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Something I posted on "TechTree Minami" mod awhile ago. Applicable to vanilla now, at this point.

"Hmm... How about an event where swarms of crickets attack. All vegetation outside of roofed areas slowly deteriorates, and vegetation inside also does if you open the doors (or walls/windows) at all while it is happening. This would make hydroponics tables even more necessary. The attacks would last for a day or two.
Also be cool if the crickets could get in through embrasures and fences.

And how about a dust bowl event! That'd be great. Everything just goes dark outside and dirt filth builds up EVERY where. When the dust settles, all that is left is a LOT of dust and a bunch of dead plants. Maybe see about burying walkways or graves in dust too."

Mineable food resources.

Absolutely useless and unsustainable, but still fun when found. Lol! Maybe a Joy activity, or adds joy to meals it's used in?

It'd basically be like chocolate that you can get early-game.

If a colonist is preparing to walk a long way (for instance, from the fields to the base at night, or back in the morning) could you have them look around a bit for anything that could be hauled in that direction while they're at it? I find myself harvesting a lot of corn, just for it to sit there, because hauling rarely reaches the top of my colonists' priorities. This would at least make it so SOME of it reaches the refrigerator, and so debris and steel from mines actually make it to stockpiles instead of sitting around in my mountain base until used.

The best way I could see doing this is by adding a restriction; in addition to "Anything," "Work," "Joy," and "Sleep," add "Haul," which prioritizes hauling over other work/joy/rest activities. You could set hauling to happen the first hour and the last hour a colonist is awake.

There are probably better ways than that, though! I challenge you!

Version Found: Mac build 584

Game froze when Colonist Hauled meal reserved by hungry colonist.

Both colonists were hungry. Both went after Packaged Survival Meals in the same stack; one arrived first, took one, and ate it, while the next continued to target the same stack. My colonists traveled a long way to get these meals, and my farms were not ready for their first harvest for another few days (it was cloudy and rainy for the past three days.) So I configured a stockpile to accept PSMs. I unpaused, watched the first colonist finish their meal, and then walk over and pick up the stack of PSMs. I did not prioritize this; it could perhaps be because the stockpile was set to Critical. Game crashed when second colonist was still targeting the stack.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Make two colonists hungry; make sure Colonist 1 has Hauling as top priority task.
2. Make them both go to the same meal stack. Ensure that there are no other item stacks near the meal stack that the first colonist may try to haul. Be sure that one can arrive and eat their meal before the second arrives at the meal stack.
3. Open a stockpile at Critical priority for the type of meal they have targeted.
4. Observe as Colonist 1 picks up the meal stack and attempt to haul it. Game will freeze.

Expected Results: "Cannot Haul - [Meal] Reserved by [Colonist 2]." condition forces Colonist 1 to search for another task nearby.

Actual Results: Colonist 1 hauls a meal stack reserved by Colonist 2 for eating. Game freezes.

Few ideas:

-First, not sure if this one would be cheap, but: Drill. Requires research. Requires power. Drills a geothermic vent. Can fail/explode. Maybe 3x3, geothermic vent is created in the center, drill must be sold to build Geothermic Generator.

-Motion detecting lights: Would work much like auto-turrets, but instead of killing things on sight, would turn on on sight. Would also turn off when no one is around. Requires research(?)

-Non enclosing walls; maybe more durable?

-Improved roofs research option; maybe can stand further away from supports? Or maybe vaulted ceilings, to decrease the amount of XY space that is required for colonists to not feel cramped.

-Lightning rods/generator; requires research, keeps lightning from damaging a certain range, generates vast amounts of energy when batteries are hooked up. Diverts excess energy into the ground.

-Wall lamps

-Underground conduits; so they don't take up as much space.

-Double sided equipment rack.

-Bunk - sleeps multiple prisoners/colonists.

-Couch

-More potted plants; different colored flowers, shrubs, bushes, etc.

-Fences and gates; keep animals out without having to enclose farms.

-Handler class; like Warden except for animals.

-Vet class; like Doctoring except for animals.

-Patrol class; colonist patrols a designated zone for threats. Auto-drafts when threat is detected.

-Animal capture; requires lasso/traps.

-Some sort of beast of burden; bull-like, horse-like, mule-like. Requires same process as "recruitment," except called "Breaking." Can be used to haul more, grow more efficiently. Requires "cleaning-up" after and feeding. Fed by Handlers. Small chance to be injured on the job.

-Hay for animals to sleep on.

-Research: shoes for animals, saddle/reins/etc.

-More crops; need to acquire seeds which require research, or are attained from traders or crashed ships. Perhaps Oaf recruitment yields small chance of getting new seed type.

-Smooth-out mineshaft walls.

-Metal detector; equipment allows for seeing minerals deeper into walls than just one block.

-Caverns; must be mined into to discover. Same as outdoors, but hidden until mined into. Rock fllor, rock walls. Maybe geothermic vents?

-Mushrooms and other fungi grow in dark. (Found in caverns.)

-Cooking options: Multiple tiers. Higher tiers less likely to set fires; T1 Open campfire, T2 Fire pit, T3 Fire Grill, T4 Electric Stove, T5 Oven, T6 Microwave oven (penalty to happiness?) Require research. Also (not cheap part) Maybe higher tiers (up until microwave) are less likely to burn food.

-Overcooked/Undercooked food: Multiple tiers. T1: Raw (-12 Happiness, 0 Fear when eaten), T2: Undercooked (-10 Happiness, 0 Fear when eaten), T3: Cooked (+3 Happiness, 0 Fear when eaten), T4: Overcooked (-8 Happiness, 0 Fear when eaten), T5: Burnt (-12 Happiness, 0 Fear when eaten.)

-Nuked food: Microwaved. (-5 Happiness, 0 Fear when eaten)

-Prisoner-accessible doors (so I can build a mess hall or rec center )

-Prisoners try to escape during power outages, depending on loyalty.

-Trench: slow down movement like sandbags, provide cover when standing in. Do not provide cover for standing behind.

-Bunker walls: Requires research. Can be shot through, provide cover, and are roofable. Possibly don't conduct electricity? Resists explosives from the outside, flame retardant.

-Streetlights: More durable, provide vast amounts of light when outside, cannot be roofed in.

-Chef class; has lesser chance of burning/overcooking/undercooking meals depending on aptitude.

-Blast doors; Require research, can only be opened from terminals, flame retardant, resist explosives. Can be forced open by sapper raiders.

-Sapper raiders; can dismantle auto-turrets, cut through walls and blast doors (over the course of several hours.)

-More happiness items; lampshades, desk, different kinds of chairs (office, lounge, recliner, etc.) bookshelves

-Water supplies; rivers, lakes, etc. Possibly able to drill water wells. Story event; draught. Crops begin to die, animals die of thirst, wells and rivers dry up, intense heat creates exhaustion. Colonists should need to drink water.

-Sewage system; toilets, pipes, and septic tanks all fall under on research category; water purifiers which require research, and a biofuel generator which requires research and turns waste into energy. Before researching sewage (0 Happiness, 0 Fear), chamber pots (-15 Happiness, 0 Fear), or outhouses (-5 Happiness, 0 Fear.)

-Check/Uncheck all button on Overview screen.

-Automatic pause on opening Overview screen.

-Robots which can perform firefighting, constructing, repairing, mining, plant cutting, hauling, and cleaning tasks (each task requires additional research. Should be too unwieldy to grow plants.

-Mechanic class; like warden except for robots. Repairs robots as needed. Even-more-Not-so-cheap idea: Depending on aptitude of the last mechanic to repair the robot, chance of shorting out, exploding, shutting down, or going rogue.

-Power sockets for robots to return to (beds for robots.)

-More weapons; flamethrower, gas cans which burn until put out when damaged, throwable knives, RPG, Incendiary grenade, baseball bat, crowbar, wrench, screwdriver, hammer, nail gun, saw, gloves.

-Non-lethal weapons; tazer, mace cans, EMP grenades which knock out power in a certain range, lasso, some kind of weaponized incapacitating drug (darts or melee syringes).

-This one has been mentioned before: Negative damage; threshold between incapacitation and death. Death at -10. Incapacitation at 0. If a unit takes damage that drops them below 0, halve the remaining damage. If the HP falls below -10, the unit dies. If the -10<HP<0, the unit survives, is incapacitated, and continues to bleed out until rescued.

-Field medkits: bandages stop bleeding, certain drugs provide extra HP, certain drugs cut incoming damage by a certain percentage (person on morphene or adrenaline feels less damage than a person not.)

-Improved doctoring system: more than just feeding people. Maybe some injuries require bandaging, surgery, or drugs instead of just nursing. Success of said operations should be based on aptitude and difficulty of operation.

-Events where prisoners become disorderly and/or attempt to escape. Makes me feel better about telling the warden to beat them.

-Floods which require pumps to keep the colony from flooding inside the walls. Floods damage electrical systems, crops, and furniture, and creates an excess of filth.

-Mentioned before: Dismantle option for furniture instead of sell and buy again to relocate. Also available for turrets.

-Practice dummy/target practice furniture. Improves shooting/melee skills when there are no raiders to defend from.

-Personal lockers which can be claimed by colonists; raise happiness.

-Mentioned SO many times: FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Takes up equipment slot. Requires research.

-Craftable equipment. Fire ext. (increases aptitude for firefighting), hoe (increase aptitude for growing), rake (increase aptitude for growing), power tools (increase aptitude for constructing/repairing), hand tools (increase aptitude for constructing/repairing), pickaxe (increase aptitude for mining), wheelbarrow (increase carrying capacity, lowers walking speed, increases aptitude for hauling), backpack (increase carrying capacity, lowers walking speed, increases aptitude for hauling), machete (increases aptitude for plant cutting), vacuum (increases aptitude for cleaning), broom (increases aptitude for cleaning), dust pan and brush (increases aptitude for cleaning), surgical equipment (increases aptitude for doctoring), handcuffs (increases aptitude for warden), all other equipment I listed above.

-Engineering/Crafting class.

-Crafting table; like research table, but for crafting equipment. Equipment must be researched first before crafted.

-Recycler to melt down slag into metal. Requires research.

-Grinder to grind down rock debris. Requires research.

-Heater/AC Unit: requires energy, requires research. Boosts happiness.

So I called for help from one of my allies after a huge raiding party showed up. There were many casualties, but we were winning. One of my allies fell along with several of my own pawns, so--because my allies were finishing off the rest of the party, I decided my men were best off getting the wounded out. I told three of my pawns to rescue my warriors, two to capture raiders, and one to "capture" and save the dying ally; because why would they send me troops again if I let their own man bleed out?

Then things turned south: my allies were enraged by my "capturing" their man, even though I just wanted to save him and let him go. This should be an option. One should be able to right-click an allied pawn and have the choice to "Rescue Allied Pawn" or "Capture Allied Pawn".

In addition, "Rescuing" the pawn should raise the relations between that faction and my colony; to keep the game from breaking, the value shouldn't be of value anywhere near the cost of military assistance.

A way you could do this is to have a third category of bed. Right now we have Colonist and Prisoner beds. Why not add a third; a Medical Bed or something like that? These beds could take any friendly, incapacitated pawns, including colonists. This would also fix the problem of having to take colonists all the way back to their own beds; often times, my colonists bleed out because their actual beds are so far away from the battlefield. Having the ability to make an infirmary for all friendlies would fix both of these problems, and make Doctoring a much easier task.

The addition of infirmaries would also allow for more dynamic recovery systems. Instead of being "Bound" like Prisoners, perhaps the colonists could have broken legs, or other things that must be fixed before they can leave the room. It would be a lot more interesting and realistic to see injured colonists moving around occasionally rather than being bed-ridden for days on end.

What do you guys think? Good idea?

Version Found: [W|0.0.254B]

Roofed areas do not register shadows.

This arises from a possible exploit. Roofs can exist anywhere within seven spaces of a wall/rock. This can be exploited to make floating platforms which block rain and lightning without walling off areas (I've been testing to see how useful it is in outdoor 24/7 growing areas.) The slightly less urgent bug I am reporting is the behavior of shadows around these structures. The best way to explain it is with the attached save file.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make a one square room within six squares to the left and/or to the right of another wall. This other wall should extend from parallel to the southernmost wall of the room to about three spaces further north than the northernmost wall of the room.
2. Once it is finished roofing, sell all of the walls of the room.
3. Watch the shadows cast by the "load bearing" wall(s) near sunrise (if the room is to the left of the wall) and/or sunset (if the room is to the right of the wall.)

Expected Results:
Expected sun lamps to disperse the shadow, expected floating platforms to cast shadows, and expected floating platforms to collapse.

Actual Results:
See save file, platforms did not collapse.

Attachment: Save file at the moment of discovery. Explore the growing areas during sunrise/sunset to observe.

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

[only]

Version Found: [W|0.254B]

Title: Colonists do not recognize schematics when standing on them.

Summary: When colonists are manually prioritized into constructing while on route to another job, they will build everything around them from the initial square based on proximity. However, if they were standing on a schematic, they will ignore that schematic and walk away or find another schematic to build nearby. This causes problems; I placed three solar panel schematics in a backwards L pattern, and  because my colonists were building meaningless things at the time, I prioritized two of them to build a solar panel; the ones on the edges of the L, to be exact. And, as usual, they never finish the panels in one go, so they would begin building the walls surrounding the east and south sides of the panels instead of building the central solar panel (ignoring it because they were standing on it), and I would have to prioritize them to build the panels again. I prioritized the furthest ones first, so when I tried to prioritize the middle one, the third colonist could not do it because the other two were standing on it. That colonist began finishing the walls. After removing him, one of the colonists had already finished the solar panels and finished the walls too; this left the third colonist stuck inside of the wall. I had to sell the wall, draft him, move him out, undraft him, and prioritize him to build the panel, THEN finish the wall. This resulted in a waste of metal. This has happened elsewhere as well.

When furnishing a room, I use a generic template for every room regardless of the walls (rock or not.) So I can be very quick when drawing up the schematics. Usually, I do this while the room is being mined out of rock. So typically, when I allow the colonist to do constructing tasks again, they are usually standing on top of a schematic. They will build everything in the room except what they originally stood on, then they will travel long distances to other construction projects without finishing the room; this usually leads to dysfunctional rooms (no bed, no light,  or no conduit)

I may or may not have a save demonstrating this, but it is easily replicated.

Steps to Reproduce:
Solar Panel Entrapment is going to be difficult to replicate, so I'm going to omit it.
1. Draw schematics while a colonist is in the area you are drawing. Make sure all colonists are not allowed to construct at the moment you begin drawing. It is probably a good idea to pause the game.
2. Draw schematics in a far away area.
3. Change the priorities of the colonist so they are only allowed to construct, then unpause the game.
4. Observe. Do not mess with the colonist in any way.

Expected Results:
I expected the colonists to finish the solar panels, then build the walls.
I expected the colonists to finish the rooms before heading off to do other tasks.

Actual Results:
The colonists trapped themselves in a solar array.
The colonists did not finish the rooms before heading off to do other tasks.

Version Found - [W|0.0.25B]

Title - Fire was not responded to, and could not be prioritized. Destroyed part of colony.

Summary - An electrical explosion caused a massive inferno in one of my rooms. After the colonists diligently fought this fire, everything inside had been destroyed (six equipment racks.) However, before the fire was out, it had spread (through a 1-square thick rock wall) to the adjacent rooms, burning a potted plant and a research table. After taking care of the first fire, the colonists moved to fight the potted plant fire. But, once it was out, not a single colonist moved for the research table fire; in fact, they all went to bed. I attempted prioritizing it with all of them, but the only message that would come up would be "Cannot prioritize (Colonist is not a researcher)." After allowing all colonists to research, I again tried prioritising the fire, getting instead the message "Cannot prioritize (Research is a long-term task.) I thought to disallowing all tasks other than research and trying again, but by this time the table had burned down. I suspect the problem here is that the firefighting range is only 1 block; they could not deal with the threat because the fire was on the wall side of the table. Please fix; set firefighting range to 2 blocks or come up with another solution.

Steps to Reproduce -
1. Fire breaks out.
2. Fire spreads through 1 block thick rock walls into two adjacent rooms; one has a burning potted plant, the other has a burning research table facing the wall.
3. Colonists fight first fire.
4. Colonists fight fire in second room.
5. Colonists fail to fight fire on the back of the research table.
6. Research table is lost.

Expected Results - Expected colonists to fight the fire.

Actual Results - Colonists let the table burn down.