Guide to mastery of the game

[BLACK_FR]

You modify our opening so much I wouldn't even call your gamestyle "naked brutality". Giving minor interest to all likes is a huge advantage for any colonist. Likewise a naked brutality game on Tribal is much easier than the original one. You've nerfed the difficulty significantly and pretend you're some Merciless Master.

I experimented with different openings and found that it is the hardest one (harder one will be only 0 skills and no interests at all). But if you do that you are better off to abandon starting pawn as soon as possible.
I compared this to "normal" start where you choose one of random-generated pawn. You can choose pawn with good traits that make big difference and few really needed skills for early game. Because they are already decent you early game is much easier. In mid- and lategame it doesn't really matter because you will have multiple pawns.
The only way to make it harder is to create pawn with no skills, negative traits (like mood debuff) and no interests and forbid yourself to banish that useless peace of meat. Do you think that for maximum challenge I should do it?
Also you said that Tribal start is easier than Spaceship start. That seems very strange to me. Can you explain why you think so?
UPD: I thought about difference between having interest and not having one. It's not a big one, just harder start. So I started new run with pawn with 0 skills 0 interests and pessimist trait and restriction that if I lose him it's game over. It' slightly harder but not too much.

I think you and I have very different definitions of the word exploit. Just because there are no rules to break, doesn't mean that any strategy is "legitimate". For instance, breaking items on purpose to reduce wealth value is not something anyone would do for any reason except to adjust some numbers. It's spreadsheet strategy. You act purely to adjust the value of an item, without touching any other aspect of the game. Changing the item's value in the game files would be the exact same action in my eyes - you're just taking the long way around.
Call it a loophole instead of a exploit if you want, but it's definitely not strategy.

By your definition chessmasters don't use any strategies, they use loopholes/exploits to win. Sure, they don't break the rules but they use them as much as they can.
To the point of breaking items on purpose - I don't do it on order to make my game harder for myself and I proposed multiple times how to make balance good. Developers evaluated balance and decided that current mechanic is good and no changes are needed.

But there is more important point. You say that using in-game mechanic with in-game tools is the same as hacking the game. But when you grow smokeleaf and make joints and sell them - you are also using in-game mechanic with in-game tools. By your reasoning it would be the same as open devtool and spawn silver, "you just taking long way aroung".
Or if you are making sandbags to directly ajust hit chance of you pawn - that's the same as cheating.
Broadly speaking every strategy is changing some numbers to their desired states. If game mechanic works as intended and you use in-game tools... Then how do you differentiate good play from cheating? I'm genuinely interested how you do that.

[Shurp]

Broadly speaking every strategy is changing some numbers to their desired states. If game mechanic works as intended and you use in-game tools... Then how do you differentiate good play from cheating? I'm genuinely interested how you do that.

By evaluating whether it makes sense within the intended theme of the game.  It's hard to imagine that colonists on a distant world would intentionally punch the things they build for the purpose of degrading them and making them less valuable.  (Admittedly they do lots of other crazy things so it's not inconceivable, but it's too weird for my tastes)

Getting back to your OP, though, yes, I overlooked that you want to start on Naked Brutality.  So Tundra and Ice Sheet starts are obviously out.  But why not start on a Boreal Forest?  You should be able to build a tiny cabin and a campfire with the wood available before you freeze to death.  Although I admit it will be close -- you need 20 wood for the campfire and 80 for walls and a door.  How fast can you cut 100 wood?  How long does hypothermia set in?  I think the initial temperature in a boreal forest summer is warm enough that you should be able to get your cabin built before you freeze... then you can build a short bow and go squirrel and rabbit hunting for your food and clothing needs.

[BLACK_FR]

@Shurp
That's bad criteria. Because different people will have different view what makes sense. For example, if you crashed on the world where you are constantly attacked because of shiny new things that you own it makes perfect sense to make them not new and shiny. More than that, it will be weird not to do so, like it's weird to not use seat belts when you are driving your car.

Regarding Boreal Forest. If you were dropped there why not just move out to more warm places? But imagine that you forbid yourself to move. You are also using only one pawn with no skills, no interests and pessimist trait. There is no way you can manage all threats if you have to spend so much time dealing with temperature. You need to get 3 construction ASAP, so you could make traps. Without traps every raid is deadly. And with 0 construction and no interest you will need a lot of work to do that. You will spend much time dealing with food. Food+temeperature+learning construction will take all your time with all the micromanagement tricks I layed out in OP. Then winter come. And you don't have any food reserves and you don't have any clothes apart from tribalwear (because you need to research complex clothing for that). And then you are dead.
Yes, I thought about that option. But with all other artificial difficulties I created there is no way to survive without moving to warmer biomes.

[B@R5uk]

IMO, game should deliver fun as much as it can. If someone likes to build somthing, then destroy it to nearly dilapidated state, then why not? I only don't understand, why every one else should do the same?

[Shurp]

Regarding Boreal Forest. If you were dropped there why not just move out to more warm places? But imagine that you forbid yourself to move. You are also using only one pawn with no skills, no interests and pessimist trait. There is no way you can manage all threats if you have to spend so much time dealing with temperature. You need to get 3 construction ASAP, so you could make traps. Without traps every raid is deadly. And with 0 construction and no interest you will need a lot of work to do that. You will spend much time dealing with food. Food+temeperature+learning construction will take all your time with all the micromanagement tricks I layed out in OP. Then winter come. And you don't have any food reserves and you don't have any clothes apart from tribalwear (because you need to research complex clothing for that). And then you are dead.
Yes, I thought about that option. But with all other artificial difficulties I created there is no way to survive without moving to warmer biomes.

You say you need to work to construction 3 to build traps in order to survive, and you're intentionally handicapping yourself with zero starting skill.  OK.  But isn't that the same when you start in temperate forest?  So there's no difference there.  Remember that you start in summer in the boreal forest, so it's not that great of a challenge initially.  It's only when winter sets in that it gets hard, and by then you surely have construction 3 and traps.  And you can survive quite a long time on frozen elk meat cooked at a campfire.  The major challenge is long term -- when you start trying to feed several colonists instead of just one, hunting won't be sufficient, and that's when your power needs grow rapidly.

Give it a try, it's not as hard initially as you think... in fact, I think I'm going to give it a try. 

Also, one other thing -- you say you can't survive with all the other handicaps you've given yourself.  Well, friendly temperature is a *huge* long-term advantage.  Being forced to grow all your food indoors greatly restricts your expansion, and is worth abandoning lesser handicaps for.

[BLACK_FR]

@Shurp
First year is always the hardest one. In the long run temperature of boreal forest is irrelevant. If you can survive first year it's the same as temperate forest.
And right now I'm trying to go with all restrictions that I mentioned + starting pawn with zero skills, zero interests and pessimist trait. Sadly (?) there is much random (if you get hit by plague you are dead because you don't have time to prepare; in zero skills and mild interest you have time). So I failed few times.
I'm not sure that on Boreal forest it's possible, you just can't survive first 45 days. And what restrictions do you propose to remove that will make overall game harder in order to play on harder biome? Right now I'm playing on 30-days growing period with reasonably hard winters (~-10..-15).

[Shurp]

I'm proposing that you restrict the growing period to zero, or as close to it as you can get and still survive the initial foraging period of making weapons/clothes for your naked survivalist.  The ability to grow crops outside is a huge advantage -- and one you don't need at the start, because your lone colonist can live off the critters he hunts. 

You can get a 20-day growing period in temperate forest if you look hard enough, and you can find 10-day in boreal forests (20 is the average there).

[BLACK_FR]

For now I'm struggling with "no skills, no interest" start with 30-day period. Do you propose that I add restriction to not grow outside or do you propose to start with 20-day period and don't restrict yourself additionally?

Also I have following problem with living on hunting for first ~2 years on boreal forest. Hunting is much more time-consuming than growing crops. With all other necessities you can't research complex clothing before winter. You can't make enough pemmican without crops on boreal forest (too little berries). And without complex clothing you can't go hunting in the winter. For the first glance I don't see any solutions to this problem. It's like Ice Sheet, but more prolonged.
But if you start on warmer biome and restrict yourself for growing crops outside it's doable.

Also what do you think about the fact that with all those restrictions there are certain random unavoidable risks that I can't theoretically prevent? For example if I got plague or if first raider is good melee fighter it's basically game over no matter what I do (it wasn't so when I had pawn with no skilld but with interest in plants and construction). Do you think that it's better to get those two interests or do you think that it's better to get lucky for the sake of "no interests" run?

[zizard]

Actually I think you don't need complex clothing to hunt by putting a piece of food outside (e.g. 1 berry) and collapsing a roof on whoever comes to eat.

[Shurp]

Well, as practice, sure, go with the warmer climate and the restriction against growing food outside.  That's the biggie.  Maybe you could set a permanent "Toxic Fallout" event to occur after you've been on the planet after 60 days.  (I don't know if the scenario editor is that flexible?)  That would allow you to survive the initial Naked Brutality phase and create a suitable challenge once you have a base up and running.

Interesting point zizard, placing bait and surrounding it with traps should get you a free dead scavenger, right?

[5thHorseman]

Interesting point zizard, placing bait and surrounding it with traps should get you a free dead scavenger, right?

Well free except the work and resources to make the traps, and the bait. And IIRC you can't make traps with construction 0, hence the ceiling drop. That I'm not sure will guaranteed kill anything sizeable, haven't really tested.

[BLACK_FR]

@zizard
I'm not sure it's reliable enough but it's interesting idea. How do you separate 1 piece of food?

@Shurp
Toxic fallout kills all animals, I think that it will make game less interesting. Why it's a biggie again, because of additional wealth that is created by sunlumps and hydroponics?

[zizard]

Well free except the work and resources to make the traps, and the bait. And IIRC you can't make traps with construction 0, hence the ceiling drop. That I'm not sure will guaranteed kill anything sizeable, haven't really tested.

Doesn't matter if it kills them or not. Bleed out + they are retarded and will do the exact same thing again.

@zizard
I'm not sure it's reliable enough but it's interesting idea. How do you separate 1 piece of food?

idk, don't think it matters anyway. They won't get to finish their eating progress.

Even hunting with a weapon is doable, as long as there's enough trees. You can make little huts with campfire to reheat.

[Shurp]

It's a biggie because of the additional wealth generated by all the solar cells and windmills required to power the sunlamps and hydroponics.  BTW, you don't need hydroponics to farm indoors on dirt.  You only need it if you're farming on stone / sand / ice sheet.

And you can still have all the animals you want -- provided you keep them indoors and feed them.  (See how the challenge scales swiftly?)

[BLACK_FR]

@Shurp
I usually make 1-2 steam generators and have excess power, so this restriction doesn't change much.
Plus even if it adds challenge it seems like no fun (challenge should be interesting). It's basically the same as to store 10-20k useless wealth for bigger raids. It's harder but not more fun. Idea of trying to start on boreal forest seems more interesting.

There are dozens of ways to make game harder (you can disable trade caravans for example or arbitrary forbid some useful thing). Idea is to find ways to make game more challenging and fun. Like disable all starting research or add another raid scaling factor based on time or something else.