[Question] Ice Biomes

[CynoGamer]

I'm a new player and would like some clarification around how Ice Biomes currently work, must be pretty simple but its eluding me.

• Can a player effectively "completely" destroy an Ice Biome via too much heat? (by this I mean the biome is no cold, and can never return back to how it was)
• In this scenario where the ice biome is gone, would the AETN still cool? or would its surroundings make it moot.
  • What are the impacts of this on the map? does it mean an ever increasing heat wave on the map? Never getting a stable/renewable source of cooling?

Thanks for any responses in advance! Feel free to go as in-depth as you like, I love a detailed answer.

[Kabrute]

the only cold in ice biomes are weeze warts and material.  Once gone the temp will be ambient.  AETN will produce cold as long as you feed it hydrogen and it would not liquify the gas it is in.

[PhailRaptor]

2 hours ago, CynoGamer said:

Can a player effectively "completely" destroy an Ice Biome via too much heat? (by this I mean the biome is no cold, and can never return back to how it was)

Yes, it is very possible.  The biomes do not exert any kind of temperature influence.  The map is simply generated with set amounts of heat (or in the case of the Ice Biome, a lack of heat).  The Abyssalite veins around the biomes prevent these fixed temperature settings from leaking into one another, unless breached by other map features or player actions.  So when the cold is gone, it's gone.

To an extent, this can be used as a positive thing.  Melting tiles of Ice will return 100% of the mass contained within, where as digging them out into items sitting on the floor reduces their mass by 50%.

2 hours ago, CynoGamer said:

In this scenario where the ice biome is gone, would the AETN still cool? or would its surroundings make it moot.

As long as you are fueling it with Hydrogen, the AETN will cool at a fixed rate.

[CynoGamer]

Great replies thanks!

Iit sounds like it’s possible to extend the size of an ice biome by correct use of insulation, I wonder where the limits on this would be.

I have some ideas floating around in my head. Can’t wait to try some out.

[Slvrsrfr]

3 hours ago, PhailRaptor said:

Yes, it is very possible.  The biomes do not exert any kind of temperature influence.  The map is simply generated with set amounts of heat (or in the case of the Ice Biome, a lack of heat).  The Abyssalite veins around the biomes prevent these fixed temperature settings from leaking into one another, unless breached by other map features or player actions.  So when the cold is gone, it's gone.

To an extent, this can be used as a positive thing.  Melting tiles of Ice will return 100% of the mass contained within, where as digging them out into items sitting on the floor reduces their mass by 50%.

As long as you are fueling it with Hydrogen, the AETN will cool at a fixed rate.

excellent reply.

Additionally it may happen whether or not the player is involved. As phil said the board layout also dictates the games outcomes as well. Areas that might not breach will because of a generated object. Otherwise he framed it perfectly. some changes are irreversible, possibly inevitable.

You can inspect the map seed in sandbox and plan accordingly, if you so desire.

Even the heat is to be treasured to some degree in the caustic biomes...

[blash365]

5 hours ago, CynoGamer said:

Great replies thanks!

Iit sounds like it’s possible to extend the size of an ice biome by correct use of insulation, I wonder where the limits on this would be.

I have some ideas floating around in my head. Can’t wait to try some out.

With perfect insulation there is no limit but time.

The ice biomes are basically a cold-storage of the wheezeworts (and the starting temperature). If you induce heat (e.g. by removing wheezes and a piece of insulation), it will melt eventually.

On the other side, if you keep inducing cooling, while still keeping heat sources outside of your insulation, you can extend your ice biome across the entire map (provided you have enough time to cool down the lava with your wheezes).

[Sasza22]

You can actually melt an ice biome pretty fast if you use radiant pipes and hot water form a geyser. I used ice biomes as a source of cooling for my water before i could afford aquatuners. A small ice biome can melt in like 50 cycles.

[Whispershade]

It should be noted that the more you develop in an ice biome the more tend to destroy it as a place of cold. Most of the temperature maintaining the the biome is within the ice and granite that exists. As you dig it out, you lose mass and the thermal inertia that lost mass contained.

My personal strategy is to expose cold biomes to slime biomes. To melt the cold biome and to freeze the slime biome. Using the cold to decontaminate slime before moving it into my base.