ice sheets

[rubbermann1]

so what am i meant to use as food i currently use about 10 hydroponic tables but its barely enouph and theres no animals

[mrofa]

Canibalism ofc, eat every visitor, some of colonists if they are not usefull and every raider

[Livingston I Presume]

And honestly, 10 hydro tables is not much, bump that number up to 20 and keep going

[Snownova]

Look out for big patches of gravel, wall them in, heat them, sun lamp and you've got yourself a nice greenhouse.

Meat was never a problem for me on ice sheets, as manhunter packs are fairly frequent and there's always plenty of frozen flesh of visitors and raiders who perish before reaching your base.

[Grimandevil]

Look out for big patches of gravel, wall them in, heat them, sun lamp and you've got yourself a nice greenhouse.

or wall in a geothermal vent. just make sure its not overheated.

[Shurp]

The issue is dirt to grow food in, not heat.  A geothermal vent won't give you space to plant crops.  Like Snownova said, the key is to find gravel patches that you can designate as crop space without improvement.  Then put a roof over them, a sunlamp, and a heater, and you're good to go.

The geothermal vent trick is great in tundra where there's gobs of land to farm.  Not so useful on an ice sheet.

Save your hydroponics tables for hops.  Or if you want some hilarity, devilweed.  ("ANOTHER solar flare???!!!")

[jzero]

lots and lots of cannibalism. The answer to every problem

[Shad]

so what am i meant to use as food

The frozen tears of your colonists as they break mentally and disappear into the endless white...



But yeah, indoor farming on gravel is the only way, unless you are fond of playing the lottery with solar flares.

[Shurp]

The frozen tears of your colonists as they break mentally and disappear into the endless white...

LOL, that's poetry man, that's so beautiful 

[Guilty Omelette]

Listen to Livingston, get lots of hydroponics. Plant rice since it gets the biggest bonus from being grown in hydroponics.

Planting in gravel works, but is generally too slow, with not enough tiles.

[Shurp]

It's not that slow, 88%, and you can usually find somewhere nearby on the map a 9x9ish plot to put a roof over.  That's enough to keep three colonists alive long enough to build everything else you need.

Your results may vary depending on map type; you'll probably find less gravel on flat or mountainous terrain.  Try something in the middle.

[Snownova]

Another tip, right at the start of the game, pause and look around the map. The next few minutes (or less) will be the only time you will see the landscape of this ice sheet without snow covering everything.

Take this opportunity to spot any large areas of gravel, preferably with a geyser on or near it. Use the order tool or even just plop down a growing zone to mark it before it's covered in snow and you can't find it again.

[Shurp]

You can find a growing zone anytime just by applying a growing zone to a large part of the map and see what squares light up under the snow.

But yeah, it's easier at the start -- and you definitely want to plan where you place your base on where there are some good gravel piles nearby.