Basic Difficulty Question

[zwyatt]

I'm very new to Rimworld, and am currently on my second colony after my first was completely obliterated by a pack of very angry donkeys. :((

I'm thinking of starting over with a new colony, but I'm finding it really hard to figure out what the different difficulty levels actually do!!

The wiki says that Peaceful turns off certain big events like toxic fallout. But I've heard conflicting information about whether other game mechanics are unavailable at each level - some people are saying there's no infestations or manhunter events at lower levels, for example, but I haven't found any source that states this definitively.

I've been playing this latest colony for a while now on Peaceful and I haven't had a single raid! Are raids fully disabled on peaceful, or just unlikely?

How does this all work? I'd like to choose a difficulty on the easier end because I'm not as much of a fan of strategy and combat (I like to make bases that are pretty...) but I definitely don't want there to be no challenge at all. (I will be playing on Phoebe regardless.)

If there is a single source that states all this that I somehow missed in my attempt at research, feel free to drop the link.

[FatalCharm]

It's normal to get wiped out a few times when you start. It's how you learn and it makes it that much more enjoyable when you start improving.

[flu007]

The wiki is very useful to get a good general idea, but it hasn't been kept up to date, so some of the details may be inaccurate.

I've not played on the Peaceful difficulty level, but from what I understand, that indeed turns off all hostile events like raids.

From the sound of it, the second difficulty level (Builder something) is what you're looking for. That's the one for which some of the harsher events like toxic fallout are disabled, but there are still raids etc. The strength of the raid will be lower than on higher difficulty levels though.

I'd sum it up like this: Unless you get very unlucky early in the game, or you really have no clue what you're doing and make several key errors in a row, it's almost impossible to lose your entire colony on Builder level, but you can certainly have setbacks, lose some colonists along the way etc. And once you're more experienced and know quite well what you're doing, Builder is pretty much smooth sailing start to finish.

Also keep in mind that you can switch storyteller and difficulty level at any point during a game.

[zwyatt]

Originally posted by flu007:

The wiki is very useful to get a good general idea, but it hasn't been kept up to date, so some of the details may be inaccurate.

I've not played on the Peaceful difficulty level, but from what I understand, that indeed turns off all hostile events like raids.

From the sound of it, the second difficulty level (Builder something) is what you're looking for. That's the one for which some of the harsher events like toxic fallout are disabled, but there are still raids etc. The strength of the raid will be lower than on higher difficulty levels though.

I'd sum it up like this: Unless you get very unlucky early in the game, or you really have no clue what you're doing and make several key errors in a row, it's almost impossible to lose your entire colony on Builder level, but you can certainly have setbacks, lose some colonists along the way etc. And once you're more experienced and know quite well what you're doing, Builder is pretty much smooth sailing start to finish.

Also keep in mind that you can switch storyteller and difficulty level at any point during a game.

That's really helpful!!! I had no idea you could change difficulty levels during a game. I'll set my current colony to Builder to get a sense of it, and then maybe start out there and raise it by a level or so once I get situated in my next one.

Thank you!!

[_SoMe]

From my experience, i can totally agree with Flu007

I am 100+ hours now in my Crashlanded Scenario with Community Builder Difficulty and Cassandra as Narrator.

It feels like a building simulator and the raids / events i had so far were all manageable with a few clicks here and there

If you try to equip your Soldiers with best possible gear / armor early on and maybe buy some of the weapons you can't already craft from traders, you should be totally fine handling eventually upcoming dangers :)

Originally posted by flu007:

From the sound of it, the second difficulty level (Builder something) is what you're looking for. That's the one for which some of the harsher events like toxic fallout are disabled, but there are still raids etc. The strength of the raid will be lower than on higher difficulty levels though.

When starting my game i somehow overread the fact that toxic fallout isn't happening on community builder :) So thanks for mentioning, I definetly wanna go a lvl higer sooner or later

[SkylerJames13]

its very normal to lose a colony.
it's also very normal to lose, say, 5 colonies in a row lol
but it's all growing pains. just have to learn by trial and error



i recommend finding some mods to help expand on the game. i really only use mods that "fit" with the rimworld aesthetic.
some great mods that just improve quality of life, and expand on basic rimworld are:
these three mods are essential for nearly all other mod functionality
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=818773962

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2009463077

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2023507013

this one expands on plants
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2134308522

this one helps with better AI construction pathing etc
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2202185773

expands on armour
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1814988282

expands on clothes
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1814987817

expands on weapons
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1814383360

gives a chance for colonist family members to join
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1985186461

expands on security items
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1845154007

makes the HUD easier to read and more descriptive
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1508850027

makes the combat system WAY better in my opinion
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1631756268

adds a tab at the bottom specifically for medical
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=715565817

expands on events (it does give negative events too, but they can be turned off, and all events have sliders for the occurrence frequency)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1938420742

makes it a bit more realistic, since now your colonists want to shower and poop (does add some extra difficulty, so it's all optional of course, i just enjoy the extra realism)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=836308268

makes the colonist hauling WAY better, more efficient
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1279012058

this just lets you build lights on the wall, instead of a lamp occupying a floor space
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1423699208

this removes the mood debuff on your colonists if a prisoner dies
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2167490674

i sub to more mods, but its just things like expanded animals, more storytellers, etc.

[Zan]

A way to get a good idea of what the difficulties do is look at the custom difficulty setting. if you click around a bit you can make the game adjust the values to match a setting. They are basically just presets for the options in the custom setting.

Storyteller can contribute to game difficulty too though. If you use Pheobe you're going to just have an easier time building, but you may find stretches of nothing else going on. With Cassandra you will eventually die from something if you aren't working to prepare in advance. With Randy you may be pounded into the dirt as soon as you start, receive glorious riches from the heavens, or maybe nothing at all happens most of the time. Randy Random tends to live up to the name. There are some mod storytellers too but i havent used them much.

[St3amfails]

for the record toxic fallout and volcanic winters really only matter in the first year or two once you understand how to build a base. After that your crops should be indoors anyway just for basic security and thus no worries about environment. ( i perfer greenhouses to hydroponics but to each his own)
by all means play on low difficulty while you learn if thats where you are comfortable, but even medium difficulties are fairly easy so lower difficulty gets boring pretty fast.
not critisizing choice, just saying be prepared to restart when u get bored or reset difficulty after a couple years.