Ludeon Forums

MAJOR REWORDING, due to Alpha 14 and the Scenario System.
While the feature definitely change the way this topic was originally written, the general idea is still fully relevant and I'll be explaining why Themed Storyteller would go perfectly well along.

In short :
If the Scenario System set definite rules and force or forbid events. It's the storyteller which determine which events are preferred, how many of them are allowed by time, and it can modify rules that players haven't access to or can't modify as a programmer would know.
The appeal is also to be able to be to change a story direction on the spot rather than through big menu or game files.



Abstract :
As its Developer Tynan describe it himself "Rimworld is a sci fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller" (http://rimworldgame.com).
As such the storytelling and event (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9755.0) are the most important parts of its dynamics.
The website also indicated(prior to Alpha11) : "we're considering other AI Storytellers, too. High population storytellers, starvation storytellers, seasonal storytellers, moody storytellers, and anything the community thinks up are all on the table."
Which will likely be a wonderful addition if Rimworld get enough events (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9755.0) to make themed Storyteller viable.




My own suggestions assume that we will get multiple ending (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=11275.msg112541#msg112541) aside 'Spaceship Escape'.
And that we can still change storyteller during game.

Already present storyteller :
- Cassandra Classic (aims for a rising curve of challenge)
- Phoebe BasebuilderChillax (same rising challenge, but with longer calm period)
Suggestion : make her Phoebe Friendly with no bad event !
- Randy Random (chaotic, everything can happen the best or the worse)

STORYTELLERS

[Imitator/modifier]

• CODENAME : Edison Endless
  Defining attribute : Endless game
  Description : Edison copy the style of another storyteller and have it carry on forever, rather than pushing you to leave or die.
  Options : Difficulty & Storyteller influence
  
  
• CODENAME : Robert Robinson (reference to the author of the 'Mars' Trilogy, a family from "2001:nights stories", plus a Mars-colonization activist on the go)
  Defining attribute : High population
  Description : This storyteller will prefer events that increase population and influence a much larger numbers of colonists, it also increase the number of animals and others resources to go along.
  The Robinson are a large family, so his story tend to include a lot more colonist.
  Options : Difficulty & nominal population cap & Storyteller influence
  
  

[Gameplay-modifier]

• CODENAME : Claire Climatic (alternative : Henry Hotel)
  Defining attribute : Climatic Apocalypse
  Description : This storyteller allow you to not only select a type of Climatic catastrophe, it will modify the (non-event) weathers setting (like duration of rains, storms and brutal temperature change).
  It would also simulating animals migrating as the temperature change.
  If events about factions asking for foods/clothes appear, it will increase their probability to fit with the context.
  (Include Fallout as well)
  Options : Type of climatic apocalypse (climate warming/cooling/alternating widely/more fallout) & max temperature change from normal
  
  
• CODENAME : Kagunda Kikuyu reference to Kirinyaga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirinyaga_%28novel%29)
  Defining attribute : Low-tech Event
  Description : Regardless if you have chosen the "Lost Tribe" scenario, this storyteller will prefer non-technological Event over things like Solar Flare or Psychic drones.
  As such you can use it to create a technological colony with less Solar-Flare/drones/others without having to forbid those completely.
  Options : Difficulty
  
  

[Event-filter]

• CODENAME : Genghis Game
  Defining attribute : Military nuts
  Description : Favor combat oriented events and 'diplomacy at barrel length' over alternatives, this storyteller will purposefully stage balanced or more challenging battle, longer fight, and prevent the generation of colonist inapt for combat.
  It will also occasionally neglect usual "event cooldown" and (for example) generate more siege than allowed normally.
  Options : Difficulty
  
  
• CODENAME : Moody Maddox
  Defining attribute : Mood & psychic
  Description : This storyteller will gravitate more toward moods changes for your colonists. Health, relationship and psychic related events will happen more often. Interaction with visitor and other factions will be emphasized.
  Options : Difficulty
  
  
• CODENAME : Helen Hunger
  Defining attribute : Starvation
  Description : This storyteller will aim to make food production as important/difficult as possible without straight up blighting your cultures into oblivion, crops will take longer to grow, raider and tribal will attempt to steal food, animals might also be tempted(done).
  Options : Difficulty.
  
  
• CODENAME : Doctor Drake
  Defining attribute : Health
  Description : With him a plague is really a plague, those become (or get more) contagious and you have to set up 'Allowed Area' to prevent epidemic, the Medicine skills also take longer to increase.
  Switching to this Storyteller is ideal to simulate a sudden deadly plagues in your previously healthy colony
  Options : Difficulty
  
  
• CODENAME : Desolate Daniel Original suggestion by mumblemumble (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12534.msg206393#msg206393)
  Defining attribute : You versus Nature
  Description : Daniel is into being one with the land, survival, and having the grit to survive. Raids, mechanoids, traders, visitors,  and other social interactions become less preeminent, while wilderness and weather based events (and non-events) gain in importance. Daniel will force you to fear the caprice of Mother Nature more than anything else.
  Options : Difficulty
  
  

[uncategorisable]

Declination of (~Helen + Maddox + Drake)

• CODENAME : Gothic Gwen Inspired by Vaperius (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12534.msg206540#msg206540)
  Defining attribute : Death happen, a lot
  Description : "Life is ephemeral, everything that live is bound to die".
  In short you'll be going through pawns and animals a lot more faster than usual, trying to keep a particular one alive will be a constant race against The Grim Reaper.
  Options : Difficulty & whether or not a Grim Reaper appear aside characters near-death
  
  


• CODENAME : Null Nero
  Defining attribute : Nothing ever happen
  Description : The only event that happen will do so in a purely inconsequential self-defeating manner, Nothing ever happen.
  Options : Difficulty Nothing ever happen
  
  


• CODENAME : Tony Troller (Inspired from som "smartbombradio", shared by b0rsuk here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=22706.0))
  Defining attribute : Want you to rage quit
  Description : Tony's story elevate Trolling to the level of Art. But simply killing colonist or destroying your colony is no Art, neither is spamming bad event. No, no.
  Instead he will even be generous, for there is no rage if there was no Hope. He will watch you prosper... only to have your costliest stuff burn in a suspiciously precise fire accident. He will send you visitors... hundred of them with enough beast to eat everything you left (un)checked. He will send you easy raid, only for you to lose power at the most inopportune moment. You will be able to rescue extremely talented colonist... armless. You will loot a lot... during a rainy storm FALLOUT. You will see trader... just before a Raid or berserk animals kill and rob them. He will watch you accommodate to a frozen tundra... just as it become a burning desert.
  
  ""whenever you find a cheap behavior, a terrible idea, something that player's DESPISE but you as the dev love, give it to charlie.""
  

Note:
Events suggestion here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9755.0)
Game Ending suggestion here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=11275.msg112541#msg112541)[/list]

Quite interesting options. Some of them look like they'd be easy to make, and some of them look harder.

I really like the Genghis Game concept and would love to see it implemented into the game. Raids would be more frequent and start sooner. But then again the game should help you more often by giving your free stuff and less negative events

CODENAME : Monolith Magnus
Defining attribute : There is an Indestructible Monolith in the centre of the map.
Description :
  Magnus has a lot more psychic events, all coming from the monolith.
  Research has only 1 subject: Study the Monolith, results are randomly selected from the regular list of research subjects. Adding more research subjects would be awesome. Make several of them just messages: "You've figured out how to calculate Pi faster, congratulations!" or "All animals on Rimworld are the result of a mad scientist splicing his own human DNA into them in a bid for immortality. It sorta worked, all animals have his memories and personality but the mental skills of their bodies. Obviously, this makes them very sad. Also, it makes sex very disconcerting for them."
  The Monolith attracts Pilgrims, a special subset of visitors who come to the Monolith to leave offerings, killing any of the Pilgrims causes their Faction to declare holy war. The holy war raids never give up and are twice as big.

I'm taking this from here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=14494) which is an ironman suggestions thread, from my reply #6.

Quote from: Z0MBIE2 on July 15, 2015, 09:30:06 AM
An ironman storyteller, lets combine what people in this thread have said. Only one slave slot and it autosaves, saves on exit too. There is only medium, hard, and extreme (If those are the correct 3 highest difficulties), possibly only the two hardest. You're stuck on this storyteller, and you can only make the gamemode more difficult. Either there's small options, so you can randomize all 3 colonists at once only, can't randomize one, and then you can either pick "High - Low" for the area on the world, or no options, both are completely randomized. You cannot land in the middle area of the planet, and there's a minimum of heat for the bottom area and cold for the top. This would be a great mod, dunno about in the game. Maybe just an ironman optional mode you select while creating a colony, which randomizes your colonists, your location anywhere on the map, and the autosave feature. It's ironman mode, not randy random ultra extreme, so everything wont be random.

CODENAME : Korny Karnage
Defining attribute : Blood for Korn
Description : Korn is inderence about non combat or trivial strife, and hate psychic inteference, less psychic event, less event, less trade except combat weapon and slaver, less raider appear but then they do, it's usually with long warning and several factions at the same time. After an EPIC battle, player are rewarded with a long peace period, trade, lots of drop pods and new colonist joining. Corn will never be blighted.
Options : Population & raid.

CODENAME : WICKED
Defining attribute : The Maze
Description : WICKED put you in this maze, and no one knows where the exit is, or where those raiders keep coming from; all you know is that it's a maze, full of mechanoids, and you're in the middle.
Options : Size of central space, difficulty
Challenges: Limited growing and construction zones, and possibilty of early mech attack;

although this may be better suited for a new biome, I like my references :)

Quote from: Chaotic Skies on December 01, 2015, 10:25:44 PM
CODENAME : WICKED
Defining attribute : The Maze
Description : WICKED put you in this maze, and no one knows where the exit is, or where those raiders keep coming from; all you know is that it's a maze, full of mechanoids, and you're in the middle.
Options : Size of central space, difficulty
Challenges: Limited growing and construction zones, and possibilty of early mech attack;

although this may be better suited for a new biome, I like my references :)

Wow, that's a thread bump... It's been quite some time. For your suggestion though, maze-runner fan? Because that's pretty much a copy of it, and it's not the best to copy their idea and put it into the main game. A mod? Sure, but not really main.

It also really wouldn't work out at all for the game.

CODENAME: Tammy Turnover
Defining Attribute: High Colonist Turnover
Description: Colonists are far easier to acquire. Captured pawns are recruited more readily and slaves are more frequently on sale at cheaper prices. Everyone is also far more likely to die. Wounds bleed out faster. Infections become progressively worse at a more rapid rate when left untreated. Debilitating injuries happen more frequently, Raids/attacks are almost a weekly event at minimum.

I see some great ideas here...

I would like to see the story teller model expanded with conditional responses. And then see what you guys can come up with...

Like if the player has a lot of food, send neighboring colonies to attempt to trade for it or steal it. If you're poor and a rich settlement is nearby, let the settlers give you stuff out of pity. If you've got a lot of weapons and thus are powerful, get more refugees try to join you. If you're not nice to people, let them send in more soldiers. If you start producing a forbidden item, get the attention of law enforcement which are way more powerful...

And some new events, a meteor strike which deposits raw material but destroys the impact site. Orbital bombardments which just destroys a section of map. Your base might be below there, everything deep enough inside a mountain is immune to that. Wanderers that settle on your map. Similar to the mortar crew, but not hostile, they can eventually be convinced to join your group, or just co-habitate. They will kill some animals, and grow some crops.. Solar radiation waves. Not only is electicity down, it's also not safe outside.

Nick Ophtime (say it out loud)

As all your colonists bleed and burn on the ground, 2 visitors join at the same time with decent medical skill. As you colony starves, 2-3 drop pods with lots of food come within 5 real minutes of each other. A trader accidentally releases a drop pod from their ship and it contains an R-4 charge rifle just before a raid occurs.

Well, I don't see it happening, but...

Spartacus Special! (or whatever)

A "mini game", where you would be given;

much more starting resources (or even a randomly generated / pre-built base),
more pawns (or the ability to buy / request more pawns)
with better stats,
and based on the chosen difficulty, a certain type of unit would constantly try to take you out, on a daily basis or more frequently.
On minimum difficulty; cavemen for example, on maximum; dem mechanoids.

All the story-tellers are pretty much the same, you start building and you face hardships. It'd be great if there was a different kind of game mode where you just pick an opponent type, and fight until overrun or something, in 10-30 minutes.

Okay, time to reupdate this thread. Because it is criminal to just use the storyteller as some sort of difficulty setting.

WHERE IS THE STORY ?! Is there really any difference between them if the only things that change is the difficulty ?

Later I might necro update those two other threads too, but I don't want to spam.
Events suggestion here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9755.0)
Storyteller suggestion here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12534.msg126185#msg126185)

Desolate Daniel
Uses non combative means to influence your colony, focuses on nature

Daniel is very much into being one with the land,  survival,  and having the grit to survive.  Raids,  mechanoids,  traders,  visitors,  and other social interactions become rather rare,  while wilderness and weather based events are much more frequent. Daniel will force you to live off the land,  and adapt to mother nature's rules,  or let the wilderness and harsh weather overcome you.

Homebody Herman
Less likely for outward events like raids or weather,  more likely for drama inside the colony walls.

Herman cares more about people,  interactions,  and towns than silly raids,  or world events. Stuff relating to the colony like marriage,  repair problems,  electrical issue,  fights and prison breaks become more frequent, more likely for a colony to destroy itself from within,  rather than destroyed from am outside force.

Why are these not in the game yet?!
+1

To be honest nofear, some of these, while cool, would have a numbingly low variety....we need far, far more events before my suggestions would be worthwhile

CODENAME : The Corpse Bearer
Defining attribute : The Corpse Bearer greatly enjoys spreading death, and chaining events that result in large amounts of corpses being strewn across the map.
Description :  The Corpse Bearer's pure focus is mood debuffs, resource denial and strife. Initially the events it rolls out will be simple, random animals will have heart attacks, berserk animals that hunt other animals as well as your colonists will appear occasionally, and early raids will always be occupied by a minor incident. However; the Corpse Bearer is true to its namesake and will attempt to kill your colonists by starving them by causing frequent cold snaps, and map wide events that threaten any plant life on the map. Its ultimate goal is to force your colony to be cannibals, devouring the fallen of visitors and raiders alike to sustain your colony. It will also drive your colonists mad indirectly by causing incidents that kill off visitors,animals and even raiders, turning the land around your colony into a barren wasteland bathed in blood, as well as wreathed in bone and rotting flesh. Colonies will quickly become hellscapes upon which your colonists will reign supreme or die if they fail.

Quote from: Nofear001 on April 14, 2016, 10:09:06 PM
Why are these not in the game yet?!
+1

Because this topic is only 2 pages long. Also, along EVENTS (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9755.msg99874#msg99874) you can say that you need a lot of "features" and "gameplay mechanic" integrated first.

Quote from: mumblemumble on April 14, 2016, 11:33:29 PM
To be honest nofear, some of these, while cool, would have a numbingly low variety....we need far, far more events before my suggestions would be worthwhile

I invite you to up the topic about all Event (my contribution is here (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=9755.msg99874#msg99874)) that Tynan himself said was a gold mine and added some. (I suppose he still need to add features first)

Also, I'll be adding your first idea to the first page. (the other is good too but I'm looking for Primal model)

Quote from: Vaperius on April 15, 2016, 12:55:48 AM
CODENAME : The Corpse Bearer
Defining attribute : The Corpse Bearer greatly enjoys spreading death, and chaining events that result in large amounts of corpses being strewn across the map.
[...]

From what I read this is a mix between "Helen Hunger" and "Moddy Maddox", I think it's worth it's declination, though, to me the "cannibal goal" should be more optional, plus "spit every against each other".

Finally I suggested something inspired from it, that's a little specific to put in the first topic though, I might move it here.

• CODENAME : Gothic Gwen Inspired by Vaperius (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12534.msg206540#msg206540)
  Defining attribute : Death happen, a lot
  Description : "Life is ephemeral, everything that live is bound to die".
  In short you'll be going through pawns and animals a lot more faster than usual, trying to keep a particular one alive will be a constant race against The Grim Reaper.
  Options : Difficulty & whether or not a Grim Reaper appear near cursed characters
  
  

So most of these have been rendered obsolete by the Scenario system. But Tony Troller is a good name and there are some nice ideas in there. And no, don't give me credit for Cheating Charlie. It was smartbombradio from Steam forums. I just came up with the name Bullshit Bill and a few more ideas.

I like Daniel and Herman, but a lot of the others seem poorly fleshed out or just plain masochistic. The problem though isn't what I like . . . it's that no matter how many different options we come up with there really isn't a way to vote and let Tynan easily see what sort of story tellers we want.

Also some of the ideas seem to need more game development to really make them "fun" . . . Ghengis would be very interesting IF we had more options for defense. Fences, sandbags (that don't require steel!), different types of Turrets, patrols of guards/trained animals . . .

Well, it require some rewording but themed storyteller would actually work VERY well along the Scenario system.
Why ? Because the Scenario only give a starting point and force/forbid events. Whereas Storyteller decide which events are spawned and a logic to follow (games differ between Randy, Phoebe or Cassandra).

To give example :
Tribes scenario + Robin Robinson = increased population cap (which is around 15 for any stock-storyteller)
Tribes scenario + "Kagunda Kikuyu" (the one that was originally Tribal for me) = reworded...let's say more "natural" events.
Rich Explorer scenario + Ghengis Game = You may start out as an explorer, but the story will aim toward making you fight a lot.
Tribes scenario + Desolate Daniel = event focused on you versus nature, not raid

Quote from: winddbourne on August 04, 2016, 12:06:08 AM
I like Daniel and Herman, but a lot of the others seem poorly fleshed out or just plain masochistic. The problem though isn't what I like . . . it's that no matter how many different options we come up with there really isn't a way to vote and let Tynan easily see what sort of story tellers we want.

Also some of the ideas seem to need more game development to really make them "fun" . . . Ghengis would be very interesting IF we had more options for defense. Fences, sandbags (that don't require steel!), different types of Turrets, patrols of guards/trained animals . . .

I know what you mean but... Do a game REALLY NEED to be fully configurable to be "better" ? Sometime you only need a few rough direction, and finding those is the idea of this topic.

For example : Genghis don't need to be a full wargame, it only need to give player who want more combat related events what they want. So that a mods to adds weapon/trench/etc will not have to modify the Storyteller as well (of course it doesn't mean modding your own storyteller isn't allowed).

On this... I'll start rewording the Original Post... DONE.