[B19] Cassandra Hardcore

[Wanderer_joins]

Cassandra Hardcore 1.0

Description

Cassandra Hardcore 1.0 is Cassandra's twin. She will throw larger threats cyclically, and has no limit.

Difficulty-wise she is overlapping 2 levels. For example 'savage hardcore' difficulty will be oscillating between 'savage classic' and 'merciless classic' after the grace period and a progressive start.

The cycles are hidden, and world dependent.

Otherwise the pop intent is slightly increased and there is no cap to the threats (20k in vanilla).

Download

Cassandra Hardcore 1.0
Steam

Cassandra Hardcore b19

Description

Based on Cassandra Classic, she shares the same principles of 'on and off cycles' and a steady difficulty progression with a few differences:

1/ 'off cycles' are shortened to 5 days instead of 6

2/ large threats are slightly more frequent and have a shortened cooldown

3/ she adds a built in ramp up factor

4/ she adds a system of cycles ~2 quadrum long which add +/-10% fluctuation on the difficulty scale, the timing of these cycles is world dependent

5/ she has a higher population target

****
Since this storyteller is more oriented on base defense, even if you master merciless i would recommend to play savage-hardcore. Take advantage of the first two years to build solid defenses and a skilled team, then the difficulty will match up and overcome merciless. The only significant difference will be the +5 permanent mood boost from savage compared to merciless, which won't be useless to fight the larger, more frequent raids.

Download

Cassandra Hardcore b19
Steam

Cassandra Hardcore b18

Description

Cassandra's hardcore twin, she's based on the same threat cycle but changes the threat scale over time.

After a very similar start, the difficulty curve will get steeper, making it harder to establish and defend a large, wealthy colony. Still, the time factor is capped, leaving a door open for your colonists to escape the planet or to try to settle down.

At low population and low wealth, Cassandra Hardcore is very similar to Cassandra Classic. But for mid-late game colonies, the challenge is real.

There are two difficulties in the mod settings menu:
- Low: vanilla friendly
- High: more aggressive, requires strong/modded defenses and firepower

Here is an example of the threat over time for identical colonies (500k storyteller wealth +/- 20% and a population of 28 colonists after 6 years - 290k and 24 colonists at year 4) with different storytellers :

Download

Cassandra Hardcore
Steam
Dropbox

Better Rewards b18

Description

Betters rewards increases the number (at least 3) and the total market value of bandit camps' item collections. The total market value increases with time, so if you destroy a bandit camp, the next one will be more valuable +/- random margin. The outpost's manpower is also scaled with time, starting easier, it will progessively catch up with vanilla and then keep building up more slowly.

Download

Better Rewards
Steam
Dropbox

Cassandra Random b18

Description

Similar to Cassandra Classic, she's the same threat cycle with on/off cycles, she progressively adds randomness to the size of the threats. This randomness starts significantly at the end of year 1, ultimately it's +/- 50% raid points (similar to Randy).


Download

Cassandra Random
Steam
Dropbox

Hardcore Raids b18

Description

Hardcore raids add combat points to turrets and traps:

1 trap == 20 pts
1 turret == 160 pts

The chance of this event is split 50/50 with standard raids. The total chance of raids is unchanged compared to vanilla.


Download

Hardcore Raids
Dropbox

Crazy Cassie b18

Description

An extremely difficult start with a quick pace, 3 difficulties: Low comparable to Cassandra Hardcore, High closer to Pandora.


Download

Crazy Cassie
Dropbox


***
Edit:
3/2: introduced three difficulty levels for Crazy Cassie in the mod option menu
3/13: added Hardcore Raids with combat points for turrets and traps
3/15: introduced two difficulty levels for Cassandra Hardcore high and low
3/24: rebalanced Hardcore Raids
3/27: added Cassandra Random
4/2: added Better Rewards
5/21: scaled outposts and 3 levels added to Better Rewards
8/26: added Cassandra Hardcore b19
11/16: added Cassandra Hardcore 1.0
***

[Harry_Dicks]

This looks really interesting, and I love your graph. For me at least, it is the perfect visual example to show your storyteller's difficulty versus one we are all familiar with.

For fun, would it be possible for you to make other graphs that shows the other vanilla storytellers as well (maybe H.P. Lovecraft too? ), and maybe a final graph that would have all of the graphs overlain on top of each other? No biggie if it's too much work.

Thanks for the mod!

[Wanderer_joins]

You're welcome

All vanilla storytellers share the same threat scale. So Randy = Cassandra = Pheobe. Then you've to consider the threat cycle but it doesn't change the size of the raids which is base on wealth and colonists, flat.

In the graph the threat increases with time for Cassandra Classic because i've simulated an increasing number of colonists and wealth with time. Pandora is one of the few storytellers which increases the threat with time independently from wealth and colonists, but as you can see, it gets quickly in uncharted territories so i decided to design a middle ground, more Cassandra like than Pandora like, still with time as an independent variable.

Regarding H.P.Lovecraft i'll check, but iirc it rewrites the threat cycle to include omens but the threat scale is vanilla.

That said, the vanilla threat scale is really good. It may be lacking for end game colonies and/or if you play with mods like EPOE where an average colonist is quickly worth much more than the 42 combat points.

[Harry_Dicks]

This all makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to write all of that out About H.P. Lovecraft, yes, he does use an omen system. I actually haven't played any real games with him, only small test maps. It is something like a few omens will lead up to a bigger omen event. Some of these might be tied to the other mods in the Rim of Madness pack, like Cults or Cosmic Horrors.

It's actually really interesting learning how the storytellers work. I've been messing with just about any mod I can get my hands on recently, and exploring all of the avenues of the things they change. One of the aspects of the game that I've been more interested in changing is the storytellers and their behavior, among too many other things.

I've got a crap ton of possible events, incidents, diseases and hediffs that can all affect pawns from the amount of mods I'm using. This makes me wonder, say if I am running a colony and we are at year 8, and I have been playing on Cassandra Rough the whole time, if I switch over to Cassandra Hardcore Rough, then all of the threats (aka mostly raids?) will start being a ton more difficult, correct? Especially because it would be so late in the game? But this will not necessarily change the frequency and/or variety of events? Sorry if those are a bit redundant, I just want to make sure I fully understand, and I'm not the brightest star in the sky

This has me also thinking about how great it could be if we had a mod that would allow you to modify the frequency of events that a storyteller has on a sliding scale. I'm not sure if this is tied to storytellers and it can't be changed - requiring to create a new storyteller, or if you can change this through mods.

[Wanderer_joins]

if I switch over to Cassandra Hardcore Rough, then all of the threats (aka mostly raids?) will start being a ton more difficult, correct? Especially because it would be so late in the game? But this will not necessarily change the frequency and/or variety of events?

Sure, you can switch to any storyteller or difficulty in game, go in menu -> option -> storyteller. It will change the difficulty scale instantly. You can already try with Cassandra Classic extreme, because Hardcore rough will be harder.

And no, it will not change the variety or frequency of events, they'll be the same as Cassandra Classic, just larger.

[Harry_Dicks]

Of course I know you can switch storytellers.

I think I worded my question poorly, because it came down to if your mod changed the frequency of events(threats) or just the severity over time. Thanks for your patience in answering my questions.

[Drglord]

Finally thanks very much.... I wanted something tougher but not like pandora dark... thanks alot love the graph

[Canute]

So this

And no, it will not change the variety or frequency of events, they'll be the same as Cassandra Classic, just larger.

So this storyteller is just for people which allready played on intense before to get larger/stronger incidents.

[Umbreon117]

I probably won't use this as I don't normally stick with a colony long enough for this to be useful, but that graph is Awesome.

[Wanderer_joins]

So this storyteller is just for people which allready played on intense before to get larger/stronger incidents.

Not exactly. I answered the raid would be larger because he was year 8 and wanted to switch in game. But the whole idea of this mod is to change the difficulty curve to be more challenging in the end game without being crazy early game. Sure, if you play extreme hardcore, it'll be harder. But it also makes sense to play rough hardcore if you don't like mood issues, it's just that the threat will increase faster in the end game than it does in vanilla.

Here is an example for a more typical playthrough on rough for a new player: 6years, 18 colonists to space, 750k final wealth

You can see that rough hardcore starts almost easier than vanilla, catches up with vanilla rough year 2 and then with vanilla extreme year 4.

[Harry_Dicks]

Holy crap your graphs are absolutely amazing and I really hope that you make more of them. Not that you are inclined to, but if you were able to show any other graphs and stuff, it makes visualizing this information so much easier. Plus, the new one you are showing is something I think that could be included in the OP, because for me that's really interesting how your new version can slot between rough and extreme at certain time intervals.

[Mehni]

This is great, thank you!

Somewhere between a Cassandra and a Pandora sounds like great fun. How about another sister to your Hardcore Cassandra, one with a quicker pace? Could use the same Threat Cycle, but one that keeps up the pace.

[Drglord]

Don't know if there is a conflict or because i switched in game storytellers but it gives this error.

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at RimWorld.StorytellerUtilityCassandraBlack.DefaultParmsNow (RimWorld.StorytellerDef tellerDef, IncidentCategory incCat, IIncidentTarget target) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at RimWorld.StorytellerComp_ThreatCycle_CassandraBlack.GenerateParms (IncidentCategory incCat, IIncidentTarget target) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at RimWorld.StorytellerComp_ThreatCycle.GenerateQueuedThreatBig (IIncidentTarget target) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at RimWorld.StorytellerComp_ThreatCycle+<MakeIntervalIncidents>c__Iterator0.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at RimWorld.Storyteller+<MakeIncidentsForInterval>c__Iterator0.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at RimWorld.Storyteller.StorytellerTick () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at TickMultiThread.SpecialInjector_TickMultiThreadDetour3._DoSingleTick (Verse.TickManager _this) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
Verse.Log:Error(String)
TickMultiThread.SpecialInjector_TickMultiThreadDetour3:_DoSingleTick(TickManager)
Verse.TickManager:TickManagerUpdate()
Verse.Game:UpdatePlay()
Verse.Root_Play:Update()

[Mehni]

Using TickMultiThread by Blas88? That thing uses old-style detours on and thus derails a ton of mods.

Please tell Blas he needs to get with the times and use Harmony.

[Drglord]

Thanks man for the reply will remove it