Ludeon Forums

RimWorld => Ideas => Topic started by: Yarkista on September 21, 2013, 05:15:04 PM

Title: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Yarkista on September 21, 2013, 05:15:04 PM
Think you have a good suggestion for the game or the website but it doesn't require its own thread? Put it right in this thread!

Hopefully this will block a spamming of suggestions if/when the community expands.

~Yark
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion megathread.
Post by: British on September 21, 2013, 07:46:57 PM
I have one suggestion, but it's not for the game itself, rather the very site we are on...

There's a blog (http://ludeon.com/blog/), but it may not get that much interaction (aka verrrry few comments on the entries).
I know I tend to lurk forums, but rarely what's around them, so is there any chance to have the blog entries tied to the forum ?
That means that you write your entries in the blog, but they "lead" to the forum (you might as well create a new category for that): people that want to add a comment to the blog are directed to the corresponding forum post, and (more interesting, from my PoV) people that stay in the forum can see the new entries and react to them.

That might not be crystal-clear, but hopefully you see what I mean.


On a different note, Yarkista, please get rid of the dot at the end of "Suggestion and Discussion megathread."
You could even capitalize "megathread" to "MegaThread", for consistency.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion megathread.
Post by: Tynan on September 21, 2013, 07:48:16 PM
Quote from: British on September 21, 2013, 07:46:57 PM
I have one suggestion, but it's not for the game itself, rather the very site we are on...

There's a blog (http://ludeon.com/blog/), but it may not get that much interaction (aka verrrry few comments on the entries).
I know I tend to lurk forums, but rarely what's around them, so is there any chance to have the blog entries tied to the forum ?
That means that you write your entries in the blog, but they "lead" to the forum (you might as well create a new category for that): people that want to add a comment to the blog are directed to the corresponding forum post, and (more interesting, from my PoV) people that stay in the forum can see the new entries and react to them.

That might not be crystal-clear, but hopefully you see what I mean.


On a different note, Yarkista, please get rid of the dot at the end of "Suggestion and Discussion megathread."
You could even capitalize "megathread" to "MegaThread", for consistency.

That's a good idea! You're right, the blog comments should just be forum threads. It would also help grow the community, I think. I need to look into how to set that up.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion megathread.
Post by: Yarkista on September 22, 2013, 06:12:19 AM
Quote from: British on September 21, 2013, 07:46:57 PM


On a different note, Yarkista, please get rid of the dot at the end of "Suggestion and Discussion megathread."
You could even capitalize "megathread" to "MegaThread", for consistency.

Good spot, changed the title.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion megathread.
Post by: Hypolite on September 22, 2013, 09:09:52 AM
Quote from: Tynan on September 21, 2013, 07:48:16 PM
Quote from: British on September 21, 2013, 07:46:57 PM
I have one suggestion, but it's not for the game itself, rather the very site we are on...

There's a blog (http://ludeon.com/blog/), but it may not get that much interaction (aka verrrry few comments on the entries).
I know I tend to lurk forums, but rarely what's around them, so is there any chance to have the blog entries tied to the forum ?
That means that you write your entries in the blog, but they "lead" to the forum (you might as well create a new category for that): people that want to add a comment to the blog are directed to the corresponding forum post, and (more interesting, from my PoV) people that stay in the forum can see the new entries and react to them.

That's a good idea! You're right, the blog comments should just be forum threads. It would also help grow the community, I think. I need to look into how to set that up.

There's a few ready-made solutions I know about that provide that kind of mechanism. Given my professional web developer background, I'm more used to custom solutions, but back in the days I remember PHP Nuke (http://www.phpnuke.org/) was providing portal/forum integration like the one British is mentioning. I guess it's worth a look.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: ZebioLizard2 on September 22, 2013, 10:10:03 PM
I want to see negative effects for everything.

Power lines not properly cared for or insulated? Major shock to walk across, touch, fire.

Walls not fixed? Entrances to be broken into, structural collapse, allows pests through holes.

Water not properly cleaned? Breeding ground for insects, sickness amongst the colonists, dysentery.

Weapons not cared for? Jamming, misfiring, potential explosion.

Too hot and covered in oils? Self Immolation.

Food stocks not properly cared for? Illness, Death, attracts things that enjoy rotting meat.

I know some things won't go into such vast detail, but I find such effects pretty fun to make sure one cares for everything within one's reach, and I think you get what I mean.

Same with the enemies, tunneling enemies, enemies that poke your defenses and just break things, those that seek to steal or kidnap specifically etc.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Yarkista on September 23, 2013, 02:16:07 AM
If everything had that kind of detail i think that there would be too much micromanagement for the player , it could make the game unnecceceraly complicated.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Tynan on September 23, 2013, 02:19:52 AM
Well, I really like detailed systems. I think they're often better, though, when most of the detail is ignorable. So if you're playing with an easy storyteller on your first game, you don't need to know everything. The details really become critical, though, when you're optimizing in a tougher game. This makes the game accessible to newbies while also being deep for people like us. It gives it a wide skill range.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: British on September 23, 2013, 03:56:25 AM
You can probably tie the micromanagement possibilities to (yet another ?) difficulty slider of sorts.
But then, how many different difficulty settings (counting AI) do you want to have ?
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: ZebioLizard2 on September 23, 2013, 07:52:01 AM
Plenty! Options for all!

Though I like that sort of detail myself, It was mostly just a thought that things should still have maintenance and the like so that there's no "Mega City" syndrome. Hiding behind the walls with minimal tasks because there's nothing else to do but farm and the like aside from trading, not to mention the fact that running a bigger base is the same as running a  smaller base logistics wise, this way you have to actually care for the fortress design along with how it's being done or else problems will arise.

That doesn't mean you need to have a specific thing for everything, you could set a "maintenance" task for most of the things to be fixed. With a generic degradation bar for most things if you want to simplify it, with it causing problems related to that object as it grows more faulty. Maybe even requiring actual things to fix things back up, like tools and materials so that you are actually forced to make outward trips along with trading for supplies to keep your super base intact. 

Though I think I mostly like the idea because it's funny to see how long your place/fortress/colony can survive without you watching if you let them prioritize things by themselves.  ;D
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: xTAMERx on September 23, 2013, 11:17:48 AM
Quote from: Tynan on September 23, 2013, 02:19:52 AM
Well, I really like detailed systems. I think they're often better, though, when most of the detail is ignorable. So if you're playing with an easy storyteller on your first game, you don't need to know everything. The details really become critical, though, when you're optimizing in a tougher game. This makes the game accessible to newbies while also being deep for people like us. It gives it a wide skill range.

i think you should begin like in DF, all features from the beginning!
in the past everbody had to read the manual first, before beginning the game. other than it was impossible to play :)
you can make ingame video tutorial for read-lazy players for basic and advanced gameplay  8) hehe
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Yarkista on September 23, 2013, 12:38:11 PM
Quote from: xTAMERx on September 23, 2013, 11:17:48 AM
Quote from: Tynan on September 23, 2013, 02:19:52 AM
Well, I really like detailed systems. I think they're often better, though, when most of the detail is ignorable. So if you're playing with an easy storyteller on your first game, you don't need to know everything. The details really become critical, though, when you're optimizing in a tougher game. This makes the game accessible to newbies while also being deep for people like us. It gives it a wide skill range.



i think you should begin like in DF, all features from the beginning!
in the past everbody had to read the manual first, before beginning the game. other than it was impossible to play :)
you can make ingame video tutorial for read-lazy players for basic and advanced gameplay  8) hehe

No, no, no. People will get fustrated if the game is too hard from the outset, it would only kill sales if this was implemented imo.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: British on September 23, 2013, 12:54:07 PM
You guys are offering me a nice transition to something I wanted to query about since I watched the first-look video and got hooked:
What is the planned learning curve and handling complexity ?

Since RW is inspired by DF, I downloaded it this week-end, out of boredom.
Unfortunately I wasn't bored enough to be able to cope with the entry-level complexity, and there are still parts of my brain that are dripping from my ears, due to the induced melting.

So yes, please make RW accessible for the masses, and as said earlier, the more different difficulty levels you can add, the merrier...
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: xTAMERx on September 23, 2013, 01:04:40 PM
yep, a good learning curve with more and more features to discover is really better

but please at least with an option with full acces for experienced players :)
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Jakadasnake on September 24, 2013, 02:21:08 AM
I want to grow herbs and spices to make sure my colonists are capable of hosting agreeable dinners. Oh, and a distillery. Something to wash the bark down.

Quote from: ZebioLizard2 on September 22, 2013, 10:10:03 PM
I want to see negative effects for everything.

Power lines not properly cared for or insulated? Major shock to walk across, touch, fire.

Walls not fixed? Entrances to be broken into, structural collapse, allows pests through holes.

Water not properly cleaned? Breeding ground for insects, sickness amongst the colonists, dysentery.

Weapons not cared for? Jamming, misfiring, potential explosion.

Too hot and covered in oils? Self Immolation.

Food stocks not properly cared for? Illness, Death, attracts things that enjoy rotting meat.

I know some things won't go into such vast detail, but I find such effects pretty fun to make sure one cares for everything within one's reach, and I think you get what I mean.

Same with the enemies, tunneling enemies, enemies that poke your defenses and just break things, those that seek to steal or kidnap specifically etc.

I think this guy is somewhat on the right track. A lot of stories hinge on the details. Like pinky fingers.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Blackbird on October 06, 2013, 11:54:46 AM
I suggest an in-game option to increase or decrease the difficulty of the selected AI storyteller, including the option of choosing a new storyteller.  This would help players who like the direction the story is going but want it to be easier/harder or just want to turn it on random for a bit. 

Also, the more options the better!  If you want to bury them in an "Advanced" screen, that's fine, too, but, for simplicity's sake, create an in-game screen for it instead of editing an option in a text file, saving it, and reloading the game. 

Finally, make mod support an early priority!  It will only help your game!
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Spike on October 06, 2013, 01:04:14 PM
A distillery would be good for several reasons - medical uses, booze, and with the #3 update on Kickstarter, making your own Molotov's.

I like the idea of lots of options (both good and bad) like ZebioLizard2 mentioned up-thread.  However, I think the level of detail could be a good difficulty setting - Easy mode might have no effect from that kind of thing, with higher difficulties having more effect.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Zeiph on October 06, 2013, 01:31:37 PM
To solve the problem of the learning curve, maybe you could add some kind of a tutorial storyteller that has much less random and also gives advices to the player.

But I am also interested in hilarious extreme events when the player does something wrong, like for exemple risk of self-ignition if going out during sunflares...
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: AspenShadow on October 06, 2013, 01:40:57 PM
Quote from: ZebioLizard2 on September 22, 2013, 10:10:03 PM
I want to see negative effects for everything.

Power lines not properly cared for or insulated? Major shock to walk across, touch, fire.

Walls not fixed? Entrances to be broken into, structural collapse, allows pests through holes.

Water not properly cleaned? Breeding ground for insects, sickness amongst the colonists, dysentery.

Weapons not cared for? Jamming, misfiring, potential explosion.

Too hot and covered in oils? Self Immolation.

Food stocks not properly cared for? Illness, Death, attracts things that enjoy rotting meat.

I'd like this idea to be part of a hardcore module, but I can't stand the idea of negatives to everything. Part of the fun of the game is that a neutral event just happens and depending upon random chance the outcome can be good or bad. While it's hard to imagine how a plague could help the colony, it's possible that your people that survived have developed a stronger immune system and won't get sick as often.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: SpaceEatingTrex on October 07, 2013, 04:58:04 PM
One of the strengths of RimWorld is its relatively good interface, especially when compared to games like Dwarf Fortress. I think User-Friendliness is a very good design goal to have. The easier the interface is to use, the easier new players will pick it up and the wider the game will spread.

With that in mind, I was watching Das24680's Let's Play (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_c_K80z8jU) and noticed at character creation he didn't know what some of the traits meant, and when trading for commodities he couldn't find out what the commodities were until after he traded for them! Fortunately, in the later case there were tooltips when you moused over the commodities' icons in game. I think those tooltips should be present on the trading screen, and tooltips for the traits in character creation (similar to the backstory). That way players won't have to jump through the hoop of looking up this information on the wiki or elsewhere.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Zeiph on October 07, 2013, 04:59:53 PM
Keep in mind that the game is not even in alpha version. I hope by the end of the developement more detailed tooltip will be available.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Hypolite on October 07, 2013, 05:13:44 PM
The traits system is not finalized. Most of them don't have impact on the game yet, but they are to be handled the same way than backstories are : with tooltips explaining the effect of each.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: noego on October 08, 2013, 04:44:19 PM
One idea that might be interesting might be planetary exploration. Think UFO: enemy unknown's geoscape. Find that base from where the pesky raiders are coming from and take care of it. Find additional resources. That kind of thing.

Probably way beyond the scope of the game, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: SpaceEatingTrex on October 08, 2013, 04:45:24 PM
Quote from: Hypolite on October 07, 2013, 05:13:44 PM
The traits system is not finalized. Most of them don't have impact on the game yet, but they are to be handled the same way than backstories are : with tooltips explaining the effect of each.
Quote from: Zeiph on October 07, 2013, 04:59:53 PM
Keep in mind that the game is not even in alpha version. I hope by the end of the developement more detailed tooltip will be available.

Thanks for the responses you guys! I understand the game is still pre-Alpha, but I thought it couldn't hurt to explicitly mention future elements to make the game more user-friendly, even if they're already being planned.

Something I've heard is planned but not implemented yet are keyboard shortcuts. Are there planned shortcuts for selecting colonists? For example, if most games involve 10 or fewer colonists the numeric keys could be used to automatically select each colonist in sequence. For testers who are already playing the pre-Alpha, does that seem like something you would use?
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Zeiph on October 08, 2013, 05:44:06 PM
That leads to another question: are the current shortcuts rebindable? As I am using a French keyboard (azerty instead of qwerty), the wasd for scrolling is not what I would call practical...
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Hypolite on October 08, 2013, 09:25:06 PM
Not yet. The volume just made its debut in the options menu, which held only the resolution until then. Keyboard mapping is probably a future improvement of that menu, but it will have to wait :)
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: British on October 09, 2013, 05:40:55 AM
Quote from: Zeiph on October 08, 2013, 05:44:06 PM
That leads to another question: are the current shortcuts rebindable? As I am using a French keyboard (azerty instead of qwerty), the wasd for scrolling is not what I would call practical...
AutoHotKey (http://www.autohotkey.com/) does wonder on that matter.

Just add this in your script and reload it:

#IfWinActive, RimWorld
{
    z::w
    q::a
}

You can add more of course, and the "RimWorld" is the actual name appearing on the game's window (when you alt-tab, for instance).
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Dejix on October 12, 2013, 03:22:37 PM
Speaking of shortcuts I would really love to have some hot-keys for the Architect menu. For me it can remove the need to visually search for items in the menu and make it faster to access.

I also think that having more designations for areas would be cool too. That way you can assign an area as a room or whatever with a specific purpose without having to enclose it with walls.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Hypolite on October 12, 2013, 04:58:11 PM
Right-click will open the architect menu if nothing else is selected. If something is selected, a left click and a right click will open the menu :)
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: salt1219 on October 12, 2013, 05:01:24 PM
custom keybindings
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Dejix on October 13, 2013, 03:58:47 AM
The right click just isn't enough for me. I need right click followed by o and then an m to get to mining without having to move my mouse... It's just such a drag sometimes to move the mouse.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: FangoWolf on October 14, 2013, 02:31:09 PM
How about a small percentage chance of starting out in an abandoned colony. 

Perhaps a few autosave could stored in a different area and pulled up during the map generation.  If multiplayer ever was implemented, share the autosaves with the other players and you could start in another person's colony.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Cato1001 on October 14, 2013, 11:55:07 PM
     I didn't know if one of my ideas counted as an idea for the "cheap ideas" thread, but  I am posting on this thread anyways.
     I think that by killing the muffalo, you should be able to get some sort of fabric, because it is weird for carpets to be made out of metal (so the fabric would be another resource). They could also be used to make beds. Future add-ons like coats (if there is a cold biome where colonists need special clothing or something like that) might also require this fabric.
     I was also wondering how all the Youtube video posters got ahold of the game earlier than the pre-alpha.
     I also recommend adding in more researchable items because many of the Youtube videos I have seen quickly finished all the research perks very early in the game.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: British on October 15, 2013, 07:08:12 AM
Hello, and welcome !

Quote from: Cato1001 on October 14, 2013, 11:55:07 PM
I think that by killing the muffalo, you should be able to get some sort of fabric, because it is weird for carpets to be made out of metal (so the fabric would be another resource). They could also be used to make beds. Future add-ons like coats (if there is a cold biome where colonists need special clothing or something like that) might also require this fabric.
That would be nice indeed.
I suppose the muffalo herds would then need to be repopulated somehow, kind of like raiders are managed right now (it may already be the case, but I am yet to hear about it).

Quote from: Cato1001 on October 14, 2013, 11:55:07 PM
I was also wondering how all the Youtube video posters got ahold of the game earlier than the pre-alpha.
A bunch of YouTubers were selected and supplied with the game so they can spread the word of RimWorld imbaness.

Quote from: Cato1001 on October 14, 2013, 11:55:07 PM
I also recommend adding in more researchable items because many of the Youtube videos I have seen quickly finished all the research perks very early in the game.
As you noted, the game is in pre-alpha, so it's more of a (well-refined) proof of concept than a finished product.
As such, most of the game mechanics (like Research) will evolve at some point.
You can discuss the Research System here (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10.0).
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Cato1001 on October 15, 2013, 08:56:13 AM
Quote from: Cato1001 on October 14, 2013, 11:55:07 PM
I also recommend adding in more researchable items because many of the Youtube videos I have seen quickly finished all the research perks very early in the game.
Quote from: British on October 15, 2013, 07:08:12 AM
As you noted, the game is in pre-alpha, so it's more of a (well-refined) proof of concept than a finished product.
As such, most of the game mechanics (like Research) will evolve at some point.
You can discuss the Research System here (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10.0).
I was just recommending that adding more researchable topics should be one of the priorities considering that even though research is a specific skill for colonists, the researching skill quickly becomes useless soon after the game begins.
It would also be interesting if you could discover new technologies from ,say, raiders or an injured person that lands and you convert to a colonist. They might have a book or something like that which can be used to find out about a researchable topic.
Also, the technologies may have to be discovered. For example, the gun turret cooling research could be discovered after 3 pirate raids and 6 turrets built.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: British on October 15, 2013, 09:57:24 AM
Quote from: Cato1001 on October 15, 2013, 08:56:13 AM
I was just recommending that adding more researchable topics should be one of the priorities (...stuff...)
Sure, and I just provided a link to a thread dedicated to discussing about research (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=10.0), so that you can, well... discuss about it there instead of here...
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Hawkido on October 16, 2013, 12:14:36 PM
I know that ramping the game in to a more full fledged product is first on the list before fleshing out new territories in the game but here are some ideas to think about or throw out in the mean time:

Suggestion for the Gameplay Directors, assuming that there will be an end goal (or multiple ways to be considered successful in completing the game ala FTL defeat the Rebel Flagship):
Make a director the can sense how hard or fast you press to victory condition, not so much your progress but the rate at which you make progress, and throw more stumbling blocks your way to slow you down. Maybe "Lucy Longhaul" as a name for her. It will force the colony to focus more on survival and perseverance, so it can endure the natural events that will just happen, but if you start pushing too hard or fast for "building a ship to escape" or what ever the victory condition will be then more bad stuff will happen. this will force the player to take a more marathon approach to keep "Lucy" from crushing you much like a non-Newtonian fluid increases resistance at a rate greater than the increase of speed of an impacting object. Okay, wow, that sentence sucks, but I hope you understand. The more the player tries to rush to the end the more brutal the game becomes... and the slower and more methodical and robust the player plays the more relaxed the director is. This will help satisfy those who might say the game is too short once a victory condition is in place.

Potential victory conditions:
-purchase a starship
-Build a star ship
-actually colonize the planet by attracting X# NPCs to live in your colony.
-Become so greatly feared as a pirate raider that you hijack a ship and take your piracy to the stars.
-Become a Respected trading post/hotel stopover for passing NPC ships
-Become the hive of scum and villainy replete with Bars and Brothels.
-Become a prison planet where other worlds prisoners are stored and "Cared-for" *COUGH**COUGH*
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Cato1001 on October 17, 2013, 09:13:21 PM
I saw that on the kickstarter one of the modules was asking if there should be an end-game. I was thinking that the actual player should be able to decide that. Maybe there could be an "End-Game Eric" storyteller where there is an end-game or maybe a choice on the menu screen for a version with an end-game.

I was also wondering for the backers in kickstarter that will get the pre alpha version, what form will the game come in: a disc, a digital copy, etc.?
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: British on October 21, 2013, 07:19:57 AM
Quote from: Cato1001 on October 17, 2013, 09:13:21 PM
I saw that on the kickstarter one of the modules was asking if there should be an end-game. I was thinking that the actual player should be able to decide that. Maybe there could be an "End-Game Eric" storyteller where there is an end-game or maybe a choice on the menu screen for a version with an end-game.
While it's appreciated that you don't indulge in creating a thread for every question you have, it's probably better if you search for that question (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?action=search) prior to posting.
You'd most likely had found about that specific thread in which end-game is discussed (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=11.0).

Quote from: Cato1001 on October 17, 2013, 09:13:21 PM
I was also wondering for the backers in kickstarter that will get the pre alpha version, what form will the game come in: a disc, a digital copy, etc.?
The best way to find information about KickStarter is to actually read the KickStarter page (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tynansylvester/rimworld)...
Here what can be found on the third sentence of the project (very hard to find indeed):
"For Windows, Mac, Linux. The game will be distributed by DRM-free download and backers will also get Steam keys."
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: gigan on October 26, 2013, 01:47:45 PM
I would love an option to build characters as well as randomly generate them.   I find I spend so much time clicking generate hoping for results I want.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Voltronguy on October 30, 2013, 04:42:53 AM
Custom stockpile zones, and dumpsite zones. Custom sizes, etc.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Cybourg on November 01, 2013, 01:20:11 PM
This might be already be planned for RimWorld, but here is it anyway.

1. I was wondering would it be possible to add an option to make a Job templates, so that when you get a new colonist, it is easier to assign jobs. The people with the same jobs are grouped together in the overview (maybe by a coloured border). With this you can then subdivide them to work in different areas. With this grouping, you can make a group work on a specific area, rather than assigning them one by one.

2. To be able to assign colonists to take direct control of an automated machine (e.g: Turrets, cameras). The machine they are controlling will be enhanced slightly; for example if you control a turret, you can manually target enemies and maybe the accuracy is slightly increased. I think this controlling could be done through a control panel, and would be connected to the machine they are controlling by a special wire (Fibre cable?).
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: DeltaV on November 01, 2013, 07:33:06 PM
Two completely random ideas that I didn't think warranted their own thread and weren't really specific enough to warrant even being in the cheap ideas thread:

1. From what I've seen, hydroponics is REALLY overpowered, basically an infinite source of money and food. Instead, it should just be a way of growing food slightly faster and without the proper terrain, whereas right now you could probably do just fine setting up a research table quickly and going straight for hydroponics without any normal farms.

2. There should be more traps and ways to incapacitate enemies. Landmines, stun guns, etc.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: z4g5r on November 02, 2013, 11:43:06 PM
I feel a strong need of an ability to move stuff around - like beds, accumulators, turrets using one unit, solar batteries and research facilities with maybe 2-3 settlers united.
Also to dismount buildings restoring the matherials wasted to construct them - the only way I see now is to blow that up.. Not too pretty?
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: AnarchOi on November 06, 2013, 02:15:17 AM
A quick suggestion... What about some sort of radar that can be built that would notify the player when someone will be entering our "map" but wont be specific to wether it is a hostile group or just someone passing by, possibly be upgradeable to reveal more details (estimate size of group, carrying weapons, and maybe hostile or friendly)

Also the comm station could benefit from this as well for example we can build the comm station without the radar but we wont know if its traders trying to contact you or raiders, that way there will be some risk when opening up communications.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Darthaidan on November 06, 2013, 01:52:11 PM
I have an Idea I'm not sure needs its own thread. Later in the future of building I think their should be a you story teller. It would be like a sandbox god mode. There could even be an AI to play the colonists and you cause events to happen. This could be multi-player or just done with AI but it would be neat.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: AspenShadow on November 07, 2013, 02:35:35 PM
Quote from: Darthaidan on November 06, 2013, 01:52:11 PM
I have an Idea I'm not sure needs its own thread. Later in the future of building I think their should be a you story teller. It would be like a sandbox god mode. There could even be an AI to play the colonists and you cause events to happen. This could be multi-player or just done with AI but it would be neat.

I'm liking this idea a lot actually, it would take a lot more work than a standard Storyteller as it would be more of a new mode than anything else.

Also THANK YOU so much for hesitating in making your own thread. At the moment we have far too many people doing exactly that without using the search function. This suggestion can be expanded upon Here (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=249.0).
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Kharn on November 07, 2013, 10:39:48 PM
Couple storytelling ideas came up while rewatching Firefly/Serenity again.


Risk Reward Scenarios:

Refugees land seeking shetler from the Government.  Some can be wounded and needing medical treatment/care.  There would be a risk in helping them, but also a reward for successfully doing so.  A detective could come by and want access to your base/colony.  Are you going to give them up for a quick reward? Or hold out for a much better one at the risk of having the Government call in reinformence to take you down.  You could vary up the amount of refugees coming and how wanted they are for degrees of difficulty.


Crazy Colonists:

If the end game is to escape the planet you could have one or more colonist working against you as spies or as people who get into disagreements with other colonist.  Cause some to steal important items from the ship; like the navigation computer, or exotic fuel.  Or even the Ship itself before you go!


Zombies, always with the Zombies!

Have too many graves?  Is it a full eclipse?  Is it a Thunderstorm?  Zombies!!  Hard to kill slow moving, brain eating Zombies.


And of course all the usually stuff people have mentioned.  Like other colony factions, spies, virus outbreak, cabin fever madness, no hope all is lost colonist, thief.

Also be nice if the Raiders would attack other targets that would have to be placed outside/away from the base.  Also, if spome Raiders would a alternative route into your base while other Raiders protect their mining. Not sure how easy that would be to impliment but i would think it would help a lot to protect against exploitation.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Mask on November 08, 2013, 06:06:40 AM
having played the pre-alpha for a fair bit i have come up with some ideas for the game. Some have been said before and i think some have not. hope some of them are useful. (sorry for any bad spellings)

1.Different planets to land on that have different problems.
Snow planet were you need to keep warm. Forest planet that has lots of dangerous wild life. Plains planet were you suffer raids more often.

2.The ability to get rid of the boulders.
One time i had cleared out the area around my settlement and had six dumping areas of boulders. Some way to get rid of them would be good or the ability to place them in certain areas so you can use them like sand bags.   

3.The ability to wall in an area of open space and bigger doors. (like a castle court yard)
So you can have your fields and panels safe from raids.

4.Proper warehouses that have a max storage capacity.
I'm finding the current system of storage a bit wired. At one point I had 5000 food and 2000 metal stored in a small space in the open air. I think having to build warehouses to store stuff would make the game more interesting.

5.More materials to gather.

6.Research items falling from space.
Like a robot that auto picks plants but you have to hope that it will land on your planet so you can retrieve it and research how to make your own.

7.Recreational things for settlers to do.
The ability to play ball games if there is nothing for them to do. this could be used to increase happiness.

8.Stop some settlers from going to some places in your settlement.
I was trying to create a slave section of my settlement and think that it would be interesting if you could make it so that some people would not go in to other areas.

9.Guard areas.
Designate areas ware settlers will go and stand and watch for trouble

10.Alarm.
An alarm that you can sound that will make some settlers run out to guard areas and others run to a safe location in the settlement.

11.Random raider behavior.
Like they will just show up fire a couple of shots and then leave. Set fire to your crops . Attempt to capture your settlers to make slaves. Steal stuff. 

12.Quick select settlers.
right now i am having a hard time finding specific settlers when i need then to do some thing and a drop down menu with all there names and any weapons they are carrying is displayed.

13.Settlers stats combined with the overview menu.
a way to see the settlers stats and the job priority view at the same time would make setting the priority of jobs easier. Could be combined with settler Quick select.

14.Random settler actions and conditions.
Two settlers wont get along and will argue with each other. Getting to old to work and so you just have to care for them or get rid of them. suffering accidents as they do they job and getting injured. pregnancy and children. diseases.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: vx714 on November 12, 2013, 01:31:38 PM
I second the request for custom keybind/input binding.  Being able to define my own keys to select "Build wall" or "Mine" or "Sell" or "Cancel" would save me a lot of time.

I'd also like to be able to scroll the map with SHIFT-RightMouseButton rather than depressing the mousewheel.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Carrett on November 14, 2013, 06:04:23 AM
Ok I have suggestions maybe two or three...or six

1. when the animals go crazy the sentry guns do nothing. so i think there could be a mode for them to switch from raiders to animals. or guns that just shot animals

2. electric fence for animals. if you dont want them in an area putt a electric fence around the area. it wouldnt hurt them just keep them from it.

3. add a guard priority. something like you can block out a path for guards to protrol and they will follow it and if raider gets close they defend themselves.

4. A.I. self defense. as of right now (v0.250) when the colonist get attacked they do not defend themselves. they could just auto attack what ever it is that is attacking them.

5. just a thought, there could be some kind of family system where some get together and have kids then the kids get older after some time. then you can use them to

6.Hospital building or something they can go to heal themselves.

these are just some stuff iv been thinking about when I play.


Title: My 5 cent
Post by: Bizz Keryear on November 14, 2013, 08:57:01 AM
After playing the game for a while now (continuously)  I am giving now my 5 cent.

One suggestion to the forum: I know the coloring is quite stylish and such, but gray on gray isn't the best readable solution, even its its almost white gray on almost black gray. Please stay to white on black or black on white. Thanks.


All lists are unsorted, they are just as the popped up in my mind.
Things I have forgotten might be added in several edits.
*1)=To the "against will" scenario I recommend to get some inspirations from 7 Seeds (http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/7-seeds-r402)
Actually there are two groups in there which are there against will. In the story line you meet 1st a group which is waking up in a strange world after going to bed normally. The second (lot later in the story) where "breeded" to be survivors, but in the training process they have all gotten a mental illness aka they went nuts.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Smeedijzer on November 14, 2013, 06:46:01 PM
Cheap:
•   Selling/buying weapons (ui)
Make sell and buy buttons different color, or separate tabs
ATM it’s easy to missclick while scrolling though the list
•   Hunting wild life (gameplay)
Make Muffalo’s drop steaks which taste alot better than nutrient paste 
If Muffelo’s don’t breed yet, let them do it slowly so we have to control their population
•   Research required for items and slower/tree research progress (gameplay)
Few of our basic starter items already contain multiple tiers and could be partially unlockable. Geothermal generator feels more advanced compared to solar. Batteries are optional at start. Multiple kinds of beds/tables aren’t required. And we could research communications before being able to build the comm-post and trade. A tree would force us to make harder choices and focus on one part of the colony management

Major:
•   New life (event)
Our colonists never agreed to celibacy. Throw in a small chance to get some offspring. Keep em in bed and let us take care of them for a few weeks …
•   Cave collapse/earthquake (event)
A collapsed cave or tunnel could lead to a few trapped/wounded/dead colonist. Rock debris falls down next to mountain borders while the aftershocks make big group of boomrats spawn, running straight into populated areas attacking everything standing in their way.
•   Launch pods (research/craft)
I found it strange how we can insta sell our resources and weapons, but see deliveries being dropped off. Let us research pods which we need to (pre)build, load with our sold items and launch into the sky when trading. Bought items/money transfers will only be final after the launch when items are sold. (optional) Maybe slave traders are less trustworthy and have a small chance to fly off without making their drops after the launch pods went up?
•   Multiple ore types, needed for advanced crafting (gameplay)
•   Make hard mode scale over time (events)
Multiple raider groups at once, better equipped raiders or bigger numbers
Maybe raiders wait till a solar flare hits the defenses … the brilliant scumbags.
Or mini-bosses with buffed armor/speed/shooting skills
•   Sand storm (event)
Unsafe to go outside, all our colonists have to sit out the storm in their caves/homes without any communication. Sand, debris and forgotten outside resources fly around while stranded pirates run for the nearest shelter.
•   Leader challenged (event)
When loyalty hits rock bottom, the lesser loyal wander off in group and follow their new chosen one to start their own colony. If the final game won’t support +20 colonists, such events could be a way to make it still a fun lock …
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion megathread.
Post by: Bob Buddha on November 17, 2013, 10:58:55 AM
Quote from: Tynan on September 21, 2013, 07:48:16 PM
Quote from: British on September 21, 2013, 07:46:57 PM
I have one suggestion, but it's not for the game itself, rather the very site we are on...
There's a blog (http://ludeon.com/blog/), but it may not get that much interaction (aka verrrry few comments on the entries).
I know I tend to lurk forums, but rarely what's around them, so is there any chance to have the blog entries tied to the forum ?
That means that you write your entries in the blog, but they "lead" to the forum (you might as well create a new category for that): people that want to add a comment to the blog are directed to the corresponding forum post, and (more interesting, from my PoV) people that stay in the forum can see the new entries and react to them.
That might not be crystal-clear, but hopefully you see what I mean.
That's a good idea! You're right, the blog comments should just be forum threads. It would also help grow the community, I think. I need to look into how to set that up.

I think the better idea would be to expand upon the wiki and the Upcoming Features (http://rimworldwiki.com/Upcoming_features) section.   
There are lots of creative people out there who are writing some elaborate posts.  I think we can agree that the forum paradigm is a poor way to manage complex and often overlapping or evolving ideas.

I would stop short of letting anyone and everyone create and edit pages but the framework is there in MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) for community discussion, group moderation, editing/revising/expanding, etc.. There are also extensions for polling and voting, etc.
I.E. Tynan can take posts that he likes here and give them privileges and base pages on the wiki.  He can also delegate management of subpages, etc.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: murhe on November 21, 2013, 04:48:04 PM
At first I must say that I really love Rimworld! I like games like this one and UI is very good one, nothing too complicated. Running bigger colony should be easy like it is now. Then I have few ideas I want to throw in:

Storage
- Storage area is bit of rude element. I would like to see broken and crashed segment of spaceship to work as storage area. It should be disassemblable for metal.
- There should be limited amount of room for metal and food. I would like to idea of small energy output. Lets say there is reactor that is used for cooling and more food you got less it produces.
- Raiders will look after storages! They are not here just for killing people (but nothing against it if needed). When they got at storage, they will fill pockets and start falling back. If you cannot fight back, you can just let them take what they can carry and hope they won't come back again.

Storaging food
- Food needs to be storaged in cool. After you have used capasity of storage you should need to build more cool storage for food. There could be locker sized freezers for that. Without elecrity you should start to loose food!!! No spoiling mechanic, just decreasing food according how much is in danger to spoil.
- Food paste machine should be able to hold some amount of prosessed food.

Plants
- There should be diffrent kinds of plants for food with difference in growing speed, food productivity, care they need and survivality. Any mishappen should not destroy whole crop, just certain amount of plants in field according survivality, there might be diffrent rates against diffrent mishappens like: animals, weather, disease...
- Natural plants should be used also as a food, but that might need research. I don't expect them to be worth of farming, but another source of nourishment in case of need.
- Btw, seeds need to be bought if you wan't access new plants. Whole field is for one plant and might be changed for next planting.

Food processing
- Cooking skill presumes there will be diffrent ways to process food in future. I would like to see difference between raw food, food paste and cooked meals.
- Diffrent plants or meat should give diffrent amount of food in storage. Storage should be kept abstract and way of cooking should make the difference in quality.
- Chew would make dinners ready in fridge of kitchen and when they run out, rest of crew should use food paste. When kitchen's fridge is full chew looks something else to do.

Predatory animals
- There should be diffrent sized predatory animals like medium (dog sized) pack hunters, big (tiger or lion sized) and very rare huge (T-rex, anyone?).
- I would like like to see them to hunt animals and lone characters wandering too far from home. Only huge one should be dangerous to colony itself and they should mostly try to escape if shot at (unless they are gone mad)
- Unburied corpses of people or animals attract predators. More corpses, more and bigger predators. Some of them might use corpses as a food witch could be unpleasing sight.
- As a hunters need food, they won't stay long unless there is food for them. So mostly they should come and go.

Tech levels
- Player should not be able to research and access all tech immediately. There should be certain things you need to accomplish first. That means you might need to study, build and/or buy things before getting hi-tech stuff.
- Crude defence would be man operating turrets. After you build workshop you could upgrade them armored, then automatised, cooled, etc.
- Better communications would access ships farther away, say more often. You just need bigger antennas. Language translator could help to talk with alien traders, etc.
- Just few ideas to work with.

Random stuff
- Fences to stop movement, not shooting. Normal, spiked and electriced.
- windows at walls for shooting out. Extra cover.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Toxicman on November 23, 2013, 04:10:12 PM
I only got the game a few days ago but I played it during all of my spare time and at one playthrough got like 2 months or so before raiders came in like a zerg ball and killed me off :P my only thought during that whole playthrough was drones/robots/mechs.. something mechanised that can do menial tasks like clean/haul/cut plants etc. During a raid they could get your colonists to safety instead of pulling another colonist from the line and risk losing both as one tries to save the other. Now the way to build/acquire these bots would be buying random parts from traders and eventually assembling one, buying a complete one from the industrial trader and then when you have a working model study it and be able to research it so you can build it yourself. To not make them overpowered, make them hard to assemble.

Also something either the bots or a colonist could do is slave labor. If you get an assassin who is pretty much useless unless time of raid at this moment, have him/her overwatch a group of slaves doing a certain job like cleaning, mining or hauling.

Not sure if any of these ideas are cheap or not so i posted in this :/ the drones shouldnt be that expensive as they just need a new skin and some limitations from the regural colonist but again I've no idea in how these things work really. Hope this helped in some way! Loving this game so far btw <3
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: harpo99999 on November 26, 2013, 04:53:34 AM
a couple of small suggestions( but probably not so easy to program) for the trade window

(1) to allow typing in of trade quantities as well as the drag to alter quantities,

(2) speed of adjustment of quantity relates to mouse movement distance  ie move a small distance outside the trade window get slow increase rate, move to the edge of the game window, get fast (perhaps x10) increase rate

reason for suggestions when trading hundreds/thousands of resources it gets very boring to keep holding the mouse button down off screen and still only go up by one unit per tick
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Necronomocoins on November 28, 2013, 05:43:11 PM
Robots/drones. A jungle of research seeds leading to lots of research trees. Low tech (tribal?) raiders with excellent melee, thrown/melee weapons like spears, tomahawk that can be used close or at range or boomerang. Mind control aliens/chameleon aliens, hydrochloric acid for blood aliens, bosses, maybe a boss leader of tribes with mind control turning one of the colonists into a raider instantly, could be captured if incapacitated but could cause havoc from the prison if (chance?) when fully healed or possibly eventually help the colony. raiders or rampant native animals with an accompanying boss, tribes that can set up camp overnight. Space marine pods containing research seeds (valuable) with raiders that can set up (build) defensive zones around the pod and defend them. the reason for so many raiders is they took control of a cloning facility in orbit, eventually (after much research, lots of metal, building many rocket parts and some putting food in storage on rocket for the journey, a bit like Starship Architect.) being able to build a crude rocket that can dock with the facility in orbit or accidently dock with space marine pod (random chance stuff) and raid it, being careful not to damage walls in orbit or decompression and sucked out into space etc., taking valuable new items/item types/clones and/or resources (space suit/combat armour?) back to surface if successful. intact ship rooms that crash land, radioactive/toxic areas that cause damage to colonists over time if not treated. Multiplayer with multiple randomly generated maps interconnected, you start a multiplayer game and your comp randomly generates a map (as usual) but places you in a grid of online maps, with the ability to move off the edge of your map onto someone else's, maybe try to trade with them or take stuff by force or whatever. Limited range (especially in fog) line of sight, closed circuit television, television screens, a flamethrower! Ammo! not suggesting you implement ALL of these ideas, thought I'd put them all in one post, I'll have more ideas tomorrow. LOL Integrate this game's, EVERYTHING with Activision's "Battlezone" graphics and interface and it would be a top seller IMO. Ageing, I think a colonist should not survive longer than 365,000 days under any circumstances and should be too weak to do anything for when they get too old, some colonists that like to share a room with one person of the opposite sex, could result in having to build a nursery and eventually get a new colonist. The ability to haul light furniture, maybe heavier stuff with help.

Quote from: harpo99999 on November 26, 2013, 04:53:34 AM

a couple of small suggestions( but probably not so easy to program) for the trade window

(1) to allow typing in of trade quantities as well as the drag to alter quantities,

(2) speed of adjustment of quantity relates to mouse movement distance  ie move a small distance outside the trade window get slow increase rate, move to the edge of the game window, get fast (perhaps x10) increase rate

reason for suggestions when trading hundreds/thousands of resources it gets very boring to keep holding the mouse button down off screen and still only go up by one unit per tick



  I manage to get large quantities quickly by grabbing and dragging, grabbing at the middle again drag to the edge again again, going up at about 150-250 in a second or two.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: harpo99999 on November 29, 2013, 04:15:07 AM
I have used the double grab & drag a few times for smaller quantities like 200-400, BUT when I want to sell 2000-2500 food to a combat or industrial supplier to clean them out of all their stock, it STILL takes about 3 minutes to get to the approx area of quantity ( and in the games where this is an issue I usually have a food stockpile for 20,000 or MORE food)
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Necronomocoins on November 29, 2013, 08:44:22 PM
Vehicles: Manned/unmanned armed/unarmed and armoured/unarmoured, maybe a drill tank that can move through rock, destroying it in the process.
Quote from: harpo99999 on November 29, 2013, 04:15:07 AM
I have used the double grab & drag a few times for smaller quantities like 200-400, BUT when I want to sell 2000-2500 food to a combat or industrial supplier to clean them out of all their stock, it STILL takes about 3 minutes to get to the approx area of quantity ( and in the games where this is an issue I usually have a food stockpile for 20,000 or MORE food)
Good point, typing in the exact amount you want would be easier and faster to get a more precise quantity.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Darthaidan on December 02, 2013, 02:25:25 PM
Quote from: Necronomocoins on November 29, 2013, 08:44:22 PM
Vehicles: Manned/unmanned armed/unarmed and armoured/unarmoured, maybe a drill tank that can move through rock, destroying it in the process.
Quote from: harpo99999 on November 29, 2013, 04:15:07 AM
I have used the double grab & drag a few times for smaller quantities like 200-400, BUT when I want to sell 2000-2500 food to a combat or industrial supplier to clean them out of all their stock, it STILL takes about 3 minutes to get to the approx area of quantity ( and in the games where this is an issue I usually have a food stockpile for 20,000 or MORE food)
Good point, typing in the exact amount you want would be easier and faster to get a more precise quantity.

In the name of your vehicle idea that drill tank could also run through walls and sand bags. I think this would make raiders slightly more awesome.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: thebadman on December 05, 2013, 04:27:58 AM
I think "Pneumatic Picks" research currently is pointless for its research points cost, it only make miners destroy mineral in 2 hits less(from 13 to 11), perhaps it should give 20% speed bonus instead of damage or rock walls HP should be nerfed/picks dmg boosted?
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Plasmatic on December 09, 2013, 03:06:18 PM
Almost in line with what Palandus suggested
Quote from: palandus on December 09, 2013, 04:24:38 AM

Furniture:
-> Power Saving Lights = These lights only activate when a colonist is near it. This causes them to consume less energy overall compared to other lights.

I'd like to see smarter lights, or colonist that turn lights off when they leave rooms..
Say your base is run entirely by batteries and solar panels, would the colonist not be wary about power drain? making sure to turn lights off to conserve energy and all that..

Another suggestion is research,
-> HQ batteries, they store more, and fail less (aka, don't go kaboom as often)
-> HQ walls, better, stronger, safer, sockets are triple checked so they don't go kaboom as often..
-> Lite walls, walls that drain 30 power per 5 wall segments, but have light sources on them (say they light 3 tiles, where the 3rd is dim)
-> Automated Fire suppression systems, great for the battery rooms, but they it might be a bit much..
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: henrytm82 on December 11, 2013, 06:20:51 PM
This post is much longer than it needs to be, but I believe in being thorough about my problem descriptions, and I like to provide solid justification for in-depth changes :) What I'm proposing is a pretty tall order with some significant work involved, but when your game is so heavily based on combat, I think it's necessary. You can look at a lot of games for inspiration (you mentioned JA2 - you might also take a look at Fallout: Tactics).


I'd like to see some basic scaling added to the damage system. Currently, it seems like a weapon has a damage stat (like, say, a pistol does 10 damage per successful hit), and no matter what the person using that weapon is aiming at, it does that amount of damage every time it hits.

This is problematic from both a gameplay and realism/immersion standpoint. The example I'll use is Raiders VS Turrets. Now, I don't know if it's intentional or if it's even going to stay this way, but the current art direction makes auto-turrets look HUGE; like, compared to the colonists, a turret is the size of a small sedan. Which is fine, until you encounter one or two Raiders armed with pistols.

Here's a very common scenario I ran across in my game - on one side of the map is a common spot for the game to spawn in Raiders. This spot sort of funnels the Raiders toward one exposed side of my compound where they immediately make a beeline to the walls and the door there. Using their AI to my advantage, I set up two turrets on either side of the door, surrounded by double-walls of sandbags. I removed almost all of the rock rubble from the area, except for a few that were well within the turrets' range, inviting the Raiders to take cover in carefully-chosen spots which provided my turrets otherwise unobstructed views at the Raiders. Sometimes I would set blasting charges near these spots, but that becomes a decision about how close to the rocks do I set the charges? Too close and I'll destroy the rocks, too far away and I won't kill the Raider. Also, the charges cost resources, and they're a one-use item which may not outright kill the Raider, so they may be a complete waste, and if they destroy the rocks, they cause me problems and...well, you can see why I'd prefer to let the turrets deal with Raiders whenever possible, right?

So here's the problem - more than once, a single Raider with a pistol kills both turrets, and the resulting explosion takes out the door they're supposed to be guarding, causes a short in the wall conduit and possibly destroys other things within the compound, starts fires, injures colonists...all from a single guy with a pea-shooter. Wait, what? A single guy marches across what should be a killing field, destroys two car-sized machine gun turrets, blows a hole in a metal wall and causes untold damage and destruction...with a pistol? In this scenario, the rocks behind which the Raiders would take cover were a good 10-15 tiles away from the turrets, which means these Raiders with pistols are engaging my turrets from as far as 18 tiles away. Assuming a single tile is roughly 2 meters squared, these guys, while under withering machine gun fire, are destroying my turrets from nearly 40 meters away with a pistol, and often take little to no damage themselves while doing it. From a realism and immersion standpoint, I'm not buying it. From a gameplay standpoint, I'm frustrated.

There needs to be some basic scaling to damage, based on weapon type, distance to target and, most importantly, what the target is. Simply put, a single guy with a handgun should not be capable of killing my gigantic metal machine gun turret from such a long distance before my turret can turn him into Swiss cheese...especially two turrets.

So, finally on to my solution!

If I were scaling the above scenario, pistols wouldn't do more than 1-2 damage per successful hit to the turret from those ranges, and shotguns probably wouldn't do more than 5. If they want to engage me from that far away, they need to be packing more than pea-shooters :)
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: henrytm82 on December 12, 2013, 12:05:13 AM
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: LordMunchkin on December 16, 2013, 11:24:25 PM
Suggestions (Update 4)  ;D
-New Faction
--Nomads
---replaces travelers
---neutral
---will collect unclaimed resources on the map and deposit them on a pack animal
---can trade
---will punitively raid colony if attacked
-New Research
---Shock Collars
----can keep slaves
--Rehab
---increases recruit chance for captured raiders
--Neurostimulators
---beatings do less damage
--Addictive Additives
---eating nutrient paste increases happiness.
---not eating nutrient paste decreases happiness.
--AA Targeting
---each turret built outside has a chance to damage or destroy a raider ship
---if the ship is damaged, a number of raiders will be wounded or dead on arrival
---if the ship is destroyed, debris will land somewhere on the map
-New Events
--Survivor
---a fellow survivor from the crash finds and joins your colony
---this event has a high chance for the first month and slowly decreases after
--VIP
---someone very important lands in an escape pod
---if arrested, they can be sold for a high price to slavers. There is a chance their friends will raid you to rescue them.
--Slavers
---slavers appear on the map
---if they spot a colonist, they will try to arrest that person. They will then flee with their captive.
-New Mechanics
--Missile Beacon
---you can buy a missile beacon from merchants
---activating the beacon will cause a satellite in orbit to launch a missile towards its location.
--Slaves
---when you capture someone instead of trying to recruit them you can enslave them
---slaves can be immediately put to work
---they’re incapable of fighting or social work
---there is a small chance they will remove their shock collar and try to escape
--New Jobs
---Guard
----patrols home area
----attacks hostiles in home area
----arrests neutrals in home area
----having someone on guard increases happiness
---Hunting
----hunts animals
----killing animals gives a certain amount of food based on the animal
--Better Gun Scaling
--the pistol is the base (assuming 9mm)
---Uzi, 1.2xDamage, 1.5xAccuracy, 1.1xRange, 3.33xRate of fire
---Shotgun (assuming pump action, 12G, buckshot), 4.5xDamage, 1.5xAccuracy, 0.25xRange, 0.66xRate of fire
---M16, 2.1xDamage, 2.5xAccuracy, 3.1xRange, 4.33xRate of Fire
---Enfield, 3xDamage, 2.5xAccuracy, 6.9xRange, 0.33xRate of Fire
---M24, 3xDamage, 4.5xAccuracy (assuming scope), 6.25xRange, 0.33xRate of Fire
---range>accuracy
--Prioritized Hauling Improvement
---there should be a way to select a whole group of things to be prioritized
--Raider Improvement
---Tribute
----the colonist can pay tribute to make them leave for half of what they have. The payment price will increase the more times tribute is paid.
---Greed
----raiders target stockpiles. Instead of burning them, they take resources from them. Once a raider has all resources he or she can carry, they flee.
---Cowardice
----raiders flee more often. Every time they lose someone they have a chance to flee. Each person on their side already dead increases the chance.
---Planning
----change it so a higher percentage of raids happen during solar flares or eclipses.
----raiders should attack from multiple directions with multiple landing zones.
----if the raiders took lots of causalities the last time they raided, they will delay raiding for some time.
--Better Turrets
---turrets should not explode. They should have higher HP because they’re unliving and made of metal. Assuming a .50 BMG, a turret should have 9x the damage of a pistol, 2.5x the accuracy, 3.33x the rate of fire, 11.25x the range.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Asulf on January 08, 2014, 10:10:44 AM
If you're suggesting random damage, I would highly suggest using two random numbers instead of just one and then add them together. 1-10 is too random, 1-5+1-5 gets a more even, but still random number and even gets a classic statistical curve (meaning 5 dmg is probable, 10 dmg improbable).

As for research, I would suggest things like researching:
*body armor, that gets harder to research and increasingly costly.
*movement detectors that you can add to lamps (having them turned off when nobody is there or when nobody is moving in the room after a couple of seconds) and turrets.
*vechicles to drive around in and that can carry stuff, maybe even have some weaponry on them (yes, that means raiders as well can come driving).
*Some sort of research to be able to carry more than one item.
*Flashlights that have to be recharged in a rack (costing energy), when colonists don't like being in the dark?
*Motion detectors/ sensor turrets/ radar station for the map if fog of war is a possibility?
*Incinerator for burning unwanted corpses.
*Perhaps even a learning center where colonists can up eachothers' skills at a slow pace. The downside is colonists in class rooms won't do any actual work.
*Shooting range to practice shooting?
*Medic bay with various instruments/ devices. Healing in a bed should be less effective.

The Suggestion to be able to have the base on green/ red alert, where the colonists run to their specified gun racks and specified positions with a sounding alarm is great, maybe even let all the lamps blink with red light. Kind of like in Evil Genius for those who played it. I also look forward to having a kitchen with a cook, artists that can get the enviroment more pleasing with objects/ decorating things.
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Hansel on February 06, 2014, 07:34:18 PM
"I suggest an in-game option to increase or decrease the difficulty of the selected AI storyteller, including the option of choosing a new storyteller."


Just what I was about to say. Would be a "game changer".   pardon the pun, if it is one...
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Untrustedlife on February 07, 2014, 05:34:26 PM
hansel, please combine your..quin-tupple-post
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Johnny Masters on September 12, 2014, 04:31:30 AM
So, this post hasn't been posted in a long time but i haven't found a substitute for it yet, and most of the below aren't really cheap for the cheap thread.

Well, I've been putting together these for a while but never published, now since a6 i picked it up again. Some stuff changed and the suggestions in this forum are getting to ridiculous amounts, so forgive for the inevitable obsolete suggestion that didn't pass my search-fu. I also kept some popular ones for endorsement.

==General suggestions==
- Character loadouts / Templates
Usually my colonists wear no armor or weapons on their daily abouts, for story, efficiency and safety reasons.
Then theres a raid and (besides the usual freeze from all those stacked pathfinding) i rush my guys to the armory. This is story fun, except the part where i have to spend 20 minutes microing vests, guns and helmets for a dozen colonists. Making a save loadout button would save a lot of time and be really fun, specially with the much requested alert mode, click it and see your guys running untold to the armory to buckle up!
With extra slots you could even have loadouts for certain types of jobs, or to quickly go back to your civil attire.

- Armor penalties for jobs
This one is a good complement for the above. Sure, there's a speed bonus, but certainly there should be more of an  incentive to stop your colony from having power armored lily farmers everywhere,  if not an incentive to have a sensible one. Make it a job efficiency penalty or a heavier speed penalty.

- Slots. hauling slots
its nothing new the slot thing, but to further help with reducing stormtrooper-town, would be having your hauling tasks requiring an empty slot.

- Mix Health and Thoughts & Character and Gear tabs.
Really, there's no need to have 4 different tabs. You can easily stream it to 2, plus its a pain to constantly switch from one to another.

- Show all equipped items
Synergizes with  the above. Why not simply showing all equipped gear in the bottom of the screen? Drop the cloth, but show hand, body and head.

- Revolver. Because sci fi western NEEDS revolvers instead of quickly obsolete pistols.

- Right-clicking corpses gives single objects strips or strip all. So no more bazzilion clothes on the ground.

- Show traits at overview
Less tab keeping is always more fun. I also read a suggestion about adding the interests to the overview. That'd be great.

- Force action (eating)
probably already suggested but really, mental break downs because the character can't seem to priorize feeding itself? Nah ah.

- Force task (half a day doing the same task)
Very useful to priorize a task without having to check the nerve wrecking overview, again. The guy will simply do a task you just ordered  and won't wander off again and again because he can't seem how important it is to haul that metal, or finish that wall section before incoming raiders. Perhaps 0.5 day is a reasonbly amount of overriding set normal behavior.

- Walls (and powered doors) shouldn't be able to be destroyed by punches. / armor rating
They really don't. Would work wonders with a penetration and armor rating system, and better defense for powered armors (32% is a joke right?) or armos in general. This could ditch the % system for simple numbers, which i guess is better to compute both for man and machine.

Stuff would have hit points and hardness/defense rating, weapons would have damage and penetration rating, you could have weapons with huge damage but low penetration or low damage and high penetration or stuff in-between, so a gun with 4-10 damage (here i am hoping random damage will be implemented) and 2 P would ignore 2 points of hardness from something before reducing damage.  (10 dmg , 2 ap -  10 AR = 2 final dmg.  50dmg 0 AP  -  50 AR = 0 dmg, 1 dmg, 50AP - 50 AR = 1 dmg). Surely, you would have a different rating for each type of damage, as it already is.
...
Of course this would make killbox even more cheap, so you'd have to make new ways for enemies to overcome walls. Rocket launcher is a popular one, but if everything goes right and Ty listen to us, there will be a tool/auxilary slot which some raider could have equipped something like a climbing tool. Once inside they could open up the doors for the others to let them in.

Heck, you could even get a battering ram. Imagine the sad story of stench, the slumworld pyro that would charge - molotov in hand - the ram before it gets too close to your walls. Alas he is mowed down. Jon, the huntsman, was giving sniper support, but they were  too many, he tried to rescue stench, but Ross, his sniper companion wouldn't let him "lets go man, lets go! he's dead" ."but, stench! its stench man, he's our friend" "you are my friend too! you gotta live, live for stench, live for sara!" "damn, damn those raiders!". Damn those raiders indeed Jon. R.I.P. stench. Erm, but i digress.
(disclaimer: actual stench death was far inglorious, but jon and ross were indeed sniper buddies. Ross died of blood loss after getting his leg torn off.in what was supposed to be an easy clean up job. Jon was by his side, but he couldn't rescue him, there were too many, he died on his arms on the way to the medbay. Jon escaped 4 days later with Lynx, and guilt uppon his shoulders, plus (minus?) a few missing limbs. In loving memory of Stench, Ross, Sara and Hawk, thanks for your time).

anyhoo...
- Nerf killboxes
And when i say "nerf" i mean making other diverse strategies more viable (more is better). Sure, everyone loves a killbox, the last defense against the mad horde, very cinematic indeed. And by all means, lets keep the killbox.. against tribals, zombies, etc.  But smart enemies shouldn't just charge in to death.
See killboxing isn't a problem, the game is too good to be one, but it's definitely a "thing", borderline troublesome, the be all end all defense strategy. It makes for some ugly designing and reeks of cheapness too. It also doesn't make sense sometimes (like assumingly intelligent foes) running up the hill to get mowed down when they can just hop a wall.
My idea is reducing the numbers of  enemies to balance it out and to make them more diverse in their tactics, while allowing you to do the same.

- Should be able to stay ontop of sandbags or debris
Related to the above, its just a cheap mechanic to exploit for killboxes. It also doesn't make sense, if i ever walk over a sandbag or a bunch of rock i wouldn't involuntarily slide forwards. If anything, make the character lose the cover bonus, since he's standing on top of something. As a player i feel obliged to fall for such tricks because of the ridiculous amounts of raiders you get.

- Stack clothes like other resources
Its just that a lot of things should be stackable, clothes is one, for those that like to role play closets. Would be less of a minor thing if clothes would degrade after a while. But I'm not sure it should be a thing. I guess it's been already suggested, but yeah endorsement.

- Suppression
Already been suggested, keeping it for endorsesakement. Suppression would make for longer drawn out fights instead of the gib-fest we have (nothing against gib fest, but longer shootouts are also cool). Getting shot at would reduce speed, give a small cover bonus and increase weapon cooldown.

- Exploding dead sentries? c'mon!
Really, who designed those turrets? Michael bay?? those things have a larger  explosion AoE than a mortar shell. Lets just catapult sentries (or whichever explosion device is inside those things) and throw them at raiders. Job done.

- Working / Chill slider
Just a colony wide (if not personal) slider that lets you decide how much time the colonist spends working or chilling. You would need a chill mechanic for that, but then again why wouldn't you want it? its a sim game, there's nothing more simmish or humane than humans chilling out. It would give new meanings and new tools for colony morale managment / story imagining. it would give fun.

- Colonists approach each other to talk.
Works great with the above. On their down time when idling, colonists could approach each other to chat up, giving that lively feeling we all want in the narrative. 

-Less limb loss. 0 hp incapacitations
While these details are really, really cool, i felt it they were too much common to make sense, specially getting your leg or arms cut with bows or rocks. Losing all hp in a limb shouldnt be automatic limb loss, you could only have a really long time to recover from it. In the same manner, losing torso all hp could mean bedridden for a month. losing all head hp could mean comatose-bedridden for an even longer time. Sure, if its a gun shot death would be much more prevalent, but against punches and rocks comatose would be less unlikely.

- Emergency power
Because everybody loves emergency power

- Meetings / leader elections
I guess leaders must've been suggested a couple of times, but you know what else comes with leaders in survival themes? the meetings. Nothing rings as "survival" as the group getting together around a table at the mess hall and discussing things, maybe electing a new leader, deciding the future, etcetera etcetera. I don't know. Make it a zone, make it a task, make it an event, but meetings would be cool, just as when everyone meets for a lunch.

-Making Kevlar "stage" less instant
Right now by the time you start getting your hands on kevlar its just seconds before you get power armor, and kevlars are cool.
Since  in this game you have just a few people, you're usually power armor-clad pretty early. There's also too few drawbacks to power armor to use different armor.
I'd just make power armor VERY rare, use some kind of fuel (or an inbuilt stored eletricity that would need to be recharged from time to time/charge station) BUT much better defense ratings.
Kevlars would need a boost aswell. You have the bread and butter (you have hit locations and its easy to increase damage reduction), no reason not to do it.
Synergizes with penetration and linear armor rating. A kevlar would give a high defense to torso, being pretty good against pistols and shotguns (low penetration) but not against a sniper rifle. This also make using different guns a more tactical decision, instead of ignoring "lower tier" equipment.

- Colony Re-settling
Sometimes its just better to pack up and leave. It would be specially awesome on an ironman game, instead of getting total party killed, you get on a side corridor, get on the back room and escape through the long corridor that leads to the other side of the mountain. You lose the colony but you don't lose the man. Its also a nice excuse to start a new game without actually starting one.
It would also be awesome with some kind of hard nature mode where food is scarce and resources are spread thin, but i guess you'd need some kind of transport (like a cart to move at least some resources with you). Probably been suggested, but yeah, there it is again.

- coffee / adrenaline / drugs
repeating for endorsment

- multiple layers (underground, double stories)
repeating for endorsement. But no infinite or various levels. Just an underground and a top story. C'mon, you know you want that guard tower with the lone sniper picking people off, ignoring ground cover. Yeah, i know you do. (also outskirt outposts!)

- Longer time cycle
Its a minor thing, but i just feel the cycles in games like this or sims, or whatever are too fast. 20 seconds for an hour? 1 hour to finish a meal? 5 hours to cross a 5 building colony? Its not game-breaking, but its those little details that start to eat you away after you realisz they exist. I dunno, you already have 3 speed levels, there's no bad side to make the days longer since it only means you add maybe a few seconds to your fast forward.

- Balance skill growth
some skills improve better than others, growing and construction seems specially prone to this, you get to max level very fast while doctoring, cooking and melee are way slower.

-fog of war
repeating for endorsement. I mean, imagine this with no warnings for raider attacks. You have to keep sentries going out for patrols. You discover a raider camp near you. how long will they stay there until they attack? should you go back or send a hunting party? what if you get ambushed? what if you ambush them. Would make the "patrol" suggestion more meaning. You could even:

- patrol safety buff
Give a small morale buff to your guys based on how many people you have patrolling

- security cams
For the fog of war. They would give you line of sight in exhange of power consumption. Perhaps there would be a task to watch the comms under a Patrol task. You could have a type of beacon/alarm building that lasts for a while on its own and rings when detecting some kind of motion/armed motion.

- Bacta tank / vat chambs
Since we have cryo chambers we could have bacta tanks, right? Vat chambers for regrowing parts, as endgame substitute to prosthetics.

- Psionics
C'mon, we've all watched Akira. There's already psionics in the game (in an amusingly randomly bizarre way).
An easy way to implement:
Make it a trait "Psionic" (duh), make a researchable or rare "drop" equipment, the psionic amplificator, not unlikely the one in X-Com apoc. Equip the psionic-only weapon. Explode enemies  from afar. Have fun.

- specialization trait
There could be another kind of trait called specialization. Specialization would give just that, something specific under a skill that a colonist knows how to do really well (double efficiency or something like that). Be it building stone walls, repairing sentries, shooting with sniper rifles, etc. That way when Bob the white crag Sniper comes, you know he's really a sniper, not some generic random shooting skilled raider equipped with a sniper rifle (he's really a sniper).

- stored items in roofed walled in areas last longer
Storage equipment is no new suggestion,  but if the game can check for a walled room it could double or reduce the rate at which food gets spoiled. Or perhaps a "cooler" floor type, or walls.

- Blights are not map wide
crop blights shouldn't be map wide. Maybe walled/roofed greenhouses won't be affected while outoodors ones are.

- More common but less severe mental breakdowns.
Also diverse ones, like staying in one place, refusing to work for a while, lock up in its room. Not just stupid stuff like hitting your friends or trying to leave your own safe haven in an hostile world.

- Mechs! nuff said
mechs, mechs for work, mechs for combat, mechs :)

- Eletrictiy priority
like security > medbay > doors > lamps...

- Sandworms for desert maps. I mean, of course right?

- Arrows pass over walls
Repeating for endorsement.
Alsoo rocks, spears... Another good bit to change the usual killbox operation.

- Hauler bot
Really, hauling gets painful after a while, specially with mining operations.
I guess there could be all kinds of specialized bots, but its also been suggested to death. I mainly want hauler bots anyway.

- Plant pots shouldn't need to be replanted. Watering can easily be abstracted

- If not vehicles, at least semi-automatic ferry mine carts. I mean, if minecraft has it, why not rimworld, right? Perhaps an end-game floor type that transports people faster, like personal people tubes

- Happiness/morale affects work and/or combat efficiency
Perhaps a low morale would make you shoot less often with less accuracy, or perhaps work a little slower or walk a little less determined. Conversely, if you fine, things should be a little easier.

- Take prisoner for a walk
The way the prisioning works makes cabin fever - or every other debuff - useless compared to infinite warden chat, but i guess it could be nice (or if the system change) if you could make a prisioner go for a walk with the warden, maybe set a courtyard with a door that can be opened by prisoners.

- Better morale system (at least for prisoners)
The way i'd do it, debuffs would cap the max amount of morale you could get, so even if you get x30 friendly chats , you would only reach so far, and have such and such recruit chance, as long as you have other penalties.

- Wall mounted sentry
There's a wall and there's a sentry. The catch is that since its mounted to a wall, you can still pass under it, or build stuff under it. It would be a weaker, cheaper version, good to defend homes when overwhelmed.

== Map types ==
-Ruined city crawling with robots
You drop in what used to be the ruins of a city that had some matrix/skynet/cylon problem. You have a lot of half finished buildings, a lot of hi-tech and provisions to scavenge, but you'd get a higher chance to encounter mech patrols. This would need to have a rudimentary "stealth" system, where enemy doesn't know exactly where you are (and you them) and toons don't automatically shoot things. So you would get the belly fear of running from home to home while the robots crawl the streets.

-Giant trees
The trees are giant, you actually "mine" inside trees instead of mountains. Would be more awesome with Z-levels tho.

-Pitchblack
Probably been suggested, but a map with pitchblack nights and scorching days (monsters by night, sun damage by day). Or just different night/day cicles

-Zone threats:
Your zone might suffer from a single source of threat (raiders, tribals monsters, robots), or perhaps just have it set to a higher occurrence rate. Good for themed sessions.


== More traits ==
Friendly:  Bonus chat buff to other colonists
Annoying:  Penalty chat debuff to other colonists
Fast metabolism: gets hungry faster, heals faster
Large: big and burly, has extra hit points. Move slower
Thin: slender body for fewer hit points and faster movement
Leader: bonus job efficiency for nearby allies and/or halves penalties for things like corpses or killings.
Sex-Appeal: bonus chat for opposed sex, half for same sex.
Insomniac: Sleep less, but is less efficient
Feral: Can't use tech equipments or weapons but is extra good at melee
Sleepwalker: a "for fun" trait. character will do random things (like moving or carrying stuff) while  sleeping.
Strongback:  should more slots be implemented, this one gives an extra slot, or hauls more resources at once.
Scary:  Emits a fear "aura" that can demoralizes enemies
Stubborn: from time to time it ignores your commands
Title: Re: Suggestion and Discussion Megathread
Post by: Johnny Masters on September 12, 2014, 04:32:16 AM
*replying the rest of my post that didn't fit*

==Game modes ==
- Random drop. Including dead or wounded survivors, that is no chargen. Random starting kit.

Lone badass survivor - A single survivor with excelent skills must survive on his on. It would work wonders with other types of game modes such as invading raiders camps, stealing parts for a spaceship...

-Military Defense - A military detachment makes a forced drop to a rimworld planet. You have a lot of experienced soldiers (5-10) a few techs and lots of resources and weapons. The idea is to quickstart a fortress from scratch and defend against a few waves of: raiders, monsters, raging animals, zombies, tribals,skynet robots, zombie raiders, zombie monsters, zombie robots, zombie tribals, aliens, zombie aliens... 

You get some downtime to heal, rebuild, expand or craft while you wait for you rescue. If it should ever come.

Alternatively, you may have a setup phase where you instabuild stuff within a certain timeframe, with a set of resources or resource points.

-Abandoned outpost
You drop in near what seems to be an abandoned outpost, full with quarters, medbays, walls and sentries. But of course there are corpses everywhere! Soon you are welcomed by the obvious horde wave. It could be just a fiery start or a map thing, such as constant threat below.

-Constant low threats
As it is, you get a random attack every few days, with increasing might, followed by a few days of relative peace. A nice change of pace would be having constant threats, such as feral animals or skirmishing raiders, so you'd have to keep constant patrols or defended outposts, getting more mileage out of your soldiers and keeping the adrenaline up (for those that love a gunfight).

-Sensible colony demographics -
Should be harder or rarer to recruit people from enemy factions. New colonists should mostly come from random events (escape pods or friendly imigration). This can be better
used to keep colony numbers from getting too high and the implausability that most of your guys are fending off the guys they used to belong to. Similarly, there could be a larger pool of survivors from the start and it just gets tougher as you lose them. 

Events:
- Invade / rescue missions
endorsement

-Distress beacon
A pod drops and signals help. Getting near could reveal a survivor or raiders dropping in or sprout from the ground.

-Escort - An allied or neutral band is passing through, but they need assistance! You must get out of your meticulously cheap killbox to save your allies. Get favor or resources in exchange.

-Motel
A passing band asks for a place to stay for the night. They could pay or reveal to be hostile once inside.

-The Mist
Just like the movie. Instead of pitch black nights there could be a mist-like phenomena. Obviously there are monsters in the mist. Closed buildings would be safe, but how long could you be holed up?
You'd probably need an event to counter dwarfers tho

Ticket outta town: a random trade ship offers passage for a lot of dough (a lot). That would be an alternative to space ship escape.

Raider extortion : a raider group lands and demands payment for not attacking you. You can pay with money, resources or slaves. You can use the time given to build the required amount or to prepare a pre emp. Probably suggested but there you go again.

Virus: Somehow you got a virus or bug in your power/digital system. Doors open and shut without command, lights flicker, sentries shoot without command, consoles don't answer, etc.

The missing tail: Surviving members of the crash joins up. You get a hefty happiness buff for a while and new crew.

Abduction
Colonist abducted. returned a few days later changed

Allied colony migration
Might lose a few members, gain a few others. Probably just gain.

Toxic Cloud
Could be anything actually (sandstorm, eletricstorm, fog, meteor showers...) but i know it's been suggested to death