There are countless topics around the limited usefulness of NA. And orginally I just wanted to add to an existing topic, but some of theme are already pretty old, so I thought I start a new one.
So I did some research and came across some uses of elemental NA, some of them are outdated techniques in real life, but might be interesting as alternative recipes for the game.
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Replace FLX with NA for AL production in SMEs
NA is used as a reduction agent for AL. Since both FLX and NA are created in a CHP it’s the same tier of accessibility, so would be game balance wise no different.
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Alternative recipe for PG
This could potentially be an alternative recipe for PG. Styrene-Butadiene in form of Buna S is a compound of H, C and NA. So this could be an interesting sink for NA.
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Alternative recipe for MHL
There are forms of lamps which are sodium based and used in various fields like darkrooms for photography or plant illumunation.
I wonder what the rest of the community and the devs think about these possiblities to integrate NA better into the game.
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The first two are fine, because the NA is replacing other common ingredients. But MHL is currently the only major use for I or CLI, so if you can substitute NA then why would anyone bother mining CLI any more? Personally I wouldn’t change that one.
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Yeah, I can see that being an issue as well. It would depend on how valuable NA would be on a market where NA actually has more uses. I think especially replacing FLX with NA for AL smelting would boost the usefulness of NA by a lot.
So the tradeoff here would be : you as a constructor using BMP time to create Iodine or buying possibly more expensive NA.
I don’t have so many different types of bases to actually have a feeling if that would be a real tradeoff or not. That’s why I am relying on the veterans here 
I mean that should be one of the focuses of the game right? Thinking about tradeoffs and not just have linear paths to follow.
Yeah, but keep in mind that Sodium Chloride is made from Na and Cl. So we should have a lab recipe that converts NA + CL => Salt.
or you just enter MAT HAL in a buffer and read the description.
edit: yes, the first paragrah IS sarcasm
I’m trying to brainstorm possible solutions to use elemental sodium (NA) rather than dumping it against MMs for 25 ncc each.
The FIM thing would just use rock salt / halite / HAL (from which you make the NA and CL in the first place).
CL is in such high demand that NA is basically worthless, since it’s only needed in very small amounts for a handful of existing recipes.
An i am pretty sure you don’t want elemental sodium in you FIMs… unless you want them to explode when you pour water in to rehydrate them.
Now you’re using up CL, the resource people actually want and the creation of which produces 2 NA. That’d just increase the total amount of NA with no use in the universe. Not only would it not solve the problem, it’d make it worse lol
You could go the realistic route and use 2 NA + 1 CL = Table Salt, but then it’s just doing nothing. The amount of NA without use in the universe remains constant.
If you reversed the CLNA output to 2 CL + 1 NA it’d do something. But that requires some suspension of disbelief since HAL is NaCl, which fits with the current recipe.
I’m sorry, I didn’t flag the first paragraph as sarcasm explicitly. Thought the 2nd would be enough, but seems Murphy’s law strikes again.
I did in fact not see the second paragraph the first time around. Interesting, especially because I quoted the post 
As an opponent to the explicit marking of sarcasm I’m disappointed in myself (I probably wouldn’t have read it anyway considering I missed the second paragraph to begin with…).
Given that this is a sci-fi game, we don’t need to adhere to real life uses of NA. So if the devs really want to boost consumption they can insert it wherever they want into a commonly used recipe. e.g.
EXO = OVE + AL + NA
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