Cassandra or Randy? [Noob question I think]

[Skynert]

Hi, I'm new here. Well, I've played Rimworld for 138h but still fell like a noob. My question is: What story teller is better for start? Now I play on Cassandra Rough and... She's stubbornly try to kill my pawns. For one year i had 20 raids, plauge, malaria and nanites parasite. Now half of the colony have gut worms... so, are Randy better?

[Mr.Cross]

Randy is random to a certain extent, apperently he is easier over time, but he can be brutal to new colonies, Cassandra is tough in the long run but also has a "learning" curve to it

[Limdood]

general wisdom is that randy is much harder (or much easier, but has the POTENTIAL to be much harder) in the early game, but cassandra is harder in late game, as she artificially scales raids beyond what colony wealth would require.

[TheMeInTeam]

Having done lots of Cas/extreme and less Randy/extreme, I'm inclined to conclude that Cas is harder on average, and substantially so.  I might have just rolled low-odds outcomes on the Randy lottos, but that's only plausible so long.

The main challenge point with Randy is that he can hit you with unusual stuff early, in contrast to Cas.  However, if you can comfortably micromanage fights vs mech ships with short bows and such, Randy's tendency to give you long periods of nothing makes it easier to set up defenses, after which you're probably going to win.

There is a small window where Randy can screw you, and even then only with relatively unlikely event combos.  Cas will put the pedal down on extreme.  You can and will be raided with bigger-than colony numbers and pretty early.  Randy might do that + 50% strength, but in most cases you get a cargo drop or psychic drone or other comparatively benign stuff at that timing.

[Skynert]

Thanks, BTW. Raids are easy for me becouse I use several mods, mines for example ;p

[ProjectXa3]

Is Phoebe Chillax not an option for the purposes of this question?

[TheMeInTeam]

Is Phoebe Chillax not an option for the purposes of this question?

She certainly is, but I can't comment on how she plays.  I refuse to use her because her stated design isn't what I go for when playing Rimworld, but for OP's purposes she might screw him less maybe...assuming she doesn't just spam events at same rate as Cas but with "less raids and more non-raid harassments".

[Gohihioh]

When I started this game I was always choosing Cassandra cos I heard crazy things about Randy and I didn't want my game to be too hard.
I made few playthroughs with Cassandra then I swapped to Randy feeling I understand this game enough and I'm ready for more challenge.

I must say I keep playing on Randy since then but Randy is a lot easier for the most time. Randy has tougher early game and sometimes can give you few ugly events at same time which can be painful. In general he is random to an extent and has pretty easy late game(you can have a lot of colony memebers without him punishing you for it).

Cassandra has better learning curve and has much easier early game, but if you like playing long games with one colony like me then shit will get real. Cassandra late game will pretty much try to do anything to hurt you as much as she can. Everyday will become struggle if you desire to have big colony with too many members.

So from my experience:
Cassandra is better for learning the game, and if you like to face real challenge later in the game.
Randy is better for fun, is more unpredictable and can sometimes destroy your colony early on. Can be boring late game.

To be honest I feel like Cassandra is more fast paced, she just gives you steady rather slow approach until she decided to become a real bitch. Kinda like sweet dating then sudden marriage comes into play, later children are born and everything is like on steroids and you have no idea how you managed to live through day.
When Randy is the friend you go to parties and sometimes you just chill, drink cold beer and have fun but  sometimes he gets so drunk and get you into trouble so you have to fight angry guards in the club and run away from police, then you become rich, hire expensive lawyers and you don't give a fuck what happens to you anymore.

Never tried Phoebe so can't tell.

@edit
I forgot to mention - I play usually on Intense or Rough. Didin't play Randy on extreme yet.

[ProjectXa3]

Is Phoebe Chillax not an option for the purposes of this question?

She certainly is, but I can't comment on how she plays.  I refuse to use her because her stated design isn't what I go for when playing Rimworld, but for OP's purposes she might screw him less maybe...assuming she doesn't just spam events at same rate as Cas but with "less raids and more non-raid harassments".

As a Phoebe player, then, I'll say this: I'm three years or so in right now, I've had about six raids, and of them the first five were single people, one was three, and one was a single Scyther. I've had about I want to say seven incidents of Manhunter random events, and most of them have been random Hares on the field, which would go on to get gunned down by my limited turret coverage. In general, by biggest threat was my own making when I accepted the fleeing refugee event recently and a whole six tribals with zero ranged weapons between them ran onto the map in pursuit. Frankly, the most dangerous thing Phoebe has spawned so far was that one time early in year 2 when 8 Yorkies showed up and decided they live here now, and then the following winter they nearly ate me out of house and home (little non-hunting fuckers...).

If you want some room to breathe but don't want to be TOTALLY unchallenged by the storyteller, go Phoebe on Base Builder difficulty. It's what I do, and I've survived three years now with a floating stock of less than 450 steel.

[Skynert]

I just started new colony after Cass throw at me siege of 15 raiders. I had 9 pawns. Now I play Randy some challenge (or something ;p ) Tribal start, for now 9 days passed and only had single manhunter ibex with dementia. Randy is better.

[Gohihioh]

With Cass the major factor of difficulty going up is number of pawns(in my experience).
Usually when I got around 10 colonists things starts to get dirty. If I remember correctly Cass has about 13-15 colonists max, and 18-20 critical. So any time you get to that number she will pretty much try to do everything she can do lower that number.

Randy is just random early on. If you get unlucky or he will caught you unprepared you can easily get wiped. Cass early on is very predictable(at least in Rimworld standards xD)
With Randy I got once 2 raids and manhunter pack at once. Luckily manhunters wiped out one of raids group. But after I dealt with manhunters and raid, few hours later I got siege. So he can be fun if he decides to throw too many dices. This forum is full of stories like that.

[Mr.Cross]

I mean you could technically be the raiding group now  , I took my meager rations after a raid either killed or captured four colonists (I only had six), one was a good colonist and the other was utter shit. we went and raided a pirate faction took out maybe 4 of the 15 defenders before both colonists were downed. Can't say that was a huge gain in my books but I sure as hell had a great time doing it 

[The Nickman]

I've always struggled with Cassandra vs Randy, but I've pretty much settled (as seems to be the general consensus here) on playing Randy Extreme for the first few years until the game gets boring and then switching over to Cassandra.  Randy Extreme to start really can wipe you off the map and I really do prefer the complete randomness, but as others have said, once your base is established, you really need to switch to Cassandra so she can ramp it up and try and wipe you out.