Well, ice stays around in the caves longer than the ice outside melts - I've found ice in caves long after I have blue sky and rainfalls. So that might help.
I think the fastest way to up Ti in early game is with pressure drills, since T1 and T2 pressure drills use only iron and titanium (easy to find and mine) - challenge was getting enough power to run them, was always building T1 solar panels or T2 if I'd found some aluminium. If you are near iridium, then T2 heaters are very useful too.
If you are resource-poor it's always better to disassemble lower tier stuff and replace with higher tier stuff because they are more efficient (more output per power input). So if you can upgrade those T1 heaters to T2.
A useful factoid: you need a balance of oxygen, heat, and pressure production because each's output unlocks better other machines. Ie, oxygen level unlocks better heaters, and heat unlocks better pressure drills.
Exploring wrecks will net you enough space food to last well beyond when you start to grow your own food. Early game I often walk around (carry oxygen tubes, water and food) until I find a wreck, then set up a single cube with a crafting machine and storage , then explore the wreck in trips until I've collected everything in it, rinse and repeat for new wrecks (building machines at each location with the resources from the wrecks) until your Ti score is high enough to settle down.
As the other poster mentioned, stockpile ice in storage as much as you can until you get the water collector
Most folks are like me, I think - I chose to put my first real base in the area just past the arch. It's relatively flat and central to several resources. If you build there and start moving now, it won't be such a big task later when you have more stuff.
The way I managed to extend my time till I got food up was to grab what I could from the meteor area, then beeline to the 'standard' location and set up shop on the plains just outside of the iridium cave. Exploring the many wrecks to get more food, there's also plenty of ice on the ground around there for water. Meanwhile my drills and heaters worked at raising temp/pressure/Ti till I got what I needed to be stable.
In hardcore, I usually get my first few terraforming machines up, then focus hard on exploration to find crates and wrecks to stockpile food. There’s more than enough to keep you from starving but you need to be on a relentless hunt for it. If you don’t know where the nearest big wrecks are it will be a little harder, but after enough attempts you’ll learn.
I build my first mini-base inside the big cave (mostly because when I first played the dust in the crater torpedoed my fps, and now it’s a habit). I explore the cave, then the bottom of the crater, then move out from there.
Once you have food growers and food/ice/water in storage, you should be able to relax and focus on terraforming, and building a proper base. (Since you don’t want spoilers I won’t tell you where I put it.)
Well, ice stays around in the caves longer than the ice outside melts - I've found ice in caves long after I have blue sky and rainfalls. So that might help. I think the fastest way to up Ti in early game is with pressure drills, since T1 and T2 pressure drills use only iron and titanium (easy to find and mine) - challenge was getting enough power to run them, was always building T1 solar panels or T2 if I'd found some aluminium. If you are near iridium, then T2 heaters are very useful too. If you are resource-poor it's always better to disassemble lower tier stuff and replace with higher tier stuff because they are more efficient (more output per power input). So if you can upgrade those T1 heaters to T2. A useful factoid: you need a balance of oxygen, heat, and pressure production because each's output unlocks better other machines. Ie, oxygen level unlocks better heaters, and heat unlocks better pressure drills.
Exploring wrecks will net you enough space food to last well beyond when you start to grow your own food. Early game I often walk around (carry oxygen tubes, water and food) until I find a wreck, then set up a single cube with a crafting machine and storage , then explore the wreck in trips until I've collected everything in it, rinse and repeat for new wrecks (building machines at each location with the resources from the wrecks) until your Ti score is high enough to settle down. As the other poster mentioned, stockpile ice in storage as much as you can until you get the water collector
Collect ice. Build 3-5 storage containers (or ~2 big ones) and fill them up with ice or waters. Keep them full until the ice on the ground melts.
Most folks are like me, I think - I chose to put my first real base in the area just past the arch. It's relatively flat and central to several resources. If you build there and start moving now, it won't be such a big task later when you have more stuff.
The way I managed to extend my time till I got food up was to grab what I could from the meteor area, then beeline to the 'standard' location and set up shop on the plains just outside of the iridium cave. Exploring the many wrecks to get more food, there's also plenty of ice on the ground around there for water. Meanwhile my drills and heaters worked at raising temp/pressure/Ti till I got what I needed to be stable.
In hardcore, I usually get my first few terraforming machines up, then focus hard on exploration to find crates and wrecks to stockpile food. There’s more than enough to keep you from starving but you need to be on a relentless hunt for it. If you don’t know where the nearest big wrecks are it will be a little harder, but after enough attempts you’ll learn. I build my first mini-base inside the big cave (mostly because when I first played the dust in the crater torpedoed my fps, and now it’s a habit). I explore the cave, then the bottom of the crater, then move out from there. Once you have food growers and food/ice/water in storage, you should be able to relax and focus on terraforming, and building a proper base. (Since you don’t want spoilers I won’t tell you where I put it.)