Ludeon Forums

RimWorld => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sometenranadom on November 11, 2018, 01:23:49 AM

Title: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: Sometenranadom on November 11, 2018, 01:23:49 AM
So I started my 50th merciless Cassandra run, can't say I've made it past day 250 on any of them but, I decided to finally cave in and do wealth management. But I keep reading that buildings around the map don't effect my wealth(unclaimed buildings). Yet at the start of the game I have 5000 building wealth? Yet I've seen it on so many posts. Is there something I don't know? Is the graph inaccurate?

Also what about creatures wealth. I had a plains run where I had over 60 animals around my wood lodge core. Maybe 6 colonist but 20 wild boars 30 alpacas 2 grizz 5 timber 2 cougars a some tortoises. I got a huge raid of 20 high level mercenaries rocket launches and all. Despite feeling like I kept my building and item wealth low. The "Formula" on the wiki only mentions item and building wealth.

Is everything around wealth and raids mythos? Is everything is speculation other than the obvious fact that the bigger your colony is the more resources you need to dedicate to defense?
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: zizard on November 11, 2018, 01:35:58 AM
defloor fren

welcome to black fr mosque of wealth control
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: 5thHorseman on November 11, 2018, 07:50:52 AM
I'm not sure what a fren is or a black fr mosque, but no Wealth Control is not guesswork. Someone looked at the actual code and posted it somewhere. I don't remember the details but they're on this forum somewhere and it boils down to 100% of your pawn and item wealth + 50% of your building wealth = your raid wealth. That's not the only factor in raids (number of colonists is too) but it's a (or the) major one.

Ripping up floors helps but is not critical. It's good advice, as those resources work great as building material for your own base and are easier and cheaper to get than most any other building material.

Far more important is to make sure as much of your wealth as possible is put into weapons and defenses. On merciless, you should also let production materials that degrade sit outside until they are at like 20%, so they're worth less. And burn/blow up/caravan and dump/sell/gift every single thing you don't need to survive. Including stuff on the ground outside your base dropped by raiders.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: AileTheAlien on November 11, 2018, 01:17:41 PM
Quote from: 5thHorseman on November 11, 2018, 07:50:52 AM
I'm not sure what a fren is or a black fr mosque
I think they're making a joke, that the person BLACK_FR often posts in threads like this (pertaining to balance, playing "optimally", how to "win" the game, etc), with such conviction and single-mindedness that it feels like holy scripture or religious zeal.

EDIT:
Pre-emptive, "That's the joke!". :P

[attachment deleted due to age]
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: jpinard on November 11, 2018, 03:40:07 PM
Quote from: Sometenranadom on November 11, 2018, 01:23:49 AM
So I started my 50th merciless Cassandra run, can't say I've made it past day 250 on any of them but, I decided to finally cave in and do wealth management. But I keep reading that buildings around the map don't effect my wealth(unclaimed buildings). Yet at the start of the game I have 5000 building wealth? Yet I've seen it on so many posts. Is there something I don't know? Is the graph inaccurate?

Also what about creatures wealth. I had a plains run where I had over 60 animals around my wood lodge core. Maybe 6 colonist but 20 wild boars 30 alpacas 2 grizz 5 timber 2 cougars a some tortoises. I got a huge raid of 20 high level mercenaries rocket launches and all. Despite feeling like I kept my building and item wealth low. The "Formula" on the wiki only mentions item and building wealth.

Is everything around wealth and raids mythos? Is everything is speculation other than the obvious fact that the bigger your colony is the more resources you need to dedicate to defense?

How do you check your wealth level?
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: walleras on November 11, 2018, 04:18:05 PM
I can only get to day 5-20 of my merciless cassandra naked run, so that's how I manage my wealth, by being so bad I can't gain it.  ;D
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: 5thHorseman on November 11, 2018, 04:29:22 PM
Quote from: jpinard on November 11, 2018, 03:40:07 PM
How do you check your wealth level?
History button, check all the tabs there. The graphs show how it's grown but another tab whose name escapes me shows exact numbers for the colony currently.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: BLACK_FR on November 11, 2018, 06:55:43 PM
Hello, new acolyte of Wealth Control Religion. You can check my Holy Temple in my signature, you will find all what you need there.

P.S.: in my current Really Merciless Naked Brutality run (it's like normal merciless naked brutality but much more brutal) I don't use "hp control" at all, I play as if health of every item affect it's utility (and for weapons and apparel it is). So only wealth control that I use is "don't own stupid stuff". And I can say that it's enough for me, because I can launch a ship while staying in "low expectations".
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: zizard on November 11, 2018, 08:22:44 PM
I meant that the 5k building wealth is probably from floors in the ruins placed around the map, so i suggest you deflooring, frend
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: jpinard on November 12, 2018, 03:23:41 PM
I hate doing "wealth management" in this game.  I think a better way is to just change the mob formula values.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: fritzgryphon on November 12, 2018, 04:30:48 PM
Be warned the various kinds of wealth have different weights.  For example, colonists make up a small part of your total wealth, but they have a large impact on raid points.

If you're curious about how much something is contributing to difficulty, I suggest making changes in dev mode then checking how the debug graph reacts.  For example, my 12 population colony starting at 110 raid points:

20 labrador retrievers added 14 points.
2 random unequipped colonists added 14 points.
2 charge lances added 4 points.
2 power armors and helmets added 3 points.

From this it seems like animals are pretty cheap for their combat power.  Unequipped, low-skilled colonists cost a lot of points while being pretty useless.  Power armor and a lance is worth about 50% the points of a random colonist.  Also, the lances count for as many points as the power armor despite being 1/10 the market value.

Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: zizard on November 12, 2018, 06:37:11 PM
To avoid the lag in the graph, use the dev mode option "write storyteller". Once it is enabled, click the magnifying glass button.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: 5thHorseman on November 12, 2018, 08:07:52 PM
Quote from: jpinard on November 12, 2018, 03:23:41 PM
I hate doing "wealth management" in this game.  I think a better way is to just change the mob formula values.
You can do that quite easily by not playing on Merciless (which is what I personally do)
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: jpinard on November 13, 2018, 02:29:23 PM
Quote from: 5thHorseman on November 12, 2018, 08:07:52 PM
Quote from: jpinard on November 12, 2018, 03:23:41 PM
I hate doing "wealth management" in this game.  I think a better way is to just change the mob formula values.
You can do that quite easily by not playing on Merciless (which is what I personally do)

I have a lot of wonderful mods and some accidentally inter items that blow your wealth up.  I only play on Cassandra medium.  So I hate having to do wealth management anytime.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: ashaffee on November 16, 2018, 07:55:43 PM
Merciless min maxing goes further than that. Here are a few things.

Never tame any creature unless you 100% need their materials. Like need fur because your map never spawns enough creatures. Creatures almost always produce a negative on food worth compared to labor/colonist wealth managements. Exception for animals that 100% graze and everyone that isn't part of the breeding stock shows value in every battle based on your strategy.

Haulers are worth it imo but either use them in the same strategy as above or keep a small ratio. I having fined tuned it but guessing 2 haulers for ever 6 colonist might be a nice number.

Stock piles should basically contain nothing (Although I say screw this part because micromanagement is boring). Everything you want to build you plan exactly how many resources to mine. Exceptions are medicine and food. Food is game by game basis but plan per season helps.

Keeping base small and minimizing amount of extra space given to colonist helps. Drugs if used properly can give the moods needed more efficiently than the wealth increase of 2 large statues in every ones bed room.

Minimize turret defenses used. I try to have 1 central fall back spot where turrets do work at. Everyone pot shots through doors and such and tries to retreat to that fall back spot. Enemy usually scatters around my defenses breaking into sections of my base at a time. Basically leads to small trickling to their deaths.

Last message. You don't really need to min max to win. I obey some of these things not all (some people do way more crazy things that require tons of micromanagement). The key is just have a plan when you land. Build a base around that plan. Key to all the plans is fall back spots. Places to heal in the middle of battle (3x2 hospitals) that act as buckers for firing back. Things like that.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: BLACK_FR on November 17, 2018, 11:54:37 AM
@ashafee
Actually no, wealth management is enough for merciless, you don't need any other skill. I know finishing my Really Merciless Naked Brutality run and I don't use any wealth management techniques except "don't own useless stuff" and it's enough to keep wealth below 20k before making the ship. If I was fully using all the mechanics, I could make and launch ship while keeping raids at starting minimum (when there is one melee raider only). While keeping 2-years worth of food in storage, and all goodies that I want.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: Crow_T on November 17, 2018, 05:40:00 PM
Quote from: zizard on November 11, 2018, 01:35:58 AM
defloor fren

welcome to black fr mosque of wealth control

This is my favorite post of yours, well done. I imagine a labrador retriever saying it.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: ashaffee on November 17, 2018, 09:28:21 PM
Quote from: BLACK_FR on November 17, 2018, 11:54:37 AM
@ashafee
Actually no, wealth management is enough for merciless, you don't need any other skill. I know finishing my Really Merciless Naked Brutality run and I don't use any wealth management techniques except "don't own useless stuff" and it's enough to keep wealth below 20k before making the ship. If I was fully using all the mechanics, I could make and launch ship while keeping raids at starting minimum (when there is one melee raider only). While keeping 2-years worth of food in storage, and all goodies that I want.

My statement gave more so options on all the things you can do to make it easier by the level of skill they are. I did say I don't min max (as in wealth management to extremes) in my games. I do a little but not by much. Overall it is just having a plan.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: Gadfly on November 23, 2018, 08:11:54 AM
Actually you can have all the wealth in the world.

500 golden grand statues, doesn't matter, exploits though.

Normal playtrough, don't own stuff you don't need and keep animals in check. Few fighting animals is allright, untrained they can act as a decoy.
Title: Re: Merciless Wealth management.
Post by: BLACK_FR on November 25, 2018, 04:11:02 AM
Quote from: ashaffee on November 17, 2018, 09:28:21 PM
My statement gave more so options on all the things you can do to make it easier by the level of skill they are. I did say I don't min max (as in wealth management to extremes) in my games. I do a little but not by much. Overall it is just having a plan.

Of course there is more. Most of it I covered in my merciless guide, did you check it? When I finish my last run I will update for more cool tricks.

@Gadfly
Only way to own 500 golden statues is to damage them (which for devs seems like a legit strategy). Personally I not only use that mechanic for buildings, I don't even use it for items (I play as if health affects their utility).