Important: new problem causer quests can easily wipe out your colony

Started by mooguy, August 22, 2020, 11:45:38 AM

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mooguy

I just encountered this quest requiring me to send a caravan to destroy a mech cluster with the building that causes all electronics to go offline - around 2-3 years in on a tribal start, 60k colony wealth - and im on perma death. And there is no way its winnable. I'be attached my storyteller settings (it's on hard, but not insanity level).

I have 5 dudes, all with vests, no helmets, two rifles, one revolver, a baseball bat and jade knife + 5 Labradors.

vs

3 flame turrets, one plasma turret (inside the box) 2skyths, 3-4 lancers,3ish pikeman...really lol.
This would be game-ending even if it was on MY map, not including the fact i have to send a caravan AND i have 1-ish days to do it before all food rots in the storage haha.

I even managed to stealthy destroy the building and take down 4-5 mechs, but there is no way i can take the 4 turrets on with a baseball bat.

You could argue this is all part of the story, yet keep in mind even if a new wanderer joins, my whole base is shutdown from using electricity, so i wonder in what scenrio i could build up again in those conditions?

I actually really like the new quests,events, and changes - but problem causes outside the base that cant be dealt with or chipped away at are likely not just colonists ending, but permanent colony ending.

(unless i can leave the map by just destroying the problem causer?)







khun_poo

This quest just ask you to destroy the EMI machine only. You could leave the mech cluster.

Canute

Just bash a hole at the northwall out of sight of the mechs, then you could bash the mashine inside to complete the quest and leave.
The quest don't say anything to destroy the mech cluster.

mooguy

I thought so too - i bashed a hole, destroyed the building - but i got a pop saying 'there are still enemies on the map.'

Am i missing another way to leave the map?

mooguy

Both of you guys are saying i can leave the mech cluster - yet if i hover my mouse over the reform caravan (after the quest has been completed) it  says 'there are still enemies remaining on the map'.

I've attached screenshots.

Mr_Fission

That's rough dude.  Yeah I'd struggle with that unit composition too at that early stage in the game.

I'd definitely be in favor of tuning those missions down a tad.  If they're too hard, players simply won't take them, which harms the overall gameplay experience.  Nobody wants that.

Canute

Quote from: mooguy on August 22, 2020, 08:20:15 PM
I thought so too - i bashed a hole, destroyed the building - but i got a pop saying 'there are still enemies on the map.'

Am i missing another way to leave the map?
Yes, why do you think the map border got a different colour ?
It is the exit zone.
When you move all pawn's into that zone they leave the map.
But it could be a bit problematic with the animals.

Feyda

Just move all pawns out of the border.  Game doesn't care about animals for exiting a map.  I've done it before when I got to an item stash with one guy and it was guarded by like 8 manhunting wolves.   Nope, cya!

avancouw

You need a couple smoke launchers and melee weapons to handle this drop so early. Or at least that's one way to go about it. Vests and rifles just aren't going to cut it.

And in general don't stockpile liquid wealth, it's very important to keep trading things that are sitting in your warehouse un-used. Even if it's just cloth, leather & food sitting around, they're not doing any work for you but they are making events more challenging. Trade extras away and buy things that strengthen your colony, especially things you can't research yet. Neuro trainers, psylinks, bionics, advanced weaponry, advanced armor.

If you're caught out just own it and abandon your colony.

eugeneb

I don't think it's game ending really - electricity is firmly in the nice-to-have territory, or maybe I just spent too much time playing naked brutality on extreme biomes  ;D
You probably can get around on potatoes and such, cooking them as needed. Then perhaps recruit a bunch of random people and do "this is spaaaartaaaa" with the mech cluster? Or, like people mentioned, you can try to sneak in, destroy the machine only and run away to the edge of the map. You could also tame a bunch of releasable animals and release them as distraction.

Canute

And the EMI is just a small area, he could just take all stuff and create a new colony outside the area (should be marked at the worldmap).

Ukas

Quote from: Feyda on August 23, 2020, 07:20:16 AM
Just move all pawns out of the border.  Game doesn't care about animals for exiting a map.  I've done it before when I got to an item stash with one guy and it was guarded by like 8 manhunting wolves.   Nope, cya!

That's true, caravan animals should automatically follow your pawns after they exit to the world screen. Also, I haven't tested this further, but I accidentally exited a drafted pawn, and animals which were in his control followed him off the map, and they automatically formed a separate caravan, while undrafted pawns stayed on the map with other caravan animals which were controlled by other pawns.

Nainara

I've had a couple of these come up in my v1.2 colony and I'm feeling like this type of quest is rather out of line for the difficulty level. There's a good chance your colonists get shot up by turrets the as soon as they spawn, as a result of the small map size and the large turret range. In addition to tuning the difficulty, it would be nice if there was an alternative, less punishing option than abandoning base if a direct assault is infeasible. Maybe an opportunity to pay ransom to the hive cluster to go away and bug someone else, or have them give up the siege automatically after enduring a few seasons.

kclace

The obvious solution would be to make a MOD. Long range artillery and ballistic missiles.

Problem solved!

ShadowTani

Quote from: Nainara on August 30, 2020, 04:35:20 PM
In addition to tuning the difficulty, it would be nice if there was an alternative, less punishing option than abandoning base if a direct assault is infeasible. Maybe an opportunity to pay ransom to the hive cluster to go away and bug someone else, or have them give up the siege automatically after enduring a few seasons.

I agree, the other factions give us quests to draw mechanoids away from them so it would be consistent with the game if we could pay a price comparable to the cluster difficulty to have another faction similarly signal the cluster to beam up and target them instead. It shouldn't be an entirely reliable solution however as other factions could decline, and hostile factions could maybe see it as an opportunity to raid you while you're in a bind - which could be beneficial if they "coincidentally" attacked from the general direction that cluster is in, heh. As long as the solution is somewhat unpredictable like that then I'm all for additional alternative solutions.