Sorry about the lack of updates, just in case anyone's following with baited breath, but as the game progressed on Sunday, I found that my starting location was
too good. Not only did I practically land on iron, but as I chased down another supply pod, I found a site with Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt within fifty meters of each other, and it was only a kilometer away from the above mentioned silicone! I decided I was definitely picking up and moving my base.
After finishing the basic refinery and assembler, I spent the rest of the second day converting the escape pod into a transport to move to the site of the new base, interrupted only by the occasional supply pod. The third was spent disassembling my initial base, and reassembling it at the new site... again interrupted only by the occasional supply pod.
The fourth was building my gravity fed mine. It worked so well, the system choked up my basic refinery! While I waited for it clear the backlog so I could build a proper refinery, I once again chased after supply pods. And that's when I hit a site with both silver and gold, only two kilometers away from the new site!
It was at that point I realized how overpowered the jetpack is for planetary play. I was zipping across the landscape like Superman, scavenging supply pods, scouting resources, at one point pivoting
sideways over a steep cliff face so I could better identify what was at another resource site.
So Monday, I started looking into mods, something I rarely do in games, and found this video:
In the end, I went with six mods:
| Sneaky Sounds - Quieter Tools | because those tools are too dang noisy |
| Jetpack Limit - Low Power, Small Tanks | no more flying like Superman for me |
| Advanced Systems: Scaffolding | I need to get to higher elevations somehow |
| Proper Hydrogen Rebalance | So I can build a large block Cobra Mk III |
| Text HUD API | needed for the next mod to work |
| Daily Needs Survival Kit - Survival Needs for Space | Adds the need to eat, drink, and rest, plus adds production blocks to meet those needs. |
Once I got them working, I started a new game, and out of morbid curiosity, enabled spiders and wolves, and started on the alien world.
I didn't last five minutes.
I started a second game without the deadly wildlife, landed in the mountains, decided that being surrounded by easy sources of ice was a little
too easy, and restarted again so I landed in an alien forest.
I died of dehydration within the hour, unable to make it to the frozen lake I saw while the escape pod was falling, and back in time.
Tuesday, I spent my some of break time at work making a detailed plan to convert the escape pod into a flyer, move the survival kit to a turbine powered grid so I won’t lose it, and fly to whatever source if ice I could find.
My pod lost power on the way back from a distant snow covered peak, the two emergency kits installed on board having drained the batteries in a desperate attempt to get drinkable water before I died of dehydration again.
Yesterday, I started yet another new game, which fortunately started in the mountains.
Lacking better options, I figured I'd set up my initial camp near that exposed rock formation, so I could get the ball rolling on making two emergency rations dispensers, so I wouldn't die of dehydration right away.
Must've landed in the late local afternoon, because the sun was setting before I knew it. I ignored the first drop pod, due to it landing behind that mountain peak.
My initial camp was starting to take shape when a drop pod landed near enough for me to make it worth while to get.
The reconfiguring of my escape pod was coming along nicely. The cockpit had a vent attached, so no need to waste ice to produce oxygen.
Not exactly a comfortable place to sleep, though.
Turned out to have some tofu, carrot seeds, and fertilizer. The latter two will probably come in handy later, but the tofu will help keep me from starving to death... I hope! In the meantime, I was hauling rock back to my survival kit, and returning with parts for the wind turbine.
By late afternoon, the windmill had finally been finished, and I could start on the next two steps: building a protein re-sequencer to more efficiently produce food and water, and of course moving the Survival Kit and H2/O2 Generator so I could continue converting my escape pod.
The protein re-sequencer proved to be a marvelous source of water, so I won't have to worry about dying of thirst any time soon. Hunger, on the other hand, just might kill me yet. I'm having to shovel massive amounts of ice into it just for the organics necessary to make a new synthetic meal. "Thankfully," it accepts
all kinds of organics, regardless of source. I'll just try not to think too hard about what that source is.
After night fell, another supply pod dropped relatively nearby. It was one of those annoying ones that would try to fly away from you, but it had managed to lodge itself in a crevasse. It had no food, dang it, but it was definitely a valuable pile of spare parts, including a metallic grid I'll need if I want to make a large cargo container later.
As night drew to a close, and my hunger grew, another supply pod dropped. I was still shoveling snow into the re-sequencer, trying to keep ahead of starvation, even as I finished moving the Survival Kit and Oxygen generator, and even started building a basic refinery.
That supply pod is too far away, over unknown terrain. It probably doesn't even contain something to eat. I should ignore it and just focus on what's in front of me...
So why in the world am I running towards it???
