Psychic Ship landed in shallow water...now what?

[Robb]

Like the title says, the ship landed in shallow water right next to my base. Obviously I can't build a wall around it or place down some IED's (which I haven't researched yet anyways). My colonists don't have enough firepower or manpower to deal with this right now. Only have 4 people and best weapon is an assault rifle. Though only one of those. Rest are survival rifles or worse.

My only thought is waiting for a trader to swing by. They always seem to come down the coastline where the ship is. Go over and fire at the ship when they are close and hope they help out. I suppose I could load an earlier save but I'd hate to do that even if it means my colony is doomed.

Nothing else comes to mind right now, so I'm hoping you guys might have some ideas

[SpaceDorf]

First of .. thank Armok that it is not a poison ship.

Second  How Many Survival Rifles ? .. you can match the scythers for range with those.

Third .. with four pawns .. there should be no more than 2-3 Mechanoids inside,
so measure the range of your rifles, remove all cover near the ship.
And Build some cover on the extreme range of your rifles.

If you have some emp or frag grenades build some cover near the ship for those ..

pop in and out of cover and you should get rid of scythers.
If it's only Centipedes you are golden .. just kite them with the rifles

[Robb]

Ugh...forgot I had some frag grenades....I set up some sandbags and shot open the container...2 frag grenades incapacitated the centipede and scyther pretty quickly. Not even one injury sustained. I here I was freaking out that several of those things were hiding in there.

I know raids/ships increased in size as you went up in difficulty/length of game....but I didn't know colony population is also a factor. So I really thought 6 or more would pour out once it opened. Which was why I thought I was screwed.

[SpaceDorf]

Well done

Naah .. scaling is also dependant on game time.

First two years are always easy. reasonable ..

The pillaging and teabagging comes later

[Robb]

Already had my 'oh sh!t' moment. Just before the pyschic ship I got raided by about 12 tribals, mostly with rifles. I had grown way too reliant on my turrets and didn't properly prepare for it. Unfortunately I had a solar flare occur about same time and I ended up losing my only 2 crafters.

Only got one guy with at least a 2 in crafting and it's depressing watching him craft shoddy after shoddy clubs...Not much hope he'll do any better making assault rifles and I can't afford wasting materials on him crafting poor ones...Hoping all the limestone clubs will finally pay off and he'll become at least competent soon. (got a lot of limestone for him to practice on)

Either that or get another crafter from a raid, though I always seem to kill the good ones and incapitate the bad ones

[b0rsuk]

The other, safe option was migration. Psychic Ship is potentially -50 mood. You say you had 4 people. This suggests you had little to leave behind. You could wait for harvest and leave.

[Stormfox]

Already had my 'oh sh!t' moment. Just before the pyschic ship I got raided by about 12 tribals, mostly with rifles. I had grown way too reliant on my turrets and didn't properly prepare for it. Unfortunately I had a solar flare occur about same time and I ended up losing my only 2 crafters.

Tribals are always more than pirate raiders, but they also do not have "modern" weapons. That does not mean a bow shot or thrown pila cannot kill a pawn, but they are much more manageable than "real" raiders that might have a good quality long range gun. The real problem tribals pose in your scenario is the sheer numbers of melees that tend to swarm you when no turrets play decoy.

[Robb]

Yeah I had neglected upgrading my weapons for a while since my turrets were wiping out everything. Got lucky and had a huge plasteel deposit near my base and I was able to build a nice defense perimeter. They were wiping out any raid well before it got close to me. Even wiped out a pack of mad elephants.

The solar flare really hurt me. My base is fairly large (for me) and had nothing to defend it with once the turrets went down. Note to self...do not put your best crafters and doctors in front lines. Lost half my colony to a raid. And then the pyschic ship landed and thought that was the final straw for me.

Oh I could have moved on but found a sweet valley with a very narrow opening...easily defendable (if you're not an idiot like me) and even has a good sized hidden valley with no openings to the outside, perfect for all your turbines and panels...only missing a geo-thermal. ...and dammit, it's me home and no tribal scum or mechs are gonna make me leave

[Robb]

Here's a pic of the valley (before I did anything to it)

Seed = tailor
Rainfall = normal
Temperature = 1 tick less than normal

5.89°S
1.04°W

Large green circle is where hidden valley is
Small green circle is plasteel deposit







[attachment deleted by admin due to age]

[SpaceDorf]

There is a Geothermal on the first Valley,

and that narrow entrance should help you defend your valley even with just a few pawns. And walls and traps and .. you know ..

[Robb]

Pic was me going back in and taking pic of a new colony there. That one had the geo-thermal...the seed I got doesn't have one within the valleys. And that narrow opening is lined with with traps now. I've had a couple go off on my colonists while trying to reset but no one has walked on them yet. All friendlies and animals seem impervious to them. Only ones setting them off are my guys and raiders.

Still fairly new to the game and learning the hard way....seems to be the only way I learn...but having a great time doing it

[SpaceDorf]

You are doing great

[b0rsuk]

Yes, you handled that like an experienced player would.

Preferably you don't want to poke the mechanoid ship until you have kevlar vest and kevlar helmet on your combatants. The chance is low when in cover, but they CAN get lucky and one shot kill / one shot cripple you.

[Robb]

Yes, you handled that like an experienced player would.

Preferably you don't want to poke the mechanoid ship until you have kevlar vest and kevlar helmet on your combatants. The chance is low when in cover, but they CAN get lucky and one shot kill / one shot cripple you.

Only with help from everyone on the boards...if you had seen some of my early fights.....oh man, think of everything wrong you can possibly do and I probably did it several times. Cover? you mean cover actually works? I went in guns 'ablazing to my inglorious death a few too many times before I learned my lesson on kiting/hit and run.

I actually had a second pyschic ship drop (this time on land) but I just repeated what I did above though I had some rock cover this time. Only one minor hit from a centipede on 1 pawn. 2 centipedes came out but they were worse shots than me. Still only have a couple assault rifles.....what I wouldn't give for a decent crafter right now.

I know this thread might be going a little sideways from opening topic but have a question:

Is there any good way to incapitate a raider/pirate?. Right now between the traps and turrets, any raid gets decimated. If I have say 10 attack me, I'm lucky if 1 or 2 are only down and not dead. Had a couple that had high crafting skills that I would have loved to capture and recruit. I don't dare send my pawns past the turrets since I also get whacked pretty good. So just wondering if there is any strategy that might help me out

[b0rsuk]

No good way to incapacitate, and unfortunately by design. It's because incapacitated raiders can be converted (or sold, or have organs harvested). Rimworld is not designed with very large colonies in mind.  Dwarf Fortress can have over 140 dwarves, Rimworld is designed around 10-15 humans I think. There are performance issues and colonists become just numbers instead of individuals. I would prefer a limitation that doesn't feel so artificial, and with fewer side effects.