Does it ever get easier?

[chainedlupine]

I really like RimWorld.  But man, I just can't keep a colony alive and it's really starting to impact my enjoyment of the game.

Every attempt I've made at a Cassandra Classic colony has ended in blood and tears.  I've tried seven times so far and after my fourth or fifth raid, things just go to hell in a hand basket.

I usually end up with some combo like a raider party, flare, and a wild animal all at once and I just can't handle it.  It's also gotten to the point where it's very hard for my beleaguered colonists to recover from an attack, and by the time that they do, raiders show up again and I never get a chance to actually grow the colony.

Couple this with raiders who, after the third attack or so, tend to get better weaponry (frag grenades, rifles, or LMGs), and my colony usually perishes at this point.  The one time that I managed to buy heavier weaponry from an arms dealer, I ended up with a 15+ person plus raid against my five colonists.  Two of which where still recovering from the last raid (ie: less than %100 health).  Needless to say, they got wiped out.

I've tried Chill, and I was able to survive and prosper without much effort.  So I figured I was ready for regular Cassandra Classic, and it's just kicked my butt every time since then.

I've tried various configurations.  Cliff-side colonies with guarded entrances, close-knit urban colonies, spread-out spacious colonies..  I cannot find a strategy that works.

Does it ever get easier?  Do you just keep searching for a particular arrangement of buildings/defense emplacements until one works?  I was hoping I could play the game in different styles (ie: bunker-colony vs open-town colony).

[Austupaio]

Well, I will say that it sounds like you may doing things somewhat inefficiently and therefore making it harder for yourself. On the other hand yes, Cassandra Classic is rather difficult over time if you don't make a somewhat gamey killbox/mega-fortification.

The raids just get to ridiculous sizes, 50 pirate-parties with R4 Rifles and Greandes.

I prefer Randy Random, as the raids may not reach unbeatable heights as quickly.

Edit; also keep in mind that raid balance isn't anywhere near final.

[SSS]

Both styles work (open vs bunker), but you need to focus more on recruiting. It's very hard to maintain a colony with only a few people, as, like you said, raids tend to become more dangerous as you progress.

When it comes to turrets, go big or don't do it. The storyteller sends larger raids based on how many turrets you have, so unless you have a butt-ton of them it's going to do more harm than good. Again, you're going to need more than five people to keep the colony going on a harder difficulty.

Be sure to keep as many factions happy with you as possible, also. Some maps spawn with as many as three neutral to you, so take advantage of that and bribe them when you can. Not only will you have fewer raiding parties to deal with- you can also request their help once their opinion of you is high enough.

As for general strategy... there are many options. Choke points help, especially if you have a lot of firepower. Flanking is important in open fields, so be sure to build yourself cover areas (sandbags) as needed to facilitate that. Of course, you can bunker-up and focus on repairing until the raiders give up. So on and so forth. I'm sure others are better at fighting than me. xD

[Celthric Aysen]

well i'm sure that you can see some strategies of other players on this thread right here: http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=2824.0

[Col_Jessep]

There are a few ways to make survival easier:
1) Don't rely on turrets, build a nice kill box and man it with your colonists. If you rely on turrets it's just a matter of time until you get a solar flair and raiders at the same time and then you are in trouble.

2) Get somebody with good social skills at the start! If you can convince people to join your colony quickly they help you build it instead of eating your food and keeping your warden busy.

3) Don't rush research. I think the storyteller takes into account if you research and build certain things and increases the difficulty by quite a bit. I only research stone cutting and carpet making until I have a reasonably sized colony and a nice killbox. Don't stockpile silver or metal that you don't need. Don't build a comstation or trade beacon until you are prepared to face a large raider party. Just focus on building your killbox, food production and make your colonists happy so they don't panic easily.

Here is a small early game killbox:


which I expand and optimize later:


The sandbags and wall segments provide cover and the doors make sure enemies can't use your own defense structure against you. The secret passage in the second picture allows you to capture incapacitated enemies before they perish. Watch out for friendly fire though! The dumping zone with slab/rock debris forces enemies to move into the killbox. This way they can't use the entrance for cover.

[chainedlupine]

Interesting, I have learned some things in this thread.

First, I discovered on my own that number of turrets do indeed modify the raider difficulty, so I've tried to minimize 'em.  I usually keep at least 2-3 for distractions, as raiders will focus their fire on 'em and sometimes I get a lucky kill or two.  Particularly when a raider uses a turret + sandbags as cover and his friends blow it up.  Heh.  But that did help my survivability, particularly early in the game.

Recruiting is difficult and I supposed I should focus more on that.  I tend to kill the raiders or wound them so grievously that they die before all combat has ceased.  Or I tend to get really awful stats -- Last two raiders I captured were both saddled with limits of no Scary and Violence.  Sigh!  It was a mistake to let those two join instead of taking what I presume would be a morale hit for killing them in cold blood after capture.

I've had moderate killzones (sorry, no screenshots) and I tend to try to make it difficult for raiders by removing every piece of debris I can from near my base.  I've tried to avoid setting up really elaborate ones such as Col_Jessep's examples, as I was hoping the game was playable without such intense min-maxing of cover stats.  But at this point I am willing to try anything and if that is what it takes at this point, well, that is what it takes.

SSS: I didn't know I could bribe the friendly factions!  That might help me right there, alone.

I almost wish I had the ability to tweak the AI's settings directly.  I want something that is incrementally tweakable.  Clearly I need a difficulty somewhere between Chill and regular Classic.

[Coenmcj]

You can do that actually. I remember poking around the XML a few weeks back, again. Not even remotely close to my rimworld copy so someone from the modding department will have to tell you specifics. :/

[Col_Jessep]

I've tried to avoid setting up really elaborate ones such as Col_Jessep's examples, as I was hoping the game was playable without such intense min-maxing of cover stats.

Oh, it is possible but I try to aim for a defense that works reliably without micromanagement. If you consider this elaborate you probably don't want to see some of the stuff I build in Kerbal Space Program... =3

[Ruin]

It does get easier as you get better at the game mate.  The problem I have with Cleopatra is I literally can't clear the raider corpses fast enough.  But, it is all changing with Alpha 4 (or so the posts from Tynan indicated before his vacation).  So, we will have a new game to have fun with soon.

[UrbanBourbon]

- Haul rocks for your colonists for cover, and build sparsely spaced solitary sandbags for raiders to take cover behind, at right distances. Rocks offer better cover. Put 5 rocks in a C-shape formation for a single colonist.
- Keep colonists apart during gunfights. Don't bunch them up.
- If you can, place lights in the battlefield to light up enemies at night. Darkness = cover.
- A cheap tactic is to place blasting charges. If done right, it eliminates all risk. Usually considered cheat-ish.
- Kill dangerous raiders first. Look at their weapons.
- Kill wounded raiders first. They're faster to kill.
- Kill closest raiders first. They're the easiest to hit.
- Strike a balance between killing the dangerous, the wounded and the closest ones.
- Use melee. Approach using cover. 2 colonists vs. 1 raider.
- Flank the raiders. Don't move all your colonists to frontlines. Predict the raiders' moves from prior battles and ambush them. Hit them from sides or behind with a smaller strike team but only after they've engaged the main defence group. If they spot your flank team too early, they'll just go after them instead... And that's bad! Very bad.
- Move during battles. Don't just stand still and hope for the best. Don't hope. Make sure. It's like live chess.
- If a colonist drops below 50% hitpoints, pull him back.
- If a colonist is being fired upon by several raiders, pull him back.
- Don't give sniper rifles to bad shooters. Range is the accuracy-killer and the Shooting skill deals with the distance penalty.
- Prefer weapons with higher rate of fire, rather than range, but do have 1-2 snipers.
- Surround your colony with a stone wall and leave one narrow corridor as entrance. Clear all cover from the killing field.
- Raiders have fog-of-war. You do not. Take advantage of that.
- Don't underestimate the destructive effect of friendly fire. Avoid it.
- More colonists + more turrets = more raiders.

[fla_hotrod]

But, it is all changing with Alpha 4 (or so the posts from Tynan indicated before his vacation).  So, we will have a new game to have fun with soon.

I just hope he doesn't make it too easy.  I like a challenge.  It just makes things more interesting.   

[vagineer1]

It does get easier as you get better at the game mate.  The problem I have with Cleopatra is I literally can't clear the raider corpses fast enough.  But, it is all changing with Alpha 4 (or so the posts from Tynan indicated before his vacation).  So, we will have a new game to have fun with soon.

May I ask for a link to Tynan's Alpha 4 posts?

[chainedlupine]

Thanks for all of the advice!  I'm now at day 212 and have a healthy, well-defended and rich colony of seven people.

I had an eight, but he left this world after a lucky grenade throw from a raider.  He wasn't missed too much, though, since he refused to lift a finger to help his fellow colonists whenever they were breaking their backs hauling stuff.

Now it's become a challenge to clean up the all bodies and mop up all the blood before the next batch of raiders show up...

Things that helped immensely:

1) Not relying upon turrets for defense.  I use colonists.  I still keep one turret around just to act as a lure for the raiders, as they will run right into the middle of my defended courtyard in order to attack it.  Plus, if they kill it, the turret usually takes out 3-4 raiders because they're huddling around the only cover possible right after they enter the courtyard -- The sandbags surrounding my lone turret.

Even with 2-3 turrets, the raider waves seem to scale up rapidly.  I was still having just a few raiders equipped with rocks after my sixth raid, where previous attempts would seen them carrying LG-15s and frag grenades at that point.

2) Funneling raiders into one spot.  I have a central courtyard (which is my killbox) and that is the only way in and out of my colony, so it's the only spot I have to defend.

3) Kept my colony small.  I was at four colonists for the longest time, and did not expand until I absolutely felt I was able to handle it.

4) Switched to hydroponics as rapidly as possible.  This boosted my food output and I've not had any issue with starving since the very beginning.  In fact, I tend to leave the Grow task turned off, because otherwise the colonists will waste time tending plants while I have a 3000+ stockpile of food.

5) Kept my stockpiles low at the beginning of the game.  My original impulse was to grab every resource on the map and take it back to my base, but that just inflated the raid difficulty too quickly.   I just leave shells, uranium and so on alone for now.

6) Kept a more careful eye on individual colonist stats and not let anyone approach near the breaking point.  This is a bit of a PITA.  The game needs a "overall colony view" which would let me see what's going on at a glance.  If someone started to edge near their limit, I would de-assign all tasks to them and then order them to eat or sleep as needed.  (This is where the Architect+ mod comes in handy.)

7) Kept silver on hand to bribe the locals.  My alignment would always slip towards other, friendly colonies.  Mainly because they always felt it was a great time to pop over for an afternoon visit while I was in the middle of a raider siege.

[Coenmcj]

It does get easier as you get better at the game mate.  The problem I have with Cleopatra is I literally can't clear the raider corpses fast enough.  But, it is all changing with Alpha 4 (or so the posts from Tynan indicated before his vacation).  So, we will have a new game to have fun with soon.

May I ask for a link to Tynan's Alpha 4 posts?

You could try the changelog. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_rCdGYp3nbSUXFG4Ky96RZW1cJGt9g_6ANZZPOHyNsg/pub