> That and the difficulty curve skyrockets the moment mechanoids or the bugs show up, and they always show up way. Too. Early.

Bugs never show up if you just don't expose any overhead mountain. You trigger them, not the story teller.

As for mechanoids, the "trick" so to speak for them is to lean into the gear utility & melee. You can get insanity lances very early on with trading which are excellent defense against mechanoids. And similarly a couple pawns with shield belts and blunt weapons to get up and personal with the ranged mechanoids really neutralizes them. And that's without getting into psycasts.

The difficulty curve here comes from the sheer breadth of the game rather than just outright being hard. There's a lot to learn, but the game gives you lots of ways to handle challenges.

Also raid sizes are tied largely to your colony wealth, so keeping a humble & lean base is efficient. Your colonists expectations are also driven by wealth for that matter.

> They have no chill

They do when they're drunk & stoned :) Get a good drugs policy (auto-take on low mood & enough time between doses to avoid addictions) and you'll rarely remember that mental breaks are even a thing. Chocolate doesn't hurt either.

> artillery being gimped

Artillery was made more accurate to compensate, so it's a good defense against enemy mortor raids. Just lob a few volleys before they get set up and they'll abandon that notion and charge you instead.

I too gave up on this game, even though I really wanted to like it. I like the idea of it.

In my limited experience in gaming, we were reminded to periodically ask about game mechanics: "But does this make the game more fun?"

Simulating realism is cool, but reality is full of boring or unpleasant stuff. Why suffer that extra? "Oh no, it seems you cut your finger while making dinner. Now you have an infection! And since you didn't eat dinner, you are now faint and must lie down. You need a doctor! Oh no, you _were_ the doctor!"

For me RimWorld got tiresome and repetitive at some point because I just always drifted to doing the same things that annoyed me.

Most recent playthrough though I just plopped Nutrient paste dispenser. Suddenly no problems with food, getting it, preparing it.

New Biotech dlc also added great value. You can make your starting pawns sleepless. So no more fussing about bedrooms at the start plus much more productivity. Mechanitor can build ton of bots that do the hauling. It's really pleasant.

> I love Rimworld but this game's idea of "fun" is perpetually moody colonists doing stupid shit the moment one of their myriad needs aren't met.

Not exactly. They don't go crazy immediately. I think the 'eating without table' debuff is too harsh, but other than that... You can get away with ignoring basic pawn needs for quite a while. I want to see _you_ survive in an environment with tattered clothes, saying a friend (or pet) dying, and yes, eating raw meat without a table.

It's similar to Dwarf Fortress where tantrum spirals are a feature. Except in Dwarf Fortress things are way more deadly.

You can control the storyteller. Go with Chillax if you want more time (although that one could _still_ spawn mechanoids). Don't open ancient vaults, or go digging inside mountains if you don't want bugs.

Finishing the game is a bonus. Also now you can pack up and leave the map if it's too bad, we didn't have that option for a while.

It might be a feature but it shouldn't be. I can't believe the amount of people that are ok for seemingly perpetual firefighting. Maybe they've never worked a job where they had to do that (figuratively or literally), because it is fucking tiresome. (This is my same complaint with the new X-COMs, stop presenting me with shit sandwich choices all the time!)

> or go digging inside mountains if you don't want bugs.

The alternative here is to get constantly shelled by invaders because all your shit is outside. I hope you have some reinforced barrels handy!

> I want to see _you_ survive in an environment with tattered clothes, saying a friend (or pet) dying, and yes, eating raw meat without a table.

Evidently none of the colonists were ever involved in scouting... everyone knows that losing your shit is the fastest way to die in a survival situation. Much as there is a "Low expectations" buff that blunts these effects at the beginning, there needs to be "I've Learned To Live With It" or "Shrugs Shoulders" buff that takes over as the game gets going on.

Also if the dude really hates raw meat that much, he should go build himself a campfire... nothing outs useless fatalism faster than not being able to do basic things for oneself. Someone teach these offworlders some fuckin self-care!

>Evidently none of the colonists were ever involved in scouting... everyone knows that losing your shit is the fastest way to die in a survival situation.

I guess it depends on the character back stories but at least in the default scenario you're shipwrecked when the FTL starship you're on breaks up (or whatever its fate was, been a while since I played rimworld)... which implies that they're used to the comforts an interstellar civilisation can provide.

I too would be somewhat irate if I went from glitterworld comforts to scrabbling around in the mud

> The alternative here is to get constantly shelled by invaders because all your shit is outside. I hope you have some reinforced barrels handy!

My go-to siege defense was to send a couple pawns with rifles to intercept the enemies the moment they appeared on the map, picking them off at range and from behind cover. By the time the raiders' supplies and artillery were ready, they would have no good defenders left, so my pawns could clean up pretty quickly. This approach required micromanagement, but consistently kept my base from taking much damage.

Once upon a time, tricking the attackers into using the wrong mortars was also possible, although I never tried it and haven't played in a year or two, so that might have changed.

> Also if the dude really hates raw meat that much, he should go build himself a campfire... nothing outs useless fatalism faster than not being able to do basic things for oneself. Someone teach these offworlders some fuckin self-care!

Ok, this is where we see eye to eye.

If a colonist just hates something and has the means to avoid it, it should just do so. But then we run into how campfires and the cooking skill are balanced, but in general I agree.

> Finishing the game is a bonus.

I have put 600 hours into the game. I have never completed it without cheating, and then only to see what the end looked like - which did not inspire me to change my approach to the game.

The joy of Rimworld is in the failure, or in succeeding for a time against the odds. Maybe the author could provide options to make the game easier, to attract another segment of the game market, but the way it currently works is much more attractive to myself.

> I want to see _you_ survive in an environment with tattered clothes, saying a friend (or pet) dying, and yes, eating raw meat without a table

I mean, I wouldn't but...I'm also not literally designed to populate a world sold to people for entertainment purposes. At least, not that I'm aware of, and if I was, they did not do a very good job.

> I love Rimworld but this game's idea of "fun" is perpetually moody colonists doing stupid shit the moment one of their myriad needs aren't met. They have no chill, and no decorum, and YOU the player get to clean up their messes.

I've seen "Parenting Simulator" touted as an alternate title.

This guy doing Rimworld animations captures the feel perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYhWj79Aubo

Though also "that's just Rimworld" is similar to "that's just X-COM (original)"

For me, I just installed a bunch of mods containing all kinds of arguably overpowered turrets so my colonists are almost always safe. I guess that removes pretty much half of the difficulties from the game, but I still find the game really enjoyable to play, even more so than balanced vanilla.

I don't really get the complaints about Rimworld's difficulty. There is a variety of difficulty settings, which can even be adjusted during the game. There is also the option to turn off Mechanoids and/or Bugs.

There's no shame in adjusting the settings of a single-player game to your own liking.

> this game's idea of "fun" is perpetually moody colonists

"Ate without a table." -5 mood for a week.

Depends on the storyteller.

There's one that generates favorable events, another one that generates problems, another one that's random, another one that increases difficulty over time.

Usually I do Pheobe Chillax, but sometimes I will switch it up with the default storyteller if Phoebe isn't throwing anything interesting my way. But, with her, when it rains it pours, and the story arc of "coming back from the brink of annihilation" gets tiresome.

I usually go Randy Random.

Mechanoids on day 0!? Sure. 5 solar eclipses in a row? Why not. Solar is overrated anyway. Can also rain gold, so...

Same. I recommend anyone to play this game only with Randy random. It will actually prepare you for things. You will fail a whole lot more long played games if you don't know what you're doing if you're consistently thrown relaxing games. But if you play with Randy random you'll lose quick and you'll learn quick.

Literally the only good way to play the game.

Enemy scaling depends on wealth of your colony. It felt inadequate on one playthrough when my amazimg artist made a bunch of glorious emerald sculptures.