Snow Planets

Some planetside colonies and bases are on what is commonly known as Snow Planets. Other times, ships exploring the cosmos find Snow Planets to explore. These have similar features, discussed below.

Snow planets on a day/night cycle that runs as follows:

You can get around without a lantern any time other than complete night, but be prepared for it if sunset comes.

Weather has 4 basic stages: calm, light, heavy, and blizzard. Weather can never change more than one step (e.g.: calm to light is okay, calm to heavy is not). You can consult any climate computer to see how much time is left in the current weather phase and forecasts. The weather can also jump to blizzard with only a few minutes warning if the blizzard random event fires.

Science can build a weather control device once research is completed (requires 2 ultra lasers, 1 bluespace matter bin, and 1 RTG cell). It runs on bluespace crystals (artificial worth 1, natural worth 3). It has 3 buttons:

• Disrupt (cost: 1) causes the forecast to reroll at random.
• Intensify (cost: 1) sets the current weather to 1 minute and guarantees the next weather will be one stage heavier.
• Abate (cost: 2) sets the current weather to 1 minute and guarantees the next weather will be one stage lighter.

Suiting Up: Remember that cold can penetrate you if you don't cover all of your slots. That means: head, face, suit, gloves, shoes. A hardsuit will already cover your face and hands, but if you're just using a winter coat, add a scarf and gloves! You can find all the clothes you need at the Snow Man's Land vendor. It also contains gear for building a cabin.

Vesta Heaters: Thirty times more powerful than a normal space heater, and they draw power from the APC instead of a battery. They also shut off automatically if the room is getting too warm. If a room gets cold, turn this on!

Taxis: There is a taxi on each of the three substations, which can be used to reach the Space Port (contains arrivals, podbay). Look for blue and orange signs on each station to direct you to the taxi. By using the taxis, you can go between stations without going into the snow at all. The shuttles are arranged in the same position as the substation they belong to, so they can be useful if lost. Taxis are unavailable in a blizzard. You aren't stuck on the space port! The teleporter will turn on to send you to the surface!

Snowmobiles: Ride these to significantly speed the travel time between stations. The action buttons toggle on the headlights. Snowmobiles travel very fast on asphalt, snow, cement, glaciers, etc. but very very slowly indoors. Park your snowmobile in the designated parking areas so that they are more visible in a snowstorm! You can drag a toboggan onto a snowmobile to link it on. This will allow you to transport bodies, pets, crates, etc.

These come in a few varieties. The closer you are and less clothed, the more a geyser will warm you up. The hotter a geyser, the more it heats the surrounding area and melts the snow. You can confirm a geyser's heat by using an atmospherics analyzer on it.

You can lower a geyser's heat output by using a shovel on it. If you continue shoveling it until it doesn't produce heat, it will become a sealed geyser. Use a shovel on a sealed geyser to destroy it completely.

The Permanent Blizzard: On snow planets, the station Z-level is surrounded by a permanent snowstorm no matter the weather. If you wander into it, you'll end up on the opposite side of the map exiting the storm. Be careful about entering the blizzard, as you might get lost.

Vaults: The Snow Planet has both space vaults and vaults found in the outer reaches near the permanent blizzard. There are 24 unique snow vaults. Some are just caves with wildlife or scenery, but some have useful items.

Being AI is a lot like other maps, but there are 2 important differences. Instead of just a view core button, you have 3 buttons to quickly jump between the 3 substations. Also, the atmos networks of the stations are separated by valves in maintenance huts at shift start, so it's harder to flood them with phoron.

You have two mines to choose from. The surface mine, right outside the mining room, has different ores and monsters, or you can ride up to the space port in any of the taxis. The space mine is totally standard (look for rich ore veins and danger up near the top).

The surface mine has generally easier enemies and all diamonds will be real (no gibtonite). It's also a very rich source of gold and silver from electrum ore, but it has no uranium. Nanotrasite can be smelted for both plasma and iron.

You may need to ride out into the snow to find bodies. Look for tracks in the snow! If someone is suffering from hypothermia, the Saint Corgi in your office will fix them right up. You can even load him into a toboggan to take with you! Make sure you link a toboggan to your snowmobile so you can drag back bodies. You can link as many toboggans in a chain as you want.

Keep in mind that you may be able to track murderers by snowprints, but these can be lost if it's snowing too hard. Look carefully to determine which way footprints or snowmobile tracks are headed! Crewmen may also be killed by wildlife. The armory comes equipped with hunting rifles which take .38 ammo and can be equipped with scopes (both available at the ammolathe). Hunting rifles are not very dangerous against other humans (about 10 brute) but very deadly to wildlife (6x damage), so they are ideal for handing out to form a team to explore the caves.

The security snowmobiles need specific keys, which are numbered and spawn in the locker near the security parking lot. Take your key with you! Security snowmobiles can also flash their lights and siren.

You'll more often be fighting cold than fires. Keep in mind heater locations! One major difference with Snow Planets is the Frozen Core. It can cool your H/E pipes for an SME or TEG just as well as space. Keep in mind though that the atmosphere spreads cold much more efficiently than space does, so if the windows to the core breach, you should close the shutters with the button in the CE office quickly and bring in heaters. Don't let the cold spill out!

Ready to tame the snowy wastes? A few tips:

• Grab equipment at the Snow Man's Land vendor. You can get a hatchet for cutting trees/logs, shovel for displacing snow, and permits to turn your cabin into its own area. The northeast station on Snaxi also has a Habitat Depot for building supplies (metal, glass, wood, light tubes, etc.).
• Use logs for a quick start. When you use a log directly on the ground, it will build a log wall (tries to use a log on that tile or below you first). Log walls build in just 4 seconds (2 seconds if no snow on ground). They can also be easily cleared with a hatchet.
• Build a foundation. To make floors, you need to set up a lattice (with rods or wood planks) first. Then, use a floor tile (metal becomes plating, wood becomes a deck - which works the same). After you put in any wires you may want, place another tile on top to finish the floor.
• Logs on logs for log doors. Log doors automatically close very quickly, making them great for keeping in heat.
• Bring supplies with you in a crate on a toboggan. You can even use a coin on the Snow Man's Land vendor to get bricks, which can be used for a fireplace. Fireplaces can be adorned with shoes for stockings and fed wood planks to warm up a home and provide lighting. If you can't manage a fireplace, though, metal is sufficient for a wood-burning stove. Planks can make a basic campfire.
• Trees can be cut with hatchets or any serrated edge.
• When you cut trees, after several swings the tree will begin to lean one way. Make sure you aren't standing in that direction to avoid the logs when they fall. Each log is worth 4 planks. You can see behind a tree by moving near it from behind.
• Clean up stumps and brush using a shovel. Any small plant life can be removed this way. Shovels can also be used to seal geysers.