Hello, I've come into this game through some people on Youtube and Twitch and I found it very appealing and just what I wanted from a BaseBuilder game. The Thoughts System, the random events and many other mechanics that add some more depth to the game made me love it short after I started playing.
Though I know the game is only in Alpha and there's a lot of work to be done, I believe I can provide with some input to improve this product from the perspective of someone who loves these kind of games.
I've listed some of my major thoughts about the game in different categories:
GUI
- Make bills accessible from just clicking once:
Right now is kind of a mess to go around clicking on one object, then issue a bill and customize. Maybe a bar down at the bottom to show the orders and work being done in every object or table - Quick Zone placement:
A deployable menu to select "premade" zones to place like: Armory (only weapons and combat apparel), Fridge (only food), Material stock (raw materials)
Structures
- Watchtower:
A kind of way of foreseeing enemy attacks. Maybe a turret in early stages, then it could be a drone that warns some time in advance about a raid or a visit. Also a Security console to man and program defenses - Electric fence:
A destructible yet powered fence to keep out animals and enemies alike. Must build a transformer every dozen (or so) tiles. - Hygiene:
There's yet to be a hygiene system, where colonists could have traits like "Strong odor" or "Clean" which can affect moods and behaviour. A clean person wouldn't be comfortable with someone who doesn't wash, etc. Showers, bathtubs for stress relief, toilets, maybe a sauna (relaying some geyser steam) - More medical objects:
A surgery bed, where operations have more success or less risks of infections and others. An "Elysium"-like bay to heal some parts of the body or rebuild them (at a risk of failure, injury or mutation [OMG mutants]). - Rations:
When I'm being sieged by some filthy bandits I stack up my forces into their barricades and make them wait for them or man some mortars to thin their numbers, just to be overrun by them because my people was starving and had to grab a snack before the battle for their lives. It could be useful to have a way to make rations that everyone can carry in case the shit hits the fan. - Traps:
Ditch traps where an enemy can fall in and be captured, deadly Spike traps, EMP traps, Tazing traps. Gas traps to force the enemy into a closed envirorment (also allow to open doors to enemies to lure them) and watch them scream while intoxicated with poisonous fumes (so grimm), decoys to distract and confuse. - Overhead lights:
A lightsource without the used space of standing lamps
Misc:
- Designated guards:
Probably a mixture between Warden and Soldier, where you can order someone to take patrols, or guard certain areas or man mortars (or security consoles). - General orders:
Something like "That game whO shoulnd't be named anyWhere iN thiS world".Let's say I want to always have a steady supply of bricks or food and order my people to make enough items to fill this request. Then I go to the Orders button and order to keep making food until I have 30 good meals, no more no less and keep producing until that number is met.
There are others I cannot remember right now and maybe some are already formulated. I hope you find this useful and sorry for the grammar mistakes that may be here.
Thanks for your time
I literally just registered just to add ideas and respond to others as such. No one seemed to reply to this as far as i can tell, but id enjoy seeing most of your suggestions in Rimworld (other than the surgical bed since there's already a version of it).
Those ideas aren't actually bad, like the thing with orders, where you can set a steady supply of a specific resource or material/meal so you wont have to manually force your colonists to take care of them all the time. Traps would also be an interesting thing to see too- Although i was thinking about traps more along the line for hunting. Like snares and pitfalls (like you mentioned).
I've been a bit frustrated with the hunting mechanic since some specific colonists with poor shooting skills will take at least half a game day to kill one animals, and still not even kill it. Sometimes they get an animal into shock, keep shooting at the body, and constantly miss until they get tired or need food.
Then they will proceed to do other tasks until the animal bleeds out, which actually forces the animal to be a forbidden object. And THAT prevents me from keeping track of animals they hunt and/or whether or not they brought the carcass back. Carcass spoils, and it was a waste of time hunting the animal in the first place.
A possible remedy to this problem is to have an option to force colonists to melee animals in shock IF they used a ranged weapon to take it down. This solution should ensure that their chances of bringing a non-spoiled carcass back is higher than before. Although this option should NOT be issued with mechanoids of any shape or form.
I agree, so far the hunting mechanic is clunky at best. Other thing that would be useful to this matter would be hunting areas. Often times I find my people wandering way off track at the worst times without anything to do but to enlist them and impact on their morale. Hunting and Working limits would set an area on which the colonist could carry on their duties and allow the player to set a safe path.
There was a great mod to improve hunting in A8 - hopefully it is updated for A9!
[MOD] (Alpha 8) Auto-hunt Beacon v1.0 (2015-01-19) (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=8930.0)