Guide on Naked Brutality on Extreme permadeath

Started by BLACK_FR, June 24, 2018, 09:51:02 AM

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BLACK_FR

I just finished my custom "Naked Brutality" scenario with several complications for harder challenge. After that I wanted to share my experience and give several tips that can make your gameplay better. Unfortunatelly I played on B18 version so with new 1.0 version not all tips will apply but most of them will. May be I will do update if I dare to make another run on 1.0.

First of all about my custom scenario. I always play on Cassandra extreme permadeath with tribe faction. I think that Cassandra is most challenging one (Randy is too kind in my opinion most of the time).

I used some mods but all of them were quality of life and didn't affect vanilla balance (cleaning area, cooks can refuel, wildlife tab, quality builder, stack merger, research tree). Only one that  could affect balance is Prepare Carefully. I made pawn without a traits using only 709 points. It's basically all zero skills with normal interest. The reason behind balance is that if you make pawn without interests than it's reasonable to get rid of him as soon as you got any other pawn and if you give him some training in any skills than you making your game easier.

I also disabled some incident's that felt like cheating: Wanderer join, chased refugee, self-tame, farm animal join, resource pod crash. More challenge - more fun, right?

I played on plain temeperate forest with 30-day growing period and reasonably cold winters.

So, let's begin with tips:

Wealth management
Main thing that you have to understand is that strength of threats is determined mainly by wealth of your colony (https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Raider). So you have to keep it as low as possible. If you are planning to use some item and it's health is not relevant to it's usage you can let it deteriorate to reduce it's value before putting it to a storage (food, meds, some artifact etc). Be aware that precipitation greatly accelerates deterioration, so don't lose anything important.
Don't save weapons for trade because of their 20% trade value multplier, just destroy them. If you are making apparel or other item for selling you can delete bill when it's almost done and store unfinished item without adding value to colony (and finish them when trade caravan arrived). Don't take in bad colonists, each of pawn adds ~1.5 raider (42 points to raid strength). Don't make excessive stock, only food should be excessive (after proper deterioration). You can have only dusters as cloth with some tribal headdress for interaction benefit and sell everything else. You have armor and vests for raids that was worn by corpse, 10% multiplier is pretty good. Don't remove scythers blade before you have trade caravan that will buy it.

Raid defense
Structures
You should mainly focus your attention on preparing for raids. I formulated 3 main stages of base defense: 1) two steel traps at the entrance to main room (it can help with first few raids) 2) walled base with point of entry with 6-8 steel traps 3) adding few turrets inside the base
Because of wealth management I never needed more than 6 turrets for defense (even when I was finishing ship).
Animals
Animals are great help to defense especially in the early game. As I started with 0 skills an animal training the only option are alpacas. They are ok in fights and also give you wool that can make good dusters. You have to have them because you can't go melee yourself (because of risk of scars or instadeath) and you have to have way to deal with sappers and in-base drops.
Other help
When you research comm console start using friendly help! That way you can defend sometimes not even participating in fights. You just have to "pay" for the help with silver. Also you can heal some of the downed allies to get some reputation back.
You pawns
It's good to have at least one dedicated melee and all others as shooting masters. Optimal way to train shooting skill is to use on every animal that became mad. You stay at door, shooting with worst possible weapon (at first - 1% short bow, then 1% autopistol) until animal is close enough to attack than hide in a room and repair hits on the door. Repeat until you get day limit. You can also aggro predators that way for double benefit (shooting training and making map safer). At mid game you can acquire better weapons from raider. You should have 1 sniper rifle (or at least bolt-action rifle) for mechanoids kiting. At late game you can craft mingun (best weapon in the game). Don't forget to let it deteriorate it below 10%.
As armor goes you will need vest and advanced helmets for fighting. You can get power helmets from raiders. If you make them yourself they will cost a lot.
Manhunter packs
Just stay inside base until they rest. You should make your base so that you can do so.
Mechanoids
Kite them to your steel traps entrance or just kill them from afar. Be aware that scyther charge lance shots can be deadly.
Sieges
Kill them from afar using sniper rifle. One way of killing them is to handle boomalope beforehand and then send her to their base to wreck them upon death.

Disease prevention
Plague, malaria and sleeping sickness are deadly for tribal early game. I research penicillin before electricity for that reason. Before you get there collect decent stock of herbal medicine from wildroot and than train you doctors (preferably - several, ideally - all) to 12-14 skill. Try to buy some real medicine. You can do it by performing operations (installing-uninstalling legs and jaws to prisoner, each operation requires 1 medicine). You can do it 1-2 times a day because of learning limit. You can train 2-3 skill needed by beating prisoner with fists and healing him. Be aware that unsuccessful operatin damages body (if you are installing legs) or head (if you are installing jaw) so let relevant part heal a bit before operating again to prevent prisoner death.
In the mid-late game let all pawns be on penicillin all the time (it cost only 2 neirotamine every 5 days which is very easy deal).

Research tree
As tribal first thing to research is complex clothing, then beds, then penicillin and go-juice (for hard raids), then microelecronic basics, then gun turrets, then geothermal generator, then drop pods and chemfuel generator, then miniguns, then components assembly (you shuld start to make advances components early because they cost a lot of work to do), then deep drilling, batteries and scanner, then ship (I skipped intermediate steps to save space). Basically you don't need anything else but you can research devilstrand, air-conditioning smelter and anti-fire things.

Other tips
-use draft/undraft to change pawn's joy activty to choose better one
-be ready to go for an AI core. In early game make some pemmican. In late-game make drop pods
-for better logistics use stockpiles to move things as needed (especially useful when you are gathering wildroots)
-for better cover for your pawns and turrets use open doors instead of sandbags. They give better protection
-you can destroy corpses by using grenades (ofc with >10% health to reduce wealth). Before that you will need graves. If you have several animal you can make caravan, drop all goodies and bodies (or some of them) and quickly return
-in early game or in crisis you can micromanage a lot. For example food bar is going 50% slower when pawn is hungry and 75% slower when pawn is urgently hunger. So you can save a lot of food if you forbid all of it and manually order to eat befor starvation begins. Same goes with rest. The only way limit is pawn's mood.
-have some pekoe at hand to help with mood in time of need
-be attentive to small things that you can forget that can ruin your run (like not checking predators hunger before going mining and so on)
-try to reduce risk for pawns as much as possible

If you see a way to make new run more challenging without making it uninteresting - let me know. Also I'm willing to answer any questions because I think I have fairly good grasp of the game.
Guide to mastery of the game - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46290
If you have idea how make merciless naked brutality run more challenging and fun - tell me

TheMeInTeam

By far most consistent method to survive based on my experience using same settings is to grab a few ancient dangers (if you're allowing only one base, raid it --> abandon --> resettle).  I died several times practicing this until getting used to how to handle stuff you can possibly find, but if you know what to do in each situation you can consistently succeed.

With access to luciferium, a limited supply of top tier medicine, power armor, psychic shock/insanity lances, and quite likely an extra pawn or two from rescue you're a lot more solid to start up a base.  Luci pawn is functionally immune to disease (you can live any of them with standing self-tend). 

Do not underestimate hostile pawns from stasis pods.  These are much more threatening than the mechanoids, running power armor + go juice and having no possibility to de-aggro.  If you don't have a door built so you can run or some shock lances to down them, they're probably going to kill you.

Regardless of how you approach the opening, micro and knowledge of how the AI interacts makes a huge difference.

Awe

#2
Quote from: BLACK_FR on June 24, 2018, 09:51:02 AM
For example food bar is going 50% slower when pawn is hungry and 75% slower when pawn is urgently hunger. So you can save a lot of food if you forbid all of it and manually order to eat befor starvation begins.

Bad tip. Dont remember exact numbers, but pawn nutrition depletes much faster while recovering from hungry state.

PS Also. Miss the best tip ever: a) try to train at least 2 decent doctors (10+) b) at least one doctor must not be involved at any fight.

BLACK_FR

#3
Quote from: TheMeInTeam on June 24, 2018, 02:01:04 PM
By far most consistent method to survive based on my experience using same settings is to grab a few ancient dangers...

With access to luciferium... 

...or some shock lances to down them, they're probably going to kill you.

I don't think it's a good solution. If you can grab goodies from there - it's great. But risk is pretty high (1-2 naked man with steel club vs soldier with good weapons...). You can't reroll runs until you get it. Also benefit from goodies is not that big, so it seems it's not worth the risk. And getting involved with luciferum seems not a great move.

Quote from: Awe on June 24, 2018, 07:10:13 PM
Quote from: BLACK_FR on June 24, 2018, 09:51:02 AM
For example food bar is going 50% slower when pawn is hungry and 75% slower when pawn is urgently hunger. So you can save a lot of food if you forbid all of it and manually order to eat befor starvation begins.

Bad tip. Dont remember exact numbers, but pawn nutrition depletes much faster while recovering from hungry state.

PS Also. Miss the best tip ever: a) try to train at least 2 decent doctors (10+) b) at least one doctor must not be involved at any fight.

Numbers above are right (https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Saturation). Also you confuse hunger and starvation. Starvation makes pawn malnutritioned which increases hunger rate. But if you read my tip carefully you will see that advice was to eat right before starvation. That way you can feed you pawns with 1 simple meal a day without any debuffs apart from minus morale when they are hungry.

Also I didn't miss tip about training decent doctor(s). Its' right under desease prevention.
And you have no option other than involve your doctor in fights because otherwise you won't win the fights.
Guide to mastery of the game - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46290
If you have idea how make merciless naked brutality run more challenging and fun - tell me

Polder

#4
I always get a mad animal event very early on. Since infections are often deadly, the colonist must avoid being wounded. Unfortunately traps aren't triggered by (small than human?) animals. Staying indoors also works since the mad animal will calm down when it falls asleep. Traps are good in the beginning to deal with raids.

Awe

Quote from: BLACK_FR on June 25, 2018, 03:44:58 AM
Quote from: Awe on June 24, 2018, 07:10:13 PM
Quote from: BLACK_FR on June 24, 2018, 09:51:02 AM
For example food bar is going 50% slower when pawn is hungry and 75% slower when pawn is urgently hunger. So you can save a lot of food if you forbid all of it and manually order to eat befor starvation begins.

Bad tip. Dont remember exact numbers, but pawn nutrition depletes much faster while recovering from hungry state.

PS Also. Miss the best tip ever: a) try to train at least 2 decent doctors (10+) b) at least one doctor must not be involved at any fight.

Numbers above are right (https://rimworldwiki.com/wiki/Saturation). Also you confuse hunger and starvation. Starvation makes pawn malnutritioned which increases hunger rate. But if you read my tip carefully you will see that advice was to eat right before starvation. That way you can feed you pawns with 1 simple meal a day without any debuffs apart from minus morale when they are hungry.

Ok. My bad. Thought increased hunger rate start earlier than malnutrition phase.

Quote
Also I didn't miss tip about training decent doctor(s). Its' right under desease prevention.

I see a tip about 1 doctor. But he/she can suffer from rim randomness like plague hit, mental break or even occasional death in social fight and you face sutiation where you need to do good tending to not lose someone, but you cant, because your only doctor is unavailable.

Quote
And you have no option other than involve your doctor in fights because otherwise you won't win the fights.

You can. Probably not right from start, but after your colony hit 5 or 6, its a good idea to not involve doctor in fights. Healthy doctor with 100% manipulation/sight/concussiosness can save anyone who not died right on battlefield. Same doctor with old scars, loosed fingers and fresh infected wounds cant do proper tending.

TheMeInTeam

QuoteI don't think it's a good solution. If you can grab goodies from there - it's great. But risk is pretty high (1-2 naked man with steel club vs soldier with good weapons...). You can't reroll runs until you get it. Also benefit from goodies is not that big, so it seems it's not worth the risk. And getting involved with luciferum seems not a great move.

You CAN reroll runs, for practice.  Once you're used to all the possible encounters, it's pretty consistent. 

Psychic shock and insanity lances can be found in ancient dangers, and these can let you handle soldiers from caskets.  Whether or not you have them, simply stripping the flooring of the place to make a door --> shoot the casket to pop out their contents gives you ample time to run away if it's full of hostiles.

Having access to power armor, heavy SMG or better, 40+ luciferium (disease immunity + better quality pawn), and a couple get out of sapper/siege free artifacts is pretty good for early game, I'm not sure how much better could be reasonable :p.

QuoteI see a tip about 1 doctor. But he/she can suffer from rim randomness like plague hit, mental break or even occasional death in social fight and you face sutiation where you need to do good tending to not lose someone, but you cant, because your only doctor is unavailable.

Here too, having access to a few years worth of luciferium can carry you.  Luci doctor doesn't have to worry about diseases, IGS is so boosted that you'll start with more immunity than progress rate and can almost always safely standing self-tend and do no bedrest.

BLACK_FR

Quote from: Awe on June 25, 2018, 07:38:40 AM

Quote
Also I didn't miss tip about training decent doctor(s). Its' right under desease prevention.

I see a tip about 1 doctor. But he/she can suffer from rim randomness like plague hit, mental break or even occasional death in social fight and you face sutiation where you need to do good tending to not lose someone, but you cant, because your only doctor is unavailable.

Agreed, may be I wasn't precise enough. I train all my pawns with interest in medicine to 12-14 skill (it seem pointless to train above that) and people without interest to 8-10. I had 2 of 3 my pawns with skill 12 and third had his skill disabled. I will edit original post to reflect your correction.
Also you can't lose doctor in social fights. And you should never allow any of your pawn be in a risk of mental break (psychoid pekoe is our saver). And good doctor (12+) with herbal meds can heal plague for himself and others no problem.

Quote from: Awe on June 25, 2018, 07:38:40 AM
Quote
And you have no option other than involve your doctor in fights because otherwise you won't win the fights.

You can. Probably not right from start, but after your colony hit 5 or 6, its a good idea to not involve doctor in fights. Healthy doctor with 100% manipulation/sight/concussiosness can save anyone who not died right on battlefield. Same doctor with old scars, loosed fingers and fresh infected wounds cant do proper tending.

My succefull run never hit 5 or 6. I had 3 pawns when I launched the ship. There are two main reasons for that: first is that I'm very picky about new pawns. You need some to counter RnG but if you take many bad pawns the raids become much stronger and that trade-off is not good overall. Because of that from 33 major threats I didn't ever not only lost a pawn but even had a downed one. Second reason is that the risk on defending is actually very low. And if you are not participating you are raising risk for other pawns. So there is no reason not to participate. If it's your only doctor than you can position him so he has lowest risk to be hit. Than risk of his involvment will be miniscule and profit substantial.

Quote from: TheMeInTeam on June 25, 2018, 10:23:19 AM
QuoteI don't think it's a good solution. If you can grab goodies from there - it's great. But risk is pretty high (1-2 naked man with steel club vs soldier with good weapons...). You can't reroll runs until you get it. Also benefit from goodies is not that big, so it seems it's not worth the risk. And getting involved with luciferum seems not a great move.

You CAN reroll runs, for practice.  Once you're used to all the possible encounters, it's pretty consistent. 

Psychic shock and insanity lances can be found in ancient dangers, and these can let you handle soldiers from caskets.  Whether or not you have them, simply stripping the flooring of the place to make a door --> shoot the casket to pop out their contents gives you ample time to run away if it's full of hostiles.

Having access to power armor, heavy SMG or better, 40+ luciferium (disease immunity + better quality pawn), and a couple get out of sapper/siege free artifacts is pretty good for early game, I'm not sure how much better could be reasonable :p.

QuoteI see a tip about 1 doctor. But he/she can suffer from rim randomness like plague hit, mental break or even occasional death in social fight and you face sutiation where you need to do good tending to not lose someone, but you cant, because your only doctor is unavailable.

Here too, having access to a few years worth of luciferium can carry you.  Luci doctor doesn't have to worry about diseases, IGS is so boosted that you'll start with more immunity than progress rate and can almost always safely standing self-tend and do no bedrest.

You have to weight risks with profits. To handle soldiers you have to have walled base with traps. But at this point you already have stock of medicine and you can use it to train your doctor. Even with herbal medicine and good doctor you can self-heal plagues and you probably could buy ~4 normal medicine to make it much easier.
I don't think that having power armor is a good idea. Sure, it's the best armor but it also roughly add 1 raider to the raids and you want keep this number as low as possible. Good weapons are always nice but you get decent weapons from raiders anyways. Some artifacts can be great also but there are not guaranteed, but the risk is. Luciferum can be good but it has to be big stock to use it and on those times that I cleared ancient dangers I never get big enough stock to justify it.
So my conclusion was: it can be good, it can be ok, it can be bad. But you ALWAYS put yourself in risk. And my principle that allowed my to succefully launch ship with all colonists that were never downed whole game: don't take unnecessary risks.
Guide to mastery of the game - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46290
If you have idea how make merciless naked brutality run more challenging and fun - tell me

TheMeInTeam

Last night I had a sapper raid with ~18 tribals (1.0 allows tribal sappers).  They broke a lot of furniture but not one pawn took damage.  A few days later, I got a siege raid with another ~15.  They killed a boomrat that had self-tamed (I forgot about it, had it zoned outside my base) and did no damage to any of my 8 pawns.  Shooters were maybe a little TOO good, I hit them hard with bolt action and interrupted siege before they built a mortar.

This is off NB on cas/extreme, except I swapped from "new arrivals" to "new tribe" tech.  I still don't have tech to manufacture my own weapons, though I have at least managed researching stone cutting, complex furniture, electricity, solar, and batteries.

If you know what you're doing you can reliably defend large raids.  1.0 changed pawn pathing and how AI handles things so there's a bit of a learning curve again, but after that it's a matter of setup and micro control.