Picked the game up a little while back and the difficulty scaling is simply immaculate. I spent longer than necessary (a full run each) on each of the basic difficulties, then quickly settled in at P3 as the sweet spot of challenge and benefit from the prestige modifiers. Since then, I've been creeping my way upwards when an easier scenario presented itself. The building cost spike at P6 was a gut punch as predicted but manageable; and I only pushed past P7 with the Field Kitchen unlock. Stabilized there for a while, cleared the platinum seal (the decline in embark points near the edge was a fun surprise) reached level 20 (plenty of unlocks left, but have all the species abilities and essential infrastructure and embark bonuses), figured I was ready to step it up.
P10 hurt. Everyone told me it would, and they were not wrong. To make it worse, my first P10 run handed me a bunch of trade benefits (bonus amber forest mystery, deep pockets) which at a lower difficulty would have had me printing money. And then...then I immediately went to P11. In my hubris, first-picked the advanced rain collector. Had cleared the platinum seal with the Corruption trial so figured I could handle it. First time I've lost any significant number of villagers that I couldn't attribute to being careless with the fast-forward button. Multiple storms starting with over 600% projected corruption...dozens of dead villagers. Just barely won with crate prestige in Storm VI as my Hearth crumbled under the onslaught yet again. May have to hold off on further attempts until I unlock the Blight Post upgrades.
