Where's the challenge?

[Gentlest Giant]

Doing my first game, playing as Russia/hydroengineer. All's going quite well at sol 51, got two domes up and the only resource I can not produce is electronics and metals.

I wonder what the lose condition is. What am I supposed to fight against here? I would have expected it to be a survival game but it feels much more like a sandbox, given the lack of real threats. I get the occasional dust devil and dust storm, but they do not do much more than halt my progress.

I think I might get into a situation where a resource gets down to 0 and then important infrastructure cease to function, and being at 0 funds with little means to gain additional, that might spiral into a functional loss?

So what I want to know is if my expectations are just off; do I need to start a new game with maxed out disasters or just stick to challenge missions or something? Will something happen to my current game that I do not know about yet?
I don't own any DLC now, just got it from humble bundle.

[FourGreenFields]

Unless you use the [Steam's lovely hearts]ed difficulty options to e.g. set meteorites to "beyond normal maximum" level, it is indeed more of a city-builder.

You can also search for more challenging coordinates. Because that's so much fun. Or refuse to build certain buildings to increase difficulty.

[some moron]

Yes sounds as though your game is going easily. If you get the mission DLC then you have tasks to try to accomplish, though I think if fail them you still don't "lose".
I find the worse things that can happen is the inability to support your colonists and you could lose them all, but you could always bring more. I guess it IS difficult to "lose" (I haven't "lost" yet).
So then it becomes a matter of increasing the challenge. I don't agree with the difficulty ratings of the sponsors and commander. I find a series of disasters is the hardest thing to deal with. Some of the sponsors have time limits on their goals so try to hit all of those, though again they are just bonuses and don't end your game. I guess you are really just going for the highest score with the greatest difficulty or "how lovely and competent can I make my colonization with the greatest difficulty."
Also try some game rules, currently I am using Long Ride, Amateurs, Inflation. Next I'm gonna try Last Ark. I've also increased my colonists needs of water and oxygen.
I find the max disasters overwhelming but it is kinda boring with no disasters. I wish I could find more maps with Average all disasters ie yes having cold spells and dust storms, but not constant.
Then, the goal is to make the layout of your domes as aesthetically pleasing as possible :)

[Gentlest Giant]

Thanks, I'll start over with something fresh and nasty and see if I can make my colonists suffer somehow!

[some moron]

yep! lol
make sure they are at least two bars, probably three, for dust and for cold when choosing a sector

[BLÀde]

start with all disasters at max, last ark, amateurs

this location 63N152W

and this mod

and see how you go!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1783321149&searchtext=winter

[Halfinger]

Are you taking account of the difficulty percentage? This gives an indication of how hard it should be. Anything below around 300% is beginner really.

[Gentlest Giant]

Originally posted by BLÀde:

start with all disasters at max, last ark, amateurs

Cool! Took some time for me to realize how to add the mod to a new game, but the seeded location was 4 at cold snap, but just 1 at the other disasters; did not find option to max disasters in the extras menu.
Started anyway, now I'm regretting I did not bring any basic materials. Will be a while until I scan for something usable.

[Blake Walsh]

Above about 800% difficulty it starts to get a bit more survivor-ish.

[BLÀde]

Originally posted by Gentle Giant:

Originally posted by BLÀde:

start with all disasters at max, last ark, amateurs

; did not find option to max disasters in the extras menu.

max disasters is just enabling all the higher disasters rules
twister
dust in the wind
armageddon
winter is coming

and if you really want to kick disasters up a notch than try this!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1790983059&searchtext=disaster

[Halfinger]

I'm watching a 1075% play through and it's insane. You don't need mods to make the game very hard but that's up to you.

[ChoGGi]

Did some more game rules for the masochists: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1801868910

[some moron]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1801897088
I'll have to try the map posted by blade to try for all four disasters at once

[ChoGGi]

There's no map with all four maxed out. One of the reasons why I did that mod.

[some moron]

I think the meteor shower is dumb because there's nothing to do about it. I wish there was like a manual laser system where I could shoot them out of the air. But it would be difficult or something so that I couldn't get to all of them, I'd have to choose which impacts I'd want to sustain. Or maybe a reload time. I guess just manual control of the MDS, but more incoming.
I also think instead of a cooldown period, there should be a gun that requires power and if you've stored up enough power you could shoot them all down. Maybe 50 power per shot.

Oh and while I'm making requests, is there anyway that when all drones assigned to a commander are paused, the commander will show a pause in the pin bar? That would be very handy indeed.
Oops it already has a pause symbol when the commander is immobile, but I'd like when all it's drones are paused.

[BLÀde]

Originally posted by some moron:

I think the meteor shower is dumb because there's nothing to do about it..

try this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1381594280&searchtext=missile