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i had just started a new colony and was very optimistic about the map.
I start hunting a pack of caribou and accidentally trigger Caribou's Revenge.
The Caribou hoarde all zones in on one pawn at a time, systematically taking us out.
"Mutt", the colony dog chips in and gets knocked out as well.
Caribous proceed to knock unconscious all 4 colonists.
A colonist recovers, only to be beaten back into sleep by the last 3 rampaging mammals. They can't get up!
This may be a record loss.... but no!
Mutt, the dog, wakes up and doesn't trigger the deer!
And he just barely got trained in rescue! Go mutt!
He proceeds to rescue all 4 colonists one by one, bringing them safely indoors where the caribou can't get them.
Mutt lays down beside his master.
Mutt bleeds out and dies in the night.
Good boy Mutt, Good boy.
Quit to OS before colonists awake.
Curl into fetal position on bed.
Stare at the wall.
Maybe I'll play some Rocket League for a bit... but holy shit, Rimworld is amazing.

I think the replay ability of this game comes from the stories that can happen... like that one time Vujiodir watched everyone die around him 3 times only to rebuild again and again before he ended up being warden to 10 starving ex-colonist prisoners who turned on him in a time of famine... or the time Strapping lost both of his legs in a mechanoid raid and became a peg-legged source of mental breakdowns from thenceforth until psychotic rage took everyone.. I want to see more of these story elements highlighted!

What I would love to see either as a mod, or a game function is:

- The game stores the pivotal events (ie. colonist dies, colonist joins, big raids, new technologies)
- Perhaps taking a screenshot of each event?
- At the end of the game, I'd get to see a summary of life events, like a scrap book, with a picture, summary of events and fake quotes from my fake little colonists. Maybe month by month a summary of events.

It would be nice to see something like:
"Month 1.
- snapshot of newly built base at end of the month with caption from colonist and random quote about new life on the planet
Month 2.
- first raider attack, a sole attacker named Bob
- New Colonist: Bob joins the colony thanks to Warden Strapping
- Strapping turned 34 this month
Month 3.
- Strapping dies in psychotic squirrel rampage, shot accidentally by Bob
.... etc, etc..."

Having pictures would be neat as well to tie in a visual memory of the event.

Ultimately, these "end colony scrapbooks" could also be given the option to "Export story to blog or an image/text file" or something that could take the story behind an individual's colony and post it to a blog or journal or something, which might end up being a good hook to bring in new players as the stories themselves might have a chance at going out to a larger audience. Also, we get more chance to share our stories from Rimworld in a way where the game takes out the work of manually snapping pics and captioning later.

PLUS, you could add a filter for "more detailed" stories including minor events, so I might only want to see a general overview, or a very specific beat-by-beat story.

I understand that Tynan is working on some kind of "end game stats", but I do hope they are more interesting than just wealth/stats graphs and such.. the pleasure in this game is the potential for personalized stories that emerge, so I'd love to see some kind of end-game story book, summarizing what this colony went through. I'd even go back to look at these stories later on if it was an in-game option to review "stories from past colonies".

Ideally, I'd like to see more variety in the in-game events too.. Like, instead of "this group is besieging the colony", make it "General Zao of the Kookamunga Tribe is leading a siege on your base" (and if you kill him, they'll all flee)... just more personalized events that make me remember "oh yeah, when the Kookamunga siege happened, that was the one where Cat and Stomp both got kidnapped.." as opposed to "one of the sieges"... just little touches that will make the in-game events more memorable!

Just throwing this idea out there!

here's a feature I'd love to see from modders....

- a shield generator object with a radius in which no weapon fire (or fire fire) can penetrate in, but can go from in to out... like a turret radius but the edges have a one-way damage threshold and regenerate in x seconds if powered

- would drain massive power and radius would be just enough so any turret inside the field would blow up and damage the generator and generators would explode like turrets, to prevent spamming.

- shield itself could be act a circle of doors (slows as you enter/exit) and have 10hp per segment, so one shot would take it down (though you'd have to code where shots from in the circle would go out without damage). Upgrades could allow higher HP per "door" or advanced building could provide "2 rings of doors". Spamming concentric shield generators would create areas of very slow movement.


would be cool to see something like this!

Going to try and avoid walls of text here and really narrow down to strongest ideas.

I was thinking about how the events all take place- it can get annoying with too many eclipses/solar flares, and all seems random and less interesting through repetition (factions helps immensely for keeping raids fresh). Thought up some changes that might be easy for someone to implement and add to gameplay:

- have eclipses happen on regular intervals (more realistic, can expect and prepare)
- have the "randomness" of eclipses be the duration/frequency (ie. some planets have frequent short eclipses, some longer infrequent ones)
- create "solar cycles" making solar flares less/more intense or common/uncommon during longer periods
-  add a research tree or item that allows you to get a countdown in the HUD to the next eclipse/solar flare
- during raider attacks, increase likelihood for neighbor visits and vice versa (more chaos)
- if eclipses are regular, increase likelihood for other events (raids, psychotic waves, etc) during eclipses, making planning for eclipses and predicting them more important to gameplay (think pitch black- when the darkness comes, shit goes bananas)


And I'd love to see more diversity in the events:
- random humorous/comedic (even just text based) events (ie. You throw a small party and it goes overboard quickly after Darkeye spikes the punch. Leonard throws up in the pantry after eating all the potatoes.)
- weird/strange events
- events that happen regularly VS semi-regular events VS rarer events
- events tied into specific higher-level tech items (ie. no risk of nuclear meltdown if you don't have a reactor)
- events that are both negative AND positive (a ship of raiders and resources has crash landed)
- risk/reward events (ie. Darkeye has found a landmine- attempt to disarm for metal?)
- events that give you a lesser of two evils choice (ie. Darkeye wants to execute the prisoner or will leave the colony)


More specifically, on some new events:
-Trade ship convention (an event where trade ships of every type congregate)
-Muffalo Stampede
-Research breakthrough (500+ research points)
-Earthquake (localized, knocks down walls/roof)
-Alien Abduction (colonist missing for 3 days and then returns naked and confused + green light)
-Cactus invasion / invading weeds
-Mole! (recently recruited colonist from a faction turns hostile, power goes out, raid occurs)
-Day of the Triffids (local vegetation emits a strong pollen cloud, any colonists passing through fall asleep)
-Siege!  (raiders camp the edges of the map and continuously spawn and invade for days)


I hope some modders do something like this soon!

[Cheap ideas:]

hello there, this is a long list, but bear with it and skim it up, it's got some gold nuggets! I might end up suggesting a few ideas already out there or planned, but i just finally bought the game and am absolutely loving it and took time to think of what would really just rock. Great to see the developer so involved with the audience and a very enthusiastic modding community, so since I can't program, I thought I'd contribute something on the creative front. Here's a shit ton:

Cheap ideas:
- Rocket turret with hopper for missiles / Bullets for turrets with hoppers (maybe a "gun hopper")
- Flares/Flaregun (good for night battles to light/ignite foes... also good for long bouts of mining)
- fire extinguisher (ie. gun that shoots at fire to get those tiles in the middle of solar panels, stuns enemies)
- nom nom nom subtle sound fx for colonists eating
- horrid death screams
- giant pre-historic skeletons dot the landscape from creatures long since dead...
- tumbleweed
- swamp tiles (can be cleared, grow faster, slow movement)
- 2 weapon slots for colonists (primary, secondary) and a toggle (ie. melee, ranged / fire extinguisher, flare / shotgun, sniper)
- thorn bushes (ie. plants that hurt... make these grow-able for defense)
- "Dont go here" zones (was suggested elsewhere, but so good it's worth mention)
- capture faction prisoners and ransom them back
- slave labour (prisoner can be set to haul/clean/plantcut and be recruitable for fights but will lose loyalty and attempt to escape often)
- "make permanent" toggle for items (ie. colonists will rebuild a turret when destroyed if this is toggled, like a permanent invisible blueprint)
- purple rain (it's an alien world, why not Prince?)
- harvest flowers for powders, powders for medicine, medicine to improve heal rate or improve stats/skills (ie. coffee bean -> coffee grind -> coffee drink -> x2 movement speed for 3 hours)
- on that note, coffee
- Rare/Unique/Named weapons
- Fear Tech: torture chair (the chair hurts people)
- Taxidermy and/or Chuck Testa
- Colonist specific graves
- food spoils unless inside a room (cold storage)
- Meat Freezer
- Piano, Puppet Show, Theatre Stage, Circus Tent to make use of Art Skill (add muffalo to circus = OMG yes)
- Elect a colony leader (they get bonuses, improve morale more with chats and never go insane, but if they die everyone suffers more too) 
- Items that colonists can interact with when idle (ie. they play cards, practice shooting, exercise, read when bored instead of wander)
- plasma grenade
- icons for jobs appear above colonist heads (ie. if someone is constructing, a hard hat appears above them... versus a pick axe for mining, a flower for growing, brooms, lightbulbs, screwdrivers, speech bubbles, medical crosses, flames... something to at a glance be able to see what everyone is up to... maybe make it a toggle "ie. display colonist job icons"- maybe this isn't "cheap")
- cloth tent or arabian nights or MASH style tent cities (medical tent? -> haul incap to medbay/medtent instead of beds, could be a zone?)
- "send scout" where a colonist leaves the map and returns the next day with resources, improved faction relations, warning on an impending invasion, a rare item, or not at all.
- turret priority (aim for closest, furthest, groups, most deadly)
- solar flares shut down electronics but overcharge solar panels (ie. no active turrets, but batteries will charge, less annoying)
- randomize the duration of solar flares and eclipses, maybe add a "pulsed" version that goes on/off
- auxiliary power battery (ie. kicks in only during solar flare, should be expensive research tree for this)
- research magnetic shield (like orbital beacon) to shield areas against solar flares

More Random Events (I fucking hate solar flares):
-a steam vent geyser eruption
-Earthquake
-Alien Abduction (a colonist goes missing for 3 days and then returns naked and confused)
-acid rain (ie. colonists damaged when outdoors, research biosuit)
-disease (ie. incap random # of colonists for x days, severe alternate: must research cure, craft antidote)
-dust storms (slow outside movement, create dirt, research dust-net wall)
-cactus invasion (ie. increase cactus spawn rate dramatically forcing a vegetarian genocide or limited movement outside)
-double cross! (a colonist recently recruited from a faction turns out to be a spy, faction invades and that colonist turns hostile and sabotages power)
- a local monk from high atop a mountain visits the colony. he asks a random question (answer me these questions three) with three possible answers and then disappears with a lightening strike... if you answered correct you get a prize. If you didn't, the area he was on explodes.
- prison break (a faction attempts to free a captive if you have one- ie. a raid + your prison door explodes and prisoner starts running)
-Day of the Triffids (an area of local vegetation emits a sleepy powder and any colonists passing through fall instantly asleep- could be your crops!)
- research breakthrough (random eureka where research is completed instantly)
- a random ball of energy (a la 90% of the original Star Trek) visits the colony and feeds off the batteries
- a supervolcano on the world has exploded, sending plumes into the sky, blocking the sun for 3 days, putting soot everywhere, causing an earthquake, fire, and killing crops outside... like, the penultimate disaster. 
- comedic random encounters (a group of clown-minstrels from the Bohrs Nebula are visiting... (add weird music) / talking muffalo who dreams of being a food critic eats your crops and reviews it poorly/highly  (muffalo goes to your crops, and either goes psychotic or not... prompting player to be there to see the critique [or kill the critic]) / colonist turns into a newt... but he got better / a lone mime wanders into your base / Darkeye discovered Stomp has been hoarding food [gain potatoes, lose morale] / A cruiser from your home planet is passing by and they bring news - the Earth Eaglettes have won the galactic bowl, morale skyrockets!)


Cool ideas:
- a big monster, a la godzilla (and tremors, dune, jurassic park or pitch black) that can be indestructible under certain conditions, forcing a "hide and pray scenario" or "operation: distract until it's over". Imagine if every first nightfall of the month, a pack of terrifying predators lurked across the map and killed anything outside a room. Or if once in a blue moon, a large lumbering creature would wander into a corner of the map for a few days and be incredibly intimidating... or every 30 days a hive of insectoids would spawn somewhere and need to be exterminated before breeding. Maybe you notice that an area on the map glows green at night and overtime eventually a giant plant monster spawns there, causing you to freak out when you see green light. Flocks of aerial jellyfish that actually heal anything they touch and glow like fire flies at night. A plagued muffalo has entered the area and will infect anything it touches. A pterodactyl-like creature that will circle as a shadow over head getting bigger and bigger before it will scoop up any colonist outside on their own (run for cover Stomp!). Stuff like that. A diversity of weird creatures to deal with would make the raiders more interesting, and if they all ended up coinciding at the same time it would be madness!!! (ie. the first nightfall of the month at the 30 day mark for the insects with a green patch of dirt about to go wild, a big beast in the corner of the map, a herd of jellyfish riding over a plagued muffalo heading for your base... and just then, the raiders show up)

- promotions for colonists, level perks similar to Fallout
- 2-layer map (ie. basements, mines, etc could be on another map underneath the map and then you can build stairs, shafts, have your base underground... this leads to mole people, catacombs, flooded lower levels, kitchen pantries with hidden human flesh lockers...this is definitely most difficult suggestion in this list, but would deepen the strategy)
- trains (western motif), maybe personal monorail type movers- would be great for big colonies to move around or if you want to build outposts/sprawls.
- giant trapdoor spiders (ie. hard to kill stationary enemies - would work well with previously suggested "forbidden zones")
- addictions (like the "needs" bars, if a colonist has too much of something, they'll become addicted and suffer penalties if not given what they need)
- biomes and a planet map. perhaps an intro where you start in space and then guide your plummeting pods down to the surface like a cartoon version of kerbal space program and can nudge the craft towards the different biomes which all have pros/cons.
- domestication of animals (ie. an animal, if fed and trained by colonists, will stay near a zone for "kennel" and as long as kept happy, will fight enemies and be all chill)
- animal bait/traps (ie. put food in a trap and catch animals instead of hunt. could put outside base to also trap psychotic animals)
- away parties - send a few colonists off to visit a neighboring faction to trade, improve relations or pillage like raiders (maybe they don't all return always)
- duels/shootouts (on the western theme, maybe a lone gunman enters and challenges a certain colonist to a one-on-one duel at high noon tomorrow... that colonist is the only one who can do it [hope his/her gun skill is good] and might die/be incapped, but if they win, either the gunslinger joins the colony or dies and they get treasure or a powerful pistol)
- end games: build a rocket at the end of the tech tree and blast off (10 minute launch sequence which attracts ALL the raiders... and maybe the last two minutes need all your power, so bye-bye turrets), build a city hall and found a civilization (have to ally with all factions, have x colonists, etc, then survive a civil war where half your colonists become enemies), conquer the planet (ie. build an army, train a general, build a superweapon and destroy all your enemies, with each charge triggering a counter attack)... would be interesting to have a few different paths to a victory scenario but have all end in a massive climax where defenses are put to the test and then dropped for a last desperate push!



Whew. A lot of stuff there. But I figured I'd just jam a whole bunch of ideas so you modders, or the dev can just get inspiration from this! Hope you enjoyed. This game is great and I really think it's expanding nicely, so I look forward to more RW!