Topics

I'm not sure if this is by design, but it seems that bills are checking the nearest available material by linear distance, and not by pathing distance. In the screenshot below, the colonists were taking stone chunks from left of the wall, even though the ones on the right are clearly closer, even within the same region as the table.

I'm currently playing a 400x400 map, and as you can imagine, colonists' needs are pushing it after crossing the map and enduring a prolonged shootout with a siege party. When I released them after successfully routing the enemy all of the colonists were at least hungry, and around half were tired.

Hunger being the more pressing issue, and the easiest to satisfy, I allowed some of the raiders' survival meals so that my colonists could feed themselves before they returned to base. The ones who were tired refused to eat however, and insisted on making the trip all the way back to base for a nap. I finished up having to mark all of their rooms for prisoners in order for them to eat. Some of them had higher hunger than sleep requirements, some lower, it made no difference.

Considering that tiredness has lower mood penalties, won't harm the colonist if unsatisfied, and will only be satisfied at the colonist's bed, whereas hunger can be satisfied immediately after a battle, I think that eating should be a higher priority than sleep.

Encountered this on loading a save game.



It looks as if I may have saved right when Chef was partway through crafting, and the stone block he was crafting with wasn't saved.

World/save file is uploading.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hsr5y6u4j6ac0hd/DoBill%20on%20non-Billgiver%20save.zip?dl=0

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

Basically, and obscenely expensive floor tile made of stone and metal, that has to be researched, which allows construction of walls over mud and water.

This would mean that rather than staying right away from water, or having to enclose an entire body and the surrounding mud to create a secure perimeter, a player could eventually run a wall right up to the edge of deep water (or across, if they felt like it), or even create platforms on the water that are only accessible via a single bridge, forcing the enemy into a choke point if they want to get at it.

This would make water into something that adds a level of flexibility to the game, rather than a blight that prevents any and all use of the surrounding terrain.

It never really sat right with me that more wealth equaled more raiders per group. More people means smaller shares, right? So if you're only up against a half dozen people with a couple of turrets, why bring 100 men? To me, more wealth should bring more frequent raids; the more dangerous your colony is, the more men the enemy brings.

The might stat would be a summary of the threat your colony poses. It would be most heavily affected by the number of colonists; the number of turrets, gear and weapons would also be a factor, with equipped gear/weapons receiving a higher value. Finally, the number of raiders killed by the colony, and the overall number of raids you've repelled would also increase the stat. Routed enemies could possibly have a greatly reduced value, or none at all due to the fact that morale hits can come from other factors than just the colony.

Permanent injuries to colonists could also play a part in determining the stat value for an individual colonist (if you were a pirate, and you saw a colony of one armed one eyed survivors, would you really think they were dangerous? Or would you think they were at a major disadvantage, and therefore bring less men to increase your share of the loot?)

The might stat would allow for raid numbers to fluctuate somewhat with the strength of the colony, helping to mitigate the late game issue of attrition, slowly losing colonists one by one while the enemy numbers only ever increase, without ever stagnating/going backwards.

What's a lot, and what's a little? Without knowing what is considered valuable, I can't actually derive any sort of meaning from the wealth counter, and I haven't been able to find anything definitive on the subject.

Does anyone happen to have an idea? Especially in regards to wealth vs time - is my 2 month old colony rich at 20k wealth, or are they poor?

I've been trying to keep the counter down, but I haven't the slightest whether I've succeeded or failed.

I typically make specific stockpiles for individual resources, so it takes longer for me to uncheck everything each time I make a stockpile than it would to just check the one or two things I want.

It would be much more convenient if I could just check an option to have all items disallowed when designating a new stockpile.

I had a large siege party land and begin setting up their mortars etc. as per usual, but then whilst moving my snipers into position to skirmish with them, I noticed that a pair of raiders were making a beeline for my base.

When I clicked on them to check their jobs, both were "Hauling Metal x X to Stockpile 2" (stockpile 2 being my metal stockpile). They smashed their way through my outer doors before I moved some other colonists into position and dispatched them in short order.

Has anyone else encountered this sort of behaviour? I have no ideas on reproduction, other than observing large sieges (upwards of 100 raiders).

Now I'm not 100% sure this is a bug, but it definitely wasn't normal behaviour, so I figured this was the best place for it.

I just had an NPC group spawn that, by my estimate, was over 100 strong, but who spawned in about a 5 x 10 area, and were packed as tightly as 7 or 8 pawns in one square. The group also refused to move, and from the moment they spawned, the game refused to function for more than about 6 seconds in between 20-30 second hangs.

Has anyone else encountered anything like this?

Edit: After allowing the game to [slowly] progress until insanity set in and the shooting began, the group spread out after several of them were killed, and I'm going to estimate that there were in fact closer to 150-200 pawns. As soon as they spread, the game returned to normal.

So recently, my biggest problem is that by the time my massively outnumbered colonists complete a battle, they end up at the point where most of them are on the brink of starvation.

Which leaves me with a bunch of near starving colonists moving at a veritable crawl with an unconscious colonist on their back (lest they be carried away) who, by the time they have deposited their human cargo, are now starving, adding a -50 to their mood, which already has penalties from all the dying fighters and their subsequent corpses. This creates something of a tantrum spiral, and then all of my unconscious colonists starve to death because they have no way to feed themselves.

This got me thinking on how to counteract the issue, and rather than altering the hunger timescale, which would then affect the balance of the entire game, it occurred to me that something along the lines of an adrenaline hit during the battle, that temporarily freezes the hunger/sleep meters, adds a morale boost of around 20 or so, and possibly removes the tiredness and hunger debuffs for the duration that the effect is active would help to balance this out.

The effect would begin when the raiders launch their assault, and upon victory would begin to fade, though the time it takes to disappear would need to be determined through testing. The reason for it not fading immediately is so that colonists who happen to be drafted when urgently hungry/very tired don't have a breakdown on the way from the front lines back to the base proper.

The big question here is how to handle the effect when you're the one on the offensive, whether that be against a siege camp, or just a preemptive strike, but I'm curious as to the thoughts of other players on a system like this?

Would it be possible to create lights that only project their light forward? Specifically for defenses, to light up attackers at night without building lights out in the battle field, though they'd work in outdoor colonies aesthetically too.

Ideally with multiple types, ranging from one that lights a smallish semi-circle in front of it - eg. same size as a normal standing lamp, but only in a semi-circle instead of a full circle - to one that projects a sharp cone of light around 25 blocks away, but requires more power.

So, as it is, visitors or passers by that get "attacked" (usually because they thought walking through the middle of a fire fight or between my hunter and their quarry was logical  ) immediately turn hostile, but then so do the rest of their faction.

The faction, however, shouldn't become hostile until a member of the party leaves the map. This would allow players to cover up their transgressions, and for those more unscrupulous players (like me  ) to ambush neutral/friendly groups.

In order to avoid unbalancing gameplay, after say 3 groups "disappear"  - no penalty for individuals - while passing through your land, the faction becomes suspicious, causing a relations penalty (but not opening hostilities) and stops sending groups for a time. Once groups begin returning, if more disappear soon after, hostilities are opened.

As an extra addition, the counter on the number of missing groups could decay over time, allowing a patient player to avoid suspicion altogether. It would need to be a fair amount of time though, say 90 days to take 1 off the total.

As it is currently, corpses decay a little, and then somehow manage to be eternally preserved half decayed. I've seen a lot of talk about incinerators and the like, but I'd like to see them decay through several stages, causing varying psychological effects throughout the process.

I think with the 100 hp a corpse has, about 15 lost per day seems a decent amount - about a week to decay fully. Probaly nowhere near a realistic amount of time, but remember you just made an entire hi-tech base out of scrap metal, so...

Anyway, the first stage would obviously be the fresh corpse. 100-86 hp, so the first 24hrs. pretty negligible happiness penalty, minor fear increase, but nothing really worth worrying about. This is the point at which you want to shift it somewhere away from your colonists, before it stinks up the place.

The next stage is when it starts to rot. 85-56 hp. It stinks, it looks nasty, and the colonists hate it. Moderate penalty on happiness, moderate fear increase.

Stage three is when it gets really nasty - it's bloating, the bugs are chowing down, and it's absolutely noxious. This is 55-0 hp. Big happiness penalty, moderate fear increase.

If scavenger/predatory animals are implemented, they could feed on the corpse to expedite the process.

Once it hits 0, the corpse is replaced with a skeleton, which can be used for fear tech.

Like this for example:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hnwiirrfc2z9ohd/2013-03-31_00002.jpg

To that end, it would be cool if raiders suffered penalties from fear tech, say an accuracy penalty, which could be negated by certain personality traits once those come into use. Also, your superstitious tribal enemies are going to be more affected than pirates and the like, who probably decorate their base similarly, whereas more civilised factions (outlander towns etc.) would sit somewhere in between.

I noticed in the changelog that trees and wood are in, and I thought it would be cool if you could add stakes to sand bag emplacements.

Deny your enemies the use of your cover, and cause potential injury if you cross in the wrong direction. Colonists would obviously need to prioritise less dangerous paths if available, and raiders would need to weigh risk vs. reward - do they funnel through the safe spaces, risking heavy gunfire, or charge over and risk damage from the stakes?

Tribals should be more likely to charge over, due to their more aggressive nature and sheer numbers, and animals should completely ignore spikes and charge on through, with squirrels and boomrats immune due to their size, and muffalo taking increased damage because of theirs.

Metal spikes would also be a viable option, with more durability and damage/hit potential, and being due to being sharpened along its edge, able to damage squirrels and boomrats, with the trade-off of metal being more valuable (though I find it's particularly abundant at the moment) due to its use in more important equipment.

Stakes/spikes could be built on top of existing sandbags, and occupy the space adjacent to the sandbags themselves.

I first encountered this right after I arrested a colonist who had just had a mental breakdown, who had a psychotic episode on the way back and proceeded to attack his captor. I drafted a second person to expedite the process of beating him into submission, and then everyone went on their merry way (well everyone but the guy bleeding on the floor, but he asked for it).

A few minutes later, I heard the telltale tat-tat of pistol fire... What the hell? There was no one on the map but me and the prisoners, and no explanation as to what had caused the sound, so I let it slide. But surely enough, a few minutes later, tat-tat-tat. This time, after some searching, I found that the imprisoned colonist was wounded, and that the freshly built walls of my half finished atrium (which was doubling as my prison until it was completed and the prison could be dug out) were sporting damage in several spots - too many to be a coincidence in walls that had only been built that day.

Determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, I watched, and I waited. Floors were smoothed, and walls were built, and the cleaner studiously cleaned the rubble of the new floor... and then I spotted it: in between cleaning two squares, my cleaner casually squeezed off a round, narrowly missing the prisoner. I watched for a few more minutes in disbelief as the psycho shot the prisoner twice, and then put a round into the back of my miner as he walked past. Clean some floor, spill some blood; clean some floor, spill some blood. I don't think she understood the concept of cleaning - and she was formerly a janitor! So I followed the natural response: I yelled various expletives at the monitor and ordered her to drop her weapon.

But this wasn't an isolated incident; no sooner had she dropped her weapon than the miner decided to follow her example. Dig some rock, make the nearest colonist dig out a bullet. So he was ordered to drop his weapon too. After a third colonist opened fire, I'd had enough, and I quit.

So I updated to the newest version, I was on 0.3.408, updated to 0.3.413. So I started a new game, and a little while in, dismayed by constant hardships, a colonist had a breakdown. So I arrested her, and she was locked in her cell without incident and everything proceeded as normal. A few minutes after that however, another broke down (too many half rotted corpses apparently... pansy) and as he was being detained he went mental, and received a beating... Déjà vu.

And what do you know, the warden walked in, deposited the prisoner's meal, and gave him a case of acute lead poisoning. Had a friendly chat with him, gave him another dose. I'm sure that's conducive to recruitment!

The only common factor seems to be arresting a colonist who has had a breakdown, and goes mental while being arrested. Also, the first instance had several raider prisoners in the same room, and none of them were ever targeted, which leads me to believe that only colonists are affected. Has anyone else encountered this or something similar?