Nonsensical Sieges

[Didact04]

So my colony, just barely getting off the ground, suffering a casualty and the death of our beloved farm animal, JUST now setting up individual bedrooms and actual walls for buildings instead of bare rock, is being sieged by raiders with military-grade weaponry and actual mortars.

....why? We don't have anything. We've got a handful of spare pistols laying around and food for a season, and money barely enough to buy an animal. What in the world makes these pirates think we're worth the time and effort for this kind of action?

I still don't understand the raiding system in this game. If I was a pirate, I'd be looking for a lot bigger fish to fry than this sham of a settlement that doesn't even have defenses...and I'd certainly not waste my time and precious ammo in a siege of such a place!

Either I'd hit it with overwhelming firepower up front and burn it all and pillage it Roman style, or come in with overwhelming force and demand a bribe. Not....this.

Can anyone explain the reasoning here? I'm very much a mind to debug make the guys leave, not because it's frustrating, but because it's so pointless.

[Mikhail Reign]

So my colony, just barely getting off the ground, suffering a casualty and the death of our beloved farm animal, JUST now setting up individual bedrooms and actual walls for buildings instead of bare rock, is being sieged by raiders with military-grade weaponry and actual mortars.

....why? We don't have anything. We've got a handful of spare pistols laying around and food for a season, and money barely enough to buy an animal. What in the world makes these pirates think we're worth the time and effort for this kind of action?

I still don't understand the raiding system in this game. If I was a pirate, I'd be looking for a lot bigger fish to fry than this sham of a settlement that doesn't even have defenses...and I'd certainly not waste my time and precious ammo in a siege of such a place!

Either I'd hit it with overwhelming firepower up front and burn it all and pillage it Roman style, or come in with overwhelming force and demand a bribe. Not....this.

Can anyone explain the reasoning here? I'm very much a mind to debug make the guys leave, not because it's frustrating, but because it's so pointless.

Your bodies. Slavers will pay a pretty penny....

[Didact04]

Okay....so why are they putting precious and non-renewable resources like mortar shells into this? Why are they putting themselves to the elements to lob explosives as what essentially equals a bunch of shacks? It's like laying siege to an undefended hamlet. You don't. You just waltz in and flatten the place - and with far more people than one more than the total number of inhabitants of said hamlet.

It's a waste of resources and a big risk to do what they're doing and to do it with so few numbers. That's what I'm trying to say. And I don't understand why. If it was overwhelming force I'd be fucked, but this is just a dice roll for both parties. Why would pirates do that?

[anonymous456]

Ideological reasons. Boredom. Siege training and they can actually afford to put this much resources into this. There are many reasons if you look hard enough

[Didact04]

Ideological reasons. Boredom. Siege training and they can actually afford to put this much resources into this. There are many reasons if you look hard enough

This doesn't feel fun.

[sadpickle]

Okay....so why are they putting precious and non-renewable resources like mortar shells into this? Why are they putting themselves to the elements to lob explosives as what essentially equals a bunch of shacks? It's like laying siege to an undefended hamlet. You don't. You just waltz in and flatten the place - and with far more people than one more than the total number of inhabitants of said hamlet.

It's a waste of resources and a big risk to do what they're doing and to do it with so few numbers. That's what I'm trying to say. And I don't understand why. If it was overwhelming force I'd be fucked, but this is just a dice roll for both parties. Why would pirates do that?

[Bob_Namg]

You could always charge them, I doubt they have good enough weapons to stop your colonists.
I'm sure Tynan will make it so they give you ultimatums before shelling the living hell out of your base but for now you have to deal with sieges the old fashioned way.

[Shurp]

How many colonists do you have?  If it's just your starting 3-4, that would be exceptionally odd.

[Didact04]

Five. Three can't fight. I had no turrets in place before this. There are six siegers and all are armed. One had a sniper rifle, and I'm not shy to their reputation of plucking limbs like flower petals.

We're a hovel carved into the side of a sandstone brick. Our resources are a handful of leather, steel, and some trees, and about 800 silver. They're shooting fucking mortars at us.

It's situations like this when I'm reminded of just how little fun the base game is. Scratching by is one thing, but it's extremely slow going, 75% out of my control, and these raids are nothing if not tedious and just frustrating. I've played 6 games now and all of them made me want to quit playing.

God I miss Combat Realism.

Is there any word on when the rest of the game is going to get fleshed out in this area? I assume that the dev has been utterly silent save for blog posts.

[Shurp]

Well, I agree that definitely sounds wrong.  Sounds like a bug, actually.  Mortar firing sieges normally don't happen until your colony is worth much more than that.  I'd recommend loading the autosave, see what raid you get instead on another roll of the dice.

[sadpickle]

Five. Three can't fight. I had no turrets in place before this. There are six siegers and all are armed. One had a sniper rifle, and I'm not shy to their reputation of plucking limbs like flower petals.

We're a hovel carved into the side of a sandstone brick. Our resources are a handful of leather, steel, and some trees, and about 800 silver. They're shooting fucking mortars at us.

It's situations like this when I'm reminded of just how little fun the base game is. Scratching by is one thing, but it's extremely slow going, 75% out of my control, and these raids are nothing if not tedious and just frustrating. I've played 6 games now and all of them made me want to quit playing.

God I miss Combat Realism.

What storyteller/difficulty are you playing at? if you prefer the building and trading aspects to the combat, or just feel like it's too much too soon, try Phoebe Chillax on basebuilder. I'd be surprised if you get overwhelmed on that setting. Be prepared for some loooong stretches between sieges.

Also, consider the environment and use it to your advantage. Seigers need to sleep, and they're dumb as rocks if you attack while they're napping. Oftentimes you can engage just one at a time, making it a cakewalk. They're nothing compared to a group of 30 bloodthristy tribals charging your base.  There's also the faction system if you need more manpower. If you develop positive relations with a faction, you can ask for them to send a detachment, when they arrive they will automatically seek out and engage hostiles. If you can coordinate and attack simultaneous, perhaps from a different angle, you can overwhelm.

Is there any word on when the rest of the game is going to get fleshed out in this area? I assume that the dev has been utterly silent save for blog posts.

Tynan is highly active on the forums.

[Didact04]

That's the problem: I don't have money. I NEVER have money. I don't have time to deal with anything and I don't have resources - and even if I did, I'd be shafted by the trading even with a 10+ trader, so much that I'd need gross excess of materials and manpower to be able to afford...pretty much anything besides food or raw materials. This is default difficulty with default storyteller. I could fight them, but i really dont' want to. I don't have anything to defend. I don't HAVE anything. I'm not WORTH anything. I'd rather quit than deal with this - and this is the fourth game in a row I've felt this way, even if I DO have survivors that can fight.

I want to like this game a lot, but I can't seem to have fun with it. There's too much opposition you aren't equipped to deal with and too many permanent issues you can receive from things outside of your control. Progress is too slow and opposition too fast and numerous. I don't feel like I'm advancing enough to warrant this kind of hostile attention.

It's just...not fun. And I'm normally really into survival games. I don't feel challenged, I feel oppressed. If I go into base buildings, the challenge wouldn't exist, or be too few and far between. I'm still stuck waiting around for stuff to get done or something to happen, my eyes cross, and I quit and do something else.

I'm frustrated. I want to like this game.

[jasroc]

Hrmm, with the complaints you have registered, I have to ask... what difficulty are you playing on?

It sounds like you might enjoy the pace on basebuilder.

If you selected a difficulty of "rough" did you not expect the game to be... well... rough?

[Mikhail Reign]

Could be that they want access to the resources that you have yet to mine? Your colony really is worth the combined value of everything on the map since by existing there you are stacking a claim. They want that claim.

I mean thats what pretty much every western culture did when they seen someone with substantially less firepower then them.... Africans, Indians, Aboriginals.....

[Didact04]

Could be that they want access to the resources that you have yet to mine? Your colony really is worth the combined value of everything on the map since by existing there you are stacking a claim. They want that claim.

I guess that could make sense. I saw some plasteel jammed in a cliff over yonder. But why not just walk in and mine it themselves? I don't have the time to mine it myself right now and certainly can't challenge someone staking a claim. It'd take too long and we have things we need done closer to us.

I've played on rough and on normal. According to the game descriptions, rough is 'as intended' when playing. It's uninspiring.

I suppose I'll try Phoebe, but I don't like the idea. I want to build a colony, but I also want to be challenged. That's why I play on normal mode. The problem I have is the challenge is a chore and not an actual challenge.

Also, how can I recruit anyone if there are no captures? I can't buy slaves until I have enough people to not need them and relying on RNG isn't feasible. A lot of problems come from the fact that I don't have enough manpower to accomplish anything.