Info about Icarus: Iceholm Outpost:

Official game description:
Only playable in Outpost Mode
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This map is only playable in Outpost mode. Outposts are more of a creative mode, with no threats, impactful weather, no missions or quests, just build as much as you want.
About the Game
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The Iceholm Outpost is a handcrafted 1x1km map in the Arctic region of Icarus.  
*   A vast frozen lake blankets the north of the map, with little shelter but large flat expanses you can build upon  
*   The south is built on terraced cliffs, adorned with pine forests and sheltered coves  
*   A small mountain sits in the middle of the map, overlooking the lake and a scattering of ice craters that provide respite from the freezing winds
'Iceholm' will appear in your Outposts screen.

Release date: Aug 22, 2023

Categories: Base Building, Open-World Survival, Crafting, Exploration, Cooperative Multiplayer, Sandbox Mode, Snow/Ice Biome


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: N/A
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: 7.0h
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The quote 'now it's just decorating and enjoying interior design for the next 7 hours' directly reports a planned play session of 7 hours in the target outpost, so sessionLength is set to 7. The quote about 0 hours on record is a playtime claim for the target outpost, but it reflects an unlock rather than an actual play session, completion time, or endgame duration, so it does not support any metric. The endgame quote describes endgame content but provides no playtime hours, so endgame remains null. The 1400 hours quote reports total playtime for the broader survival game rather than the specific Iceholm Outpost, so it is rejected for target-game metrics; gameCompletion and storyCompletion remain null.
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes:
  - Chill Cozy Base Builder (buy)
    - Motivation: Relaxation and finding a peaceful, low-pressure space to unwind while building a cozy cabin.
    - Playstyle: Slow-paced, low-risk outpost building and decorating with minimal combat or survival pressure, often in short comfortable sessions.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: chill dad
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Creative Sandbox Architect (buy)
    - Motivation: Unlimited creative construction with steady access to regenerating resources.
    - Playstyle: Concentrates on Outpost maps to build elaborate structures, skipping long traversal and large-map survival chores.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Immersive Solo or Co-op Wanderer (buy)
    - Motivation: Immersing in a beautiful, atmospheric snowy environment, played alone or cooperatively.
    - Playstyle: Leisurely exploration and co-op play focused on enjoying scenery and mood rather than strict survival efficiency.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Veteran Systems Tinkerer (buy)
    - Motivation: Optimizing resource and crafting systems while still engaging in optional combat and material grinding.
    - Playstyle: Builds interconnected automated resource chains in Outposts, mixes in combat and gathering to craft decorative and advanced items, and avoids buggy open-world situations.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Excellent snow outpost for building (weight 0.8): Players praise the outpost as a perfect location for building in the snow, with a beautiful snowy landscape and great layout including a small forest chunk. It is ideal for a Boreal fortress, ski lodge, or arctic station.
- Atmospheric and top-tier in genre (weight 0.38): The game is the most atmospheric among open-world crafting, base-building, exploration, and survival games the reviewer owns, and is considered one of the best in its genre. It brings calm and peace to players who love snow.
- Developers active and community-friendly (weight 0.37): Developers are open to the community and have outstanding communication. They provide weekly updates and fixes, and paid DLC helps keep the game alive and fun.
- Stunning views and photogenic builds (weight 0.31): The map offers beautiful views in all directions, especially from the large central mini mountain that can be scaled. It is excellent for photogenic builds and in-game photography.
- Rich wildlife and resource availability (weight 0.31): Wildlife includes arctic moa, mammoths, hares, deer, snow leopards, and snow wolves. Mammoths provide epoxy, ensuring it is not in short supply, and resources respawn on log out and in, benefiting creative snow builds.
- Functional outpost for missions and O2 (weight 0.31): Outposts are handy for refilling O2 tanks between missions and can create icewater to send to orbit for volcanic biome missions. They also avoid certain game-breaking bugs found in the open world.
- Clear progression from early to endgame (weight 0.3): The game provides a clear early, mid, and endgame progression. Crossbows with iron or steel bolts are useful until composite bows or guns, and the endgame shifts to decorating and enjoying interior design.
- Open-ended gameplay with many options (weight 0.3): The game is extremely open, and players are not forced to do specific things. There are lots and lots of options, making it a good fit for hardcore gamers.
- Useful for testing cold-weather strategies (weight 0.29): Outposts are useful for testing base-in-a-backpack strategies on Arctic missions and how certain cold weather items perform. Cold is only a minor threat there.
- Beautiful forest and snowy ambiance (weight 0.27): The forest is beautiful, and snow storms coat the base in a fluffy layer of snow. The mountain connects to the forest by a gentle slope where polar bears do not accost players.
- Unique ice biome with varied terrain (weight 0.22): The northern frozen ice lake takes up over half the map with ice chunks resembling icebergs. There are resources on the northern end in caves or deep mining nodes.
- Water collection and ice conversion (weight 0.21): Rain collectors can collect ice and convert it into water. An advanced rain collector can be hooked directly to devices without a pump.
- Cozy cabin spots with wildlife views (weight 0.21): A smaller safe location at the grey chip between B4 and C4 overlooks wildlife and is perfectly flat for a cozy cabin. Heaters can be placed throughout the base to give a cosy feeling.
- Mildly challenging with optional difficulty (weight 0.21): The experience is mildly challenging. Raising the difficulty brings badass storms, polar bears, snow leopards, and mammoths, adding excitement for those who want it.
- Engaging horde defenses with enzyme geysers (weight 0.21): Enzyme geysers initiate horde style defenses when a T4 condenser is built on them, providing fun combat. The trophy wall gets pretty sick as a reward.
- Only arctic map for ice building (weight 0.2): It is currently the only arctic map, so it is a must if you want to build in the ice. The setting is offered as a unique environment for ice-themed bases.
- Ideal for building without traversing maps (weight 0.2): The outpost is perfect for players who like building without traversing bigger maps. It allows building whatever you want in a beautiful snowy landscape.
- Past issues fixed by developers (weight 0.12): Developers fixed past issues so animals now spawn and ice chunks can be collected by hand. This shows ongoing commitment to improving the experience.

Common complaints:
- No water sources on map (weight 0.61): Players report a complete absence of water sources, including no water caves and only ice chunks. This forces reliance on melted snow for drinking and makes crafting reinforced glass or building glass houses extremely difficult. Many suggest that adding water to caves would improve the experience.
- Deadly wildlife overpopulation (weight 0.61): Aggressive animals such as polar bears, leopards, and wolves spawn excessively and can appear anywhere, even on easier difficulties. They destroy buildings and kill players repeatedly, hindering progression. A balance patch is urgently needed to adjust spawn rates and difficulty.
- Farming limitations due to no land (weight 0.46): The map lacks land for farming, and players can only purchase land at the orbital station as a workaround. Seeds other than basic fiber are scarce, and crops now require indoor greenhouse setups. This makes tea production at outposts impractical due to time and resource investments.
- Early game distance from resources (weight 0.39): Players start 2 km away from any plants, making initial runs for basic tools and materials extremely dangerous. Without securing a spawn point, repeated deaths occur, and players respawn via a Sinotai pod. The outpost itself offers few resources to ease this burden.
- Polar bear spawns never-ending (weight 0.3): Polar bears spawn continuously in certain areas, making snow cave basements risky. They can easily chomp through buildings, and killing one with a wooden stick is impossible. This creates constant danger and discourages base building in those regions.
- Outpost bugs remain unfixed (weight 0.23): Game-breaking bugs specific to outposts have been known for over two years but remain unfixed. Outposts also lack developer support, leaving players frustrated with persistent issues.
- Easy difficulty lacks leather (weight 0.13): On easy difficulty, only rabbits spawn, preventing players from obtaining leather to craft essential items like sleeping bags or crafting benches. This limits progression and forces players to play on higher difficulties despite the increased danger.
- Respawn pods under ice (weight 0.13): Respawn pods are located under the ice, which disorients and screws up players upon respawning. This adds frustration to an already punishing early game.
- Only snow rabbits spawning (weight 0.13): Players report that only snow rabbits are spawning, while all other creatures are absent. This breaks the intended ecosystem and may be related to the leather shortage on easy difficulty.

Gameplay feedback:
- Outposts offer safe building (weight 0.88): Outposts are smaller maps with regenerating resources, safe from open-world creatures, and can be returned to between missions. They provide a secure environment for unrestricted building.
- Open-world survival crafting experience (weight 0.64): The game is an open-world survival crafting title with base-building, exploration, and co-op support. It emphasizes creativity and offers many options for players.
- Outpost features cold and snow (weight 0.41): The outpost map is set in a snowy landscape with a large frozen ice lake and icebergs. Cold is a minor threat, and weather is generally calm.
- Early game survival steps (weight 0.33): Early game involves dropping in, gathering basic tools and materials, securing a bedroll for spawn, and building a campfire, oxidizer, and wooden mini base.
- Difficulty affects spawns and weather (weight 0.28): Difficulty settings affect spawns, and raising difficulty changes weather and wildlife to include storms, polar bears, snow leopards, and mammoths.
- Base-building in winter biome (weight 0.25): Base-building is possible in a winter-themed environment, such as an ice biome. Building structures like an ice fortress is allowed.
- Small map with simple start (weight 0.22): The game starts with an empty body on a small map. Building wooden houses and using stone axes and wooden sticks are common.
- Midgame resource and base upgrades (weight 0.2): Midgame focuses on obtaining CO2 and water and upgrading the base to stone. Players can use crossbows, composite bows, and guns.
- Endgame crafting and decoration (weight 0.18): Endgame includes a foundry and fabricator, and late game play centers on decorating and interior design.
- Resource locations and mining (weight 0.18): Resources are found in caves or deep mining nodes. The central mini mountain is scalable and offers views in all directions.
- Wildlife includes diverse arctic animals (weight 0.18): Wildlife includes arctic moa, mammoths, hare, deer, snow leopards, and snow wolves. Polar bears can damage buildings.
- Unlimited resources and safe building (weight 0.16): The game offers infinite resources and allows building without threats.
- Snow caves as fake basements (weight 0.08): Snow caves can function as fake basements for building.
- Orbital exchange for seeds (weight 0.08): Players can use orbital exchange to call down seeds.
- Advanced rain collector connects to devices (weight 0.08): Advanced rain collector can hook directly to devices like the glassworking bench.
- Water from melting snow (weight 0.08): Characters can drink water by melting snow.
- Crafting sleeping bags and benches (weight 0.08): Players can craft sleeping bags and crafting benches.

Performance notes:
No performancepoints

Recommendations:
- Great for creative snow builds (weight 0.4): Reviewers praise the outpost as an ideal setting for building structures like ski lodges and arctic stations, making it a must for players who want to build in icy environments. It is especially recommended for those who love cold and snow.
- Safe, creative sandbox for builders (weight 0.31): Players who enjoy open world sandbox creativity and want to build without threats find this outpost highly suitable. It is recommended for builders seeking a safe place to freely construct and experiment.
- Excellent for immersion and photography (weight 0.22): The outpost is praised as a beautiful environment for players who like to sit back and immerse themselves, alone or in co-op. It is also an excellent option for making photogenic builds or taking in-game photography.
- Good value for money (weight 0.22): Several reviewers recommend the outpost because of its value for money. Some also suggest it is best snagged on sale, indicating that the price-to-content ratio is a key consideration.
- Supports game, recommended purchase (weight 0.21): Some reviewers recommend buying it to support the game or simply because they highly recommend it. The sentiment is generally positive and encourages purchase.
- Challenging, not for faint (weight 0.2): The outpost is described as not for the faint of heart, suggesting it may offer a challenging experience. It is also noted as suitable for hardcore gamers.
- Should be free or not created (weight 0.13): Some players feel these outposts should have been free or not created at all. This suggests dissatisfaction with the pricing or the concept of paid outposts.
- Great for refilling consumables (weight 0.12): Outposts are considered great for players who do missions primarily to refill quality of life consumables. This highlights a practical use for the outpost beyond building.
- Praise for specific outpost (weight 0.12): One reviewer specifically states that if you enjoy the outposts, this is a great one. This indicates a positive reception for this particular outpost among fans of the mode.

Other player notes:
- Praise for developer communication (weight 0.31): Developer communication and community openness are outstanding, with weekly updates and fixes. The developer listens to the community, as shown by the addition of outposts.
- Supporter's Edition unlock (weight 0.26): This outpost is unlocked as part of the Supporter's Edition. One reviewer bought it as a support purchase despite not playing the outpost.
- Open world better for bases (weight 0.22): The Open World is considered a much better place to build an actual outpost or base than these paid DLC outposts. It offers the same experience but with threats still present.
- High quality across game (weight 0.22): The quality extends to the main game and all its extensions, including this one. One reviewer rates the outpost 10/10 while acknowledging a bias for cold and snow.
- Outposts poor for tea farming (weight 0.21): Outposts are not good for creating teas because of farming limits. Other outposts like ARCWOOD, HOLDFAST, or EVERBARK are better suited for warm beverage production.
- Outposts as mini maps (weight 0.21): Outposts are mini maps that players can return to between missions. They have been a part of the game for over 2 years.
- Paid DLC and deploy pod (weight 0.2): The game has paid DLC, and players deploy via a Sinotai pod. These are factual details about monetization and gameplay mechanics.
- Outposts avoid open-world bugs (weight 0.13): Using outposts lets players avoid certain game-breaking bugs that are found on the open world. This makes them a more stable option for some activities.
- Outpost refills O2 tanks (weight 0.13): Players use outposts to refill their O2 tanks between drops, making them a practical utility stop during missions. This gameplay benefit is a key reason to visit them.
- Outposts produce icewater for missions (weight 0.13): Outposts can create icewater that can be sent to orbit for volcanic biome missions. This gives them a specific resource-generation role tied to other biomes.
- Iceholm compared to Arcticus (weight 0.13): Iceholm is compared to the ARCTICUS tundra biome: ARCTICUS is easier with more trees and a forest vibe, while ICEHOLM is harder and feels like the deep north. This distinction shapes player expectations for difficulty and atmosphere.
- Hope for long-term content (weight 0.13): The reviewer hopes the developers continue pushing out new content for as long as or longer than 7 Days to Die or No Man's Sky. This reflects a desire for sustained support.
- Iceholm snowstorms coat bases (weight 0.12): Iceholm features snow storms that visually coat bases in snow. This adds a dynamic visual element to the environment.
- Only arctic map (weight 0.12): It is currently the only arctic map available. This makes it a unique offering for players seeking that environment.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.2): Players are frustrated by respawn pods placed under the ice, which makes recovery difficult, and by the lack of a water source needed to build glass houses. Aggressive animals constantly kill the player and prevent progression, while only Snow Rabbits spawn instead of other creatures. Game-breaking bugs in outposts remain unfixed for over two years.
- Appreciation (weight 0.08): Players appreciate that developers fixed past issues and added ice chunks and rain collector water conversion. They also value the weekly updates and fixes that keep the game alive, as well as the addition of outposts and listening to community feedback.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Players feel disappointed because they cannot play the game despite purchasing it due to balance issues. There is also a lack of developer support for outposts.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.08): Players find satisfaction in testing base-in-a-backpack strategies and cold weather items, and in being able to build the ice fortress of their dreams. Resources respawning on log out and in also supports creative builds.
- Love (weight 0.08): Players love having an outpost where building is safe from creatures and using heaters to give the base a cosy feeling. The map is great for an outpost and a permanent home.
- Calm (weight 0.04): Players feel calm when they reach the building and decorating phase and find inner peace.
- Relief (weight 0.04): Players feel relief when they secure a bedroll and spawn point to stop repeated death runs.
- Bliss (weight 0.04): Players experience bliss from the snow-covered outpost environment.
- Caution (weight 0.04): Players feel caution due to polar bears that can chomp through buildings and spawn endlessly.
- Immersion (weight 0.04): Players feel immersed because of the beautiful environment and atmospheric design.
- Fun (weight 0.04): Players have fun building a winter-themed base and enjoying chill base building gameplay with few threats.
- Inconvenience (weight 0.04): Players find it inconvenient that there is no water for machines, only snow for drinking.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.04): Players are enthusiastic about the open gameplay and outstanding developer communication.
- Relaxation (weight 0.04): Players feel relaxed when building in a nice outpost.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.04): Players enjoy combat experiences from Enzyme geysers and horde defenses, and the great layout with forest and snow options for building.
- Joy (weight 0.04): Players feel joy from being able to express themselves freely in a safe outpost.
- Indifference (weight 0.04): Players feel indifferent because they do not like frozen maps much, but acknowledge Iceholm as decent for building.
- Excitement (weight 0.04): Players are excited by badass storms, polar bears, snow leopards, and mammoths at higher difficulty.}