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1
Ideas / Naming Dilemmas
« on: March 13, 2018, 02:42:18 PM »
I, like a ton of others I'm sure, suffer from some retarded naming dilemma in games. For whatever silly reason, if I get to a naming area and the randomized name I get isn't something I like, and there is no "randomize" button, then I stand a fair chance of getting stuck for quite awhile. I will shamefully admit that I have even gone to naming generators, as if this is some life altering decision.
Anyway, my suggestion is, could we please get a "random" button next to any naming input field? Like when you've had your colony running for a few days and you get the prompt to give your colony a name, you will get a random name given to you, which you are of course free to replace. However, it would help me a lot if I could cycle through the list of random names. Same thing goes for any other place where there is already a list or algorithm in place to give a random name for whatever. Could players please have the ability to cycle through these randomly generated names, instead of only getting access to this already built in function only once? Because sometimes I think the random names I'm given are really great, and would like access to more of them, please. Thanks!
Anyway, my suggestion is, could we please get a "random" button next to any naming input field? Like when you've had your colony running for a few days and you get the prompt to give your colony a name, you will get a random name given to you, which you are of course free to replace. However, it would help me a lot if I could cycle through the list of random names. Same thing goes for any other place where there is already a list or algorithm in place to give a random name for whatever. Could players please have the ability to cycle through these randomly generated names, instead of only getting access to this already built in function only once? Because sometimes I think the random names I'm given are really great, and would like access to more of them, please. Thanks!
2
Support / Forum text area expander
« on: March 02, 2018, 04:46:31 PM »
Hello. I was recently trying to edit my thread, and it is rather large, so I was trying to "expand the area" where text goes, as there is a white bar along the bottom, and when I mouseover it, the cursor changes like I would expect it to as I would prepare to expand the window. However, I cannot get it to work.
Is this feature supposed to be enabled or work for anyone? If it could work, that would be fantastic. As I'm trying to edit my rather large post but I am only able to see 7 rows of text at a time, which kinda sucks.
Is this feature supposed to be enabled or work for anyone? If it could work, that would be fantastic. As I'm trying to edit my rather large post but I am only able to see 7 rows of text at a time, which kinda sucks.
3
Outdated / Harry Dickle's Fuzzy Pickle
« on: February 24, 2018, 08:48:44 AM »
Hello. I've updated some fantastic mods to B18. I take absolutely zero credit for any of the work done except for bringing some of these mods to work on B18. Some of them I have only had to do minor changes to make work, and really isn't worthy of any praise, but I hate seeing errors and I hadn't seen anyone else post these (B18 versions) yet. If anyone runs into any errors or bugs please post anything that could help me fix them.
Users are encouraged to post any incompatibilities they run into along with relevant information so that we can see if we can get a proper fix made. Users are also encouraged to post forgotten about A17 mods that could be brought up to B18. Users are thirdly encouraged to post any balance comments, positive or negative. This doesn't mean you need to say, "this is imbalanced and sucks". That is a garbage comment and I will post a garbage response. Please say why you think the balance is wrong, and/or what you think is a better solution.
If there are any issues with me rehosting any of these mods I can take them down without issue. In the event that I have accidentally included an author's work that was not meant to be published in such a way, then this is an honest error on my part with no ill intention behind such acts, and I will work to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Personally, I would hate to see such great work by such talented authors be lost so that others could not experience these mods as well. This is my primary directive with this post, and nothing more. I simply love this stupid game and it's mods so much for whatever reason that I enjoy learning more about it and how it works everyday, and sharing that with whoever wants to listen.
ALL OF MY MODS ARE OFF OF STEAM ONLY!!!
THE STEAM LINKS and LUDEON THREADS ONLY ARE ONLY ATTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORIGINAL AUTHORS! TO USE THE VERSIONS POSTED HERE YOU MUST DOWNLOAD FROM THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK AND MANUALLY EXTRACT THE CONTENTS INTO YOUR RIMWORLD/MODS FOLDER, THEN ACTIVATE THE MOD IN YOUR MOD LIST.
Bonsai Plus
Original author: STEAM LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Cold Desert Nights
Original author: STEAM LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Please note there is a minor bug in the world screen. If you have dev mode enabled, and you click an ocean cell in the world screen, you will get a red error about unable to change the climate. All you must do is simply click any normal land cell and this error will go away. Anyone who understands C# if they would like to look into this, it would be great! But other than that there are zero issues that I have run into. One other thing, I did almost no work to update this. I harassed Mehni and Jecrell to help me, and they did! ALSO this works with Rim of Madness woohoo!
My little rant about why this is one of my most favorite mods of all posted here.
TropiCKAPP Rainforest Mod
Original author: LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
More Consumables and Mutagens
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Extended Human Body Simulation and Diseases Overhauled
Original author: LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: EHBS DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK (EHBS is required for DO) DO DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK (requires EHBS)
I have also updated Diseases Overhauled and Extended Human Body Simulation (required for Diseases Overhauled) to be compatible with Rah's Bionics and Surgery Expansion. They were already updated to B18 by another user, but I had to make some modifications to let this work with RBSE. I'm not sure if this matters but this is the load order I have been using for these mods that might be relevant to them working properly for me. But I would recommend at least trying it like this.
Extended Human Body Simulation -> Diseases overhauled -> RBSE -> MoreConsumables
Modular Power Armor
Original author: LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
My customized version of Modular Power Armor, I've made a lot of changes that I detail in this post.
Colony Leadership
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
FashionRIMsta
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
My customized version of FashionRIMsta, I've made a lot of changes that I detail in this post.
Rumours and Deception
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Licensing
Anyone is free to do anything they want with any of my own work, and it would be nice but not necessary if you could please link back to here. If I am still active I would hope that you would at least message me first. Thanks!
Users are encouraged to post any incompatibilities they run into along with relevant information so that we can see if we can get a proper fix made. Users are also encouraged to post forgotten about A17 mods that could be brought up to B18. Users are thirdly encouraged to post any balance comments, positive or negative. This doesn't mean you need to say, "this is imbalanced and sucks". That is a garbage comment and I will post a garbage response. Please say why you think the balance is wrong, and/or what you think is a better solution.
If there are any issues with me rehosting any of these mods I can take them down without issue. In the event that I have accidentally included an author's work that was not meant to be published in such a way, then this is an honest error on my part with no ill intention behind such acts, and I will work to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Personally, I would hate to see such great work by such talented authors be lost so that others could not experience these mods as well. This is my primary directive with this post, and nothing more. I simply love this stupid game and it's mods so much for whatever reason that I enjoy learning more about it and how it works everyday, and sharing that with whoever wants to listen.
ALL OF MY MODS ARE OFF OF STEAM ONLY!!!
THE STEAM LINKS and LUDEON THREADS ONLY ARE ONLY ATTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORIGINAL AUTHORS! TO USE THE VERSIONS POSTED HERE YOU MUST DOWNLOAD FROM THE DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK AND MANUALLY EXTRACT THE CONTENTS INTO YOUR RIMWORLD/MODS FOLDER, THEN ACTIVATE THE MOD IN YOUR MOD LIST.
Bonsai Plus
Original author: STEAM LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Cold Desert Nights
Original author: STEAM LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Please note there is a minor bug in the world screen. If you have dev mode enabled, and you click an ocean cell in the world screen, you will get a red error about unable to change the climate. All you must do is simply click any normal land cell and this error will go away. Anyone who understands C# if they would like to look into this, it would be great! But other than that there are zero issues that I have run into. One other thing, I did almost no work to update this. I harassed Mehni and Jecrell to help me, and they did! ALSO this works with Rim of Madness woohoo!
My little rant about why this is one of my most favorite mods of all posted here.TropiCKAPP Rainforest Mod
Original author: LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
More Consumables and Mutagens
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Extended Human Body Simulation and Diseases Overhauled
Original author: LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: EHBS DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK (EHBS is required for DO) DO DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK (requires EHBS)
I have also updated Diseases Overhauled and Extended Human Body Simulation (required for Diseases Overhauled) to be compatible with Rah's Bionics and Surgery Expansion. They were already updated to B18 by another user, but I had to make some modifications to let this work with RBSE. I'm not sure if this matters but this is the load order I have been using for these mods that might be relevant to them working properly for me. But I would recommend at least trying it like this.
Extended Human Body Simulation -> Diseases overhauled -> RBSE -> MoreConsumables
Modular Power Armor
Original author: LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
My customized version of Modular Power Armor, I've made a lot of changes that I detail in this post.
Colony Leadership
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
FashionRIMsta
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
My customized version of FashionRIMsta, I've made a lot of changes that I detail in this post.
Rumours and Deception
Original author: STEAM LINK LUDEON LINK
Harry Dick version: DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK
Licensing
Anyone is free to do anything they want with any of my own work, and it would be nice but not necessary if you could please link back to here. If I am still active I would hope that you would at least message me first. Thanks!
4
Ideas / Allow players to change scenario options after game has started
« on: February 23, 2018, 11:21:26 AM »
I've been thinking about this a lot for the past couple of weeks. I also can't remember if there was already another thread for this or not, my apologies if there is. Feel free to merge or do whatever is needed.
Anyway, what I think would be really awesome, is if we could edit all of the things from the scenario editor, but on the fly and after the game has started.
Here are some examples of things I would like to be able to change after the game has started:
Have recurring raids start whenever I feel like I am ready for them
Be able to turn on/off permanent eclipse when I want to (or at least a recurring timed eclipse)
Here are some other examples of other game conditions that I would want to be able to turn on when I please:
Make all new pawns always have a forced trait (like psychopath, staggeringly ugly, whatever!)
Make all new pawns always have a specific health condition (like they are all vampires, or always missing the left leg)
In a more advanced fantasy of mine, we could even setup groups of events/incidents to occur within the boundaries that the player defines. For example, maybe I want one of these events (cold snap, plague, flu, tornado, heat wave) to happen once every 15 days, in addition to them being able to, or not to, happen regularly. If we could have our regular scenario editor where we can choose what events/incidents can normally happen with our storyteller at anytime, but also other events/incidents that could be turned off from happening regularly, except in the specific conditions that the player has setup. For example, say I have the cold snap event turned off completely from ever randomly happening, but whenever I feel like I am ready for them, I could setup some new conditions to let the cold snap happen only in summer time, with X amount of time between other cold snaps, and only if the temp is above Y amount, and whatever else we could want.
I also want to add that I do not know how much work this would actually be. I was thinking that if we could just somehow allow the scenario editor to be accessed after the game has started, that would be good enough for me, with maybe some of the more advanced things I mentioned happening at a later point. But if we could at least just have what's available to us already before the game starts, that would be fantastic.
Finally, just take a look at all of these freaking awesome events/incidents that I can have happen. I can't help but want to have greater control of these things
Anyway, what I think would be really awesome, is if we could edit all of the things from the scenario editor, but on the fly and after the game has started.
Here are some examples of things I would like to be able to change after the game has started:
Have recurring raids start whenever I feel like I am ready for them
Be able to turn on/off permanent eclipse when I want to (or at least a recurring timed eclipse)
Here are some other examples of other game conditions that I would want to be able to turn on when I please:
Make all new pawns always have a forced trait (like psychopath, staggeringly ugly, whatever!)
Make all new pawns always have a specific health condition (like they are all vampires, or always missing the left leg)
In a more advanced fantasy of mine, we could even setup groups of events/incidents to occur within the boundaries that the player defines. For example, maybe I want one of these events (cold snap, plague, flu, tornado, heat wave) to happen once every 15 days, in addition to them being able to, or not to, happen regularly. If we could have our regular scenario editor where we can choose what events/incidents can normally happen with our storyteller at anytime, but also other events/incidents that could be turned off from happening regularly, except in the specific conditions that the player has setup. For example, say I have the cold snap event turned off completely from ever randomly happening, but whenever I feel like I am ready for them, I could setup some new conditions to let the cold snap happen only in summer time, with X amount of time between other cold snaps, and only if the temp is above Y amount, and whatever else we could want.
I also want to add that I do not know how much work this would actually be. I was thinking that if we could just somehow allow the scenario editor to be accessed after the game has started, that would be good enough for me, with maybe some of the more advanced things I mentioned happening at a later point. But if we could at least just have what's available to us already before the game starts, that would be fantastic.
Finally, just take a look at all of these freaking awesome events/incidents that I can have happen. I can't help but want to have greater control of these things
5
Ideas / Better Information Pane Window
« on: February 21, 2018, 11:30:09 AM »
Hello. I think the info that can be displayed in the info box at the bottom left hand of the screen could use some upgrading. Currently there are the 4 bars for: Health, Mood, Time Restriction (work schedule/activity), Area Restriction
I'm not sure of what plans are in the works for 1.0 and UI changes, or if there are going to even be any at all. If there aren't going to be any significant changes to the information pane at the bottom left of the screen when you select a pawn (can't remember what it's actually called..) then I think the current build could use a bit of upgrading. Because right now, for myself at least, I usually don't ever look at what any of the information says about a pawn in the bottom left.
I can understand while the panel down there looks the way it does, but I believe it could convey much better information to the player.
HEALTH BAR
I think this bar could definitely use some improvement. This is just a suggestion, because I still don't fully understand the difference between health, pain, pain tolerance, bleeding, and "being downed". I feel like all of this information is never clearly given to the player. Can some pawns have more health than each other, or is this all just a percent based system? We can see actual damage numbers from attacks thanks to mods, but I wish we could actually see something like (20,75,130) on a pawn's information tab for (unconscious pain/health, current pain/health, max pain/health).
I didn't play RimWorld from the early alphas, in fact I've only been around for a few months. But coming in as a new player, and you see that there are different systems for pain (and passing out from pain?), health (and kinda invisible damage numbers), what it takes to "down" a pawn (ironman and wimp and such), bleeding and bleeding out, and all of these systems are different yet they interact with each other. I don't think I'm alone in the fact that if you were to ask a random RimWorld player, who might even have some decent hours under their belt, to explain all of these systems (along with rest/sleep/energy/tiredness), how they compare and contrast, and how they all interact with each other, and I bet you they would fail.
I'm not trying to say I am smart enough that I should be able to understand all of this right away, but I feel like after having spent the amount of time I have with the game, and trying to read through secondary information windows and getting what I can from the base game, I am not able to bring myself to fully understand these things. That makes me feel like these are systems that can only be appreciated so much, since they have now become under the hood things that just sort of work and the player just has to accept what the game gives them, without even having the chance to understand it. At least I couldn't. And I'm dumb. We need to dumb-people-proof this stuff, please
MOOD
I don't have too much to say about this bar, except that I think it should have little markers along the bar for the different tiers of mood breaks thresholds. Look at how Moody has theirs.
TIME RESTRICTION/WORK SCHEDULE
I think this is an altogether terrible bar. Why do we have an entire bar dedicated to saying what the pawn is supposed to be doing at this point of the day? I think this is a much better way to utilize this space to convey information to the player.
AREA RESTRICTION
I can understand why this is here, but I really don't think I've ever had to pay attention to it, myself. It just feels like a bit of wasted space. If I ever need to see what colonists are allowed in what area, I'm probably just going to check the "Restrict" tab. This one's not a big deal, though.
Finally, I'm sure there can be many other great improvements to be thought of to put into the information pane. This is just something I have thought of recently, and it made me realize how much better something like this could be. Thanks for reading!
I'm not sure of what plans are in the works for 1.0 and UI changes, or if there are going to even be any at all. If there aren't going to be any significant changes to the information pane at the bottom left of the screen when you select a pawn (can't remember what it's actually called..) then I think the current build could use a bit of upgrading. Because right now, for myself at least, I usually don't ever look at what any of the information says about a pawn in the bottom left.
I can understand while the panel down there looks the way it does, but I believe it could convey much better information to the player.
HEALTH BAR
I think this bar could definitely use some improvement. This is just a suggestion, because I still don't fully understand the difference between health, pain, pain tolerance, bleeding, and "being downed". I feel like all of this information is never clearly given to the player. Can some pawns have more health than each other, or is this all just a percent based system? We can see actual damage numbers from attacks thanks to mods, but I wish we could actually see something like (20,75,130) on a pawn's information tab for (unconscious pain/health, current pain/health, max pain/health).
I didn't play RimWorld from the early alphas, in fact I've only been around for a few months. But coming in as a new player, and you see that there are different systems for pain (and passing out from pain?), health (and kinda invisible damage numbers), what it takes to "down" a pawn (ironman and wimp and such), bleeding and bleeding out, and all of these systems are different yet they interact with each other. I don't think I'm alone in the fact that if you were to ask a random RimWorld player, who might even have some decent hours under their belt, to explain all of these systems (along with rest/sleep/energy/tiredness), how they compare and contrast, and how they all interact with each other, and I bet you they would fail.
I'm not trying to say I am smart enough that I should be able to understand all of this right away, but I feel like after having spent the amount of time I have with the game, and trying to read through secondary information windows and getting what I can from the base game, I am not able to bring myself to fully understand these things. That makes me feel like these are systems that can only be appreciated so much, since they have now become under the hood things that just sort of work and the player just has to accept what the game gives them, without even having the chance to understand it. At least I couldn't. And I'm dumb. We need to dumb-people-proof this stuff, please
MOOD
I don't have too much to say about this bar, except that I think it should have little markers along the bar for the different tiers of mood breaks thresholds. Look at how Moody has theirs.
TIME RESTRICTION/WORK SCHEDULE
I think this is an altogether terrible bar. Why do we have an entire bar dedicated to saying what the pawn is supposed to be doing at this point of the day? I think this is a much better way to utilize this space to convey information to the player.
AREA RESTRICTION
I can understand why this is here, but I really don't think I've ever had to pay attention to it, myself. It just feels like a bit of wasted space. If I ever need to see what colonists are allowed in what area, I'm probably just going to check the "Restrict" tab. This one's not a big deal, though.
Finally, I'm sure there can be many other great improvements to be thought of to put into the information pane. This is just something I have thought of recently, and it made me realize how much better something like this could be. Thanks for reading!
6
Mods / Request for non-Steam mod links
« on: February 18, 2018, 07:14:38 PM »
Hello, I was wondering if anyone could please help me get any of these mods off of Steam. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
1. Days Matter https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208781538&searchtext=
2. Septic Tank https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1179785659&searchtext=
3. Disinfectant Stand https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1181099970&searchtext=
4. Dermal Regenerator https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1241322841&searchtext=
1. Days Matter https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208781538&searchtext=
2. Septic Tank https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1179785659&searchtext=
3. Disinfectant Stand https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1181099970&searchtext=
4. Dermal Regenerator https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1241322841&searchtext=
7
Ideas / Assignable Dev Tools
« on: February 18, 2018, 02:38:32 PM »
I think we could really use a little widget that we could assign whatever dev tools we wanted, maybe even like a little "hotkey pallet" if you can imagine what I'm thinking. Maybe a little resizeable window that you can toggle on or off. In it, you can add as many dev tools as you want for easy access.
Also, is there a dev tool to simply pick up and move an item? If not, I think this would be great. Sort of like an invisible hand in the sky.
Also, is there a dev tool to simply pick up and move an item? If not, I think this would be great. Sort of like an invisible hand in the sky.
8
Bugs / Ancient Dangers/Shrines Roof Collapse
« on: February 17, 2018, 02:18:39 PM »
I had just recently opened an ancient danger in one of my test games. A couple in game hours later, the roof collapsed in it, and I never had any interaction with anything in there. One would think that no "ruins" or ancient dangers, or really any buildings that RimWorld spawns in should ever have an internal area of greater than 12x12 for buildings. Or at least, never have any configuration so that the roof collapses after opening up just one square in the wall. You can clearly see how big of a collapse it was, too.
Oh and also, I had a decrepit old bag that came with the group, she spawned literally laying down, having cryptosleep sickness. I swear this isn't a joke, on day 2 it was her birthday, and her gift to the colony was dementia...
Oh and also, I had a decrepit old bag that came with the group, she spawned literally laying down, having cryptosleep sickness. I swear this isn't a joke, on day 2 it was her birthday, and her gift to the colony was dementia...
9
Support / Deleting Languages folder from Core
« on: February 17, 2018, 09:36:34 AM »
I was wondering if I delete the Languages folder from the Core if I will have any issues in the game? I ask because I have had the issue with the characters that look really crazy in mods. I think this was because they would be missing the language files for certain strings, or something like this. Anyway, will I have issues similar to this in my game if I do remove them?
The reason I want to remove the files is because a lot of times I will be doing a "Find in Files" search function with Notepad++ in my entire Mods folder. When the search results finally come in, they could end up being extremely cluttered with lots of entries from the Languages folder, along with the results I was looking for spaced out and hidden among the huge mess of search results.
The reason I want to remove the files is because a lot of times I will be doing a "Find in Files" search function with Notepad++ in my entire Mods folder. When the search results finally come in, they could end up being extremely cluttered with lots of entries from the Languages folder, along with the results I was looking for spaced out and hidden among the huge mess of search results.
10
Ideas / "Dismiss Trader" context menu button
« on: February 14, 2018, 07:58:37 AM »
Super simple idea. Something I've thought about for a bit. When I hit a certain point maybe around late middle game, I will have to be calling in bulk trade caravans from my allies 24/7 to buy steel or components or whatever. This means that I will almost always have around 1-3 trade caravans on my map, just putzing around. They may be programmed to not take up that much CPU, but I am usually playing on the threshold of what I will still find acceptable performance. This means that every little bit counts. If I can get rid of anything extra on my map that I don't need anymore, that's unnecessary, then I will do so without a second thought.
When you right click the trader on your map, and it brings up the context menu, could we have a new entry to "Dismiss Trader" please?
When you right click the trader on your map, and it brings up the context menu, could we have a new entry to "Dismiss Trader" please?
11
Mods / Playable Xenomorph Mod
« on: February 10, 2018, 11:09:54 AM »
This is a post to try and start a community project that has xenomorphs from the movies Alien and Aliens. I have been imagining xenos as a playable race for some time now. This first bit will be what I have thought of so far about how this mod will possibly work, or maybe some fun ideas we could have to go along with it. I have been thinking about this for this probably the past week or so. How we want to have a xenomorph mod that stays true to the films, but have xenos as an actual playable race, with a complete life cycle (depending on how much help we can get with the C# parts of this) with interesting and unique mechanics.
I have been doing nothing but tinkering with mods and learning how all of the xml stuff works over the past couple months and have what I think is a decent understanding of it. I've created a handful of my own personal mods that I'm using right now, and have helped a friend on their mod as well. I'm ready to take the next step and actually create something that I helped start and feel like I have contributed more. Anything I don't know or understand so far with xml I am willing to put in the time to learn. I'm willing to get the ball rolling with this project on all of the xml stuff. If I can get some help with it, especially for any C# and art, then I don't think this project should be too difficult with the frameworks already laid out for us. Of course everyone browsing this thread is more than welcome to make any suggestion, criticism, comment, snide remark about my mother, or offer of help in whatever way they can.
Just FYI, there already is an "Aliens" mod, but is nothing like what we want, no reproduction or life cycles or anything. They just act as animals or a hidden faction I think. A few days ago someone else just launched a WIP thread for a new playable race called Mantodeans, and damn, they look freaking awesome. But some of these ideas I had been thinking about for xenos I said in that thread as well, but they almost all originated from me wanting to have a real xeno race with their reproduction cycle in the game. Also, I might borrow on some of the ideas that the author used for the Mantodeans, which I hope he doesn't mind (if so we will have to change these aspects!). Someone else just created a thread talking about a xeno mod asking about where to start with the concept, however they were only wanting to have xenos act as an animal, as far as I could tell. Not trying to step on anybody's toes, but it was this post that inspired me to want to make my own thread -
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=39024.0 I had just spent a fair bit of time thinking about this, and felt that I had so much to say on the topic that it warranted it's own thread.
This probably won't be super cohesive or follow a specific flow of thought, I'm just going to be randomly throwing out these ideas as I remember them
We will use the term pawn interchangeably for the warrior and drone class xenos. We will also use hive interchangeably with colony.
I also should say that I am a pretty big "casual nerd" of the Alien franchise and it's lore. I've been watching Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 since I was a child. The first movie scared the absolute pants off of me. After seeing that, and then going to Universal Studios them park in Florido (I think it was in Orlando, near Disney World) and going on the ride once, I refused to do it again. I was only six! However I loved watching Aliens for the action scenes. It wasn't until I was older that I could fully appreciate the first film, and also have a lot of fun imagining being a character on the second film. This isn't helped by Alien: Isolation. Honestly, I can't play that game. It is too perfect for me, aesthetically at least. I never even got to the parts where the xeno was hunting me all the time. Anyone who hasn't tried it, I highly recommend at least checking it out. The developers of that game stayed completely faithful to the movies, as far as I can tell, and did an outstanding job. The ship interiors look exactly like they do from the films. It is ridiculous how much it all looks like the source material. I'm confident that the game has a very high Steam rating, and that it is a lot of fun. And do believe that I am very critical of any games that I decide to invest my time into.
Anyway, Alien and Aliens are the only things that we will be basing any of this off of, as the rest in the franchise are abominations and we don't want to type an entire wall of our feelings behind any of these. The only things I will say about them, is that I adore Alien and Aliens, but Alien 3 turned to shit through studio interference (ever wonder why David Fincher doesn't have a Director's Cut? He won't put his name on it!) and Alien Resurrection was just holy shit Fox how could you let your IP be tarnished like this? AvP just wow. Prometheus I was originally excited for, but then when I saw it, it was not what I was expecting. It did give me hope that it's sequel could be an awesome bridge between Prometheus and Alien, but no. Mister Scott decided that he wanted to just shake up the entire Alien IP canon into an entire cluster fuck. I just want Ridley Scott to please go the hell away and make some other fantastic, but different, intellectual property.
The below section is assuming that we do not have any of the facehugger/human reproduction, and that a xeno actually comes out of eggs layed by the queen, not out of the belly of a human. If we could actually have the eggs hatch facehuggers, which would then need to impregnate a human (think of the grapple mechanic from the Vampires mod) who is either running around or wrapped up in the "cocoon" like Newt was, ready to be impregnated by the egg hatching right next to her. I suppose a good reason for separating, or making this project "semi-modular" is so that depending on the man hours that end up being able to be invested, we don't get in over our heads. We want to be able to at least get a base mod out. So we should also assume that any parts suggested in this thread could need to be put on an indefinite hold until we can create the opportunity for these features to be implemented. Also a few things might be a little redundant or I have mentioned them twice. That's because this is just a rough draft of me rambling my thoughts about this, going back and inserting things and moving stuff around, trying
to make the post a little more cohesive and easier to read. So this post definitely won't be perfect, but I hope you'll bare with me! Also, I'm not claiming I know everything or am correct on 100% of this stuff and it being canon, but I have done a bit of research on the first two films, albeit this was a few years ago 
-Xenos will be divided into classes. We will have a starting scenario with either a young queen by herself, or a few drones/warriors with a fertile queen egg that they must take care of.
-A queen will be the heart of a colony/hive. If she dies, and you have no fertilized queen eggs, then our hive should slowly wither away.
-The hive will wither away because xenos can only be healed from their minor wounds so much. This is because they have an exoskeleton that is difficult to repair, plus xeno doctors?
-You can only have one queen per colony.
-If you have a new queen hatch from her egg, or if there is more than one queen on a map, all queens will get increasingly irritated as long as they aren't the only queen on the map. Eventually a queen may get so pissed off she separates from her sac, and goes to attack whatever other queen she can get her claws on. The only remedy for each queen is to make sure they are the only queen on the map, whether the other queens run or get killed does not matter.
-Queens need to stay attached to their sac to keep producing eggs. If they break off from their sac (think back to Aliens when the queen had to essentially "rip" it off from herself so she could chase Ripley) then they might not be able to reattach it, maybe they have to grow a new one. If we did allow reattaching, then this should take a very long time or require a special surgery/procedure/something.
-Xenos do not care about losing other hive members, or this is very mitigated. Xenos get a mood boost for sleeping in a barracks with each others, and a penalty for sleeping solo, our outside of the hive.
-Xenos social moodlets will mostly revolve around the queen, and how well she and the hive as a whole are doing. The xenomorph is a selfless being, the hive always comes first.
-Xenos will never panic or run about uncontrollably (set on fire on fleeing from whatever). They always fight until the end.
-Xeno warriors can have a sort of "leap" mechanic to help them close in the distance to melee range, also because xenos have no ranged attacks.
-Xeno drones can still fight, but not nearly as well as warriors, nor do they have the ability to get the combat upgrades that warriors can.
-The main xeno workers are called drones, the soldiers are called warriors. There are a lot of other kinds in the Alien universe, but they aren't as well known nor as popular, and I also don't think they would really be needed - allowing the resources that would be spent on redundant classes to be better allocated elsewhere. I don't know how I would feel about having a ton of classes beyond these. I think it would be better if we just had these two main ones, but then we could have more specialized workers for different tasks. Same for warriors, some of them might have more health and better armor, while other's have less health but are a lot faster, etc.
-Xenos are easy to replace and sort of a "throw away" type of pawn. This is one of the biggest points of the mod and what I think will help it stand out among all of the other playable race mods. It will allow the player to think about all of their pawns differently, and hopefully create a new and interesting ways to play RimWorld!
-Since xenos can only heal minor wounds on themselves, this is the perfect way to create a system of losing an acceptable amount of xenos when you have to engage in combat.
-The queen will have all sorts of various upgrades that she can receive to change everything about egg laying/production.
-To determine what type of xeno an egg will turn out to be, I can think of two decent sounding options. The first is all eggs are lain as generic, and the player can manipulate the egg environment or do something interesting to determine the class of the xeno egg, or the player can choose what type of eggs the queen will be laying.
-If we go with the generic eggs, then I think this could be a lot more interesting. We could have your drones put the eggs into "nursery" rooms, just like there were the egg chambers in the movies. Similar to how crocodile eggs work (and I'm sure a lot of others) you could have the average temperature that the eggs and incubated at determine if they will becomes drones or warriors.
-Maybe we have to do something very special for new queen eggs. Maybe they take a year or more to hatch after they've been lain. Say if they take a year, this will be a new system that you would have to balance with only having one queen per colony, but always wanting to have a back up queen egg that would be ready to hatch within a time frame that they could mature quick enough to start laying eggs before your hive is wiped out.
-Queens might take anywhere from a couple quadrums to a couple years to fully mature. Maybe 2 quadrums to mature, and another 2 quadrums to grow a new sac.
-Queens remain either completely stationary when they are attached to a sac, or they can only move within a few cells of where their sac is attached.
-The sac attached to queens has it's own health and anatomy, independent of the queen.
-The sac can be upgraded over time. However if a player detaches the queen from their sac, and if we decide to not let the queen reattach to a sac (must grow a new one) then the sac will wither away and die, making any investments into the sac go to waste.
-This will create an incentive for the player to highly consider where they place their queen and her sac, and if shit is hitting the fan in a hive raid, should they detach their queen or not? Will the hive survive without the queens help (she is an excellent big badass fighter)? Or if they must use the queen to defend the hive, will she be able to survive after the fight? Will she be able to grow a new sac? Do you have enough eggs put up to keep your xeno population numbers up if you detach your queen? Do you have another queen egg that will be ready to hatch soon after if your current queen dies? So many possible dilemmas that will create great new stories every time!
-Queens could come from special eggs and special queen facehuggers (I think that I have seen these somewhere online before)
-Xenos sleep in/on/next to the walls, maybe gaining some type of camouflage or blending in to the wall. Think about in Aliens how the xenos ambush the marines, and Hudson famously yells, "They're coming out of the God damn walls!" Not necessary but could be a big bit of flavor if implemented properly.
-If we can have xenos hide in walls, that will be perfect for setting up ambushes for raiders coming in to attack your hive. If you have your hive/map sealed off in a specific way (think of how everyone funnels raiders to their killbox) then you could have your warriors set up for all sorts of interesting ambushes.
Below here is if we can find someone to help us with the whole facehugger impregnating a live human, which will then birth a chestburster (a baby xeno) of a specific class, or a generic chestburster that we can have "evolve" into a certain class as it goes through it's life stages. In the first Alien movie, it is inferred that the xenos have an extremely short lifespan. This is how the chestburster was able to grow so quickly, and why at the end of the movie for the final action sequence the xeno seems so slow and lethargic. That was because, as I remember believing after reading about it somewhere, the xeno had completed it's life cycle (in alternate cuts the xeno has Dallas and I think another crew member cocooned down below deck) and was just sort of settling in to die. However, in Aliens, it is clear that xenos can live much longer, but I am not sure to what extent.
-Xenos can cocoon any humanoid (basically anything that would have blood. So no androids, but cat people, dog people, star wars people, etc. should all be able to be impregnated) that they have captured as a prisoner. This could mean dropping consciousness down very low, or whatever it is when a pawn gets anesthesia for surgery, sedating them.
-There will be nursery rooms with eggs that are in their final stage, almost ready to hatch, where you can keep these cocooned prisoners.
-Once the egg hatches, the facehugger will latch onto it's victim (again, like the grapple mechanic from the Vampires mod) and impregnate it's victim over the next few hours.
-The facehugger and it's future egg surrogate will remain very vulnerable during these few hours, and anything that happens to them during this time could cause the impregnation to fail/abort.
-Facehuggers who fail while impregnating their host could die (not sure of canon on this, but sounds interesting)
-Other mechanics to let facehuggers or any of the steps along any of the egg/facehugger/chestburster/xeno life stages to fail, to help keep population numbers in check.
-Once a host is impregnated, they must be kept alive and healthy for the duration of the pregnancy.
-If the host does not stay optimally healthy throughout the pregnancy, there will be tiered chances of having a gimped chestburster/xenomorph.
-These lacking xenos might not have their handicaps be known to the player until the xeno is a full adult. This will encourage players to actually take care of their human hosts. If the player knows right away that a xeno will be gimped, they might kill the xeno right then in hopes of replacing it with a fully healthy one. However if they can not know this until they have at least invested some time into making the xeno a full adult, well then I think this would be a good incentive to help balance wanting to keep the human hosts healthy, both before and during pregnancy.
-If possible, or maybe through a new story teller if required, have new special events related to xenomorph population to help regulate whatever numbers are decided to be optimal for a hive play through.
-Right now I'm thinking that an optimal number would be around 30-40 xenos. With much of their social system stripped, and minimal variation between classes and their various upgrades, this should help balance out the extra load from the extra pawns on the map.
Stuff posted below here could be some fairly significant changes to Alien canon, but this is so that the IP can be adapted as best as possible for fun and interesting game play. Maybe also some significant changes to pawns/RimWorld to make all of these ideas work together.
-Xenos will have an increased XP rate for their skills, like burning passions, or they will have a lower cap on the maximum level for their skills. This will be needed so that the player will never be too attached to any specific workers. In fact, none of the workers or soldiers should significantly stand out from their peers. The only exception to this, that I can think of, should be for any major changes that a xeno receives via "carapace upgrades"
-Xenos can't wear armor or have weapons. Instead their combat prowess and stats will be determined by their melee skill, class, and "carapace upgrades".
-Xenos can go into a special "cocoon" for a duration of time to get a thicker shell/skin/armor, reducing damage taken. An example upgrade could be that their tail is longer, so that they have increased "melee reach". You can of course have some regular old boring plain damage/armor upgrades as well, but I don't think these should be too significant, ever. Remember, if the player can invest too much in any individual xeno, then they stand the chance of becoming attached to this pawn, and this will go against the sort of "playstyle" that the mod is trying to achieve.
-Various colony wide upgrades, that come from special research, with great flavor names/descriptions that make sense. These researches will require that you have made certain buildings/things X amount of times throughout the colony, just like in vanilla some researches require you to have built a multianalyzer, stuff like that. The mod SS Researchable Stat Upgrades has a dll in it that allows this type of colony wide research, it can change a thingDef's comps or verb properties, so this is achievable. Maybe Spdskater would be kind enough to let me use it in the mod
-Thinking back to StarCraft, the Zerg would have something like a "spawning pool" that just sort of sounds like it made sense for them. There could be buildings similar to this that you should place throughout the colony. The reason for having these buildings could be simply for aesthetics, to make your colony actually look and feel like a hive.
-If I had a talented C# programmer, then maybe we could have a sort of thing like there was for the Zerg in StarCraft or the Undead in Warcraft III. A building that spreads a sort of "blight" within so many tiles around it. This "blight" could then be required to place any xeno structures. Only a handful of buildings could be built on any tile that doesn't have this "blight" on it. And of course we would need a better name for blight.
I have been doing nothing but tinkering with mods and learning how all of the xml stuff works over the past couple months and have what I think is a decent understanding of it. I've created a handful of my own personal mods that I'm using right now, and have helped a friend on their mod as well. I'm ready to take the next step and actually create something that I helped start and feel like I have contributed more. Anything I don't know or understand so far with xml I am willing to put in the time to learn. I'm willing to get the ball rolling with this project on all of the xml stuff. If I can get some help with it, especially for any C# and art, then I don't think this project should be too difficult with the frameworks already laid out for us. Of course everyone browsing this thread is more than welcome to make any suggestion, criticism, comment, snide remark about my mother, or offer of help in whatever way they can.
Just FYI, there already is an "Aliens" mod, but is nothing like what we want, no reproduction or life cycles or anything. They just act as animals or a hidden faction I think. A few days ago someone else just launched a WIP thread for a new playable race called Mantodeans, and damn, they look freaking awesome. But some of these ideas I had been thinking about for xenos I said in that thread as well, but they almost all originated from me wanting to have a real xeno race with their reproduction cycle in the game. Also, I might borrow on some of the ideas that the author used for the Mantodeans, which I hope he doesn't mind (if so we will have to change these aspects!). Someone else just created a thread talking about a xeno mod asking about where to start with the concept, however they were only wanting to have xenos act as an animal, as far as I could tell. Not trying to step on anybody's toes, but it was this post that inspired me to want to make my own thread -
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=39024.0 I had just spent a fair bit of time thinking about this, and felt that I had so much to say on the topic that it warranted it's own thread.
This probably won't be super cohesive or follow a specific flow of thought, I'm just going to be randomly throwing out these ideas as I remember them
We will use the term pawn interchangeably for the warrior and drone class xenos. We will also use hive interchangeably with colony.I also should say that I am a pretty big "casual nerd" of the Alien franchise and it's lore. I've been watching Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 since I was a child. The first movie scared the absolute pants off of me. After seeing that, and then going to Universal Studios them park in Florido (I think it was in Orlando, near Disney World) and going on the ride once, I refused to do it again. I was only six! However I loved watching Aliens for the action scenes. It wasn't until I was older that I could fully appreciate the first film, and also have a lot of fun imagining being a character on the second film. This isn't helped by Alien: Isolation. Honestly, I can't play that game. It is too perfect for me, aesthetically at least. I never even got to the parts where the xeno was hunting me all the time. Anyone who hasn't tried it, I highly recommend at least checking it out. The developers of that game stayed completely faithful to the movies, as far as I can tell, and did an outstanding job. The ship interiors look exactly like they do from the films. It is ridiculous how much it all looks like the source material. I'm confident that the game has a very high Steam rating, and that it is a lot of fun. And do believe that I am very critical of any games that I decide to invest my time into.
Anyway, Alien and Aliens are the only things that we will be basing any of this off of, as the rest in the franchise are abominations and we don't want to type an entire wall of our feelings behind any of these. The only things I will say about them, is that I adore Alien and Aliens, but Alien 3 turned to shit through studio interference (ever wonder why David Fincher doesn't have a Director's Cut? He won't put his name on it!) and Alien Resurrection was just holy shit Fox how could you let your IP be tarnished like this? AvP just wow. Prometheus I was originally excited for, but then when I saw it, it was not what I was expecting. It did give me hope that it's sequel could be an awesome bridge between Prometheus and Alien, but no. Mister Scott decided that he wanted to just shake up the entire Alien IP canon into an entire cluster fuck. I just want Ridley Scott to please go the hell away and make some other fantastic, but different, intellectual property.
The below section is assuming that we do not have any of the facehugger/human reproduction, and that a xeno actually comes out of eggs layed by the queen, not out of the belly of a human. If we could actually have the eggs hatch facehuggers, which would then need to impregnate a human (think of the grapple mechanic from the Vampires mod) who is either running around or wrapped up in the "cocoon" like Newt was, ready to be impregnated by the egg hatching right next to her. I suppose a good reason for separating, or making this project "semi-modular" is so that depending on the man hours that end up being able to be invested, we don't get in over our heads. We want to be able to at least get a base mod out. So we should also assume that any parts suggested in this thread could need to be put on an indefinite hold until we can create the opportunity for these features to be implemented. Also a few things might be a little redundant or I have mentioned them twice. That's because this is just a rough draft of me rambling my thoughts about this, going back and inserting things and moving stuff around, trying
to make the post a little more cohesive and easier to read. So this post definitely won't be perfect, but I hope you'll bare with me! Also, I'm not claiming I know everything or am correct on 100% of this stuff and it being canon, but I have done a bit of research on the first two films, albeit this was a few years ago -Xenos will be divided into classes. We will have a starting scenario with either a young queen by herself, or a few drones/warriors with a fertile queen egg that they must take care of.
-A queen will be the heart of a colony/hive. If she dies, and you have no fertilized queen eggs, then our hive should slowly wither away.
-The hive will wither away because xenos can only be healed from their minor wounds so much. This is because they have an exoskeleton that is difficult to repair, plus xeno doctors?
-You can only have one queen per colony.
-If you have a new queen hatch from her egg, or if there is more than one queen on a map, all queens will get increasingly irritated as long as they aren't the only queen on the map. Eventually a queen may get so pissed off she separates from her sac, and goes to attack whatever other queen she can get her claws on. The only remedy for each queen is to make sure they are the only queen on the map, whether the other queens run or get killed does not matter.
-Queens need to stay attached to their sac to keep producing eggs. If they break off from their sac (think back to Aliens when the queen had to essentially "rip" it off from herself so she could chase Ripley) then they might not be able to reattach it, maybe they have to grow a new one. If we did allow reattaching, then this should take a very long time or require a special surgery/procedure/something.
-Xenos do not care about losing other hive members, or this is very mitigated. Xenos get a mood boost for sleeping in a barracks with each others, and a penalty for sleeping solo, our outside of the hive.
-Xenos social moodlets will mostly revolve around the queen, and how well she and the hive as a whole are doing. The xenomorph is a selfless being, the hive always comes first.
-Xenos will never panic or run about uncontrollably (set on fire on fleeing from whatever). They always fight until the end.
-Xeno warriors can have a sort of "leap" mechanic to help them close in the distance to melee range, also because xenos have no ranged attacks.
-Xeno drones can still fight, but not nearly as well as warriors, nor do they have the ability to get the combat upgrades that warriors can.
-The main xeno workers are called drones, the soldiers are called warriors. There are a lot of other kinds in the Alien universe, but they aren't as well known nor as popular, and I also don't think they would really be needed - allowing the resources that would be spent on redundant classes to be better allocated elsewhere. I don't know how I would feel about having a ton of classes beyond these. I think it would be better if we just had these two main ones, but then we could have more specialized workers for different tasks. Same for warriors, some of them might have more health and better armor, while other's have less health but are a lot faster, etc.
-Xenos are easy to replace and sort of a "throw away" type of pawn. This is one of the biggest points of the mod and what I think will help it stand out among all of the other playable race mods. It will allow the player to think about all of their pawns differently, and hopefully create a new and interesting ways to play RimWorld!
-Since xenos can only heal minor wounds on themselves, this is the perfect way to create a system of losing an acceptable amount of xenos when you have to engage in combat.
-The queen will have all sorts of various upgrades that she can receive to change everything about egg laying/production.
-To determine what type of xeno an egg will turn out to be, I can think of two decent sounding options. The first is all eggs are lain as generic, and the player can manipulate the egg environment or do something interesting to determine the class of the xeno egg, or the player can choose what type of eggs the queen will be laying.
-If we go with the generic eggs, then I think this could be a lot more interesting. We could have your drones put the eggs into "nursery" rooms, just like there were the egg chambers in the movies. Similar to how crocodile eggs work (and I'm sure a lot of others) you could have the average temperature that the eggs and incubated at determine if they will becomes drones or warriors.
-Maybe we have to do something very special for new queen eggs. Maybe they take a year or more to hatch after they've been lain. Say if they take a year, this will be a new system that you would have to balance with only having one queen per colony, but always wanting to have a back up queen egg that would be ready to hatch within a time frame that they could mature quick enough to start laying eggs before your hive is wiped out.
-Queens might take anywhere from a couple quadrums to a couple years to fully mature. Maybe 2 quadrums to mature, and another 2 quadrums to grow a new sac.
-Queens remain either completely stationary when they are attached to a sac, or they can only move within a few cells of where their sac is attached.
-The sac attached to queens has it's own health and anatomy, independent of the queen.
-The sac can be upgraded over time. However if a player detaches the queen from their sac, and if we decide to not let the queen reattach to a sac (must grow a new one) then the sac will wither away and die, making any investments into the sac go to waste.
-This will create an incentive for the player to highly consider where they place their queen and her sac, and if shit is hitting the fan in a hive raid, should they detach their queen or not? Will the hive survive without the queens help (she is an excellent big badass fighter)? Or if they must use the queen to defend the hive, will she be able to survive after the fight? Will she be able to grow a new sac? Do you have enough eggs put up to keep your xeno population numbers up if you detach your queen? Do you have another queen egg that will be ready to hatch soon after if your current queen dies? So many possible dilemmas that will create great new stories every time!
-Queens could come from special eggs and special queen facehuggers (I think that I have seen these somewhere online before)
-Xenos sleep in/on/next to the walls, maybe gaining some type of camouflage or blending in to the wall. Think about in Aliens how the xenos ambush the marines, and Hudson famously yells, "They're coming out of the God damn walls!" Not necessary but could be a big bit of flavor if implemented properly.
-If we can have xenos hide in walls, that will be perfect for setting up ambushes for raiders coming in to attack your hive. If you have your hive/map sealed off in a specific way (think of how everyone funnels raiders to their killbox) then you could have your warriors set up for all sorts of interesting ambushes.
Below here is if we can find someone to help us with the whole facehugger impregnating a live human, which will then birth a chestburster (a baby xeno) of a specific class, or a generic chestburster that we can have "evolve" into a certain class as it goes through it's life stages. In the first Alien movie, it is inferred that the xenos have an extremely short lifespan. This is how the chestburster was able to grow so quickly, and why at the end of the movie for the final action sequence the xeno seems so slow and lethargic. That was because, as I remember believing after reading about it somewhere, the xeno had completed it's life cycle (in alternate cuts the xeno has Dallas and I think another crew member cocooned down below deck) and was just sort of settling in to die. However, in Aliens, it is clear that xenos can live much longer, but I am not sure to what extent.
-Xenos can cocoon any humanoid (basically anything that would have blood. So no androids, but cat people, dog people, star wars people, etc. should all be able to be impregnated) that they have captured as a prisoner. This could mean dropping consciousness down very low, or whatever it is when a pawn gets anesthesia for surgery, sedating them.
-There will be nursery rooms with eggs that are in their final stage, almost ready to hatch, where you can keep these cocooned prisoners.
-Once the egg hatches, the facehugger will latch onto it's victim (again, like the grapple mechanic from the Vampires mod) and impregnate it's victim over the next few hours.
-The facehugger and it's future egg surrogate will remain very vulnerable during these few hours, and anything that happens to them during this time could cause the impregnation to fail/abort.
-Facehuggers who fail while impregnating their host could die (not sure of canon on this, but sounds interesting)
-Other mechanics to let facehuggers or any of the steps along any of the egg/facehugger/chestburster/xeno life stages to fail, to help keep population numbers in check.
-Once a host is impregnated, they must be kept alive and healthy for the duration of the pregnancy.
-If the host does not stay optimally healthy throughout the pregnancy, there will be tiered chances of having a gimped chestburster/xenomorph.
-These lacking xenos might not have their handicaps be known to the player until the xeno is a full adult. This will encourage players to actually take care of their human hosts. If the player knows right away that a xeno will be gimped, they might kill the xeno right then in hopes of replacing it with a fully healthy one. However if they can not know this until they have at least invested some time into making the xeno a full adult, well then I think this would be a good incentive to help balance wanting to keep the human hosts healthy, both before and during pregnancy.
-If possible, or maybe through a new story teller if required, have new special events related to xenomorph population to help regulate whatever numbers are decided to be optimal for a hive play through.
-Right now I'm thinking that an optimal number would be around 30-40 xenos. With much of their social system stripped, and minimal variation between classes and their various upgrades, this should help balance out the extra load from the extra pawns on the map.
Stuff posted below here could be some fairly significant changes to Alien canon, but this is so that the IP can be adapted as best as possible for fun and interesting game play. Maybe also some significant changes to pawns/RimWorld to make all of these ideas work together.
-Xenos will have an increased XP rate for their skills, like burning passions, or they will have a lower cap on the maximum level for their skills. This will be needed so that the player will never be too attached to any specific workers. In fact, none of the workers or soldiers should significantly stand out from their peers. The only exception to this, that I can think of, should be for any major changes that a xeno receives via "carapace upgrades"
-Xenos can't wear armor or have weapons. Instead their combat prowess and stats will be determined by their melee skill, class, and "carapace upgrades".
-Xenos can go into a special "cocoon" for a duration of time to get a thicker shell/skin/armor, reducing damage taken. An example upgrade could be that their tail is longer, so that they have increased "melee reach". You can of course have some regular old boring plain damage/armor upgrades as well, but I don't think these should be too significant, ever. Remember, if the player can invest too much in any individual xeno, then they stand the chance of becoming attached to this pawn, and this will go against the sort of "playstyle" that the mod is trying to achieve.
-Various colony wide upgrades, that come from special research, with great flavor names/descriptions that make sense. These researches will require that you have made certain buildings/things X amount of times throughout the colony, just like in vanilla some researches require you to have built a multianalyzer, stuff like that. The mod SS Researchable Stat Upgrades has a dll in it that allows this type of colony wide research, it can change a thingDef's comps or verb properties, so this is achievable. Maybe Spdskater would be kind enough to let me use it in the mod
-Thinking back to StarCraft, the Zerg would have something like a "spawning pool" that just sort of sounds like it made sense for them. There could be buildings similar to this that you should place throughout the colony. The reason for having these buildings could be simply for aesthetics, to make your colony actually look and feel like a hive.
-If I had a talented C# programmer, then maybe we could have a sort of thing like there was for the Zerg in StarCraft or the Undead in Warcraft III. A building that spreads a sort of "blight" within so many tiles around it. This "blight" could then be required to place any xeno structures. Only a handful of buildings could be built on any tile that doesn't have this "blight" on it. And of course we would need a better name for blight.
12
Ideas / Disabling events/incidents in 1 out of 2 colonies. Or changing them on the fly.
« on: February 01, 2018, 12:41:00 PM »
EDIT: I've kinda expanded/changed my idea and the title, or what I think would be great to have to make my scenario possible, that you can see in my second post in this thread.
I have been thinking about setting up my own "psuedo z-level" through mods, but I need to figure out if it is possible to disable events for one of my maps but not the other. The idea behind my extra level is to use two permanent one way portals, one on each map, with the exit point of one portal next to the entry point of the portal on the opposite map. This is so that I can imagine it as a sort of "staircase" leading to my second map. On the smaller map, I would have to use God Mode to create a wall around the entire edge of the map, to prevent animals and grass from coming in. I can also build a thick roof overhead to never have to worry about drop pods coming through (what happens if you try to send a drop pod to a map that it can't land anywhere?) The stuff that I am concerned about are things happening on the second map that I don't want. For example, raids, plants, weather, poison ships, etc. So I am curious if anyone knows if there is a way, like the scenario editor has, to disable any events/incidents from one map, but not the other. In my imagination, this would be like my dungeon level under my base, so that the only way anything ever gets into this map is through the portal I have deep within my mountain home. Also, I am not concerned at all with pawns moving, hauling, or trying to interact with jobs between one level and the other. I just want to be able to send them to my dungeon whenever I want
These are the mods I will use, along with the reasoning:
Set-Up Camp: use this to make small maps, you can customize the size in mod options, and these camps can also be permanent, so you don't have to have a pawn there. I will probably use 50x50 starting off.
Advanced Roofing: able to create thick stone roofs, so that drop pods can not come through, essentially like a mountain overhead.
TMagic: permanent one way portals, among other totally freaking awesome stuff. Try this mod out if you haven't already!
Another issue I was thinking about was raids. Say I can disable raids on my second map, but would it be possible to have the value of that map added to my first one, so I still receive appropriate level raids? This isn't too big of an issue for me, because I can always swap storytellers or ramp up the difficulty as needed. Lastly, I know there would be other issues that might pop up like this one, that aren't too apparent to me at first. If anyone else can think of other issues that I might have, please let me know, so that I can evaluate my options to try and find a possible solution.
Also, are raids even able to happen if there is no available cell for them to spawn into from the map edge? I want to say I've seen something like this for animals, but I am not 100% sure on either one of them.
Anyone that's able to help in anyway, even just pointing me in the right direction for more resources, I will be greatly appreciative. Thanks!
I have been thinking about setting up my own "psuedo z-level" through mods, but I need to figure out if it is possible to disable events for one of my maps but not the other. The idea behind my extra level is to use two permanent one way portals, one on each map, with the exit point of one portal next to the entry point of the portal on the opposite map. This is so that I can imagine it as a sort of "staircase" leading to my second map. On the smaller map, I would have to use God Mode to create a wall around the entire edge of the map, to prevent animals and grass from coming in. I can also build a thick roof overhead to never have to worry about drop pods coming through (what happens if you try to send a drop pod to a map that it can't land anywhere?) The stuff that I am concerned about are things happening on the second map that I don't want. For example, raids, plants, weather, poison ships, etc. So I am curious if anyone knows if there is a way, like the scenario editor has, to disable any events/incidents from one map, but not the other. In my imagination, this would be like my dungeon level under my base, so that the only way anything ever gets into this map is through the portal I have deep within my mountain home. Also, I am not concerned at all with pawns moving, hauling, or trying to interact with jobs between one level and the other. I just want to be able to send them to my dungeon whenever I want
These are the mods I will use, along with the reasoning:
Set-Up Camp: use this to make small maps, you can customize the size in mod options, and these camps can also be permanent, so you don't have to have a pawn there. I will probably use 50x50 starting off.
Advanced Roofing: able to create thick stone roofs, so that drop pods can not come through, essentially like a mountain overhead.
TMagic: permanent one way portals, among other totally freaking awesome stuff. Try this mod out if you haven't already!
Another issue I was thinking about was raids. Say I can disable raids on my second map, but would it be possible to have the value of that map added to my first one, so I still receive appropriate level raids? This isn't too big of an issue for me, because I can always swap storytellers or ramp up the difficulty as needed. Lastly, I know there would be other issues that might pop up like this one, that aren't too apparent to me at first. If anyone else can think of other issues that I might have, please let me know, so that I can evaluate my options to try and find a possible solution.
Also, are raids even able to happen if there is no available cell for them to spawn into from the map edge? I want to say I've seen something like this for animals, but I am not 100% sure on either one of them.
Anyone that's able to help in anyway, even just pointing me in the right direction for more resources, I will be greatly appreciative. Thanks!
13
Ideas / Could we have the "Fleeing" icon changed?
« on: February 01, 2018, 04:06:21 AM »
Right now when a pawn flees, the only way a player will ever notice, besides seeing it happen directly, is if they are always watching their colonist bar (something I personally can never remember to do often enough) for the small running man icon. Personally, I think I might have only ever noticed this icon a couple of times, ever.
Would it be possible to have maybe a flashing red or yellow border around the pawns icon when they are fleeing? Something to at least get my attention a bit more than what we have currently. If a pawn is having to flee from something, then whatever is going on might require my immediate attention, and there's no way in hell I will ever notice that little white icon on the colonists' bar. I can think of a few scenarios where I would rather directly control a pawns' fleeing than let them run themselves into a corner, both literally and metaphorically.
Would it be possible to have maybe a flashing red or yellow border around the pawns icon when they are fleeing? Something to at least get my attention a bit more than what we have currently. If a pawn is having to flee from something, then whatever is going on might require my immediate attention, and there's no way in hell I will ever notice that little white icon on the colonists' bar. I can think of a few scenarios where I would rather directly control a pawns' fleeing than let them run themselves into a corner, both literally and metaphorically.
14
Mods / Mod is virtually finished, but artist needed for additional add on textures
« on: January 28, 2018, 05:59:36 PM »
I just posted my WIP on the unfinished board as I am still working on it. But I am also looking for any artists who would like to contribute any textures, that I will happily make into more workbench add ons. Any contributions will be listed in the credits
Here's the link to the WIP of the mod, Harry Dick's Add Ons. Please feel free to leave any comments or criticism there. Thanks! https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=38852.0
Here's the link to the WIP of the mod, Harry Dick's Add Ons. Please feel free to leave any comments or criticism there. Thanks!
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=38852.0
15
Unfinished / [B18](WIP) Harry Dick's Add Ons
« on: January 28, 2018, 04:31:36 PM »
Hello, I have been working on a mod that will allow the player to construct multiple add ons for different production buildings that will increase work speed. After having so many bases, and starting to save a shit ton of room (no longer 2/3 of base is stockpiles) by getting the mods Extended Storage and Mass Storage, I started thinking that some areas of my base seemed a little barren. I was also heavily inspired by the mod More Linkables, which I discovered after trying to find a solution to my issue.
I took the idea it started, and expanded upon it greatly. So far, the add ons I have created are fully functioning and all have their own technology they come from, one of 5 researches, and you cannot have more than one of them per kind per workbench. These function just like the vanilla toolbox, in that these add ons may connect to many workbenches each, but each workbench may only connect to 1 of each different add on. That means, for example in your industrial work area, you can have your machining table now hooked up to a lathe, sawmill, electronics table, and tool calibration table, in addition to the vanilla toolbox. The total increase to work speed varies per workbench, but the overall speed increase is usually around 30-40% once all of the add ons are linked. I think this is a fair value without being too crazy overpowered, especially when you compare it to what you can easily achieve work speed wise with just a few bionics for your colonists. If someone really wants to get that out of their game, then sure let them, but that is not the idea in mind when creating this mod. I am running about 150 mods now myself (without about 30 smaller ones I have gobbled up into my own creation) but I still want things to feel pretty vanilla and not get too crazy. I would like to think of the idea behind this mod being that I want the majority of people to feel like it is vanilla and lore friendly, nothing too crazy, but gives some great value in that you can further increase the aesthetics of your colonists' work areas, some of the places they spend the majority of their time!
These are the add ons I have up and running so far
Basic Workshops: Lathe, Sawmill
Advanced Workshops: Electronics Table, Tool Calibration Table
Kitchen: Utensils Cupboard, Oven, Canning Station
Chemical Production: Hops Prep Table (brewery), Drug Synthesizer (drug lab), Chemistry Station (both)
Hi-Tech Research Table: Mass Spectrometer, Cloud Receiver, Advanced Multianalyzer
Right now I am using all textures I have taken from different mods. I am hoping that any decent artist that would like to contribute any artwork to this project might come along. If anyone is willing to make the artwork for most add ons, then I would be willing to put them into the mod. My plan is over the next few days to try and contact any authors of textures I am using to ask permission if I may use them. If I cannot, then I will have to put in a new placeholder texture, or temporarily remove the specific add on until I can use a new texture. Some of the ones I am already using, like the kitchen cupboard, I only have for 1 direction. If I can receive permission to use and/or modify it, then an artist would only need to make a side and back view for it, not too bad when you have the first direction finished for you.
This is also going to be my first mod release ever, so I am sure I will fumble some things along the way. Any help that's received from anyone throughout this process will be doubly appreciated.
Any ideas and/or criticism is explicitly welcomed. Tell me what you think works, what doesn't, what's awesome, what isn't, what needs fixing, why don't I add this, what about that, why my mom's fat, why your mom's fat, etc.
Placeholder screenshots of the work so far, forgot to take one of the researches, but they're there, I promise!
Kitchens
Research Area
Industrial Area
Workspeed Bonus
Drug Lab and Brewery
NOTE TO ANYONE WANTING TO CONTRIBUTE ART:
Any artist are highly encouraged to submit their workbench linkable/add ons. Just ask yourself if it sounds like it would belong in RimWorld before devoting the time into making it.
Please feel free to remake any of the add ons I have posted in this thread, and for style I would go for as vanilla as possible. That's the only look I really care about, just don't want anything that looks too crazy or stands out. I want it to look like a sawmill or lathe belong in the workshop area, or the oven and utensil cupboards belong in the kitchen
Really, anything anyone wants to contribute that seems like it would be an appropriate linkable/add on for any of the workbenches in RimWorld, please feel free to contribute the art. If anyone makes the art for any semi reasonable sounding additions, then I will be more than happy to make the code for them and include it in the mod
Also, worst case scenario I will take any textures I can get in only one direction. However, if you only plan on making one texture per object, please make it so this object will look decent no matter which way it is rotated. Remember, RimWorld is an inconsistent 2.5D world, but we don't want things to look backwards, like how my utensils cupboard is for the kitchen. I only have one model of it, so if it is rotated, you still see the drawers, and it looks like crap. However something like the research bench linkables look alright no matter which way they are rotated.
Any contributions will be greatly appreciated, as I am horrible at art! All artist will receive full credits with links to any of their work if they would like it. Thanks!
I took the idea it started, and expanded upon it greatly. So far, the add ons I have created are fully functioning and all have their own technology they come from, one of 5 researches, and you cannot have more than one of them per kind per workbench. These function just like the vanilla toolbox, in that these add ons may connect to many workbenches each, but each workbench may only connect to 1 of each different add on. That means, for example in your industrial work area, you can have your machining table now hooked up to a lathe, sawmill, electronics table, and tool calibration table, in addition to the vanilla toolbox. The total increase to work speed varies per workbench, but the overall speed increase is usually around 30-40% once all of the add ons are linked. I think this is a fair value without being too crazy overpowered, especially when you compare it to what you can easily achieve work speed wise with just a few bionics for your colonists. If someone really wants to get that out of their game, then sure let them, but that is not the idea in mind when creating this mod. I am running about 150 mods now myself (without about 30 smaller ones I have gobbled up into my own creation) but I still want things to feel pretty vanilla and not get too crazy. I would like to think of the idea behind this mod being that I want the majority of people to feel like it is vanilla and lore friendly, nothing too crazy, but gives some great value in that you can further increase the aesthetics of your colonists' work areas, some of the places they spend the majority of their time!
These are the add ons I have up and running so far
Basic Workshops: Lathe, Sawmill
Advanced Workshops: Electronics Table, Tool Calibration Table
Kitchen: Utensils Cupboard, Oven, Canning Station
Chemical Production: Hops Prep Table (brewery), Drug Synthesizer (drug lab), Chemistry Station (both)
Hi-Tech Research Table: Mass Spectrometer, Cloud Receiver, Advanced Multianalyzer
Right now I am using all textures I have taken from different mods. I am hoping that any decent artist that would like to contribute any artwork to this project might come along. If anyone is willing to make the artwork for most add ons, then I would be willing to put them into the mod. My plan is over the next few days to try and contact any authors of textures I am using to ask permission if I may use them. If I cannot, then I will have to put in a new placeholder texture, or temporarily remove the specific add on until I can use a new texture. Some of the ones I am already using, like the kitchen cupboard, I only have for 1 direction. If I can receive permission to use and/or modify it, then an artist would only need to make a side and back view for it, not too bad when you have the first direction finished for you.
This is also going to be my first mod release ever, so I am sure I will fumble some things along the way. Any help that's received from anyone throughout this process will be doubly appreciated.
Any ideas and/or criticism is explicitly welcomed. Tell me what you think works, what doesn't, what's awesome, what isn't, what needs fixing, why don't I add this, what about that, why my mom's fat, why your mom's fat, etc.
Placeholder screenshots of the work so far, forgot to take one of the researches, but they're there, I promise!
Kitchens
Research Area
Industrial Area
Workspeed Bonus
Drug Lab and Brewery
NOTE TO ANYONE WANTING TO CONTRIBUTE ART:
Any artist are highly encouraged to submit their workbench linkable/add ons. Just ask yourself if it sounds like it would belong in RimWorld before devoting the time into making it.
Please feel free to remake any of the add ons I have posted in this thread, and for style I would go for as vanilla as possible. That's the only look I really care about, just don't want anything that looks too crazy or stands out. I want it to look like a sawmill or lathe belong in the workshop area, or the oven and utensil cupboards belong in the kitchen
Really, anything anyone wants to contribute that seems like it would be an appropriate linkable/add on for any of the workbenches in RimWorld, please feel free to contribute the art. If anyone makes the art for any semi reasonable sounding additions, then I will be more than happy to make the code for them and include it in the mod
Also, worst case scenario I will take any textures I can get in only one direction. However, if you only plan on making one texture per object, please make it so this object will look decent no matter which way it is rotated. Remember, RimWorld is an inconsistent 2.5D world, but we don't want things to look backwards, like how my utensils cupboard is for the kitchen. I only have one model of it, so if it is rotated, you still see the drawers, and it looks like crap. However something like the research bench linkables look alright no matter which way they are rotated.
Any contributions will be greatly appreciated, as I am horrible at art! All artist will receive full credits with links to any of their work if they would like it. Thanks!