TIPS and Feedback - Gold Update

[OldManRipper]

Hello again, fellow survivors!

I play on the hardest difficulty, least resources to start, with the hardest and most frequent catastrophes. I have played since launch. Tips first, Thoughts on new game-play second, and explanations after if you like reading.

TIPS

- Logistics For The Win. Build a Stockpile, or Food Storage, next to your producers for fast resources. Turn off all resources in the Stockpile or Food Storage EXCEPT what is being produced near it. Build crafters that use those resources nearby. Example: Tool Maker by the Metal and Scrap stockpile, Tailor by the Fiber stockpile, Cookhouse by the Firewood stockpile and next to a Food Storage, etc.
- Use roads and make base clusters. Residential Cluster. Production Cluster. Connect clusters with roads. Use the voids between clusters for Outhouses, Burial Pits, and Waste storage.
- External Logistics, too. Build a Trade Center. Every resource except Venison, Fish, Fiber, Planks, and Firewood is limited. Trade with other colonies using the stated resources.
- Use a Forester to increase the Work Area efficiency of your Trappers to 100%.
- Use a Forester to create an infinite forest for your Logging Camp and Sawmill.
- Build a Scout Tower. Scout to 100%. Recycle for 20 Wood.
- Use Wells. NOT water collectors. Research Drilled Wells for double water production.
- Build at least 3 Medical Tents. Staff as necessary. Upgrade to 3 Hospitals when you can.
- Better Housing prevents massive Radiation damage from Nuclear Fallout Storms.
- Blitz the Tech Tree first for Ice Fishing. Fish during Winter.
- Blitz the Tech Tree Second for Power and Underground Resource Collectors. Scavenge and Trade for Parts and Components. Running out of Metal, Concrete, and Plastic is a real thing that will happen if you fail to get Extractors.
- Blitz the Tech Tree third for Sheltered Crops. Swap all external farms to non-food resources like Sunflowers if you want to keep them.
- Build Lightning Rods to cover your Hydroponic Farms and power collectors.
- Scout the World Map using a Scientist. If no Research nodes are available then explore new zones.
- 'Scout' class Specialists are only handy if they have 20+ attack damage per day. Convert extra Scientists and Low-Damage Scouts to Research and Survivor Outposts.

THOUGHTS

- Big miss on the Medical Outpost. Healing per day is too slow to be effective.
- Big win on Research Outpost increase. Increased amounts a good trade-off.
- Resource Outposts still useless.
- Survivor Outposts still don't make sense... GUARANTEED survivors every 8 days?
- Colony seemed to get attacked a lot more. Waves of beetles every twenty-ish days.
- 2nd level Gate never won a fight, fully staffed.
- Guard Posts never won a fight, fully staffed.
- Alarm shouldn't be to run and hide for all colonists. Children should hide, Adults fight.
- Bandit attacks in the colony do not make sense because they steal nothing and just destroy a few buildings. You would think they would steal stuff and just attempt to destroy what resisted but noooOOOoooooo... that Well and Outhouse just LOOKED at them wrong!
- Overall stability has improved dramatically. Winter Storm did not break game.

EXPLANATIONS (Hi devs!)

HEALING OUTPOST - I was moving my 'Death Squad' of 4 Specialists (anyone with 20 or more Damage / Day) who were clearing Bandits around the map. Built a Medical Outpost to test it. To my dismay only ONE Specialist can utilize the Outpost at a time! And the Outpost only heals 20 health PER DAY! So If I show up with around 20 health PER Specialist that means four days of healing times four and that is SIXTEEN days waiting to regroup and attack more bandits. Contrarily I can walk to base in 6 days, rest them ALL at the same time, and then hit the next bandit camp in 6 days. Zero time and efficiency saving for 'Death Squad' Specialists... so what about Scavengers? Healing them is nice so they can stay out and do their job but I need the resources they are carrying. Those don't come back to base unless on a Specialist, in a Vehicle (driven by a Specialist), or Dropped off at a Resource Outpost. The issue here is that there is a finite amount of material on the World Map. Once my Scavenger has cleared an area near my Outposts it is just as far to get there than it is to go back to base. Thus, I have no reason to Sacrifice TWO Specialists to make a Healing Outpost AND a Resource Outpost when I can just use a Vehicle or wait an extra day.
SUGGESTED FIX - Increase the Health healed per day to either 50 or Full Heal.
SECOND SUGGESTED FIX - Just make ONE Outpost that does it ALL. Use the Dots that are on the tool-tip to determine the Outpost efficiency in each category for Science and finding Survivors. Resources dropped will be transported. Unique features that add Science per day will be a bonus.
From an RP standpoint the guaranteed Survivor / 8 days makes no sense. What about a chance to increase 'Group of Survivors at the Gate' based on your Outpost survivor efficiency?
If this One-Outpost-To-Rule-Them-All is too powerful to have right off-the-bat then create an Outpost Upgrade system that can reach this level. Charge in-game silver amounts similar to those now used when recruiting new Specialists per upgrade.

GATE, SCOUT, and GUARD TOWER - Last patch it was laughable when 900 bandits showed up with trained War Bears. Now my Second-Level gate staffed with 3 colonists cannot resist the Enraged, Feeble Old Man for whom I had no medicine to give for his daughter so he decides to blow up my whole colony. The Alarm just makes everyone hide and anyone who tries to fight from a SCOUT or GUARD TOWER does less damage than the attacker and loses EVERY TIME. The constant beetle swarms are also an issue if the SCOUT and GUARD towers cannot defeat them. Granted, I just have like 5 Hunting rifles but it is still early game and it just feels like some number is tweaked just a tad too much in the combat.
SUGGESTED FIX - Possible tweak to colonist GUARD and SCOUT damage back in the other direction.
SECOND SUGGESTED FIX - Alarm makes only Children hide. Elders and Adults go into Combat mode and fight the attackers.

TRADE PARTNERS - I have learned that if I do not blitz Extractors my colony will fail after 100 days due to exhausting surface Plastics, Concrete, or Metals. I know I play on the hardest difficulty settings but not having a trading partner for these resources makes a simple shortage in one category a 100% game ending scenario. The challenge to balance this from the beginning is very exciting and difficult but again, having the ability to trade these resources as well would make a huge difference. I know there is a lot of in-ground material but once it is all mined then your game is over as you can no longer repair Metal or Concrete damage.
SUGGESTED FIX - Add Plastic, Concrete, and Metal to the lists for the different trade partners.
SECOND SUGGESTED FIX - Add more Outpost options to the game. Plastics are made from Oil. Concrete is just crushed rocks. Metal can be forged. Create basic resource Outposts.
THIRD SUGGESTED FIX - Create high-tier economy buildings. Plastic creator using Oil. Concrete creator using a Strip Mine. Metal Forge using raw materials.

BANDIT AND ANIMAL ATTACKS - Why do Bandits just attack the nearest buildings and leave? They're arsonists and murderers, yes, but their primary objective is to steal something. It makes no sense for the random encounters to just blow up the closest buildings and leave. And what about animals? Sure, mutated animals might just be feral and mean but they also usually want food. But, like Bandits, once 4 structures are destroyed they leave.
For this reason I build 'dummy' Scout towers by the gate and at the edge of my base. Once 4 buildings are reduced I 'lose' but the fight is over, so I won? I repair for a few planks and there are no consequences. Just seems more annoying than anything.

[Eventide]

I'm playing at "75%", average catastrophes, but a 'more barren landscape.'

TIPS - Nice! I'm getting better at organizing structure layouts, with the experience of my first playthrough during the 'Silver' update.

- Medical Outpost: Agree that one specialist at a time is cumbersome micromanagement, more time is wasted if you don't remember to go back out to the World Map when the first one is healed. In colony, we can glance up at the Specialist status bar, but there's so many other distractions ;)

Medical Outpost would be much better if it could hold any number of Specialists for simultaneous healing. Then, 20 health per day is fine.

- Research Outpost: Built 3 in both games I've played, seems enough to get the science flowing.

- Resource Outposts: Didn't bother building one. Maybe it needs to do something more, to be attractive. Like your idea about all outposts able to take Resources.

- Survivor Outposts: Built one, but only made 2 withdrawals in 200 days. Don't really need it. I like the slower pace of just waiting for survivor groups that appear before or during a Catastrophe. Like your idea that the outpost could simply add a periodic bonus to "survivors at the gate."

Doesn't it seem odd that there's no colony morale hit if you ignore a survivor group? Colonists sometimes give comments like: 'good - more helping hands.' Perhaps a morale hit could depend on available resources: if you have the beds, why are you ignoring them? When you don't have enough resources or beds for a survivor group, then your colonists may be annoyed by newcomers.


For all Outposts in general, it would "make sense" if Specialist skills gave a bonus to their respective outpost type. Game Balance could reduce the baseline bonus to compensate.


- Colony attacks: I like the new pace of stuff happening in the colony. But at "75%" - whatever that means under the hood, I am losing maybe 2 buildings. Rarely. I try to keep a couple Specialists at home to help fight the random invaders. @oldmanripper keeping any at home? Sounds like you need more of their help on "max difficulty" settings.

But, the NEXT problem with Specialists in the colony, is fighting against too-helpful automatic camera centering. You are looking at an invader, select a specialist, and then pan the map back in the wrong direction and maybe have to hit pause, so you can find the same place again.

This has been asked before: we need a toggle button or modifier key selection option that will skip automatic camera center.

But it can be useful: Red arrows at the edge of the screen which point at attackers, should also be buttons which center camera on that attacker.

Specialists could also benefit from a "work area" marker like structures: Plant this marker on the ground, and all Specialists will move there and perform actions appropriate to the situation: fight invaders in the zone, or gather resources. (One type of work area bringing All specialists, another type for those Selected.)


- 2nd level Gate: Have opposite problem, has never lost a fight. Feels too good, in my playthrough.

- Guard Posts - maybe on max difficulty, you should double up?

- Alarm: I haven't rung that bell in my playthrough. A good percentage of the time, colonists are able to run away when their health gets low. (invader attacks: beetles, bandits) Not always, and colonists messing with sandworms is usually fatal. I like your idea about "only makes children hide."

- Bandit attacks: yes, they seem to attack nearest structures in-line from their spawn points, as they make their way toward the center of the colony. But I saw one attack in which an outlying Waste Dump was chosen, 1 stored unit knocked out for each hit. So, depending on your layout, stuff really could be stolen during an attack ;)

- Overall stability: seems very good :)


TRADE PARTNERS: Agree on research blitz to Extractors. I was in a rough spot for a while this playthrough, but, I got them researched in time.

I HAVE seen basic materials offered by some of my trading partners. What you may be asking for, is "don't leave that to RNG?" Perhaps the first one you discover ALWAYS has basic materials to sell?

Also like the idea of alternate methods to make basic materials. Usually (other games,) the alternate method is not efficient, encouraging players to get back on track as soon as possible.

But, what could work just as well is a firewood-powered, inefficient Extractor, earlier in the tech tree, which can be upgraded.

[metalsingh]

To both of you: AWESOME comments & suggestions!
From my side: 100% agreement! They just should finish the EA, because for my opinion, the game would be ready, if they implant the above mentioned tweaks.
Thanx again for your great suggestions! The devs can be very happy to have players like you!
Cheers!

[OldManRipper]

@metalsingh

I title all my articles similarly "Feedback - _____ Update" if you want to delve into the depths. ;) I try to leave a feedback article after every update they release to give my feedback. I jot down notes as I play through 100 days and keep going if I am enjoying the update.

I saw this game advertised while playing Surviving Mars and was hoping for a similar experience. It is getting there and I can see the glimmer in the distance but some tweeks to the Outpost system are needed to make the World Map more viable before release, for sure. Main problem with the World Map, in my opinion, is that after 100 days you are 'done' with it... nothing left to kill or gather. Then you have 10 useless Specialists milling about your base. It's kinda funny to watch them walk in circles as your colonists die from... whatever.

@basic.syntax

I have never played a game below hardcore survival with worst selections at start. It IS 'surviving' the aftermath, right?

I was running with 2 Specialists until almost day 100 due to lack of resources to trade and sell beyond buying research from a trade partner and could not recruit new ones outside of colonist convoys.

I have created 10+ settlements and only noticed a 'basic resource' seller in less than 1/4 of my play-throughs. RNG. *yay!* Even then it is RARELY concrete or plastic and usually metal.

To fight invaders at the 100% level you need more than one Specialist at home even if it is a Fighter with 25 damage. Invasions on my difficulty are usually around 10 beetles or 5-10 bandits. Unwinnable without a 'Death Squad'. Or using attacked colonists as Meat Shields as your Specialists fight like Rangers in D&D.

As for the Outposts I get kind of excited when I think about a Basic outpost that can be built and then upgraded to have each type in it for in-game Money (silver?) That way you can choose to have it specialize or generalize.

Sorry... I type a lot. One page at a time!

[OldManRipper]

@basic.syntax

This is what a Bandit Attack looks like in my base. Had 8 spawn this time. Click link below.

Screenshot #1 : Shows 8 Bandits entering from colony back area.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1691646846555167116/8FDADC392D221E41023799EBC73F2C67489E7849/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Screenshot #2 : Shows my colonists beating on the bandit for fun.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1691646846555210418/50A8A7634F09DA9944B2B4BAE4A589443E76C0BE/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Screenshot #3 : Shows bandits quit after hurting 4 structures.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1691646846555212609/590E58A6441B8EE63CCF6B844FEDE135C1591CBB/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Screenshot #4 : Shows my Defeat screen. 20 Plastic later all is well.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1691646846555214659/DAEAAD39D3F2B86FC19B1728DD9605EC78E8BCEE/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[Eventide]

Ouch. that's a lot of damaged buildings ;) This shows my limited selection of basic resources available from Trade https://imgur.com/NC1xmOL

This prompts another thought: every society offers a vehicle, but... what's the point: they would need to be really good vehicles for it to ever be worth buying one, versus simply exploring the map until you find abandoned ones that are free. I think the option HAS to be there, in case of really bad RNG and a player can't find one.

But something should make them at least tempting. It might require nerfing 'found' vehicles: for example, low action points due to problems that can't be fixed in the colony.

[iceflake_joanna]

Heya!

So.. whoa. A lot of text here, thank you so much for it to all! There is no way for me to go through each point here, so I'll try and summarize a bit :P

We are still working on improving the Outpost system - I doubt we will ever do a One-Outpost-To-Rule-Them-All -kind of Outpost, but we do have plans on.. well a lot of things related to the Outposts that I sadly cannot talk about more xD Sorry for being a tease, I just wanted to let you guys know that we are not done with them yet :) Oh and as for the Survivor outpost - it should be a guaranteed survivor in about 8 days on the World Map - there is a bit of rounding going in the numbers, and also, despite saying "days" it actually means turns (as in when the APs are refilled etc). So in roughly 4 days in the colony you should have a new survivor in the Outpost.

I'll pass on the feedback regarding the colonist attack values - they were dropped by just a bit, but that might have gone just "over the edge" to cause them to lose too easily. As for the Alarm system - we are working on improving this as well :)

Trade partners are something we have also been discussing a lot - we know that it would be better to always get the basic resources from them, but have not implemented this yet. I will pass on this request to the design team as well :)

So the bandits have different types - there are those that attack people, those that attack buildings and those that do aim for your storage and steal resources. There should be some of each type in every attack - I'll make sure we check the different groups to ensure they are working correctly.


As for the camera being focused on the selected unit - feedback has been noted and I hope we can have a "fix" for this soon - no promises or guarantees, but I am working on it ;)

Ahh I hope that answers most of the things in your feedback - I forwarded this entire conversation to the rest of our team so that they can take a look too!

Thanks all for the conversation and passion for our game, and of course, thank you for playing!

[OldManRipper]

A pleasure as always, joanna!

I did finally get the Winter Storm glitch after day 150 with over 150 colonists. Submitted bug report.

Fixed the glitch by Saving the game and just Loading it again.

I find that the new balance at 150 colonists is much better. I am deliberately not building houses until I have the resources to naturally grow. So far so good! No 'mass' die-offs yet!

[OldManRipper]

Having the Winter Storm glitch. Took some screenshots and submitted Bug reports.

Screenshot #1 : I Did my food drop down tool-tip and captured colonists standing around.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1691646846558452013/3FC5AFE866F81D54824DF3199346DD6AFF3406E9/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Screenshot # 2 : Tool-tip for my Food Storage with available foodstuffs. Notice the starving children milling around.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1691646846558452130/B875E12B65B514FBB5ED1ED4687DEB9934616A2D/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

I am building a Sauna because the only other statistic I can think of is that the people are just not clean enough?

[iceflake_joanna]

Heya!

Thanks for the reports, I'll make sure to search for them - definitely an odd one. Even if it was about them being unclean, that should never prevent them from going to eat food as the need for food is much more critical than being unclean. I will make sure we get this investigated as much as possible!

Thanks again!

[iceflake_joanna]

@oldmanripper - another request from me - if this issue occurs for you again, could you (without relaunching the game) go to

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iceflake Studios\Surviving the Aftermath\

on your PC and grab the player log from there? Then use for example a pastebin site and paste it here? This way we will get the full log of what happened when this issue occurred. This log would usually show any errors the game might have experienced when this bug occurred.

Thanks in advance!

[OldManRipper]

@joanna

Had to look up what a pastebin site was.

pastebin dot com ok with you folks?

Also, to make sure I understand...

Step 1 - Play game until winter breaks it.
Step 2 - PAUSE game
Step 3 - Do the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iceflake Studios\Surviving the Aftermath\
Step 4 - Copy all date in the /\ above text
Step 5 - Paste it to pastebin dot com
Step 6 - Link from pastebin to here

Y / N ?

[Easy Money]

Winter needs a balance pass. Hypothermia should never set in if I have clothing or heat. It does not seem that colonists get any warmth from walking through heated areas. Clothing should only be used in Winter events (they look like coats). Clothing should last twice as long, take half as many resources to make, or produced twice as fast. There is no way to effectively mitigate a winter event especially for a large colony that experiences the winter bug.

[Eventide]

I have wondered if heating the workplace building is all that colonists working outside - in the cold - need. I have probably let far too many work in the cold outside. But I am not so sure Winter needs nerfing; it's the best realized of the Catastrophes, with distinct phases, and provides a good challenge.

In my current / new 100% difficulty game, I had 2 Skinners running fairly early around 50 population, and they have been producing more fiber than my current population around 75 can use. I had a tailor going early and ofc brought back some coats from the world map - having no clothing trouble this time.

Malnutrition on the other hand... it took a while for me to get the farms going, so it's been Mostly Meat; I lost a few ppl to that. But I don't feel like that needs 'fixing': we have choices in the tech tree, and shouldn't be able to do everything at once.

[iceflake_joanna]

@oldmanripper - Yup, me too a while ago since Steam does not allow files to be uploaded. Pastebin dot com sounds good - as long as we get to see the log! :)

As for the steps, a small change:

Step 3 - Do the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Iceflake Studios\Surviving the Aftermath\ -- Go to this location on your PC
Step 4 - Copy all date in the /\ above text -- Grab the file called player log from there. It is a txt file :)
Step 5 - Paste it to pastebin dot com
Step 6 - Link from pastebin to here

Otherwise yes, the steps are correct! :)

[iceflake_joanna]

As for the feedback regarding winter - we are looking into balance changes, but as for the heating from the burners during the winter - colonists working in heated buildings will still become cold but at a lot slower rate - especially if the building is in the red area of the heating circle.

I'll pass on the feedback to the rest of our team - no promises or guarantees though! :)