Is Rough the Most Fun Difficulty?

[vampiresoap]

After apparently "beating" extreme difficulty I found the game so boring...mostly because I had to sacrifice so much just to survive. On extreme difficulty I had no choice but to make a small but compact base because of how much easier it is to defend against raids...as a result, everybody has a shitty, tiny room lol...Speaking of raids, they come so often and so hard that my colonists basically don't get any rest...if they are not fighting, they're training or thinking about new defense strategies. I should've named my colony New Sparta.

Whereas in Rough difficulty, I get to do so much more. My colonists are so much happier and I get to do things like exploration, planting cotton for pretty clothes, taming random animals just for the heck of it, etc.

[CrazyEyes]

The most fun difficulty is the one you have the most fun with.

[A Friend]

Edit: A more accurate depiction

Anyways,
Lowering difficulties just give you more breathing room at the start. The older your colony gets, the more it'll resemble something you'd usually see from Extreme. But in the end, it's mostly up to what you prefer.
I usually go with either CC Intense or Rough. I like a challenge without getting totally crushed like the scrub I am.

[Xav]

I tend to enjoy Random on rough difficulty setting.

Moderately sized raids (although they can come in quickly after one another) and no bonuses.

Plenty of events and (usually) plenty of time to recover from them and build/manage.  Sometimes it is too easy and sometimes too hard, but I think that is the point of 'Random'.  I find it to be a balanced way to play.

[b0rsuk]

Raids are the only danger that can consistently wipe out a colony. The biggest effect of difficulty levels is on raids. I wish there were more serious non-combat threats.

[Nuss]

Raids are the only danger that can consistently wipe out a colony. The biggest effect of difficulty levels is on raids. I wish there were more serious non-combat threats.

Yes! In a way, Rimworld can be compared well with King of Dragon Pass, which featured many cool non-combat encounters and problems.

[jpinard]

This thread is exactly why I created the post amount needing official new events now vs. later.  The more people say they get "bored" with the game the harder it will be to get new sales and keep player involvement high.  See https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=30586.0

[b0rsuk]

This thread is exactly why I created the post amount needing official new events now vs. later.  The more people say they get "bored" with the game the harder it will be to get new sales and keep player involvement high.  See https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=30586.0

This game is fundamentally a sandbox, and they can get very boring if there's no difficulty or pressure. Fans of sandboxes say "but you can do anything you want". This is less interesting if a game has limited emergence and lots of game-y mechanics. Tynan isn't a big fan of simulation and is cutting corners in that department.

There are many counter-intuitive mechanics in Rimworld. For example, raids. If you save shotly before a raid, you can... reload to get a different type of raid. Different faction, maybe mechanoids instead of tribals, or pirates. Storyteller says: "It's raid time! I'll choose one of hostile factions to raid you!". This suggests they don't decide independently, and having more enemies doesn't necessarily result in more raids!

[PiggyBacon]

I always go CC Extreme it adds excitement 24/7 and the sadness of having to bury colonists every few days. If you get attached to someone they've been around too long in my mind.

[jpinard]

This thread is exactly why I created the post amount needing official new events now vs. later.  The more people say they get "bored" with the game the harder it will be to get new sales and keep player involvement high.  See https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=30586.0

This game is fundamentally a sandbox, and they can get very boring if there's no difficulty or pressure. Fans of sandboxes say "but you can do anything you want". This is less interesting if a game has limited emergence and lots of game-y mechanics. Tynan isn't a big fan of simulation and is cutting corners in that department.

There are many counter-intuitive mechanics in Rimworld. For example, raids. If you save shotly before a raid, you can... reload to get a different type of raid. Different faction, maybe mechanoids instead of tribals, or pirates. Storyteller says: "It's raid time! I'll choose one of hostile factions to raid you!". This suggests they don't decide independently, and having more enemies doesn't necessarily result in more raids!

Writing on my ipad sucks LOL.  I can't convey my points.  What I was trying to say is greater difficulty level and extreme environments are a * symptom* of people hitting and often blowing by the storytelling limit.  I wasn't trying to say people should not feel free to ramp up challenge for fun as they see fit.  But for the long term health and financial model of the game it makes sense to increase the number of events soon so people don't claim to get "bored" or are feeling as if they're playing a game with plain old scripted events vs. a game with engaging emergent gameplay.  The math I was trying to point out is for each event Tynan creates, there is an exponential effect on the unique stories people will write about on-line.  For those that brave through DF's horrific, passive aggressive, insane interface the pull is great enough to fund them - basically forever at the rate they're going.  I'd like to see that for Rimworld and Tynan (especially because I am not gong to play DF where I'd spend half my time parsing menus with an interface that openly hates the people playing the game).

[vampiresoap]

I always go CC Extreme it adds excitement 24/7 and the sadness of having to bury colonists every few days. If you get attached to someone they've been around too long in my mind.

Yeah...but like, I managed to beat every raid even on extreme difficulties...without casualties at all. Heck, sometimes my guys didn't get so much as a scratch. It gets boring after awhile because you kind of get used to the routine...Spoiler alert, there's only a few types of raids...and they always behave the same way. You know all the counters after awhile. Like sniping siege equipment, kill boxing poorly armored tribals, shutting the door and waiting out boomerat/boomerlope packs...

And they come so often that you basically don't get to slow down and enjoy anything else.

[PiggyBacon]

I always go CC Extreme it adds excitement 24/7 and the sadness of having to bury colonists every few days. If you get attached to someone they've been around too long in my mind.

Yeah...but like, I managed to beat every raid even on extreme difficulties...without casualties at all. Heck, sometimes my guys didn't get so much as a scratch. It gets boring after awhile because you kind of get used to the routine...Spoiler alert, there's only a few types of raids...and they always behave the same way. You know all the counters after awhile. Like sniping siege equipment, kill boxing poorly armored tribals, shutting the door and waiting out boomerat/boomerlope packs...

And they come so often that you basically don't get to slow down and enjoy anything else.

Get creative don't use kill boxes or turrets. Don't let your guards use snipers or power armor or any kind of wall just sandbags. Only use doors on bedrooms nowhere else. Force a challenge if there isn't one my current colony has forced Toxic Fallouts year round try that if the game is too easy.

[XeoNovaDan]

Difficulty is an interesting thing...

I'm currently rocking Randy Random Extreme Permadeath on my almost 7 year-old colony, and there was recently a tranquil period that lasted from Spring to early Autumn... after that came the psychic ship which was little trouble, then the pirate raid which got wiped out by deadfalls alone, and then I got raid after raid after raid of outlanders... Each raid probably consisting of around 35-45 people versus my 13 colonists.

The first of the lot was little trouble as they died to deadfalls, the second cut it close with a few getting into the box but with a few deadfalls remaining, the third really got into the killbox and managed to down somebody but otherwise we survived... the fourth however, was a massacre.

The fourth raid was a sapper raid from the West. As soon as I noticed it was a sapper raid (which had 3 fraggers and a molotov guy), I knew some real damage was going to happen. They crowded around my West entrance, lobbing frag after frag at my stalwart double-plasteel-doored entrance; buying me enough time to get everybody into position - I also had my pacifist use an insanity lance on one of the frag grenadiers, causing some minor damage to the raiders as a whole, and mitigating some threat. As they broke through, bloodshed happened in the masses; storms of bullets flew through the alleys around the kitchen/freezer area, screams and explosions filled the air, frag grenades were thrown through a few at a time... two casualties: Princess the head warden, and Wu the head chef. I had trigger-happy Krand spraying his minigun down the north-south alley, obliterating anything that dare step in the way, and everybody else spraying and praying that they would break... the assault was repelled.

Screenshots of the immediate aftermath and a few days later: http://imgur.com/a/tLsfD

As for Rough being the most fun difficulty, it is certainly laid-back compared to Intense and particularly Extreme. You can generally be less on-edge about raids and be more free with other things like caravans, loose defending, etcetera. I'm reluctant to caravan on Extreme because the slightest deficit of manpower could be very costly should a raid come during the absence of a few members.