Sucking at the Trade Scenario...

[J-Mac]

37 days in and I have to give up on this my first try for this one. Didnt have any walls yet since my folks were fending off the little bugs ok. Had purchased my first farmhand but just let him go (as I didnt want to empty my bank in the first year) and as soon as he leaves I get three sissorhands who laugh at my bows and commence to killing my dog and my crafter. With only two survivors, its just not enough to cook, maintain, farm, salvage and research.

Any tips for the trade scenario are appreciated.

[Summanus]

Harvest wild clothblossom as early as possible and sell it all to a colony ship whilst planting more fields of the stuff asap. Ask for a 4th person immediately and once you get them (or even before then if you get lucky with the weapons in salvaging) find and destroy a shrieker nest (unless you're on Saltu) and harvest it for carbon nanotubes. Sell said nanotubes to another colony ship for bags and bags of cash. Now you're rich.

Continue to plant, harvest and trade cotton to colony vessels and mine shrieker nests ftw!

[Seelander]

Originally posted by J-Mac:

37 days in and I have to give up on this my first try for this one. Didnt have any walls yet since my folks were fending off the little bugs ok. Had purchased my first farmhand but just let him go (as I didnt want to empty my bank in the first year) and as soon as he leaves I get three sissorhands who laugh at my bows and commence to killing my dog and my crafter. With only two survivors, its just not enough to cook, maintain, farm, salvage and research.

Any tips for the trade scenario are appreciated.

In terms of eco go clothblossom as antlucasexe writes, sell as raw material,dont craft just sell... Seems to me that you get caught up in recovering after attacks as you have no walls. By day 37 there should be absolutely no way that your defences arent set up.

Recommended team Laara, Vicente and a contructor, go very heavy farming after day 3 if playing on insane/chaos.

Your schedule should be (for insane/chaos) if playing lower you just got extra time.

day 2,5 have flamethrowers researched, have a min of 12 by 12 defensive structure ready (basic fences will be just fine) I used shelters for that in the below image, then added the fences for pathing later.

Day 20 Have pathing prepared create space in all other directions than your entrance to secure pathing... Reason for day 20 "ish" that this is where the game will change from small bugs to worse bugs. When putting up your defence try to create a box in a box. Think in terms of distance according to placement of survivors in all directions (should be 50% more tiles east, west and south if your entrance is north, if playing it safe. And consider hit points the bugs must pass to get to you... in my img below you will see that the fences adds 20 hit pts, but my shelters in my defensive structure adds another 100 HP (if i didnt have that gate it would only be 20 hit pts between me and the bugs, by having the gate its 120 hit pts, making it more appealing to follow my intended path.

if on insane/chaos you need more than 30 by 30 in your defensive structure, problably need to be at 50 by 50 to make sure they path right, still cheapest fences will be just fine.

Regardless of diff. on the first attack 2 Flamethrowers will stop pretty much all, second attack add to more, then increase the numbers of flamethrowers pointed at eachothers as the attacks starts increasing but placing the flamethrowers as i did on the below image will stop most attacks. 8 Flamethrowers should be plenty for the first 2 years

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2075640853351312906/E63D7307021B23E70756CE43536AEE3FF9D395D4/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[FAIR]

Hire more ppl as soon as you can and you are good to go.

[Seelander]

Yep, hiring as soon as you can also helps, just do 6 month contracts on your first few additions then make the contracts longer after,

[Evil-Devil]

I recommend starting at a lower difficulty if you have issues with the attacks. For instance on insane with chaos moon attacks happen every 3-4 days.
By day 37 your defence should already be top-notch with at least 4 flame throwers and a fence or palisade surrounding a secure area where you put your traders or just have the whole camp secured with the one entrance to lure the aliens in.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by antlucasexe:

Harvest wild clothblossom as early as possible and sell it all to a colony ship whilst planting more fields of the stuff asap. Ask for a 4th person immediately and once you get them (or even before then if you get lucky with the weapons in salvaging) ...

If you try to sell to the first trade ship that arrives, you most likely won't have anything of any value -- even if you can harvest all the wild clothblossoms you find, but you would get a little more money if you turn the resulting cloth into bandages. My point is that it costs 50 liquid fuels to send the trade pod on its way, and you likely won't have any means of replenishing your fuel supply except by scavenging. I try to make every trade situation profitable -- 75K of galacticans is my normal criterium -- so that I can hire more helpers.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by tommy_b_schmidt:

Yep, hiring as soon as you can also helps, just do 6 month contracts on your first few additions then make the contracts longer after,

I never hire anyone for only six months; will pass on anyone who applies who I can't hire for at least 1 year. Some applicants are much less expensive than others, and a couple will even work for free: Hahn (I believe I have it right) will work for free if you let him get 10 confirmed kills on the local wildlife. Hugo will work for free if you let him tame 5 animals.