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The difference is huge, first the threat scale on the graph:



Crazy is similar to Pandora early game, with a slightly quicker pace, hardcore really takes off the third year.

Then you don't have the same discount on the threat points as you've with Classic or Hardcore.

Here year 3, 500k, 18 colonists you'll get roughly 7500 points raids with Pandora, 6500 points raids with Crazy, 3500 points raids with Hardcore, and 2400 with Classic.

But i'll check the various versions and update steam if something's off

Yeah, 500k colony year 3 is a tipping point where you can feel the gap is windening with Cassandra Classic. It's all the idea of this storyteller, it's very sensitive to wealth.

If you control your wealth you can keep things under control, at least to launch the ship. If you min max hardcore, you can survive almost indefinitely. If your wealth starts piling up above 1M, good luck

I've added dropbox links

Because initially Crazy Cassie was for testing, so it conflicted with Cassandra Hardcore.

I've rebuilt it properly to remove the conflict and included a warning in its description, it's a very difficult start, and then it remains harder than Cassandra Hardcore.

That's it.

Turrets and traps can feed a positive feedback loop: more mechs, more plasteel, more plasteel traps. With progressive combat points they are still usefull early game but will be a liability in the end game.

Thank you for you feedback. It seems the errors came from the turrets and traps formula. So I've removed their combat points for now.

The only mod conflict should be between Cassandra Hardcore and Crazy Cassie, which i've put on dropbox only.

Ok, i could not reproduce the error. I'll double check the code tomorrow, make sure to have the steam version in case i messed up with dropbox

Maybe you've got Pandora loaded? I've added a warning, you have to load only one storyteller Pandora, Cassandra Hardcore or Crazy Cassie. They all replace the threat scale and conflict with each other.

This is great, thank you!

Somewhere between a Cassandra and a Pandora sounds like great fun. How about another sister to your Hardcore Cassandra, one with a quicker pace? Could use the same Threat Cycle, but one that keeps up the pace.

Thank you for reminding me of the idea!

Hardcore Cassandra is more a mainstream Cassandra experience with a harder mid-end game. There is still plenty of room between Cassandra Hardcore and Pandora.

A quicker pace? That would be ultra hardcore but it sounds like a great idea. Much faster would be really hard, with Pandora you know you're doomed if you're raided before your walls are repaired or your infestation is cleaned up. Maybe Pandora early game with a slightly faster pace and more reasonable threats mid-end game? For the show, you've to survive 2-3 years and then the threats stop skyrocketting to enjoy you success.

So this storyteller is just for people which allready played on intense before to get larger/stronger incidents.

Not exactly. I answered the raid would be larger because he was year 8 and wanted to switch in game. But the whole idea of this mod is to change the difficulty curve to be more challenging in the end game without being crazy early game. Sure, if you play extreme hardcore, it'll be harder. But it also makes sense to play rough hardcore if you don't like mood issues, it's just that the threat will increase faster in the end game than it does in vanilla.

Here is an example for a more typical playthrough on rough for a new player: 6years, 18 colonists to space, 750k final wealth

You can see that rough hardcore starts almost easier than vanilla, catches up with vanilla rough year 2 and then with vanilla extreme year 4.

if I switch over to Cassandra Hardcore Rough, then all of the threats (aka mostly raids?) will start being a ton more difficult, correct? Especially because it would be so late in the game? But this will not necessarily change the frequency and/or variety of events?

Sure, you can switch to any storyteller or difficulty in game, go in menu -> option -> storyteller. It will change the difficulty scale instantly. You can already try with Cassandra Classic extreme, because Hardcore rough will be harder.

And no, it will not change the variety or frequency of events, they'll be the same as Cassandra Classic, just larger.

You're welcome

All vanilla storytellers share the same threat scale. So Randy = Cassandra = Pheobe. Then you've to consider the threat cycle but it doesn't change the size of the raids which is base on wealth and colonists, flat.

In the graph the threat increases with time for Cassandra Classic because i've simulated an increasing number of colonists and wealth with time. Pandora is one of the few storytellers which increases the threat with time independently from wealth and colonists, but as you can see, it gets quickly in uncharted territories so i decided to design a middle ground, more Cassandra like than Pandora like, still with time as an independent variable.

Regarding H.P.Lovecraft i'll check, but iirc it rewrites the threat cycle to include omens but the threat scale is vanilla.

That said, the vanilla threat scale is really good. It may be lacking for end game colonies and/or if you play with mods like EPOE where an average colonist is quickly worth much more than the 42 combat points.

Cassandra Hardcore 1.0

Description

Cassandra Hardcore 1.0 is Cassandra's twin. She will throw larger threats cyclically, and has no limit.

Difficulty-wise she is overlapping 2 levels. For example 'savage hardcore' difficulty will be oscillating between 'savage classic' and 'merciless classic' after the grace period and a progressive start.

The cycles are hidden, and world dependent.

Otherwise the pop intent is slightly increased and there is no cap to the threats (20k in vanilla).

Download

Cassandra Hardcore 1.0
Steam

Cassandra Hardcore b19

Description

Based on Cassandra Classic, she shares the same principles of 'on and off cycles' and a steady difficulty progression with a few differences:

1/ 'off cycles' are shortened to 5 days instead of 6

2/ large threats are slightly more frequent and have a shortened cooldown

3/ she adds a built in ramp up factor

4/ she adds a system of cycles ~2 quadrum long which add +/-10% fluctuation on the difficulty scale, the timing of these cycles is world dependent

5/ she has a higher population target

****
Since this storyteller is more oriented on base defense, even if you master merciless i would recommend to play savage-hardcore. Take advantage of the first two years to build solid defenses and a skilled team, then the difficulty will match up and overcome merciless. The only significant difference will be the +5 permanent mood boost from savage compared to merciless, which won't be useless to fight the larger, more frequent raids.

Download

Cassandra Hardcore b19
Steam

Cassandra Hardcore b18

Description

Cassandra's hardcore twin, she's based on the same threat cycle but changes the threat scale over time.

After a very similar start, the difficulty curve will get steeper, making it harder to establish and defend a large, wealthy colony. Still, the time factor is capped, leaving a door open for your colonists to escape the planet or to try to settle down.

At low population and low wealth, Cassandra Hardcore is very similar to Cassandra Classic. But for mid-late game colonies, the challenge is real.

There are two difficulties in the mod settings menu:
- Low: vanilla friendly
- High: more aggressive, requires strong/modded defenses and firepower

Here is an example of the threat over time for identical colonies (500k storyteller wealth +/- 20% and a population of 28 colonists after 6 years - 290k and 24 colonists at year 4) with different storytellers :

Download

Cassandra Hardcore
Steam
Dropbox

Better Rewards b18

Description

Betters rewards increases the number (at least 3) and the total market value of bandit camps' item collections. The total market value increases with time, so if you destroy a bandit camp, the next one will be more valuable +/- random margin. The outpost's manpower is also scaled with time, starting easier, it will progessively catch up with vanilla and then keep building up more slowly.

Download

Better Rewards
Steam
Dropbox

Cassandra Random b18

Description

Similar to Cassandra Classic, she's the same threat cycle with on/off cycles, she progressively adds randomness to the size of the threats. This randomness starts significantly at the end of year 1, ultimately it's +/- 50% raid points (similar to Randy).


Download

Cassandra Random
Steam
Dropbox

Hardcore Raids b18

Description

Hardcore raids add combat points to turrets and traps:

1 trap == 20 pts
1 turret == 160 pts

The chance of this event is split 50/50 with standard raids. The total chance of raids is unchanged compared to vanilla.


Download

Hardcore Raids
Dropbox

Crazy Cassie b18

Description

An extremely difficult start with a quick pace, 3 difficulties: Low comparable to Cassandra Hardcore, High closer to Pandora.


Download

Crazy Cassie
Dropbox


***
Edit:
3/2: introduced three difficulty levels for Crazy Cassie in the mod option menu
3/13: added Hardcore Raids with combat points for turrets and traps
3/15: introduced two difficulty levels for Cassandra Hardcore high and low
3/24: rebalanced Hardcore Raids
3/27: added Cassandra Random
4/2: added Better Rewards
5/21: scaled outposts and 3 levels added to Better Rewards
8/26: added Cassandra Hardcore b19
11/16: added Cassandra Hardcore 1.0
***

Faction Locations

There is a mod, faction control, which does just that. You can have few, tightly packed, factions bases. But as long as there is no territory concept, it's a bit articficial, just to make a domination victory more playable and have your world look different.

Faction Raiding - Finite pawns

Raids are just fine, i'd just like a slightly better AI (sappers notably).

Dynamic factions and faction bases

+1, at least we need dynamic outposts, the 2000 silver reward too cheap early game compared to the risks, is meaningless mid-late game. Regarding pirate bases, i would even consider removing them for the world map. Just show the network of outlander bases for trade, and hide pirate factions like the hidden mechanoid hive. Allow them to raid and to set dynamic outposts next to your colony (based on colony wealth?)  or larger stronghold further away, with better incentives to raid them

Trade deals

+1, we should be able to offer trade deals too from time to time

The only main difference is being highly disadvantaged, making the whole game harder as you never advance in tech level, and so having the game slowed right down.

That's it, a different challenge once you've explored the crashlanded scenario, pair it with different biomes like ice sheet and it's another vanilla experience. It's also a very good scenario for low tech mods like tribal essentials, medieval times, faction control, call of Cthulhu...

A long lasting advantage of playing tribal is that it'll be easier to recruit tribespeople, allowing to be more picky in the colonists you recruit or having a larger pop more easily.

Coolers set on a negative temperature by default (< 0°C)