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I realize it'd take a lot of work and completely shift gears in the game, which is why I closely contemplated putting this in the mod section, but it fits here. Kinda.

So, whenever/if going to different areas on the map becomes a thing, the next step I'd want to ask for is ways to interact with other settlements in a more RPG-like fashion rather than raiding pirate factions or casually passing by outlanders, killing their prisoners and claiming their food. This way the colony building game can also become the nomadic traveler game, something I've wanted to do in Rimworld for a while which the addition of campfires has definitely fueled. I'm not really capable of organizing my thoughts right now so I can only hope this is coherent, and right now just trying to see if anything is being done like this or if people want this to happen.

Many times, a trader is passed up on without their wares even considered for a moment. This frustrates merchants that make a living from trading, yes?

I think that traders should:

-Have their own status, like factions, upon map generation.
-Have a general affinity toward your colony, decreasing if too few or none of their items are bought and increasing if they gain a certain amount of silver or buy a certain amount of wares.
-Increase or decrease traffic with your colony depending on affinity.

Y'know the only issue I've ever had firing a rifle in real life? The scope. You can try your damnedest to hit a target from a hundred paces, and you might get close, but if you don't take care to make sure the scope is on /just right/, it's really unlikely. And yes, this would probably add a LOT more complexity to the game, but it'd be cool to see a weapons overhaul much like the health chart. Hell, it'd be a bit much to have a 'health' menu for weapons (Scope: Plague (untreated)) but still really cool if anyone could do this.

What do you find to be extremely frustrating or otherwise mildly annoying in Rimworld?

Inferno cannons. What's that, you managed to kill the heavy charge blaster mechanoid doing all the actual damage? We'll now send these fuckers at you! You'll have to micromanage your colonists to unmilitarize them and manually extinguish so they have enough time to react, but even that doesn't matter because they shoot further than your /goddamned snipers/. You wanted to move closer? Please enjoy watching your colonist run twenty feet in a complete U-turn as they try to escape fire only to be pain-incapped a few moments later!

...screw those things.

Is the method of dying ever going to effect the output of meat by an animal? I feel like if I shoot a muffalo's legs off, it's going to have less meat. Same goes for animals dying of starvation. Just a thought I had while desecrating nature.

So during a dev-mode run building a situation where a single colonist had to get medicine to heal 3 badly injured colonists in cryptosleep caskets, I noticed something odd. My original colonist had gotten a peg-leg onto another that had lost their leg, but later during a fire got burnt and needed treatment. He went into the medical room where the cryptosleep caskets were and started speaking to colonists inside the caskets, both sides gaining the "Had social chat" mood buff despite the person in the casket being more or less braindead for the time being.

Interesting things on the horizon. While messing about in dev mode, I checked the spawn pawn menu to find space soldiers next to space refugees. Spawning them in, they seemed like extremely well equipped fellows, but belonged to no faction. Is this Vanilla Rimworld and just part of raids I haven't gotten to yet as of year 2?

Masochists, psychopaths, cannibals, all a fun bunch -- but we're missing more weird things that aren't so extreme. May someone add the following traits to the game?

Taste for Paste: This colonist absolutely loves nutrient paste, but is okay with meals.
Gravedigger: This colonist finds graveyards to be extremely attractive and interesting places, and the mere sight of one gets them in a good mood -- digging is even better. +1 for seeing a grave, +4 for digging a grave.
Geologist: This person loves rocks, like, /loves/ them. +1 for every chunk around them, up to a +5 mood boost.
Has a Thing for X: Really likes one part of their body. Losing this part (so it has to be a non-lethal part) will depress them immensely. Example: Has a Thing for Eyes, losing an eye will cause a permanent mood debuff until it's replaced, even with prosthetics.
Childish: Being around characters under 18 will make them happy.
Overly mature: Being around characters over 40 will make them happy.

Any others I missed that would be good?

For a hundred and twelve days, a trio of centipedes have been squirming at the entrance to my base, unable to do anything but wait as their bodies force them to continue. Sure, it's nice having them as a marker for victory, but perhaps they could have a second chance.

For this I suggest an addition to the mechanoid forces that can heal centipedes just enough to bring them back from almost being shut down, perhaps healing a fourth of the damage that put them down. This would take quite some time, and the engineers would have to have severely debuffed health so one could stop the process, accompanied by decent speed and a lack of firepower. Alternatively, they could be given lots of health, be pretty huge in size, and have an energy lance/ram allowing them to damage structures and people they get too close to, while being slow to rescue their fallen comrades. If nothing but a distraction, I think it'd add a whole new dynamic to centipede raids.

Sieges are very useful at pinning down the inhabitants of a settlement, preventing them from exiting certain areas and halting reinforcements from entering their location.

So why don't Rimworld sieges do this? Bombardment can be shrugged off due to its inaccuracy and limited explosive range, and in a colony where most things are built out of non-flammable materials (typically when mortars start showing up) it's very rare that permanent damage can be done.

Instead of letting this slide, why don't some raiders stick with siege equipment and, after it's all done, a branch goes to harass the colony? This would require an improvement to raider AI to run away if aimed at or taking damage, but a group of raiders locking down a section of the map rather than letting you wander out of your base would be pretty neat.

Raiders with weapons and armor are nice and all, but I feel like after losing so many resources to colonies, raiders would find different ways to try and overcome your defenses. So they set up mortar bases with food piles, but they fired too slowly, hit too unreliably, and eventually came apart leading in mass retreats. They set fire to the colony, and while it did damage, they were repelled anyway and the colony expended minimal resources fixing the breach. Sure, they hear from their pirate friends that another colony eventually snapped, but those were tales of luck.

Now, their overlords can choose to keep sending waves of dead men walking, but it's becoming far too costly. Seeing turrets used to rip apart pointmen or even annihilate the whole party, something needed to be done.

And so sappers come in. Sappers are raiders that are more uncommon than their weapon-toting friends. They carry a box that can be attached to power conduits (either on the ground, in the walls, or part of structures) to begin sucking power out of the grid, forcefully shutting down an entire base if unattended. This would essentially cause any power net connected to it to need -1 power, not a major deficit but enough to kill power to a base without batteries and cause problems in the long run. Thoughts?

In a universe such as Rimworld, energy weapons are cool and all, but there's one thing missing -- fire selectors. I'm not talking about safety, single-shot, and burst fire. I'm talking a weapon that can be interfaced with in the right click menu to change what type of damage it does -- burn, brute, pierce, toxic -- to deal with varying types of enemy armor accordingly.

What would be even cooler was if said weapon could turn into different weapon types:

Pistols for close-range yet accurate short bursts

SMG's for close-range inaccurate long bursts

Assault rifles for medium range medium damage medium bursts

Machine guns for medium range medium damage high bursts

Sniper rifles for long range high damage single shots

And grenade launchers for close-medium range propelling of changing chemical grenades. I entirely accept that even modding has its limits and this is probably quite far-fetched.

Briefing start.. Time, 1:00 AM. March Seventh, 5502.

The AI announcer spoke fluently, with no sign of distortion between it and the intercom as it played into the mobile command center's main corridor. Six figures sat, three to each side, their armor humming lightly as the internal generators seamlessly fueled the high-tech shielding on each of them. They were covered from head to toe, though their apparel varied in color and size.

The two in red armor, nametags reading "Has'isos" and "She'sha", appeared more intimidating than the rest. Clung tightly to their APB projectors -- hulking heavy weapons capable of blowing a mechanoid to pieces -- they seemed to take the same posture, despite slight size differences. By their side was a soldier draped in blue with the nametag "Asher", not quite as large as the two reds but of a commanding figure, toting an electromagnetic railgun with the capacity to puncture starships.

"Alright, everybody", the blue-armored soldier spoke in an authoritative feminine tone, "the nearby Rimworld of Niyat has acquired some interesting gear. We all know how the General feels about sharing, but military equipment isn't everything. On top of Glitterworld skin suits and starship AI's, they seem to have found themselves a genetics lab. Usually we wouldn't mind cloning, hell, we wouldn't even pay a moment's attention to a Rimworld like this, but they have this kind of technology -- meaning if we let it go by, they might be showing up on other worlds trying to start an empire. Worst-case scenario, I know the unlikelihood, but the General's paranoid."

This earned a disapproving beep from the AI unit piloting the command center, but across from the Commander sat an orange-suited grizzly male who waved off at the shuttle camera. "Quiet, Mecha. Don't gotta be a thorn in everything. You pull another Rainbow op' and I'm scrapping you." The intercom's green light soon turned red, signaling it had turned off to allow the soldier's some privacy, though the camera zoomed intently on the commander.

"Can we go one briefing without insulting the AI, Beacon? You're an engineer, you're s'posed to work with the damned thing. Alright. So the colony is half-courtyard and half-caves. Mecha's telling me that as of two days ago we've got at least eleven batteries, four in the courtyard and the rest burrowed into the mountain. We don't know what /kind/ they are, but we know they take electricity. As much as I'm sure the Assaults would love to go in there and destroy them all.." she said, noting towards the two red-suits, "I'm sure it'd be safer to go ahead and disconnect them from the colony's power net. This is why the mission started so late -- we've detected a solar flare hitting tomorrow. Our suits should be okay, but Mecha has to pull out as soon as we land or we're not getting a shuttle out of here. Expect heavy resistance, and /stick together/. These suits won't help you if one of them gets a lucky taser shot off. We're moving as one squad, Assaults in front, no one else engages."

The final two soldiers, both of almost matching body structure and white coloration of their suits, both spoke up at once. Their voices matched one another's, both masculine but almost nervous as they quietly apologized to one another, ending their dialogue. "Mikinn, Tarkis. What is it?" the commander pried. "What of the medics? Shall we back the Assaults? Anything that gets in close range, our mag-pistols could easily destroy." The commander nodded, not at all estranged by their tendency to talk in unison.

The commander, sensing the lack of questions, reached over and clicked the intercom on once more. "Right, Mecha. Log briefing end." A moment passed before the intercom droned out yet another announcement: "Understood, Commander Asher. Briefing end. Time, 1:06 PM. March Seventh, 5502."

Something didn't quite click with the announcement in Asher's head, though more intent on the mission at hand, she continued. "Right. Pack your drop pods, run diagnostics with the medical droid to make sure your bionics are working fine, get a good meal, you know the drill. And Beacon, swap your SMG out for an RCD. We've got enough firepower to let you have the heavy construction tools." The engineer nodded in return, and the group stood up together to move through the corridor towards the medical room. The commander sighed as she watched the crew go, glancing over at the AI's camera before following behind them, airlock clamping shut as they exited.

"Triggering helmet cameras. Checking telecommunications... systems optimal. Forwarding data to Department of Genetic Research.." the AI played out, tone normal as ever, though the contents of the message hinted at a silent entertainment as it watched through each soldier's camera. As the day came to a close and each soldier entered their beds, Mecha softly whispered one final message: "Operation Red Prairie has begun."

Mini-batteries would be crafted at a machining table, and could be attached to any item that needs to be powered. These batteries draw from a powernet but do not give back to anything but the item they are attached too -- for example, if the entire powergrid fails spontaneously but an autodoor has a mini-battery on it, it will last slightly longer than other items. Maybe store 100 watts or so?

Has anyone found a non-mentally related effect of exhaustion other than characters eventually collapsing to sleep? Maybe it should start to cause effects in consciousness, manipulation, and movement stats.

The human body has so many ways to be injured, sometimes from daily living. Someone who rests for too long in one place can develop decubitus (or pressure) ulcers, all the way to their bones. This could be changed depending on where your colonists sleep, so a sleeping spot would be high risk, regular beds would be medium risk, and medical beds would be low risk. These wounds are not immediately fatal, but can be easily infected.

Prolonged intense activity without adequate rest can result in hypertension, or high blood pressure. This is not immediately deadly but is the number one cause to the leading cause of death in the U.S. -- myocardial infarction. If not treated with medicine, it could develop in a month or so and damage the heart.

Aneurysms are no pretty thing, and can cause death at any given moment if they rupture. These would form inside the brain or the abdominal cavity but would not actually cause any damage. However, if that region of the body was injured, they would burst and begin hemorrhaging rapidly, meaning either immediate treatment or death by blood loss.

A new kind of disease that could develop from other untreated diseases -- acute necrotizing fasciitis. Bacteria such as strep can infect a wound, and thereafter a new flesh-eating infection develops, forming dead tissue throughout the area at a rapid pace. Treat those diseases, people.

New type of damage -- blood vessels. If an area is shot, such as a leg or the neck, blood vessels can be shot and caused to bleed. However, they will eventually clot on their own, even if not treated.

Embolisms. If a blood vessel is damaged and not immediately treated, there is a chance that the blood clots may break away into the cardiovascular system and go to the heart or lungs, causing the organs to function poorly.

Isn't it a bit silly to take an arrow and then proceed to bleed for days on end? The body usually clots minor wounds in three minutes, surely a wound would have to close somehow without needing treatment. I just say this because it's annoying when you have a single colonist that gets wounded, or one incapable of doctor's work when your other guy is hurt.

Has anyone built a colony that actually appears as though it's a city? Maybe not with everyone having their own house or stores everywhere, but at least the road layout, lamps on the streets, alleys and everything -- basically city infrastructure, with dense population centers in the middle, perhaps industrial areas too, and farms on the outside.

So, one of my colony ideas resulted in a large central area with side-lots for farming, each of them slightly open to the sky in the middle with sun lamps lighting the corners, a massive wall encapsulating the entire place. A group decided to drop into one of these side-lots, so whilst they were getting through the three sets of stone doors I put two layers of stone walls on the other side. Since they were kind of clueless after that they instead turned around and began lighting sun lamps on fire.

In a closed /farm/.

It wasn't too long before the beating on the stone walls was halted by burning Austrian paratroopers, the 'given up and leaving' notification showing for their group with nowhere to go meaning they began wandering rather than attacking walls. They're okay, however, since they have food on them, but wait, I have a zombie mod installed. A zombie mod that, when it goes airborne, all bodies turn in three days of death unless rotten -- and these, quite clearly, were fresh. It was beautiful to watch as the quarantined survivors began to slowly deteriorate into insanity, a psychotic rampage sending a flurry of bullets across the room before a day later what little sane survivors were left were soon in a room with a lot of bitten not-so-sane survivors. Combined starvation, burn wounds, and accidental friendly fire meant that the coming days lent me an entire room of zombies.

Guess the next sky-drop is going to be in for a surprise.

Title says it all. Figured it'd both be more realistic and add more dynamic to fights, get someone with molotovs/incendiary launchers to set the enemy side on fire so your colonists can get better shots on the enemy.

Recently I've taken to avoiding the linear game and instead setting up scenarios in godmode, one of these scenarios having been a pirate outpost in the process of having a quarantined zombie room broken down by mortar shelling (the siege base used as a supply area for the SWAT team of 6, equipped with armor vests, synthweave clothing, military helmets, and M16's). The SWAT team was sent in, breaking down the main and only door to be met in a corridor with a merc sniper and pistoleer. A brief exchange of gunfire and both were down, before the teams broke up into squads of 3, clearing each room with minimal casualties. Well, then zombies got past all the frantic pirates and onto the SWAT group, killing 4 out of 6 of them and forcing the last two to retreat back to the siege base. Since zombies tend to straggle, the small group tailing the two members were able to be taken out hit-and-run style (at the loss of a mortar to blow up four).

Fate was not on our side, however, because the 'zombie virus airborne' event hit that night. The fresh pirate corpses from actual shootouts began sprouting up a few days later (we took to shelling the base) and straggling out in masses, actually getting close enough to bite one of our members. The zombie virus would not kill her for a few days, so I decided it'd be best to keep her around, getting a little daring with the half-dead member to kill more and more. It was actually looking up, before in one of the attacks her infection got pretty bad and resulted in a very slow pace, getting her eaten alive. Our last member, Big Red, was having enough of it and went psychotic, throwing himself into the horde and taking down three of its members before having his leg ripped off, left to starve.

SWAT teams are not prepared for zombies.

A topic for all of you to share how Rimworld torments and teases you with events and the like.

For example, a solar flare and then three exotic goods traders..