Tribal colony vs icesheet

[Pathing]

Did anyone successfully build a base and survive for a long time in ice sheet?
I could not see any obvious method to feed my colonists and protect them against temperature.
Any tip would be nice!
Thanks!

[ironinferno]

i recommend getting torches as a light source or campfires so that it benefits as both light source and meal source! Also plant trees that grow fast but yield little wood !

[cultist]

I'm not sure it can be done. You'll run out of wood within the first few days and after that everyone freezes to death. Unless you get a trader with wood right away, there's no way to stay warm. Maybe if you find a thermal vent inside a mountain you could build a little room with heat around that. I don't see any other options for tribals.

[b0rsuk]

There was a similar discussion on Steam. Outside of cannibalism, I would try something like this:

Hunt bears. Starve them and feed them only every few days to save food. Bears and other animals will run out completely, it's a matter of time. You will need to get hydroponics + nutrient paste anyway.

To counter the -25 penalty of starving, I would start with very good miners and builders. You need to mine LOTS of steel to have construction materials, especially for research benches. Wood is your only source of heat for a long, long time so use absolute minimum. And I mean "wooden doors + several wall squares" kind of minimum, obviously you need to settle at a steel vein. Very good builders will get you very comfortable furniture, and you can spam flower pots. Stonecutting should be the first research.

[Handsome_Sorbo]

I've only just started playing so my advice probably isn't useful however I managed to last a few weeks on an ice sheet with a tribal colony (and could have gone longer or shorter I suppose depending on rng)

Note, I made a custom scenario with only one tribal colonist and no items.  As such, the single colonist may be an advantage here since I need less food.

I selected a random start and ended up on an ice sheet with no wood source and only a few rabbits running around.  My colonist was only wearing a tribal loin cloth thing.

Looking around the map I saw that there was a rather large premade structure.  I deconstructed one of the walls despite the warning of evil.  Behind it was 6 pods and a bunch of bugs.  I quickly opened a pod and all the people popped out, (along with a few more bugs).  I looked at each of the sick colonists and found one that had a shotgun. I quickly grabbed the shot gun and kited the bugs then killed the nest.

Searching the bodies I found some warm clothes, threw those on and also found a few mood pulse things.

For the next couple days I buried bodies and set up a little shelter inside the tomb.  Wood was the biggest issue, as I wasn't  able to make a place to butcher nor did I have a light source.  As such I spent a few nights eating bug corpses and burying bodies.

I eventually managed to murder a trader who arrived and took all his precious pemmican.  Sadly he had no wood on him.

A wanderer joined and together they hunted rabbits and began researching things that would never be. Between the mood pulse artifacts and a chessboard they lasted many nights.  Sadly a psych event happened that only affects females and both my colonists happened to be of the feminine persuasion.  It wasn't long before one of them stripped naked and wandered off into the snow.  By the time the other girl found her, she was dead.  At the sight of her dead friend she too lost her mind.  While she was passed out in the snow, and shortly before she died a caravan arrived.  I can only assume they brought wood to trade, but I will never know.


Anyway, obviously there is a lot of chance involved, but I don't think it's impossible.  It might be annoying though since a lot of luck would be involved.  It's mainly getting the wood that seems to be the biggest challenge.  I'm going to try again tonight.

[b0rsuk]

If you rush electricity, you get heaters, fueled generators and wind turbines.

"The Lost Tribe" scenario makes you start with malnutrition.

[Gennadios]

Never did Lost tribe myself, I prefer rich and solo with "wanderer joins" disabled,

But first thing I do in ice sheet playthroughs is to build double walls around a decent looking geothermal vent for heat, preferably with some farmable tiles around it (kind of a precious resource on ice sheets.) The first season will usually have a decent amount of huntable animals on the map so you can rush whatever tech you need for wind turbines and sun lamps.

Also, expect your people to get used to the taste of human meat. There won't be many ways to get around it.

[MasterD1085]

I have tried many times, it's just about 100% impossible.  Trees do not grow fast enough to yield wood.   With 60% light and proper heat, they only grow at 17% growth rate.  They will only hit about 38-40% growth by the time they start to decay (and that is not high enough % to yield wood when chopped.  Thus making it just about impossible to grow anything while using campfires as heat/light.  I have personally tried making a scenario where I started with 1 tribe member, with 3000 wood scattered around the map.  This was still not enough to "produce" wood.   So ya you really would have to rush electricity with like 3 or 4 researchers, and maybe hope you get some food cargo pods.     I think Tynan should add a tribal building light "Tribal fire"  Which is like a camp fire but takes up a 2x2 spot and yields 100% light like a sun lamp does.   But of course this bigger fire should take up a bit more wood, but this would actually allow tribe members to grow trees in gravel.  Thus giving you a bit more of a chance to survive on icesheet.

[Shurp]

Maybe tribals need the ability to create light and heat from polar bear oil.  And doors and walls from polar bear skin (with steel supports).

[hwfanatic]

Maybe tribals need the ability to create light and heat from polar bear oil.  And doors and walls from polar bear skin (with steel supports).

Unfortunately, there will be very few polar bears for it to justify a whole polar bear economy.

[b0rsuk]

As I said in the Suggestions subforum, ice sheet needs fishes to sustain seals and bears. Then tribes could lead Inuit (Eskimo) life, hunting instead of agriculture.

And what about cooling spots for tribes.
My colony just die on heart stroke on a heat wave, on a plain tundra map.
I think i will dig in the biggest small hill next time.

Heat wave ? In tundra

[GM_Baiter]

It is far from impossible, on my 2nd try on extreme with random characters I managed to get electricty/batteries/multianalyzer without growing food/eating any human meat. I died to a berzerk cycle coupled with manhunter and pirate raids just before getting turrets.
What i did was kill my 3 pets for food day 1, play on a big map to get more chances of polar bears spawns, and share the parkas i got from wanderer and then raiders when going out. Traders and cargo pods might give you food too. It's an hardcore challenge and requires alot of micromanagment but it's doable.

[taha]

Find a geyser. Use the planning tool to count 3x3 from middle to corner, then do that for each corner. You will end with a 9x9 blueprint. That's the size of your far-in-the-future power plant (after like 5 years of research )

Build a 13x13 wall around that 9x9 blueprint. That's your 1st room. For a long time, is going to be your dorm, kitchen, hospital, etc, so plan where you put each item carefully.

Inside:
Make 1-st storage spot (1x1) and set it to only accept medicine (normal, not Glit, not tribal)
Make 2-nd storage spot (1x1) and set it only for MRE (yellow meals)

Set your people in 2 shifts, with 8 hours sleep, 12 work, 2 joy, 2 anything.
Miner and constructor should be in different shifts.

Anything that moves around your base - hunt it.
Anything that can be deconstructed - deconstruct it.

I ONLY play on ice sheet, and those are basic rules.

Ah, and btw... your stating colonists/tribals should have cannibal as main trait. On ice sheet, without tech, there is no way around it.

[cultist]

It is far from impossible, on my 2nd try on extreme with random characters I managed to get electricty/batteries/multianalyzer without growing food/eating any human meat. I died to a berzerk cycle coupled with manhunter and pirate raids just before getting turrets.
What i did was kill my 3 pets for food day 1, play on a big map to get more chances of polar bears spawns, and share the parkas i got from wanderer and then raiders when going out. Traders and cargo pods might give you food too. It's an hardcore challenge and requires alot of micromanagment but it's doable.

Could you go into a bit more detail with this? How did you survive the cold once the initial wood was gone? Where did you get enough food for 5 people with no nutrient dispenser? How many parkas did you start with (they seem to be random when generating pawns)?

[GM_Baiter]

Could you go into a bit more detail with this? How did you survive the cold once the initial wood was gone? Where did you get enough food for 5 people with no nutrient dispenser? How many parkas did you start with (they seem to be random when generating pawns)?

It's close to what taha said, at the start, pause the game and choose a geyser that is close to the mountain and has a steel vein (2 is better), then build a small room around the geyser (your main room). Start building a research bench asap (inside, and you wanna build another one soon) and a butcher table (outside, you wanna build a kitchen around it soon) and a cook stove for wood. then I start building a wall around my base (and traps after the first raid if possible). I don't bother building beds when the mood buffs are still on, time is expensive.

Wood was not an issue at all, I only used it for the cook stove and one firecamp for the mining spot when i didnt had parkas. The geyser is enough. I started with no parkas at all, but a wanderer joined with one, I used it for the guy who need it, I changed a few times, the raids bring more parkas, then no more issues with temperature, but at the start you have to constantly be carefull with hypothermia. When a guy was cold --> research.

For food, as a tribe you start with some pemmican and 3pets, that is already a lot of food, if you pick a big map you will get some polar bears too. I also got one or 2 cargo pods with food. The plan was to cook human meat if I ran short of food, but I didnt had to.

A good researcher helps a lot, once you can grow food it's just a normal ice sheet run. I had 2 guys researching full time.
if one of your people is annoying (berserk etc..) send him outside naked for a while, that's one less mouth to feed.
I also forbid the kitchen a few times when they were hungry but the mood was ok, just to make them eat later, every little bit helps.
My schedule was completely free, not even sleeping time, and I minmaxed/micromanaged a lot.