14 hours in it, and so far I hate this game. What should I do?

[neldot]

It's been frustrating beyond imagination for me until now.
The colonists are simply so dumb that they can't survive for few seconds without my continuous babysitting. And this is at the 2nd lowest difficulty level and with Cassandra as story teller. Also, I found that the alert sound is totally inaudible even with the volume maxed. How am I supposed to be alerted if I can't hear it?

I'm not a newbie in strategy games, but this is not strategically difficult, this is simply ultimate punishment randomness. Particularly because I've no way to easily replace the precious few colonists that I have at the start.

I've spent hours building up my colony and then the dumbest accidents can destroy all in seconds. Wind turbines that inexplicably drop to zero output without warnings. Batteries that catch fire because of the rain even when they are under a roof. My best hunter (weapon level 13), biten to death by a single mad little squirrel!!! Two colonists that catch fire immediately instead of extinguishing it? What is this madness?

I can not even imagine what could happen at the hardest difficulty levels.

Is this game supposed to simulate the difficulties of a survivors colony or is it a sci-fi version of the Darwin awards at the expense of unsuspecting new players?

Sorry for the long rant, but I needed an outburst for my ftrustration.
Any advice to enjoy the game while still learning? Should I forget of the level 2 and play only at the easiest level for now?

[Torres]

Yeah pretty much, welcome to Rimworld. Mod it til you find a sweet balance that isn't cheaty. <3

[tatsku88]

The game really isn't that hard once you get used to it. I suggest putting some kind of flooring in the wind turbine's area to prevent trees from growing there. Have your best melee fighter as back up when fighting. A roof should protect your batteries, unless something changed in B18, I'm playing the tribal start and don't have electricity yet on my current run. Check that there're no holes in the roof? Or was it the Zzzt event? And if the fire is already big, you need to be careful so that your pawns don't go into the middle of it. I honestly never had much trouble.

[tatsku88]

And yes, mods are nice.

[Daffy]

Welcome to Rimworld where the game actively trying to kill you.

That said even tho there is randomness in the game there most times is a reason for it happening and a way to prevent it.

in random order :

Pawns does not need babysitting 24/7 ..select a pawn and in the window that pops on the lower left the is a little icon of a running man ...click that and you can change what they do if in danger run/ignore/fight

set there priority in the worktab select the little red x to go into details.

here set firefigthing / patient / bed rest / doctor ( your best one ) to 1 and adjust the rest of the tasks in the order you want it but try not to have too many 1, note they always check the lst from the left to right.

The major events pause the game ( raids and so ) make sure you have *pause on urget letter ticked as on *

learn to spot what animals there is around and hunt predators, do this with 3-4 pawns with ranged weapons, bows will do if you got nothing else.


make sure you have a good mix of starting pawns so you got somone for all tasks, most importent:

firefigthing / cooking / grower / doctor .. a minimum skill of 5 with those should be fine ... press random till you get what you need.

understand that the game is a fair bit deeper then it looks .... age of the pawns matter more then you think.

Depending on the biome/storyteller and difficulty there are different *issues* you need to be aware of like tropical forest / swamp is a really bad place to learn the game as you will get hit be sickness A LOT.

Learn to use zones and restrict your pawns and animals to those zones if you have urgent issue that needs to be fixed.

other then that it is hard to advice as i can not really see what the problem is that you are having other then *pawns are dumb !* they are not really .... not supersmart but they generaly do as you tell them.


Hope it helps in some way, else ask away here, we try to be helpfull unless you ask for a sale :P

[Astasia]

I would suggest watching let's plays to learn the mechanics before diving back in again. There's a steep learning curve, and a very high skill cap. It can be frustratingly hard to play if you don't know what you are doing, but once you get the hang of all the mechanics you will be intentionally handicapping yourself and making the game more difficult to keep the challenge up.

[Bryan=0101]

You seem to fail to realize the pawns aren't indepedent. They are very much depedent on you.

You must setup proper work times,sleep times, joy times for them and give them porper areas to do such. They aren't meant to be doing their own things whilst you do another things. The colonist is the focus of the game.

[Kanjejou]

try to specialise your pawn. because they tend to walk on each other shoes.

make sure to have 1 pawn specialised in cleaning 1 hauling 1 and then in somethign else...at 2

create a commune joy time then a sleeping time corresponding their favorite sleeping time, then you can put all the rest as free time

[Ashardalon]

did you assign the place to be roofed or was it roofed?
there is a show roof button on the bottom right
batteries dont explode from rain when roofed

manual priorities are important if you want to limit micromanaging
i can leave it playing for hourse without having to intervene

wind turbines rely on wind, if there is no wind there is no power that is why you need batterys for them
its also smart to floor the area infront and back the turbine to prevent trees from growing
trees block wind

small animals are hard to hit with guns, it makes sence try shooting a squirrel
use swords on them, they have very low hp making a single hit deadly as long as you dont hit the tail
this way you can beat any small animal only getting bitten once at most
large animals hit hard and take a lot of punishment, dont fight them with clubs, it makes sence try fighting a bull with a baseball bat
but they are large so are 2x as easy to hit with guns
even bad shooters can hit a charging muffalo, maybe not often enough, but hit yes

[Talesin]

Well first i gotto say it WILL take you a few tries before you manage to make a colony that survives.
All the events is survivable, but obviously the first time you won't know what hit you which makes it harder.

In order of you mentioning it:

Stupid pawns: You can prioritize what your pawns will do by clicking the manual button that changes it to numbers from 1-4.
If you prioritze wrong, obviously they aren't gonna do what you want them to do.

Alert sound: Yeah it used to be higher imo, but haven't had any issue hearing the lower sound either.

Replacing pawns: The game will actually activly try to replace your pawns if you fall below 4 pawns.
Usually you get one randomly walking/dropping in.

As for your examples: Small animals is easily killed by melee, big animals is better to kill with ranged.
So a ranged hunter is very unlikely to manage to shoot a killer squirrell biting his leg.
Batteries can only catch fire from event or rain.
Use the roof button to check if they got roof.
As for colonists catching fire, you obviously must have had them run through the fire to reach the fire or something on the other side.
As that have never happened to me unless i force them.

And as have been mentioned, the game is trying to kill you.


My advice is saving often. As its your first playthrough you will need time to figure out how to survive the different hazards.
It took me a few attempts to start figuring out how to overcome most events.
And thats when i got my first toxic fallout ever screwing my colony so badly :P

And i don't suggest playing on the easiest as most hazards is gone so you won't really learn much about the game.

PS. If you want an easier way to recruit pawns, get the Hospitality mod.
It allows you to host visitiors and try to recruit them to your colony amongst other things.

[kevinshow]

Since you're not new to these kinds of games, then you should know It's just learning the game. Once you do, those things that you're complaining about now, won't be as much of an issue.

At the beginning, squirrels and turtles can still maim the colonists. One day, they won't be able to. One day you'll play on much more difficult storytellers and harder level and be totally comfortable with it.

Now you've mentioned all these things as being somewhat difficult, but there is one thing you haven't said. As long as you're not playing on permadeath, just reload. If the game, in its current format, frustrates you, then change that frustration by reloading.

But there is something new for B18, which is the fire hazard event with powerlines. It doesn't even need a battery anymore. There is the red Zzzt event, and the yellow Zzzt event. Which one it is, will help you know if it's the one you can't control, or the one you can (eg, cover up the battery with a roof).

[Thiago Kadooka]

ok so, people propably already told you lots of tips. just gonna tell you mine.

play with phoebe storyteller.

yeah, like yourself i never did end the game with cassandra, she is a crazy ♥♥♥♥♥, let me tell you that.

i really, REALLY, recommend you to start playing with phoebe, REALLY DO!
she send you raiders and situations at a really better rate. it let you breath.

dont be ashamed to go with her. Her description seems that the game will be a breeze, but not really, specially for newcomers.

go with her, you gonna learn to appreciate this amazing game, cassandra is too punishing, you dont even have time to learn a thing and prepare stuf, before she sends another raid.
just today i got 3 consecutives raids, with almost a minute interval, it seems ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (and problably is), so go with phoebe, really, she will never do that to you ahaha.

[Zander117]

Go in the custom scenario editor and you can disable the fire zzt event ^ btw Pheobe is just as hard as others she just gives you a fasle sense of security

[Lactose the Intolerant]

1. Prepare carefully.
2. Make a settlement of psychotic cannibals.
3. Killing and making coats out of enemy's skin has never been so fun.

[m4rt14n]

In Rimworld, losing is fun

[neldot]

Thank you all. A lot of good suggestions by enthusiast fellow players here.
I'll try to put your good hints in practice.
Thanx again.