Is insect infestation supposed to be this frustrating??

[ciel]

Like, compared to literally every other crisis event that happens at around the same time, it feels so obscenely overpowered. I've never recovered from it happening.

Most of the strategy advice I find for dealing with it (and a lot of harder combat encounters in general...) just seems to be a conglomeration of abusing bad AI and bad event scripting, which is just not an appealing playstyle. What interests me the most about this game are the chances to organically design a solution dependent on what kind of scenario you're in, not just looking up some broken metagame strategy. Working around the strengths and weaknesses of your colonists and the map you're on.

I like that it's a threat! I like a challenge! But dumping 2 megaspiders, like 5 spelopedes and however many scarabs on me in my second year where my 5 colonists don't even all have flak armor yet... The ♥♥♥♥ am I supposed to do with that? Mech drops at the same difficulty level and storyteller AI, and even further along in wealth and time played are nowhere near this punishing! Not to mention how they permanently destroy my beautiful natural stone walls... :( idgi

[Narrowmind]

Are you polishing walls?

[ciel]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

Are you polishing walls?

I don't any more until I feel like I'm comfortably set up. It's kinda bothersome that they add so much to your total wealth despite being a completely non-liquid part of your colony. :\

Yanno, I'm not one of those people who gets mad about breaks and mood debuffs from not eating with a table. The feeble, human element of this game is what makes it so interesting.

But for chrissakes why do they think that the outdoors and caves are just inherently revoltingly ugly???

[Narrowmind]

It sounds like you're saying you're intentionally making it challenging? If you know your wealth goes through the roof doing that, and you know that underground bases are going to cause and infestation, then why do you do it? Polishing is the worst thing you can do.

Yes its supposed to be difficult. If you want it to be easier, use wood flooring so you can burn them out at least. Double wall off sections for extra security, perhaps.

[ciel]

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

It sounds like you're saying you're intentionally making it challenging? If you know your wealth goes through the roof doing that, and you know that underground bases are going to cause and infestation, then why do you do it? Polishing is the worst thing you can do.

Yes its supposed to be difficult. If you want it to be easier, use wood flooring so you can burn them out at least. Double wall off sections for extra security, perhaps.

Because, I dunno, I expect a game about survival to be about me using all of my resources to the greatest extent. Maybe I just wish I was playing Dwarf Fortress but because my computer is ancient at this point it can't handle how resource heavy the game has gotten over the years.

It just rubs me the wrong way because it seems to very directly punish one of the playstyles I like. I understand why wealth is used as a scaling mechanic for the difficulty, and I can excuse it on plenty of levels as a part of the story of your colony. Of course raiders would take more interest and send a bigger force to try to pillage a wealthy colony. It makes less sense that they would be just as interested in a place that's got no other resources other than some shiny stone walls that they can't take home with them. Even less sense that the existence of shiny walls causes more killer bugs to magically appear in your colonist's bedroom while they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Like, again, my favorite part of this game is the simulation aspect. Taking care of specific needs. Trying to get problem colonists to not kill each other and cooperate. Building structures that work for my needs at the moment. Designing path, work, and resource flow. I love it! But I always end up finding friction with the storyteller AI events. They never seem supported by anything happening in the simulation, just random stuff to try to yank you in the direction that the game wants you to play without any sort of satisfying justification. "Game needs a difficulty curve and can't produce an enjoyable one with more emergent mechanics and events" is not a good justification in my book.

I guess I'll try wood flooring this time. Maybe try to design a complex floor plan that would allow me to use some kind of centralized cooling system to freeze them into stasis..? That might be fun to engineer. Maybe even turn it around in my favor and farm insect jelly that way, lol!

[Narrowmind]

Maybe you should turn infestations off.

[Tomibouzu]

Infestations are pretty weak in Royal. Prior to Royal i'd have Agreed with you.

I managed to kill 2 hives with like at least 6 of the smaller bugs, 3 medium sized bugs, and 2 of the bigger bugs each. I only had like 4 Colonists and at best SMG.

If one pops up in the middle of your base it can be annoying, but if they're not directly inside your base you dont need to worry too much about them. They can actually act as a natural defense against raids for a short bit.

[76561198356019466]

Wait, building underground causes them?
WELL THAT'S WHY I KEEP GETTING THEM!

Guess I'd better start over because 90% of my current base is underground.

[ciel]

Originally posted by s.p.o.t.s.:

Wait, building underground causes them?
WELL THAT'S WHY I KEEP GETTING THEM!

Guess I'd better start over because 90% of my current base is underground.

Yeah, they specifically spawn on tiles that have "overhead mountain" roofs.

Originally posted by Tomibouzu:

Infestations are pretty weak in Royal. Prior to Royal i'd have Agreed with you.

I managed to kill 2 hives with like at least 6 of the smaller bugs, 3 medium sized bugs, and 2 of the bigger bugs each. I only had like 4 Colonists and at best SMG.

If one pops up in the middle of your base it can be annoying, but if they're not directly inside your base you dont need to worry too much about them. They can actually act as a natural defense against raids for a short bit.

TFW can't afford the DLC :(

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

Maybe you should turn infestations off.

I. Uh. Didn't realize that was an option.

[76561198356019466]

Rimworld: Five minutes to learn, a lifetime to master.

[martindirt]

2 spiders, 5 spelos, and some scarabs? That's not an infestation. When 10-20 hives spawning in your barracks, in the middle of the night. (All your colonists are hungry, tired, frustrated.) That's something. Or when they are spawning in your kitchen, destroying all your workbenches. And you have to remake all your fine tuned bills. That's annoying.

But. Let's step forward to tips:
Insects has low armor penetration. Even a plate mail is good against them. Bottleneck them in a door, or a tight tunnel. Block their way with 1-2 plated meele fighters, stand behind them with shotties. Chain-shotguns are better if you have. You have Molotovs, or incie grenade? Use it.
Their power is their number, but shotguns, aoe weapons, fire turns their power on your advantage. And never fight them in open space or in large caves. Always bottleneck them somehow.

[ciel]

Originally posted by martindirt:

2 spiders, 5 spelos, and some scarabs? That's not an infestation. When 10-20 hives spawning in your barracks, in the middle of the night. (All your colonists are hungry, tired, frustrated.) That's something. Or when they are spawning in your kitchen, destroying all your workbenches. And you have to remake all your fine tuned bills. That's annoying.

But. Let's step forward to tips:
Insects has low armor penetration. Even a plate mail is good against them. Bottleneck them in a door, or a tight tunnel. Block their way with 1-2 plated meele fighters, stand behind them with shotties. Chain-shotguns are better if you have. You have Molotovs, or incie grenade? Use it.
Their power is their number, but shotguns, aoe weapons, fire turns their power on your advantage. And never fight them in open space or in large caves. Always bottleneck them somehow.

My last attempt, with a less than prepared base on a map with caves was to try to pile up a bunch of rocks at a doorway and try to funnel them over burning molotov juice. But my pawns all sucked and kept missing the actual choke point and the bait pawn got stuck outside and lit on fire. FML lol. Complete wipe right there.

[martindirt]

Originally posted by Junebug:

Originally posted by martindirt:

2 spiders, 5 spelos, and some scarabs? That's not an infestation. When 10-20 hives spawning in your barracks, in the middle of the night. (All your colonists are hungry, tired, frustrated.) That's something. Or when they are spawning in your kitchen, destroying all your workbenches. And you have to remake all your fine tuned bills. That's annoying.

But. Let's step forward to tips:
Insects has low armor penetration. Even a plate mail is good against them. Bottleneck them in a door, or a tight tunnel. Block their way with 1-2 plated meele fighters, stand behind them with shotties. Chain-shotguns are better if you have. You have Molotovs, or incie grenade? Use it.
Their power is their number, but shotguns, aoe weapons, fire turns their power on your advantage. And never fight them in open space or in large caves. Always bottleneck them somehow.

My last attempt, with a less than prepared base on a map with caves was to try to pile up a bunch of rocks at a doorway and try to funnel them over burning molotov juice. But my pawns all sucked and kept missing the actual choke point and the bait pawn got stuck outside and lit on fire. FML lol. Complete wipe right there.

If you still have save before the wipe, you should attach some screenshots. Knowing the exact situation would help a lot. Also tell a bit about your equipment, skills etc. Knowing what you can use helps a lot. (Do you have any armor? Shotguns? Grenades? Molotov? At least 1 pawn with good melee skill?)

[Tomibouzu]

Originally posted by Junebug:

Originally posted by s.p.o.t.s.:

Wait, building underground causes them?
WELL THAT'S WHY I KEEP GETTING THEM!

Guess I'd better start over because 90% of my current base is underground.

Yeah, they specifically spawn on tiles that have "overhead mountain" roofs.

Originally posted by Tomibouzu:

Infestations are pretty weak in Royal. Prior to Royal i'd have Agreed with you.

I managed to kill 2 hives with like at least 6 of the smaller bugs, 3 medium sized bugs, and 2 of the bigger bugs each. I only had like 4 Colonists and at best SMG.

If one pops up in the middle of your base it can be annoying, but if they're not directly inside your base you dont need to worry too much about them. They can actually act as a natural defense against raids for a short bit.

TFW can't afford the DLC :(

Originally posted by Ratlegion:

Maybe you should turn infestations off.

I. Uh. Didn't realize that was an option.

I say royal, but im pretty sure it was just the patch that came with royal.

[Firestorm🗿]

Have your ranged weapon armed pawns (ideal weapons are assault rifles, auto shottys ect) form up in a semi circle, some distance from the exit of a bottleneck. Mega crossfire slaughters the bugs easily. Be prepared for friendly fire unless you have the space to have plenty of distance between the pawns that are on the sides of the killzone. Have a medic on standby just in case. Having a melee badass or two on hand for any bugs that close to melee range is also a good idea. Developed this strat as a contingency for when bugs spawned in my undermountain storerooms or the massive undermountain mausoleum that I had built for my honoured dead.

[brian_va]

Originally posted by Junebug:

I. Uh. Didn't realize that was an option.

You disable the event in the scenario editor, will never happen again. Can probably find a mod or some other way for existing saves.