Sea Ice Community Challenge

[CrazyEyes]

Ah, that would explain it then, I do have Hospitality installed. I didn't want to uninstall it since I use it with my other colonies to improve visitor relations; I didn't think it changed anything besides that stuff.

Material shortages are due to the whims of the RNG gods deciding when to send me bulk goods traders. I think I've only ever gotten two the entire time I've been playing. As for the food situation, I didn't consider hydroponics a high priority because I wasn't going to starve, and smokeleaf kept anyone from caring about the cannibalism too much. Once I got enough people that I couldn't produce/buy the drug fast enough I started to think about hydroponics. At that point it was just a matter of having the space.

[CrazyEyes]

Day 429

Another mechanoid raid arrived today.  It was mostly scythers, which is easy enough, but I'm starting to feel like we need a better system for dealing with them than just lining up behind some turrets.  Maybe if we seeded the ice with traps...

Day 432

Four more thrumbos showed up today.  I honestly don't have much empathy left in me for these creatures.  I feel a bit bad about that, but so many of them have died here I feel like they're not rare because they're mysterious or wise or anything, they're rare because they lack self-preservation instincts.  We should eat well this week.

Day 434

This is Hakuja.  Engie is dead.

There was an explosion in the kitchen.  Engie was right next to the conduit when it blew.  She caught fire, and so did the room.  We tried to get her out but it was too hot.  Not sure if she burned to death or died from the heat first.  We'll make a sarcophagus.  The best we can.  She deserves it.  She gave us all hope.  We won't give up.  We owe it to her memory.

I don't like writing but this journal seemed important to Engie.  I'll keep it updated.  Entries will be short, though.  Too much to do around here.

Day 439

Psychic ship crashed nearby.  Best kill it soon.  Norman is already inconsolable.  We'll surround it with bombs.  Should be enough.

Day 441

A group of pirates arrive to kill us.  Should be exciting.  We need something to work out feelings on.  Plus I never get tired of carnage.

Raid goes well.  I got to see a couple die up close.  Only Wobber hurt, only a little.  We took a prisoner too.  Still need that third lung.  Engie had lots of notes on plans to fix us.  We can still do it.

Day 449

More pirates.  These ones prepare.  Laughable.

Day 451

More pirates.  They try and make camp.  Good, we need more shells.

Day 453

More pirates.  They prepare again.  I don't wake the others.  No point.  Let them sleep.  Lots to haul in the morning.

Day 458

Man named Teary calls, says he's being chased by pirates.  Asks for his help.  I ask if he can cook.  He screams yes so I tell him to come to us.  We need a cook.  I'm crafting now so I can't cook.  Teary shows up chased by lots of pirates.  Let's see who dies.

Teary gets shot once and loses his leg.  People seem fragile in this world.  Outcome for Teary looks bad.  Even if we kill pirates he will freeze before we can help him.  To bad for Teary.

Pirates take Teary and go.  Like it never happened.  Fine with me.

Day 459

Poison ship crashes.  Components are expensive, we can ignore this for a while.

Day 460

We're going to build a big wall around the base to keep us safe.  Expensive but worth it.  Feels topical.  Not sure why.

Day 461

More pirates.  They start preparing.  Why are people stupid?  Doesn't matter.

Day 465

Toxic fallout.  This will make building wall slower.  Avoid going outside.

Day 470

This time tribals show up to prepare to die.  Done wondering what's going on.  Maybe it's the fallout.

Day 471

Got my bionic hand replacement today.  Makes life much easier.  I'm grateful to Engie for making sure we had the means to build this.  Gotta work hard to get everyone off this rock. I owe it to her.

Day 475

Didn't take Norman long to move on.  Caught him making out with Cella behind the hydroponics room.  I asked him what stage of grief this counted as.  He nearly took a swing at me.  Cella stopped him.  I walked away.  Too much to do around here; can't afford to kill him.

Day 482

It costs most of our stone blocks but the wall is done.  Now we can only be attacked from one direction unless they try and smash our walls.  Engie got us through a lot but she didn't have the best head for tactics.  Next time those mechanoids show up they'll be forced to get nice and close for our guns and turrets to take them apart.

((Author's Note: 

Yep, Engie is dead.  Conduit explodes, she catches fire and runs around in a panic while the room burns.  Everyone else is too far away hauling or doing jobs to stop the fire before it heats the tiny kitchen above 300C. RIP Amelia "Engie" Flais.

I'd consider that a failure and stop the challenge if I hadn't already invested so much time into this.  So I'm gonna keep going until I build a ship or the mechanoids steamroll me.))

[Zhentar]

For traps, in my current colony (which I keep forgetting to share a picture of), I made 1 tile wide paths going off ~25 tiles or so from my base and then put 2-3 traps at the end of each one. Enemies want to get off the snow onto the path, so without fail they path over the traps. And then they form a single file line and shoot each other.

[Jovus]

Lame follow-up post:

I did it. I completed this challenge. And I only cheated a little. (A lot.)

On try n, where n > 20, things weren't looking so hot. I was staring down the barrel at a long, slow starvation (since I refused to 'cop out' and go the cannibal route), since I didn't have enough metal to get even one hydroponics bay up and running due to some truly unfortunate construction failures.

But Bally wouldn't be kept down. Armed with her muffalo-wool parka, her charge rifle, and an undauntable spirit, she set out for a nearby ice sheet.

Arriving there, she promptly set to digging out a vein of steel and putting together a hydroponics bay. And from those humble beginnings, she rescued another eight colonists over time, and fought off wave after wave of mechanized death machines. (No, seriously, I had something like 40 plasteel turrets, and they were all necessary.) Stone, in particular, high-strung as he was, was instrumental in the colony's success, nearly single-handedly running the entire crafting bay.

Eventually, wanting to get back to her family and friends, Bally (my version of Engie; stats completely the same) built a ship to get herself and all the other colonists off this benighted iceball of a rock. All of them except Nails' mother, at any rate, whom nobody liked and we left in an ancient cryptosleep casket as a surprise for the next poor sucker who wanders through and decides to take advantage of our ruins.

(Full disclosure: once I got tired of the save, about ten hours after all I needed was some uranium that nobody was bringing me, I started savescumming through some of the mechanoid attacks. No pics because I couldn't figure out the screenshot functionality until something like 2/3rds through the run.)

I'll try this again...eventually. Once I'm no longer tired of cold biomes.

My biggest problem is the random nature of resource deliveries. I recognize that's where much of the challenge comes from, but it can get tiresome after a while to do everything right and still starve to death/die to infection/whatever because that's just how Cassie wants it to be.

Still, this was fun, and I'll give it another go once I'm recharged and available (maybe at the end of the semester?)

[CrazyEyes]

For traps, in my current colony (which I keep forgetting to share a picture of), I made 1 tile wide paths going off ~25 tiles or so from my base and then put 2-3 traps at the end of each one. Enemies want to get off the snow onto the path, so without fail they path over the traps. And then they form a single file line and shoot each other.

That's kind of brilliant, I'm going to have to try that.

[Jovus]

For traps, in my current colony (which I keep forgetting to share a picture of), I made 1 tile wide paths going off ~25 tiles or so from my base and then put 2-3 traps at the end of each one. Enemies want to get off the snow onto the path, so without fail they path over the traps. And then they form a single file line and shoot each other.

If you haven't, seems like you could make this even more efficient by building a 3-wide roof over your traps area, using widely-space pillars for support. Then you only have to clear the snow once.

[Zhentar]

It only snows like once every two years, so keeping it cleared isn't much work. I don't want to give them the cover, so I'll pass on that.

So here's my base. Day 366. I got sick of dying to raids at the end of the first year, so I've been savescumming to survive combat. I am learning new tactics at least, and I'd probably do a lot better if I had the patience to kite centipedes. Around year 3 I reached the point where I wasn't really resource constrained; I could probably finish the ship easily at this point if I tried. I made peace with the tribals earlier this year because I was sick of all the hauling and traders can't afford to buy all of my human meat meals and human leather clothing anyway. I've actual never bought raw steel this game; it's all come from mechanoids, smelting, and low quality statues from exotic goods traders. I got the uranium for my first ship reactor by buying a Good quality uranium weapon from a combat trader at enormous expense... and then another trader came by with an awful uranium weapon, and then a bulk goods trader sold me some, and then even more dropped in cargo pods.


I'm thinking next time (in A17) I'll do this at a lower difficulty. Except for the occasional challenging raid, the huge raid sizes make resources plentiful.

[CrazyEyes]

Day 483

Textiles trader.  Lots of those lately.  We really need bulk goods though.  Got to have building materials to make a ship.

Also a wanderer showed up.  Just walked up and said she was joining us.  Calls herself Loly.  She's not good at much, but she can carry a gun, haul and clear so I guess she can stay.

Day 484

First mechanoid raid since the wall.  It goes exceptionally well.  They funnel into the entrance as planned and get into close range where a combination of EMP grenades, turrets and charge rifles take them out.  We suffer no losses, not even turrets.

Day 502

Pirates.  If the mechanoids couldn't breach our defenses they have no chance.

Day 505

Pirates with sappers.  They must know about the wall.  Not the cold, though.  Still not worried.

Day 512

Cella proposed to Norman.  He said yes.  She's going around telling the whole colony.  I lock myself in the workshop so I don't stab her.  Loly says I should just be happy for them.   Calls me a bad person.  She's lucky I only decked her.

Day 514

Psychic ship part.  We surround it with bombs and blow it up.

Day 522

More pirates.  They want to siege us.  It's -134C.  We just wait.

Day 524

Man named Roach asks for safety from pirates.  He can cook so I let him in.  Pirates should be no trouble but Roach might freeze.

Roach freezes.  So do all the pirates.  No new helper but lots of loot.

Day 526

More pirates besiege us.  Free steel.

Day 533

Tribals attacked.  They actually made it into the walls.  No farther.  We took prisoners.

After the fight Norman and Cella got married.  I didn't go.

Day 534

Patched up the prisoners and released them.  If the tribals don't hate us maybe they won't raid us.  then we don't have to haul and bury corpses.  Worth trying.

Sara's mother Horn asks for protection from pirates.  We say yes.  She's too slow and gets shot, then kidnapped.

Day 539

Construction begins on the ship.  Research not done yet but I want this to be built as soon as possible.

Day 540

Thrumbos show up.  Not cold enough to kill them.

Day 543

Mechanoids.  We have more turrets than last time they attacked.  Shouldn't be a problem.

We lose one turret.  Well worth it.

Day 546

More mechanoids.  May as well be resource delivery.

Day 548

Added a computer core to the ship.  Not switched on yet.  Don't want it getting bored.

Day 555

Pirates with sappers arrive.  they get in the walls around the turrets but we drive them off anyway.  We take more prisoners.  Same reason.

Day 557

Pirates in drop pods.  Doesn't take much for them to flee.

Day 559

A pirate merchant arrives.  They buy all our old guns and clothes and we take all their silver.  Good deal.  We need to buy things though.  We should have enough steel and plasteel for the ship thanks to mechanoids.  We might not have enough uranium though.  Could have to leave some people behind.  I'm not staying here for another ten years just to wait for a trader to have some.

[Hans Lemurson]

In my game I got pretty lucky with my second colonist.  An escaped super-soldier with a passion in Shooting, Melee, Medicine, Construction, and Research.

To balance out this fortune, he was a go-juice addict and halfway through his withdrawal he went on a binge and found some go-juice off the corpse of a pirate.  Then he got his right arm shot off by a Scyther that crashed through my roof, which also shot out Engie's right eye.

[CrazyEyes]

Day 565

More pirates with sappers.  Seems more common since we built the wall.

Day 574

A lot of mechanoids come to kill us.  We kill them instead.

Day 576

Research on ship reactor is done.  We don't have enough uranium for it.  Need a trader.

Day 577

More pirates, more sappers.  They won't survive the cold.

Day 586

Toxic fallout.  No hauling for a while.

Day 588

Tribals show up.  If the fallout doesn't get them the cold will.

Day 595

That's it.  Ship is researched.  We need at least 270 uranium to make it work.  We have 90. 180 to go.

Psychic ship crashes.  Mocking us.  We blow it up.

Day 598

Woman named Hotaru showed up and said she was joining.  She's good at research.  That doesn't matter anymore.  She's not good at anything else.  She can haul things.

Day 602

Wobber suggests we call up tribals and pay them off to not attack us.  I let him.  We have lots of silver and tribal raids mean lots of useless hauling.

((Author's Note:  This challenge is pretty much completed.  There's not much that can kill me anymore, I have mountains of steel and plasteel for the ship, and I'm literally just waiting for the right trade ship to come into orbit so that I can buy the uranium I need and go.  That could be a couple days, or it could take another ten years.  Barring any really cataclysmic events, these journal entries are going to start to get really, really repetitive.  I'm pretty much going to start skipping any event that doesn't impact the colony in any meaningful way.))

[Zhentar]

Drop podding a caravan over to one of the nearby friendly colonies can work too; they're as likely to carry uranium as a bulk goods trader is.

[Jovus]

As would drop-podding a couple folks over to a mountain and setting up a temporary mining base.

[CrazyEyes]

Drop-podding a caravan sounds like it's worth a shot. I was hoping to complete the challenge without leaving the map, but I really don't want to be stuck here for years and years. In the ten years it's been since the colony began, I've only had two bulk goods traders. 

A mining outpost could work too, though it would compound a lot of problems like manpower, food supply and defense. Plus none of my colonists have any real skill or passion for mining, so digging up a mountain could take just as long as waiting for a trader.    My best bet would probably be to land on a relatively flat non-sea-ice map and rely on deep drilling to get what I need.

[Zhentar]

I figure Engie (or her replacement) shouldn't leave the map, but sending her minions off on a caravan to an outlander base isn't that far off from trading with an orbital trade ship, so I think it's fair game

[abretten]

I only recently came across and tried this challenge,  I've played Rimworld for a fair while and almost exclusively wait for and then install bunch of mods.

I have to say....this has been a refreshing change to run the vanilla game and try the challenge.

I've had about 8 runs so far, made it into the second year a couple of times.

My current run Engie had to resort to canabalism to survive and things are not looking good in the sanity department.     Engie spends all her time sleeping, staring at the graves of her sister and lover (not the same person !) and occasionly hauling something to the loot piles.

Engie has just entered her second spring on the ice pack and we haven't had contact with a single Bulk Goods trader yet,  she is still stuck in a small shack with no materials to start building hydroponics.  Damn you Cassandra !
Actually we did miss one bulk goods trader in the middle of winter where there was little solar energy and Engie had to keep toggling the Comms console on/off and the trader showed up while the console was off.     (got the "trader left comms range" messsage some time after turning comms console on and forgetting to see if a trader was available).

Love this challenge,  it's especially well setup for gradual progression using the base vanilla game.
10/10 Would eat humans again.