Game balance issue

[Shurp]

So I'm playing on Cassandra extreme (probably not a good choice) and I've run into a problem.  When a raid of 14 pirates shows up and attacks my base, my 6 turrets and 6 colonists with bolt-action rifles can take them down easily.  But when a band of 14 pirates decides to build mortars and start shelling my base, I'm screwed.  I've only been on planet for 70 days so I haven't had time to research mortars to fire back at 'em, and attacking them with just the 6 colonists is suicide.

So what can I do to achieve some sort of balance of difficulty?  As it stands right now sieges are the *only* threat to my colony -- I can handle everything else easily.  I could abandon turrets but then I would have to seriously drop the difficulty to avoid getting slaughtered by raids, and then everything else would be *too* easy. 

The only thing I can think of that might work is switching to a tribal ice sheet start on low difficulty... but that sounds more like a boring slow suicide than anything actually fun.

Any other suggestions?

[jamaicancastle]

If you managed to scavenge any sniper rifles, sieges are very bad about responding to people trying to pick them off from afar. You'll have to deal with any siegers with sniper rifles, but then they're pretty much sitting ducks. I recommend starting this immediately, so you can pick off their builders while they're trying to set up.

You have to be careful, though, because once they take some losses they'll try to rush your base.

[Shurp]

Well that was the trouble I had.  Bolt action rifles have long enough range to pick off the siegers.  But after I killed 5 of them the remaining 9 turned and attacked, and one pirate with grenades got close so I had those colonists break cover and run -- and they promptly got executed by the one raider with a sniper rifle.

If it had only been 10 I probably could have won a war of attrition but with 14 it just went badly.

[erdrik]

Well that was the trouble I had.  Bolt action rifles have long enough range to pick off the siegers.  But after I killed 5 of them the remaining 9 turned and attacked, and one pirate with grenades got close so I had those colonists break cover and run -- and they promptly got executed by the one raider with a sniper rifle.
...

Sounds like a poor choice of location for the engagement?
I dunno, what is the maps terrain like? Typically if I was trying to trigger an assault while avoiding the snipers, I would initiate the "poking tactic" near some mountains/hills so I can break line of sight when the enemy switches to assault mode.

If we are talking fully open fields ... then thats kinda part of the risk you take. Sieges and snipers are hell on open maps, unless you prep ahead of time by building a bunch of random walls all over the map to hide behind.

[Shurp]

Yes, that's my complaint -- some engagements are outrageously far more difficult than others.  "siegers and snipers on an open map"... I'm trying to figure out how to keep things a bit more balanced.

Stepping up the difficulty of all the other confrontations... not the most sensible way to do it, but might work

[Sir Prize]

I play on extreme as well. If it's not super unlucky and I got nobodies past day 50's, what I do is get all the decent people that can research and craft. By this way I can have 5-6 people levelling up research at the same time and also able to put down a perimeter wall for all the other raids. I make sure the research room is impressive and spacious with many flowers planted on the ground for beauty bonus along with maybe dining chairs if possible.
    I know you already mentioned not having the research yet but I built 6 high-tech research benches just so I could have every single person research. This anti siege research rush will work every single time unless you're unlucky with new recruits

[Sir Prize]

Perimeter wall and mortar along with an opening in the wall that's in turret range keeps everything away except sometimes tribals can cause some damage on turrets and of course the only problem is sapper raid that blows the walls. Sappers will carve a path that has zero or minimal turret coverage and don't care about traps.
      I make second small layer of wall on the weak no turret coverage spot and have some incendiary cannon and whatever grenades to shoot the sappers taking cover around the wall they blew up. Almost immune to everything. Was having fun earlier with 70 artillery shells and just bombarding anyone that decided to "prepare" : D
      5-6 Researching on high-tech benches with good mood also allows you to get deep drills and have more steel than you can use. Could also stumble on plasteel with it. Can get 1100+ plasteel from it

[Thraxon]

You could just equip all your dude with long bows.

Snipe the boring guys and run back to your base when they charge to get back your assault rifle

[A Friend]

• Insanity lance a melee unit then have your guys close in and attack them while they're distracted.
• Wait till night time and then seal off their mortars.
• Piss off a predator nearby the camp and then attack them while they're distracted.
• Engage them head on and hope for the best.
• Set up some bunkers nearby. Put a couple batteries inside and reinstall some turrets. Lure the raiders to engage the turrets.
• Devmode -> Tool: Kill

[Shurp]

Devmode -> Tool: Kill

Devmode -> Tool: Explosion is so much more fun

Anyway, I decided to give Tribal/Mountains/Rough a try.  I have some nice killboxes built, and I'll have great bows by the time the raiders show up.  If only half a dozen raiders show up I should be able to plink them to death without turrets. 

On the other hand, if a dozen show up in spite of being on "rough" then I'll be forced to conclude that mobile turret batteries are the only way to go.

[SpaceDorf]

Remember to wound the raiders .. not kill.

If you kill them they attack .. if you only cripple them, they don't.

[Draconicrose]

Seems simple enough. Shoot them from afar until you get the "are attacking the colony" message and then run back to the protection of your turrets IMMEDIATELY instead of trying to fight them where they probably have sandbags and you're lucky to have chunks.

[Shurp]

"and then run back"

ie: break cover and get shot in the back of the head repeatedly

Retreating doesn't work well.  Better to park the turrets up front and shoot from behind them.

[Sola]

I wouldn't call "a hard raid" a balance issue.  Do you have a hard time with sappers?  Toxic fallout?  Insect infestation?  This is just another one of those.

Melee rushing works well against siegers you can't snipe.  Do you have access to armor vest and simple helmet?  How about duster/buttondown/pants?

6 vs 14 is a little rough, yes.  And sometimes, you'll get a situation you're thoroughly unprepared for, but that's just how the dice are rolled in a procedurally generated roguelike.  However, the more important question, rather than saying "This is impossible, bad game, 0/5", is to say, "How could I have done that differently?"

Did you turn away too many potential new pawns because their stats weren't good enough?
Did you quickly rely on lethal force for raids when nonlethal options should have been used (killing pawns instead of downing them)?
Did you focus too heavily on a turret based defense system when you could have gone for armor vests instead?
Did you have your researcher spend enough time on researching?

Not trying to preach or anything.  I've also been screwed by "Oh great.  My whole colony has malaria on day 40.  That costs me ten days and consciousness points during the next raid", and when I died, it left me with a wholly unsatisfied feeling.  But in most cases, blaming the game only makes you get sick of it faster.

Things like this will help improve your next game.

[TheMeInTeam]

Breaking a siege on those odds is pretty sticky.  I had to practice what you can get away with in terms of timing a lot as tribe while limited to pickups.

You can snipe them into attacking you, or make some walls/doors near to perimeter of the map so you can harass the sieges without return fire.

The way the game is balanced right now, extreme kind of requires working mechanics in one way or another.  You can't sustain raid wins in fair/pitched battles vs over double the attackers.  You also don't have to do so.

I admit I raise an eyebrow when people argue against killboxes then turn around and mention an alternative method of defending raids that boils down to killing > 2x the attackers without risk or very little when micromanaged properly.  Sieges and sappers are there to ruin complete reliance on a killbox anyway, so you need alternative plans for them, both low and high tech, if you want to consistently survive.