Spaced out! Starting map choice poll and what to choose from

[sakura_sk]

I am (still..) a fan of "small" Terra start. There are not many geysers and the starting cool steam vents seem more of a trouble than a solution to water problems but I still prefer it more that the stinky swamp (dupes can breath even if it stinks though..) or pip infested forest (they are still cute and useful  )

Every start seems to have its pros and cons (at least for me..).

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The Spaced out selection (Terra, Forest, Swamp) has its inner cluster asteroid differences (Starting, Irradiated, Oily) but the outer cluster (Tundra, Marshy, Superconductive) and two moonlets (Water, Moo) seem the same to all three.

Terra:

Sandstone asteroid

Pros:

• Larger (compared to the other two spaced out cluster starts) geyser-free area to build.
• Plenty of algae for early oxygen production
• Thimble reed for reed fiber production

Cons:

• Only two cool steam vents as water source
• No tundra biome or any other cold biome except space

Oily asteroid

Pros: No magma 

Irradiated asteroid

Pros: +1 RNG geyser

 

Forest:

Forest asteroid

Pros:

• You can let pips plant everything
• +3 RNG geysers
• Plenty of dirt for research

Cons:

• You can let pips out and make a mess of your storage bins
• No thimble reed

Irradiated asteroid

Cons: Swamp + Marsh = Slimelung for ever

 

Swamp:

Swampy asteroid

Pros: Cold environment for carefree industrial development

Cons:

• Polluted oxygen everywhere
• Everything falls if it is above mud
• Not much dirt around until you reach space
• No thimble reed

Outer cluster:

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The Classic start resembles more the vanilla game

Large Terra:

Terra asteroid

Pros:

• Enormous area to build
• Many resources from geysers and materials
• All-in-one map biomes (radioactive-oil)
• Shove voles

Cons:

• Slower progress because of the bigger size

Radioactive asteroid

Pros:

• Many geysers to choose from

Cons:

• Too many geysers! (At least I think 14 is a lot..)
• No forest biome

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What do you think? What is your favorite start and why?

[Artorias36]

Classic Terra is the best. I like to build my base in an ordered way and on the smaller Asteroid sometimes you just have buildings or geyser in your way. If Classic Forest is added, I would always choose this one, i love to have pips right away.

[NewWorldDan]

The swamp gets my vote just for being new.   Otherwise, I'm enjoying the forest.  

[zach123b]

i love the 30 some geysers you get on classic terra start but it feels so random and i don't have to worry about going to space until i need space materials.  i've also noticed you can only get 1 of each geyser/vent/volcano as a random on any of the starts.  so at most you can get 4 natural gas vents on classic terra between the inner 2 asteroids

after classic terra, i'd say forest is the next most fun one but i don't play it much as i rather have aluminum over cobalt as a volcano

[Electroely]

Spaced Out! Terra is my favorite start by far. The lack of excessively wet/unstable biomes like the Tundra or the Swamp lets me have a really enjoyable time building a base. The amount of starting water combined with the sand & polluted water available for refinement in the Marsh gives me excess time to actually tame geysers. The main issue I tend to have is heat from the Cool Steam Vents - though once I can actually cool down my water supply, it eventually acts as a heat sink for the rest of the colony. A few wheezeworts here and there also help speed up the process and keep certain areas cool enough for Mealwood and Bristle Blossoms to grow.

I've tried the Forest start - Three main things bothered me to the point of wishing I had picked Terra instead. The lack of copper ore near the starting idea made me resort to using more valuable ores like Iron and Aluminum, the tundra seemed to spawn with ever-melting brine and polluted water that kept giving my dupes soggy feet and hypothermia, and the irridiated asteroid being made up of swamp + metallic meant I had to deal with the instability of the Swamp over a much bigger asteroid than in Terra, that I had to store the metal from the metal-abundant planet more urgently to avoid letting it get eaten by Plug Slugs and no aluminum volcanoes meant I would eventually run out of aluminum, which seemed far more important than Cobalt.

[CheeseGromit]

I keep flip-flopping between Spaced Out Terra and Classic Terra. As you say, there’s pros and cons. Neither really gives me a play style I’m looking for.

I like the smaller size of Spaced Out for faster progress but lack of certain resources forces me to move much earlier than I’m comfortable with.  Experience might help with this.

Classic has the resources but the larger map makes for a slower pace, this does seem to vary a lot depending on seed.

With the latest patch I’m back to playing Classic Terra.

[gnatsum]

I've settled on the classic, but I reduced the world size buy about 20% so its between the classic and the DLC.  I like the diversity all the geysers bring to the playthrough.  The terra DLC with its limited geysers force you to play in a certain way and I enjoy the freedom of having a slightly larger map and more geysers.  I go into space now for desired materials when I want to. 

[GeneralSour]

I'm liking the Classic Terra most so far. Is there a full list of possible asteroids available in the Classic Terra start? I'm assuming the teleporter asteroid will always be Radioactive Swamp and the "specialized" asteroids (Gassy Moo/Tundra/Superconductive/Water) will always be there. Are there any others?

[sakura_sk]

4 minutes ago, GeneralSour said:

Are there any others?

Moo, Water, Tundra, Superconductive and Marshy (the one with the resin tree, Experiment 52B)

[babba]

Classic DLC Terra big mac map is great to keep 100-500 dupes alive, with lots of possible water. I want to get down to 1 frame per hour !

It would be the perfect map for Klei to implement vertical trains in 2022, chu chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ! Also, need elevators and escalators.

[n_t_p]

They're all more or less the same

[KonfigSys]

My favorite one will be swamp start Classic size

also some Classic Terra seeds do not have pips, arbor trees and Al volcanos (for super coolant); I have to switch to Space Out size till classic is completely fixed with missing parts.

[SamLogan]

Swamp is my favorite cluster because it offers the original feeling of Spaced Out. New starting biome, new creatures, it's perfect if you want be totally immersed in the DLC experience.

Forest my second favorite cluster because "arboria feeling" with Spaced Out is very cool. The asteroid have a well balance temperature.

Big Asteroid (Classic mode) is perfect for a beginner who want discover slowly Spaced Out.

Terra cluster is the most hard I think, really hot asteroid, only steam geyser for renewable water, only for advanced player.

 

[Hokaeru]

Great analysis ! 
To me at the moment the swamp start feels the best, because you have no reed fiber (apart from dreckos) and no slimelung, if feels more incremential which is nice and Spaced out!  

[goboking]

Classic Terra is the only one big enough to accommodate the bases I want to build.

I’m looking forward to getting all the classic asteroids (Oceania, Voncanea, etc) as well as world traits in Spaced Out.

[Sasza22]

Kinda late, but i enjoy the forest dlc start the most. It provides a nice variety with both hot and cold water sources as well as a hydrogen vent for some easy early power. It`s actually the first time i can base my power on hydrogen. Feels like a nice mix providing both easy base building and a few challenges to tackle later.

[Gurgel]

On 5/17/2021 at 7:02 PM, n_t_p said:

They're all more or less the same

More less so

[Yobbo]

I like that the swamp start gives non-renewable ways to get a lot of the two basic resources (water and air) but with drawbacks (the air is yucky and the water requires a lot of dupe labour to stomp out). So keeping the colony alive at the start is not too difficult, rather the difficult part is making everything nice, clean and tidy.

That and bog buckets are great for getting rid of germy p-water. I just don't want to see that stuff in my base.

[sakura_sk]

19 minutes ago, Yobbo said:

and bog buckets are great for getting rid of germy p-water.

Ehm... Do you cook the bog jelly afterwards?

They may get rid of germy water but they make germy food (not million germs but still has a few..)

[Yobbo]

2 hours ago, sakura_sk said:

Ehm... Do you cook the bog jelly afterwards?

They may get rid of germy water but they make germy food (not million germs but still has a few..)

In my hydroponic bog bucket farm fed directly from the toilets the food comes out squeaky clean. Not a single germ. The germs never seem to touch the plant at all, they just stay nicely inside the pipes.

Actually i thought this was a little weird so i just tested some different scenarios... and couldn't get a germy bog jelly no matter how contaminated the farmer, water, tile, or even the plant itself were. The jelly still drops with zero germs.

Of course if the germy farmer then picks up the jelly there starts to be a problem. This seems to be the only way the germs can actually get on the food.

[sakura_sk]

40 minutes ago, Yobbo said:

In my hydroponic bog bucket farm fed directly from the toilets the food comes out squeaky clean. Not a single germ. The germs never seem to touch the plant at all, they just stay nicely inside the pipes.

I was sure about that too but in some of my playthroughs in swamp, I've seen plants (bog buckets fed with toilet water) having germs, although my dupes didn't have any germs. Maybe it was not coming from the pipes then (I haven't played swamp for a while to test it properly...  )

[Yobbo]

I ran for a few hundred cycles with only one germ outbreak in the farm. I remember tracing it back to an accidental emptying errand, i think on the farm tile itself. A dupe touched the water somehow then touched a plant, and the plant was contaminated forever. I had to replant it, as every harvest errand after that shared germs between plant and dupe.

All my other food poisoning cases were caused by inexplicable dupe preference for using the unplumbed outhouse in the visiting CO₂ rocket...

[SharraShimada]

Recnetly: Swamp. Now Forest DLC. Why? Swamp is nice for oxygen (polluted dirt > polluted oxygen > oxygen" for "free")

But otherwise swamp does not give me much favors. Forest on the other hand has everyrhing i want, plus tons of free wood for power. 

I testet the old terra big map, but it does feel just wrong. There is no need to leave the starting asteroid until VERY late game. 

[Gurgel]

Looks to me that Klei is doing good with the current choice and likely will do good with things to come.

[Rotintin]

In my most recent game I went Spaced Out Terra and rushed to migrate to the forest asteroid m. Worked pretty well to gain access to the satellite, pips, metal volcanoes, and a polluted water geyser before cycle 60.