Isn't digging just too comfortable ?

[Mathenaut]

Key words like 'have' vs 'need' really spell it out.

I play almost exclusively in harsh environments (deserts and tundra mostly). As I play short campaigns (i.e. get off the planet fast), there is alot of variation in the early builds of my bases depending on what colonists I start with and how the starting area looks.

Sure, I could roll with a certain setup or just repeatedly use the most efficient strategies that would work for any setup, then complain that the game is too easy.

Not really my kind of thing, though. I'm not going to sit back and complain about other people having too much fun with a different style of play in a single player game. I'd rather see suggestions that provide incentives, add depth, or provide mutually exclusive choices. That is where real improvement and innovation come from.

[RemingtonRyder]

Yeah, exactly.

When I feel that a particular Rimworld situation is too easy or unbalanced, I look for a way to mod it more to my liking. I'll admit though that knowing how I've changed things around, it's not as difficult as I was hoping for.

But having a variation on the old scenario of pop pop pop, oh where will we live now is nice. It's interesting and keeps things fresh.

In contrast to Mathenaut, who plays short campaigns, I pretty much play to stick around on the planet. Which means that I'm always thinking and planning ahead, where I'm going to build, expanding the colony well beyond merely surviving, but thriving.  I'm thinking about long-term defence, hoarding food, keeping some supplies buried away at the back of my base in case of major (but recoverable) damage to the base.

Not that I'm saying that these aren't useful things to have for a group that instead intends to leave the planet, but they are less of a priority than gathering the resources needed to complete a ship.

I think it's interesting to build things in ways which you haven't done before. Like for example, a couple of games ago I built out in the open, and it was very cold, so I ran power lines around and through pylons (just a conduit wall in the middle of a road) so that all the individual homes would have heating.

On top of that, each home had a pair of insulative airlocks, and a crooked entryway so that colonists didn't walk right out into clear lines of fire when leaving home to go about their daily routine.

I never did figure out if those were good choices, but it was more fun than making Generic Central Command Base #72.

[Mathenaut]

I never did figure out if those were good choices, but it was more fun than making Generic Central Command Base #72.

That is my feeling on alot of the choices I make. What I like about the shorter games (I've done longer ones before) is that they stay fresh.

Because threats are limited in scope and the number/intensity of events is also limited and predictable (even on Randy) over the long term.. The long games can, and will, get boring and monotonous. To a point, that isn't really anyone's fault, that's just statistics. The longer you play the game, the more everything will be the same.

The problem I see is that the game simply isn't developed enough for the scale that some people are playing on. There simply isn't enough content present to keep things fresh for 20 years on a colony.

[rtiger]

Well, we could try something akin to that classic dwarf fortress killer if handled wrong... LAVA!  Random Cave-ins are another option, though it would be wise to add in a support structure to prevent it.

On another note though, I tend to agree as well, and with the addition of siege engines, it has made it that much more enticing to go underground. You just need to keep in mind the risks of collapse if you dig carelessly.

[DNK]

It does see too easy to just dig out stuff. I get that DF has this as the default building method, but it'd be nice if in this game the rock areas were prohibitively difficult to remove, and we were forced to more build around them than in them (which would make biomes have a greater effect on us too). Of course, it'd need to be rebalanced with more steel/etc drops and a higher rate of chunk drops (100%) and higher stone block production per chunk.

I mean, we're not dwarves here, we're human. Mining is a rough job, not a lazy afternoon's work.