(...) you can recommend settings to go against that and get me outside of my comfort zone or whatever you think will be funny ![Tongue :P](https://forums.arcengames.com/Smileys/aaron/tongue.gif)
Well, check the "Outa Tracks" thread
here if you really want to challenge yourself. Maybe we could jump on this thread and go through the question-anwser "what's your playstyle?"; "then this and that options will be challenging". But I recommend you go for something within your playstyle first, if you prefer to get comfortable before tackling bigger challenges.
For the raw difficulty, I recommend 7/7, if you were far ahead of your level at 5/5.
If you want a thematic setup, let me propose you my lobby scripts:
here. There is one script for each galactic race in the game (Spire, Zenith, Neinzul) plus one for humans. (Dangit, the files are a bit further down the thread.)
If you want lore, I recommend you to play the Light of the Spire "campaign". If you do, consider doing so without other mods, with a vanilla map style and easy AI types to stay focused on the campaign.
Speaking of that, maybe you could try something special with the non-Minor-Faction options. Try an original mapstyle, like concentric, wheel, clusters or grid. Or try an exotic AI types combination, like GravDriller/OneWayDoorMaster, or anything you want to experiment. (Just go through the list and say "Oh, nice name, I wonder what this one is doing. Let's try it.")
I recommend not playing with pain-only minor factions, like the devourer, miners, hybrids or astro-trains. First, get comfortable at your raw level (7/7?) then spice it up with MF, then upgrade the raw difficulty and clean the options (vanilla 8/8) before spicing it up again (8/8 + MF), etc.
Alternatively, you can toy with superweapons. Enable Golems, Spirecrafts and Champion and have fun. Beware not getting used to it, however. It took me a certain amount of time (and death) to drop the superweapons and get back to vanilla 7/7. My first home assault when I decided to quit the superweapons was... challenging.
(BTW, if you want a "mining" theme, enable spirecrafts at easy and balance it with miner golems. I'm sure it could be fun).
Hey, that post is longer that I thought. Anyway, welcome back, nice to see you again, and have fun kicking IAs in the teeth!
![Cheesy :D](https://forums.arcengames.com/Smileys/aaron/cheesy.gif)