finally switched from Base Builder to Some Challenge.

Started by Kiter5, January 31, 2018, 12:59:18 PM

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Kiter5

I know, I'm a gaming wimp.

I  bet lots of people start out in a hard mode/level, but I like to warm up to things and am not an avid PC gamer. So I spent  a month enjoying base builder level.
decided to play Some Challenge. This AI (Pheobe) hates me. people get killedoff, she sends me Escape pods or refugees.... they are almost always non-violent. I have gone up and down in numbers. I am at 5 colonists right now. almost all are non-originals. only 2 will fight and they are shooting levels 1 and 3.

no real questions. just a rant, I guess. (am I allowed to post a just a solilioquy?)
and-  It might be awhile before I try the next harder level. (I love this game though)

(but sometimes I do wonder why non-violent colonist won't even defend themselves against a maddened rat. sigh)


BlackSmokeDMax

Quote from: Kiter5 on January 31, 2018, 12:59:18 PM
I know, I'm a gaming wimp.

I  bet lots of people start out in a hard mode/level, but I like to warm up to things and am not an avid PC gamer. So I spent  a month enjoying base builder level.
decided to play Some Challenge. This AI (Pheobe) hates me. people get killedoff, she sends me Escape pods or refugees.... they are almost always non-violent. I have gone up and down in numbers. I am at 5 colonists right now. almost all are non-originals. only 2 will fight and they are shooting levels 1 and 3.

no real questions. just a rant, I guess. (am I allowed to post a just a solilioquy?)
and-  It might be awhile before I try the next harder level. (I love this game though)

(but sometimes I do wonder why non-violent colonist won't even defend themselves against a maddened rat. sigh)

Don't worry what level you are playing on as long as you are having fun!

Just remember that the story teller is not the difficulty level. Phoebe is hard in a different way from the others. Because she doesn't send things as often it is easy to fall behind on defenses and not realize it. Her and Cassandra send things at the same level as each other, Cassandra just more often, so you keep more in mind to keep your defenses properly growing rather than getting zoned in on just expanding your colony and its wealth. The effect is you'll see larger jumps in difficulty between each Phoebe event, rather than more often, but smaller increases between each one with Cass.

Sometimes Randy is just plain easier, or could be much tougher. Random of course is random, but it seems more often it is easier, at least to me.

Kiter5

ah-ha (on the AI difference info- thanks)

Pheobe isn't cutting me much of a break yet, though, ha!  (she did give me a nice timeframe in the beginning to get started- but its all downhill, disease, and plagues now)

it's all good. it's fun. but my people will soon all be dead and the town will be run by Yukou the Cat and her friend the Iguana. (who are probably better at it than I am anyway)

Shurp

Don't forget that you can build turrets to defend your base if your pawns insist on being useless in combat.
If you give an annoying colonist a parka before banishing him to the ice sheet you'll only get a -3 penalty instead of -5.

And don't forget that the pirates chasing a refugee are often better recruits than the refugee is.

gipothegip

Phoebe can be surprisingly challenging sometimes IMO. She really seems to love environmental threats, at least for me anyway.

I think Cassandra is nicer sometimes, even though she'll hit more frequently (escpecially with combat events), she seems more forgiving and to give steady supply drops.

I haven't played Randy a ton, but as is suggested, he's a bit of wild card. I've had times that are really easy, and ones that are quite challenging; mostly because he is relatively random, where-as Phoebe and Cassandra follow a more defined curve.

As for recruits, you can't always count on them being good, they can usually do something though; incapable of violence can be a pain however (and it seems common in recent versions), the struggle is real. I second that turrets are useful, especially when you lack pawns who will actually fight.
Should I feel bad that nearly half my posts are in the off topic section?

Jibbles

Quote from: Kiter5 on January 31, 2018, 12:59:18 PM
I  bet lots of people start out in a hard mode/level, but I like to warm up to things and am not an avid PC gamer.

Seriously doing the right thing.  I gradually went up difficulty and I have to say Tynan nailed it here.  You know when you're ready to take it to the next level but many players want to rush it. So take it slow and enjoy your time!

The frustration with incapable of violence never goes away. An escape pod crashed into the pond today that contained one who's incapable of violence.  My pawns could never find her through all that water.   ::)

Harry_Dicks

Quote from: Jibbles on February 01, 2018, 06:25:59 AM
The frustration with incapable of violence never goes away. An escape pod crashed into the pond today that contained one who's incapable of violence.  My pawns could never find her through all that water.   ::)

I might suggest RF - Pawns Are Capable! Or Kiame's Force Pawn to do Job, this can allow a pawn to do something they are incapable of (with the first one) but they will get very pissy if they have to do it for long. Great for small, temporary situations. With Kiame's mod, you can click a pawn, and then right click anything and make them do it, without having to even enable the work priority. Say you have a pawn that normally won't do any dumb labor at all, including hauling. You could click that pawn, then right click a chunk, and tell him to haul it, whether they have the ability to or not, and you will never have to make that type of job temporarily available in the work tab.

I do suggest only using one of them, though. There is even a ModCheck error that will flash if you are using both of them, warning the player of possible wonky behavior.

Canute

Maybe try something special for your next colony.
Use a basebuilder Storyteller
But add at the Scenario editor
1-2 Create incident Enemy raid with repeating 3-7 days.

The storyteller give you non hostile events, while you get raided frequently.

Harry_Dicks

Quote from: Canute on February 02, 2018, 04:27:07 AM
Maybe try something special for your next colony.
Use a basebuilder Storyteller
But add at the Scenario editor
1-2 Create incident Enemy raid with repeating 3-7 days.

The storyteller give you non hostile events, while you get raided frequently.

Damn that's really smart, and I would have never thought of it. I wish we could edit what incidents/events we could encounter in game on the fly.

Canute

You can, edit the safegame with a texteditor.
Just create a new colony with these incidents you like, safe it.
find the incident entry at these new colony safegame, and copy them over to yours.

Injured Muffalo

My feeling on non violent colonists is they are at least as bad as pyromaniacs. They are doubly  dangerous; they cause larger raids and do nothing.

A muffalo encountered a vimp near a patch of sweet vegetables. A struggle ensued. The muffalo gored the vimp with its horns. The vimp bit the muffalo with its beak. Finally, the vimp was bested, sending large chunks of its flesh in every direction. But the muffalo was injured. It shed a single tear.

Harry_Dicks

Quote from: Canute on February 02, 2018, 10:25:38 AM
You can, edit the safegame with a texteditor.
Just create a new colony with these incidents you like, safe it.
find the incident entry at these new colony safegame, and copy them over to yours.

Hmm, never thought about looking at the save files. I had made a post in a thread I started asking about being able to disable incidents for one colony and not another. I'll definitely check that out though, but I'm guessing all of the events/incidents that you can turn on or off are for the entire save, and not colony specific (if you have 2+ colonies).

sadpickle

Phoebe is a bad storyteller for noobs. You won't get many raids, which while dangerous are a source of weapons, wealth and recruits. Phoebe will happily give you a cold snap every year in early fall, or toxic fallout in spring. These can be game-enders without rapid intervention. You will also get less colonists overall with Phoebe.

Cassandra is the harder of the two other storytellers, so I would recommend Randy for a new player. You will get lots of free material which can be huge, and there's practically no limit to how many colonists can join.

sick puppy

Quote from: sadpickle on February 04, 2018, 11:37:40 PM
Phoebe is a bad storyteller for noobs. You won't get many raids, which while dangerous are a source of weapons, wealth and recruits. Phoebe will happily give you a cold snap every year in early fall, or toxic fallout in spring. These can be game-enders without rapid intervention. You will also get less colonists overall with Phoebe.

Cassandra is the harder of the two other storytellers, so I would recommend Randy for a new player. You will get lots of free material which can be huge, and there's practically no limit to how many colonists can join.
couldnt agree more. only thing i'd change is that phoebe is generally a really bad story teller. boring because there are few raids and mostly weather occurrences. difficult because the raids are just as strong but you dont know how much your wealth grew and therefore how much stronger your enemies got in the past few quadrums and also because bad weather can still totally kill a noob.
and while losing is definitely a part of rimworld, losing to bad weather just isnt the same. or losing to a raid that was wayyyyy bigger than you wouldve ever expected after ages of boredom.
if randy kills you, it was the pinnacle of a cataclysmic event and many bad ones came before it and you had an epic battle for your life.
if cassandra kills you, at least you were never bored and always knew what you were up to.

also, phoebe is an abysmal storyteller to choose for someone who has never played or seen someone play a game of rimworld. she is boring and kills you in boring ways. that's not how i remember rimworld. randy and cassandra both represent it way better in their own two ways.

to me, phoebe was always more of a pro story teller and should only be played on extreme or rough or something with addional scenario options. in my opinion, the way she is made and most players play the game, she should be not a friendly nature girl but a deadly efficient ninja.
with "phoebe, the ninja", the way i call her, you never know when a raid will happen. in a week? in a quadrum? in a year? you dont know. but it wont be anytime soon, it will be surprisingly strong and you will never see it coming.
the ninja doesnt just rely on brute force in raids to kill you. she can and will make it look like as if mother nature had an issue with you. she'll lay fires and make it look like it's thor, she'll freeze you and immediately heat you up again just so that your crops die (without using blights too often), she'll send hordes of mad animals.
phoebe the ninja sends whatever there is in her arsenal. she gives no crap about the geneva convention. if she wants you dead, you're dead. you better respect the damn flowers back to life you just trampled upon around her altar of trees.

Harry_Dicks

I actually really like all three of the story tellers the way they are. They all offer something unique of each other, and Phoebe's description suits her perfectly.