I am, once again, stuck for milestones to report on when it comes to Planet Crafter because they all zip by too fast. This time, however, it is somewhat our own fault.
Certainly A Planet Crafter
Last week I reported on how we (Potshot) had made meticulous preparations for our expedition to Selenea, a moon in the solar system we were in and one of the possible destinations once you finished terraforming the planet where you start.
We went into this with a NASA level of planning, ensuring that we had all of the gear and supplies required to make a successful landing and terraforming project possible. You can read that previous post, linked above, for more details, but there was a plan and gear and materials laid out by the launch site as we prepared to set off.
The travel supplies staged for the mission
We packed the gear and supplies, double checked everything, climbed into the capsule, and pressed the button to initiate launch.
We touched down on Selenea and for a brief moment we were back at the start, two explorers on a new world just stepping out of our capsule, a whole project ahead of us. That was on a Sunday afternoon, and we set to work on finding a suitable location and then setting up our new base.
Already stuff is up and running
Fast forward a week later and it was Sunday afternoon once more and we were in our base, staring at the terraformation progress board, waiting for it to finish up because we had done everything else.
How long is this going to take?
Part of that was due to the fact that Selenea is simply a smaller location than the original planet, Prime. The game play around the exploration of Selenea is mostly built on exploring the offline structures that were left behind by the previous expedition. There isn’t a lot of ground to cover. It is mostly hitting various milestones to unlock access. Some doors won’t open until you hit certain terraforming objectives.
But mostly it was the fact that we showed up with enough supplies that we had a fully function and soon to be automated base within hour of landing. Fusion reactors, T5 terraforming equipment, efficiency multipliers, we were up and running fast.
We had also setup the extraction rocket in case we had to go back to Prime… but we never needed that. There was also a trade rocket unlocked that would fetch us stuff from our storage on Prime, but we didn’t really need that either.
We did avail ourselves of the satellite launcher, because those impart bonuses on terraforming.
The various buildings… there are three major dome complexes on Selenea, with a few smaller locations scattered about… did provide us with some things to help us along. There was a new item needed for another backpack (read: inventory space) and oxygen tank upgrade. They were basically little cities to explore.
Inside the north dome
Mostly they yielded things that sped up terraforming, like “redwoo” tree seeds for the tree spreaders, which gave a huge bonus to increasing plant life. (That isn’t a typo. That is what they are called in the game. They do, in fact, look like “redwood” trees as we know them here in California.)
My major goal was to see if I could get the sky tram system between the two closest dome complexes up and running, because I was damn sure if the devs took the time to make those locations that they had to be functional. I would have been severely disappointed had they not been.
I thought I was being clever when I climbed up a hill, managed to jet pack across to a construction crane, and then used that to get on the upper dome, which could not be accessed from the ground floor because the elevator was out of order, then slipped in through the sky tram portal.
The crane to the west dome
Of course, I did all that, got in there, and found that Potshot had already placed a teleportation booth up there for easy access. He’d done the same thing, but had come prepared.
Teleport booth already in the west dome
Still, now that I had access I was able to explore. I found the fusion reactor and brought supplies back to get in online which, among other things, fixed the elevator. I had already done the same at the north dome, so the tram was now available to travel on. I had Potshot ride it up and back so I could take a screen shot.
Tram arriving at the west dome
Also, the portals at either end of the tram look like they are closed, but you can totally jump/fall out of the tram if you’re not careful. I will say that at least we are equipped with jet packs to slow any fall.
That was us fooling around while we waited for the terraformation to complete. But it was going so slow. I calculated that initially it was running 1% every 7 minutes. That was not going to do. So we started building more terraforming machines and launched more satellites to boost the bonuses we already had because satellite bonuses stack.
Sending a rocket full of fish into orbit
How a satellite full of fish helps is left up to the student to discover, but we kept on going. Also, you can see our base and the flourishing redwoo trees. They are all over the moon.
The tram to north dome, redwoo trees everywhere
The place has become a veritable Muir Woods. One of those outposts will end up being a futuristic Bohemian Grove if we’re not careful.
Still, the meter was moving too slowly, so we build more machines and launched more rockets. We had a launch schedule going to rival the early chapters of Seveneves, as Potshot demonstrated the visual comedy of quickly building and launching a second rocket while the first was still on the pad. The crash and spin about and spiral about the sky, sometimes landing back around the base.
Two plant rockets hitting the ground during an meteor shower
Eventually we got the meter turning over. We took a short break for a snack, leaving ourselves in game so as to not stop the timer. When we got back we sat and watched as it finally hit the complete state. Mission accomplished.
Terraforming Complete
That unlocked the mega dome for us. But it also left us looking for the next task.
There is one more planet to explore with the base game, Aqualis, along with two additional planets available for purchase as DLC. While we were good with the DLC… Potshot already purchased them and they are in my Steam shopping cart right now… we decided to just hit Aqualis first in our tour of the solar system.
Among other things, there are solar system-wide unlocks to be done as you continue your journey.
The question was only how much should we prepare for this next expedition. How much is too much, should we grab a rover, what is really the minimum we ought to have, and so on. Also discussed were maybe a backup save or a branch for our save in case we screw up.
However, “save scumming” as the kids used to call it always seems to cheapen the experience for me. Plus, it requires some minor amount of work to manage and you have no idea how lazy I can be.
In the end we decided to just pack a lunch and go. Well, a few lunches and some water and some oxygen bottles. Then we got into the extraction capsule and prepared for launch.
In the extraction capsule at Selenea base… one last look
Once inside I brought up the panel and pressed the button for Aqualis.
The launch options, Prime and Aqualis
We completely ignored the checklist at the bottom, which suggests bringing a rover and the materials to get back home. We were off to Aqualis, where we landed on the beach.
Aqualis Beach… it is all beach
At least we were not going to need the water we brought along to drink. There was water all around us and, while we didn’t bring supplies, we were still in fully upgraded suits that included a water filtration system.
Next up: Sun, Sand, and Super Alloy.