Fault Inc’s disastrous first colony taught us a few important things; namely that Planetbase has a pretty fast moving day/night cycle and that colonists asphyxiate really quickly when their solar powered life support all shuts down.

So for colony #2 I try to avoid this problem by building not only a solar panel but also a decent sized wind turbine right as soon as we land.

Which reminds me, did you know your colonists bring construction robots with them to each colony? They don’t seem to work any harder or faster than your human construction experts but more helping hands is always useful and I guess it’s nice not having to worry about providing them with food or air.

Our cute little construction bot puts the finishing touches on a solar panel.

Turbine probably not drawn to scale.

I had hoped using winds as a backup energy source would solve all my nocturnal oxygen problems but it turns out that the wind doesn’t blow 24 hours a day on this particular planet (which took me by surprise; living in Oklahoma has given me weird ideas about “normal” weather). So my overnight electrical supply was more or less random and that meant life support was on and off all night as well. Fortunately while the colony’s oxygen levels got dangerously low on multiple occasions the electricity always kicked back in before anybody actually died. Admittedly a night like that should probably have left everybody suffering from the side effects of CO2 poisoning and partial brain death but I’m pretty sure Planetbase doesn’t simulate any of that so let’s just pretend I didn’t bring it up.

When we last left Fault Inc’s first space colony things were looking pretty good. We had a set of solar panels producing tons of electricity that we then used to power both a water extractor and an oxygen plant. Toss in all the freeze dried food the colonists brought with them and the future is looking bright!

At least until the sun goes down.

No sun means no solar energy. No solar energy means no electricity, which means no water which means no oxygen.

As you might imagine the Fault Inc colonists are not happy about this and start complaining.

You already had twelve hours of oxygen today. What more do you want?

The good news is that they stop complaining pretty quickly. The bad news is that they stop because they’re all dead.

On the bright side poor Jude apparently died happy.

Well shoot. Not only did several brave astronauts lose their lives but Fault Inc’s insurance premiums are probably going to skyrocket too. We’d better be extra careful with the next colony.

When you first try to play Planetbase there’s a big popup suggesting you should complete the tutorial mode before trying to settle an actual planet, but I’m going to completely ignore it in favor of clicking on buttons myself and seeing what happens. For example, it turns out that clicking the “Start Game” button triggers an adorable cinematic of your space capsule landing and your brave space pioneers emerging.

And you thought it felt good to get out and stretch your legs after a long car trip.

The best thing about camping in space is there are no mosquitoes.

Now I’m no space expert but I’ve read enough sci-fi to know the obvious top priority for a space base is air. And the easiest way to get air is by electrically splitting water, which means I need some power and water. Fortunately solar panels and water extraction systems come as pre-unlocked tech so I toss up some panels, drill for water and then set up an oxygen plant for my base.

Things are looking pretty good for Fault Inc’s first extraterrestrial colony!