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Messages - insanityfarm

#1
Stories / Re: Expedition Logs: The Scythe
February 06, 2014, 02:10:54 AM


Expedition Log, Day 71
If there is a god in this horrible universe, than he is on our side. Four against eleven, and we suffered no losses. I can still hardly believe it. However, we are a little worse for the wear. Rubio went down during the fight, and Nick just barely patched his wounds in time to keep him alive. I don’t think the blood will ever leave the bedsheets. Vas doesn’t smile anymore. It seems like he’s operating sheerly on the fear of death. Hell, I thought I might lose it myself during the fight. Vas set me up with a sniper rifle in the eastern nest. Only when I arrived there did I realize it was the same nest where Hiroshi went down just six days prior. His body still lay limp over the sandbags. It took all I had not to break down completely. Still, we’re alive. Vas showed impressive command during the fight. We held M-24 sniper rifles during the initial assault, but he ordered the switch to M-16s and charge rifles when they got up close. Even Carlos hadn’t thought to do that. Reflecting, it was probably his conventional military training. But out here, we don’t have a full squad, each trained with their chosen weapon. It’s just us, and there’s nothing conventional about our situation. Vas knows that. He even had the turrets back up before I could even give the order. I suppose it’s habit by now. We also hit another stroke of luck. A traveler passed by shortly after the raid, and I had Nick detain him. Ruthless, I know. But at this point, it’s stick together, or die alone. He’ll come around eventually. We all do.


William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 72
Raiding party, southeast. This is insanity. We can’t hold this pace.

Salt


Expedition Log, Day 73
Again. We did it, again. This time, only one turret went down, we captured a raider, and not a single colonist severely injured. Well, calling them “colonists” at this point seems wrong. Perhaps...family. And who knows, maybe together, we can actually do this. Two raids with no losses. Maybe we can survive this catastrophe. Maybe there’s a reason to hope.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 76
Three days, and not a raider in sight. We’ve can finally breathe. We can finally sleep. Hell, I found time to clean the base for the first time in what must be two weeks. Since my last entry, our captured traveler John finally decided to join us. He’s no Tigress or Hiroshi, but he’s certainly better at tending the plants than Rubio or I. In addition, some poor soul seems to have met the same fate as us; shipwrecked on this backwater planet. Sadly, he’s a bit in denial, so we’ve had to keep him locked up for a while. I’ve talked to him a few times since he woke up, and I’m fairly sure we’ll be able to get him to work soon. Slowly but surely, the bedrooms are filling back up. I’ll see to it they don’t empty again.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 79
Things were going pretty well. The last captured raider and our fellow shipwreck survivor finally joined us. That brings our force back up to seven, almost as many as before. I finally felt safe again. It’s funny what a simultaneous solar flare and raider landing can do to that feeling. There’s a chance electronics will start working again before the raiders stage their assault. We can only hope. I surely have no need to repeat what happened last time we fought without auto-turrets.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 80
I don’t give a boomrat’s ass if it uses our last few pieces of metal, Vas will be getting a large, decorated room in the excavated mountain. The man is a god damned hero. However, I should start from the beginning. Every streak of luck eventually runs out; the raiders began their assault well before our electronics came back online. Turns out that when push comes to shove, John the farm boy and Roughchild the glitterworld lackadaisy won’t put up their fists and fight. That left Vas, Nick, Rubio, Allen, and I to man the walls. Their snipers manned the westward rock outcropping (we’ll need to expand our no man’s land), a total of six in all. Meanwhile, seven more made a rush for our lines. While repelling their blitz, lightning struck the base walls behind our central sniper’s nest. Twice. Never the same place, my ass. I’ve heard it said that luck is zero sum, but this is the first time I’ve believed it. Luckily, Roughchild came through and put the fire out, while the rest of us gunned down their forward assault; they managed to take out four disabled turrets in the process. The next few minutes were nervewracking. The raid degraded into a sniper battle, and I retreated inside, out of my skill level. Nick and Rubio joined me, breathlessly, a minute later, struggling to transform their injured hobbles into sprints. Finally, Vas opened the central door. His sheer momentum and the wide eyed look on his face said it all. I could see Allen’s body draped over the sandbags through the open doors, but there was no time to grieve. Vas fitted us with shotguns and blaster rifles, and positioned us to cover the two entryways. Vas’s last count put them at five practically unwounded soldiers to our four badly injured colonists. We sat with sweat coating our respective brows for what seemed like a lifetime...until we heard the most comforting sound. Auto turret fire. Sure enough, the lights flicked on, and everyone let out a sigh of relief. That is, until we heard the following and familiar sounds of two auto turret explosisions. Six for six. None left. Loud banging on the entry doors soon followed for the next minute, and then...nothing. An eerie silence gripped the room, and time seemed to practically stand still. No one dared move. My eyes flitted around, and a saw a group of hungry, tired soldiers, who seemed ready to drop their guns and fall asleep on the metal floor given any opportunity. The raiders were going to wait us out, and they were going to win. I can only assume Vas saw the same thing I did. Before I could encourage him to consider his own life, Vas had palmed a frag grenade and positioned himself behind the door. As he stepped forward, the door flicked open. A watched as my sole remaining partner from our original shipwreck...as our commander...as my friend...stepped into the doorway and hurled the grenade. Bullets flew, pinging the dirt and the metal, but only one found Vas, and it went clean through his shoulder. He quickly flung himself against the inside wall. Boom. The sound of an explosion. The footfalls of boots on the dirt, growing quieter and quieter. They were retreating. We survived. Vas, you god damned hero.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 83
Raider attack. They rushed our weak side.

Today, I buried William Salt.

Vaska Neemor
Expedition Leader
#2
Stories / Expedition Logs: The Scythe
February 05, 2014, 03:48:28 PM
I found myself so moved by the adventures and traumas of my most recent colony, that I decided to write a few expedition logs from the perspective of one of the colonists that I long ago deemed the expedition leader. The colony is named "The Scythe", and the storyteller is Tough Cleopatra Classic. I'll let Salt tell you the rest.


Expedition Log, Day 60
For the first time since this expedition began, I find myself regretting the decision to write these logs the old fashioned way. My hands are shaking so badly, I can barely hold the pen. I do not know if they will ever stop. The raiders I spoke of on Day 58 began their assault. The turrets were not on. They had been disabled by my order, to recharge our batteries after the recent eclipse. Only, no one thought to flip them back on. As our line of snipers began to fire, they found themselves overwhelmed by a mad rush, with no auto turret fire to protect their nests. We repelled the raiders, but not without great cost. As expedition leader, I should take responsibility for this mistake. However, I’m not sure I can bear the weight. Tiffy and Freeman are dead. They only joined us a few days back, but on this god forsaken rock, every day counts. Clara is dead. She’s been with us nearly since the beginning. She was so happy, too. I ‘d finally given the go ahead on the large excavation project she’d wanted for the mountain behind our main base, and she was halfway done with the necessary mining. She will never see it’s completion, but we will continue it in her honor. They even built me a larger room under the hollowed out mountain. Tonight, it will only serve to hold more shadows. Carlos is dead. Part of me wonders if he isn’t better off that way. He’d been walking around with hollow eyes for weeks. They say space marines are tough, but the amount of death that man has seen could break even the strongest warrior. It was all we could do just to keep him sane. We’ll miss him, though. And while it may be crass of me to say, we may miss his gun most of all. He was the best shot among us. I don’t know how we’ll make it without him. Our fighting force just dropped from eight to four. Vas’s mercenary training is good, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a marine’s. All three founders are left, along with Hiroshi. We have two prisoners from the assault previous locked in their cells. They were decent shots. Hopefully they’ll come around soon. Five of our six turrets went down. Hopefully Vas can get them back up before the next raider assault. Next time, they’ll be on.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 63
We’ve detected another raiding party. All six turrets are built and enabled, but the prisoners still refuse to lend a hand. Do they think the raiders will treat them any better than they’ll treat us? I tried to talk some sense into them, but they wouldn’t have it. Perhaps I should have tried to spook them instead. Well, it’s too late now. Vas and Tigress are lining up to snipe. Even Hiroshi and I are manning the wall with guns in our hands. A farm oaf and a surveyor. We’re desperate.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 64
Sixty four days. It’s hard to believe that I only knew her for sixty four days. It seems like a lifetime. The raiders are gone, but so is Tigress. The first of the founders to die. We lost her while trying to save Hiroshi; he didn’t make it either. If it wasn’t for Vas, I’d probably be dead too. That man has grown downright frightening with a blaster rifle in his hand. That leaves two of us. Two men, injured and bitter. At least they only got three turrets. We’ve just barely begun to cleanup; I don’t know if we’ll finish before the next raid. Hell, without Tigress and Hiroshi tending to the hydroponics, I don’t know if we’ll make it to the next raid. I’m starting to regret trading all that extra food for metal. I’m going to go talk to the prisoners. Hopefully one of them knows how to tend to plants, or we’ll all be going hungry.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


Expedition Log, Day 70
When I was young, I had a dream. Without my father in the house, I was stuck there, caring for my family. I dreamt that I would leave that house, leave that entire planet, and go on an adventure. A shipwreck was the least of my concerns. My days surveying for a pirate crew were certainly interesting, but part of me wonders if this accidental colony isn’t the culmination of those childhood dreams. It’s practically come full circle; here I am once again, caring for the household. Only this time, I’m holding a weapon. Ironic that Tigress insisted we call the colony “Scythe”, after the tool of her upbringing. An implement with two purposes; a tool for farming, and a weapon for fighting. Apt. If it isn’t clear from my reminiscing, I have an awful feeling this may be my last entry. A new band of raiders have appeared to the southwest, and they look nasty. Lucky for us, Nick and Rubio finally decided to offer their assistance. They’re both doctors, which is of surprisingly little use in our predicament, but Nick maintained the growing tables well enough to keep us fed, and Rubio helped us haul the necessary metal for Vas to fix up all six turrets, and rebuild the snipers’ nests. It hasn’t been easy, though. We’ve been quite pressed for time. Hell, we haven’t buried all the dead. Hiroshi’s body is still hanging over the sandbags in the eastern nest. Tigress has been buried, however. I just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her out there like that. We’ll do the same for Hiroshi, if we survive the night. Or perhaps, someone else will be doing the same for me.

William Salt
Expedition Leader


And, folks, it's now a cliffhangerâ€"for you, and for me. The game is saved at Day 70, as Salt, Vas, Nick, and Rubio prepare to make their stand. The result is up to my skill and Tynan's engine. I'll probably write an expedition log after the battle.

If anyone survives.
#3
Ideas / Bandits
February 04, 2014, 03:38:13 PM
An idea for another type of attacker event: a bandit who tries to filch your items. Perhaps, unlike raiders, you would not get a message for banditsâ€"the idea being that the bandit is stealthy. They do not attack unless provoked, but attempt to steal from exposed stockpiles, prioritizing items like silver or high value items, and degrading from there. This provides an incentive to keep your stockpiles inside and defended (as one realistically would) and would encourage you to actually guard your launch pad (or not keep resources sitting exposed on it).
#4
Ideas / Avoid Fire During Fire Panic
February 03, 2014, 04:50:10 PM
I'm not sure whether this is a bug, a purposeful choice, or simply something that hasn't been implemented, but I had colonists who, while running around due to being on fire, repeatedly ran back and forth through fire. I think this may have something to do with there only being one entrance/exit to my building (and that entrance/exit was on fire). But one would think a burning colonist would choose to just stay out, or run around inside the large expanse, rather than to run back and forth through the fire 5-6 times until they pass out?
#5
Ideas / Re: Your Cheapest Ideas
February 03, 2014, 04:47:21 PM
Quote from: Tynan on February 03, 2014, 04:43:17 PM
Select and right click him to make him drop it on the spot. Select and right-click the equipment rack to make him deposit it there. Unless there's a bug, these should work.

Ah, I probably missed it, sorry for the chain of posts in the Suggestion board.

Another one:
4. A quick way to check your current storyteller. At one point, I was unsure which storyteller I has picked, I couldn't find any way in the UI to check the storyteller. Perhaps listed in the save descriptions, in the Escape menu, or something else entirely?
#6
Ideas / Re: Your Cheapest Ideas
February 03, 2014, 04:40:07 PM
Quote from: Tynan on February 03, 2014, 04:35:11 PM
I've seen 1a lot; I'll look into it.

Thanks for the quick response, I appreciate it! Yeah, I've lost colonies due to not realizing that raiders had landed.

Also, it's possible that this is already possible, and I've just missed how to do it, but:
3. Ordering a military-drafted colonist to unequip a weapon and set it in a certain place. So far, equipping  a specified weapon has been easy, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to say "go put your Lee Enfield rifle back in equipment slot where you found it", etc.
#7
Ideas / Emergency Zone
February 03, 2014, 04:36:58 PM
I understand that this would likely be fairly complex due to interaction with pathfinding, taskfinding, and general AI, but I would love to be able to declare an "Emergency Zone", such that, what I toggle an "emergency mode", all colonists will stay within that zone. Right now, when facing a combat threat, it seems almost mutually exclusive to get non-military colonists to stay inside the defenses and still perform tasksâ€"either I can set them to military and they'll stay in place and be useless, or keep them as non-military and they risk running outside for designated mining, hauling, growing, fetching resources for construction, etc. I want them to continue to performing jobs, but only if they can complete the job without leaving the zone.

A lesser version of this feature would at least being able to set a gather point for non-military troops when you declare an emergency (even if they stop performing tasks). This would be a nice stopgap, but no where near as helpful as the above.
#8
Ideas / Re: Your Cheapest Ideas
February 03, 2014, 04:30:03 PM
This thread is a brilliant idea, I wish more game developers did this!


  • I keep missing messages. I'm well aware this is my fault, but I'd love to see an optional (could be enabled/disabled in the menu) way of making messages more evident. This could be the mail icon flashing, the message opening immediately and pausing the game upon arriving, or even just adjusting the volume or length of the alert sound. I think of all 3 ideas, I'd prefer the second, but something would be nice.
  • A keyboard shortcut for cycling colonist descriptions/menus. If you want an example, look at another Kickstarter game, Timber & Stone. In Timber & Stone, "[" and "]" cycle through all members of your settlement, automatically pulling up the first menu, and then F1-F4 pull up the different menus available for the settler. This would be really convenient if I just want to flip through and compare colonists' skills, overview colonists' thoughts, etc.