Clearing the map question

[Ender's games]

Hey, I've seen on most youtubers that they basically clear up the entire map at some point. I'm guessing it makes it easier to build anything but I'm wondering if there more pros and cons and how other people do it (like when to start, what to leave untouched, and other things to consider).

Thanks.

[Evilsod]

I think many people just do it for the sake of it.

Unless you're building something in a location, there's very little to gain from strip mining the area. You'll lose all the natural plants, and any wild animals will likely die off too. It's a big loss all around of free resources. Plus in the case of stuff like the Tundra biome, you lose a big mass of cooling potential.

It's absolutely not something you should do without consideration. Opening up a ton of space will drastically reduce the pressure in your base until your oxygen production can re-pressurise the area. That can play havoc with things, especially if you have a lot of other gasses floating around.

You'd be better off doing it to certain biomes, just to gather up all of one type of resource. That lets you know how much you have available to work with. I've just mined out the last 10 ton of Salt on my map at around cycle 300, which means I now have a timer of maybe 20-30 cycles to get more or sort out an alternative from Rust Deoxydizing as my primary source of oxygen, or I'm screwed. Probably should've done that a while ago ><

Eventually none of that is a concern though. Duplicant labour isn't as valuable with automation, and your needs are probably met using renewable sources. In that case, yeah, just strip mine the asteroid. You control the temperature much more easily. You can build wherever you want without having to dig stuff out first, which makes it quicker.

[Chogathmainop]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

Unless you're building something in a location, there's very little to gain from strip mining the area. You'll lose all the natural plants, and any wild animals will likely die off too. It's a big loss all around of free resources. Plus in the case of stuff like the Tundra biome, you lose a big mass of cooling potential.

Barring the early game and late stage shove vole starvation ranches, I don't see the appeal of free farming critters - given how easy some of them are to take care of, the expense of critter feed would be a pittance compared to what you'd get in return - doubly so given that if they have nothing to eat, there's no excrement to collect, and given that they'd only lay one egg in their lifetimes, you're looking at less than 100kcal of bbq a cycle on average.

With the exception of Arbor Trees, I'd also say the same thing about most plants - given how slowly a lot of them grow in the wild, unless you're strapped for fertilizer/irrigation, their lifecycles are so long that I don't see any significant profit to wild harvesting.

[Aestrea]

The real factor is just temperature. Breaking down any natural tiles will yield half of the mass which basically removes half of the temperature as well and debris have non-consistent heat transfer on them. You will also have huge open spaces which takes up gases that you probably will find bothersome to deal with later on. Anything emitting any kind of gas will be your bane and you basically turned the entire map into a atmo suit only zone aside from your living areas.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

You don't have to respect the map, you owe it nothing and often times it's getting in the way of you building stuff; that's the premise behind demolishing the entire asteroid, just send everything to the bottom then let future you sort it out as you rush infrastructure (pathway tiles, ladders, pipes, power spine, cooling loop) or whatever matters.
Everything can be rebuilt -even natural tiles (and even then you can just leave some around to save yourself the trouble)- and you probably don't need ice biomes' worth of cooling if the first thing you do is you'll set up an AETN or aquatuner.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Chogathmainop:

Barring the early game and late stage shove vole starvation ranches, I don't see the appeal of free farming critters - given how easy some of them are to take care of, the expense of critter feed would be a pittance compared to what you'd get in return - doubly so given that if they have nothing to eat, there's no excrement to collect, and given that they'd only lay one egg in their lifetimes, you're looking at less than 100kcal of bbq a cycle on average.

With the exception of Arbor Trees, I'd also say the same thing about most plants - given how slowly a lot of them grow in the wild, unless you're strapped for fertilizer/irrigation, their lifecycles are so long that I don't see any significant profit to wild harvesting.

I wasn't advocating for free farming critters, only highlighting that you lose any free resources and likely get nothing in return for it at that time. Plants are a much bigger factor than the critters, since most don't do anything wild. Only real exception is Slicksters.

And there are plenty of plants that are more of a faff to domesticate than they're worth. Some you'll only get in small quantities, but others are pretty good. Wild farming Sleet Wheat is excellent for example, since there's rarely a good reason to strip mine the ice biome and you'll get a lot of it wild in conditions it can grow, unlike Lettuce which tends to be flooded out ><