Ran out of matter.

[nsg21]

Here is the situation: I barely escaped to the -6/factory. The final battle in -7/factory (not so much battle, as me dragging my battered core to the exit under barrages of fire) left me with no stuff and no matter (6/300). Now I am at this new level, it is peaceful and quiet, I even found couple of nuclear cores and hoverpads that I can really use. But I cannot attach it because it requires matter. In fact, everything I find is pretty much useless, as I cannot attach it without matter.

I tried to recycle some random crap in the recycler, but attempt to extract matter failed. Fighting is out of the question (I have guns, but cannot attach them). What else can I do here?

[Kasaris]

Maybe try to ram into little robots to get their matter. You'll certainly get damaged but you'll be able to attach something.

[nsg21]

Yeah, that worked, kind of. But, man, it is slow and painful.

Does bumping peaceful robots increase alert level/attracts unwanted attention?

[Kyzrati]

Kasaris has it--that's one of the main purposes of ramming (in the 7DRL there was no ramming and if you ran out of matter you lost!). It hurts, but that'll hopefully remind you to manage your matter just a little more closely next time

Does bumping peaceful robots increase alert level/attracts unwanted attention?

Not too much.

[Kasaris]

I knew it because I had the same problem once  I just figured that I could kill peaceful robots to get their matter just by ramming into them. It works better if you have no parts attached because ramming can disable some of them permanently. Don't drop parts near other robots because, holy hell, in 3/4 turns they scavenge anything !

Oh and one super cool detail : excavators building an entire dungeon at the starting area !!! I just begun a new game when, going to the stairs, I saw excavators just creating corridors on their own... I stayed like 3000 turns in the starting zone and they just build an entire level with corridors passageways and rooms !!! A real maze, just like that... Incredible 

(They also repair walls and machines in upper levels if they happens to be destroyed... These details, seriously.)

[fonetikli]

Not that I've got anything against ramming innocents (), but if you are lucky (and patient) enough, you can also find matter lying around in the odd room on most levels.  If you're already depleted you should be running fairly light and fast which makes it slightly less dangerous to be poking around in rooms.

[nsg21]

It was on a factory level. Somehow it seems that matter just not laying around there.
My impression that factory levels are
a) huge
b) devoid of machines

Last one may sound strange, but every time I am on a factor level I am struggling to find a terminal.

[Kyzrati]

It's true there are fewer machines on the larger maps. The Factory is huge, and more wide open. I can look at the maps and see if we need to add some more terminals. Part of the issue is they are not evenly distributed, so while there may be a good number of them, if you're unlucky they could be concentrated in one half of the Factory, leaving the other half a lot less occupied.

And there is generally less matter in the Factory; you'll have to find other sources like robots and Recycling Units (or recycling utilities). Matter just lying in the open is intended mostly as a kind of bonus. If you aren't getting enough matter from hostiles, pay attention to the salvage modifiers on your weapons--blowing enemies up with launchers and cannons will not leave you much to salvage!