Best use of Plasteel

[CheckSix]

I was fortunate enough to find a large vein of plasteel in my map (I have 1680 in my store room), and have mined it al out (wore out a fair few drills too I'm sure!).

I had to fight HARD to protect my wealth against jealous tribes and pirates, and I want to best utilise it.

I was thinking I might use it to build turrets and mortars, making  them stronger and making my colony safer. Is there a BETTER use for it than that? (sorry, this is my first colony - only bought this great game last week!) I know art can be sold for a bunch of money, can it be made into art? (having said that, my best artist has a skill of 4 only).

I don't NEED to sell it to buy food, as I have over 3000 of potato and the same amount of corn, with 1300 rice.

Is there a better way to utilise this rich find? I need the assistance of more experienced colony builders.

Thanks for your time, and thanks in advance for any advice given.

[vagineer1]

How did you get that much Plasteel? Is you entire count of the stuff purely from that ore veign?

[Andy_Dandy]

I use plasteel for turrets and walls in my main defense room/area, and for some deluxe hospital beds.

[CheckSix]

How did you get that much Plasteel? Is you entire count of the stuff purely from that ore veign?

Yes, indeed it is, I started to mine it out, and it just kept coming.

Oh, and by the way, I am not running any mods, pure vanilla version of Rimworld.

[JimmyAgnt007]

I think we get more these days than we used too.  Mostly you want to use it for building the space ship to escape.  Thats the only good endgame right now.  That being said, if you just want to stay and mess about then turrets and doors.  Since those are usually the first to be attacked.

[SSS]

If you think you might want to build a ship later on, you might want to hang on to enough to construct it. Beyond that, if I have an abundance of it, I tend to try to craft longswords out if it for any melee specialist(s) I have. Aim for masterwork or better and sell the rest (which turns a very nice profit, btw). Of course, I don't generally attempt to craft anything with it until I have a 20-level crafter, which takes awhile to get. Even when maxed out, colonists don't seem to have any floor for quality; the ceiling just rises. You want as much of an opportunity as possible to get a high-quality product when you're dealing with lucrative materials.

I consider turrets disposable, so I personally wouldn't use plasteel on something like that. Building your mortars out of it wouldn't hurt though. You could also build a saferoom out of it if you wanted, or even upgrade your prison walls. I don't think plasteel's beauty is enough to justify making art out of it. You're better off saving up and using silver or (if you're more dedicated than I tend to be) gold for high-end art. (Note: If you're wanting to sell the art rather than keep it, I've heard around the forums that silver art isn't profitable.)

[CheckSix]

Thanks gents, some very helpful hints out there. I'm a noob on his first colony, and the learning curve is steep. I'm reading the wiki, watching YouTube tutorials and walkthroughs, but sometimes things just happen that you haven't seen or heard of, and are unsure of how to proceed.

The longsword made out of plasteel sounds awesome. I tried to give my melee specialist a gun, but he protested, and prefers his plasteel knife from the original drop. Sadly, he has now gone berserk and attacked my other colonists, but he may come out of it and we can use him again. We might even be able to recruit another melee specialist at a later time.

Thanks again for the advice guys. Any other suggestions?

[Snownova]

When playing without mods I mainly use it for turrets and walls at strategic points. Mainly at the killzone and around my primary beacon. Basically anywhere you expect the walls to take a lot of damage.

[SSS]

Thanks again for the advice guys. Any other suggestions?

Since you're already reading quite a bit, you might want to make use of the in-game info menus. It actually took me awhile to notice it. Basically, whenever you select any object, be it a colonist, an animal, a wall, a resource, whatever, in the bottom left of the screen within the interface there's a little "i" symbol. Click that to find out more about the object. The stats in these menus can be very useful- that's how you would find out that making a longsword out of plasteel is a good idea in the first place, for instance, since looking at the info for plasteel notes that it gives an offset to piercing damage. You can click on the stats themselves too, which sometimes offers additional info. Say, with a colonist, one stat might read that the speed they smooth floors at is x%- clicking on this would break down how the pawn's smoothing speed is calculated by the game (skills, sight [affected by eye damage or enhancements], etc.).

So... yeah. Check the info tabs if you aren't already. They're useful.

I wish the tutorial would point them out to newbies.

[milon]

So... yeah. Check the info tabs if you aren't already. They're useful.

I wish the tutorial would point them out to newbies.

+1, Info tabs should be added to the tutorial.

[Benny the Icepick]

Cook stove.

[Blizz]

I'd just like to add that while that is a lot of plasteel, I would actually rather wait to when I'd be more apt for using it (Like crafting better weapons or making my rocket ship) simply because having loads of plasteel will drive up the wealth of your colony a lot.

This means that raids against you will be larger and stronger the richer you are.

Hopefully you're having fun with the game, and good luck!

[Cdr.Keen]

I found over 3000 yet on my map - and there is more

i usual make doors out of it and sometimes furniture.