Ludeon Forums

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RimWriter is a mod that adds a lot of content focused on writing to supplement the standard vanilla RimWorld playthrough such as:

Items
  * Stone Tablets
  * Leather Scrolls
  * Journals
  * Handwritten Books
  * Typed Books and Journals
  * Skillbooks for improving skills


-Furniture
  * Stone shelves for tablets
  * Scrollcases, tall and short
  * Bookcases, tall and short
  * Writer's tables
  * A typewriter

-Features
  * Libraries that colonists will go into, pick out books to read, read them for joy, and return them when they're done.
  * Customized text generation for tablets, books, and journals.
  * Compatiblity with Lord of the Rims and Call of Cthulhu mods.
    - Writing reduces sanity loss over time.
    - Future compatability with storing Grimoires and Wizard textbooks inside bookcases/scrollcases.

Why create this mod?
I wanted to make a framework sort of mod that I could add to or use later in my current and future projects. I feel that tablets, scrolls, and books all have a clear place in RimWorld and future mods.

Screenshots





Download
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/posts/rimwriter-for-0-21613863
Steam - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521844535
GitHub - https://github.com/jecrell/RimWriter


Q&A

Is this mod compatible with (additional joy objects / other mod name here)?
Yes. There is no incompatibility for RimWriter.

Is this mod safe to load into existing saves?
Yes.

Does this generate thoughts?
Yes. It creates a new room role: Library.

Do some of these books concern the secrets of life and death? ^^

An awesome mod, I'm pretty sure a lot of modders will make great use of it.

How does this work with the books and bookcases from the Additional Joy Objects Mod?

An alternative to sculpting as the sole source of Art? I like it.

Would traders also have randomly-generated books that can be bought and added to the library?
And are books readable without the need for a container (i.e. they are picked up into inventory which then enables the Reading recreation?)

Skillbooks? Quite interesting. Would be nice to have more info... pretty much about everything. Like how high must your skill be to write a book about Shooting? How much xp towards certain skill does books give? Does book quiality affect amount of skill xp given for reading it? Etc. Still subbed, cause it sounds cool.

UPD: Typewriting\writing is a Art type job, but it seems that people don't really get any Art experience while doing it though. Is that intended? Well they do get xp for combining typed\written pages into one book, but they don't get any by actually typing those pages first. It seems a bit weird that actual creative process of writing doesn't level art, while crafting pages into a book - does.

Also would be nice to be able to actually tell people to go read a certain book, since from what i can see they only do it themselves as a rec source, so if you have multiple sources of recreation chances that they come read it are kind of slim.

Quote from: Madman666 on September 24, 2018, 08:51:41 PM
Skillbooks? Quite interesting. Would be nice to have more info... pretty much about everything. Like how high must your skill be to write a book about Shooting? How much xp towards certain skill does books give? Does book quiality affect amount of skill xp given for reading it? Etc. Still subbed, cause it sounds cool.

I absolutely want to be able to allow for experienced characters to write their own skillbooks.

QuoteUPD: Typewriting\writing is a Art type job, but it seems that people don't really get any Art experience while doing it though. Is that intended? Well they do get xp for combining typed\written pages into one book, but they don't get any by actually typing those pages first. It seems a bit weird that actual creative process of writing doesn't level art, while crafting pages into a book - does.

Interesting... I'll have to look into that. Probably something is off with the recipe maker somewhere.

QuoteAlso would be nice to be able to actually tell people to go read a certain book, since from what i can see they only do it themselves as a rec source, so if you have multiple sources of recreation chances that they come read it are kind of slim.

You can now order it. I added the option just now. Thanks for your patience.

Quote from: mvargus on September 24, 2018, 03:24:01 PM
How does this work with the books and bookcases from the Additional Joy Objects Mod?

Currently, I suspect they would both handle things their own way and work separately. You could potentially run both at the same time, as confusing as that sounds.

Try and tell me. I doubt they would have any conflicts.

Quote from: bigheadzach on September 24, 2018, 03:29:49 PM
An alternative to sculpting as the sole source of Art? I like it.

Would traders also have randomly-generated books that can be bought and added to the library?

Yes! Randomly generated books-a-plenty. Also, skillbooks for improving skills.

QuoteAnd are books readable without the need for a container (i.e. they are picked up into inventory which then enables the Reading recreation?)

You do not need a container. You could just shove them on shelves or leave them on the ground. I do not currently have code in place for characters to "pocket" books for later reading, however.

Quote from: jecrell on September 25, 2018, 03:45:54 AM
I absolutely want to be able to allow for experienced characters to write their own skillbooks.
...
Interesting... I'll have to look into that. Probably something is off with the recipe maker somewhere.
...
You can now order it. I added the option just now. Thanks for your patience.

Hey, thanks for the answers, @Jecrell! With the ability to make them read books we could finally train people, so they suck less! How nice. Will be waiting for the ability to write our own skillbooks :)

wow. thats good like always crell

Skillbooks means more options for training/upkeep than the chess table / poker table, or the targets/martial arts dummies from Misc Training.

Probably would need tweaking per skill, and I imagine could be more creative than just calling it, for example, "Plants Book". I'm reminded of the clever way Fallout incorporates skill manuals into its lore. Find a way to dynamically create book titles that apply to each skill.

Quote from: bigheadzach on September 25, 2018, 03:59:19 PMSkillbooks means more options for training/upkeep than the chess table / poker table, or the targets/martial arts dummies from Misc Training.

Probably would need tweaking per skill, and I imagine could be more creative than just calling it, for example, "Plants Book". I'm reminded of the clever way Fallout incorporates skill manuals into its lore. Find a way to dynamically create book titles that apply to each skill.

The Dwarf Fortress method involves procedurally generating titles from two lists: Words relevant to the skill a dawrf can increase by reading the book, and phrases taken from the titles of self-help manuals. (But not "For Dummies", because those guys lawyer up at the slightest provocation.) When the aforementioned secrets of life and death are added to the mix the results tend to be entertainingly surreal.

Quote from: Jake on September 26, 2018, 05:36:51 AM

Quote from: bigheadzach on September 25, 2018, 03:59:19 PMSkillbooks means more options for training/upkeep than the chess table / poker table, or the targets/martial arts dummies from Misc Training.

Probably would need tweaking per skill, and I imagine could be more creative than just calling it, for example, "Plants Book". I'm reminded of the clever way Fallout incorporates skill manuals into its lore. Find a way to dynamically create book titles that apply to each skill.

The Dwarf Fortress method involves procedurally generating titles from two lists: Words relevant to the skill a dawrf can increase by reading the book, and phrases taken from the titles of self-help manuals. (But not "For Dummies", because those guys lawyer up at the slightest provocation.) When the aforementioned secrets of life and death are added to the mix the results tend to be entertainingly surreal.

Want me to try that?

Quote from: jecrell on September 26, 2018, 01:10:16 PM

Quote from: Jake on September 26, 2018, 05:36:51 AM
The Dwarf Fortress method involves procedurally generating titles from two lists: Words relevant to the skill a dawrf can increase by reading the book, and phrases taken from the titles of self-help manuals. (But not "For Dummies", because those guys lawyer up at the slightest provocation.) When the aforementioned secrets of life and death are added to the mix the results tend to be entertainingly surreal.

Want me to try that?

Yeah, that'd be cool! Would also love to help crowdsource some of the "help title" patterns along with subjects appropriate to each skill.

The Zen Of ____
Avoiding The Pitfalls Of ______
____ and You
10 Best Secrets to ______
All About ______
_____ for Dimwits
{WRITERNAME}'s Overviews: ______
______ Essentials
100 Ways To Improve ______
{WRITERNAME}'s _____ [Guide/Handbook/Encyclopedia/Treatise/Manifesto/Reference/Manual]
______ For Fun And Profit

[Advanced/Expert/Professional] as a leading adjective

Animals
- Feeding Techniques
- Animal Empathy
- Livestock Husbandry
- Caressing Muffalo
Artistic
- Artistic Muse
- Sculpture Technique
Construction
- Beams And Joists
- Platform Levelling
- Barn Raising
Cooking
- Meal Preparation
- Preparing [ANIMAL]
- Seasoning Your [ANIMAL]
Crafting
- Focusing Your Craft
- Refining Your Handiwork
Plants
- Non-Leguminous Nitrogen Fixation
- Blight Prophylaxis
- Growing [PLANT]

etc.

1. compatible with additional joy objects books?

2. will this count as a rec room for purposes of mood or will it be a new room role? IE: "has an impressive library"

If you like RimWriter, be sure to check out the Industrial Age Objects and Furniture pack.

Quote from: Ruisuki on September 26, 2018, 04:11:53 PM
1. compatible with additional joy objects books?

2. will this count as a rec room for purposes of mood or will it be a new room role? IE: "has an impressive library"

1. Untested on my end. Others report no issues. I imagine those books will not go into these bookcases.
2. It does create a new room stat called "Library."

Messed around with the mod a bit, came across a little bug when I got a Cargo Pod. Error by Unknown, very interesting. I got 7 of them. Oh b o y. But hey, maybe you could code it to where skill books can drop in these instead?

[attachment deleted due to age]

Quote from: AtonicX on October 02, 2018, 01:05:47 PM
Messed around with the mod a bit, came across a little bug when I got a Cargo Pod. Error by Unknown, very interesting. I got 7 of them. Oh b o y. But hey, maybe you could code it to where skill books can drop in these instead?

I got the same error but I like that there is that trash button.

I also got scrolls with error dropping from pods. Might wanna remove book related items from probable drop pod goods.

Quote from: Madman666 on October 03, 2018, 12:15:36 PM
I also got scrolls with error dropping from pods. Might wanna remove book related items from probable drop pod goods.

I'll look into seeing what I can do about this.

I'll assume i can anticipate expecting good outcome xD

Also can't wait for making skillbooks! Amazing work really.

can we have bookcases be moveable/reinstall?

Loving the mod so far! I do have a small nitpick though.

Can we have an option in the mod menu to toggle on/off the "by" line in each book title? Having all three of the author's names printed into each book name adds a lot of visual clutter and makes it harder to keep the library organized.

works in 1.0?

I took a break around the launch of b19, but I had been trying (and failing) to adapt the writing system from the lovecraft mods to a less thematic kind of system. So I could have my colonists buy or produce digital writing. I was replacing the shelves with server banks, the books with tablet sort of things, and the journals with "audio logs." At least that was the aim. I wanted a spacer tech flavor of this writing system.

I'm really glad to see that this happened while I was away, and I look forward to it being updated to 1.0. I'm wondering too, if my idea could be worked into it? I had made some graphics for the future tech, that were based around some other visual mods I had been using, but I think they could work fine on their own, if i can track the files down.

how do you write skillbooks? How to they work? don't see a recipe in xml either? was it removed? i'm using the master version and says 1.0.2059

For now there isn't a recipe. We all wait for Jecrell to implement a way we can write them. They work literally by slowly raising skills of the reader while he has it in hand (reading it at the table to be precise). The better the book, the faster the raise of relevant skills.

...funny enough, one day after i mentioned them, i finally saw one for sale, wasn't sure they were even in

(https://image.ibb.co/mRLJ5L/skillbook.png)

still, there are errors in it.... (but it's readable, only found out it was inteligence skill after buying it, but hey its something, maybe one day a book on shooting may come by)

hmm i cant put the stone tables on the stone shelf. says no torage since the stone shelf is missing the fresh/rotten setting. without that seeing game doesnt reconize them as storage for normal hauling.

Uuuuh, update for 1.0 ?

Colonists won't return books when they finished reading for joy