Balance feedback requested: Hardest type of raid?

[Tynan]

I'm looking for balance feedback! So please just tell me: which style of raid is the hardest to deal with?

[Eleazar]

I'm not the most experienced.  I've gotten my people off the planet twice, both times in less than 3 years, on 100% and 60% difficulty.

And the hardest type, in my experience, is where they drop out of the sky on your doorstep.  There's no time to prepare, some of your people may be out in the field, and unless you have everything underground, chances are they are inside some or most of your defenses.

[Tynan]

I'm not the most experienced.  I've gotten my people off the planet twice, both times in less than 3 years, on 100% and 60% difficulty.

And the hardest type, in my experience, is where they drop out of the sky on your doorstep.  There's no time to prepare, some of your people may be out in the field, and unless you have everything underground, chances are they are inside some or most of your defenses.

Would this be Alpha 9 you're talking about?

[Latta]

It's siege.

Siege attackers were one of the easiest type of raid(Alpha 8 ) due to its inaccuracy, small explosion radius and the fact that they fire only a few shots before start rushing.
Now, mortar is much stronger in both damage and radius, and they persist really longer so it's a big threat. Especially incendiary ones.

When you get sniper rifles though, you can shoot them to death and they just don't approach you but stand behind their sandbags.
For melee-only siege attackers, they do follow your snipers so it could be a problem, but they actually follow you until they are in your turrets' range. So lure them, kill them one-by-one and they have no choice but to rush forward.

Drop pods were not a real threat for me as I can select where they would drop by placing a trade beacon. Outside of my first defense line.

[MMN]

i don't think that raids need any balance.it wood be more fun if there be more types of raid.             P.S Raid from 2-4 sides of the map with 2-8 pirates from each side,and the late game raid 3+ yare, spy attack in the night with no message of the attack,the goal of the spy will be to kidnap colonist. that wood be awesome  Sorry for bad english

[REMworlder]

Sieges have become tougher in A9 thanks to more accurate mortars and the constant drop pods of food and ammo that means the siegers can lob shells indefinitely. Compare that to A8's inaccurate mortars and sieges that would break once food ran out.

The change is nice as it moves the game from turtling towards search and destroy (or at least hit and run). But it's noticeably more difficult because mortars (especially incendiaries) can overwhelm the colony if the player doesn't respond quickly enough.

Drop pods aren't that bad due to the lower number of attackers, but I also haven't had too many. The time it takes for drop pods to open means I have enough time to flick the power switch on for turrets and direct colonists towards strongpoints.

[Boboid]

I don't rate sieges as particularly hard in A9 but.. I'm biased - I like melee weapons.

Personal shields make a mockery of sieges, shame about the centipedes forcing some really obnoxious weapon switches...
Which pretty much leave drop pods, since they leave the least time for my weapon swaps

[CheeseGromit]

So far in A9:
1. Sieges. The biggest threat from these for me so far is the fire resulting from incendiary rounds. Once they decide to assault it's on par with an Stage-then-attack.

2. Drop pod attacks. Threat is dependent on how you've got your defences set up and where they land in relation to those defences.

I've effectively lost 3 A9 colonies to these combined.

The other two attacks haven't caused much problem unless they've quickly followed one of the above. It was an immediate attack that killed off my last colony but it was the drop pod attack that really did the damage.

I do like the weapon load out of pirates more in A9 than A8, more mixed with fewer sniper rifles. The first personal shield attack was interesting but in the end no threat. Perhaps if/when pirates get stonger personal shields.

In general my experience with Rimworld is that attacks scale up too fast but it's also too easy to create mass killing zones with turrets. I need more A9 experience to see if this has changed. It's a personal preference though.

[RemingtonRyder]

Seeing as how I'm playing on a freezing tundra map, drop pod attacks would be the worst, because the attackers have less time to succumb to the elements. Hypothermia seems to be the big killer, not turrets.

I don't actually think I've seen a drop pods attack since I started this one, though.

[Aenir]

Sieges.  I've had to build everything underneath mountains since Alpha 9 because of the sieges.  They annihilate me otherwise, especially since they last indefinitely.

Drop pods are second with their "oh crap" moments, but that's their entire point.  I don't think they're unreasonable.

[Jonesh]

Sieges because of incendiary ammo and the increased accuracy (does skill come into play when firing mortars?).

But drop pods can be pretty tough too if much of my base is outside. But they should probably be pretty hard. Does the trade beacon trick really work though?

Raids by tribes can also be pretty tough to deal with if I haven't made a killbox of some sort where I've herded them into range since their bows outrange turrets and most weapons that aren't rifles. Have happened a few times that my sniper got counter-sniped by like half a dozen archers
I should probably try building sniper's nests further back from the main line when they come.

[akiceabear]

Sieges - as noted, they seem to really drag on before they switch to the assault. Maybe increase accuracy, prioritize targeting defenses/crops/pawns/structures (in that order), but put a (lower) hard limit on the number of shells. That way they are primarily about destroying your front lines or means of production before storming.

[brobe94]

Excluding the scale of raids (month 1 versus month 12), I personally think sieges are the hardest, but they very well should be. However, the whole concept of re-supply bothers me. I wouldn't really mind the ability for them to indefinitely re-supply if I had a chance to disrupt that supply in some way.

That way, I could go after their supply instead of them ... leaving these options to achieve success versus sieges.

1) Send attack party to overtake siege base. (quickest but riskiest)
2) Send snipers to pick off / lure one by one. (slow but sometimes effective and keeping everyone health)
3) Setup my own mortars and try to bombard them until they charge my base. (slow sometimes, fast sometimes ... depends how lucky you get since i don't think mortar fire bases accuracy off of shooting skill)
4) Possibly go attack a supply caravan / drop ship (away from their base) (less guards), so they don't have indefinite siege ability.

Seeing as though I could always see myself not being able to effectively do #1-3 for various reasons, #4 would always give an additional option.

[Elfblood]

Depends on where your pants are if the attack starts ^^ In Winter, at Night, on early stage without enough energy and your best shooter is sick, a normal raid can be bad.

The most stress so far I had from a siege with caused my whole city being in flames.

The most "pain in the ass" was a ancient spaceshipwreckage with a high Psy-Threat level-thing, and a Centipede as Guard. Everyone was in really bad mood, the centipede with his Minigun was much more I could handle at this time. But it was Randy Random and very early ingame. Had to Order help from another Village to clear this thing ^^

[akiceabear]

The most "pain in the ass" was a ancient spaceshipwreckage with a high Psy-Threat level-thing, and a Centipede as Guard. Everyone was in really bad mood, the centipede with his Minigun was much more I could handle at this time.

While sieges end me prematurely more often, I agree that having all my colonists go psycho due to a shipwreck is very annoying.