For the moment, the loop is very small, it just drops down out of the cool h2o pool and returns to the reservoirs.

*But* that's why we have about 7 tons of ph2o in those reservoirs.

In phase 2 of the cooling rig, we will make those 7 tons run throughout the base and guarantee that *it* stays at about ~25c.

This is, admittedly, a tedious build. But it's not rocket science, needs no space materials, and will cool my base forever.

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That ph2o from the reservoirs runs through the metal tiles, and over time drops down to 23c. From that part of the loop, it then passes into the large cool h2o pool next to the reservoirs. It loops through there in a snake. This ensures that the pool stays ~24c even when we add warmer h2o to that pool.

The pool also has radiant *gas* pipes running through it, therefore ensuring that o2 production is *also* at ~24c.

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Just above the metal tiles there are two mechanized airlocks, then a whole square bounded by manual airlocks, all from gold amalgum. That square is infinistore for bring from a cool salt slush geyser, at temperature -10c.

The thermo sensor in the little hole in the metal tiles? It opens those two mechanized airlocks when it's cold enough -- 23c -- and closes them again when it needs more cooling.

It's what we call a "heat injector", tho in this case it's injecting cold.

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So what is needed is a way, for now, to use the remaining 30c ph2o and/or whatever 90c h2o I get from a cool steam vent and somehow cool it down.

This is what that looks like.

I will have a slug of rye with my beer and try to make a decent 'splainer.

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c140. I fixed the several small things, albeit some of them temporarily, only to discover that my cool starting water had run out.

So. I had to build out phase 1 of my base cooling system. This is cuz I'm using that cool water, and I need to be able to add more cool water as we go.

There's no shortage of *cold* liquid: in a spaced out terra start there are always at least a cool slush and a cool salt slush geyser.

But they're *too* cold, at -10c.

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c125. First few hundred kilos of steel made.

Got several small problems to solve. 1) I need some light cooling for the bristle blossoms. 2) I need more ph2o to convert to h2o to feed my sleet wheat. 3) power's tight, and I need a better answer. 4) I'd like a) to cap the cool steam vent, and b) to cap the natural gas geyser, and c) to start raising pacu.

So. Lots of little things.

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c115: the o2 & ceramics functions are ready to rock. The cooling part will take a little longer, but we don't need it yet. The h2o filling that cooling pool is from our initial supply, it's at 22c.

So. What now? Next stop: the initial metal refinery. We'll put it up above the rig you see now, in the super-cold biome. That way we can passively cool it until we get some steel made.

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c100. Finally able to return to clearing that ice biome at the top. Coring an ice biome feels really weird. In the base game, it's something one basically never did, cuz cold is so valuable. But remember there's a whole-map biome above this that is nothing but -55c everywhere.

At center-bottom of the picture, you can see the 4 bedrooms at the top of the rightmost column. My combination o2/ceramic/cooling production system will fill 5 levels there.

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c80. Both cold geysers now capped with infinite storage. This is good, we'll need that cooling eventually.

Now I want a sleet wheat farm. I checked Professor Oakshell, and to feed 8 dups berry sludge, we need . . . wait for it . . . 10 sleet wheat plants.

Why 8, when my census will be 16? Well, at some point my bbq kicks in, and I do plan pacu, so then I'll have surf'n'turf for the locals, and berry sludge for the travelers.

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Up at the top of the base, we're capping the two cold geysers next.

Once they're capped, I will clear some more of their ice biome and start a proper sleet wheat farm there. I have to do this, because I want to put my o2/ceramic/cooling rig over that ice biome just right of the ladder, and I need a substitute supply for the sleet wheat if I'm gonna do that.

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c70. Hatch and drecko ranches both currently in operation, tho it feels like my egg drops have been unlucky. No glossy drecko egg, and only 4 stone hatch eggs so far.

On the left side of the ladder is the materials storage. The isolated single column is for slime, which I never use. The bins are for the sublimators, bleach stone and oxylite, and are filled automatically. The dispensers are sweep-only for everything but liquifiable.

Radiation research is up and running.

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c60: The census is now 8.

Shifting attention to the left side, we now have the work-in-progress research lab, the bedrooms all framed in, food prep & great hall in their final locations.

Meanwhile, on the upper left, I've cracked a slime biome. I want more sedimentary rock for the hatches, and some gold.

Meanwhile, on the lower left, it's time to a) bang out the last few levels, and b) set up nasty gas storage.

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c50. The right side of the base is coming along. Did a more than I intended.

The bathroom is coming up, and the hospital. (Note: change from my original plan. I realized I could squeeze the water management into the dead zone of the drecko ranch. This will let me complete the hospital level with the rec room. The drecko ranch will be done in a cycle or two. The first two hatch ranches are ready. The third and fourth wait until we move the research lab to its final location.

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c40. So, that's power sorted until well in to the midgame.

Now a few quick projects, all inside the base.

1) Drecko levels
2) Hatch levels
3) Proper bathroom/hospital/water treatment

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Note the two ladders about a dozen tiles apart. The space between them will be for utilities, i.e. pipes and wires and transformers. I make it a dozen wide so there's plenty of room, and so the leftmost ladder isn't in range of the heavy watt wire.

I'm refining copper like crazy, and considering whether I want to wire the base with conductive wire from the very beginning.

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c35. Two of the three ice biomes are cracked, and we've got a modest but steady supply of berry sludge coming.

Some good news: 4 wheezeworts, so I won't have to do a shine bug reactor for radiation research.

The next problem is power. As the picture shows, I'm building the right-hand wall, cuz I'm about to crack that caustic biome to the right, where I'll set up my coal gens.

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c28. I rushed like hell to lay in a dozen bristle blossoms. I generally don't like using the starting water for irrigation, so I cracked the slime biome on the upper right and am water sieving ph2o for irrigation. (This will eventually overheat, but hopefully by then I'll have another solution.)

Now I want to crack the ice biomes to collect wild sleet wheat for berry sludge.

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c22. Not much to see, just yet. But the water's nearly finished draining, and we've cleared much of the hatch ranching area.

Food is *tight*, we may wind up making some of the dreaded mush bars. That's okay, we'll catch up soon enough.

Food. I see two main sources for the long haul: bbq, but that's very slow to develop, berry sludge, equal to bbq, but it'll be a while, cuz we gotta penetrate the ice biomes for sleet wheat.

But. Spoze we start with Gristle Berry?

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c18. That took a while, but the ladder is mostly moved, the infinistore is ready for the last priming.

Along the way, we moved the temporary outhosues to a new temporary location, moved the great hall to its final location, and all the cots up to final location but temporary arrangement.

Once the water starts draining, the next priority is clear: stabilize food supply.

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