Well... between real-life distractions and the ongoing drama over at Elite: Dangerous, I haven't played very much EGS lately. When I did, though, I decided to give Alpha 12 a whirl... since I've reading about so many awesome improvements to the game, and the developers say its close to release. (edit: Alpha 12, that is. Not the game. 
)
I've been playing Alpha 12 on Hard, and like most survival games, I'm doing it Iron Man: once I'm dead, I'm dead. Needless to say, this approach highlights the survival aspects of the game. Been killed three times so far: once to predators, twice to the environment.
The first environmental kill was me trying the desert planet a try... without an understanding of how the game's survival mechanics had changed. Between the high temperature, the need for oxygen, and a lack of trees to produce fuel to get oxygen, I managed to get into a feedback loop that caused me to starve to death: high body temperature caused my stamina to deplete -> stamina recovery caused nutrition to deplete faster -> starved to death. Only I didn't make the connection between stamina recovery and nutrition depletion at that time.
The second environmental kill was on the temperate planet, which was caused by a series of mistakes on my part. There is a lot more temperature variation in Alpha 12 than there was in Alpha 11, and seems to be based on lattitude, biome, and time of day. If you're not paying attention to what you're doing, you can easily find yourself in a situation where your body temperature is dropping rapidly, thus leading to the feedback loop described above. And I left my camp without a portable heater/cooler unit, or a supply of food. Which is how I made the connection between stamina recovery and nutrient depletion.
The time I got killed by predators was also mostly mistakes on my part: it was night, I'd wandered away from my camp to do a little planet-gazing instead of sleeping, and that's when I heard something ominous nearby. That's when I remembered: they mostly come out at night. Mostly. I'd also put off building a shotgun and ammunition, figuring I wouldn't need it right away. And to add injury to insult, I'd gotten too cold to run for long...
At any rate, after many failures, I think I've got a strategy to let me live long enough to do something constructive.
First and foremost, is that the "Robinson Protocols" (aka the "tutorial") no longer provide me with any kind of mostly-completed base at the start. Instead they provide some additional survival equipment, seedlings I can plant after I've got a base up and running, a core to start a base, and a "damaged hoverbike." They also provide XP, and on Hard difficulty the advancement rate is much slower, so they're still definitely worth completing.
Second: Shotgun, ammunition, and light armor are a must. Shotgun for self defense and hunting. Light armor for protection and temperature regulation. These should be my top priority. It's a much more dangerous world out there.
Third: Fix the hoverbike ASAP. I can put a fridge on it, in order to preserve my food supply, as well as add storage boxes to carry stuff.
Fourth: Get many portable constructors and water/O2 generators up and running. I'll want half of them to turning biomass into fuel for the hoverbike and water generators, and the other half processing raw materials into a processed form for easier transport. Don't forget I'll need 18 nutrient solution canisters to plant the seedlings I'd found.
Fifth: The escape pod drops me near a good concentration of raw materials to mine, and wrecks to loot. Don't leave the area until I've gotten it all. With luck, I'll find a charged multi-tool or two. Even when their charge is depleted, I can still use their rotating function.
Last: Move north to establish my first base. I want a location that's close to the water, near a swamp for pharmaceuticals and hunting, and forests for wood. Far enough north that the nights are short, but not so far north, that regulating temperature is a problem. Preferably, it should also be relatively free of hostile life forms. Ideally, there should be prey animals nearby.
)I've been playing Alpha 12 on Hard, and like most survival games, I'm doing it Iron Man: once I'm dead, I'm dead. Needless to say, this approach highlights the survival aspects of the game. Been killed three times so far: once to predators, twice to the environment.
The first environmental kill was me trying the desert planet a try... without an understanding of how the game's survival mechanics had changed. Between the high temperature, the need for oxygen, and a lack of trees to produce fuel to get oxygen, I managed to get into a feedback loop that caused me to starve to death: high body temperature caused my stamina to deplete -> stamina recovery caused nutrition to deplete faster -> starved to death. Only I didn't make the connection between stamina recovery and nutrition depletion at that time.
The second environmental kill was on the temperate planet, which was caused by a series of mistakes on my part. There is a lot more temperature variation in Alpha 12 than there was in Alpha 11, and seems to be based on lattitude, biome, and time of day. If you're not paying attention to what you're doing, you can easily find yourself in a situation where your body temperature is dropping rapidly, thus leading to the feedback loop described above. And I left my camp without a portable heater/cooler unit, or a supply of food. Which is how I made the connection between stamina recovery and nutrient depletion.
The time I got killed by predators was also mostly mistakes on my part: it was night, I'd wandered away from my camp to do a little planet-gazing instead of sleeping, and that's when I heard something ominous nearby. That's when I remembered: they mostly come out at night. Mostly. I'd also put off building a shotgun and ammunition, figuring I wouldn't need it right away. And to add injury to insult, I'd gotten too cold to run for long...
At any rate, after many failures, I think I've got a strategy to let me live long enough to do something constructive.
First and foremost, is that the "Robinson Protocols" (aka the "tutorial") no longer provide me with any kind of mostly-completed base at the start. Instead they provide some additional survival equipment, seedlings I can plant after I've got a base up and running, a core to start a base, and a "damaged hoverbike." They also provide XP, and on Hard difficulty the advancement rate is much slower, so they're still definitely worth completing.
Second: Shotgun, ammunition, and light armor are a must. Shotgun for self defense and hunting. Light armor for protection and temperature regulation. These should be my top priority. It's a much more dangerous world out there.
Third: Fix the hoverbike ASAP. I can put a fridge on it, in order to preserve my food supply, as well as add storage boxes to carry stuff.
Fourth: Get many portable constructors and water/O2 generators up and running. I'll want half of them to turning biomass into fuel for the hoverbike and water generators, and the other half processing raw materials into a processed form for easier transport. Don't forget I'll need 18 nutrient solution canisters to plant the seedlings I'd found.
Fifth: The escape pod drops me near a good concentration of raw materials to mine, and wrecks to loot. Don't leave the area until I've gotten it all. With luck, I'll find a charged multi-tool or two. Even when their charge is depleted, I can still use their rotating function.
Last: Move north to establish my first base. I want a location that's close to the water, near a swamp for pharmaceuticals and hunting, and forests for wood. Far enough north that the nights are short, but not so far north, that regulating temperature is a problem. Preferably, it should also be relatively free of hostile life forms. Ideally, there should be prey animals nearby.
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