How is the pacing in Alpha 13 Cassandra Classic?

[Tynan]

Hey, how's the pacing on Cassandra Classic in the vanilla game of Alpha 13?

Thanks.

[Tynan]

I appreciate it but I'd prefer to keep this on topic, I really just want to collect feedback here.

[keylocke]

the first two years is hectic. then it plateaus on the 3rd year when most of the base is finished and the player got around 16 population and most of them starts accumulating combat skills, legendary weapons/power armor, bionics, and an army of pets.

though i'm not sure if there's actually a population cap on cassandra and phoebe or if the triggers that allows you recruit more people past a certain point are severely gimped (unlike randy.. i sometimes get 20+ people on randy)

so generally, little to no population fluctuations also mean there's not much point extending or modifying the infrastructures once you already got a completely self-sufficient/well defended base. gameplay becomes "let's wait for something interesting to happen, before i decide to quit and start a new colony"

---

i really wanna see the colonists make babies so there's something to look forward to.. like playing a single colony for decades just to see the next generation grow up, instead of giving up and starting a new one from scratch when i get bored.

[Listy]

Seems ok.

Its a constant worry about components though (especially with them not being displayed in the resources tabs). I was a bit horrified to get a raider armed with a triple rocket launcher when some of my guys were still armed with logs of wood though.

One thing that is killing me over and over again is the infections. I've lost a good 2-3 people from it despite having medications.
Equally asthma is a real pain in the arse. Constant "Colonist needs treatment" messages. I was about to launch into a discussion about it, then I remembered pacing feed back. So I knocked together some thoughts.
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=18498.0

[Mathenaut]

Might have been bad luck on my part, but my Cassandra is a big fan of nuclear fallout all of the sudden.

We have plenty of guns and innovative ways to stop raids and such, but we don't have alot of tools to fight diseases. There is nothing to really do to avoid them and it's just a constant drain on med resources.

Might also be just me, but I'm having alot of issues with pain - to the point that I'm savescumming to avoid a colony full of -10 debuffs from things I can't really do anything about (unless the pain is on a limb, in which case I'm at the mercy of the storyteller, but it's at least something). This is only really compounded by how rare traders are.

I was happy to see ground caravans, as I thought it was an innovative way to increase trade frequency without ships zooming by every few minutes. Seems that they're even rarer than before, which is bittersweet.

[Tynan]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts!

[RickyMartini]

There is more of a hectic time in the beginning because more things are behind research now. Plus, at the beginning it is crucial to get the most of the traders who come to visit you.

[Limdood]

cassandra classic seems fine....i could see it being a little slow, or a little fast depending on the colonists, so it feels right.

seems fast in the beginning, but for late colonies, having high wealth, the raid size can make the slower seeming events feel appropriate, because it will take a lot of recovery time.

[CarlCarbon]

Hi, i've been playing Rimworld since day one and I will say that things have improved in terms of pace but there is one thing that seems a bit off to me, Weapon Drops. Now I could be wrong but it seems like when I start a colony there are the 3 starter weapons rifle pistol and knife, which is perfect and the first raider that attacks always has just a knife. but around raid 3-4 they already have machine guns and more heavy duty equipment, which is fine and all but once you kill them you can just take these high value weapons and armor, I never really have the need to buy or manufacture weapons because the raiders drop amazing gear. It would be a good balance to make it so that when someone with a high value weapon like a sniper or assault rifle get hit, they begin to fall back or get behind cover in another location. From a role playing stand point it makes sense that the moron/new pirate recruit with a stick/pistol would die and the captain/squad leader who has armor and a good assault rifle knows a bit more about what he is doing and survives. In my case it seems like the guy with the really good gear runs into the turrets first and gets blasted away and his newbie pistol goonies just run away, and I don't even bother chasing because I have already gotten to good gear there is no need to hunt for that newbie pirates pistol when I already have this better npcs sniper. It would be interesting if you kill everyone but the guy with the machine gun and good gear begins to flee and you chase him down.

Basically it seems like in the beginning with the basic weapons its a struggle and it takes skill and effort to use the slow firing weapons but at some point you kill enough pirates early on that the game dramatically changes in your favor on cassandra classic. Ive played rim world on the hardest setting and I still have no real "need" to manufacture or buy weapons and such, the raiders drop all I need I never have it in my head to buy weapons or craft them. I would love to think "wow these raiders are getting better gear I need to make weapons for my colonists to combat this new equipment" its more like "I cant wait to kill these raiders so I can get their gear which they carelessly run into my defenses"

Hopefully this doesn't seem like a rant, This game is slowly becoming my favorite game, I would just like it if the npcs with the good gear would be more careful instead of just running into a wall of turrets first because they do tend to drop good gear early on, making it a little too easy for a colony to fight the next raid/event. I enjoy the way those snipers behave most of the time, they sit very far back and fire single shot rounds that devastate, and you have to use your logic and reasoning to find a way to flank/take him out in the early stages of the game before he causes damage to your front line which is only equiped with fairly weak early gear, thats a good ai there.

[brucethemoose]

Cassandra has sent in psychic drone ships WAY too early in the 2 games I tried.

1st colony had a turret killbox setup, but no mortars. We simply didn't have the numbers to deal with the mechanoids, so the colony deteriorated.


So, next game, I decided to rush researching mortars, but the a psychic ship came even earlier. I was fortunate enough to have 1 good sniper at that point, but I had to build a bunker, abuse some raiders and save scum like hell to deal with the mechanoids over multiple days... It was brutal.


TL;DR: PLEASE set the physic drone "delay" to something longer Tynan. I'm OK with Randy sending a ship in early, but that's not something an early Cassandra colony should have to deal with.

[Shurp]

Cassandra seems a liitle slow.  The raids on Extreme are definitely a challenge but it seems kinda dull in between.  Maybe more frequent smaller raids would be a good compromise?

[Mathenaut]

Cassandra has sent in psychic drone ships WAY too early in the 2 games I tried.

1st colony had a turret killbox setup, but no mortars. We simply didn't have the numbers to deal with the mechanoids, so the colony deteriorated.


So, next game, I decided to rush researching mortars, but the a psychic ship came even earlier. I was fortunate enough to have 1 good sniper at that point, but I had to build a bunker, abuse some raiders and save scum like hell to deal with the mechanoids over multiple days... It was brutal.


TL;DR: PLEASE set the physic drone "delay" to something longer Tynan. I'm OK with Randy sending a ship in early, but that's not something an early Cassandra colony should have to deal with.

I had that happen to me in a game. Dropped right ontop of my colony. It wasn't much, but that early on it only takes a single centipede to destroy everything.

With my garbage equipment, I managed to take it down. I lost the social character I had.. So I was down to 3 colonists, and that was pretty much all I had for the rest of the game. The threats got bigger, but I couldn't do much with no gold and few components.

That isn't the first time I've had that kind of dead-end game in A13

[Speeny]

I feel she is a little too aggressive. Had a tribal attack of like 15 guys with all great bows and 3 clubs then 3 days later mercs dropped on my base with rocket launchers and nades. Wiped that colony off the map. At prior point she threw a blight solar flair and cold snap at me in the span of 3 in game hours.

[brucethemoose]

Cassandra has sent in psychic drone ships WAY too early in the 2 games I tried.

1st colony had a turret killbox setup, but no mortars. We simply didn't have the numbers to deal with the mechanoids, so the colony deteriorated.


So, next game, I decided to rush researching mortars, but the a psychic ship came even earlier. I was fortunate enough to have 1 good sniper at that point, but I had to build a bunker, abuse some raiders and save scum like hell to deal with the mechanoids over multiple days... It was brutal.


TL;DR: PLEASE set the physic drone "delay" to something longer Tynan. I'm OK with Randy sending a ship in early, but that's not something an early Cassandra colony should have to deal with.

I had that happen to me in a game. Dropped right ontop of my colony. It wasn't much, but that early on it only takes a single centipede to destroy everything.

With my garbage equipment, I managed to take it down. I lost the social character I had.. So I was down to 3 colonists, and that was pretty much all I had for the rest of the game. The threats got bigger, but I couldn't do much with no gold and few components.

That isn't the first time I've had that kind of dead-end game in A13

That's some bad luck right there. I usually play the biggest map size, so I've never had a ship drop right on the colony... that 2nd one I mention was on the opposite corner of the map.

And yeah, the centipedes can just absorb so much damage. Without later-game weapons or a sniper to kite and pick them off, you'll almost certainly lose colonists attacking them.

[Shurp]

But... centipedes can't hit turrets.  So once your colonists take out the scythers, let the turrets finish the job.

(At least they couldn't in a12, I haven't run into any yet in a13)