Hi,
It's been a while since I tinkered around in the previous version of Rimworld and so just recently got a message about the new version release so I downloaded it, and got rid of the old version.
Where before (in the older version) I could get a base up and running without too much trouble from my colonists at all, Now in version 334 I don't even come close to getting a base up and running before my three colonists either go mad or just leave the colony all together.
I'm not doing too much if anything different than I did in the previous version so not sure what is causing my colonists to go all batty and or leave my colony.
Any clues how to find out, what to do differently so that my colonists don't go mad and or leave my colony so SO early in my game?
Thanks
Well... Hauling things around does strech the time between starting the building of something and when it´s finished. I´ve had no problems with my colonists, but that´s probably because I´ve taken the additional time it takes to finish stuff in consideration. Usually I fix them proper beds and roofing asap, as there´s quite a lot of food around on the ground. Then I fix a small farmland and a dispenser. Defences come last... Usually in the nick of time.
You beat me to it.
Alpha has been a nightmare. I don't even know whats wrong half the time.
In one game my miner just up and left! No mental break warning or anything. And the colony was really looking good at that point too!
What I think it is, is that the colonists don't like being outside and you need to speed up their rooms.
Food is now a massive issue. It seems you need hydroponics up and running ASAP. If your oaf has any other duty, it seems to kill off food production completely. Growing areas just are not as useful as they were.
You have enough food supplies a nutriënt paste dispenser with filled hoppers enough room and proper beds?
in the top right it is always stated what is happening.
Mental breakdowns etc are noted there.
Maybe look into that and tell us what is going wrong so we can help you out.
I'm a new player, and have no experience with the older version. However, I do agree that it's extremely hard to get a colony going. I've had some success by making sure that a proper room is built ASAP, moving the beds there, dropping down a solar generator next to the wall, and putting in a food dispenser immediately right after that. Then build a farm and hope to hell that the first couple waves of raiders don't have someone with Molotovs or grenades. If they do, I always run straight into melee before they get to my base. Problem is, the first raider attacks almost always happen soon after building a rudimentary base, and it can be hard to recuperate from the first attack before the next problem happens.
Thanks for the response, I was just about to write another message asking what would be considered the proper build order when you start a new game as there appears that there is one, but I don't recall what it was exactly on the previous version but I followed it (even if it was unintentional) and never had any issues starting up a new base. At least not until the raiders would show up, but that could be countered with proper placement of turrets etc.
So, is there an "optimal" build order for getting a base up and running in this version? Would it be better to put up a quick room and get the colonists indoors before let's say building a thermal generator etc?
Is it better to quick build a 4 wall shack to house the colonists or build them a quick rough room in the inside of the mountain to hold their beds?
Quote from: OobleckTheGreen on February 04, 2014, 11:54:45 AM
I'm a new player, and have no experience with the older version. However, I do agree that it's extremely hard to get a colony going. I've had some success by making sure that a proper room is built ASAP, moving the beds there, dropping down a solar generator next to the wall, and putting in a food dispenser immediately right after that. Then build a farm and hope to hell that the first couple waves of raiders don't have someone with Molotovs or grenades. If they do, I always run straight into melee before they get to my base. Problem is, the first raider attacks almost always happen soon after building a rudimentary base, and it can be hard to recuperate from the first attack before the next problem happens.
I've been doing sort of a cross between building them a shack and digging into the mountain. When the game starts, I immediately pause and search the map for a largish alcove in the mountains that I could put a wall in front of. Sometimes I find two or three "rock islands" -- mountainous areas with empty space between -- that I can run a couple disconnected walls between to create a sort of cheap base (using minimum walling possible).
The idea there is to get a fairly large area that I can eventually build into, but have it be walled off completely from raiders while I get myself together. Obviously, it's good to find an area with a thermal vent.
This screenshot shows a base that's obviously advanced well beyond the initial stages, but it does sort of show the type of area I originally looked for. 80% of the blue bedroom area was originally mountain, and there was only one small entrance to get into the mountainous region, that top blob of rock. I was able to build without even being bothered by raiders for quite a while, since they'd show up with pistols and had no way to breach my walled defenses. Since I had so much mountain to play with, I just dug in and got my metal without needing to send my guys past the outer wall until I felt stronger.
(http://imageshack.com/a/img163/2327/42e2.jpg)
I agree with the original poster. I find the "start-up" portion has indeed become more difficult, and requires a more "incremental" approach then the prior builds.
For example, in the first couple of tries with this build I would plop down 2 growing areas at the outset, as I had in the past. Well I've determined that I'm better off with only 1 growing area as the time spent planting the second is much better spent mining out a base with rooms. Not to mention I inevitably get a crop failure as one of my first "events". Same goes for the solar panels, only 1 initially, then a second when the base is initially mined out. The whole "transport" of resources takes much more time as well, which means less done in the same time, which means more mental issues before you've got a chance to set up everything.
Hmm. I thought this might happen. I tried to soften the timing a bit, but yeah, the stockpiling adds more labor for the colonists to do in several areas, so your development will be slowed. I'll look into balancing this back a bit for Alpha 2.
Quote from: Tynan on February 05, 2014, 12:48:08 PM
Hmm. I thought this might happen. I tried to soften the timing a bit, but yeah, the stockpiling adds more labor for the colonists to do in several areas, so your development will be slowed. I'll look into balancing this back a bit for Alpha 2.
Thank you.
I think one of the things that need more time than before is building, because the colonists need to carry the metal to the building side before they can build. Hauling also needs more time than before alpha 1.
I agree with jjgoldman and OobleckTheGreen. Find a place you can defend with minimum walling right at the start and build one room with dispenser, beds/sleeping spots and battery along with a solar panel and a growing area outside so you have the basics.
I also wan to say that I like the increased diffcult in early game, because you can't get a base up and running as easy and fast as in the former build.
I havent really encountered any differences other than it takes longer to build things due to stockpiling and having to build hoppers for nutrient paste.
what enrages me the most about building is that usually when I tell someone to build something small like a mine, they will grab the metal from the stockpile, drop it at the blueprint location to start construction, but immediately leave to do something else and then someone on the complete opposite side of my base is assigned to continue the construction.
I've had a pretty good success rate on all my colonies (though I haven't tried the hard mode storyteller). First thing I un-forbid everything, then get them to mine the chunk of minerals. While they do that I find a good spot with a geothermal and move the stockpile zone and beds over by it, mine out any rock in the way and normally have the geothermal up by day 2. After that I build a research bench, do hydroponics. I switch to manual priorities here, giving the best researcher a one for research but leaving everything else alone. While it researches I dig into the rock, hollow out a spot for a main room, hydroponics room and bedrooms. Build the tables when the research is done, then switch back to auto-priority. Make sure someone has everything above growing switched off, at least make sure construction is off or they will never grow. After that, depends on how I want to play that game.
Hope this helps!
Quote from: sparda666 on February 07, 2014, 12:22:03 AM
I havent really encountered any differences other than it takes longer to build things due to stockpiling and having to build hoppers for nutrient paste.
what enrages me the most about building is that usually when I tell someone to build something small like a mine, they will grab the metal from the stockpile, drop it at the blueprint location to start construction, but immediately leave to do something else and then someone on the complete opposite side of my base is assigned to continue the construction.
I rarely run into this problem of starting a job and then hiking across the map for 5 count of potato..or other silly situations. That said setting up priorities early is always key for a good start.
My usual first colonists consist of; Miner, Grower, Builder. And from the start they are routed in certain paths to get things up and going.
My grower runs around to collect food, metals, and silver. The digger (depending on map) will either start to collect more metals, or more often than not dig out the areas around the closest geyser source.
Finally my builder will get power built, bedding/ food dispenser and prisoner bedding.
I try to get all of the done by the first evening....helps alot to get foundations firmly established.
Also setting up your to-do chart is of most importance ;)
(http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1933.0;attach=853)
[attachment deleted by admin: too old]
Quote from: Tynan on February 05, 2014, 12:48:08 PM
Hmm. I thought this might happen. I tried to soften the timing a bit, but yeah, the stockpiling adds more labor for the colonists to do in several areas, so your development will be slowed. I'll look into balancing this back a bit for Alpha 2.
I haven't had any issues, it just takes a little longer, which is fine in my opinion.
But the ai might need tweaking.
The terrain movement penalties aren't as bad now, so transit times are a bit quicker overall.
Quote from: sparda666 on February 07, 2014, 12:22:03 AM
I havent really encountered any differences other than it takes longer to build things due to stockpiling and having to build hoppers for nutrient paste.
what enrages me the most about building is that usually when I tell someone to build something small like a mine, they will grab the metal from the stockpile, drop it at the blueprint location to start construction, but immediately leave to do something else and then someone on the complete opposite side of my base is assigned to continue the construction.
I usually encounter this problem when I'm doing something like walling off an in-mountain base. I'll tell Owen McBuilder to prioritize construction of a wall, and he'll move metal to it immediately, but then will go off to sleep because he's been kept awake for a while, meaning I have to pause, recruit him, unrecruit him, prioritize the wall again, then unpause. The micromanagement is annoying, but not terrible.
Overall, though, I haven't had the problems mentioned by
Torgaddon City Builder. My first reasonably successful Cassandra Classic colony in Alpha 1 is about as easy to manage as a colony in 254. Perhaps because I've been trained by DF stockpiles, which is weird because I can barely figure out the minecart system in that. I suspect if we saw Torgaddon's stockpile layout we'd understand the problem.
Hello, If you want to see my build orders, check out my later games. http://www.youtube.com/chancepaladin (http://www.youtube.com/chancepaladin) The earlier ones are me perfecting it and figuring the game out. Try Colony 7 and Colony 8 (in a little bit when it gets uploaded).
It's basically this:::
1 person on food
2 on gathering/mining/building
(dole out the firearms)
1 solar
(get some walls up)
2 batteries
1 food dispenser / 2 hoppers
(wall those in)
(move bed spots inside)
(clean up inside both boulders and grass)
(start building your farms. I do between 4-6)
That usually gets you into day 2 pretty strong.
I'm about to start "Colony 9" and I'll specifically walk through my build order.
Hope this helps.
I have been watching this game for ages and waiting until I have enough money to get it. That day has finally come! However it feels a lot like starcraft, as in, you have to have the perfect build or its GG.
I can not work out how to get everything up and running before the first metal break hits. Once you get that first mental break thats it, restart. So I tried to concentrate on what I need first. ! farm, shelter, power, nutrient dispenser. After about 5 unsuccessful attempts I finally got it working, chucked down 3 sentry guns just in time for 3 raiders to turn up, kill all 3 guns and slaughter everyone... restart again.
IDK if the game is supposed to punish new players to the point of wishing they had never forked out $30USD or if I'm just missing something simple.
It seems you can not get the resources fast enough with 3 people to build enough so they don't leave/rampage/wander. If you do manage to just do it, 3 raiders are enough to wipe your whole base.
Am I missing something?
Quote from: DethBringa on February 10, 2014, 04:32:31 PM
I have been watching this game for ages and waiting until I have enough money to get it. That day has finally come! However it feels a lot like starcraft, as in, you have to have the perfect build or its GG.
I can not work out how to get everything up and running before the first metal break hits. Once you get that first mental break thats it, restart. So I tried to concentrate on what I need first. ! farm, shelter, power, nutrient dispenser. After about 5 unsuccessful attempts I finally got it working, chucked down 3 sentry guns just in time for 3 raiders to turn up, kill all 3 guns and slaughter everyone... restart again.
IDK if the game is supposed to punish new players to the point of wishing they had never forked out $30USD or if I'm just missing something simple.
It seems you can not get the resources fast enough with 3 people to build enough so they don't leave/rampage/wander. If you do manage to just do it, 3 raiders are enough to wipe your whole base.
Am I missing something?
A couple of things.
First - Sentry guns are never a good idea unless you can get them up in the space of the raiders appearing and coming. They count as colonists for the purpose of raider waves. They are distressingly short range and very prone to explosions.
Second - Pause at the outset and scout out the map. Zoom out and unforbid all of the food and minerals on the map you can find. Then I look for somewhere near your initial placement hopefully with a steam geyser. If there's a spot close enough, start your building.
For building, I always dig in. Some day, I will do an all exposed base to try it, but not yet. While colonists prefer 6x6 rooms, my first rooms are generally just big enough for a door and a bed. I will mine out the rest of the area once I am in doors, have food situated and research started. I build a single exterior room in front of the bedrooms big enough for a nutrient dispenser, one row of hoppers, small 4x4 table and chairs and the research table. Then I attach a solar panel or two off to the side leaving room for a kill box out front.
I don't start specializing guys until I have the research table up. Then I switch someone to research. I get hydroponic farming and nutrient resynthesis in that order. My next priority is generally mining out a prison room. I usually have to have someone go back to the outside sleeping pallets for one night when I get my first prisoner.
From then, I generally mine out the mineral pile that is right next to every starting position as well as plotting out the hydroponic room. That's my start. From then on I build my base prepping for known events and responding to new things as they happen.
Tips - Always get your batteries under roof as soon as possible otherwise you will be fighting fires non-stop as they short in the rain.
Set your home area to include at least 3 squares beyond your buildings to handle the fires that will erupt. You don't want large things like solar collectors to catch as once the fire gets to the middle square you can only wait for it to burn down and rebuild.
Set a single line dumping area to use as an early free defensive bulwark and to clear out cover for early raiders. Keep an eye on what raiders use as cover and consider mining convenient spots flat to eliminate cover.
Have a care when setting up flooring. Smooth stone is free and gives a pleasant environment bonus, but it takes comparatively longer to build. So build it in small chunks.
The best, most efficient hydroponic layout is a u with a two benches on one side with a sun lamp at the bottom. Unless you are using Randy, you will only need at most two of these setups to have sufficient food for everyone plus a trade surplus.
Don't forget to equip all three guns before leaving the initial area. Always police up any new weapons raiders drop, swapping for better ones as they show up. My progression is pistol, uzi, M-16/Phase thing. M-24s are nice, but they need to be micro managed to counter snipe. It's a waste to let them auto target whomever is closer.
Finally, everyone should be cleaning, fire fighting and hauling. I also generally have everyone repairing, warden and doctor, but I'm not so sure about those last two. By the time I have my colony ready to get killed by raiders, I have only one or two growers. I only start specializing once I have 5 or 6 colonists.
OK I finally got a base up and running. Everything was ticking along ok. Then a solar flare hits wiping out all electronics (i.e. no defenses), 4 raiders land and a boom rat decides to kamikaze into the front entrance of my base.
While I'm battling to put the fire out the raiders come in and destroy all my unpowered sentry guns and then proceed to kill my people....
Once again restart. I MUST be missing something somewhere. After over a dozen restarts in and I still have yet to get a 4th person yet.
Anyway, as for the advice, I gotta say its all gold. I'll keep persevering.
As for sentry guns, I'd rather lose those than 1 colonist. Only get 3 and once you lose one its gg.
Scouting is great advice however I always scout and do exactly that.
Sometimes I get lucky with steam, each time I have its taken too long to get a generator, nutrient and indoor beds. I usually go for food over beds as the negatives for raw food stack very fast and you only get a couple of days before a mental break from raw food/sleeping outside/darkness from not enough lights yet/ugly place/injury or whatever. Never been able to survive long enough to add a table and chairs. I've tried digging in but it seems to take longer to set up than building outside.
Always put my batteries indoors (learnt that fast).
Never made it to research yet.
Never survived first raider wave yet.
Had another attempt, lasted 15 days before everyone starved to death (after one person rampaging from starvation). I had 4 hoppers full of food beside the nutrient dispenser, enough power for everything now I just have to work out how to tell people to eat. Or is it that you NEED a table and chairs first?
What narrator are you playing on? I haven't moved to Cleo yet, but that start will get me up and running with everyone else unless Randy decides to bork me with a massive early raid.
The real trick is starting small and fast. I can have that initial starting stuff up and running by the middle of the second day. You don't need to and really shouldn't start farming until you have hydroponics. Granted, you will need to get them up immediately once you can.
I only start to get mental breaks even threatening if I have lots of unburied raiders for a long time or have them mining in the dark for long extended periods of time.
Here's a post with a SS of a common building pattern for me. The three bottom rooms on the right were my starting rooms. If you look closely at the grass in front of them and the floors, you can get an idea of how small they were to start. I have refined since then. Getting smaller of the start, planning to get bigger later and skipping the outdoor farming all together.
Were you all incapacitated? Were your hoppers next to your dispenser? I've always assumed that they have to be to "work" correctly. People will sit an eat on the floor. Tables aren't necessary, but they offer opportunities for chat which is happy making.
Oh, on the topic of chairs, I started always leaving a space between because I thought they would like more room, just like me, but not so much. I believe they have to be next to each other to chat.
Well I did a SS of my latest fail. One person in bed, one went on a rampage VS a buffalo and the other just left. The one that stayed was the only one that would eat, the other 2 had mass negatives from starvation.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m192/C_gaskell/RimWorld334Win2014-02-1113-01-51-82_zps58ef2be9.jpg) (http://s104.photobucket.com/user/C_gaskell/media/RimWorld334Win2014-02-1113-01-51-82_zps58ef2be9.jpg.html)
Each hopper has 75 food in it.
I'm gonna guess the hopper thing is because they aren't right next to it. Especially from the second message in the upper right that looks to be saying "Need Food Hopper". Did you ever see them eat from the dispenser?
I see your bedrooms are a bit small. While it's ok to start that way, 6x6 inside walls is what they want. I might also tone down the lighting. They can step over lamps so you want to put them in the middle of the room to get the most out of them. I also see from your panels on the left that you have conduit running all around them. While the redundancy is nice, it's mostly a waste. I have one connection between panels.
For prisons, unless you are playing Randy, you generally won't ever have more than 4.
For buffaloes, you are going to want to recruit all three guys and have them shooting as early as possible. Those things are nasty. Guys that leave can be arrested and re-recruited. I found that out the only time I had a guy walk off on me.
The biggest problem with that layout is that the hoppers have to be directly adjacent to the food dispenser. Your people went nuts from eating raw food - which has a nasty stacking morale penalty.
This is why solar flares are currently so dangerous. You have no choice but to eat raw food during a flare currently, and it makes everyone in your base really unhappy (not to mention the darkness).
All the rubble left on the floors indoors doesn't help either, as that creates a 'hideous environment'. Cleaning is one of the lowest AI priorities right now - but really that's a mistake, as it is very important. I always manually set one of my colonists to clean as a higher priority, and designate all indoors areas as part of the 'home zone'.
Quote from: Vastin on February 10, 2014, 07:33:19 PM
Cleaning is one of the lowest AI priorities right now - but really that's a mistake, as it is very important.
Quoted for truth.
Solar Flares aren't all that bad, they only last a day. It's the eclipses I find the most difficult if I don't have steam power or significant battery power to last it out.
The message about "need food hopper" is because the 4 I have are full.
Small rooms because the furthest I have ever made it is 15 days. I would rather get them inside first in a small room and expand later.
The prison was the last thing I added. In my record breaking 15 day play I have 1 bed for a prisoner but kept failing the recruitment even tho their loyalty was max, then I had someone else wander past and didn't have the room for an extra bed.
The buffalo was only an issue because one person decided to leave and the person I sent after them only made it halfway to them and then went on a rampage and decided to chase a buffalo.
Oh btw.. My build order... (Might help in trouble shooting).
Power
Batteries
Farm
Dispenser
Bedrooms
Prison
Usually followed quickly by FAIL.
So the hoppers have to be where the table and chairs are?
Can't clean the rubble as I can't last long enough for that to be a worry yet.
No, the hoppers have to be right next to the food dispenser. They are what the food dispenser uses to create the paste. In the diagram above, they are one space away from the dispenser, and that isn't gonna work.
DethBringa's problem is that all the food is in hoppers and none of the hoppers can supply the Nutrient Paste Dispenser. Hungry colonists don't seem to "see" raw food on hoppers; I once had a colonist break because I had turned off the Nutrient Paste Dispenser and the only food available to the colony was on a hopper. I suspect the only one that would eat was the only one with the cooking labor enabled, since that's the labor that makes colonists interact with the hopper itself. You can avoid this problem by only having one hopper and keeping raw food in a nearby stockpile.
Also, unless you're worried about a herd of muffalo on your colony's doorstep, or you want to level up your colony's shooting skill, getting everybody to kill muffalo is a waste of time. When enough are dead, replacement muffalo will simply enter the map elsewhere.
Ooohhhhhh *FACEPALM*
Like touching the side. I feel like such an idiot. That makes so much sense. They aren't shelves. Ya know when something that simple just throws a spanner in the works....
...Why wont my phone charge!?!??!!.... ..Umm try flicking on the switch for the power socket.
ROFL!
If you really want an optimized build order, you usually want something like:
- Solar Panel
- Dining Room (table optional, dispenser and hopper are not)
- Battery (indoors!)
- Three very small bedrooms (you'll convert these to cells later when you have more room)
- Research table (begin researching hydroponics as an immediate priority)
- Hydroponics garden (diagram below is an efficient layout, X = hydroponics bench, O = sun lamp)
- More solar and batteries
===========
| |
| XX X XX |
| XX X XX |
| XX X XX |
| XX X XX |
| O |
| XX X XX |
| XX X XX |
| XX X XX |
| XX X XX |
| |
===========
The trick is to get this up and running within 5 days or less, meanwhile eating only the food dropped onto the map at the beginning of the game. Hydroponics are FAR more efficient than regular farms or subsistence gathering, and if you find yourself trying to survive using regular outdoor farming, you're going to have very little time left for actually building your base. Hydroponics on the other hand generates so much extra food that you'll have plenty of extra to trade with passing ships for metal, weapons, or slaves.
Once you have hydroponics up and a decent power system running, you can work on larger (6x6) bedrooms for your base members and start worrying about your external defenses.
Quote from: Nasikabatrachus on February 10, 2014, 08:00:27 PM
Also, unless you're worried about a herd of muffalo on your colony's doorstep, or you want to level up your colony's shooting skill, getting everybody to kill muffalo is a waste of time. When enough are dead, replacement muffalo will simply enter the map elsewhere.
I only recruit everyone to kill of that solo mad muffalo.
I usually have a live and let live policy with the wildlife. Though I did have one game once where I started off with a "useless" colonist who could only firefight and doctor, Wang. He was a crack shot so I imagined Wang wandering around like Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in Tombstone. I had him out slaughtering the wildlife until he died when I learned you don't put a ton of sentry guns in a line right next to each other within one square of the front of your base. Big boom. Really big.
I make a very clear build order to be set up in 2-3 days on the first day of Colony 9 if you want to check it out. It answers a lot of your questions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVG-OLL8J4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVG-OLL8J4) I actually spelled it all out specifically for this thread so you guys wouldn't have to fail like I did the first 6 or so games.
If you take a look at it, and then have further questions let me know and I'll answer it here, and then illustrate it in the next colony.
One thing I can't emphasize enough, you don't need a million turrets starting out. The "director ai" should only be sending 1 raider at you, then 2, then 3, and so on scaling up with your defenses and troop size. You can handle 1-2 raiders with just your 3 initial people as long as you have 1 rifle and 2 handguns. You just have to carefully micro them out of harm's way once they get to 40 hp. So I don't even build turrets any more until after the first wave unless I have a ton of excess metal for some reason.
Also as others have said, don't under estimate having a "clean" house. A potted plant, a lamp, a table, 2 chairs. Then getting a smooth stone floor as soon as possible. That "ugly environment" debuff is a killer. The "raw food" debuff is a killer. The "saw a dead body" debuff is a killer. So is the "saw a death." But those last two will go away within a day or so if you can get the body properly buried. The rest though take very careful planning. Ask me more questions I can answer them or show you videos or whatever you want. Also thanks to every one else too, you're all doing a very good job. I incorporate almost all of your guys's ideas into my videos to make the best video and best colonies possible.
Well now I'm actually doing ok. Now its just learning a few things here and there. Placing those hoppers on the dispenser instead of in the same room fixed the 1 issue that was causing all the restarts.
Ah okay good to know. :) Any questions and just keep coming back! It's neat knowing you're sending someone back into the game happy. It's almost like a huge living puzzle game in that regard.
Time to take you up on that offer :p
My new issue is those dam raiders.
I have found that gun turrets are useless. They just spawn more raiders who kill off the turrets easily and then overrun you.
The biggest issue is starting out, (once again) they come in with incendiary launchers or grenades or something and just wipe my guys out.
Playing a game with "chill callie classic" should not be this brutal. Starting with only 3 people I have enough time to get my food up and running, make 1 bedroom for everyone to share and then in come the raiders. They set my people on fire who then run around like idiots, when I try to rescue my downed people the person rescuing gets downed too.
Once again I'm back to perfect start build or die. If I don't have the perfect starting people with the perfect starting location and build the perfect start the perfect way in the perfect order, its a wipe. Even if I do everything right I get a boomrat or muffalo charge me just before the raiders start their advance which weakens my people enough to be easy kills.
If this is easy mode then the harder options must be almost impossible.
As a note, Randy is in most respects the easiest AI. He may curveball you out of the game early, but he doesn't seem to scale up to nearly the degree that callie/cassandra/cleo do. The way those storytellers all work, their difficulty increases relentlessly. The groups just get larger, and larger, and larger (or sometimes smaller but MUCH better equipped, and then larger again...).
Meanwhile they all put pretty strict caps on your colony population - so basically it won't be all that long until you are doomed. In this way it is very unlike Dwarf Fortress. DF sometimes throws something completely horrific at you, or a couple bad things in a row, but it isn't regular about it. You can go long periods of time, even late in the game without anything particularly terrible coming after you while you putter along with your Dwarvish construction projects, preparing for 'The Day' when they may be needed.
Not against the C-girls however, they are all like the metronome of doom, ticking down the hours until you WILL eventually be obliterated. You cannot play a steady state game with them. Chill callie just goes a little slower, but I think she'll still get there eventually, as far as I can tell.
Cleo will just hardball you out in a few days, as a rule. It's incredibly hard to recruit settlers fast enough to even deal with her third or fourth wave legitimately. Your only hope is a rush to blasting charges and a deep fortress.
Gave Randy a shot. 1st wave was 1 raider, then 2nd wave was 4 raiders with better range and accuracy than my 3 colonists.... Wipe. I had enough time to make 1 solar, 4 batteries in a room and dig a big enough hole in the wall for 1 bed before the 2nd wave wipe.
Randy....just Randy.... :o
Most of the time he's not that bad but occasionally, he's really weird. I had one game where he sent eight raiders at me on like day 3. I lobbed some colorful metaphors his way and started over. Then I had a game where absolutely nothing happened until day 70. No one ever passed by to get arrested or even join. There were no eclipses, no flares, no dry thunderstorms to set fires, no raiders, nothing. It was really weird. My three little guys had built this palatial base just waiting for no one. Then about day 72 it snowballed on me. It was interesting while it lasted.
I often find that that first wave of raiders is often the hardest until you just get overwhelmed because those AoE weapons are devastating. My tip for them is to have your guys recruited and waiting in cover to fire as soon as you see that message about raiders completing their preparations. Hope to down the first guy in a volley or two and then charge into melee with the rest, in particular that guy with the grenades or the molotovs.
Randy seems more brutal than chill callie.
Started a game.. squirrels rampaging over and over then a raider group of 4. Restarted, got 6 wanderers in a row, managed to catch 5 of then and while they are all in prison a raider party of 5 turn up.
I look forward to when there is an easier ai. Maybe one that does not send raiders for the first 10 days or something.
Well, Randy's whole deal is that he's random (obviously) - I've had games with no raiders for weeks, and then games where multiple good sized waves drop at almost the same time. An easier storyteller isn't something I would be into (though it would be good to have regardless), but one balanced to make things more challenging as you go forward without the explicit intention of eventually overrunning you like Callie/Cassandra/Cleopatra would be nice.
Quote from: FowlJ on February 12, 2014, 05:39:25 PM...one balanced to make things more challenging as you go forward without the explicit intention of eventually overrunning you like Callie/Cassandra/Cleopatra would be nice.
Seconded ;D
Is there a point where certain events, like slave traders, just stop showing up?
The appearance of slave traders is based on your colony's population. If your colony has around at least 7-14 people, they will stop showing up. This is a measure designed to limit colony population, though with 25+ colonists on my longest running one so far I've found that I'd really like to sell some prisoners.
Quote from: Hieronymous Alloy on February 14, 2014, 06:41:00 PM
Is there a point where certain events, like slave traders, just stop showing up?
And if you want more than the set amount of all the story tellers go to randy random, who doesn't limit your amount of colonists at all.
You can mod the storytellers to up the Popcap.
Quote from: Coenmcj on February 14, 2014, 07:14:15 PM
You can mod the storytellers to up the Popcap.
or that to, thats nice! i was unaware of that, i might have to go and do some digging!