How to survive

[RayvenQ]

For siege enemies, I tend to let them bomb me, treating it like a lightning storm, getitng my people inside when they fire and then just wait for them to fall asleep on the floor, then I'll go out and take the fight to them, getting the jump on them.

[keylocke]

That would be because when a siege or ship part lands, you should be the one going on the offensive. If it's a siege, build mortars or send a sniper team to wear them down. If it's a ship part, shoot it from afar, use the speed difference between mechanoid types to lure away and kill scythers, and then kite the centipedes with snipers until they die.

I don't really see why couldn't you outlast any raiders either. Unless you live in a desert, you can always scavenge. Hell, even in a desert, you could just kill some of the infinitely-respawning animals, chop down some cacti (or if there aren't enough, leave a forbidden pile of wood prepared in advance) to build a butcher table and eat the meat raw. Plant some roses to make sure your colonists don't go psychotic and you're set.

are we talking about early game, mid game, or late game? 'coz like i said, bugging out in the late game tends to be suicidal.

have you tried a sniping battle against about a dozen of scythers/sniper raiders with high shooting skills on open ground with hardly any cover? lol.. a single bullet can get your troop incapacitated in alpha 6 unlike the much older alphas..

add to the fact that scyther ships will slowly cause your troops to go insane.. where are you gonna place prisoners without a prison cell?

you can probably get away with those tactics from early to mid game, but in the late game (or if you have high population / lots of turrets) sniper battles tend to be suicidal..

as for nomadically living off on the wild like bear grylls.. i said yep that's certainly possible.
especially if you only have a few colonists.. however, the moment you build something that can aggro enemies (butcher table, doors, solar panels, cooking stove, etc..) raiders will eventually charge towards you.. (they may try attacking your main base first, but given a long enough timeline.. raider pods are gonna drop near your makeshift base.. and then what?)

also if you're planning on building a ship (which you definitely need to defend), and the bad luck possibility of triggering a squirrel/animal apocalypse..

it's better to defend than running away..

i really don't get why people choose to run away.. it's so much easier to defend a cleverly designed base.. 

[Rahjital]

I don't build ships since I think they go against the sandboxy nature of the game ("Congrats, you built a nice and well working colony! Now throw it all away to win."), so I don't really have an idea of what constitutes late game to you. If two year old colonies are late game, then yeah, we are talking about the same thing

It's interesting to see the difference in strategies. Myself, I'd say that running away only becomes more useful the larger the raids are and that's it's better to see the colony burn that if half your colonists lay dead or crippled after a fight. I suppose it depends mostly on one's playstyle? I usually build town-like outside colonies, with walls and multiple entrances; it makes building killboxes harder, but provides much greater tactical opportunities. I suppose that it's pretty much the opposite for colonies dug into mountains.

Yeah, sniper duels are a thing of past. That's why you should use your snipers to pick off those who wander to the edges of the siege camp and potentially a mortar or two if you get the chance, and withdraw them once their snipers notice you. Same with Scythers - you can never match their accuracy, but you can overwhelm them in close quarters. Use their lack of taking cover against them and they'll fall before they can take a shot.

I completely agree. Living Bear Grylls-style is something that can be done, but I wouldn't recommend it either In a forest, you can pretty much live forever on berries, though it's risky because of mechs and psychotic waves (even if they are rare). Deserts would be highly dangerous because you would have to eat raw meat in addition to sleeping outside and "sharing bedrooms", so the smallest thing could make your colonists go crazy. It would be an interesting challenge, I guess, but it's not a very good idea for normal play.

It's indeed possible and not even that hard to fend off raids for an experienced players, but I wouldn't say that it's easier than running. Drafting everyone, sending them into the opposite corner and watching Troy burn is definitely less trouble than actually fighting. Granted, I never had to run in a long time, but I still remember how much it helped when I was still learning the ropes. People here aren't terribly great at playing tactically, so I think it might be useful to them as well.

[keylocke]

I don't build ships since I think they go against the sandboxy nature of the game ("Congrats, you built a nice and well working colony! Now throw it all away to win."), so I don't really have an idea of what constitutes late game to you. If two year old colonies are late game, then yeah, we are talking about the same thing

the term "late game" is indeed arbitrary. lol..

there's this thread where i asked about the wealth calculation (which also affects the threat level), which includes the number of colonists and turrets (i'm not sure if mortars also add to that equation), and time.. anyways.. this is why i think the "years" isn't the sole basis for what to call late game, since the threat level is affected by population/wealth/defense..

so perhaps i should stop calling it "late game" and just call it "high-threat level stage"? (to avoid confusion) i dunno..

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anyways, i have this tendency of building my base as fast as i can by micromanaging construction and trading for building materials..

i think that's the "meta" game that i play with myself in rimworld. i want to build things faster and more efficient. i think of my base as a finely-tuned machine, and each iteration after each new colony after each new alpha and new features added, i try to adopt my designs to deal with those new challenges, and then i try to figure out how to build things faster..

i also try to look around the forums for new inspiration. there's plenty of folks here posting good base designs tactics/strategies.. (props to you guys)

anyways, i suppose strategies often depends on the player's play-styles..

i also think that given a long enough timeline, the threat level will be so high, that the only real option is to just flee into space. which is why i try to make sure that my colony is always ready for such an eventuality..

so i suppose i concede that running away is a good strategy..
except that when i finally do run away, i tend to run away into space.. 

[Smasher5523]

This happens to me a ton, took me 8 tries to get a successful colony, It was all based on luck, i got 3 randomers that just joined for the hell of it, then i imprisoned a load of people in my base that just got finished after metal fell from the skies in a crash land, Then i got a ton of silver from selling old weapons to black market dealers, then i bought OP weapons.