Does having a second colony mean less raids etc in original colony?

[The Man with No Name]

I've set up a second colony, near my original one, to collect resources from. There's a basic shack there, but nobody lives there permanently.

This second colony gets events, like raids, even when there's nobody there. Will having this additional colony affect the frequency of similar events in my original colony?

I can see two ways of it doing this:

1) Raids happen with the same frequency, but are now split between the two colonies, so the original colony only gets half as many raids as before (and in my instance, the raids on my second colony are inconsequential unless there's anyone there).

2) I presume that events don't happen concurrently at different colonies, so if one colony is suffering a raid, then there won't be one at the other (since the human player cannot fight two battles simultaneously)? If so, then, in my instance, there could be a raid event going on at the second colony, until the raiders eventually get bored and leave the map, during which time the original colony would be "immune" from a raid.

Are these factors in play?

[jamaicancastle]

I was kind of curious about this myself so I looked at the actual logic. As far as I can tell, each independent "target" of events - each settled map and each active caravan - is queued up for its own events, totally independent of the others. So having two maps means that you will have twice as many raids.

I think, in the special case of raids and other events that relate to the colony's points value, that that is a per-map value. So raids on your resource outpost will be tiny, but they will happen. Some other events won't happen if there aren't any valid targets (breakdowns, for instance), but if there are valid targets, they'll happen at the same rate as the main colony.

Note that "same rate" doesn't mean "at the same time" or anything; it's random. The storyteller might decide to be nice to one or the other map, just like it might decide to be nice to you if there's only one map.

I have heard that raids can happen to both maps simultaneously (and are a huge headache) so I wouldn't count on that saving you.

[asanbr]

Disclaimer: All my experience comes from playing A17. I haven't played A18.

Raids do happen on two or more maps simultaneously. There is no such immunity or protection.

It is playable with a lot of pausing and swapping back and forth, but yeah, difficult to handle.

I had the impression that the game became easier with many colonies. I think this is because my men are spread out, so the raids on the main base become smaller, and it becomes easier to defend.

Raids on the small expansion bases can often be defended well by sending 1-2 good soldiers in from another base, so we end up spending a lot of steel on pods, but it seemed worthwhile to me.

Also, I tend to build my expansions in stone as much as possible, since on those occasions when they become overrun and we need to flee, the destruction isn't as bad, and restoring the base is a lot easier than a steel or wood base that can get totally burned down.

[Dashthechinchilla]

The only aspect that the second colony will change the raids in your first is the wealth of the first. That all depends on the resources you move and when raids hit. If your second colony makes the first super wealthy, raids there will actually get worse.

[RyanRim]

I tried that recently, having a mining colony near my main. I deployed my pawns back to the main settlement after I got like 500 steel and buttload of jade. After that exotic good traders came to the empty mining colony, just wandering around. That happened later on as well, just when I sent my pawns out. I fell there should be an option to check colonies "inactive", so traders would choose the "right" one.

[Scrabbling]

I tried that recently, having a mining colony near my main. I deployed my pawns back to the main settlement after I got like 500 steel and buttload of jade. After that exotic good traders came to the empty mining colony, just wandering around. That happened later on as well, just when I sent my pawns out. I fell there should be an option to check colonies "inactive", so traders would choose the "right" one.

As others explained above: Multiple colonies are completely independent from each other. So that trader would have never shown up if you hadn't had that second colony. So you lost nothing by that trader showing up at the "wrong" colony.

[The Man with No Name]

Thanks for the replies. Good to hear that events are calculated separately. I guess it would be possible to fight simultaneous raids on multiple maps, although I can imagine it could get pretty hectic. The Avoid Friendly Fire mod should help reduce the likelihood of mindless acts of self-homicide by unsupervised colonists on another map in such eventualities.