I've got a few hundred hours in RimWorld and I must say that I absolutely love the game. I also love the mods that our awesome community has created for us. I just wrapped up a nice game on an ice sheet with the average temperature hovering around -20°F.
The thing I'm noticing is some of the mods like "Prepare Carefully" "More Vanilla Turrets" and "Stacks XXL" seem to reduce the difficulty curve of the game. For instance "Prepare Carefully" gives me the option to customize my pawns, thus removing pyromaniac traits and preexisting medical conditions. "More Vanilla Turrets" give me the option to build gun emplacements to mow down enemy raiders regardless of available weaponry. "Stacks XXL" allow me to cram 1000+ meals in a 10x10 cooler without having to worry about more space and more air conditioners.
Do you guys think these mods make the game to easy? Am I just playing on a low level and should up the challenge? I'm currently on Randy Random with Intense difficulty. I ask because I'm starting to find the game to be a bit boring.
Is there any single Rimworld mod that makes the game harder ?
First off, I'm one of the more hardcore gamers (just to give a bit of a reference frame).
I personally think mods that directly affect in-game elements (other than pure cosmetics) can really screw with the (intended) balance curve. And while some diversity in play based on the available gimmicks might be momentarily interesting, in the long run you start to rely too much on them (and the imbalance they produce).
To be clear: I don't condemn the usage of mods, sometimes the best gaming experience comes from mods! On one hand, if you really don't like components breaking down on you or managing power usage to keep all your base running, sometimes you might be better off with mods that do that for you or trivialize it down to an acceptable level. On the other hand, there are reasons why some mechanics are implemented that way (e.g. components breaking down = no infinite expansion/upkeep costs), so manipulating them affects the balance and difficulty of the whole game, which will influence how you perceive it. The choice is yours!
For me, I generally like mods that give you more control, better information displays or friendlier UI. I also like to try mods that introduce new gameplay elements for one or two games (for diversity and thinking about things from a different perspective), but I mostly try to only use mods that keep a healthy amount of difficulty (I do like challenges!).
@b0rsuk: I made some slight modifications to enable permanent heat wave/permanent cold snap. Does that count?
TL;DR: Play what you think is fun, but reevaluate your choice if you think the game gets boring ;)
Yes there are settings in vanilla and mods you can download that make the game unchallenging.
Using EDB to get 3 starting colonists with all great attributes then yes that makes the game very easy. But playing a game on Phoebe on base builder in a temperate zone with year round growing periods also makes it very easy.
I"m not really sure what you are getting at though. EDB adds another level of control to you in terms of difficulty, it doesn't require you to choose settings that make the game easier. The same with your choice to download other mods that make the game easier.
To be entirely fair: in my opinion, the vanilla game is shit, compared to the kind of stuff certain mods can add.
Like, it has gotten to the point where I don't play the game until a couple weeks/months after an update, so my chosen mods can update.
A big thing for me is storage: vanilla storage suuuuuccccckkkkkkkssssssss. Yeah, sure, just go throw all that stuff (food, ingredients, materials, etc) right on the floor, guys, don't organize it at all, just leave it right there. /s
I mean, humans have known about shelving, boxes and assorted containers since the early Stone Age. There is no reason whatsoever that storage has to be so hilariously inefficient, to the point where storage is going to be taking up a substantial portion of your mid/late-game colonies. None. Hence, various storage mods. Not the nonsensical :fit 100000 things into a 2x2 room", but actually "realistic" storage.
Another thing is combat. There is very little rationale behind an assailant taking a bullet to the torso, then running around for several days in-game, all while shanking people and having multiple mental breakdowns. Hence, Combat Realism.
Yet another thing is agriculture and cooking. In vanilla RW, we are limited to, what, 8 crops, and 3 or so recipes? Using Vegetable Garden, I can now grow 20+ crops, and make food that actually seems like it would be pretty tasty. Stew made from bear meat, beans, corn, potatoes, carrot and mushroom, compared to a "lavish meal"?
Plus, Vegetable Garden adds things like Salt (for preserving meat and vegetables), different textile crops, and expands the crafting options in the game. For example, in vanilla Rimworld, you grow cloth, then throw it on a sewing table to make into clothing. In VG, you grow cloth fibers (cotton, linen, hemp, wool), then weave it into cloth on a loom, then sew the cloth into clothing on a sewing table.
Sure, there are mods that make the game easier, like the numerous OP-as-fuck turret mods, easier-crafting of components, and buffed-to-hell-and-back trade, but those are crutches. Many mods make the game harder, or, at least, more grounded in reality.
Well I added the "Mending" mod because I thought it added a bit of "realism" to the game. Instead of growing cotton plants that automatically harvested cloth, the mod changes things around so you actually have to process the cotton fibers into cloth. The mod also added a mending bench that allows you to deconstruct clothing and repair clothing.
So in essence, yes some mods make the game "harder" by adding extra processing steps. I think the "Combat Realism" mod also makes the game harder by including the need for your pawns to carry ammunition for their weapons.
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 06, 2017, 04:59:08 PM
Is there any single Rimworld mod that makes the game harder ?
There are some, the only one I currently is running is seeds please! It makes it much harder to start grow stuff and you fear the blight that not just make the crop die but after you can't replant.
Hate to be a fanboy, but Fluffy's mods are the only ones I use. They are very well made, and allow me to let my pawns become low level managers, leaving the big choices to me, rather than all the choices. Not to mention the quality of menus. 10/10. I can't drool enough. Can't recommend them enough. Doesn't impact the difficulty of the game in any fashion I can dictate, just allows me to view the game in a different manner.
(In addition to BlackHalo's "Better Terrain" which legitimately makes the terrain generation significantly more attractive, while adding a bit more difficulty to the game. Not sure if that's intentional or not. Try it. Now.)
I always play 2 colonies with Rimworld. 1 that is true to the core no mods nothing. The other is balls to the wall mods everything from more turrets to human sacrifices that make my soldiers stronger. Mods are nice but sometimes nothing beats vanilla.
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 06, 2017, 04:59:08 PM
Is there any single Rimworld mod that makes the game harder ?
Britnoth's Pandora and SID make for an interesting challenge. The storytellers from Rimsenal and the hardcore storytellers don't try and make the game easier either. I'm not too familiar with the contents of the Hardcore SK modpack, but I'm sure you'll find plenty of torment in there. Some of the Lovecraft/Cthulhu mods will probably make it harder on you as well, though other parts will be a lot easier.
Generally though, most mods do make it easier. Even some mods that advertise themselves as Quality of Life make the game easier.
The thing that bothers me about this is that, while you might be right, the mods are mods for a reason, at the end of the day, if the mod makes the game boring for you, can't you just not use those mods or make your own mods to make the game harder?
I don't think many people post mods that make the game harder because there's really not much of a demand for them.
Most people who mod their game are looking for quality of life changes, which usually make the game at least a bit easier.
After a few of these mods, you'll end up with an experience that inevitably feels easier than the base game.
I, for one, don't think wool clothing capable of keeping a person comfortable in temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 degrees celsius) should be a thing.
I could, in theory, make a mod that reduces the "insulation" factor certain clothes offer. I just don't think anybody would use it, though.
For one, raiders wouldn't be nearly as safe raiding the extreme biomes, and that would throw balance off.
Secondly, people like to say "I survived on an ice-sheet, extreme difficulty."
I like the QOL mods, such as "Look at me, I'm the worker now!", which cuts out the steps required to override another pawn reserving an action, or "OSHA compliance", which causes pawns to treat all deadfall traps as active, so they don't accidentally die standing on a trap as it's being rearmed.
The mods you're mentioning explicitly remove some of the difficulty that comes with the game. Making perfect pawns sounds convenient, but it's straight up making the game easy mode. Stacks XXL is something that should at least be buildable or researchable (shelving units or organization, respectively), but to simply give it cheapens the game experience. If the game is too easy, it's definitely the mods you're using that's doing it.
I'm not saying "don't use the mods", if that's what you enjoy, but it sounds exactly like that's what is causing you to NOT enjoy the game anymore.
Quote from: stu89pid on February 06, 2017, 05:06:25 PM
I"m not really sure what you are getting at though. EDB adds another level of control to you in terms of difficulty, it doesn't require you to choose settings that make the game easier. The same with your choice to download other mods that make the game easier.
I'm in agreement with this. You
can use EdB to easy-mode it, but you can also use it to make a bunch of one-eye peg-legged abrasive pyromaniacs with chemical fascination who all refuse to haul. And you can use the Scenario Editor to add a planet-killer deadline or permanent toxic fallout, or to start off the game with no weapons or supplies, or schedule two mechanoid raids a day on a regular basis, or disable growing, etc. Or all of the above, simultaneously.
It depends on your perspective really. You can choose to either go hard or easy depending on which mods you use or the settings you set them at. I play with a pretty large number of mods and mainly because I prefer the base building element rather than the combat element of the game. However, I am considering to tweak it harder on my next play through by either exploring the medieval mod or starting with no resources at all.
If your game feels too easy, ramp up the difficulty. Tynan is not responsible for your mods, it's your decision how you modify your game. I'm very restrictive and require them to be vanilla friendly (e.g. QualityBuilder). Using a fishing mod on Sea Ice is something I'd never do, because it takes the challenge away, which is what Sea Ice is about. Same goes for Prepare carefully. The idea of RimWorld is that it's a story about random people. I can't make the perfect pawn, let him crashland and pretend everything is fine. Some rerolls untill I get a decent pawn and that's it*. A guy once wrote that he has his starting pawns saved and just loads them. This is horrible, he's playing the same game ever and ever again! Well, my 2 Cents. Use mods at your own discretion.
PS: a 10x10 area already fits 1000 Meals.
*played my first three games without rerolling at all. That part is so tedious.
Quote from: SilentP on February 06, 2017, 04:26:27 PM
I've got a few hundred hours in RimWorld and I must say that I absolutely love the game. I also love the mods that our awesome community has created for us. I just wrapped up a nice game on an ice sheet with the average temperature hovering around -20°F.
The thing I'm noticing is some of the mods like "Prepare Carefully" "More Vanilla Turrets" and "Stacks XXL" seem to reduce the difficulty curve of the game. For instance "Prepare Carefully" gives me the option to customize my pawns, thus removing pyromaniac traits and preexisting medical conditions. "More Vanilla Turrets" give me the option to build gun emplacements to mow down enemy raiders regardless of available weaponry. "Stacks XXL" allow me to cram 1000+ meals in a 10x10 cooler without having to worry about more space and more air conditioners.
Do you guys think these mods make the game to easy? Am I just playing on a low level and should up the challenge? I'm currently on Randy Random with Intense difficulty. I ask because I'm starting to find the game to be a bit boring.
Well, why pick those then?
I'm using quite a lot of mods, but I find most of them balanced or QoL. I'm using additional arsenal from something-something-Vanilla Ice mod, which fills the gap between power armor and bullet-proof vests with protective armors. They still take a lot of time to make, they cost a lot of components and make your pawns very slow (non-powered). Balanced additional content which doesn't make game too easy = cool.
There are also plenty of mods which fix many of QoL problems that the game currently has, but Tynan will probably get rid of them at some point, so these are mostly temporary. These change little in balance of the game, and rather make some situations less frustrating.
All mods that add equipment that is overpowered for its cost, requires little resources to make, or no research is a no go for me.
Every mod that increases stack size is also a no-go, since stacks are small for a reason.
@OP and everyone else that starts debates similar to this one on any game forum, but especially pure single player games:
How about you let everyone decide for himself how hard, easy, simulation-heavy, rpg-heavy, pseudorealistic, abstract, slow, fast, goal-oriented, endless, hardcore or casual he/she wants to play.
Games are supposed to be fun for the people playing them. If you think mods make the game too easy for you, do not install them. Done.
Depends on how you use the mods. For example with Stacks XXL I only set my stacks to x2 to x4 depending on the item type. I don't like super huge stacks, but a little bigger is nice for certain things.
Prepare Carefully too can be used in a way to have decent starting colonists, but just remove some annoying traits. You can show some restraint by not making super people and still give them some slightly negative traits.
Quote from: Boston on February 06, 2017, 05:18:25 PM
A big thing for me is storage: vanilla storage suuuuuccccckkkkkkkssssssss. Yeah, sure, just go throw all that stuff (food, ingredients, materials, etc) right on the floor, guys, don't organize it at all, just leave it right there. /s
I mean, humans have known about shelving, boxes and assorted containers since the early Stone Age. There is no reason whatsoever that storage has to be so hilariously inefficient, to the point where storage is going to be taking up a substantial portion of your mid/late-game colonies. None.
While vanilla is deficient in storage department, there is a very good reason. Visual clarity. You can determine at a glance which resources are where. If you allow for different types on the same tile, you can no longer see what is where. It's like DoomRL vs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. In DoomRL it's like Rimworld - one item per tile, even when a monster drops several items. In DCSS you can have very many items, and looting the battlefield afterwards is pretty awful. You have to navigate through multiple menus.
Increasing stack capacity comes with its own problems. When I add 10 unfertilized eggs to 5 fertilized ones, the stack becomes unfertilized. When I add a 5% progress egg to two eggs 50% progress, it's averaged to 35% and chicks will take longer to hatch. And if you allow stacking apparel or weapons how do you spot a shitty, degraded weapon among good quality ones ?
Quote
Another thing is combat. There is very little rationale behind an assailant taking a bullet to the torso, then running around for several days in-game, all while shanking people and having multiple mental breakdowns. Hence, Combat Realism.
Colonists would die left and right when shot. It would be very hard to rescue anyone. And Combat Realism breaks melee combat. The only reason Combat Realism is playable is because AI is terrible at using cover. Combat realism makes the game easier because you can outrange enemies even easier and utterly annihilate them before they come near. Ammunition management is just more micromanagement with little gain.
Quote
Yet another thing is agriculture and cooking. In vanilla RW, we are limited to, what, 8 crops, and 3 or so recipes? Using Vegetable Garden, I can now grow 20+ crops, and make food that actually seems like it would be pretty tasty. Stew made from bear meat, beans, corn, potatoes, carrot and mushroom, compared to a "lavish meal"?
Some plant types in Rimworld are niche enough as it is. Potato = gravel. Corn = rich soil. Rice = hydroponics. But what about strawberries ? For solar flares if you only use nutrient paste dispenser ?
I very much doubt the plants in Rimworld become more distinct when there's 20+ of them total. And that's some of us care about. For the same reason, I would like to see stone types, leather types, wool types, meat types diversified or merged. As far as mechanics are concerned there are only 3 meat types: animal, insect, human. But I have to juggle so very many meat types. A meal can be made of snowhare meat and polarbear meat, but you can't make a tuque out of mufallo wool and alpaca wool. The rest is useless fluff.
Quote
For example, in vanilla Rimworld, you grow cloth, then throw it on a sewing table to make into clothing. In VG, you grow cloth fibers (cotton, linen, hemp, wool), then weave it into cloth on a loom, then sew the cloth into clothing on a sewing table.
Which accomplishes what ?
Major offenders are mods that add things or mechanics the AI is not used to dealing with. Everything embrasure-like or anything defensive that the AI is simply not programmed to overcome.
Mods that give you insight into valuable information (sortable tables, stats, planners) make decision-making better (not necessarily easier).
It is however at your discretion. I personally find it odd that people create these collections of "essential" mods that include 50 mods or more. WTF? How are they all essential? It doesn't make any sense. I am guilty, though, of not playing new alphas as soon as they come out. I, too, wait for certain mods to start the game. For example, I refuse to play the game without koisama's Numbers (even though it can be added at any time). I feel it is integral to the way I think and make decisions in Rimworld.
Quote from: hwfanatic on February 07, 2017, 07:15:11 AM
Major offenders are mods that add things or mechanics the AI is not used to dealing with. Everything embrasure-like or anything defensive that the AI is simply not programmed to overcome.
Especially Combat Realism.
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 07, 2017, 07:17:46 AM
Quote from: hwfanatic on February 07, 2017, 07:15:11 AM
Major offenders are mods that add things or mechanics the AI is not used to dealing with. Everything embrasure-like or anything defensive that the AI is simply not programmed to overcome.
Especially Combat Realism.
Gotta admit that idea of ammunition sounds interesting (more resource managing, cuz why not). Maybe the side-arms thingy (a small knife for rifleman and pistol for swordman? Dunno). But the rest is just a mess. Map-long ranges make melee weapons absolutely obsolete. More powerful turrets is even worse. Current turrets are already kind-of-overpowered in some scenarios... :V
Ps. Don't I remember you from somewhere? Weren't you posting on Starbound's forums? Think I remember you from somewhere.
Based on the Let's Play's of Rimworld I've seen recently, the players seem to assume the mods make their gameplay easier, but frequently over the course of time, it seems like it makes them struggle more than if they'd just play a normal game.
For example, some players install dozen mods and can't find the sun lamp because it's in the Garden Tools section now. Took one guy (Toxic Timewaster) 3 episodes to learn this.
Some players get modded super weapons and wind up blowing up chunks of their base when the enemy gets around/past their killbox and their character autofires their portable mortar at them, forgetting about the walls, switches, and pets.
Some players are used to menus being in one spot, and when the mods add new menus, the old ones get moved and they keep clicking on the wrong menu.
It's a bit funny when a players gets all excited when he buys an EMP rifle for 2000 silver and gets annoyed with it when he forgets his pawn has it when a zombie raid attacks. Yeah...that don't work on Zombies.
There was one player who created a colony with one pawn and a pet thrumbo using Prepare Carefully. Unfortunately, he didn't set the Handle ability high enough and he couldn't train 'Rick the Mule'. Eventually, another pawn joined with higher Handle and was able to train the thrumbo, but the first pawn was mad because he was not Rick's master.
The super turrets are great...until ZZZRTT and Solar Flare right in the middle of a mechanoid raid. And those embrasures...yeah the enemy can shoot through those holes.
Have fun with the mods, but read the manual first.
I recommend playing with them mods and seeing for yourself.
A lot of these posts have brought up some questions for me that I'd like to share with the community:
What constitutes a "Quality of Life" mod?
If I were to customize some pawns using "Prepare Carefully" what would you recommend? Currently I just mash the random button until I get a pawn capable of hauling and then replace pyromaniac, psychic sensitive / hypersensitive. I don't worry with chemical fascination, staggeringly ugly because they're pretty easy to manage around.
To those of you berating me and saying I should uninstall the mods: It wasn't my intention to suggest the game is too easy or vanilla mode is to hard. I was looking to generate intelligent discussion on ways to improve my gaming experience with Rimworld. Perhaps someone would suggest "Use Jerry's Hardmode Mod" or "Try this mod, it makes growing things 10x slower".
Thanks to everyone who is contributing and a special thank you to all the modders out there who are doing such fantastic work.
Quote from: SilentP on February 07, 2017, 11:38:10 AM
A lot of these posts have brought up some questions for me that I'd like to share with the community:
What constitutes a "Quality of Life" mod?
If I were to customize some pawns using "Prepare Carefully" what would you recommend? Currently I just mash the random button until I get a pawn capable of hauling and then replace pyromaniac, psychic sensitive / hypersensitive. I don't worry with chemical fascination, staggeringly ugly because they're pretty easy to manage around.
To those of you berating me and saying I should uninstall the mods: It wasn't my intention to suggest the game is too easy or vanilla mode is to hard. I was looking to generate intelligent discussion on ways to improve my gaming experience with Rimworld. Perhaps someone would suggest "Use Jerry's Hardmode Mod" or "Try this mod, it makes growing things 10x slower".
Thanks to everyone who is contributing and a special thank you to all the modders out there who are doing such fantastic work.
QoL mod is something that makes it less work to play, but not necessarily easier. For example, I used to reroll pawns until I had 3 starting pawns that could haul, EDB allows me to do this without having to mash re-roll forever. This is quality of life to me because you could technically re-roll indefinitely until you get a perfect pawn.
I recommend using EDB however it makes you happy. I can't stand pawns that can't haul, so I usually change that and create a backstory for my 3 starting pawns with similar professions etc. However, if your initial notion was that the game was to easy, use the EDB points sytem so you can customize pawns within a numerical limit, allows you to create pawns but not overpowered ones.
The easiest way to moderate difficulty is your biome and storyteller which you didn't mention. If you are thinking it is to easy, crank it up to Cassandra extreme before worrying about using mods for difficulty.
SHHHHHHHH.....
let people enjoy things.
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 07, 2017, 07:12:13 AM
Quote from: Boston on February 06, 2017, 05:18:25 PM
A big thing for me is storage: vanilla storage suuuuuccccckkkkkkkssssssss. Yeah, sure, just go throw all that stuff (food, ingredients, materials, etc) right on the floor, guys, don't organize it at all, just leave it right there. /s
I mean, humans have known about shelving, boxes and assorted containers since the early Stone Age. There is no reason whatsoever that storage has to be so hilariously inefficient, to the point where storage is going to be taking up a substantial portion of your mid/late-game colonies. None.
While vanilla is deficient in storage department, there is a very good reason. Visual clarity. You can determine at a glance which resources are where. If you allow for different types on the same tile, you can no longer see what is where. It's like DoomRL vs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. In DoomRL it's like Rimworld - one item per tile, even when a monster drops several items. In DCSS you can have very many items, and looting the battlefield afterwards is pretty awful. You have to navigate through multiple menus.
That's not the reason. Rimworld is terrible at storage because it started as a clone of Dwarf Fortress from a few years ago, which has terrible storage, but at least the Dwarf Fortress interface lets you more easily inspect the contents of a tile and there's a workaround in the form of Quantum Stockpile mechanisms.
This is one place where Rimworld copies a problematic part of DF to the point of making it a fetish. It's probably one of the worst parts of RW right now because of the huge areas required for storage and how that impacts base design. The area required to store reasonable quantities of food exacerbates pathing problems, where the fridge might need be so big that someone that picks up a meal can no longer find their way back to a table to eat it. Or animals might starve to miscarriage or death because they can't find the area that contains the food allowed to them.
The root of the problem is that Tynan started with a great idea (copy a good game but try to make it more fun), but got stuck on some details (like the ridiculous 1-item-per-tile storage), that most players even in Dwarf Fortress have long since found ways around. There's a few other areas where slavish devotion to the inspiration have limited RimWorld design, but storage is definitely the most obvious bad idea.
Quote from: SilentP on February 07, 2017, 11:38:10 AM
A lot of these posts have brought up some questions for me that I'd like to share with the community:
What constitutes a "Quality of Life" mod?
That is the wrong question.
The right question is "what do you enjoy doing?"
Mods that add more of what you enjoy are good mods.
Mods that remove what you don't enjoy are quality of life mods.
Mods that remove what you do enjoy are bad mods.
I don't like early-game workshop juggling, so I appreciate the mod that adds a 1x1 butchering spot. That's a QoL mod for me.
For ice sheet players budgeting the resources to build the butchering station is critical to success, so a mod that trivializes it is a bad mod for them.
-ALSO-
Be aware that there is a sizable fraction of players (of any game) who are physically unable to avoid using every tool available to them. And I mean EVERY tool. If stabbing themselves in the eye with a fork had in-game benefits, they'd be blind by the end of this post.
These are the people who build enormous ****-off kill boxes and then complain that it's the AI's fault for pathing into it. Who dump on CR because they can't -not- make completely walled off embrasures that break targeting code and trivialize combat. It's not that they don't understand why it's a problem, it's that they literally cannot stop themselves from abusing it. "Just don't do that, then" isn't a sentence they can parse. If something is
possible to do and will bring even a trivial advantage, it
must be done and the only solution is to make it no longer possible to do.
QuoteTo those of you berating me and saying I should uninstall the mods: It wasn't my intention to suggest the game is too easy or vanilla mode is to hard. I was looking to generate intelligent discussion on ways to improve my gaming experience with Rimworld. Perhaps someone would suggest "Use Jerry's Hardmode Mod" or "Try this mod, it makes growing things 10x slower".
Try Combat Realism with a tribal start, for a knife-to-the-gunfight feel.
Try the crash landing mod on hard. Everyone lands injured, possibly dead, among the flaming wreckage of the ship. Roleplay it like actual survivors would - try to save everyone above all else, even if you end up with ten crippled, nearly-useless colonists on the verge of constant breakdown.
The dense forest mod makes the world feel very different, and significantly affects the above mods too. CR's ridiculous ranges don't help in heavy forest, and Crash Landing basically burns down half the map.
I mostly don't play with mods for a few reasons:
a) the game is deep enough without them. There are still a few things I haven't tried, like selling drugs and letting my colonists do drugs (go-juice withdrawal is unbelievable).
b) I want to give feedback to the game as it's designed. Note I often post on the Suggestions subforum.
c) I have more faith in Tynan's good judgement when it comes to balance etc,
d) I... don't have enough time to try a number of mods and compare.
e) Modding for an alpha is shooting a moving target. Developer of Combat Realism ragequit because of that.
Quote from: Derp on February 07, 2017, 01:36:16 PM
Try the crash landing mod on hard. Everyone lands injured, possibly dead, among the flaming wreckage of the ship. Roleplay it like actual survivors would - try to save everyone above all else, even if you end up with ten crippled, nearly-useless colonists on the verge of constant breakdown.
The dense forest mod makes the world feel very different, and significantly affects the above mods too. CR's ridiculous ranges don't help in heavy forest, and Crash Landing basically burns down half the map.
Thanks Derp! I'll give those a try!
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 07, 2017, 01:52:20 PM
b) I want to give feedback to the game as it's designed. Note I often post on the Suggestions subforum.
...
e) Modding for an alpha is shooting a moving target. Developer of Combat Realism ragequit because of that.
Agreed, I only use quality of life mods like unforbid tool and the one that automatically rebuilds destroyed stuff just to save my own wrists. Experimented with the auto-hunting one and XXL storage too but that's as much modding as I want to do for an alpha.
Quote from: SilentP on February 07, 2017, 11:38:10 AM
If I were to customize some pawns using "Prepare Carefully" what would you recommend? Currently I just mash the random button until I get a pawn capable of hauling and then replace pyromaniac, psychic sensitive / hypersensitive. I don't worry with chemical fascination, staggeringly ugly because they're pretty easy to manage around.
I'm in it for stories, so I usually start with a scenario idea - current game, for example, I decided I wanted a bunch of monks establishing a nice little monastery where they could brew beer and raise muffalos and stuff. Assuming they survive.
- I created random colonists, then deliberately gave them each a different something-like-a-monk adult backstory.
- If their random childhood backstory didn't make sense with the adult story, I browsed through and found one that made sense, mostly regardless of whether they were incapable of a few things or not. (I'm not a real big fan of the backstories that make a pawn incapable of everything except a single skill, but if I were deliberately aiming for a difficult game, those would be tempting ones.)
- I mash the random button on the Traits until I get something that looks appropriate for that combination of backstories. Unless the backstory is just screaming for a particular trait, like my apocalypse survivor got Cannibal and the gardener-type got Green Thumb.
- I change the passions and tweak the skill levels to fit better with the backstories/traits - up if the pawn's history suggests they ought to have some skill in that field, down if the history indicates they ought to be terrible at it. I try not to make the upward changes exceed the downs, but downs exceeding ups I don't worry about; if they're supposed to suck at something, then they should just suck at it. If the pawn's history implies absolutely nothing about a particular skill, I generally leave that one set to whatever the randomizer gave it.
- I look at their randomized injuries - if they make sense, I keep them. If their history says they were traumatized by a fire but they're totally uninjured, I give them burn scars. If they got in knife fights I'll give them cut scars, mining history maybe crushed toes or something. Sometimes I give them bionics if they seem like they would've swung that way in their past. Could be interesting to give a prosthophobe some bionics, especially if they had some kind of accident in their history where someone might have done it For Their Own Good. I like to give the old ones Frail or Dementia or Alzheimer's.
- Relationships are good for some kicks, too. I like making little families, but ex-lovers/ex-spouses could add drama. I mean, difficulty.
- I give them the clothes one would reasonably expect them to be wearing in the circumstances of their arrival. No parkas for unexpected crash landings! ??? My monks came wearing mostly wool shirts/pants/desert robes (FashionRIMsta), except the Vinho King who's running the beer-selling show and could afford something more expensive. You could make them totally naked, for drama. I mean, difficulty.
- Totally cosmetic, but I give them hairstyles that look like the kind of thing they'd be into. Hair shaved or pulled back tightly for soldiers, punky for artists, looking like they spend a lot of time on it in the morning if they're super social and never get their hands dirty, etc. This does not help for pawns who show up later and wreck my careful cosmetic planning. >:(
- I save the pawns individually in case I end up liking them, usually more for drama reasons than effectiveness. Sometimes I mix-and-match them for later games.
- On the stage where you add resources, I give them the resources you might reasonably expect them to have brought with them. If they actually made it to escape pods, I let them have survival meals and a pistol. If it's a solo hermit grumpily wandering off into the wilderness, I give 'em a survival rifle and a sack of potatoes. Maybe a trusty dog. I almost never give them stacks of building resources just lying around the map, IMO that's gratuitous. The monks were a fairly prepared but ascetic group, so I gave 'em 4 muffalos and 4 chickens, a stack of medicine, survival meals to last them a few days, just enough survival rifles for the ones who liked to shoot, and a couple of knives for the others capable of violence.
- Fin!
Quote from: SilentP on February 07, 2017, 11:38:10 AM
If I were to customize some pawns using "Prepare Carefully" what would you recommend? Currently I just mash the random button until I get a pawn capable of hauling and then replace pyromaniac, psychic sensitive / hypersensitive. I don't worry with chemical fascination, staggeringly ugly because they're pretty easy to manage around.
I've tried some interesting ones. One of my favorites is to make a 0 skill in everything (obviously something will go up due to childhood), burning passion in everything, too smart (and usually iron willed to counteract). Then do a solo landing. Then have fun building a colonist up from nothing...sure they can do everything, but it takes time and training and they can't do everything at once anyways.
You could also do a theme start...all cannibals, all masochists, all teetotalers, all very neurotic, volatile, psychically hypersensitive (omg! psychic drone! lock yourselves in!), all pirates (power claw and peg leg for everyone!), etc....etc....etc....etc.
Start with more animals...start with NO animal (sea ice bonded animal death anyone?)
Try something REALLY interesting...No pawns capable of hauling....better plan those stockpiles and production bench bills carefully! Or try a no violent pawns start (animals, turrets, and traps!)
Quote from: Derp on February 07, 2017, 01:36:16 PM
Try the crash landing mod on hard. Everyone lands injured, possibly dead, among the flaming wreckage of the ship. Roleplay it like actual survivors would - try to save everyone above all else, even if you end up with ten crippled, nearly-useless colonists on the verge of constant breakdown.
The dense forest mod makes the world feel very different, and significantly affects the above mods too. CR's ridiculous ranges don't help in heavy forest, and Crash Landing basically burns down half the map.
Great post and great suggestions. I can attest that the crash landing mod completely changes the game and wholeheartedly recommend it.
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 07, 2017, 07:12:13 AMFor the same reason, I would like to see stone types, leather types, wool types, meat types diversified or merged. As far as mechanics are concerned there are only 3 meat types: animal, insect, human. But I have to juggle so very many meat types. A meal can be made of snowhare meat and polarbear meat, but you can't make a tuque out of mufallo wool and alpaca wool. The rest is useless fluff.
This. Ohmygodthis. This 1000 times. Insect, animal, human. Thats all we need. I HATE now much micro is needed to get a good work flow going.
Large amount of Normal meat storage in the fridge.
Double tile of Important meet storage next to the stove.
Stove set to only accept ingredients near it. (haulers haul, cooks cook)
Inevitable this will end up with 2 chicken and a single insect meat next to the stove, and 9001 muffalo meat stuck in the fridge.
This is a cake walk compared to hide management. Then add on to that, that they massive pile of leather is also REALLY ugly for some reason.
I stay away from mods like the ones you mentioned. Just because they make the game easier.
Prepare carefully is a great mod and all, but I like not being able to choose all those things. The "make do with what you have" for a crashlanding is one of the things I love about the game.
Quote from: Mikhail Reign on February 08, 2017, 05:07:40 AM
Quote from: b0rsuk on February 07, 2017, 07:12:13 AMFor the same reason, I would like to see stone types, leather types, wool types, meat types diversified or merged. As far as mechanics are concerned there are only 3 meat types: animal, insect, human. But I have to juggle so very many meat types. A meal can be made of snowhare meat and polarbear meat, but you can't make a tuque out of mufallo wool and alpaca wool. The rest is useless fluff.
This. Ohmygodthis. This 1000 times. Insect, animal, human. Thats all we need. I HATE now much micro is needed to get a good work flow going.
Large amount of Normal meat storage in the fridge.
Double tile of Important meet storage next to the stove.
Stove set to only accept ingredients near it. (haulers haul, cooks cook)
Inevitable this will end up with 2 chicken and a single insect meat next to the stove, and 9001 muffalo meat stuck in the fridge.
This is a cake walk compared to hide management. Then add on to that, that they massive pile of leather is also REALLY ugly for some reason.
Yeah, I was JUST thinking about that a few days ago when rearranging my leather bins. There are faaaar to many meats and leathers.
If you want to preserve the option of special quality hides, make a few (read: 5-6) broad categories, like "rough leather", "smooth leather", "resistant leather", "thick leather" or so with slightly different properties and set each animal to drop one of those. Same for meat. I could see having 5-6 different meat types if they were actually different.
That amount of different things is something the lists and storages can handle well without the player being overwhelmed by 50 choices.
Apart from the obvious... don't use mods that you feel make the game too easy... this game is as difficult or easy as yoi choose to make it. Having the ability to use all of these nifty mods is one if the things that makes this game great, and endlessly replayable. I enjoy the standard scenarios that you can run, and vanilla mode is fine also, but why limit yourself when you literally have endless ways to play and endless stories to experience?
I usually create my own scenarios. One day I feel like doing a "prison break" scenario with unsavory pawns, unskilled and almost without supplies. The next time I might want to do a Star Trek-esque colony starter on a frozen tundra, well-equipped and properly staffed. Endless options. Mods are essential for that, especially Prepare Carefully. I can't imagine not having the mods.
I'd suggest to anyone to pick a story they like from literature/comics/history and recreate it in the game. Save it, then play it. Fine tune it and perfect it. Then share it.