does time affect difficulty?

[マルコ]

Does the game get harder and harder as the in-game years pass (assuming one keeps the same number of colonists and doesn't raise wealth - just interested in the contribution of time to the difficulty)?
And if the answer is yes, does the difficulty cap or it keep increasing over the in-game years until eventually you get overrun by it?

[Fyredrakon]

I don't believe so, but time does have an effect (i.e a fast progressing colony will get less hard raids at the same wealth point than a colony that is growing slowly). Should cap out at some time.

[ᖇIᑎ]

I thought time was a factor in figuring out the size of raids? Colony wealth * colonist points * something * time, or something like that. Where's Astasia with the maths?

[Kitsunin]

Yeah it goes up with time. This is less notable than the other factors, which you can see if you do a game with a single colonist and never get more -- threats never really get dangerous enough that they can't be managed (assuming good gear and some traps) unless you also start amassing wealth.

I believe the difficulty-over-time stops increasing somewhere between 10 and 20 years. It definitely isn't infinite.

[マルコ]

I asked because I think I'm noticing its effects, I had hit 9 pawns and had the resource to gear them all in marine armor/helmet plus buliding the defenses all around my base (traps, turrets, autocannons) but now after few more years, I have less colonist, most of my defenses have been broken over time, all the marine armors/helmets need replacement, and I am struggling really hard to find the resources for all of it... so it feels like now is a game of slowly drowning...

[Kitsunin]

Yeah, that can certainly happen...it's probably more because of your wealth than time (although time is a factor). Every item and colonist you possess counts toward your "wealth" which is the main factor for determining difficulty. The game also scales difficulty down somewhat when you've had deaths & destruction recently, but usually getting hurt by raids means a larger % of your wealth exists as things that aren't helping you defend yourself: Busted armor, art, injured colonists, etc. -- no bueno.

[Mimoslav]

There is an adaptation mechanic that gives you time to recover after you lose a colonist. If don't lose anyone for a prolonged period of time it'll gradually make raids harder. There is a cap for raids (around 200 tribals, 100 pirates, 50 centipedes).

[NisseDood]

You can also choose to make difficulty scale with time instead of wealth.
If you progress fast then you might have an easy time, but you also dont get it easier if you lose a lot of stuff like with wealth.

[Akameka]

Also the fact that you can't get really bad events in the first year could also be considered as a form of timed difficulty increase.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Kitsunin:

...
I believe the difficulty-over-time stops increasing somewhere between 10 and 20 years. It definitely isn't infinite.

It's something like that. I just remember that it's not really an issue until an appreciable amount of time has passed. Though, it may effect Narrators a bit more robustly early than that. Cassandra becomes a lousy $$@% no good ^%^#^ and %^%# in really long games... :)

[マルコ]

how do I even check what year I'm in?

[Excellion]

Originally posted by Marcus:

how do I even check what year I'm in?

Hover over the date on the right-hand side of the screen. It will tell you how many days you have been playing this colony. Divide that by 60, and you have the year.

[Helios]

Depends on the storyteller dunno if cassandra or Phoebe has the scaling in her discription but all storyteller are increasing difficult by sending you "presents" that make you richer.

[ichifish]

Originally posted by Marcus:

I asked because I think I'm noticing its effects, I had hit 9 pawns and had the resource to gear them all in marine armor/helmet plus buliding the defenses all around my base (traps, turrets, autocannons) but now after few more years, I have less colonist, most of my defenses have been broken over time, all the marine armors/helmets need replacement, and I am struggling really hard to find the resources for all of it... so it feels like now is a game of slowly drowning...

What does your wealth graph look like? Pawn value is also important. If your pawns have better skills, which most likely they do, and bionics they’re worth more.

Also, if you’re playing on Randy there’s a raid strength multiplier of 0.5-1.5, so you might be getting raids at the top end.

[マルコ]

Originally posted by ichifish:

What does your wealth graph look like?

Day 610
https://i.imgur.com/XYbAyCj.png

[Païtiti]

I believe it scales only on wealth which increases over time. But if you are hit with a raid get half of your base destroyed and a couple of colonists killed difficulty should actually decrease because wealth decreases.

That's why you usually go out to trade stuff for a bad price. So you decrease your wealth (or at least keep it stable).

I lost a lot of colonies in the beginning because I stockpiled a lot of resources just to get hit by massive infestations etc. Now I know that it is best to keep the wealth as low as possible.