Water, Heating and Piping
Basics
Heating, Water, Steam and Piping all make a challenging mix of infrastructure that you will need to provide to your Whisker colony to be able to succeed in the long run.
Your first challenge will be to make sure your Whiskers can stay warm up in the winter using heaters like the Campfire, Bonfire, Heating Stove or Steam Radiator. Early on, you will only be able to use the Campfire and Bonfire, but you will be able to research more technology as the game progresses.
Your next challenge will be to bring water to your Whiskers. They do not need it to drink, but it provides opportunities to refine materials at the Sifting Tower, cook foods at the Soup Kitchen, or provide bathing facilities like the Showers. Water will introduce the concept of piping which you must run throughout your colony, spanning from sources like the Water Pump all the way to where it is needed. You will have to get creative in placing pipe, especially if you had not planned for it before. Try building your piping underground to avoid tangled overhead pipes and a lot of supports.
Finally, your Whiskers will discover the power of steam which will allow you to efficiently heat your colony with Steam Radiators, give your Whiskers luxurious baths at the Bathhouse, and speed up your factories with the Steam Engine. All of this will require you to run an additional set of pipes throughout your colony to carry steam from Steam Boilers to wherever it may be needed. In combination with your water pipe infrastructure, it can become a real infrastructure challenge.
Heating
Heating is needed in your colony whenever temperatures reach 10 C or below. The colder it gets, the harder it will be for you to keep your colony heated. You have 4 heating sources you can use that will provide warmth in a radius around them. When placing a heating source, it will display various colors around itself that will show you to what degree it will warm the surrounding area. Below is a chart showing what each color means and the effects, if any, it will have on nearby buildings.
| Color | Warmth | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Dark Red | Very Warm | High-resistance to increasing cold |
| Red | Warm | Normal Operations/Safe for Whiskers |
| Yellow | Warm | Temps lowering will next effect this area but otherwise safe |
| Blue | Chilly | Slower Production/Possible chilled paws for Whiskers |
| Purple | Very Cold | Slower Production/Possible Illnesses/Machinery Degrades Faster |
There are currently 4 heating options for your Whiskers outside of the fact that some factories like the Ore Furnace and Blast Furnace heat themselves and a small area around them while in operation. Occupational heat sources should not be relied upon to heat your colony as they only function during the their operation and only during the day (unless you're using overtime). For the most part, you will be using the following heating options.
| Heating Source | Total Radius | Dark Red1 | Red | Yellow | Fuel Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campfire | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 (Click to Refill) |
| Bonfire | 8 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 6 (Fuel Tender) |
| Heating Stove | 8 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 8 (Fuel Tender) |
| Steam Radiator | 9 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 3 (Piped Steam) |
1 The "dark red" radius is just part of the overall red radius and does not extend it. It represents extra warmth and more resilience to increasing cold. The extra heat may penetrate rock ground in the case of a Steam Radiator.
As temperatures continue to plummet, the overall radii provided above will shrink by 1, starting at 0 C and continuing as the weather gets colder. This means that placing heating elements throughout your city cannot be planned just at 10 C temperature because buildings that were safe from chilly conditions may no longer be in late winter. Make sure to give yourself some "cushion" by overlapping heating sources.
If you find yourself in a pinch, you can place heating sources in "overdrive" on an individual basis via a toggle switch. This will double their fuel consumption but effectively increase their heating radius by 2. This can help stay off the extra cold days if you can sustain the extra fuel consumption. Campfires cannot be put in overdrive.
Farms can continue to function during the winter if they are heated properly, but you may not want to waste the additional fuel. If you choose not to heat farms, be sure to unassign the associated farmers. They will go to their place of work every day and sit in the snow after harvesting any salvageable crops. This can expose your Whiskers to unnecessary cold while they idle. You will not get an "idle camp" warning when farmers are sitting around during winter.
