'Outside' colony vs 'Mountain' colony

[Matthiasagreen]

I am kind of waiting until A7 comes out with the new escalation method to build an outside base. I may just suck at the game, but I don't see how anything but a killbox would take care of the 200+ raids against my 20.

[Xerberus86]

I am kind of waiting until A7 comes out with the new escalation method to build an outside base. I may just suck at the game, but I don't see how anything but a killbox would take care of the 200+ raids against my 20.

what do you mean with "new escalation method"? if the game is currently too hard for you then why not decrease the difficulty level or chose a more friendlier storyteller? randy random sounds more dangerous but in truth he is kinda frindlier than cassandra, just sometimes a bit imbalanced (on some rarer occasions in my case). in my last colony i never got a raider attacks for weeks on weeks, just the daily rampaging squirrel, once i got a 12 man sieging party with my initial 3 starting members...now that was gg.

[HatesYourFace]

And on another note, it's not a colony if you're just building a big box. Then it's just a big box with rooms. It's equally as mundane and cheap as mountain bases.

I would say it's up to each person to decide how they feel the game should be played. A tactic isn't "cheap" unless you personally feel it is, it's a matter of taste. Myself and many others enjoy turtling up, it's been a time honored tradition since the beginning of strategy games and is a completely viable way to play this game as well as many others.

Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtling_(gameplay)
A turtle strategy is commonly used in real-time strategy video games. When turtling, the player protects their territory, to the exclusion of creating forces for attacking the enemy. A turtling strategy may work because it forces the opponent to be more aggressive and constantly force him to attack the turtling player until the map is mined out and the opponent does not have any resources to replenish their forces. The most common way to turtle is to build large numbers of towers, turrets, and other defensive structures to fire on enemy units. Turtle armies may also incorporate large groups of artillery units to extend effective range and prevent opposing artillery units from attacking with impunity.

The turtling strategy has some major weaknesses. First, many games have units which out-range defensive buildings (catapults, artillery, etc.) and / or short-range units which are fast enough and tough enough to rush the defenses. The turtling strategy may then collapse (especially if overly dependent on choke points) as the more aggressive player destroys one group of defenses, destroys resource-gathering and unit-building facilities in that area, and then attacks another set of defenses, etc. (assuming that the attacker has been building reinforcements in the meantime). Another serious weakness of turtling is that it prevents the turtler from spreading across the map to acquire additional resources and therefore lets the enemy use these resources to build more and often better offensive units.

[Clayton]

It's not strategy or some fancy tactic, it's exploiting the AI's weakness lol. They'll only try to enter from the single entrance to your compound, better surround it with turrets so you don't actually have to fight anything...

[Matthiasagreen]

I am kind of waiting until A7 comes out with the new escalation method to build an outside base. I may just suck at the game, but I don't see how anything but a killbox would take care of the 200+ raids against my 20.

what do you mean with "new escalation method"? if the game is currently too hard for you then why not decrease the difficulty level or chose a more friendlier storyteller? randy random sounds more dangerous but in truth he is kinda frindlier than cassandra, just sometimes a bit imbalanced (on some rarer occasions in my case). in my last colony i never got a raider attacks for weeks on weeks, just the daily rampaging squirrel, once i got a 12 man sieging party with my initial 3 starting members...now that was gg.

quote from the change log "Rebalanced storyteller to pay more attention to population and less to wealth, and to ramp up slower."

Edit: I understand you can change the difficulty. I just haven't found a difficulty with a late game that is a happy medium between boringly easy and what I mentioned above. From what I read in the forums, it just doesn't exist.

[Matthiasagreen]

It's not strategy or some fancy tactic, it's exploiting the AI's weakness lol. They'll only try to enter from the single entrance to your compound, better surround it with turrets so you don't actually have to fight anything...

In real life that is called knowing your enemy. That's a totally legit tactic in real life, why not the game? No Army General is going to say, "Killing our enemy that way is too easy. Let's try something different." Just because you play your game one way doesn't make it the only way. If it was meant to be played just your way, then the game would be made differently.

[Clayton]

Yo chief, this is a game not real life.

It's not a strategy or "awesome" tactic in RimWorld, it's exploiting the AI's weakness by surrounding your single entrance into your cave "colony" with turrets. Exploitation at it's best. If enemies were to try to make a new entrance, or if there was more than one entrance, the entire exploit wouldn't work.

[Matthiasagreen]

First, this is a survival game, so any way to make yourself survive is legitimate. It may not be real life but I doubt I am the only person who has thought, "what would I do if it were me in this situation." I would definitely make my living space as defendable as possible. If that means cave living, I would do it. your own example of other options is trying to put "real life" into it. Secondly That could be said about many things in the game. If the AI would make raiders take out the electricity first, then the "exploit" of turrets wouldn't work. If the AI were to always melee attack, then the "exploit" of guns wouldn't work. If the AI of the mechs were to venture further from the ship, then the "exploit" of snipers wouldn't work. The game is designed to let a player decide how they want to play. The only person who can really say how the game is supposed to be played is Tynan.

[Clayton]

Lol you cant rationalize exploiting the AI path-finding and attacking. Good try, though.

[Xerberus86]

well he's kinda correct, if the AI would be on the same level as you were then how would you survive firefights against 12 people when you still have 4 for example? building traps and making sure that the AI runs into them is needed, otherwise you would just lose.

[Clayton]

With that kind of defeatism attitude; I've built and survived multiple "city-like" colonies that don't use kill boxes or cheap exploits to sustain myself. It's possible. It's just really annoying seeing people promote exploits as real game tactics.

[FMK]

With that kind of defeatism attitude; I've built and survived multiple "city-like" colonies that don't use kill boxes or cheap exploits to sustain myself. It's possible. It's just really annoying seeing people promote exploits as real game tactics.

Somehow I doubt a design like that can withstand a 80 centipede, 70 scyther mech raid. If there's a video showing that though, I'd love to see it.

Also, unless Tynan/a dev says otherwise, killboxes/building in a mountain are no more an "exploit" than your city-like designs are. They could so easily counter making killboxes/dwarfism if it was a gamebreaker/exploit.

[Clayton]

I'm way too lazy to make a video just to show you guys you don't have to use exploits to have fun in this game lol. But, I digress. To each their own; exploits or power gaming.

[Zeta Omega]

Mountain base = Mole people I love doing it so much, Many geothermals.

[Feniks]

I'm way too lazy to make a video just to show you guys you don't have to use exploits to have fun in this game lol. But, I digress. To each their own; exploits or power gaming.

I think you should allow everyone to decide them self what is fun and what isn't. It doesn't matter if you make a killbox or just position your troops better on open land on both occasions you are using AI weaknesses to your advantage. Killbox does it to better extend. Game is far from finished and certain tactics are better than others and in video games nothing is "cheap". As you said it is just a game so no reason with aggressive tone just because other people don't play it your way. If I turtle in the mountain all day and night on easiest setting with cheats it  doesn't take away any fun you have with your game, so I don't really understand this attack.