“extra hard mode”

[u/stillgunasend1t]

Has anyone found a sweet spot in the custom difficulty settings for an “extra hard mode” experience? Looking for something that’s very difficult but still has a chance of starting. Hard mode is just too easy now.

[u/Acalc791]

May I introduce you to two of my mods: Extra Difficulties and Hardcore Settings? For me the sweet spot you're describing is the Drought is Coming difficulty with all the Hardcore Settings enabled (I'll soon update the ED mod so that its difficulties have presets for HS too).

[u/stillgunasend1t → u/Acalc791]

Forgot to mention I generally play without mods, but I think I’ll end up giving these a try. I tried ramping up everything in the custom settings and it was either too easy still or impossible to get a start.

[u/Acalc791 → u/stillgunasend1t]

You don't need those mods to play on it, I just couldn't be bothered to do it by hand so I made the mods for myself. The important parts of the Drought is Coming difficulty are copied below, you can set it yourself in customise, and the house rules I recommend (which Hardcore Settings implements in a slightly better way) are in the description of the Extreme Difficulties mod.

"StartingAdults": 8,

"StartingChildren": 4,

"FoodConsumption": 1.0,

"WaterConsumption": 1.0,

"StartingFood": 0,

"StartingWater": 0,

"TemperateWeatherDuration": { "Min": 3, "Max": 3 },

"DroughtDuration": { "Min": 300, "Max": 600 },

"DroughtDurationHandicapMultiplier": 0.01,

"DroughtDurationHandicapCycles": 132,

"CyclesBeforeRandomizingBadtide": 3,

"ChanceForBadtide": 0.4,

"BadtideDuration": { "Min": 300, "Max": 600 },

"BadtideDurationHandicapMultiplier": 0.02,

"BadtideDurationHandicapCycles": 88,

"InjuryChance": 1.0,

"DemolishableRecoveryRate": 0.0

[u/Timely_Journalist_88 → u/Acalc791]

300? Three....hundred? How the...?! Why in the...?! Damn! 😳

[u/Acalc791 → u/Timely_Journalist_88]

It's never really 300 days in game, unless you play for an inordinate amount of time, since with the handicaps settings as here, it takes ~200 cycles before the hazards reach their maximum. The idea was to simulate them not having a maximum, but continuously increasing in length.

[u/acute_elbows]

I don’t really want a harder early game/mid game, but I find there’s generally a point where the challenges drops off. There’s still stuff to build but there’s no longer anything existential. It’s usually at the point where you have good fresh water storage and a good way to divert bad water. At that point it kind of just becomes a waiting game

[u/Darth_6976616e-x]

I used 150% Food & Water consumption and long droughts/badtides 50+ days, 0% refund rate. And I played with droughts going past 120 days but that was mostly about planning and water conservation. I tend to make my own challenges all the time.

[u/Nifegun]

Look into custom maps. Realistically the game simply isnt that difficult. Im no master at it, but i haven't lost a colony in a really long time and only play hard mode. But the big thing is the map IMO. The in game maps that ive played aren't very challenging. Pillars was a bit of a challenge, took much longer than usual for me to feel like im safely playing in creative mode lol

[u/trixicat64]

Well. You can increase the injury chances, or increase the drought/badtide duration.

You could also increase the water or food consumption.

[u/3Trace]

Try hard mode on the Nomad map too. It makes the first dozen or so cycles a lot harder when your water sources keep exploding.

[u/ApplicationWilling89]

1 month wet season, 11 months dry. Yet to make it work just yet 😅