How does this game scale regarding difficulty?

[NikonovDESTROYER ✔]

Hi, I would like to know how the game is scaling in difficulty?

- Is it the amount of colonists one has?
- Research progress?
- Time played?

I'm really wondering since it feels like I can easily keep up with raids, infestations, etc. to a certain point just bashing the attackers and then some hours later they come in such large groups, heavily armored and equipped I can barely withstand them? I'm playing on "Rough" and let's assume the first 25 hours on a map is all fine and dandy and suddenly after this it's mayhem.

The reason why I am asking is, I got my 15 colonists geared up like crazy and researched defence relevant stuff and enemies start owning them slowly now...

[Tarshaid]

The strength of the raids is based on:

- Number of colonists (ramps up, then goes insane if you're really having too many people)
- Time elapsed
- Wealth of the colony

If you look at your history tab, no doubt you'll see that the wealth of your colony keeps growing and growing and growing, and if you're not prepared for the difficulty increase that implies, maybe you should find ways to tone done that wealth or just let the raiders steal all your cowboy hats to get a breather. Or maybe you have to rethink your strategy. Some would say "killbox", but that's not my style. Might be yours.
Also the very first events are kinda scripted, so you may experience a jump in difficulty when it goes from "imma send a squirrel at you, then a lone guy with a club, and then..." to "according to this spreadsheet, you're ready for a dozen of scythers dropping in the middle of your base". But you should be over that point after 25 hours.

[Security Cam #7]

Originally posted by Tarshaid:

so you may experience a jump in difficulty when it goes from "imma send a squirrel at you, then a lone guy with a club, and then..." to "according to this spreadsheet, you're ready for a dozen of scythers dropping in the middle of your base". But you should be over that point after 25 hours.

That's not true at all. After the first year difficulty starts to rise and you start getting raids with multiple people. If you are rising your wealth very fast early game (which is stipid to be honest) then here's your problem. I didn't have a mech raid with 6 scythers until half of year 3, and just before the end of year 2 I only got a poison ship with 4 scythers that got taken down quickly.




Unless you play merciless difficulty or raise wealth very fasy a raid like that won't happen after the first year.

[NikonovDESTROYER ✔]

I just rechecked and it says im 17hours in and facing raiding groups of 15-20 people with full flak gear, scythers in groups of 15+, these Megaspiders in quantities of 15+ along with the smaller ones, it is utter madness.

I can attach a screenshot, I mean so far I managed to only lose one colonist but it seems ridiculous now.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1611304237


I got quite a bit of money which is just sitting idle in my storage, so how can I actively tone the difficulty down again? Do I have to get rid of none-combat colonists, waste my money quickly or what is a proper suggestion of an experienced player?

Thanks

[Security Cam #7]

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

I just rechecked and it says im 17hours in and facing raiding groups of 15-20 people with full flak gear, scythers in groups of 15+, these Megaspiders in quantities of 15+ along with the smaller ones, it is utter madness.

I can attach a screenshot, I mean so far I managed to only lose one colonist but it seems ridiculous now.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1611304237


I got quite a bit of money which is just sitting idle in my storage, so how can I actively tone the difficulty down again? Do I have to get rid of none-combat colonists, waste my money quickly or what is a proper suggestion of an experienced player?

Thanks

You have more colonists than I had on year 3 and they all are protected. That 5k silver really doesn't bump your wealth much.
The most bumps are from colonists and high quality items.
Those numbers of raids like you have are to be expected with that amount of colonists.

The game also tones down the difficulty whenever a colonist of yours dies.
Animals do increase raid sizes as well, but I once had 100 chickens and they aren't worth much, so not much wealth was increased.

If you ever want to lower you wealth you can sell useless stuff and then waste money on something useles that you can burn with molotovs. I personally wouldn't do that because it's a huge waste of cash that could come in handy later.


P.S: If the temperature gets too high or too low so much that no ordinary raider can withstand it then all you are going to getare mech raids.

[ambi]

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

I got quite a bit of money which is just sitting idle in my storage, so how can I actively tone the difficulty down again? Do I have to get rid of none-combat colonists, waste my money quickly or what is a proper suggestion of an experienced player?

Thanks

After mid-game, it's best to bunker down and spam turrets, traps and power. You should have plenty of stone or wood to spam traps along your perimeter. Build as many turrets as your power and steel allows.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

how can I actively tone the difficulty down again?

You can't, without cheesing the system quite a bit, but you might as well just lower the difficulty in the settings if you are thinking about doing that.

The game is designed to constantly ramp up in difficulty as you play, and you need to stay on top of that difficulty increase with defenses and equipment, that is the main gameplay loop. The only way to reduce the difficulty is to destroy wealth (like burn it or gift it to villages through pods) and/or kill/down your own colonists repeatedly. Both of those go against progression, which is why it doesn't make sense to do that. About the only time you should be worrying about wealth is if like a caravan pack animal dies and drops a high quality gold sculpture early on, and then you'd very much want to get rid of that quickly. Otherwise you should just drop the difficulty down a notch, you can change the storyteller and difficulty at any time in the game options.

[NikonovDESTROYER ✔]

Thanks for the replies, really appreciate them.

Besides the turrets and traps I was thinking about setting up multiple mortars withing a small perimeter to instantly react on "Siege", "Psychic Ship", etc. events, they are quite unprecise though.

Might have to abandon my colony and move towards a better position to defend since im exposed to most directions.

Does the game take my amount of animals into consideration, apart from my wealth rising? Had the idea to create a nice pack of stout animals to be wasted in attacks.

[NikonovDESTROYER ✔]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

how can I actively tone the difficulty down again?

You can't, without cheesing the system quite a bit, but you might as well just lower the difficulty in the settings if you are thinking about doing that.

The game is designed to constantly ramp up in difficulty as you play, and you need to stay on top of that difficulty increase with defenses and equipment, that is the main gameplay loop. The only way to reduce the difficulty is to destroy wealth (like burn it or gift it to villages through pods) and/or kill/down your own colonists repeatedly. Both of those go against progression, which is why it doesn't make sense to do that. About the only time you should be worrying about wealth is if like a caravan pack animal dies and drops a high quality gold sculpture early on, and then you'd very much want to get rid of that quickly. Otherwise you should just drop the difficulty down a notch, you can change the storyteller and difficulty at any time in the game options.

I see what you mean, this is the second map I started in this game since I only got it a few days ago and it was important to understand the progression pattern to stay on top of it like you said. Will probably try to go full defensive and if it doesn't work out change the difficulty and do it right next time I start from scratch.

[Security Cam #7]

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

Thanks for the replies, really appreciate them.

Besides the turrets and traps I was thinking about setting up multiple mortars withing a small perimeter to instantly react on "Siege", "Psychic Ship", etc. events, they are quite unprecise though.

Might have to abandon my colony and move towards a better position to defend since im exposed to most directions.

Does the game take my amount of animals into consideration, apart from my wealth rising? Had the idea to create a nice pack of stout animals to be wasted in attacks.

Yes, animals are taken into consideration, although if they are a bunch of suicidal boomrats/alopes then it's generally a good idea to use them. You will probably gain more advantage by that, even if a raid is big. Those little monsters will make enemies shoot at them, and because boomrats are small raiders will hit the ground mostly. Even better if they use grenades.

[ElectroRanger]

Out of curiosity, can you just outright escape the base when it gets too hot? Like maybe you get raided by something almost unbeatable and you can keep your colonists alive by forming a caravan and then abandon the base for a different spot?

[M.K.]

Originally posted by AlloyForce:

Out of curiosity, can you just outright escape the base when it gets too hot? Like maybe you get raided by something almost unbeatable and you can keep your colonists alive by forming a caravan and then abandon the base for a different spot?

Absolutely!

Remember though, that a part of your colony value lies in the colonists themselves.
A highly skilled organic colonist can be worth 4000, and can be wearing/toting another 5000 of clothing and weapons.
A fully archotech Bionic Superman, wielding a legendary Charge lance, can be worth 100k just by himself.

As a general rule, towards the lategame you want to put a larger percentage of your colony total wealth into defenses. Having 50K worth of Jade Masterwork statues in your Zen Garden may be pretty, but it draws the raiders like flies.
Having that same 50K value as a long trap corridor full of IED's, covered by Uranium Turrets, is a lot safer.

[ElectroRanger]

Originally posted by M.K.:

Originally posted by AlloyForce:

Out of curiosity, can you just outright escape the base when it gets too hot? Like maybe you get raided by something almost unbeatable and you can keep your colonists alive by forming a caravan and then abandon the base for a different spot?

Absolutely!

Remember though, that a part of your colony value lies in the colonists themselves.
A highly skilled organic colonist can be worth 4000, and can be wearing/toting another 5000 of clothing and weapons.
A fully archotech Bionic Superman, wielding a legendary Charge lance, can be worth 100k just by himself.

As a general rule, towards the lategame you want to put a larger percentage of your colony total wealth into defenses. Having 50K worth of Jade Masterwork statues in your Zen Garden may be pretty, but it draws the raiders like flies.
Having that same 50K value as a long trap corridor full of IED's, covered by Uranium Turrets, is a lot safer.

Yeah, good thing to note in case someone decides to have their workstations made out of gold. Less likely to burn easily but also complete worthless and just attracts trouble. But hey! If I can always just abandon base I dont mind doing a traveling caravan :D

[jfd]

Originally posted by Tarshaid:

The strength of the raids is based on:

- Number of colonists (ramps up, then goes insane if you're really having too many people)
- Time elapsed
- Wealth of the colony

If you look at your history tab, no doubt you'll see that the wealth of your colony keeps growing and growing and growing, and if you're not prepared for the difficulty increase that implies, maybe you should find ways to tone done that wealth or just let the raiders steal all your cowboy hats to get a breather. Or maybe you have to rethink your strategy. Some would say "killbox", but that's not my style. Might be yours.
Also the very first events are kinda scripted, so you may experience a jump in difficulty when it goes from "imma send a squirrel at you, then a lone guy with a club, and then..." to "according to this spreadsheet, you're ready for a dozen of scythers dropping in the middle of your base". But you should be over that point after 25 hours.

But what if for example you constantly have 3 colonists from the start. Will there be a point in the game you get attacked by 6 or more pawns in the raid?

Since you said the raid is also based on time elapsed I was wondering this.

[Astasia]

Your colonist number/value is generally going to be the smallest factor in determining raid size. So yes if you stay at 3 colonists you will very quickly be fighting 6-10-20+ raiders depending on difficulty and how long you play.

I think the time elapsed factor now caps out, which is new in 1.0 and didn't used to be the case, but your colony wealth will continue to grow and that will constantly increase raid size.

[ElectroRanger]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Your colonist number/value is generally going to be the smallest factor in determining raid size. So yes if you stay at 3 colonists you will very quickly be fighting 6-10-20+ raiders depending on difficulty and how long you play.

I think the time elapsed factor now caps out, which is new in 1.0 and didn't used to be the case, but your colony wealth will continue to grow and that will constantly increase raid size.

It caps at some point? Care to elaborate exactly what kind of cap?