Thoughts on some of the Stuff.

[Zsword]

So, I LOVE the stuff system, but I do have some feedback and questions on Specific Stuff.

It still feels like Metal is just the Go To Stuff for building walls. While being able to make Stone Block Conduit Walls is great and all, the improvement is minuscule for something that's relatively difficult to acquire in bulk. This brings me to my next point:

Silver and Gold and their lack of beauty effect on items. I was expecting to get some Environment modifiers for building my Things out of Silver and Gold, not so much, combine that with Golds rarity and cost, and Gold is little more than sell fodder to the next Combat Supplier I see.

Then there's Plasteel. EXCRUCIATINGLY expensive to buy, and has to be bought (or rarely dropped in pods) to be acquired, only use is as Wall Stuff and for the spaceship... it's just not worth it, at all, barring that small supply you need for the spaceship, if the spaceship is even your goal.

For clothing: Unless you're making a Muffalo leather, Iguana Leather, Boomrat leather, or Devilstrand Uniform, (I would say Synthread but the soft blue is really dull to look at imo.) Using any particular material that isn't Devilstrand clothing is more or elss pointless, as Devilstrand is relatively easy to acquire in bulk, and is the best Mat in the game for clothing. Hyperweave doesn't protect from R4s and Charge Lances, and the only 'pierce' weapons I find are seriously dangerous to people are M24s, which Power Armor Helmets take up the only slot that makes them dangerous. Power armor and Devilstrand everything else will make pretty much any other projectile bounce right off.

One thing I"ll say is all of these statements are made using my first Colony in A7, that's about 4 years in with 10 colonists (could recruit more but found a happy balance) and I'm sitting on 30k Silver while slowly making everyone mechanized death machines.

[Tynan]

4 years in! Wow! How many hours have you played this game, would you say?

How's the balance at that point? What kind of battles are you getting? I'd love to see a screenshot of your colony.

This kind of late-game feedback is very useful. It's hard to get info on how the game plays that far in.

[Zsword]

Well, I'm not entirely sure how Credible my information would be because I've been playing On Casual, though even then, on casual I've been getting invasion of about 12-20 people all moderately to well geared barring the random Knifer. No aggressive tribals though. With Mechanoids I've been getting 6+. (Averaging One centipede for every three Scythers, give or take.) Though I've never seen a Scyther wielding anything besides a Charge Lance, there's usually one Centipede with the energy Minigun instead of the normal Minigun.



I've been avoiding using a Kill Box on purpose, which is why you've got the network of Min Distance Turrets with sandbags behind them. The path on the right and up and out leads to some extra Geotherms I've hooked up to supplement the solars. I've found that There's really only 2 or 3 effective weapons for facing pirates by this stage of the game, M-24s, R4 Charge Rifles, and the Minigun. My general strategy is to just use the turrets as a sort of meatshield as I have my squad of three Elite, Fully (or almost fully) Auged snipers pick off the enemy one by one with head or leg shots. (Leg shots are an instant incap, every one of my prisoners has a peg leg.) If things get close, I have R4s and miniguns stashed away for Close Quarters, though the minigun is fairly negligible to any opponent in power armor. 2 of my snipers and 3 of my other colonists are also capable melee fighters, a few of them with claws. I sometimes send the melee team out and around to harass enemy snipers.

If you want a better definition of 'balance' I'm not sure what to tell you. I've found that there's 2 REALLY viable guns (M-24 and R4), a handful of 'usable in x situation' guns. (M16, LMG, Minigun, not bad against mechs, mostly outclassed by the R4 in almost every way.) And most everything else is more or less just, trash it when you get something better. As I've said in my Stuff analysis, a lot of the 'end game' stuff feels over priced while being underpowered. Hyperweave almost feels like a trap (Pants are okay to avoid getting legs blown off by M-24s I guess.), and Plasteel is 200 silver for a single conduit wall tile. I MIGHT have enough silver with my 30k to MAYBE replace my outerwall and doors with plasteel if enough Industrial traders show up? Not that I need it cause I'm rarely dealing with enemies literally bashing on my doors.

EDIT: OH, one thing worth mentioning. Enemies with Explosive Grenades. (Not EMPs or Molotovs) are extremely Cheesy/Cheap, they pretty much run in, throw run grenade in a suicide rush, and cause more damage than anything else. They're easily the most dangerous enemy type in the game and it's purely because of a 'LAWL SELF DESTRUCT' tactic. Followed up I would say is Enemy R-4s>M-16s>LMGs>Uzi>Molotovs>M-24s (Enemy snipers always seem to be hilarioulsy innacurate.)>Pistols>EMPs. Enemy Melee I set aside as their own thing to be handled by my own melee squad.

[Ecybopooch]

I would like to echo a lot of what Zsword is saying. Because Tynan seems interested in feedback from some of the late-game stuff, I'm going to leech onto this thread here to provide some additional late-game information.

I'm currently playing on "Phoebe Basebuilder" on "Rough" I am in late year 4; I'm at work and can't check the exact date on my save (or upload screenshots), but I have been playing several hours a day since A7 was released.

I have 26 colonists. I would say that the run-of-the-mill assaults have been about 30+ish attackers. Seigers are a bit smaller; still only two mortars though. I haven't had a mechanoid assault in awhile, but the last two were about 3 centipedes and 5 scythers.

I am currently not using any killbox, but I do rely heavily on a set of 25 mortars that can thin down assaults enough that I don't get any casualties from the ensuing battle. I feel that with Alpha 7 mortars have become a little bit more accurate, but I may be mistaken. Currently, I believe that mortars are over-powered. The only way that these can be appropriately nerfed is if you implement the shells as ammunition. Make shells explosive and fragile, so that you can't easily raid the ammo from a group of beseigers.

I have previously used a field of turrets as a sort of minefield. The attackers never seem to appropriately take on the turrets from a distance and one at a time. They seem to crowd into the field and then start blowing up the turrets as well as themselves. This is another over-powered technique.

My colonists are mostly equipped with M-24s. Some do have charge rifles. I have one minigun in circulation; would love to have more!

[Aethelric]

It still feels like Metal is just the Go To Stuff for building walls. While being able to make Stone Block Conduit Walls is great and all, the improvement is minuscule for something that's relatively difficult to acquire in bulk. This brings me to my next point:

I always end up with an overabundance of stone blocks. I favor stone conduit walls over metals for the simple reason that a stone wall can take a mortar hit, and also won't burn. Most of my early buildings are metal, though.

Then there's Plasteel. EXCRUCIATINGLY expensive to buy, and has to be bought (or rarely dropped in pods) to be acquired, only use is as Wall Stuff and for the spaceship... it's just not worth it, at all, barring that small supply you need for the spaceship, if the spaceship is even your goal.

I'm definitely a ship builder (I've managed four escapes since A7 started), and I mostly feel that Plasteel just makes escaping the planet easier, particularly when combined with the new ability to purchase an AI core. For its single other current use, however, Plasteel just doesn't seem to give enough of a integrity boost over stone to be worth even a fraction of its additional cost. A buff there might help, but I'd be interested to see plasteel more as an "industrial"/component resource, needed for advanced personal weapons, energy sources, and the like.

I pretty much agree with everything stated here.

[Zsword]

Yeah, I doubled my stone production and have been slowly replacing all of my conduit walls with it and definitely have a slight change of opinion, though upgrading to stone is only viable for extremely well established colonies. Stone COnduit walls ARE a straight upgrade from Metal (and stone is plentiful enough for it to be viable), and Plasteel as a building resource I will say should only be used for If you need a Durable Door for whatever reason. (stone makes really sloooow doors, but they are more durable than metal.)

Also, it turns out Silver Walls and Furniture and stuff DO actually have beauty to them, so It can be worth making some of your eternalized walls out of silver to help for more happy little moods. Gold is too rare though. Stone also actually has a small positive beauty modifier, atl east in walls, not sure if stone flooring is still ugly or not.

EDIT: OH, and while I'm thinking about it, when I started building things out of silver, the size of the invasions I was getting doubled, this didn't wipe me out persay, my strategy seems fairly solid, but it was a VERY unpleasant and sudden surprise to go from 'ehhh, 20 ish doods' to 'BOOM 35.'

[milon]

Also, it turns out Silver Walls and Furniture and stuff DO actually have beauty to them, so It can be worth making some of your eternalized walls out of silver to help for more happy little moods. Gold is too rare though. Stone also actually has a small positive beauty modifier, atl east in walls, not sure if stone flooring is still ugly or not.

It's worthwhile to note that Wood has a decent beauty boost and is also widely available.  I like to use basic stone walls for the exterior and wooden conduit walls for the interior.  Beauty & power on the inside, armor on the outside.