Question about Cassandra Classic

[Aryath]

I took a look at the AI storytellers code characteristics, and think I understand how they work. However, I found a contradiction. The description says:

"Cassandra creates story events on a steadily-increasing curve of challenge and tension."

That is referring to the fact that the difficulty of events is based on the colony's wealth. It does NOT mean that the frequency of big threads increases over time.

So, theoretically, if you play in a way that does not increase your wealth at all, there is no "steadily-increasing curve of challenge and tension", right? Or am I mistaken?

I know that actually playing in a way to not increase your wealth is kinda hard, but it is possible. (E.g. you could burn any influx of wealth at a crematorium etc.) And I know that at the start you have to increase your wealth until you built a stable colony with defenses, food, etc. I mean, that after you stabilized, you could switch to that playstyle and in that time have no increase of challenges. My question is more about whether I really understood how the AI works.

(On a side note, the description basically applies to ALL AI storytellers, not just Cassandra)

Please only answer if you know what you're talking about, no speculations and guesses, please.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Time itself is also a type of wealth in that calculation.

[Aryath]

I just now read a comment that wealth also depends on your time played.

Is that right? Because that would answer my question instantly.

(In that case you would have to first hord some wealth and then destroy it to have a time of non-increasing challenges, which is of course rather impractical)

[Aryath]

Originally posted by BlackSmokeDMax:

Time itself is also a type of wealth in that calculation.

Ah alright!
I was still typing my second post while you answered, thats why it doesnt make sense anymore

[grapplehoeker]

It also takes number of colonists into account in addition to wealth.

[Aryath]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

It also takes number of colonists into account in addition to wealth.

Thanks, but I know that already. Also, when increasing your colonist's skills it will increase your total wealth.

[elipod]

Regular raids encourage "steady" increase of your defences.

Randy killed me many times with long periods of peace followed by big raid, sometimes, twice as big as previous one. It's harder to gauge amount of defence force needed, when raids don't visit you regularly. I know about wealth management, but often loose myself to greed.

[Security Cam #7]

Colony age (how long it was since you landed), colony members, colony wealth and recent events all decide how big the raid is gonna be. If some of your colonists died fairly recently next raid will be considerably weaker

[Aryath]

Originally posted by elipod:

Regular raids encourage "steady" increase of your defences.

Randy killed me many times with long periods of peace followed by big raid, sometimes, twice as big as previous one. It's harder to gauge amount of defence force needed, when raids don't visit you regularly. I know about wealth management, but often loose myself to greed.

Yea, I also tried Randy this session. And on top of a poison ship that had so much mechs (20 lancers, 5 scythers, 11 centipedes) that my rather good killbox barely worked, he sent another mech raid with about 40 scythers.

So I guess I'll stick with Cassandra, instead of having a random chance to lose no matter how well I play.

But I agree, on merciless difficulty, having as less wealth as possible and defenses as good as possible is key.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Thaliviel:

But I agree, on merciless difficulty, having as less wealth as possible and defenses as good as possible is key.

Indeed.
Here's FFS171 not long before lift off. As you can see, the colonist wealth is low.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1561035160
Wealth was kept low and the steady increase towards the end was mostly due to the construction of the spaceship.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1561035321

By contrast, my current colony FFS173 is using Minions,
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1871586628
and the difference these fast breeders make to colonist+animal wealth is huge!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1871586829
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1871582332

[corisai]

Originally posted by elipod:

Randy killed me many times with long periods of peace followed by big raid, sometimes, twice as big as previous one. It's harder to gauge amount of defence force needed, when raids don't visit you regularly. I know about wealth management, but often loose myself to greed.

Cassandra in latest game always encourage me to invest into defense with double raids (yes, two raids in same day, yes Cassandra).

Of course I don't mind so, as using multiple mods to boost my killboxes stopping power, hehe.

[Aryath]

Originally posted by corisai:

Cassandra in latest game always encourage me to invest into defense with double raids (yes, two raids in same day, yes Cassandra).

Do you mean prior to starting up your ship? I know that when you start the ship the raid frequency increases extremely.

But before that, the big raids (big threats) should have at least 1.9 days in between, because Cassandra's minDaysBetweenThreatBigs = 1.9

So I'm not sure if you can really get 2 raids on the same day when you didnt activate the ship yet?

[elipod]

Randy once gave me 2 raids and mechanoid ship chunk. Pirates, tribals and mechanoids fought each other outside my walls)

[corisai]

Originally posted by Thaliviel:

Do you mean prior to starting up your ship? I know that when you start the ship the raid frequency increases extremely.

Prior of course. At first it was ~2 days between indeed. But latests two raids:
6th Aprimay 5502, 10hr. Mechanoid drop pods.
6th Aprimay 5502, 21hr. Sappers from outlanders.
I could post screenshots but highly doubt anyone want them :)

P.S. Previous siege was broken on arrival by pirate merchant caravan, hehe.

[Aryath]

Originally posted by corisai:

Prior of course. At first it was ~2 days between indeed. But latests two raids:
6th Aprimay 5502, 10hr. Mechanoid drop pods.
6th Aprimay 5502, 21hr. Sappers from outlanders.

Very interesting! It's okay, I'll believe you even without screenshots. Maybe one of the raids was not considered a Big Threat, otherwise I'm not sure, but it could be that at very high wealth minDaysBetweenThreatBigs works differently...

[corisai]

Originally posted by Thaliviel:

but it could be that at very high wealth minDaysBetweenThreatBigs works differently...

~ 350k wealth, still not very high as I only begin to build nuclear power plant & bionic factory (and a lots of advanced turrets in addition)...