Game difficulty

[battl3hamm3r]

I started playing today, the tutorial is pretty easy, but the first map kinda wooped my butt, there's was not enough resources around to complete almost any of the project I was getting

is it normal?

[Samseng Yik]

Mostly that is because you play this game like a city builder, not play it like a rogue-lite.
This is pretty normal feeling because the "real game" required you to be much more adaptive for winning.

There are resource for everything, but you still need to carefully choose what order to take, and what blueprint to pick. Depend current biome, racial preference.

The very 1st 2 settlement i play after tutorial kinda scratch my head too. Once i "get it" suddenly is a masterpiece legendary.
You lose nothing by losing anyway, so just experiment and fire it away for learning

[Samseng Yik]

For your "understanding game mechanic" difficulty, just choose prioneer.
After you win few rounds and got understanding what to do in the game, or around passive level 4, then can start Veteran

[battl3hamm3r]

Thanks for the answers, I will keep that in mind, I actually restarted my game from scratch and will do it on Settler this time

And yes, I came into this game with a city builder minding, but it does not apply at all since you need to follow orders, not build just to build to gather resources

[Samseng Yik]

This is a roguelite, if you use the "typical city builder mindset" for 1 massive city concept.
Then it won't end well.

The point of the game is, get enough reputation, win and move on.

Settler is overly easy it will make you feel comfort zone and barely able to improve your skill.
Pioneer is already a "easier than normal" difficulty

Also, depend how much "rogue ish game" experience you have in the past.
Strong rogue ish game player who never played city builder, won't have problem in this game because is just a different game play mechanic.

"typical city builder gamer" on the other hand, will going to complain a lot stupid things that is actually "the normal mechanic of rogue ish".
Example, you cannot "plan your building and dream setup" due to the flickery random blue print, resource found in map, event you will face, reward you get etc etc.
Is all about "how you plan to mitigate the risk while working toward victory"

[Cubey]

If you struggle, then I recommend playing the game on the current seal's difficulty. For example the first seal (bronze) has a minimum difficulty of Settler, so all settlements this cycle are Settler as well. Gold seal requires Viceroy, so all settlements for that cycle are also on Viceroy, and so on.

I found that to be a very good difficulty curve. Of course if you feel like the current difficulty is too easy then feel free to bump it up, but this is for players who are having problems.

[HouseOfTheRat]

You are on a timer, and the resources you need are out there. You need to go get them.

Go Against the Storm, don't wait for it to pass. It never does.

[TripSin]

You may not find a specific resource in the glades you discover. Each biome only has a subset of resources (listed before embarking and in settlement by pressing escape and looking on the left). The game is about making do with whatever you do happen to get and comfortable.

Make use of traders to get things you don't have. Eventually you will unlock trade routes to help u get more amber yo be able to buy more stuff from traders.

It's fine to start at lower difficulty and work your way up as you feel confortable.

[Strategic Sage]

Originally posted by Samseng Yik:

"typical city builder gamer" on the other hand, will going to complain a lot stupid things that is actually "the normal mechanic of rogue ish".

This is true aside from calling it stupid, but it's hard to blame them since the game is promoted on Steam (in the description, not the trailer) as a city-builder not a roguelike, and the tutorial gives you all the resources you need to complete the orders. So it's a misconception that is being encouraged for some reason.

[HouseOfTheRat]

It is very much promoted as a roguelite, it is right in the game description. It also says that it is not like other city-builders and you don't just build one big pretty city.

That said, I have seen at least one review claiming that the game is a relaxing city-builder. There are still many "review" sites that just exist to generate trash content after looking at the promo screenshots and maybe playing a game for 5 minutes.

[kory]

Originally posted by 2024:

It is very much promoted as a roguelite, it is right in the game description. It also says that it is not like other city-builders and you don't just build one big pretty city.

That said, I have seen at least one review claiming that the game is a relaxing city-builder. There are still many "review" sites that just exist to generate trash content after looking at the promo screenshots and maybe playing a game for 5 minutes.

I could see thinking of this as a relaxing city builder if you never move above settler.

[Sparra]

A few tips:

1 - If you're running out of resources, that generally means you're not cutting into new glades fast enough. Also worth noting is that dangerous glades contain far, far better resources than small glades so you'll want to prioritize dangerous glades when you can. Most dangerous glade events tend to be pretty forgiving as well, and even if you run out of time on one it's not going to destroy your city. I have the game set to pause when I open a glade, so I always know immediately when I've cut into one and can look over what I've found.

2 - Do your best to have enough basic shelters for everyone, and try to have everyone doing SOMETHING, even if it's not the most optimal thing. Every resource is good for something, and even if you don't have a use for some resources (for example, dyes, wine, or incense), those resources often can be used in glade events or simply traded for amber for things you do need, so having some of those resources laying around can be very helpful (but make sure you limit the production of them so they don't consume all your supplies). I personally try to only have 1 idle villager so I have someone to build buildings for me and even then I'll have said villager assigned to hauling or working at a lower priority building if I'm not building anything.

3. Remember that villagers walk to hearths to take breaks, and have to drop off/pick up goods at the nearest warehouse. Houses don't ever get visited, so feel free to tuck them into places further from both while production buildings get the better spots.

4. Take your time climbing the difficulty settings of the game, and don't feel pressured to keep ticking up the difficulty at the expense of fun. There's a lot of different strategies you can use to win a run, so take your time learning and trying different things. I personally play at Viceroy difficulty and am currently eyeing the prestige difficulties, but I'm still working on being better at setting up service buildings as well as building additional hearths when I need to (namely, quicker than I have been in the past).

[Strategic Sage]

Originally posted by 2024:

It is very much promoted as a roguelite, it is right in the game description. It also says that it is not like other city-builders and you don't just build one big pretty city.

No it isn't. The entirety of the promotion blurb at the top of the Store page is as follows:

A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.

I see city-builder there. I don't see randomness or roguelite or anything of the kind. And as mentioned, the tutorials reinforce this impression. Under the second paragraph of About this Game if you bother reading down that far, it finally gets to mentioning roguelite. By then it's already used citybuilder multiple times. Basically it's misleadingly leaning into the citybuilder side as the focus, when it's more a roguelite with citybuilder elements than the other way around.

[HouseOfTheRat]

Originally posted by Strategic Sage:

Originally posted by 2024:

It is very much promoted as a roguelite, it is right in the game description. It also says that it is not like other city-builders and you don't just build one big pretty city.

No it isn't. The entirety of the promotion blurb at the top of the Store page is as follows:

A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.

I see city-builder there. I don't see randomness or roguelite or anything of the kind. And as mentioned, the tutorials reinforce this impression. Under the second paragraph of About this Game if you bother reading down that far, it finally gets to mentioning roguelite. By then it's already used citybuilder multiple times. Basically it's misleadingly leaning into the citybuilder side as the focus, when it's more a roguelite with citybuilder elements than the other way around.

I see we have got another one of those "the text is literally in front of my eyes but I refuse to read it, therefore the game is wrong" cases lol.

[el Darkness]

Originally posted by 2024:

I see we have got another one of those "the text is literally in front of my eyes but I refuse to read it, therefore the game is wrong" cases lol.

People just can't be bothered to read more than a 2 sentence text at a time... they literally prefer to stare blanky than take a good look. Before someone tells me it is not true, well, I seen it happen IRL several times... People are lazy and tend to blame others for their faults. But the text could have been better in this case I guess.

[HouseOfTheRat]

Oh yes, I know. "I didn't read the description before buying something and it is not what I wanted" sounds kinda next level but it is actually common. The description calls it a roguelite several times, including in big capital colorful title letters, so calling it a roguelite a few more times wouldn't change anything if people don't read anything anyway!