Has "Normal" gotten harder?

[chucklestcb]

I decided to start a new game because of the update and chose the Meander map. I have played on Easy and Normal for many games. I had found Easy was a bit boring, but that was on different maps. I don't know if it's because of the map or if metrics have changed since the update, but I have spent the last 16+ "Cycles" of the game just barely keeping my beavers alive. I have almost every green patch covered in carrots (and trees). I have 6 water pump operators and haulers prioritizing them. Yet, I can't keep my population fed and hydrated. My population is around 60, but I had a bit of a die off from hunger and now its thirst.

I have had to go back to earlier saves once I learned some errors regarding how the Badwater seems to deliver more water than regular flows and I was not prepared. I have dumped a lot of time into this game, but I may start over on Easy. The Normal is too hard.

And I am not here to be mocked and laughed at. I really do feel there is something different or something not working, especially with the mechanics of how water is being stored (or not) and food being collected (or not.)

[Schobbob]

Meander is pretty rough at the start tbh, once you get off the starting island it should get better. You probably got into a death spiral because of hunger/thirst which can be tough to get out of. I'd say you just had a bad start because of the map.

[Voilodion]

Legitimate questions, no reason for anyone to mock you or laugh at you. I haven't played the Meander map recently, but I don't think any updates have made easy or normal difficulties harder other than the addition of Badwater (a significant change).

I would say that with a population of 60 you should be diversifying your food beyond carrots and berries. I usually start growing potatoes after the first drought. Improving your well-being score with diverse foods, decorations, and recreational items gives great boosts to beavers' lifespans, work speed, movement speed, and growth speed to adulthood, all of which let you get more done in a given amount of time.

Also look at where (or if) you have built extra storages for food, water, and common supplies (like logs) for your haulers to refill. Simply letting haulers carry water from the pump to the one big tank (like I used to do) is not as good as putting multiple small tanks at work sites and housing, setting them to "obtain". Then the haulers are doing almost all the long walks, while the working beavers only walk short distances to get what they need. I now put small tanks, food boxes, and log piles all over the place.

Good luck.

[EleventhStar]

do you have enough storage? 6 pumps should be able to supply more than enough for 60 beavers especially with haulers, but not if there is nowhere to put the water.

with food farms can store quite a decent amount, but if you notice unharvested carrots/crops you might still need more farms and/or more storage.

[Wai]

I found the changes to my then current map (and also favourite map) - which was going well when I left it - made it necessary to restart. Those changes have definitely made that map harder and frankly far less fun. I am not sure that I actually want to play this now and have put it aside, regardless of the fact that i had been waiting several months for this update to go live, and am playing something else. I may never bother to try again.

*And, yes, I do have enough of everything, more than enough,, and I do know how to play.*

[Alcator]

What are the working hours for your beavers?
What is the well-being level of your colony?

[Gresh]

I don't think normal has gotten harder, but I opened the meander map and was immediately struck with it being a difficult map to get a colony going on.

[Alcator]

Normal did get slightly harder due to badtides, obviously.

[Wai]

Originally posted by Alcator:

What are the working hours for your beavers?
What is the well-being level of your colony?

As I said, I do know how to play! The map which I prefer has been changed, and, imho, not for the better. This has made the game harder, which in and of itself is no bad thing, but, unfortunately the changes have resulted in significantly more tedium which is not fun. Well-being is dependent, as you should know, on the progress made in the game; hours worked affect the well-being but beavers will work up to 20 hours if needed but absolutely love 12 or less. Neither directly affect, to any great extent the difficulty of the game or the map being played.

Originally posted by Alcator:

Normal did get slightly harder due to badtides, obviously.

We had bad-tides previous to this update obviously!
---------------------------------
Some of the changes are great. But, I, personally, do not think any should have instigated changes to the existing maps, particularly changes which make those maps harder. More maps would, again my opinion, have been a far better and far more customer friendly way to go.

[Alcator]

Originally posted by Wai:

Originally posted by Alcator:

What are the working hours for your beavers?
What is the well-being level of your colony?

As I said, I do know how to play!

Buddy, I'm talking to the OP, not to you.

Badtides have been added in Update 5, which is relatively recent. OP did not specify when they played last.

[BedlamBetty]

Originally posted by Wai:

Originally posted by Alcator:

What are the working hours for your beavers?
What is the well-being level of your colony?

As I said, I do know how to play! The map which I prefer has been changed, and, imho, not for the better. This has made the game harder, which in and of itself is no bad thing, but, unfortunately the changes have resulted in significantly more tedium which is not fun. Well-being is dependent, as you should know, on the progress made in the game; hours worked affect the well-being but beavers will work up to 20 hours if needed but absolutely love 12 or less. Neither directly affect, to any great extent the difficulty of the game or the map being played.

Originally posted by Alcator:

Normal did get slightly harder due to badtides, obviously.

We had bad-tides previous to this update obviously!
---------------------------------
Some of the changes are great. But, I, personally, do not think any should have instigated changes to the existing maps, particularly changes which make those maps harder. More maps would, again my opinion, have been a far better and far more customer friendly way to go.

You have main character syndrome

[Wolfman]

I've spent over 200 hours with normal difficulty in this specific map, but I used to switch to hard manually after my colony was settled.

It is a challenging map, and I would say that's because you have to find a very specific order to build things at the beginning. So it's about the map, not the difficulty level.

Here some hints for the map:

Best way to play this map are folktailes. The ironteeth are harder at the beginning, because of the energy and the limited space you have.

The first milestone: you need to cut the trees right at the end of the river bank first, where you can build a dam at the farthest point possible without building stairs. You need to cut those trees right next to the river first to be able to build the dam fast. It's important to have a dam at this location as fast as possible. And that's your access to the other side of the river later.

Also, build two to three scientists, and switch them with the farms as long as crops are growing without need for attention. That can give you important time at the beginning when you need science points fast.

The second milestone is your industry which you best start to build at the down stream area on the lower level behind your center building. You can build three watermills there and with a good placement, it's all you need until you have a mill for bread.

The third milestone is to build farms and woods on the other side of the river. Once that is established, you can go on with other projects such as a water reservoir.

[Gresh]

Originally posted by Wolfman:

I've spent over 200 hours with normal difficulty in this specific map, but I used to switch to hard manually after my colony was settled.

It is a challenging map, and I would say that's because you have to find a very specific order to build things at the beginning. So it's about the map, not the difficulty level.

Here some hints for the map:

Best way to play this map are folktailes. The ironteeth are harder at the beginning, because of the energy and the limited space you have.

The first milestone: you need to cut the trees right at the end of the river bank first, where you can build a dam at the farthest point possible without building stairs. You need to cut those trees right next to the river first to be able to build the dam fast. It's important to have a dam at this location as fast as possible. And that's your access to the other side of the river later.

Also, build two to three scientists, and switch them with the farms as long as crops are growing without need for attention. That can give you important time at the beginning when you need science points fast.

The second milestone is your industry which you best start to build at the down stream area on the lower level behind your center building. You can build three watermills there and with a good placement, it's all you need until you have a mill for bread.

The third milestone is to build farms and woods on the other side of the river. Once that is established, you can go on with other projects such as a water reservoir.

Nice. I opened the map and looked at the mismatched riverbanks, elevation, limited growing area, etc and decided that figuring out a good order of operations was for another day.

This will give me something to work with when I fire it back up. The map itself does look really cool to play around with.

[oyssoyss]

60 beaver consume 120 water each day. one water pump can get 48 water per day if 100% efficient. 6 pump is overshoot. no way your beavers ends in thirsty.

and for farming. you may not have enough farmhouse to harvest in time. so the crops left in 100% state in the field and no one could eat it.

[Wolfman]

Here's a screenshot of one of my latest colonies in this map. You see the levee on the left with the four lidos, that was the first levee, that gives you an idea where I think is a good location to place it.


https://i.ibb.co/6HPJmdg/1062090-70.jpg

[chucklestcb]

I thank everyone for their input and advice. You all have given me a lot to think about. I was prioritizing certain things while neglecting others, like quality of life and decorations. The added Badtide spout that taints the water on the one side added an obstacle for sure. I will definitely add more farmhouses and storage. It's just so tricky when you have little room in the beginning to plant trees and crops.