there, floodlight pointed at the rock to serve as a visual aid at which for me to pilot the refinery ship - it only then occurring to me of course that I probably could have stuck an antenna on the scout ship too, ah well. I jetpack back to the big ship, and start piloting it toward a distant tiny smudge of light in the darkness.
I nearly hit another, smaller asteroid on the way. Ooops. But I manage to miss it, and continue and finally rendezvous with the scout ship at the main asteroid.
I re-dock the scout ship to charge up the battery some more, and while that happens, I also modify it into a basic drill ship.
My first order of business was to find some uranium to restock my rapidly depleting energy stores - I was down to half a kilo.
I find a uranium vein relatively nearby, and drill out what I can from near the surface with the rudimentary drill ship. I also get some iron, nickel, gold, and of course, rock for my trouble.
Digging in the dark can make a sane man crazy.
Unfortunately, I haven't found any silver in the asteroid yet, which will be important for rebuilding my medbay and another reactor, to start a base. I might have to mount an expedition to an adjacent asteroid, if I can find it. At least I've got a supply of uranium now. Once I find some silver, I can start on a base and get it lit up and beaconed, finish cannibalizing the starter ship for parts, and begin building up. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a rudimentary attack craft before too long, and I can take what I need from the occasional passing merchant ship - though, I'll probably have to leave the armed ones alone for quite some time.
All in all, this mod makes single player much more incredibly challenging, interesting, creepy and engaging. Light becomes an essential resource - you're fighting to keep the lights on as much as you are to keep your suit energized. Beacons/antennas become critical. A very good way to breathe some life back into single player while waiting for them to (hopefully soon) fix multiplayer netcode.