Messages

clothing is an option, but it might be too Dwarf Fortress-y.

Perhaps 'stuffed animals' for a kill trophy room or  as a statue to grant some +happiness?

Maybe they could be part of the 'fear' concept, placed out to make raiders slightly more wary of attacking.

This is a great idea and I really want to do it.

Step 1 is stockpiles so you can store carcasses and meat properly.

Step 2 is cooking so you can cook raw foods.

Step 3 is hunting so you can send guys to kill muffalo.

Step 4 is ranching so you can build fenced areas an assign colonists to gather muffalo into them.

But what do we do with Muffalo skins?

Squirrel meat? Squirrel skins?

A use for corpses other than littering the nice landscape would be great. Some of these ideas might be a bit dark and gloomy but bodies for research (expanding research from a simple desk to requiring specialised equipments or parts/bodies) and being able to sell them to a passing ship, or use them as some sort of fertiliser actually sounds useful.

You're a small colony of people trying to start a life on a new planet with barely any resources and raiders attacking every other day. You would bend normally accepted social and moral rules to make it work and stay alive. It might make you a bit less happy to randomly pick a colonist, a friend, to kill and eat but it sure as heck would beat having everyone starve.

Good ideas here.

It would be cool if there were some voice over pieces from say the leader of a raider group when they have initiated their attack or when they are retreating. Maybe some voice over for completing a piece of research or a mental breakdown, basically for big or uncommon events where a little bit of flavour, immersion or humour may be added.

That's about all I can think of right now.

Not a necessity but they may add a nice flourish to the game.

The idea of the colonists being able to prioritise targets based upon their chance to hit (which of course involves range) is neat. It sounds like it would be difficult to implement and would probably have to be based upon some character stat rather than each colonist being able to perfectly understand which target would be best to fire at.

I do quite like the idea of manipulating parts of the terrain in different ways to help gain an advantage over the invaders but I'm not quite sure on your mud idea.

Here was me thinking that this thread was some form of list of potential rewards for people whom are creative and offer up awesome suggestions

Infection when touching the plant, damage over time till death if not treated by an doctor and available medical supplies?

So not the complex behaviour changeing brain-parasite but simply a poisonous plant?

The latter is possible but Tynan asked me to condense it so that we have a starting base mechanic to build from.

Basically, take my ordered brain musings and attempt to structure it into various different stages of implementation into the game. The former whole psychological effect thing would be something to try maybe on a 4th or 5th step, depending on how the alpha progresses by itself as other mechanics introduced for other reasons might hook in nicely with this one.

Some of these are fantastic, others not so hot... (Sex bot? )

Negotiator's Loudspeaker, Combat Windows and motion detectors are my picks for most awesome ideas there.

Can you condense that into one mechanic? One unambiguous change or event that makes this work?

As we spoke briefly on IRC, condensing this into one starting mechanic which could be built upon...

I am thinking 'random event' in which a colonist gets hurt whilst doing some sort of job and needs to see the doctor to get it checked out. The doctor treats the patient and either they recover and live or don't recover and die over time? I think that is as simple as I can make it as a starting point, at this time of the morning anyway.

One proviso I might suggest would be that the colonist that suffers from the injury should have to be told to prioritise visiting the doctor otherwise they'll pass it up as just something they can work through.

Hopefully this would be enough to get the ball rolling.

This could be an interesting random event. Some parasite forcing behavior changes in a colonist. But what would he do? Just go insane and start shooting? Seems dull... I'd want something more nuanced, that presents choices to the player and lasts over time.

• Colonist gets infected but doesn't notice.
  Colonist is slowly subverted by the alien organism/parasite
  Colonist begins to change (possibly more mad, losing skill in areas, sleeping during the day, running around faster, pissing off other colonists)
  Colonist could morph into another lifeform and start attacking your colony.

At stage #3 the colonist could also start infecting the food (crops or paste dispenser) which would in turn start to affect your colony. They could all start to become less like they were and more erratic until they refuse to do what you want them to do and you lose control of the colony.

If the user spots this kind of behaviour starting to happen, they could choose to arrest/quarantine the infected colonist and a doctor would have to be dedicated the learning about it and solving the issue. Once a cause has been found the doctor might suggest that he screens every colonist and checks the food/water dispensers for signs of infection too. In the end your infected colonist may be cured and reintegrated into society, or they may take their own lives in quarantine feeling like there is no hope for a cure or that the 'infection' has failed in it's duty. You might even find the cure, save the colonist but fail to spot the infection is still present in Colonist Y and Z, or still in the paste dispenser, or has infected your prisoners.

It's a complicated thing but could become a monumental random event from which you may slip into an irrecoverable state or lose your colony entirely, or if you're on the ball, stem before it gets out of hand.

I'm not sure that I can beat or provide half as good a suggestion as nomadseifer's.

A simple crafting idea might be for the colonists to strap two of the same weapon together to make them both fire together. This comes from my Warhammer 40k days where Space Marines used to use "twin-linked bolters" which were essentially two bolters strapped together.

I'm not quite sure this would work very well though. It would at best only halve the number of weapons on the field and I am not quite sure that the colonists could do something like that without a forge-like building/room item arrangement and some minor metal costs.

An extension of this, which I quite like and only thought of whilst typing, would be to strap together multiple grenades/Molotov cocktails and allow them to be placed like the breach charges or perhaps even as a hidden trap which automatically trigger when someone trips them (including your colonists if they forget it's there).

I also quite like Kender's ideas too, especially if there's a 'general ammunition' rather than specifics. As an offshoot idea, which I haven't used the search feature for, if there are ammo-based projectile weapons coming into the game, how about energy weapons with their own individual charge. They could be recharged in the armoury or in special armoury bays direct from your batteries/solar panels/theogermal power generators.

[EDIT]

Simplest one is gun barrels with general archetypes, in this way you can store tons of guns in a container and the container will simply read back

"Contains: Rifles x ### - Pistols x ### - SMGs x ### - Heavy Weapons x ### - Explosives x ###"

when you click a soldier or a colonist and want them to equip from the barrel they will simply pull out items from it fitting an archetype, if you wanted you could have a list of specifics on what is inside but that could be developed later.

I like this too but after watching plenty of LP content from the testers I also think that the colonists should be able to carry multiple weapons simply for hauling purposes only. That way the layout ends up being cleaner, less items on the ground and generally enhances the feel.

Nice suggestions.

The first and i think (not sure) the second have already been discussed alot in the cheap idea topic.

the anti ship weapons i dont like so much tbh.
i want onplanet fights. bring the war to me

the slave traders i love.
let them come and grab some slaves. i might even sell them some raiders. And before you know it the slavers are slaves themselves.

Thanks Semmy.

Re: Portable Light and Encumberance. I didn't think that these were cheap ideas suitable for the cheap idea thread. Maybe my bad but they don't seem to have been given much air time in the cheap idea thread either.

I had seen slave traders from some of the youtube videos of Rim World and tried to read up on them but couldn't find any information on whether they were 'finished' or how they were planned to be developed in the future. I took a few ideas from whatever and wherever as well as FTL, and tried to mould them into a design that would work within Rim World. Very glad you like some of the ideas brought up there.

portable lights would be an interesting touch, but might simply be for cosmetic purposes? unless it could impact efficiency at performing tasks at night?

I thought of them as improving efficiency of work conducted in the dark. I live in North East England which feels almost permanently overcast () but I know how light affects how efficient I am at a task such as delving into the innards of my PC can be made easier with a torch and some directed light, or tracking through an open field by moonlight is less efficient (or more dangerous) than when tracking that same field in the daylight or with a portable light source.

If low light did have a detrimental affect on productivity or efficiency of tasks then portable light could become quite a big factor in everything that involves going outside of the safe colony area in low light conditions.

Since there are penalties for being in the dark all the time, a portable light should have some cost to it.  Not to mention some negative to using it when you're in combat with pirates.

The drawbacks I mentioned included combat in low light conditions (allowing the enemy to see you and therefore hit you more easily) and the costs involved in research, production and upkeep (recharging them).

What other suggestions do you propose?

Portable lights sound good, but honestly they would be much more useful if light was more of an element ingame. For right now its for growing, comfort, and (maybe?) a small combat bonus. Would be nice to be paired with maybe night-time creatures who fear the light, but are otherwise DEVASTATING in combat. I could just picture a solar flare hitting knocking out a bases lights, and people frantically trying to light up flares on key points before the monsters could invade the base.

Other ideas I'm not really keen on, especially shooting stuff out of the air... After all, they are stranded on the ground, and a huge part of the game is fighting raiders... I think being able to flak a whole group of raiders to death before they even landed would be really anti-climactic, and boring. POSSIBLY late game, (AFTER its fleshed out a bit more though) But it would need to use resources to fire each time I think.

That night time creatures thing is quite an evil idea and I like it, though the yahve me kind of scared already

My idea for Anti-Ship weapons was quite a markedly end game suggestion. It wasn't meant to be perfect, knock out everything that comes along solution but if there's an end-game possibility when you succeed in creating your own large self sufficient colony which faces threats greater than just a 20-soldier raider squad with some pistols, rifles and a grenade or two, or of course a more piratical colony route shooting down traders and such

Anti-pod was meant for a mid-end game scenario and meant to destroy/damage a small percentage of pods, or scatter them out a bit which would increase the time spent by raiders to gather their wits, plan their attack and charge forth. Destroyed pods would obviously provide zero scrap and a one less raider per pod knocked out. Damaged pods would land less gently, causing anything from a couple of bruises (96 health instead of 100, for example) to death of the raider but leaving a bit of pod for scrap.

The main feature (for me) would be the scattering of the pods as they evade a sky filling up with lethal gunfire, providing the player with an extra amount of time to build defences, repair holes in walls or arm their colonists more appropriately. For example, the 20 seconds of game time that the anti-pod defences earn you could mean the difference between surviving and being wiped out to the point of no recovery.

For purposes of balance, these buildings or emplacements could be cost/energy prohibitive and be 'one per colony' only features backed up with research improvements, thus providing a static benefit to your colony rather than producing 50 anti-pod batteries to render you completely impervious to pod-based threats.

Perhaps bunches of raiders that mine their way into the base? A not so common group specialising in tunnelling warfare or just a few raiders with the work ethic to mine towards a point, leaving blocks of cover and using a grenade or remote charge to open the last piece of rock with a tactical defensive point from which to probe your base.

I have a wild imagination.

A short special a Halloween 2015 idea, maybe.

As a main game feature? No way.

[Portable lighting: Flashlights, lamps, flares.]

Yes, groan at the newbie making their first post about suggestions I have read through 10 pages of the 12 "Cheap Ideas" and checked through the topics every page of the Suggestions forum... and I hope that I am not treading on the toes/fingers of anyone else's ideas (except one, which I think could be fleshed out and might not be suited to the cheap ideas thread it is in).

Portable lighting: Flashlights, lamps, flares.

Flashlights should provide the nice cone of light in front of the user with the ability for the character to turn them off/on at will and have a limited though rechargeable energy source. Upgrades could be access via research such as brighter beams, wider/longer beams and/or extended battery life.

Lamps, a bit of a throwback to the mining lamps of yesteryear. A circular light pattern emanating from the user, long lasting and possibly more cost efficient than a flashlight.

Flares... good to illuminate specific areas of the map that you want to see without having to send a colonist to walk over to that spot and stand there until it's light.

In theory, I guess a flashlight could be better for wardens/sentries/patrols that require the ability to see longer distances in the night to watch out for threats or potential positives for the colony. A lamp could be placed down by the side of a colonist whilst they're fixing/repairing/maintaining a wall/power conduit or simply excavating parts of a hill. Flares would be used as a cheap lighting source when you're not really flushed with enough cash or technologically advanced enough for other high illumination items or you want to throw down an area of light to spot night raiders without using a source of light (flashlight or lamp) to reveal your location. My idea here being that if raiders drop in at night and want a piece of your colony then having 5 people behind a wall, all shining torchlights at them or carrying lamps would just make them an easier target and provide no ambush value. Laying down a few flares 10-20 metres in front of said wall would give less of an ambush advantage but might allow for a more appropriate tactical response (shooting the raider with the big gun first or dropping a grenade in a spot to cause multiple injuries/deaths).

So,
Flashlights: rechargeable light source that provides slight bonuses for patrolling/sentry/warden/search party duties in the dark but likely to make colonists easier targets for raiders at night.
Lamps: rechargeable light source that provides slight bonuses to repairs/maintenance/mining in the dark but likely to make colonists easier targets for raiders at night.
Flares: Cheap, one time use items ideal for keeping areas temporarily illuminated when you cannot afford to have a colonist illuminate it for you or buy a static illumination device, or wish to ambush enemies at night.

Encumberance levels

A Rookie soldier might be slowed down and hampered by attempting to move with a rifle or machine gun, slowing them down a bit or tiring them out more quickly. A bureaucrat whom is more adept at firing personnel than firing a rifle would likely to struggle more with the same gun as the Rookie and tire out faster/be even slower, whereas a Veteran might be able to use either weapon effectively, efficiently and not have it affect them in any way at all.

Slightly akin to different travel speeds over different terrains, an untrained repair worker trying to fix a solar panel would not only be slower at the repair job than someone well trained, but would likely tire out faster, not enjoy doing it so much (slowing down their walking if they need spares or procrastinating a bit) and possibly affect them negatively by way of additional stress.

It boils down to Trained workers are better than Untrained workers in their specific fields but being forced into doing something/using something that they're very uncomfortable with could further negatively affect performance and even affect a colonist's mental state.

Slave Traders (like Trader/Raider events)

You're in space, you encounter the good, the bad and the shades of grey (no, I am not referencing a book, nor am I suggesting anything associated with or contained within such a book). Slave Traders are "bad". We may agree that slavery is wrong but it might be acceptable in some alien cultures and Slavers could appear in Rim World in several ways.

Friendly Slave Traders: They'll visit, offer to buy colonists off you for money (lose colonist of your choosing, gain money, make colonists unhappy on a moral note/fearful of being sold) or they might offer to sell you slaves for money. I would suggest that they have their own personalities like Slave (full on slave, will do as they are told), Resistant (do everything begrudgingly) or Rebellious (will attack people/sabotage things) but much like prisoners, they can be treat like normal colonists and eventually become members of your society. Positive effects on your colonists might come from setting the slave free or incorporating them into your society or negative effects might be caused by keeping a slave as a slave or punishing them if they're disobedient.

These would be more akin to merchants dealing in grey market areas, buying slaves and selling them to the highest bidder.

Unfriendly Slave Traders: These are likely to demand that you hand over a colonist to become a slave otherwise they'll raid you. Giving into the slaver will cost you a selected/random colonist and cause other negative effects on your colonists based upon morale. Refusing their demands could lead to something akin to a raider strike, maybe weaker, maybe more powerful, or maybe just more numerous (just being typical pirates or being trained or simply using slaves as cannon fodder in amongst their ranks, respectively). Afterwards there could be some sort of resolution such as losing a colonist to death/slavers capture them and fly off, slavers are pushed back and fly off or possibly some sort of slave rebellion where they overthrow their masters and fly away of their own accord, offering you some tech/items/money from their previous slaver leaders or maybe even join you in part. Another potential possibility here is some sort of scenario where the ship blows up or crash lands near your facility, which you could then mine/harvest/scavenge for minerals/materials/scrap or it could provide you with an interesting power source or simply emit radiation which is harmful but localised and could harm outside crops/animals/soil quality to a small/medium area.

This kind of slave trader would be more akin to a violent pirate gang, whom use intimidation and violence to earn their slaves and make money through selling them.

Anti-ship/pod weapons

Anti-ship weapons might be going above and beyond what the game will come to in the end but it's a theory worth mentioning. You're going to encounter hostile ships and if they're going to drop pods on your head and pillage your colony then you might wish to take the initiative and blast their ship into micro-molecular pieces or scare them off with a well placed volley, showing that you are not without a means to defend yourself... or you might be a mean so-and-so and use these anti-ship weapons to run your own little band of naughties by shooting down traders and stuff until they give you items or explode in a ball of flame and drop salvageable loots.

Anti-pod weapons: You're vulnerable to a ground assault being launched from orbit/low orbit/the upper atmosphere. Even the odds by shooting the pods? Even if you don't destroy any, you might damage them and kill or injure the occupant, or force them to scatter or go off course, allowing you more time to protect the civilians, arm the soldiers and prepare your defensive lines.

These last two ideas are probably mid-end game stuff and less important possible features than other things but they do sound pretty cool to me

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read any/all/none of my first post here at Rim World and I hope that I have presented my wall of text in a suitably readable way, providing nice background and some new ideas that could fit into the whole structure of Rim World over the course of it's development.

Feel free to comment/criticise/expand on what I've wrote and beware, fire extinguishers were the first thing I researched when I joined this forum so if you want to flame, you'll just end up getting wet.