Surviving moderately cold boreal forest?

Started by Serenity, August 06, 2016, 10:08:41 AM

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Serenity

I've played temperate forest (duh) and normal desert so far. The latter wasn't too challenging. There is still plenty of farm land around depending on the map. And the growing season is year round. The lack of trees can be worked around relatively easily. I never had an issue with food in those two.

So for a bit more challenge I started a boreal forest map  with an average winter temperate of -11°C and a summer temperature of 14°C. Growing season is 11th spring to 1st fall, which seems to be one of the longest in that biome.
It didn't seem too extreme, but I barely managed to get any farming done in the time. One harvest of strawberries and potatoes. Didn't help though that visitors grazed their animals there.

I hunted of course, but it was just barely enough to cover my current needs. The walking distance on the huge map didn't help. And having rock run most of the way down the middle of the map made for a nice defense, but also made the right half of the map very inaccessible. Even so I doubt hunting the muffalo herd there would have covered the whole winter.
I collected berries, but that only covered current needs.

Growing healroot outside seems to be impossible too given how long it takes. So medicine will be an issue.

I tried hydroponics, but that didn't work out because of power issues.


So how is one supposed to  go about this? Farm a larger area to build up a stockpile? How much do I need for 5 people?

How about a greenhouse without hydroponics? Just wall off a fertile piece of land and put in a heater. Maybe some normal lamps instead of a sunlamp.

Maybe give the nutrient dispenser a try? Seems a bit extreme for that kind of climate. In reality people can subsist just fine of hunting. A deer or elk gives a huge amount of meat and wouldn't be gone in just a few days.

Lys

Quote from: Serenity on August 06, 2016, 10:08:41 AMHow about a greenhouse without hydroponics? Just wall off a fertile piece of land and put in a heater. Maybe some normal lamps instead of a sunlamp.
For me this is always the way to go, sooner or later. It will also save you in case you get a toxic fallout event. Don't bother with regular lamps though, they are useless for growing (plants only grow at 10% speed with a light level of 60% I think).

bchbum16

Yeah the greenhouse method is definitely the way to go. You will have to use a sunlamp though otherwise your plants will likely die before reaching maturity.

MeowRailroad

For me making a really big growing zone tends to work. For some reason it's harder to get a food supply for the winter the first time it comes, probably because the colonists crash the first day of the growing season, and so have less time to plan and to plant.
Quote from: Tynan on December 02, 2016, 05:24:06 PM
This is like being in a remote fishing town in Libera and asking, "Why can't I just pay one of the fishermen $10 to take me back to Los Angeles?"

Panzer

#4
Something I like to do, a 26x26 greenhouse with included geothermal. The heat from the geothermal helps with heating the greenhouse and lets your plants survive a day of solar flare with -30 C outside. 4 wind turbines should be enough to power it, I added the solar panel because of the smelter and some other stuff I hooked up to the greenhouse grid. It is a good idea to lay the conduits in the outer wall and only one tile on the inner wall where needed, so battery short circuits are less likely to start fires inside the greenhouse.



Shurp

Don't forget that sunlamps use gobs of power.  You'll want at least one battery and three power sources (windmill/solar panel) for each lamp.

When the solar flare hits, start an indoor campfire to keep the plants warm until the heaters come back on.
If you give an annoying colonist a parka before banishing him to the ice sheet you'll only get a -3 penalty instead of -5.

And don't forget that the pirates chasing a refugee are often better recruits than the refugee is.

b0rsuk

Honestly farming in a 1st of Spring - 11th of Fall zone is very easy if you have at least 2 decent planters. In such case I usually plant in the first day of my colony.

But storing that much food is a hassle. Healroot is easy, you can have at least 25 on a single square. Food - if we assume simple meals, one square can hold 7.5 meals at best, and 10 meals if you cook them. A colonist seems to eat 2 meals per day. So one square of meals can feed about 3.5 colonists for a day.

Nutrient paste is easier. 6 food per meal and it feeds better than simple meal (more nutrition).

Most people just build sunlamps on soil. A sunlamp needs 1600W of power, but you don't have to maintain a big, unwieldy storage (and pay lower power bills for freezer too).

Serenity

#7
I've never found rushing a freezer to be difficult. It's probably a bit too easy. I've also tried the extended storage mod in my last game. There appear to be some bugs in it currently, but the idea is very nice.

At least with a greenhouse if you find yourself short on power, your stuff won't immediately die.

EDIT:
Ok, tried this again and this time the planting went a lot better and the stuff seems to grow nicely. Maybe the RNG placed me late in the growing season the first time

PotatoeTater

I almost always play on Boreal Forest maps, greenhouses are a must, but overall the marshlands really help with defense to make it worthwhile.
Life is Strange

Pickleinthahouse

i always live purely off of hunting the first winter and then move to indoor farming by the second, boreal is my favorite, not too hard but can really give you a kick every once and awhile

Serenity

It looks like I can grow enough crops outside with the longest growing season. Cotton can just barely be done. Not sure about healroot. Devilstand probably not. I will try the greenhouse with healroot first.

Hunting is also a lot easier this time. Probably because I went a step down on the map size. So the hunter doesn't have to walk far. I slaughtered a huge muffalo herd right outside the base. Last time I tried the second largest map I think. Probably not such a great idea.

Pickleinthahouse

yeah, it's important to make sure that healroot gets done :S

Lightzy

So far mountainous boreal forest has been my easiest playthrough.
Even on ironman/tribe start.

Only real problem I had is starving bears in winter mauling my miners :(

I guess that mining your colony into a mountain makes the game very easy

Tiwaz

Quote from: Panzer on August 06, 2016, 12:12:25 PM
Something I like to do, a 26x26 greenhouse with included geothermal. The heat from the geothermal helps with heating the greenhouse and lets your plants survive a day of solar flare with -30 C outside. 4 wind turbines should be enough to power it, I added the solar panel because of the smelter and some other stuff I hooked up to the greenhouse grid. It is a good idea to lay the conduits in the outer wall and only one tile on the inner wall where needed, so battery short circuits are less likely to start fires inside the greenhouse.




About your setup of windmills. You could put them face one another and get all four in space of two, well little over that. Areas where no high structures can exist can overlap without loss of performance from my experience.

Serenity

I just got the volcanic winter event, so I rushed this with two sunlamps. Works well so far :)

Also helpful is the power switch mod. You can set timers on switches, so I turn off the lamps at night when they don't grow even with sun lamps. Then the wind turbines can charge the batteries

A geyser also helps heating even without the geothermal plant. In a small room that would quickly lead to overheating, but in larger rooms it gets only to normal temperatures.