Extreme Desert Challenge

[XeoNovaDan]

Introduction
Hello people, the Extreme Desert Challenge has now hit the forums! Inspired by Rhadamant's (from who'm I also sought permission to bring this to light) Sea Ice Community Challenge, this instance takes things to the opposite end of the spectrum: You're now fighting the sweltering heat of a particularly mean Extreme Desert as opposed to the bitter cold of a particularly mean Sea Ice.

Much like the Sea Ice Community Challenge, the scenario powering the Extreme Desert Challenge is based off the 'Rich Explorer' scenario where you won't have a starting pet, except now there's a permanent heat wave as opposed to cold snap, and there's a climate cycle in play - so be prepared!

Starting Pawn
Another key difference is that the story is started by a name-in-game pawn called Lumi, as opposed to Engie in the polar opposite of this challenge. Lumi has a full set of good traits going for her too, and she's an excellent fighter - whilst not so great at activities outside of fighting; she has great potential to become good, especially in Medicine and Growing (courtesy of EDB Prepare Carefully).

In regards to clothing, Lumi is equipped with some tribalwear, and a rather sub-par duster in terms of insulation (raccoon leather to be exact) - but that extra heat insulation can buy a few extra seconds and mean the difference between scraping through, or keeling over from extreme heatstroke!

The World
The world is generated at full size for the sake of maximum explorability, with one-above-minimum rainfall so there are patches of arid shrublands interspersed in the vast deserts and barren wastelands, and the thermostat is cranked to the max!

The starting tile is at the most ludicrous of ludeonicrous sizes, is flat, and rock types present are poor in terms of use in structure (but any rock is better than steel). You'll crashland near a ruined building so that the challenge is even possible ktf with.

That's it!
That's the scenario and surroundings summarised! Go forth, and make me proud people

Save game can be found attached to the post (best compression ftw).
Put the save game in C:/Users/YourName/AppData/LocalLow/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios/Saves

Your drive letter may be different to 'C:', but C: is the default, and 'YourName' is pretty self-explanatory.

Good luck!

[attachment deleted by admin due to age]

[Lawlzer]

Introduction
Hello people, the Extreme Desert Challenge has now hit the forums! Inspired by Rhadamant's (from who'm I also sought permission to bring this to light) Sea Ice Community Challenge, this instance takes things to the opposite end of the spectrum: You're now fighting the sweltering heat of a particularly mean Extreme Desert as opposed to the bitter cold of a particularly mean Sea Ice.

Much like the Sea Ice Community Challenge, the scenario powering the Extreme Desert Challenge is based off the 'Rich Explorer' scenario where you won't have a starting pet, except now there's a permanent heat wave as opposed to cold snap, and there's a climate cycle in play - so be prepared!

Starting Pawn
Another key difference is that the story is started by a name-in-game pawn called Lumi, as opposed to Engie in the polar opposite of this challenge. Lumi has a full set of good traits going for her too, and she's an excellent fighter - whilst not so great at activities outside of fighting; she has great potential to become good, especially in Medicine and Growing (courtesy of EDB Prepare Carefully).

In regards to clothing, Lumi is equipped with some tribalwear, and a rather sub-par duster in terms of insulation (raccoon leather to be exact) - but that extra heat insulation can buy a few extra seconds and mean the difference between scraping through, or keeling over from extreme heatstroke!

The World
The world is generated at full size for the sake of maximum explorability, with one-above-minimum rainfall so there are patches of arid shrublands interspersed in the vast deserts and barren wastelands, and the thermostat is cranked to the max!

The starting tile is at the most ludicrous of ludeonicrous sizes, is flat, and rock types present are poor in terms of use in structure (but any rock is better than steel). You'll crashland near a ruined building so that the challenge is even possible ktf with.

That's it!
That's the scenario and surroundings summarised! Go forth, and make me proud people

Save game can be found attached to the post (best compression ftw).
Put the save game in C:/Users/YourName/AppData/LocalLow/Ludeon Studios/RimWorld by Ludeon Studios/Saves

Your drive letter may be different to 'C:', but C: is the default, and 'YourName' is pretty self-explanatory.

Good luck!

Cool idea! But my computer can't play on anything besides the normal world size... RIP...

[XeoNovaDan]

Cool idea! But my computer can't play on anything besides the normal world size... RIP...

Ayy, that's unfortunate. If you want to stick close to it though, the world seed is 'ridge'. Can't remember latitude and longitude of the exact spot though.

[Seeker89]

You might be able to change that in the save file....
maybe planetCoverage. from 1 to .30?

I was just about to check that but my notepad++ is being stupid.

[taha]

100% coverage + biggest map size for colony => not for me either

I'd rather have 30 pawns in a medium map than 5 in a huge one (and still experience stutters at 3x speed)

[Thyme]

I think the map size is more a problem than the world coverage. I went for a 100% coverage in my current A16 run because 30% just looks stupid (and prolly makes the friendly ship AI a joke). Turned out that the world gets generated when looking at it for the first time after load every time. Playing on an average 3yo ultrabook, this takes a few seconds of freeze and works instantly afterwards. Big maps however drain your cpu constantly.

[taha]

On Sea Ice Challenge, every time I was switching to World Map, I had this weird and annoying buzzing instead of normal music, and the comp was freezing for about 30 seconds in order to switch screens. So each time I had the "friendly AI" event, I chose "OK" and ignored the ship location (I've built my own). On map I had to limit my pawns to a max of 9 (including Engie).

I'm waiting to read stories from people, but unless I manage to get a brand new *and better* comp, I can't participate in this one

[eadras]

Talk about bleak!  Lumi is certainly in for a rough time.  Daytime highs of 205F (96C) make surviving the first day a challenge (she died twice before I managed it properly).  I'm afraid this story is going to quickly degenerate into human leather cowboy hats and "soylent green" nutrient paste...

[Hans Lemurson]

And you can't depend on food staying fresh like on the ice!

[Sola]

Deserts are much easier versions of ice sheets, I think.

I'll give it a shot this weekend and see if it proves me wrong :p

[b0rsuk]

Keep in mind there is no hot counterpart of Ice Sheet, let alone Sea Ice. Difficulty wise Extreme Desert is more like hot Tundra.

[eadras]

Did I mention the temperatures are approaching the boiling point of water, and it's the middle of "winter"?  There are no animals, and plants will never grow outdoors.  So, it's not a typical extreme desert.  The fact that the colonists can walk around at all in these temperatures illustrates the need for a revisiting of the temperature scale in Rimworld. 

I didn't try the sea ice challenge, so I can't compare, but there is definitely plenty of challenge here.  A wanderer joined before I had a greenhouse/indoor farm setup, and I made the mistake of allowing her to stay... going to have to start over, now.   

[SilentP]

Silly question, but is there a way we can get these awesome challenges put on the Steam Workshop?

[TheMeInTeam]

Keep in mind there is no hot counterpart of Ice Sheet, let alone Sea Ice. Difficulty wise Extreme Desert is more like hot Tundra.

The intended progression after temperate is:

boreal --> tundra --> ice sheet
~~
arid shrubland --> desert --> extreme desert

And to be fair, extreme desert shares some of ice sheet's difficulty.  Although it technically has wood, the replenishment rate is a joke.  Fauna being nearly non-existent makes pre-potato food an enormous problem for tribes in particular.

The reason it's still much easier is that you can set up a viable potato farm without tech investment or babying...just walk over to gravel and plant.  On ice sheet it doesn't work.  Given the settings in this one...

[Sola]

Keep in mind there is no hot counterpart of Ice Sheet, let alone Sea Ice. Difficulty wise Extreme Desert is more like hot Tundra.

The intended progression after temperate is:

boreal --> tundra --> ice sheet
~~
arid shrubland --> desert --> extreme desert

Having played these biomes myself, I must respectfully disagree.  "intended" by whom?