Benefits of various biomes?

[counterintel]

So, despite approaching 200 hours played time (I spend an absurd amount of time paused), Im only on my 2nd 'successful' colony where ive gotten down the fundamentals and many of the subtleties needed to be able to get through the tech tree and make cool stuff and provide effective production/support/defense of colonists.

As Ive only recently reached this point, Ive been playing the widely-recommended-for-not-a-bad-time Temperate forest biome, and was just curious what other biomes people might prefer, or enjoy, and why? Obviously most other biomes include significant, strategy changing challenges, so I'm curious what the offset is, if there is any.

That's all, feel free to share or not, I'm not your supervisor.

[Kittenpox]

I found that going from Temperate Forest to Boreal forest was a good step.
Still the same amount of wood, but a colder environment - which comes with slightly different playstyle changes to meet the biome's challenges, but without being *too* drastic like immediately switching over to Ice Sheet.

So, Boreal Forest would be my recommendation for where to try next; and then Arid Shrubland after that. :-)

[Kittenpox]

(As for what the exact challenges of those two are, I feel it's best for you to experience first-hand - rather than being given something of a cheat-sheet and being robbed of the positive experience of figuring out & solving them yourself.)

[counterintel]

Originally posted by Kittenpox:

(As for what the exact challenges of those two are, I feel it's best for you to experience first-hand - rather than being given something of a cheat-sheet and being robbed of the positive experience of figuring out & solving them yourself.)

That's cool, I appreciate it. I would expect them to be cooler/hotter by comparison with much more limited growing seasons which, honestly, sounds horrific in and of itself but thats half the fun isnt it.

[Astasia]

There isn't much offset. Arid Shrublands and Temperate Forest are the easy biomes, everything else is more difficult for the most part with only slight advantages in some of them that don't really make up for the extra challenge.

Rainforest's challenge is a lot of dangerous predators and a very high disease rate. The "upside" is more wood and meat from hunting?

Boreal Forest's extra challenge is a shorter growing season, but is otherwise identical to temperate forest in most ways (amount of wood and hunting, slightly fewer diseases).

Ice Sheet, Tundra, Sea Ice, Desert, and Extreme desert, all have very little to no fertile soil, little to no wood or animals, and dangerous temperatures that further limit outdoor growing. Their only "upside" is a lower disease rate and less risk of being hunted by predators.

The swamp variation of any biome just reduces the buildable/farmable area and significantly increases disease rate.

[melia_romulans]

I play the different terrains just based on my mood and the challenge I want (like Astasia mentioned), but even on the same terrain, sometimes its fun to play with how mountainous they are. My go to is large hills - terrain gives me some natural defenses and ore is easy to find.

[Metadragon]

Is there like a coastal biome?

[Astasia]

You can pick a coastal map, but there is no biome for it. It's just one of the above mentioned normal biomes with some extra water along an edge of the map.

[Gamefever]

Sea Ice,

Has some extreme benefits, especially if you play on very cold setting OR...You use scenario editor to give yourself constant Cold Snap, plus some rolling Cold Snaps for fun.

Advantages
-Empty Map, its ranged season all year round for fire arms and turrets.
-Its really really cold, a lot of pawns freeze to death before making it to a small base on a large map. Raids that make it may not be in best fighting condition when in range, also raids that flee usually die before exiting the map.
-Every living thing and formly living thing is a food option, that is preserved without a freezer.
-All pawns move at least 50% slower cause they are moving across difficult terrain, nothing gets to your base from the edge quickly ever and nothing leaves quickly either.
-Free Fridge, never have to worry about the freezer being cold enough to keep food fresh.
-Solar can be used 24/7 for 1/2 the year.
-Thrumbo's still visit
-Random Animal Event cards still happen, Migration.
-You learn to value everything in the game
-You learn to plan ahead by a lot
-You get creative cause you have too
-Can build snowmen all year

Disadvantages
-Rolling Blackouts, can kill your colony through starvation and freezing everyone to death.
-Eventually raids become drop pod attacks through the roof, compromising the integrity of your base and perhaps causing death through freezing for all living pawns involved not just yours.
-Mechs/robots are immune to cold.
-You must have a supply of wood at all times and you have to purchase wood at every time you can.
-No Geo-Thermal option
-No Rivers/Creeks for Watermills option
-Solar does nothing for you 1/2 the year cause no sunlight.
-You have to purchase matts for clothing or clothing itself to stay alive
-Crops die instantly when power goes out, or near instantly.
-You have to value everything
-You have to plan far ahead
-You have to think creatively and out of the box
-It takes a lot of time to build a space ship

It really tests your knowledge of the games mechanics.

[Cat®]

I really like the rainforest tiles, especially the colder ones, lots of plant life so making roads and maintaining your yard is a constant thing. Don't need to micromanage the temperature too much, though I do miss the snow from temperate biomes. Overall it lets you play with a lot of different mechanics without forcing too much on you, and there's also a steady supply of big chunky animals to be your friends. As long as you can stand the HORRIBLE UNCEASING BUG NOISE (or mod it out because seriously after 5 hours it gets old, much less 50).

Aside from that I like shrublands for its visuals, prefer deserts but they get too difficult for me to enjoy. Ice sheets are fun for permadeath though, a good palette cleanser or colony to play when you don't want to succeed. All hail the geyser, the source of heat, the source of life!

[counterintel]

That's all really fun info. I sort of wish biomes had unique wildlife with significant benefit, that did cool things, almost like ARK but unfortunately, the milk/eggs/fur is the extent of cool animals pretty much it seems.

That's ok though. I was just really curious what other biomes had to offer for interesting play twists and so on.

[Metadragon]

Originally posted by counterintel:

That's all really fun info. I sort of wish biomes had unique wildlife with significant benefit, that did cool things, almost like ARK but unfortunately, the milk/eggs/fur is the extent of cool animals pretty much it seems.

That's ok though. I was just really curious what other biomes had to offer for interesting play twists and so on.

saw a dinosaur mod and someone tamed a Utahraptor which then proceeded to be the best guard dog ever.

Anyway the various animals have various uses but stuff like dogs and foxes and horses etc can haul and fight

[ambi]

My most-liked biome to least liked:

1. Boreal forest. The visual change in season is nice (from lush green to snowy white). Quite challenging for a primitive colony since you can't grow anything during winter. It's perfect if you want to build a cosy, rustic colony.

2. Extreme desert / desert. Provides some challenge. Plenty of space to spread your colony. It has a nice post-apocalyptic vibe. If you find a site with marble or limestone, you can recreate Mos Eisley.

3. Sea Ice. The hardest biome of all. 75% of the time your colonists will be doing nothing since there's literally nothing to do (there's no mining or resources). It's extremely challenging, but can also get incredibly boring when there's nothing happening.

4. Rainforest. The map is very lively. Very challenging due to constant predators and disease and flash fires.

5. Ice Sheet. A much easier version of Sea Ice. Meh. If you want a challenging cold biome, go with sea ice.

6. Tundra / Cold bog. An uglier version of boreal forest, really.

7. Temperate forest. Ewwww, gross. And boring.

[Bullwinkle]

Arid Shrublands and deserts, you don't need to worry about fires hardly at all. On the more crowded biomes, fires can sweep the entire map if you're not careful. Often rain will come and put out the big fires, but not always. On Arid, there can be a dry lightning storm, and I just sleep through it unless a lightning bolt actually hits one of my corn plants directly.

In really hot biomes, you end up sleeping in the day more. And you become more dependent on good tailoring.

[Bike Knight]

I've never played on a biome that didn't snow during the colder half of the year. Snow is simply too comfy to go without, I can't imagine doing a playthrough on an insidiously boring year-round growing biome.

[KalkiKrosah]

Astasia's first post covered most of it. I'll rate all the biomes from easiest to hardest:

Arid Shrubland
Temperate Forest
Boreal Forest
Tundra
Tropical Rainforest
Desert
Temperate Swamp
Cold Bog
Extreme Desert
Tropical Swamp
Ice Sheet
Sea Ice

Arid Shrubland is the easiest biome. Its like temperate forest but with less aggressive wildlife, less wood and are usually devoid of cold snaps so you only have to fight heatwaves for weather prevention.

Temperate forest is what you've been playing so you know what to expect. The wide range of events that can happen to you is both a boon and a curse.

Boreal Forest is like temperate forest but shorter growing season. Wood is still prevalent, large marshes do limit where you can set up your base and the cold months preserves food but also makes predator animals want to eat your colonists more often.

Tundra is my personal favorite. Less wood, but no marshes taking up large parts of the map. And less trees means raiders have very little cover to hide behind when the come visit. Tundra gives you some of the best freedom to build a base without the environment being a roadblock. Same wild life as Boreal Forest but maybe less of them.

Tropical Rainforest is bountiful with resources. Large patches of rich soil, wood is plentiful and animals are numerous. Biggest downside is the disease rate. Be sure to bring experienced growers to mass horde heal root or else you'll be in for a bad time.

Desert is so very boring... You have very little wildlife roaming the map. Heatstroke is a constant nuisance. Arable soil is hard to come by... All my desert colonies revolved around me researching and waiting for crops to grow or wild animals to visit so I can kill them. Its a very slow game in that sense, but if you want to make a trader style colony deserts are quick to traverse with convoys. Deserts aren't always hot... it can snow in the desert and cold snaps have been known to happen.

Temperate Swamp is the easiest swamp biome. The amount of trees is aggravating to where the plants grow back quicker than you can chop them down. Mud is also more apparent here. You can use much of the wood you chop to build bridges but that just limits where you can build and place heavy structures. You can take advantage of the increased animal population and employ them as biological lawnmowers. Thrumbos are feasibly possible in this biome but the increased disease rate will negate much of the advantages of this biome.

Cold Bog is exactly like the boreal forest but way wetter and with more trees. There is an increased disease risk but only slightly higher than the temperate forest's rate. The biggest challenge here is finding a sizeable amount of solid ground to build upon. Moisture pumps will help in the long run but they take a LONG time to work and hardly make any noticeable difference every time they dehydrate the soil.

Extreme desert is like a more extreme version of desert. It cycles between way too hot and way too cold. Animals are an extreme rarity here. The plus side is that there's almost no cover for raiders to hide behind and you can tech up relatively easily without any interruptions. And disease is pretty infrequent which is good since you'll need all the rocky soil for potatoes.

Tropical Swamps is a very busy biome where the trees grow super fast, the animals will always outnumber you and the soil quality means you'll have a rough time finding ground large enough to hold up heavy structures. Its not as wet as the cold bog but it is definitely more woody. If you want to mass farm animals, gather wood or grow mass amounts of drugs I can see why you would settle here but I don't think the disease rate is worth it. Highest disease rate in the game. You'll be dead of the plague before your healroot crops reach maturation.

Ice Sheet is devoid of life. Growing season never comes, animals only migrate through here to get to somewhere else and the sunlight being on full blast for half the year and completely off the other half can be a real challenge. You will need to use materials very widely as you probably won't be getting any new materials any time soon. But once you research beyond a certain point you can turtle up and live in relative harmony... atleast until the mechanoids drop pod into the middle of your base. Which they will since mass amounts of hydroponics farms will increase wealth to very high levels.

Sea Ice is like Ice Sheet but with no chance of getting mountains or steam geysers. Its one large white map of nothingness. The cold will never relent trying to kill you, solar flares will scoff at your attempts to live here, you will almost never have enough food and if none of those things don't kill you the mechanoids will. But atleast the aurora will give you a nice mood boost to counteract the severe hyperthermia and starvation debuffs. Don't live here unless you want a sad ending to your story.