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I've been holding off working on mods 'cause I knew 0.8 was coming out.

Taking a look at the new build, I can't see temperature settings done in any of the XML files I assumed would hold them (i.e. in biomes.xml).

Can anyone confirm that it's all in the .dll code? If so, arrgh.

[needs]

Ok. So far making the body part specific mutations / weapons is going well (60+ mutations & bioweapons!), largely ripping off Minus, CrazehMeow & GottJammern's work: I've also created a new social dynamic via traits / thoughts, but I've hit a couple of walls...

1) The mechanic is supposed to work as follows:

Choose body part. e.g. leg
Select leg to be mutated.
Roll on table to determine which mutation is applied (3 positive, 2 negative, needs weighted chances)
Permanently set that mutation to the part.

I'm used to weighted tables in XML (using subtables to roll off), but Rimworld doesn't seem to use this process. I'm attempting to fudge the ability to remove the body parts, but if anyone knows if there's a <LABEL> that does it already, that'd be grand.

Basically, I need the ability to RNG a loot table where the result is perma-bound to that bodypart.

2) Traits: I've generated them, made all the thoughts / conditionals, but need several things clearing up:

a) how / where are the "observedX" located?

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   <ThoughtDef>
<defName>ObservedMinorMutation</defName>
<label>observed minor mutation</label>
<description>Some of us are changing in small ways, it makes me uncomforable. I am ok so far though.</description>
<baseMoodEffect>-1</baseMoodEffect>
<duration>10000</duration>
<stackedEffectMultiplier>1</stackedEffectMultiplier>
<stackLimit>3</stackLimit>
    <nullifyingTraits>
      <li>Psychopath</li>
      <li>Mutation</li>
  <li>Empathetic</li>
    </nullifyingTraits>
</ThoughtDef>

b) Where do I define thought predicates? e.g.

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  <ThoughtDef>
    <defName>GeneticFundamentalistUnhappy</defName>
    <label>has a mutation</label>
    <description>I am warped into an unnatural horror, I am unclean, I deserve to burn!</description>
    <baseMoodEffect>-50</baseMoodEffect>
    <activePredicate>ThoughtPredicates.HasMutation</activePredicate>
    <requiredTraits>
      <li>GeneticFundamentalist</li>
    </requiredTraits>
  </ThoughtDef>

c) How do I tie a body part to a trait? The mechanics are supposed to work so that any mutation gives the <MUTATION> trait, some have specific traits that they should give and so on. Is it currently possible to activate / give pawns traits outside of birth generation? Also, is it possible to tie not just Skills, but specific stats to a trait? e.g. in the following I'd like to give specific +stat to  <defName>RecruitPrisonerChance</defName>. Would the following work?

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    <TraitDef>
    <defName>HypnoticEyes</defName>
    <commonality>0</commonality>
    <degreeDatas>
      <li>
        <label>Hypnotic Eyes</label>
        <description>NAME's eyes have become alluring and seem to draw a person's gaze to them. HECAP can use this to the colony's benefit in trading matters.</description>
      </li>
    </degreeDatas>
<requiredWorkTags>
      <li>Social</li>
    </requiredWorkTags>
    <skillGains>
      <li>
        <key>Social</key>
        <value>2</value>
      </li>
    </skillGains>
<statGains>
<li>
<Key>RecruitPrisonerChance</key>
<value>3</value>
  </TraitDef>


Note: I just added <statGain>, I know it doesn't exist at the moment : or can I add the following to the actual <BODYPART> addition? This seems another good way to do it.

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    <equippedStatOffsets>
      <SocialImpact>1.50</SocialImpact>
    </equippedStatOffsets>


d) Where are the ranges for trait spectrums, and is it possible to force the client to replace a previous trait on the spectrum with the next one?

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<TraitDef>
    <defName>Mutation</defName>   
<commonality>0.1</commonality>
    <degreeDatas>
      <li>
        <label>minor mutation</label>
        <description>NAME's body has changed from the human normal in a small but noticable way. HECAP feels ostracized and unnatural.</description>
        <degree>-0.5</degree>
        <statModifiers>
<MentalBreakThreshold>6</MentalBreakThreshold>
        <permaThought>MoodOffsetMinorMutation</permaThought>
        </statModifiers>
      </li>
      <li>
        <label>medium mutation</label>
        <description>NAME's body has changed internally to a large extent. HECAP can feel the internal changes and wonders if they will spread.</description>
        <degree>-0.75</degree>
        <statModifiers>
<MentalBreakThreshold>18</MentalBreakThreshold>
        <permaThought>MoodOffsetMediumMutation</permaThought>
        </statModifiers>
      </li>
      <li>
        <label>major mutation</label>
        <description>NAME's body has changed externally away from the human norm. HECAP has at least one body part that is obviously no longer baseline human, and their mind stirs with alien thoughts.</description>
        <degree>-1</degree>
        <statModifiers>
<MentalBreakThreshold>24</MentalBreakThreshold>
        <permaThought>MoodOffsetMajorMutation</permaThought>
        </statModifiers>
      </li>
      <li>
        <label>monstrous mutation</label>
        <description>NAME's body is now longer recognizable. HECAP has undergone so many changes that there is danger of loosing their humanity and descending into insanity.</description>
        <degree>-2</degree>
        <statModifiers>
<MentalBreakThreshold>36</MentalBreakThreshold>
        <permaThought>MoodOffsetMonstrousMutation</permaThought>
        </statModifiers>
      </li>
    </degreeDatas>
  </TraitDef>

e) Hmm, issues, issues. Looking at:

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  <HealthDiffDef Name="AddedBodyPartBase" Abstract="True">
    <naturallyHealed>false</naturallyHealed>
  </HealthDiffDef>

It might be a solution to make mutations a separate class & take it from there (this also makes preventing mutations from being removed or bionics being replaced by mutations a lot easier):

Code Select Expand

  <HealthDiffDef Name="MutatedBodyPartBase" Abstract="True">
    <naturallyHealed>true</naturallyHealed>
  </HealthDiffDef>

Anyone got any good ideas on where to define / add this please?


Lots of questions, hopefully there are code ninjas around.


Note: the mentaleffects are currently balanced to the TTM package (where it's incredibly easy to get large positive +morale bonuses constantly) - I might have to balance downwards for the vanilla client.

[have]

I've now played through the Vanilla and Modded (TTManami mod mostly, some others) builds, and have a fairly good idea of how the game is playing atm*, but I can also see that (as ever with grassroots projects) the mods are currently outstripping the vanilla game by some margin. There's mods out there which are filling in the stuff I'd love to see in the gold release (and... some mods that need pruning, simply not mainstream sellers).

This is both a credit to Tynan, but might also be a major fucking pain in his arse.

So, friendly tip - don't pull a Starbound. (Although, yes, having $6 mil in the bank then doing fuck all for a year would probably make Tynan happy). If you need that parsing for you, they welcomed mods with open arms, did nothing themselves and then tried to slap legal disclaimers across the board, altered the code so no mods worked, and it's now in dev. hell - and none of the mods will likely make the full game (1.0 -> they're pulling a DoubleFine, and it's not going to be pretty. Get your popcorn, it'll be epic).

So, why the post: Obviously, Tynan would like to make some serious bank ($$) at some point, and there's obviously some seriously talented modders in here (no matter how waspy I sound, it has a good reason). Modders are going to have to relinquish legal rights at some point before Rimworld goes Gold, so I'd advise a happy-clappy solution - when Rimworld gets to Beta 0.9x [i.e. just before gold], modders should think about this:

Is it better to have your name in the credits, and waiver your (legal) rights in order to keep Rimworld moddable, and more importantly the best Gold release it can be?

I ask this because a lot of the XML I'm reading through from modders really should get into the Gold release; my advice is to address this head-on, and not act like children about it. i.e. Tynan says: I like your mod, it's going in the final build, you get a credit, and nothing more - we cool, and you sign your rights away. And in return, the game stays as flexible and moddable as it is now**.


Or you can act like monkeys and fuck it all up***




*Two full colony plays in vanilla, two full with mods. Yes, that equals a comprehensive evaluation, you're welcome

**SDKs come with legal ties to them, that's why AAA studios are happy to release them - hacking through XML / DLLs is kinda not covered. Keeping things cool means moddable future - Starbound is heading in the opposite direction.

*** Planet of the Apes / Starbound reference, don't be offended.

I'm looking for the specific disease code parameters - most importantly % chance of catching etc.

I'm thinking of a biological modification mod that works as an opposite to the bionics mods - grafting alien tissue into people, infecting them with mutagens etc. The major difference from bionics being it's 100% permanent and removes any future changes to that body part. While tying a few directly to events is ok, I'd prefer it if there was a code based framework so that I can hang a lot of variables off. e.g. "Eat X alien item > % chance mutation".

So, while I'll be ripping open the bionics mod code, I'd love to use the current disease code as a basis for random mutations, random alien infections > mutations and so on.


Thanks in advance!

[From about 300 tiles away]

Hi there. New to Rimworld, not new to the genre or strategy in general. Some questions:

1) Playing Cassandra, 100% - are the events / attacks scripted, or RNG? i.e. is there a set progression / escalation of encounters, or is it pure RNG? e.g. First 2 raiders > 4 raiders > 1-2 scythe machines > groups of raiders > and so on?

2) Does anyone play without :cheese:? i.e. I've read the forums, seen the "kill boxes" exploiting the AI's stupidity, and yet the vanilla difficulty is just silly.

Example:

I have ~7 colonists (2 captures, 1 RNG drop and 1 slaver bought), and have begun to turtle - stone wall around my area, x2 geothermal resources, 4 turrets and 2 mortars (only just got the tech) on my main entrance. Firstly, a raiding party sets up 3 mortars, and pummels my base. From about 300 tiles away (far SE corner of a mid sized map, I am in the far N / NW). I have 2-3 combat people, all using light arms, no armor and skill roughly 6-8; I cannot charge them, so... we exchange mortar fire for 15+mins until they run out of food & I can charge them. What this really does is drain my resources as I constantly have to repair. I cannot pick up their mortars to install in my base once I have killed them (!).

Immediately on killing the last one, 6+ raiders spawn and do a direct beeline to my base. I fight them off, just, loosing all the remaining turrets (2) and taking 3 prisoners. This is with the lucky help of 5+ visiting villagers. The raiders all have combat armor, some with power armor and machine guns that can hit turrets just outside the minimum range of a mortar. My toughest person has a single piece of combat armor and a M24 whatever sniper rifle.

Immediately on housing the prisoners and turning one of them (5mins, max), 2 large bug aliens and 1 fast scythe sniper spawns. My two quickly built EMP mortars (using the last of my resources that were depleted earlier) only stun them; my explosive mortars can't hit them. They decimate my walls at a range of 20+ squares (far, far outside normal turret range, but just inside mortar range, of course :rolleye:) then push on through my feeble fire (3 people with sniper rifles) and get a good 75%+ hit rate with their machine guns. All my combat people are down, the remnants have pistols.

I quit - the game simply isn't winnable at this point.


RNG or just bad weighting?
EMP - why does it only stun machine enemies? Fried circuits = damaged circuits.
EMP - stun doesn't last long / mortars are horrendously inaccurate for me... not so inaccurate for the AI.


So: I'm not interested in testing broken kill boxes and/or :cheesing: the AI, I'm just interested to know if the default difficulty is consistently this hard. If this is consistent, then alpha testers are damaging this game - it's an old problem with small niche games with dedicated fan bases (it's a form of mudflation where limited content + multiple replays leads the most experienced testers to demand difficulty curves far in excess of anything sane), but really - not so much fun.

I'm going to try again, but - having moved through the slowish build up to getting a colony onto it's feet, getting ROFL stomped by three over-powered events in quick succession is pointless. I pretty much maxed my colonist numbers and potential before this happened, and it simply wasn't beatable.