Biome Difficulty? Arid Shrubland

[Keychan]

There are six biomes as of Alpha 9, Tundra, Temperate Forest, Boreal Forest, Tropical Rainforest, Desert, and Arid Shrubland.  Each have their own challenge and obstacles to over come, but I've noticed, in my experience, that the Arid Shrubland is the easiest biome with only a single obstacle being the temperature.  There's a moderate amount of trees and cactus's for wood, year-round growing grounds, and a generous amount of large game.  Is the Arid Shrubland suppose to have more difficulties than just the high temperatures or is it suppose to be the easiest biome?

[Boboid]

Boomrats are pretty much the biggest Arid threat

[loc978]

Arid shrubland and temperate forest are pretty much easy mode, yeah.

Also, arid used to be the only map type... it's kind of the prototype setting.

[Keychan]

Well that would explain the simplicity and ease of the biome.  At least temperate forest has the dynamic temperatures from a hot summer to a snowy winter.  I just thought that each biome was suppose to be 'balanced' in their own way, each with their own ups and downs.

[BetaSpectre]

Boom Rats are no joke if you forgot to add floors and there are shrubs everywhere with wooden buildings.

[SSS]

Boom Rats are no joke if you forgot to add floors and there are shrubs everywhere with wooden buildings.

I can see it now: Randy sends a psychic wave that enrages all the boomrats just after you finished constructing your walls. Lol.

What's the Jungle like, btw? I got back into Rimworld again recently and haven't gotten to try that map type yet. All I know about it is it's hot, there's malaria, and (probably) overly thick vegetation to make building hard?

[b0rsuk]

Arid tends to have lots of dry thunderstorms, and there's no rain to put the fire out. You need to plan ahead and build fire barriers, or you'll be very sorry. But yeah, it's a pretty easy biome.

Boreal forest is my new love. No wild fruits, good soil but short growing period. Lots and lots of wood, in fact you have to cut before you build anything. Pirates are quite funny - often they have problems setting their mortars up, they need to chop down trees first ! And there is lots of marsh, which slows people down something fierce. You need to clear snow from it in winter or it freezes, but it's a great place to set up turrets or snipers.

[Boboid]

Large scale fires automatically trigger rain storms. There's not a massive risk of fire even if you're building out of wood ( like a crazy person ) if you put in even 10 seconds worth of fire-barrier work.

As for Jungles - Malaria is a bit annoying but it's not much worse than the Plague, the trees can be pretty prolific though so outdoor construction can involve a lot of hewing.
Tortoises are the toughest and most dangerous creatures in game so.. you know look out for those.

It's one of the easier biomes certainly, just don't piss off the tortoises.

[loc978]

I've found sicknesses in the jungle biome to be much worse than the rest. The problem with malaria is that it tends to strike groups of colonists simultaneously. I've actually had it hit 3 when I had 4 colonists, with the only unaffected person being incapable of doctoring. Takes a lot of micromanagement to avoid losing people to that. Also, sleeping sickness. Lasts for weeks. (example: day 12 with my primary cook/grower down,  61% to go. Treatments last 2 days, though). Aside from that, at least food and wood are plentiful.

[Mathenaut]

Yeah, I agree with OP. That's probably the easiest Biome.

Insofar, I've been playing in Tundra, though it's not quite what I expected. I imagined it would be more like a polar ice sheet instead of just a cold desert.

[b0rsuk]

Large scale fires automatically trigger rain storms. There's not a massive risk of fire even if you're building out of wood ( like a crazy person ) if you put in even 10 seconds worth of fire-barrier work.

That's silly if true. I also seemed to notice rain comes suspiciously often if there's a fire.

If true, it means you can start a fire in a remote corner of the map to extinguish a fire elsewhere. Rimworld has a fire extinguisher and it's called "incendiary launcher".

[Mathenaut]

It only kicks in when fires are really large scale, though. So it's not exactly saving your wooden base if it catches.

[Darkhymn]

Yeah, I agree with OP. That's probably the easiest Biome.

Insofar, I've been playing in Tundra, though it's not quite what I expected. I imagined it would be more like a polar ice sheet instead of just a cold desert.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=7882.0

[Mathenaut]

But it's not updated D:

That's sort of exactly what I'm looking/hoping for. Especially with the recent changes that make more sense out of how insulation works.

[Darkhymn]

But it's not updated D:

That's sort of exactly what I'm looking/hoping for. Especially with the recent changes that make more sense out of how insulation works.

According to a post on the last page of that thread, it seems to work with A9 despite being for A8, and the author is/will be working on an A9 build.