Getting started...

Some ideas and pointers for getting off to a good started with Colony Survival.

Getting started

You've launched Colony Survival and got passed the opening screen. You've played through the tutorial and learnt that it's not Minecraft. So far, so good. Now you're ready to start over and create a new colony.

This isn't a walkthrough. That's a well trodden path. I guess this is my attempt to rationalise my thoughts and experiences having created a number of colonies not only for myself but also for my son.

I'll assume that you are familiar with the basics... So I won't bore you with those.

Bonus Food at the start
My son put me onto this little trick (still works in 0.7.3.5). You should only do this at the start of the game, before you've got any colonists (actually can do it any time you like, but you'll loose all your hard work if you do it later). Start by place you banner on the ground. This gives you access to the starter colony inventory, which has all the things you need to get started, including 200 bread, 30 copper ore, etc. Grab the bread, ore and any other items you want and you place them in your toolbar, then delete your colony. The items in your toolbar remain.
Now create a new colony by placing the banner where you actually want to it to be (see water next). When you check your inventory, you'll have all the starting items, plus the items that you have in your toolbar. So you can start your colony with 400 bread, which gives you a little bit longer to get all the farms and food production sorted before your colony starts to starve. You can do this a few times, but you're limited to what you can fit into your toolbar each time you do.

Water
Getting started means thinking ahead. One of the essential elements for a sustainable colony is water, you'll need it for making bread, and for getting fish and lobsters.
If you're very fortunate, your spawn in point will be near a river or lake. When I spawned on a hill or the middle of a forest, the first thing I do is go find a water source.

Positioning your banner
You've explored the landscape and found the perfect spot for your colony. It's close to a source of water, the ground is flat enough, and there are plenty of trees. After you've thrown down your banner, now stop and look around.

What you do next is a matter of preference. If you're near a river, you might want to have your colonists gather water and fish from the river bank. If that's the plan, then you need to make sure the safe zone extends a couple of squares into the river. If doesn't, just move your banner until it does. A word of caution. Zombies can cross rivers. So, to prevent them from swarming your base via the river, you'll need to excavate a two block drop, under the water. Zombies can't jump, and the two block rule applies underwater as well.

If you decide that you'd rather not have them use the river bank, the alternative is to carve a channel from the river into the area marked out by the safe zone, and back fill where necessary. This is a neater solution, and means you can create a pool inside your complex.

Both options require some thought and effort to implement. I've tended towards diverting the river into my base and creating a 5x5 sunken pool.

Planning your defence
Now, you've got your banner in the right place and you're ready to start building your colony. You throw down some beds, layout a couple of berry farms and that's when the troubles begin. Because as soon as you have colonists, you get Zombies... Only a few to start with, but they come from everywhere, and as your colony grows, so does the problem of keeping your colony safe.

Let's roll back the clock. You've placed your banner. Good start. Now, while its quiet, and there are no zombies, lets think about defence. Zombies need an unobstructed path to your banner otherwise you enter siege mode, and that's a world of pain you don't want to go near. Also, as of 0.7.3.5, zombies can only search ahead 100 squares, which is important, and I'll cover that when we talk about the Maze.

As I mentioned earlier, Zombies can't jump, but they can climb. To make an effective barrier, you'll need to create a wall two blocks high, or you can dig a dry moat one block deep, with a one block high wall, or you can dig a two block deep moat. All of these options are time-consuming, but they are worth doing.

I personally prefer the moat and wall approach. Now, and this is the labour intensive part. I switch to banner mode, which shows me the boundary between the safe area (green) and the unsafe area (red) where the zombies will spawn. I then dig a moat at the boundary point. If I am near water, I tend to run a tributary to the boundary and let it get filled with water. What can I say i like moats. Water or not, dig a one or two block deep channel that follows the boundary of the boundary between the green and red. Remember, if you've only made the trench one block deep, you'll need to go around the edge creating a one block high wall.

Make sure that you remove any trees or berry bushes that might be in the way, If the landscape is not flat, always make sure there's at least two blocks height between the red side and the green side.

When you're done building a defensible perimeter, go back to your banner. Under no circumstances should you move your banner. I excavate the soil from under the banner and put a stone block in its place. Moving the banner now means creating new defences.

As you know, the zombies only want to get to the Banner. As your colony grows, so does the number and toughness of the zombies. That's why you'll need to create a maze.

The Maze
Having created a safe perimeter at the limits of your safe zone, you now need to create an entry point so the Zombies can get in. With your back to the banner, walk towards the perimeter wall. Put a block down that spans your moat. That is where the zombies will come in. But, we're not going to make it easy for them.

What you're going to do is to make a path for the zombies to follow. The more bendy and windy it is the better.

Oh, and there is another bit of good news. Zombies can't move diagonally. So, you can have blocks that touch at the corners. Good for you, bad for the zombies.

You want set up your maze so that the zombies walk back and forth. Something like this ( w = wall, # is the maze).

................#..................
............###..................
..........##......................
........##..#####............
......##..##......####......
....##..##..###......##....
###..##..##..####..##..
#....##..##..........#....##
##..#..##..#####..##..#
..#..#..#..##......##..#..#
##..#..#..#..###..#..#..#
#....#..#..#..#..###..###
####..###..#................
..................#................
wwwwwww#wwwwww

This is only an example. The mazes I have are typically 30 wide and 18 squares deep. In order to make the zombies follow the path, the space around the path needs to be two squares deep. Because you aligned the bridge through your wall with the banner, it reduces the distance and therefore stops the zombie's from swarming.

Guard duty
Now that you've got the perimeter secured and you've created your maze, now you can place your guards. Usually I construct a building around the bridge, and place my guards on top.

Up until you reach 50 colonists you can get by with 3 night-time slingers and 2 day-time slingers. Using the previous maze as an example. D = daytime slinger and N = night time slinger

####..###..#................
..................#................
NwwwwDw#wDwwwwN
..................N................


Now, create some beds, and recruit colonists to fill all five jobs.

With the defences taken care of, you can now focus on building the colony.

Expansion... The second colony

You've expanded your defences, your food production is stable, your colonist are well fed and you've done enough research to give you the glider and the all important colony start kit.

But where do you go and how do you get there.

Knowing WHERE you are
The first thing you do is press F5. This brings up a lot of metadata on your current location. For now, the important values are X, Y, and Z. Head over to your banner. Get a piece of paper and a pen and make a note of the X, Y and Z values. Once you head out of your colony it is very easy to get lost. Knowing where your colony is, is very important.

[The colonies]
Your first colony is known as the "Old World". it's the heart of your empire. As of 0.7.3.5 there are three other colonies for you to create.

• The Tropics
  
• The New World
  
• The Far East

There is also the Arctic, but there doesn't seem to be any colony options for that right now. Although you can get the snow achievement if you manage to find and collect some.

Each of these new colonies is on one of the compass points.
North = Arctic
East = The Far East
South = The Tropics
West = The New World

Each of the new colonies offers up new tech advances like coffee, chocolate, papyrus, etc.

But you have to do them in the right order, since they have dependencies on each other.

Colonizing
Your first port of call should be South, to the Tropics. Once that is established, head back to the Old World, create a new colony starter kit and head West to colonise the New World. When that is established and self sufficient, return to the Old Word and head East to found the Far East.

As of 0.7.3.5, when you start a new colony, you inherit the banner radius of your initial colony, and all of the researched achievements. But, each colony can only research items that are specific to them. For example, you can only research and obtain cocao from the Tropics.

The Tropics
The trees are different, and the landscape is flatter. From the tropics you can grow and make:

• FooFoo
  
• Cookies
  
• Chocolate
  
• Diamond Necklaces
  
• Diamond Ore
  
• Papyrus
  
• Cocao
  
• Vanilla
  
• Sugar Cane
  
• Coffee Beans

The New World
Similar to the Old World in look and feel. In the New World, you can grow or make:

• Tomatoes
  
• Potatoes
  
• Cotton
  
• Winter Coats
  
• Cotton Towels
  
• Spinning Wheels

The Far East
The trees are different. You can get cheery blossom's which you can plant in any colony. In the Far East you can get:

• Kalonite
  
• Tea
  
• Silk Pillows
  
• Glazed Porcelain
  
• Rice

Gliders...
Gliders are really useful and really easy to fly. You press space to rise, and W to move forward. You steer with the mouse. To get out of the Glider, look at the base, then right click on it.

Gliders are very very dangerous. You can get lost very very easily. Which is why it is important to know where you started from.

Now, the first time I got in a glider looking for the Tropics, I started out heading South but somehow got turned around and ended up entering the New World. I hadn't saved my coordinates and I spent hours trying to find my colony.

Walk before you fly
Now this is going to sound mad, but its worth it. Make sure you have a glider with you, you'll need it for the return journey.

Make the coloured lanterns. You only need three colours, and from the pain of trial and error you want: White, Red, and Green. Pale blue is also a good alternative to white.

You'll want around 30 of each colour.

Armed with say, 30 white lanterns, head over to your banner. Press F5 to bring up the coordinate meta data. If haven't already done it, make a note of the X, Y and Z. Pick a direction that matches a square side, i.e. North, South, East or West. If this is your first expansion, find South then start walking.

Every 100 squares or so (which you can work out from whichever X, Y, or Z number is counting up or down), place down a lantern. You should also chop down any trees that would obscure the lantern from the air. Always make sure you can see your last lantern, and always keep heading in the same direction place lanterns as you go. After about 300 squares, you'll not be troubled by Zombies when the sun goes down.

Each new region is somewhere between 1500 and 2500 squares from your banner. So you'll have to keep walking for some distance.

At around 1500 squares, you'll see a message appear in the chat window saying you've left the Old World. Sometimes, it will immediately say you've entered a new region. Sometimes, though, it won't. But don't panic. Just keep walking and laying down the lanterns.

Sometime later, you'll get a new message saying "You've entered..." That is when you can stop walking. Now, look for a good spot, and mark it out with all your remaining lanterns.

Hopefully it'll be the Tropics, but if it isn't then at least you'll be orientated for when you get back home.

If you brought your colony starter kit and it is the Tropics, then find a good starting point and repeat the process that you did when you started your first colony (see getting started) for my suggested blueprint.

It isn't the Tropics
So, you've walked a long way, and you get there only to discover that it's the New World. All is not lost. Throw down your Glider, right click on it to get on, press Space, and follow your lantern trail all the way home.

Mapping out the other compass points
Using a different colour, walk your way to each of the new regions, until you have a trail of lanterns that leads you to the Tropics, New World and Far East. Now you can fly to each one of them without fear of getting lost. As long as you can see the lanterns, you know you're on the right path.