Alpha 17 is on public unstable branch

[Rimrue]

I posted this in the suggestions thread but thought I would crosspost here in case it gets missed:

My concern is not so much with the names of the seasons (though I really like the latin suggestions!) but that seasons are now called quadrums. Many ancient earth calendars recognized there were 4 seasons. Even for civilizations living close to the equator. And in modern times we refer to the holiday season and peak season and shoulder season which are not necessarily tied to weather at all. So I don't think it is confusing to stick to calling each 15 day period a season.

Otherwise I have enjoyed playing the new update so far. One of my colonists got an infection from a gunshot, but treating him promptly with medicine he got over it quickly. It wasn't much different than treating the plague or the flu.

[Mehni]

I'm more than a bit disappointed the Beep-Boop sound is still as overused as it is.

The death of a colonist is not as mundane as the end of a party, as getting food poisoning, as having a pair of pants worn away to nothing. Yet for some reason, they all use the same sound notification.

It just cheapens the characters that make the story RimWorld is trying to tell.

[Julia]

"But it was broke! It didn't make sense anywhere except in the range of 20 degrees north through 80 degrees north"

But does it have to make any sense, now it's mainly unclimatic! :p

Recruiting prisoners doesn't make sense, but it's good as a mechanic, it's fun = not broken.

[Tynan]

You can see the local season by mousing over the date.

Also, the season-changing alerts are still present.

I am changing some things so the quadrum/season alignment is a bit more sensible too.

[Mihsan]

I just visited friendly village for second time and was surprised: it's trading inventory did not changed at all (same ammount of silver and same goods... even simple meals that I sold them were untouched). It looks strange because my last visit was long time ago (not sure how long - maybe half a year or more).

[Franklin]

On the subject of season names i'm a very if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of person, and while it probably makes a lot of sense to have the new naming system, for the average person like me it just obfuscates things, but in the end it's whatever.

But it was broke! It didn't make sense anywhere except in the range of 20 degrees north through 80 degrees north, on planets with default temperature and rainfall settings.

Anyway maybe I'll just change them to standard month names and skip months.

Maybe a lot of us were missing it, but could you explain what was broke about the previous naming system?

Also, could we not just skip the names entirely (is this even Earth?) and refer to seasons by what to expect weather-wise? 'Hot Season', 'Cold Season', etc? It's less engaging but it solves the confusion of hemispheres and seasons not lining up.

[Tynan]

I just visited friendly village for second time and was surprised: it's trading inventory did not changed at all (same ammount of silver and same goods... even simple meals that I sold them were untouched). It looks strange because my last visit was long time ago (not sure how long - maybe half a year or more).

The reset interval is quite a bit longer than it was. But they will reset eventually.

[XeoNovaDan]

This is slightly off-topic from the discussion around the season changing, but body part loss seems to be much more common in this alpha. This is something I both like and dislike (the latter being because particularly in combat with manipulations newfound weight on shooting accuracy, and the way the pre-curves and post-processing is set up, the slightest hindrance will make that colonist a terrible shot unless they're drugged/bionic or careful - although this is perfectly logical, even missing a finger can be crippling, but it's probably just me being very fussy. Melee is OK though).

Just 75 days in, these are the following body part losses on all 5 of my colonists...
Mie: Nose, Left arm, Spine, Left big toe
Bear: Right ear, one rib, Right leg, Left leg
Gorilla: Left lung, left big doe
Syd: Left eye, Left ear, Left ring finger, Right index finger, Left pinky
Cuevas: Nose, Left arm, one rib, Left big toe

I've never had this much body part loss in such a short span of time in any of my A16 runs, modded or not, insane difficulty or not. This run's only been on Rough xD

[Tynan]

Xeo - that's really strange, I haven't done anything to change that that I know of. That said, stuff does creep in. (Edit: In my bad memory I may recall a rebalance on some body part sizes. I will have to check the logs.)

If anyone else can shed light on body part loss I'd be appreciative.

I'm also pushing a new build right now. Main change is:
-Better alignment and tooltip explanation of seasons/quadrums

[Mehni]

Can confirm. I'm missing 6 fingers/toes after 6 raids, spread over 6 colonists/prisoners. This is way more than what I'd usually miss.

Torsos seem to get hit less. Internal organs (blood filtrating kidneys and livers especially...) seem to get hit more.

[ReZpawner]

I have had the same issue. small bodyparts like fingers\thumbs\toes\ears\nose seem to be taken out at an alarming rate (For those who still want to keep testing with the same colony, you can heal it by using the dev menu and healing the torso - that will restore the entire body).

[giltirn]

Has malaria always been this bad? One of my pawns got it and despite being holed up continuously in bed in a spotless hospital being treated within seconds of him needing tending every time using herbal meds with a skill 6 doctor he still was not able to reach immunity before dying. He did have a major artery blockage in his heart though, which leads to a -15% blood filtration. Perhaps this was the cause? Still it kind of sucks that I threw all my medicine at him and did everything right, and still he died (or would have if I had not have cheated when he reached 99% disease progression).

[Rimrue]

I'm also pushing a new build right now. Main change is:
-Better alignment and tooltip explanation of seasons/quadrums

Not to beat a dead horse, but the fact you are still referring to "seasons/quadrums" suggests you should just drop the whole quadrums thing and stick to seasons. A season is literally just a period of time. I mean we have sports seasons, hunting seasons, holiday seasons, off seasons, etc. in the modern world and no one thinks those are necessarily associated with climate/weather. Also in many ancient calendars seasons were based on growing, planting, harvesting. Not so much to do with climate or the weather. So you could easily have 4 seasons even in an equatorial environment. They could be based on anything in Rimworld. The season of raids. The season of muffalo. The season of drop pods. Etc. Lol

[Tynan]

By "seasons/quadrums" I mean "seasons and quadrums", as in I made adjustments to both of them together.

Also in many ancient calendars seasons were based on growing, planting, harvesting. Not so much to do with climate or the weather.

I do believe these activities are quite closely related to climate... Try telling an Inuit about "planting season" and "harvest season" and see how meaningful that is to him.

Anyway, again, seasons are still in the game and you can easily tell what season you're in. The game also announces seasons as they begin IIRC. But there has to be a global date system, otherwise it's impossible to make sense of time. E.g. "This person died on X day of Y season" is meaningless when you have moved across the planet and the place you're in has totally inverted or different seasons than the place he died. There are lots of examples like this. Seasons are not usable as a global date system, which is why don't use them for that in real life either.

[giltirn]

I'm also pushing a new build right now. Main change is:
-Better alignment and tooltip explanation of seasons/quadrums

Not to beat a dead horse, but the fact you are still referring to "seasons/quadrums" suggests you should just drop the whole quadrums thing and stick to seasons. A season is literally just a period of time. I mean we have sports seasons, hunting seasons, holiday seasons, off seasons, etc. in the modern world and no one thinks those are necessarily associated with climate/weather. Also in many ancient calendars seasons were based on growing, planting, harvesting. Not so much to do with climate or the weather. So you could easily have 4 seasons even in an equatorial environment. They could be based on anything in Rimworld. The season of raids. The season of muffalo. The season of drop pods. Etc. Lol

Que? Growing, planting and harvesting are completely dependent on the climate and weather.