[Question] Whats is the current deciding factor for raid size?

[Kinakin]

Used to be colony wealth in the form of the value of stockpiled items together with pawn count. Is this still the current factor?

[milon]

Rebalanced storyteller to pay more attention to population and less to wealth, and to ramp up slower.

Wealth is still a factor, but not as much as before.  It's the number of colonists.  Also, since it ramps up over time, colony age is a factor too.

[electrichobo]

I was just wondering about the same topic. How far do the raiding forces escalate? Meaning, is it possible to maintain a small colony for as long as you want, or does the game force you to expand by sending stronger and stronger enemies until you're eventually defeated unless you set up mega-killboxes and house an army of colonists?

The thought reminds me of Banished where keeping a small settlement was impossible due to your settlers not reproducing unless you had empty housing for the new families. If not, your folk just died of old age and it was game over. 

[Pathing]

I was just wondering about the same topic. How far do the raiding forces escalate? Meaning, is it possible to maintain a small colony for as long as you want, or does the game force you to expand by sending stronger and stronger enemies until you're eventually defeated unless you set up mega-killboxes and house an army of colonists?

The thought reminds me of Banished where keeping a small settlement was impossible due to your settlers not reproducing unless you had empty housing for the new families. If not, your folk just died of old age and it was game over. 

It is possible. Difficult level (builder to extreme challenge) and the number of colonists are the biggest factors here. Wealth seem to be the second but there is a huge gap between the 1st class and 2nd class. You can keep the number of raider to be small almost forever. They will not get big unless you build golden wall or expensive buildings that are worth for a big raid.

[Utherix]

In my experience, it seems to be a factor of time and number of colonists. My guess would be like +2 enemies for every month, and +1 for each colonists you have. I think if you run that number it will be very close to actual number of enemies.

[Tynan]

It relates to the age of the colony, the total wealth of the colony (buildings and stockpiles), the number of colonists, and the time since you took damage over certain thresholds (financial and in colonists being harmed). And there's a random factor. It's not just one thing.

[skullywag]

Does it have a limit?

[Blitz]

How much work would it take to get the AI to recalculate the colony strength after we launch the ship? Sometimes I want to continue playing with what I've created, but the AI is just too strong to continue.

It would almost be a new game + mode.