Alpha4f released

Posted June 8th, 2014 by Tynan Sylvester

I’ve just uploaded Alpha4f, a balance and design hotfix. Everyone who bought the game will be getting emails about it. Even if you didn’t, any of your old download links will always get you the latest version.

Warning: This version will not work with savegames from any older version (including Alpha4a through Alpha4e).

As always, anyone with download trouble should please read this forum post for info on what to do.

Note that this update does not include Alpha 5 content like artillery mentioned in the changelog. That you’ll have to wait for.

The major changes are:

  • Wood log and wood planks are now merged into one wood resource. This reduces pointless early-game busywork for colonists (sawmill work), and reduces confusion about exactly what kind of wood is needed to build what. I hope to bring back the wood/plank distinction in the future, but it will have to be part of a larger system where many objects can be constructed of different materials while still being the same object type. See this forum discussion.
  • Storytellers balance has been redesigned. They now cue on different signals and will generally track against the player in a more entertaining way.
  • Randy Random is no longer totally broken and unbeatable.
  • Pila weapon is nerfed from 45 damage to 30 damage per hit.
  • Stone wall health raised from 400 to 650.
  • Animal insanity waves were broken and never occurred. They are now, again, part of the threat mix the storytellers will use against you.

Hope you guys like it! Let’s hope this one is the charm for Alpha 4.

23 Responses to “Alpha4f released”

  1. Andrew

    I’ve been having the exact opposite problem with randy random in that it’s too easy and all I ever got were animal attacks and the odd raid with only 2 or 3 raiders. Basically I’ve been expecting some of these cyber attacks that I’ve read about and some more difficult raiding attacks.

    Haven’t tried this update yet however, maybe it fixes things for me. Would you be interested in the save file anyway? I play on Ubuntu.

  2. Andrew

    Just to clarify I mean I’ve been getting the animal insanity attacks no problem on randy random prior to this update.

  3. WinstonSmith

    I too had the animal insanity waves prior to this update.
    When the Boomrats go insane, you’re gonna want to split your colony up or hope you have a proper defensive line.

  4. niclas

    Its great that you merged wood. Better make some more advance things in mid or late game that need some more advanced mechanics. In early start you really need to get the base up pretty fast.

    Thx for the changes. I havent played this game much but the wood thing was a bit to much stress for a noob like me.
    Love the game so far. It reminds me of little computer people to some how. idk why, but i started to think about that game when i played this lol. Maybe because i feel for my colony and those who lives there and i can order what every character should do.


  5. Yes, to clarify, animal insanity worked on Randy, but was broken on Cassandra.

  6. David

    Thank you for doing this all the right way!

    I’ve had a lot of bad luck w/ weapon traders on Ae, I hope I’ll get my minigun before day 200 this time xD.

    Again, thank you for all the work and love you put into this game, keep it up!

  7. Mok

    “no longer totally broken and unbeatable”
    I hope that doesn’t mean, that you’ve changed Randy Random into a pillow, “no harm at all”-mode.

    The one thing about Randy Random I loved was how tough it was to play.
    It wasn’t “unbeatable” but challenging, exactly what one would expect when chosing a random mode.

    Sometimes having 3 raids at once with an onslaught of raiders or having random emergency pots crash everywhere with prisoners you can add to your colony.
    It was just crazy fun and made you think and plan ahead how to stay alive.
    I think the way it was before was rather balanced out and just as “random” as one would expect from Randy Random.

    I dearly hope “no longer totally broken and unbeatable” doesn’t mean that it got destroyed.
    The whole “stay alive as long as possible” thing applied best to Randy Random.
    Unlike on the other storytellers, where you have no threat of dieing, having your colony demolished or whatsoever after 2 or 3 hours of playing, in Randy Random you would always had to stay on spot and make sure that raids wouldn’t kick your ass.

    Might aswell replace it with Pheobe Friendly then if it is “unbeatable”…

  8. Timo

    Is the new Alpha4f package for Windows complete? Compared with Alpha4e it is a bit smaller.
    RimWorldAlpha4eWin.zip = 70.810.160 Bytes
    RimWorldAlpha4fWin.zip = 59.314.198 Bytes

  9. Sean

    I’ve had non of these issues that Alpha4f fixes

  10. LavaSnake

    This seems to break saves from old versions but that wasn’t included in the post.


  11. Whoops, sorry. I wrote it in the email, but I’ll update the post to match.

    Timo: I fixed some broken music compression settings.

    Mok: Randy was working in A3 and broken in A4a-e, this brings him back around to where he was at A3.

  12. Jstank

    I am rather saddened to see the wood complexity layer stripped out. I enjoy the complexity and intricacy of production trees. I thought that the wood planks a very interesting idea which could have been applied to most things. Raw ore out of the ground, for example needs to be smelted and shaped to make anything useful. Raw ingredients combined to produce meals. Raw wood has to be processed to build anything but basic structures. Therefore the “Log Cabin” is fine not to need planks but “wood flooring” would require processed wood. I hope you don’t apply the wood merging to other aspects of the game like cooking, because there is already a lack of things to do in the game and this removed a good activity.

    A better solution would have been to make it clear to the player that planks are required in order to craft certain Items. I know I was initially confused as to exactly how to build wood items until I realized they needed to become planks first. Then I understood. It was not a drain on the game mechanics, just an added layer of complexity I enjoyed doing. I hope you bring back planks for higher level items like flooring in the future.


  13. Planks will probably return as part of a broader and better-designed materials system. I’m hoping not for just planks, but for oak planks, spruce planks, pine planks, etc.

  14. Paulo Pereira

    May I give a small advice? It seems Rimnworld is going too much on the combat direction and not enough on the “survive and build a colony” direction. And for me RW’s great appeal is overcome the hardships of not having enough to eat, not enough power, not enough food, animals going rampant, etc etc etc rather than the militaristic aspects of the game.

    I also think furniture , with some exceptions, should be wood based rather than metal based (e.g. chairs, tables, beds, even hydroponics and vase pots). It is not logical to do these things in metal , when metal is scarce. Even stone should be used for vase pots and hydroponics , rather than metal.

    Last but not least, perhaps a new element needed: Water. should be collected either from geothermal vents or springs (to be implemented) and rain . Then stored in compartments.

    Just some ideas, sorry about the long post.

    TL,DR: Develop more the survival aspects rather than the combat aspect.

  15. me

    “Warning: This version will not work with savegames from any older version (including Alpha4a through Alpha4e).”

    Is this the ‘normal’ thing to happen with each update?
    Because if yes, then why i am spending time building a colony just to trash it in a future update?

    Please try to keep save files compatible in new versions…

  16. George

    I actually agree with “me” on this. I have been playing around with the files, and changed a few things. And loaded my game, and it has made a difference to the game, what i wanted it to do, and did not effect the game mechanics, and no errors came up. And i have tried it in all versions from the start.

    However, Prison Architect had this same problem at the start, so hopefully it will sort itself out eventually, when more stable.


  17. I can’t even load my save games from Alfa4f… it crashes every time and LSD screen appears!

  18. Sigint

    I’m getting the same error that TheEruen is reporting. I am unable to load any of my save games, even though they are all from Alpha 4F


  19. Well that certainly sucks. There must be a bug. I’m sorry.

    If either of you can post a link to a savegame (zipped) I’d love to inspect it and find the culprit. I can’t solve your immediate problem but I can fix it for Alpha 5.

  20. Sigint

    Now that I go back to attempt to recreate the issue to get a screen of the console, or an effected save game, I’m unable to replicate the issue, sorry. I’ll continue to try and get you one.

    As an aside, thanks for making an awesome game.

  21. Rune

    @me @George

    You have to remember that what you are playing is an actual alpha and not some demo using a fancy of-the-times moniker. This is work in progress. Much of the code will change from version to version, making save games non-transferable between builds.

    Your expectations might come from you not knowing what constitutes an alpha when talking about it in the technical term as opposed to the colloquial understanding as often interchangeable with demo. A piece of software’s alpha stage is primarily defined by it not being feature complete. It’s a pretty recent thing for someone not involved with the development of the game to even have access to alpha stage software. It’s the crowd funding wave that has changed this.

    So, please adjust your expectations towards alpha software. What you experience is run-of-the-mill. If you don’t want to feel like you are wasting your time, I have two suggestions. One is to wait until release to play the game. The second is reporting any issues you find with the game and comment on how you think the game mechanics work, balancing etc. in the forums. For a small indie dev. that kind of feedback is priceless and you will not feel like your time is wasted when your save wipes.

    Rune
    An old fart and survivor of mane alpha- and beta wipes.


  22. please click the up coming website page

    Ludeon Studios


  23. sports duffle bags nike

    Ludeon Studios