Sea Ice Community Challenge

[Quizart]

You should set up wind turbines for power instead of solar panels.  they're a bit more random but I don't think I've ever seen my solar panels work at even half capacity, even in summer.  In winter you may as well not have them.

Also, a more reliable way to get steel is to research and set up an electric smelter rather than a comms console.  You only have enough steel for one or the other initially.  With the comms console you might get lucky and an early bulk goods trader will come by, but if not you're kinda screwed.  The smelter gaurentees a slow but steady income of steel from all the cargo and escape pods that land nearby.

Other than that, just don't give up!  It took me probably over a dozen false starts before I got a base where I wasn't dying of cold or reduced to eating raw corpses.  All you need is a foothold and you can build your way up from there.

That's my plan from now on. I think it's more fun than relying on pure luck with the trader anyway. I'm also going to take a second person in much earlier too.

I've really enjoyed your telling of the tale - I'm going to do one as well, assuming I don't die in the first few days.

[Quizart]

Day 0

Holy fuck this place is cold. I think I not only picked the worst possible planet to land on - but the worst possible spot. I don't even have cold weather gear! What was I thinking?!?

Well, this is what I wanted. A real challenge. And I'm going to make it. I'll do whatever it takes to survive. Whatever it takes.

As I was coming down I saw a lot of the wood I brought with me landed in a small area. I knew what I had to do - rush there, and put up a shelter around it, and start burning some for heat. I had to get warm, as fast as possible. I'd die in minutes if I didn't.

Determination paid off. Perfect walls and a door, locked in nice and tight. It took a while, but I eventually got warm enough to feel my appendages again.

Now back out into the cold to gather stuff. What was I thinking? That every day out here might be my last - but I will have lived.

I managed to grab enough stuff to set up a power generator, and got what little sleep I could while waiting for hypothermia to thaw out. This campfire is warm, but I can't burn all my supplies. A nice wind turbine - surely the wind blows out here enough? A battery to store the power for when the wind dies down. Tomorrow: a heater.

Day 1

I quickly set up a heater, and was a little greedy - i let the campfire burn for another few minutes before I salvaged what wood I could from it. It was just so nice to be warm. Alas, I'll have to settle for "not deadly temperature" until I can get a real setup here.

I knew that ships crashing and drop pods falling onto the planet was common - carrying people or resources - and pieces of those drop pods could be melted into steel. But I didn't know how. I needed a plan.  I needed a place to figure out how to use these drop pod pieces, a research bench. More importantly, I needed something to do when I was just sitting around, freezing my ass off, waiting to get "not so fucking cold" to wander back out again. So, I braved the cold and set up a nice research bench. Now I can figure out how to turn all these pieces into some useful steel.

And so the day went - when I was "warm", I went and gathered the supplies that I came down with near my shelter, and researched in-between trips. It's really quiet out here.

Day 2
I hauled some food inside so I didn't have to venture out for days at a time if needed. Managed to gather everything else up, and put a roof over it so it wouldn't rot.

The wind turbine is spinning nicely, and the battery is nearly full. I just hope nothing goes wrong with it...

I brought all this silver thinking trade would be important, but who is coming out in this cold to trade? So that silver has to go to some other use. And now I have a silver bed. Strange, but quality sleep means I'll get back to being productive faster.

It had been nice getting plenty of sleep while waiting to warm up, but that time was over. I had research to do. I had to fight to survive. And I had to win.

I was going to push myself to the very limits. I wasn't going to eat until I absolutely had to. I wasn't going to sleep until I was exhausted. Every second was precious, because I knew enemies were coming...

Day 3

Oddly quiet out here. Forced myself to wait until malnutrition nearly set in before eating, stayed awake until I nearly passed out. Just working hard on figuring out this smelting thing.

Day 4
Some girl named Toni wandered up, said she was joining me, and demanded we name our "faction" and our "community". How does "not dying" sound for both? I decided to take it at least a little seriously, and named our "faction" The Dreamers, and this tiny shack "A New Beginning". It seemed appropriate at least.

Toni was at least smart enough to have some decent cold weather gear. It was terribly crafted, but it was nearly enough to stay warm even in this weather. Except no pants? This girl was weird. Apparently she an ex-criminal, a bit of a masochist even, but you'd have to be to come out in this place. I'm not gay, but even I have to admit, she was pretty. That's good, because we were going to be getting really cozy in this tiny place.

I'm not going to lie, I demanded to know her skillset before I let her into my shelter. I'm sorry, but I'm going to survive out here, even if it means chopping people up for food when my supplies run low. But she didn't bat an eye - she obviously knew how it was out here.

"I'm an excellent doctor, and I can craft stuff well - I didn't make this garbage I'm wearing obviously - and I'm similarly willing to do whatever it takes to survive out here. Want me to build? I'll do it. Want me to haul crap from five miles away? I'll do it. Put a broom in my hand to clean like a maid? I'll do that too. I'm decent with a gun, but I'll kick someone's ass if you let me get close to them. You could possibly survive without me, sure. But... do you really want to turn down a hard working doctor?"

I have to admit, I was impressed. I was told most people out here were idiots, showing up with no clothes and unwilling to do a lot of the things required to survive. She wasn't any of that.

She did admit she had a drug problem in the past, but swore she was off that stuff. I don't think she was lying, but I knew if I found any drugs, I'd have to hide them.

Nonetheless, welcome Toni. Make yourself comfortable in a silver bed. I hope you aren't claustrophobic - three inches of space between our beds doesn't count as a double bed, right?

She chatted with me a bit as I researched - not enough to distract, just pleasant company. I have to admit, it was nice having someone else out here. I worried about food, but she did bring a little with her, which was nice. I even gave her my pants so she'd shutup about being naked.

She complained about having nothing to do though. Here you go - a silver horseshoe pin. This is the shiniest shithole ever.

Day 5
Toni spent a lot of the time sleeping - she might as well, there was nothing for her to do yet but eat our food - when some pirate asshole with a club claimed he was going to take our shit. He said he needed to prepare first though - which worked out great, because his gear wasn't prepared at all. He tried to steal some medicine and run, but he died shortly after. Free stuff to sell later!

I was nearly finished figuring out the smelting, and still no sign on the drop pods. Plus, I didn't know exactly where I was going to fit the smelter. Silver walls? I had no idea, but I was going to figure it out. Hell, an outdoor smelter was better than none.

Day 6
I finished figuring out smelting, and knew what had to be done next - hydroponics. We needed a reliable food source fast, something besides eating the corpses of whatever other idiots attacked us. But I got the smelter built outside, and now hopefully Toni would have something to do. I underestimated just how long it takes to smelt the one piece of slag from my drop pod would take, and Toni was developing hypothermia during it. Nonetheless, we now had a way to supply ourselves steel. She turned it off after, and we waited for more stuff to arrive.

Day 7
Toni kept trying to hog the research table - out of boredom I think - but that was the one thing she really wasn't good at. She helped a little whenever it was my turn to sleep at least, but I was surprised there wasn't anything for her to do. Nonetheless, with how quiet it was out here, we became fast friends. We were a lot alike, and while it's possible she might be a burden on food supplies for now, she'd be invaluable in the future. Gotta use that Glitterworld medicine for something.

I took the steel we smelted and set up some defensive pillars, and saved the rest for an emergency. I let Toni build the roofs just to let her feel useful. Don't worry Toni - you'll be quite busy soon enough. I hope.

With so little to do, I'd nearly finished figuring out how to set up hydroponics. But we needed materials. We'll see what the gods throw at us.

[CrazyEyes]

This is the shiniest shithole ever.

Oh man, that got me. XD

Sounds like you've got a pretty good start, good luck with the not freezing to death.  Just cross your fingers and hope someone wearing wool shows up.

[Zhentar]

I didn't want to drop hundreds or even thousands of silver to get ~75 building materials

A grand statue yields 195 material. Awful quality ones are a fairly good deal, and shoddy and poor aren't particularly bad deals either. Even normal isn't a total ripoff.

Smelting only gets a 25% yield as opposed to the 75% yield of deconstruction, but even then awful weapons get you materials for not much more than double the raw material price, so I go for them when I'm short on materials.

[CrazyEyes]

Really?  Hmm.  I'd assumed they would provide so little material it wouldn't be worth it, but I'll have to start keeping an eye out for good deals like that.  It might get expensive, but that'll help keep my colony wealth down so the mechanoid raids won't be as scary.

[Quizart]

Day 8

Some lady named Rosa asked us for help, she was being chased by pirates. I said I couldn't promise anything, but you can come this way. What she didn't tell me was that she was from a nudist colony... and in the nude. In -84C weather. Except pants! She only had on pants. Was pants a cultural thing here? And she was a slowpoke on top of that. Yeah, no way she was making it. Sucks too, she was a hell of a doctor - can't get enough of those.

Now the pirates chasing her meant business. One of them was dressed very warmly, he'd definitely be a problem - luckily he just had a crappy pistol. The others probably wouldn't survive the weather, but they had real guns, a decent machine pistol, and a good sniper rifle! I wanted their clothes and their guns.

Unfortunately, I was at the tail end of my "research until exhausted" plan - which I now began to see the flaw in. I got a little sleep in - it's a long way to the base - while Toni built a few more fortifications. She bundled it a few times - goodbye precious steel - but eventually got it, and we still had a bit in reserve. I forced myself up, and we got ready to kill, if they made it that far.

I was worried the pirates would simply capture this "Rose" person and run - and sure enough, thats what they tried to do. I shot down the first guy - machine pistol guy - quickly, and I got one shot off in the really warmly dressed guy, but it was just a flesh wound and he ran off with Rose. But she didn't survive, and he just dropped the corpse and left, sniper rifle guy covering their escape. Toni repaired the walls while we waited to see if they even made it, and I went back to bed. They did unfortunately - no coat or sniper rifle - but even that brief fight was bringing hypothermia, and I wouldn't risk sending Toni after them with a club in the wide open area. Still, a machine pistol is a nice pickup at least - and possible meat if needed...

I'd decided to be a lot more lax on the sleep schedule, but eating was still at a "i'm about to get malnutrition" basis. Have to stretch these supplies out.

Day 11
Still no drop pods - I was getting really worried I should have built a com station instead. Some guy named Joe wandered in, demanding he was part of the group now - except this fat, slow, gay dude was unwilling to do ANYTHING except shoot people and research - and he sucked at the second one. He did bring us some nice meals though, and very warm clothing, as well as some armor! Thanks Fat Joe, you will be remembered (hopefully not as tasty) - you were far more helpful in death than you ever would have been alive.

Yet he had no pants. Where were all the pants?

Some pirates wandered by later, but they decided to "prepare" - and by that I mean, freeze to death after wandering around. One of them was kind enough to donate an assault rifle and another set of armor. Now I felt pretty prepared for combat - but we still needed a food source...

Oh, he DID have pants - so I'm wearing a dead man's pants now. Creepy, but better than no pants.

Day 15
The first drop pods finally - two poor souls that would freeze to death long before I could rescue them. Some free steel though, and a small bit of clothing to sell. Plus more meat if things get desperate - which they are. Despite stringent rationing, we're down to 10 packaged meals, and hydroponics are still far away. It looks like we'll be eating humans after all...

A scyther decided to attack. Interestingly, he only shot at Engie (who was sitting behind some steel, not firing back, since it was too far away) while Tori slowly whittled him down with an assault rifle. Unfortunately, he dropped dead, so no fancy parts from him. Engie ended up actually having to repair the steel block during the fight it took so long, and nearly got frostbite, as we have still only gotten one set of warm clothing. Oh well, back to research for me.

Day 16
Our first drop pod! And it's a good one - not only did it drop a bunch of useful slag, but food too! Raw potatoes is better than raw human. Toni finally felt useful, as she hauled stuff around all day. Now Engie is feeling useless, as she continues researching stuff we don't truly need because it's too cold for her to venture out. As more stuff appears I'm sure things will get in motion.

Day 18
Ate the last of the prepared meals today - it's on to raw rice until I can get a stove up. I guess that's what I should spend this precious steel on - in case I have to cook human. Cooked human is better than raw, at least.

Some rancher guy asked for help, and we said "sure, come bring us fresh meat." Which he did, and plenty of it. Primitive tribesmen with bows and arrows, and shitty clothing.

Only one of them got away - the one with warm clothing again, damn it. All these mediocre cloth parkas...

Toni took an arrow to the leg, so she rested up, while Engie donned her normal gear and started putting away bodies. I worried about the mental state of our team, but a soothing psychic voice told us all it was going to be okay...

Day 22
The last of the regular meals will be eaten today. Tomorrow... it's cooked human. We are not looking forward to this... but whatever it takes to survive. Anything.

Some pirates wandered in - as usual, most of them froze to death. But this time, the one in warm gear lead the charge - and now I don his warm gear. I don't like wearing dead men's gear, but - anything to survive.

[Quizart]

Day 24

Still only seen one cargo pod, and without steel, we can't build hydroponics or an orbital beacon. And so, we eat human flesh. Cooked or not, this is awful. At least there is a good supply.

Mental states are... holding. This is taking it's toll, but so far no one has snapped. We found a bit of beer on one of the corpses... maybe it'll take the edge off.

Day 25
One of the rare and majestic thrumbo wandered into our forsaken corner of the world. It walked straight up to our holdout, on top of our stockpile... and froze to death. Some part of me was sad that it sacrificed itself to feed us, but I take it as a sign of hope. We can go weeks without eating humans now. I hope it's enough...

Day 27
For as forsaken and dangerous as I was told this place would be, we spend half of our time researching stuff we'll probably never use or wandering around bored. I was just thinking "I wish something would happen, even something bad..."

And then Toni's father landed in a drop pod. Naked. On the edge of the wastes.

She's going to be chipper for the next while. If I end up having to cook him, I'll make sure she doesn't eat him, at least. And we have a lot of thrumbo meat, so I can at least not add cannabilism to her list of issues. Poor Toni...

And then the whispers in the back of the mind came back. But they were not kind this time.

I knew Toni was going to lose it, it was just a matter of how and how soon. We both knew it. I suggested she go "patrol" far away from the base, and she understood. She needed her catharsis.

Day 29
Somehow Toni persisted through the terrible whispers in our minds, even helping out to haul the latest "tribe chasing some naked idiot" loot and bodies back to the base. Winter has begun, and even our cold weather gear is barely keeping us warm outside. And it's only going to get colder. We're going to have to start watching our hypothermia again, something I thought we were finally past. It's cold, and while we do have a few weeks of food, there is no long-term plan in sight. We need a miracle at this point - a sustainable one, although I'd gladly accept another Thrumbo sacrifice.

Day 32
As the thrumbo meat supply dwindles lower and lower, I begin to think boredom might kill me instead of starvation. There's no shortage of idiot pirates or tribesman, or people flinging themselves to the planet's surface naked, to eat if we must. But other than occasionally dig graves and haul their bodies in - probably to be dug up later - there's nothing to do.  I've been researching how to make drugs just to make Toni happy and give us something to talk about. I was told this place was exciting, dangerous. Where is the challenge I crave? Not just tests of my sanity, but of my skill?

[Quizart]

Day 33
A second drop pod of resources! A bunch of... chemfuel? Maybe one day we'll need it, but the slag is more exciting for now! This will give us 120 steel... enough to build an orbital comm station, and not be able to trade anything without a beacon. Just to tease us. I'm not sure how we'll use it, but even just having more as a backup is better than nothing.

A scyther decided to come in on a drop pod - luckily, it landed near me while I was hauling, not the base. Once again, the fight took so long that Toni had to stop to eat, and I had to repair my cover. Eventually we downed it though - and I successfully recovered a scyther blade. If I ever get an orbital beacon, that might fetch some good money. Unfortunately, it did get one good shot off on Toni - her right humerus is gone. I don't trust my surgeon skills enough to try to replace it, and even though I used the best medicine on her, it's going to be permanent. Maybe one day we'll be able to give her bionics...

Day 34
Not 30 seconds after I butcher two more corpses to prepare us for the inevitable, a 3rd cargo pod drops a bunch of warg meat. Figures, but I'm grateful nontheless. More importantly, that extra slag actually means we might be able to set up an orbital trade beacon. Not eating human again is a tad higher priority though.

Toni's bad arm is very unfortunate, because she can't haul nearly as much as she used to. She still handles slag effectively enough at least, so I'll try to handle the stuff that requires more dexterity. She's a dear friend, and we're going to make it through this. With our sanity. I hope.

Day 35
Another drop pod arrival again, but this time it was pirates. They had terrible gear for the weather, but they landed close enough to give us trouble. She lost the pinky on her other hand - she only grinned, oddly enough. "Now it's getting exciting", she said. I smiled back. I'm glad she found me - we were meant to take this place on together.  I forgot she was a masochist as well, the bit of pain she's in just seems to make her feel alive. We make a good team.

Day 37
Toni had been on the edge for a long time since her father died, and she finally went over it. Overall though, it wasn't too bad - she pigged out and ate a few meals. Food is tough, but at least she didn't inadvertently eat people, just compounding her issues. Poor girl. She feels better now though, and with this meat that came down we should be able to avoid eating people for a while. Hopefully long enough to get an orbital trade beacon up.

Day 39
Having to bury another half a dozen pirates, on top of my all too recent butchering of corpses preparing to eat them, I finally snapped. I wandered around for what was probably days, though I remember little of it. Luckily, nothing bad happened during that time, and the temperature was just barely tolerable in my gear.

Day 42 We have hauled enough slag (and I smelted it while Toni hauled more) to get an orbital trade console and beacon up. The extra power consumption is a bit of a worry, but the battery still seems to stay full. The extra steel will be saved up for a hydroponics system as soon as possible, we'll see how that goes. I haven't researched in over a week, which is nice - being busy keeps my mind off of... things...

Toni went on yet another food binge, her way of freaking out. Better than lighting the place on fire, but we only had a few days before it was time to eat human again. She ate ALL the non-human food. Now I have no choice, I'm getting hungry...

Day 43
Toni ate over a dozen meals in her pigout rage. She's going to flipping her shit when she wakes up, the realization she just ate over a full corpse worth of meals. Now I have to cook more, and probably butcher more too. Ugh...

Some granite blocks came in a cargo pod. That's interesting... building material. Maybe even lay down some floors. Give us our own rooms. Or most importantly, set up a space for the hydroponics. Time to lay out a plan, once Toni wakes her fat ass up, finishes freaking out, and hauls it here.

She did. I wish I had said hey to her when she did. Because it was the last time we talked.

A TON of pirates, at least a dozen, came at us. Despite the -131C weather, they somehow made it to our base. And an idiot with frag grenades... well, Toni dodged the frag grenades, but unfortunately caught on fire. And then she ran around on fire. I don't know why she didn't stop drop and roll, but the enemy showed no mercy, and mowed her down. I killed as many of the bastards as I could. What's worse - she technically lived, but she had no arms. I tried to patch her up anyway... but it was no use. Toni was dead. I may never be the same.

[Quizart]

Day 44

Everything is on fire. A circuit blew up, and half of the building is on fire. And I'm on fire now, trying to put it out. I think it's infected. I think I should have stayed in the simulator. I think...

_{Author's Note: The End! On to attempt number 8!}

[Shurp]

Reminder: don't build conduits.  Can't have a *zzzt* without conduits, and your base is so small that everything is in range of the battery regardless.

[Sola]

Reminder: don't build conduits.  Can't have a *zzzt* without conduits, and your base is so small that everything is in range of the battery regardless.

Unless, of course, it's not :p

You build conduits eventually, and it's often long before you're able to sustain a second pawn.

[Zhentar]

If you plan your base carefully, you can go a long time without conduit. I've never needed conduit before I had three pawn in my attempts.

[Thyme]

Taking Zhentars advice for my Ice Sheet colony, I simply built a second "circuit" for my greenhouse. Energy and material efficiency is crap though

Flicks act as conduit (can they Zzzt!?) and can be used to disconnect things that are farther away and not permanently needed.

[Grax]

How did you generate a fully iced world?

[CrazyEyes]

Flicks act as conduit (can they Zzzt!?) and can be used to disconnect things that are farther away and not permanently needed.

Mercifully no, switches do not seem to be able to trigger Zzzt! events. I used a switch attached directly to a battery for a while to squeeze out some extra range and it never exploded.