Topics

One of the stated aims for Rimworld is keeping the number of colonists small enough that we can keep track of their individual identities. Could this be helped by having the ability for them give advice to the player?

I know human traits have been discussed a lot ( Human Reactions and Values being excellent examples), so in starting this thread I’m trying to think more about how it could fit in terms of game design.

1. Tutorial tips

The easiest way to do this from what we have now would just be to put the existing tool tips in the mouths of colonists- rather than game telling me I need to build defences, what if the Commissar expressed concern? Rather than “Low food”, what if the Oaf remarks that crops are ripe, but he needs more hands to bring the harvest in?

If there’s a permanent place to get these (maybe in the Thoughts screen), it could also give information that is below the level of needing an actual alert- perhaps “If we recruit any more people, we’re going to need more crops” or “Those blasting charges we researched could be used as landmines”.

2. Dilemma decisions

The classic example; your Con Artist/Warden wants to recruit a prisoner with kind words, while the Miner who took a wound in the raid at least wants a revenge beating, and the Solider considers the prisoner a waste of food and doesn’t see why they aren’t executed immediately.

This kind of thing worked extremely well in King of Dragon Pass; then again, that game was like FTL in that it was turn-based and you couldn’t proceed without making one of a small number of concrete decisions. I’m not sure how well it would work in a more open real-time game like Rimworld. In terms of player experience it’s less relevant for character X to talk about the prisoner when you’re busy thinking about starvation. It’s also a lot easier to have a database of opinions about a scripted event that the developer wrote than it is to respond intelligently to captured raider X, who injured Y and Z, has skills A and B but character traits C and D.”

3. Interpersonal

“I agree with %Pawn_HighSocial_Friend”.
“If %rival is for it, I’m against it.”

4. Mechanical impacts

A way to give this kind of thing more weight could be with happiness modifiers: “The colony agreed to follow my advice”. This could eventually mean a benevolent pawn fleeing a tyrannical colony or vice versa.

So, what do you think? What see could Colonist Advice be useful for? Where would it fit in the game? Would this kind of thing help give a better idea of the colonists, or would it conflict with role-play?

In the Let's Play videos I've seen, people always seem to build huge battery chambers. That got me to wondering how much storage is actually needed.

I put together some sums based on building descriptions. I haven't managed to test these in-game yet, so I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has.
(For those of you who are as much of a dork as I am:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At-nwHqB-9gNdG4zVUJMNldHc3ZOWFdSRldiVTdGYWc&usp=sharing)

Based on hitting pause halfway through each hour, it looks like solar panels produce 1700 Watts between about 07:00 and 16:00, nothing between 20:00 and 03:00, and change in a roughly linear way in the morning and evening. (Perhaps someone with a knack for code, or inside knowledge, can tell us if the transition is actually quadratic or sinusoidal or something).

That gives solar panels an average output of 1000 W over the 24 hour cycle.

Batteries have a 50% efficiency; in 24 hours, one panel will charge up a battery by 467.6 Watt-days (OK, I tested some things in-game). That fits with a roughly 1000W average power.

If some of that power is being used directly, rather than inefficiently stored, I reckon a single solar panel can support something like 750 Watts of demand. At some point I'd like to try hooking up a panel-battery-sunlamp (800 Watts) and seeing if it slowly charges or suffers blackouts in the wee hours.

And if you're thinking it, because I did, no; You can't light up a solar panel with a sunlamp and build an over-unity loop. Solar panels don't seem to register artificial light at all (granted, there is no reason for them to do so in-game, other than exploits).

The point of all this is that, by my calculations, the rule of thumb should be that for every four solar panels you only need one battery to give a continuous supply.

The reason to have a whole hallway full of batteries is for the eclipse (or unforseen accidents taking out the panels, I suppose). Does anyone know how long the eclipse lasts? Is it always the same?

By my numbers, a base that is just getting by on X solar panels will go through X fully-charged batteries a day (or one battery every five days, if they go dark on everything except the paste dispenser).

So, what's your preferred approach? The more the merrier? Are occasional blackouts and micro-managing your standing lamps worth it to avoid the Short Circuit event?