The Difference between Easy and Hard

[h311ra1z3r]

The only difference is the amount of resources you start with and that is it. The map resources, Bug amount, crafting.. does not play into it at all. The map you get determines the Technology, Bugs Attacks, and terrain you'll be dealing with as long as you stay on the planet. YOUR STARTING resources is what determines your Easy to Hard level That's it.

[Lord Zultron]

Hard mode = more harder waves - More tough weather events

[76561199056944839]

Hey folks! Since there's some questions about difficulty I figured I'd jump in and provide some clarity.

The TL;DR is that the higher the difficulty, the more setbacks and less positive events you'll have. You'll find fewer resources and weapons at the initial crash site, you'll be attacked more often, and you'll likely be attacked by more creatures.

Keep in mind that Stranded: Alien Dawn is meant to challenge you, but of course we're also here to build the game together with you, so if the difficulties seem a bit high to people I'll certainly share it with the devs :)

[ButterflyJai]

Originally posted by Shadeless:

i am on easy and last attack in had 170 critters with loads of big heavy armored thingies and ranged tanks, each attack is harder and bigger

I have been experiencing the same as you Shadeless...the increasing amount of animal attacks as the days go by...on Easy/Peaceful Mode. I have ended up having to start new games over now 7 times due to the death of my Survivors by the Scorpion Horde that comes in ever game (an the number of Scorpions has never been low). The regular bug/animal attacks in the high numbers I can handle but the Scorpion attack is death to my camp and game. I thought Easy Mode would be much less on attacks (if any attacks) or that we we be responsible for provoking an attack, but in this game (which I do enjoy playing...until Scorpions arrive) Easy Mode seems to be the items/objects that we start with when our spaceship crash lands. I'm don't know how to defeat the Scorpions. I'm not a full-on-combat oriented type player. Thats why I picked what I thought was Easy Mode.

[Martin]

Just finished up for the night in a medium game, got 4 scissorhands by day 25.. doesn't happen on easy. The certainly do scale up on defences and numbers of survivors, with 8 survivors you get alot of bugs.

[Buckshot]

Originally posted by NukeAJS:

In my experience, hard difficulty has more natural disasters that last longer and are more severe.

I had three -20C cold snaps the first winter and then 4 +18C heatwaves the second summer. Playing on normal, I get maybe one of each a year.

Also, there are fewer passive animals on hard. It seems like raids are bigger on hard too, but that might just be me.

I think its all random. In my last savegame, I was playing in Easy mode and one of my survivors got struck by lightning twice in the same storm. Since then, every time there is a thunderstorm, she is in risk of going into a meltdown...and this was in Easy mode and only 14 in-game days in.

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by Buckshot:

Originally posted by NukeAJS:

In my experience, hard difficulty has more natural disasters that last longer and are more severe.

I had three -20C cold snaps the first winter and then 4 +18C heatwaves the second summer. Playing on normal, I get maybe one of each a year.

Also, there are fewer passive animals on hard. It seems like raids are bigger on hard too, but that might just be me.

I think its all random. In my last savegame, I was playing in Easy mode and one of my survivors got struck by lightning twice in the same storm. Since then, every time there is a thunderstorm, she is in risk of going into a meltdown...and this was in Easy mode and only 14 in-game days in.

Lightning strikes are only part of the difficulty because the length of Thunderstorms is increased on harder difficulties. It doesn´t mean you can´t get zapped twice on easy.

Lightning strikes are also scripted to a character in advance, so if you have that character out and about he/she will get zapped if no protection is offered. Tested this with Emilyn as she always got zapped when starting the same seed multiple times, others have confirmed this.

[nodabba]

I would love to see a custom difficult setting in addition where you can adjust specific options via a slider or something. I would love to increase the bug numbers and other stuff but not necessarily the bad weather events.

[Martin]

Yeh lightning nearly always hits the character with the highest skills, as does brain bugs.

[ColoradoKid]

Originally posted by JensErik_Frontier:

Hey folks! Since there's some questions about difficulty I figured I'd jump in and provide some clarity.

The TL;DR is that the higher the difficulty, the more setbacks and less positive events you'll have. You'll find fewer resources and weapons at the initial crash site, you'll be attacked more often, and you'll likely be attacked by more creatures.

Keep in mind that Stranded: Alien Dawn is meant to challenge you, but of course we're also here to build the game together with you, so if the difficulties seem a bit high to people I'll certainly share it with the devs :)

Insane level seems almost impossible. When the scorpion bugs or flying insects attack during the first 1 1/2 years, there is no defense. I enjoy tough but have been destroyed by the scorpions during the first year 3 different seeds in a row on insane. Is it possible to survive insane with those attacking so soon?

Perhaps that is the challenge of insane but I would like to see those not attack until year 3 or end of year 2.

Note I have been playing on insane with CHAOS moon and all survivors start with 0 skills ..... so I may have made it impossible.

Thanks.

[Actual Malice]

Originally posted by ColoradoKid:

Insane level seems almost impossible. When the scorpion bugs or flying insects attack during the first 1 1/2 years, there is no defense. I enjoy tough but have been destroyed by the scorpions during the first year 3 different seeds in a row on insane. Is it possible to survive insane with those attacking so soon?

Perhaps that is the challenge of insane but I would like to see those not attack until year 3 or end of year 2. ...

That is ... unusual. I've had many playthroughs, and the shriekers always came in year two and the hummingflies in year three. Well, except for my current playthrough -- got hummingflies in year two immediately after my (very first) mech, so I figured it had something to do with the mech. Hard to imagine, but perhaps picking Lost Cause affects attacks, and not in a good way?

Btw, my last survivor had to face off against 215 hummingflies (and 250 of something else, which I paid no attention to, because I knew the flamethrowers would dispatch them all). He spent the next day, the entire next day, healing himself. Fortunately, the escape pod arrived or he never would have survived the next attack two days later, because so much had been damaged that he did not have time to repair. Insane/Chaos is not for the faint of heart. My current playthrough is on Easy, as I try to get some Tame/Train achievements. Gotta say, Easy is a very pleasant change of pace from Insane/Chaos, as I sit back and let the Priorities menu do most of the heavy lifting instead of micromanaging everything. Much more fun to just "watch the movie," as Flin Fredstone says.

[Actual Malice]

Originally posted by h311ra1z3r:

The only difference is the amount of resources you start with and that is it. The map resources, Bug amount, crafting.. does not play into it at all. The map you get determines the Technology, Bugs Attacks, and terrain you'll be dealing with as long as you stay on the planet. YOUR STARTING resources is what determines your Easy to Hard level That's it.

The following, also I believe from Jens_Erik by way of Elgar, should be pinned at the top of the threads, because this issue comes up constantly, often several times in the same day -- and players can become confused when somebody such as the OP makes statements that are, well, let's just say controversial:

"Gathering resources and constructing structures does gradually increase the size of the attacks. However, the game doesn't scale the size of the attacks based on the number of fences or walls you have. This scale is only affected by active defenses, such as traps and turrets. Additionally, the frequency of attacks is controlled solely by the chosen moon and difficulty."

"Every hour, the game evaluates the strength of your settlement by considering factors such as the number of survivors, available resources, and constructed buildings. On higher difficulty levels, the evaluation may also take into account the duration of your playthrough. If you have installed mods that allow you to start with more survivors and resources, your settlement's strength will increase, causing larger attacks to occur in the early stages of the game."

Source : https://steamcommunity.com/app/1324130/discussions/0/3821907717320618320/

[ChingMei Lee]

I've been playing on medium to insane game mode. It's very hard to stay alive during the winter in hard/very hard/insane dificulties. Both weather and bugs are much worse.

On insane mode sobrius winter:
Snow everywhere and almost impossible to dress your people well enough to send them out of your warmed house in the winter of year 1. I was able to eventually keep everyone alive through a few of the winter attack waves by only sending 2 people outside when I was being attacked and giving them all the good clothes.
But if the bugs even break down one of my walls the people inside the house freeze to death.
On insane so far I never got past the entire 1st winter without my people dying from cold in combination with animal attacks.

To survive a sobrius winter on insane I think you need to have a well heated house made of bricks or better insolation and the warmest cloth in the first half year. And also good weapons and good walls and automatic guns.... I don't know how to have the manpower to research everything and build everything in time. My brick house did not have electric heating and automatic guns but did have a lot of fireplaces so it was about 8 degrees C. inside. But the two survivers that could go outside just could not stop the attacks even though they had good guns. With automatic guns I would have probably made it. I'm going to try again obviously.

A month ago I tried easy mode and nobody died in winter when I did not have my house heated and I had pretty bad clothes as well...
So to me the weather on the more dificult game modes is the hardest.

On Saltu however the weather is ok on hard-insane mode since you only have to dress for heat waves which are leathal as well without the propar clothing but those clothes are easier to make.

I wish I could combine the starting rations of Insane with the weather of medium and the bug-attacks from hard mode. that would be perfect for me.

Also I wish the game would explain more then starting rations when choosing the dificulty... something like:
waves starting at xxx level 1 bugs and building up to xxx level 1-7 bugs.
Tempratures ranging from xx to xx year 1 building up to xx to xx.

[BioFringe]

I can say from experience that Normal mode doesn't require anything more than Shelters in regards to housing.

Summer Cloths = Baseball Hat & T-Shirts
Winter Cloths = Beanie, Sweater & Coat

No need for any other clothing other than Armor and no need for any other type of housing other than Shelters. No heating device needed but a Campfire never hurts.

[Stimpacker]

Ah, I made the mistake of trying to build a nice warm house for winter in Sobrius playing Insane. As you said it, it's very hard to get it done in time. I once did it but people got killed when they stepped outside to do work.

Now I have no issues with Sobrius winter cold snaps on Insane thanks to the good advice from this forum. In short, you can survive in shelters even without campfires (I don't want to waste sticks - need them to keep furnaces going for making bricks/concrete) with just winter gear. Here's how:

1) Observe and harvest wild skinbark in summer. I usually get around 200. Also keep an eye out for randomly killed ulfens nearby. Butcher them asap and dry the leathers in a stick drying rack. Don't bother hunting them. In Insane, you have no guns (or just 1 pistol in Military scenario). They'll run and your hunter will waste time.
2) Start leveling up your crafter once basic defenses are done mid-Spring to Summer. No problem even if skill starts at 0. Make bandages and healing balm to get to 1.
3) At crafting 1, you can make sweaters. No leather needed, just cloth.
4) At crafting 2, you can craft skinbark into veggie leather. Some will fail but you have plenty.
5) At crafting 2, you can make fur hat, winter coat, thermal pants and boots. These need leather.
A full set takes cold tolerance down to -25C. No cold snaps has prolonged temps below that (only seen brief dips to -27C). So even in such crazy weather, I can still send people out on expeditions no problem. In Insane, I prioritize defense. So come winter, the base house is still under construction (usually limited by concrete/bricks availability, don't waste time building wood house, then upgrading later). Don't waste electricity on heaters either.
PS: By winter, I will have also made gas masks for everyone for toxic ash.
PSS: By winter, I will have a few auto turrets, supporting flamethrowers and traps. Don't need people to fight really BUT they ALL go out to the trap zone when bugs attack to ensure bug pathfinding will lead them to the base entrance instead of breaking down fences which they may do if they sense people in the house. So winter clothes for all.

[Flin Fredstone]

Perhaps this can help you out as well.

Originally posted by Mnementh:

Hi, wanne!

The value we use is called EventProgress, or EP for short. It tracks the following factors in real time: the number of alive survivors, available resources, constructed buildings, and, in certain difficulties and moons, the time elapsed since the start of the scenario.

The EP value varies depending on the selected difficulty level and scenario. In terms of survivors, it's 10 EP per survivor on Easy difficulty, 15 EP on Medium, 25 EP on Hard, 30 EP on Very Hard, and 40 EP on Insane.

Every 10 EP corresponds to 1 minor skarabei in attacks. So, for example, having 10 survivors on Insane difficulty would mean an additional 20 skarabei in attacks. (It's 45 EP for shrierers, so 4-5 Shriekers, etc.)

Regarding turrets, the EP values are as follows: 25 EP for Easy, 37 EP for Medium, 62 EP for Hard, 87 EP for Very Hard, and 150 EP for Insane. (These values are for Concordia, they vary by +-20% between moons.)

Researching technologies does not directly increase the progress. The EP value of new resources produced and buildings constructed helps to balance this aspect.

In most cases, buildings have a slightly higher EP value than the construction resources they consume. However, active defenses such as traps and turrets have an increased EP value.

Each resource carries a different EP value, which is balanced based on the typical amount the player would stockpile. Therefore, excessive production leads to an increased threat level.

If resources are consumed, survivors are killed, or buildings are destroyed, the total EP value of the base immediately decreases. This results in weaker subsequent attacks, allowing time to recover from the damage.