Topics

I'm looking for a non-Steam version of this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1607884210

Any idea where I can find that? Google isn't helping.

[Fund another round of development]

Tynan has previously said he is unlikely to make RimWorld his life's work, and that such expectations are unrealistic - in reference to the very long development cycle of Dwarf Fortress which as seen giant features like z-levels, adventure mode, etc added 5-10 years after the game first launched. I think that is a fair stance for Tynan to take - he's obviously a creative guy and I'm interested in what other games he might come up with!

Let's assume two things:
* RimWorld 1.0 comes out sometime in 2016, fulfilling and exceeding the promises to original backers, but still lacking some of the giant features on the community wish list.
* Tynan is open to further development of the game by another programmer employed at Ludeon, funded by a new round via Kickstarter (or other tool), while he continues onto other projects.

Assuming these two things, would you be willing to chip in on more funding? Last I saw (the data isn't shared anymore) RimWorld had sold over 90k copies, so if even just 10% of players chipped $10, that could easily fund another year of a programmers' time (if not more, either time or programmers). Perhaps allow someone from our intrepid modding community to go full time.

If you were to fund another year of development, what is the one feature you would absolutely expect to be included? What is the one feature you are most opposed to funding? No need for long descriptions, just curious about people's strongest preferences. And, let's assume that any new features include the necessary optimizations (so no need to demand that ).

Fund another round of development: yes, I'd chip up to $30 one-time if the features were right, or do a $10/year for a steady development commitment
Must have feature to fund: z-levels
Feature I wouldn't fund: multiplayer

And, of course, this thread is just for discussion, not intended to put words in anyone's mouth or rile up expectations!

[what feature(s) would add the most to RimWorld's long term gameplay?]

A recent comment about colonist birth not really being a long play feature due to little change in the years of immaturity got me thinking about another question: what feature(s) would add the most to RimWorld's long term gameplay? Entirely subjective, of course, but perhaps a fun one to think about.

I generally get bored of a colony by the end of year two or by the time I hit 15-20 pawns. Most productive facilities are built and running at full efficiency, surplus is generating more mineral wealth via trade, and the colony is largely in equilibrium with the exception of growing raids. From that point on wards its merely a race of escalating attacks and escalating defense, which I either succumb to or choose to quit. That is, the gameplay mechanics largely peter out after two years (if not earlier) for me. Your mileage may vary.

A few thoughts on "big" gameplay mechanics that would help with make later years more interesting, and why.

Events - I personally find the variety of events still quite low. I hope that eventually there are dozens of events unique to each biome, and also colony size, longevity and wealth. Those latter events would ensure that there is a reason to play longer - you see a completely different set of events in later years than in earlier years. Whether the events are procedurally generated by game play mechanics or hard coded is irrelevant to to me, but more variety here (especially on the time axis) would help a lot with long plays. Hopefully at one point we get a event-intensive update, rather than the 1-2 (?) trickle per alpha that we've seen so far.

Relationships and preferences - Tynan has stated that the big feature for A13 might be relationships - that would be a welcome addition. In addition to colonist relationships (i.e. they love/like/dislike/hate other colonists or groups of colonists because of a range of attributes), I hope preferences are also added. Perhaps this is splitting hairs, but I think important. Relationships decribe colonists' preferences with regards to other pawns, while preferences are with regards to everything else. Preferences can influence relationships (but not vice versa?), but also impact broader colony-level goals. For example, if I add many tribal pawns to my colony I may eventually have a substantial bloc that is suspicious of technology, weakening my ability to use it (and some may even sabotage it). Perhaps they decide that mech corpses are to be worshipped, rather than smelted down (as the jaded glitterworld pawns prefer). This creates a choice for the player - do I appease the tribal bloc in my colony, or the more advanced pawns? What are the implications for relations with nearby settlements, let alone the long run prospects for the colony? If I ignore the problem how long will it take for frictions to reach a boil? Another example would be cannibalism - colonies shouldn't simply grin and bear it because they have a decent horseshoes pin to distract them. Some preferences should be well beyond the remit of general joy to solve. Pawns should have preferences about pretty much everything in the colony, and they should actually need to be satisfied in somewhat specific ways, rather than just providing a pool table (one of several cure-alls to any colonist discomfort). Moreover, as wealth increases they should "gain" new preferences based on their background - e.g. for construction of temples, major infrastructure projects, etc - which would be general enough that the player had considerable flexibility in addressing them, but that had to be addressed nonetheless (or ignored at the risk of colony stability).

Z-levels - doesn't need a huge amount of description, but I think is worth including because it does radically increase the scope for creativity on longer play. For example, a player has a set of pawns that generally want a major project to be built with some broad characteristics, and the player manages the colony in a way that satisfies it. Even within pawn preferences players would find a lot of ways to exhibit their creativity with this kind of mechanism (e.g. I managed to build this and survive 10 years on CC Extreme while doing it!). What prompted this (in addition to the post cited above) is reading more stories from Dwarf Fortress lately. My impression is that many long plays in DF focus on players arbitrarily deciding the pursue some insane construction project, and then all the problems they run into along the way as a result of the interaction with game mechanics (whether the fail or succeed). RimWorld's current construction scope doesn't allow for that level of creativity or variety of projects, which means there isn't much reason to play longer than it takes to launch  ship, except for those who really want to see "one more colonist/raid".

So, what mechanics/feature would add the most for your long game? I clearly have chosen some that aren't anywhere near the development roadmap, so please don't feel constrained - what would add the most for you? Perhaps Tynan (or Ludeon in general) will tackle some of them sooner or later...

Just like the name says. This was part of EdB Scenario's in A8, although unfortunately there isn't a current working version. While the scenarios part of that mod was nice, the feature that was a must-have for me was the random start location. If anyone could provide similar functionality it would be much appreciated.

[Suggested etiquette in this thread:]

Suggested etiquette in this thread:

• Only provide affirmative suggestions - e.g. answering one/both of the two questions in the poll.
• Don't post to disagree with another person - we have plenty of threads like that already - they're boring and fast closed.
• Keep answers brief - max 300 words.
• Keep answers independent - no massive quoting.

Background reading:

• Fog of war?
• Uncertainty Veil (Fog of War)

Vanilla-friendly fog of war:

• Most basic fog of war implementation as an option.
• When starting a new game, fog of war toggle is included in the difficulty settings.
• Fog of war is an additional difficulty option, and not imposed on players that would prefer not to use it.
• Vanilla-gameplay remains balanced for non-fog of war as the default.
• 3 stage fog of war:


• Blacked out - default on start. Alternatively, all ground-level terrain is visible due to ship scanning before crash.
• Shrouded - terrain is visible, but other things (enemy pawns/animals/items/fires) are not.
• Visible - everything is visible.
• Pawns generate visibility via their cone of vision, with radius r and angular width a. Pawn sight impacts r and a.
• Visibility persists on a square for t ticks until becoming shrouded.
• All areas are reset to shrouded on sunset, except those in direct pawn vision.
• Sleeping pawn vision is reduced to r=1.
• Player controlled pawns/turrets can not acquire a target unless visible, but can still force attack ground within firing range even if shrouded.
• Player controlled pawns will still move to and haul items that are unforbidden even if shrouded - no need to over complicate the AI.
• Enemy AI unchanged - they remain all-seeing in their tactics.
• Vanilla FOW implemented in a way that modders can tweak balance (e.g. via r, a, t) or add FOW related items/abilities/events on their own.

In my view, this would be a good starting point to satisfy a persistent demand on this board without tackling the unsizably large task of rebalancing everything and without negatively impacting gameplay of those uninterested in the challenge. Think of it as a hardcore mode - don't like it, don't touch it. Prison Architect does this quite well, I think.

Two types of response most welcome:

• If you support vanilla fog war implementation and assuming it is implemented - what would you like to see added on top of it (by modders) - e.g. mechanics, interface, convenience tools, items, traits, events, etc.
• If you don't support vanilla fog of war implementation - what 1-2 'big' features do you most want to see implemented first?

[My guess]

My guess is that alpha development on RimWorld will wind down in the next year or earlier. Perhaps there will be more updates/DLCs/sequels, but the core will soon be at a point where updates do more harm than good - specifically because they reduce the number of compatible mods. Just my guess, and something I'm totally fine with.

That assumed, I'm very curious what the next steps for Ludeon are. I know at this point it would all be notional and prone to massive change. I also know there may be other reasons for Tynan to keep his cards close to his chest early on. That said:

• Are you inclined to develop further games within the RimWorld universe? I think it's a very rich IP.
  
• Are you inclined to develop another game in the same general genre (DF-esque)? Or another genre? Any particular interests?

Personally, I'd like to see a Galactic Civilizations/Distant Worlds/Civ type of game within the "RimVerse" (either on a planet, or in space). I think 4X games are similar to DF in that they are incredibly rich storytellers, but even with the advances in automation and graphics (more the latter than former...) in the last decade, they still are woefully unfun management headaches/spreadsheet consultations for much of the time. They also tend to lack character as they get bigger and bigger, and maybe the approach of managing a few leaders rather than every underlying would help personalize them. Would really like to see Tynan's take on making this genre a more engaging storyteller, one day. Just my 2 cents.

Basically, I think the current deterioration system is a good idea in theory, but the current implementation is cumbersome. Tynan noted on Reddit (see below) that he will automate clothing changing in a future version, but for now I think the following may be passable fix (hopefully easy for one of our great modders).

* Remove the mood debuff from worn out clothing.
* Add a mood buff for new clothing - e.g. above x%.

That way there is still an incentive to wear new clothing, but there is less pressure on the player to micromanage clothing choice whenever a piece of clothing becomes worn out. Essentially this would double the time between decisions...

http://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/2wlavo/clothing_degradation_do_you_like_it_or_no/

TynanSylvesterLead Developer 14 points 2 days ago*
Yeah, I'm not comfortable with the micromanagement this tends to introduce. That why I'm aiming for A10 to have a system whereby the colonists will make their own clothing decisions. The player's only job will be to set them a 'category' or an 'outfit' to give them a general intent; then they'll determine themselves what exactly to wear and when to change it out.
So the micromanagement problem is known and temporary to Alpha 9.