I really enjoyed this until i was raided during a blizzard and hit with the autosave which ruined the hardcore game. SO many hours down the drain. Happened in the realistic stone age mod as well. Not sure if its possible but disabling winter raids in hardcore would help avoid this non sense.

A fine challenge! Stagnation in Bronze Age having around 140 settlers. Finally the better armoured raiders overcome them. I enjoyed it, thanx!

Thanks! The "Highland" map gave me just the challenge I was looking for after getting all the objectives.

@ChristoLifeInTheCities
Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

Une carte excellente ! Very good map, thank you

@flak509
Glad you're enjoying it! You should also check out my latest mod, Hard Reality: Scandinavia. It incorporates lessons learned from working on Hard Reality: Scotland. Raids are more frequent but smaller, which helps with some of the framerate issues I've seen with large raiding parties. It also scales things like the size of raids, the amount of immigration, the frequency of traders and things like that based upon prestige. Some of those things are already scaled based on prestige, but HR: Scandinavia doubles down on that.

I really enjoy this map pal, raiders are enough of a challenge but don't ruin everything in the early stages. I am also at the iron age and they are getting tougher, so is mining I have to travel a fair bit to get tin but I just continue to let them use flint knives so that metal is used for better equipment. The worst time I had was right at the start, a lion killed all but one female adult but scavenging and hardy Scottish hearts won the day

If I remember correctly, the reason I didn't include more tin and copper is partly because those metals are much more rare in reality. Thus, unlocking iron tools is a huge revolution not just because they are more effective and more durable, but because iron is one of the most common minerals in the earth's crust. However, just like with stone, I can show you how to increase the amount of copper and tin on any of the maps you choose to play on.

Also, if you are playing on the lowlands maps, there is very little metal of any kind. If you play on highlands or mountains, you may find that there is enough copper and tin for your liking.

@TheFlemishCatgirl

It's been a while since I've played due to life circumstances and a decision to step away for a while, so I can't remember exactly how I beat the raiders in that neolithic-copper age transition. I'll try again and let you know if I come up with any other tips.

Depending on which location you play, there is more or less stone. The higher the elevation, the more stone, so highlands and mountains have quite a bit more stone than lowlands. However, if you want to add more stone to any of the locations, I can show you how to customize the scenario.

@TheFlemishCatgirl

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun making it.

As far as tips for surviving raiders go, fortifications are super important. Even though they don't last long, they absorb damage that would otherwise be directed at your population. Also, the size of raids is tied to your population size, so if you lose a large portion of your population to a raid, don't give up! It might take a while to recover, but it doesn't mean you are defeated.

Furthermore, on normal mode, you control when the ages advance, so make sure your population is well-equipped before unlocking the copper age. Also remember that flint weapons are just as effective as copper ones, it's just that copper weapons are more durable and last longer.

for con :

-i wished you added more stones :D (tho in the end u get some by trade wich i loved! )
- i know there wasnt actually a copper age in history , but maybe just add a little bit tin and copper
- the change in flint to copper age , at some point a very large group of raiders comes right before u unlock copper. i tried everything, is it me or is it just impossible on hard?

thx for making this mod i really enjoy it :D hope to see more

This is BY FAR the best mod i ever played in this game. FINALLY someone who made a long , hard ,yet resource comfortable scenario. :D

i have a little bit of complaints but also a lot of praise!

for pro :

-i really loved how every age is important and the stuff you have to do to get knowledge points.
- the trading is also very much fun at the end they come very frequent wich helps a lot
- the gain of people is so much fun ! this time i actually cared if someone was attacked by wild animals and stuff
- i tried 2 times on hard but for some reason i allways lose badly at the start of the copper age.. :( any tips? i had like 160 people with good walls and defense but still get raped :'(
- the mod is also very fun and challenging on normal mode !

@DRScience I'll look into it!

how does supply affect raider members its my first time playing this mod

Cant seem to get the 'haggler' milestone? I have achieved the limit on each of the conditions not just 1.

@placebo I assume you mean the lowlands map. Yes, lowlands is meant to be a greater challenge than highlands, because there is basically zero metal deposits on the map.

Hi there, where can I find metal on the midlands map ? Are we supposed to trade it only ?

Nice

For example before you can get bone technology you must amass many bones, many wooden spears/harpoons and killed many animals. The acquisition of the technology really is based on experience.
For as long as the raiders advancement in technology especially starting Bronze Age is not very very far ahead I think it’s ok. Raiders vs defenders are still match up until copper age so it’s only about numbers game. So I think you need more milestones bonuses in the metal ages to offset the raiders advancement.

So it seems that both tech multipliers and traders arrival are universal on all eras so it’s hard to use it to manipulate the time frame of era evolution. I read from somewhere before that Paleolithic spans the longest followed by Mesolithic and as the era advances each era advance becomes shorter.
I think if you want your mechanics to this route you can use more milestones. Even if technologies become very very expensive say starting with 20 KP in Paleolithic every milestones with higher KP bonus can offset the much higher and harder technology cost on the next eras.
I would like to see milestones that are related to technologies.

Unfortunately there is only one tech multiplier, so I can't fine tune the amount of knowledge points required in each era. I could increase the hardcore timer for the stone ages, but in my play through, it seemed like I spent plenty of time in the Paleolithic-Neolithic.

My goal with this mod was to create one of the hardest experiences possible. Having it be pretty nightmarish on hardcore is exactly what I was going for. I'm not sure I want to make it easier.

However, I'm currently working on Hard Reality: Norway, and I will probably make the raiders a bit less numerous and a bit more frequent.

Perhaps an event later after 30 years is fine with per 3 pop raider increase. For now 4 is sweet and I use it in my other saved game.

Is it possible for you to mod with more time in Stone Age and/or you can separate the tech multiplier on each era? As long as you can balance the timing of raiders advancing in tech say instead of 7-10 years you can put them to to between 12-15 and so on with the other eras. I’m wary of raiders advancing much much ahead like 4-5 years ahead of the player. I managed to be behind only 1 year starting copper up to Iron Age.
Also I think per 1 raider per 3 pops is a nightmare to average players on hardcore.

@badmaddin
What are your PC's specs?

my whole pc just stops and i have to restart him

I just set my resolution 1 notch lower but haven’t tried on this mod yet. If at 200+ raiders won’t lag at 600+ population won’t lag I will continue to go higher until maximum tolerable pops and raiders without lag. Then after acquiring at least 1k iron ore reserves then I will change the traders arrival frequency as I will be running out of space, storage as well as farms. Right now my food supply is diminishing because my domestic animals and stables are not sufficient. I’m increasing my pulses just to sustain my food supply.

Agreed :)

Oh ok nice and thanks! I will definitely do that. I noticed it only happens during raids. So ok maybe 1 notch lower until I find the good balance resolution. Wow I can’t tell the difference in resolution though haha, nice and thanks again!

Buds :) I noticed your Video Resolution is at (4096 x 2304)
If you still have FPS issue with over 130 Raiders or High Population; try lowering your Resolution Options in game and/or at Graphic-Card Options ;)

Just finished the hardest and last milestones last night, just realized the caption is wrong spelling.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2167614595

Great "Got to have MOD", Thanks Kulning

Yes, I could do that. And if you want to modify it manually in the meantime so you can make videos, just find where the .scn file says "extra_raider_per_population". As the name implies, that attribute controls how many extra raiders come in each raid. At 600 population, a value of 6 would result in 100 extra raiders (above the baseline.)

I know but the raid frequency right now is fine, I like it because I have chance to rebuild after the raid. No, you don’t need to change the mechanics right now as it really does well and very interesting. Ups and downs happen until you overcome the challenge and things just work out fine. In the end.

Because there is no lag except during raids I will try to go up to the highest population before it lags, I can tolerate the lag during raid but can’t make a good video out of it.

What if you can change things so that when you reach certain population ( say 600) the raiders numbers can go down to a not laggy one (130 or some numbers that has no lag)? As if the raiders became scared due to your settlement became powerful?! 😀.

For now as I increase my population I will take note as to how many raiders cause the lag.

The only way to eliminate the lag at the moment would be to significantly reduce the amount of raiders. But that would make the scenario less challenging, unless I made raids more frequent.

For now my newest game is almost established, stable and sustainable at close to 250 population. Two more milestones to go which I need 2 more stone circle (I built 2 cairns already ) before aiming for the 500 population.

So far this mod is really nice and (very) challenging though I only like one map (Highlands). What bothers me is the lag when raiders numbers reached more than 130, so far I have 100 average on 240s population.

Once I finished all the milestones I’m planning on changing the files (if I can with your consent 😀) to avoid lag, which is only caused by the raid acceleration. Once I establish the maximum raiders without lag then I will proceed to increase the population up to when the lag starts to appear on at the most x2 speed. So far the game doesn’t lag at 600+ population.

Or if there’s a way for you to change the raiding speed which imo should match with the players set speed, this might avoid or reduce lag.

@badmaddin
Do you have any kind of error message or data you can provide?

love this mod, but it keeps crashing my pc :/

I want it to be hard for the average player to finish it. That's why I called it "Hard Reality." :)

It’s going to be real hard for average player to finish it, it needs more tinkering and must be played cautiously in hardcore. Relocating to the river fork is a good decision on my part as the deep river and far apart fords keep the southern raiders a little bit lost on how to cross towards my camp, but traders are stuck too and negate some early useful goods.

My game is now stable and just 2 more techs to unlock, the last 90 raiders partially destroyed my unrepaired Fort.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2161867204

Cool. Sounds like the difficulty is just about right. I don't want it to be so hard that it's impossible.

I made another play through on hardcore and this time trying to do the same layout of that 2nd lost game (from unattended running game). I’m holding on now in Bronze Age and been through 3 raids from steel armed 80+ raiders, my population is only 150s. I had only 2 raids in copper Age against Bronze equipped raiders.

I’m on 35 knowledge points in the bank and need 15 KP more to reach Iron Age. I’m expecting to have 2 more raids before I can have enough KP to advance. It seems my 3rd play through is going to succeed again despite the difficulty.

I was able to record a video of the newest version and almost a done game except that disaster that it was running without me and my settlement got obliterated when I open back my pc 😢.

It was a won game already and just restructuring it to look pretty and seeing to it to have fewer population and fewer raiders (around 130) do the game won’t lag anytime

https://youtu.be/I81p8ZLw9no

@buds
Bummer! Sorry to hear about that. I've definitely done that before. The screenshot looks spiffing, though.

I finished all techs but still to finish the milestones then disaster struck. It was running while I’m away and when I turn my pc back on raiders are obliterating my settlement during winter. 25 hours wasted and a nice looking (better than my previous on) stable and sustainable settlement.

180s population with 90s raiders.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2156547021

I still went through and in the Iron Age now with reinforced towers, though still have Iron Age technology because Steelmaking is 40 KP. I have all the needed techs for defense already and it’s just a matter of time to complete the milestones again. I have 170s population already and my defense is goodniugh against 85-90 raiders.

I think the milestones description of 40 raiders killed did not activate, it did at around 50, I guess.

This new update might not be easy on hardcore, few might be able to complete this challenge. I already reached th copper age and waiting for raiders to advance to Broze Age weaponry then I will advance too, I’ll see whether I can make it with some little perseverance. I settled on the same spot because I like that map but might just go up to maximum 130 raiders or up to the numbers without lag during raid.

Glad you're enjoying it! Yes, I opted for having larger numbers of raiders, but less often. I also just released an update that turns hardcore mode into a greater challenge. The number of raiders is less dependent on the size of your own population, which forces you to grow faster. It also increases the knowledge points required to unlock a technology, which means you have to do more trading to advance technologically.

Your current raiding timing is just fine and much better than most if not all scenarios. You have a chance to rebuild and regroup despite having tremendous defenders losses.

I think it’s about fast actions like the range weapons discharge as well as organic accelerated movements. If they can change it so that the movements are proportional to the game speed it might work. Although the combat action is still the fastest on any tasks. There will be more changes to be done if they want to slow it down, like hunting actions/tasks will be affected too as it is akin to battle.

Well the combat system is only tailored to few raiders and animals but you know some players like me want more interesting mechanics and challenging too.

I’m not sure how far my population can go and hoping my pc won’t break😀. Keep up the good works and hopefully you can make another interesting scenario/s. I just like thhh I s one as lag doesn’t occur except during high volume raids.

@buds and @JohnNav

Unfortunately, the game does not allow modders to change *where* raiders spawn or in how many groups. It only lets you change how many and how often.

I could change it so that raiders come more often and in fewer numbers, but I think it would get annoying having to sound the alarm several times a year.

However, Madruga Works is aware of the performance issues associated with raiders and hopefully they'll fix it. I sent them a save game to examine a few weeks ago. There's no reason why the performance should be so bad.