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Local government sounds like a little bit much for a small colony of 10-20 people

But sanitation definitely sounds like a good idea 

Who said anything about a small colony of ten to twenty people? The lost tribe is looking to re-establish itself as a thriving settlement . . . the lone explorer is looking to conquer the planet.

This is billed as a colony simulation game. Since Tynan dropped it being just a crash landing simulator in alpha 15 we must expect numbers will eventually balloon. Ten or twenty people is perfect for trying to build a space ship and flee; But a successful colony isn't ten or twenty people . . . that's a large extended family, or a small residential city block.

We are in early access now. The support structures aren't in place yet to successfully manage a real colony. So when I say government, sewage, roads, etc . . . I mean that Tynan has a lot of work ahead of him putting structures into place for handling larger settlements.

Sewers seem like a real prerequisite for moving away from "camping" to actually founding a settlement. It goes with roads, farms, an effective military, and a local government.

Definitely something we need.

I agree . . . I wouldn't consider that a win at all.

But then I'm the sort who quits and deletes if my lone explorer dies, or if my first three colonists die without either escaping or founding a "successful/prosperous" colony to live out their days in. A total wipe is a spot where I definitely would have quite the game and restarted before anyone else could show up.

Of course a lot of people would call me nuts . . . But this story seems like the perfect example of why I do it.

For game balance INSTALLING a bionic body part should be a lot harder than simply getting one. If you aren't buying these parts from a traveling doctor with a full operating theater you should have to BUILD a sanitary hospital complete with plenty machines, IV drips, special beds . . . and of course you need a doctor with a certain minimal skill.

It shouldn't be the PART that the problem. Grabbing a bionic arm off a corpse can be done with a hacksaw . . . but making sure all the rotted flesh and bone are scrubbed from it, disinfecting it, and actually hooking it back onto one of your colonists . . . THAT should be a task of epic proportions.

It also opens up new trading possibilities. The traveling bionic parts merchant may not be carrying exactly what you need but he can clean the scrap parts you've harvested for a nominal fee, and for even more money he can put them into one of your colonists.

Sure if it's not hand crafted to fit you might have performance problems but you can't tell me that fast eddy the bio parts sales man is bringing eyes and such specifically fit to MY colonist in his wagon. Nor does it make sense that the parts are programmed to "die" as any such "lore" would simply result in black market doctors and hackers over riding the kill switches within a decade of them being installed. A security system is only as good as the person it's going up against.

"take the time" ?! that's ridiculous.
It's like 5 minutes tops. You write what's on your mind and what you're working on.  MAYBE 10 minutes, if you're a slow thinker/typer.
To keep people interested and new people coming in, who these days are all about "dev interaction".

Thus speaks someone who was never a developer . . . Five minutes tops . . . speak what's on your mind. You are funny.

How about hours of work censoring 90% of what is on your mind because most of it is "cool ideas" that may not work out and you can't make promises . . . then poring through the remaining 10% and editing out bug fixes, techno babble, tons of math, and other really boring stuff.  Finally proof reading what you've wrote and redoing it until you get something people will be excited to read.

A few years back I was working on a small forum game for my friends and it got bogged down for technical reasons. People were really excited and wanted an update on what I was doing . . . Being wet behind the ears and eager to please I gave them one.

The update on population growth curves, how they effect player income, and inflationary price spirals was NOT a good idea. Be careful what you ask for. lol

There was a quick blurb about alpha sixteen taking longer than expected because Tynan hadn't expected the ability to buy extra lore would be so popular. Supposedly he's raising the prices of those packages so he can get back to programming the game rather than just making custom faction leaders and such all the time. lol

If that's the case asking him to take the time out to do a Dev diary while he is trying to catch up seems a bit . . . less than well timed.

Following development and watching lets plays up to alpha 14 I was content with "survivors". Swiss Family Robinson has always been one of my favorite classical books and the game followed it's plot arc beautifully.

I still longed for the scene at the end where they got the boat and realized getting on it forever was LOSING . . . One brother went off to college, but most everyone stayed and started a real colony.  But I understood that playing through that and transforming this into a colony management game with dozens of settlers, government, etc . . . might be asking a LOT.

Then alpha fifteen came out and I bought the game on steam. Suddenly "survivors" seems ludicrous and even being able to build a ship and "quit" seems like a huge loss . . . perhaps even something that could be removed from the game. As could the whole crash landed scenario. It simply doesn't fit.

The rich explorer came here on purpose. This is his destination. He is seeking the challenge. He'd never leave. Even if he DID want to leave he wouldn't cobble together a ship. He came down in a drop pod but his own ship is probably still in orbit. Even if it isn't he came down with tons of money and the ability to earn more . . . so why wouldn't he just buy what he needs from a local community or passing trader?

It's even more silly with the tribesmen. This is their home and their heritage. They'd never leave. They aim to rebuild their community and become strong enough to fight off the blood machines from the sky if they come again. If they are researching technology it is aiming towards that goal . . . turrets, walls, robot warriors . . . certainly not a space ship to flee into space. They wouldn't even DREAM of that!

Of course that's just two out of three "official" starting scenarios . . . but it's enough to make everything we can do so far seem like the bleeping prelude. At some point I want to be building statues to the heroic pioneers who made it safe enough to start the colony in earnest.

Government, roads, factions/politics, large scale farming, crafting, and trade . . . schools and families . . . sewers to prevent disease . . . what kind of colony is it? What sort of civilization am I planting on this primitive Rimworld?

The storyteller?  Cassandra.  She should be renamed Glados.  And then there will be cake.

Prior to alpha fifteen this game was a crash landing simulator where you "won" by fleeing the planet in home built ships. It does a pretty good job of following the story line of the classic book "Swiss Family Robinson" all the way from beginning to end with a space vibe added in and WAS fairly well balanced.

Cassandra exists to slowly up the pressure over time, never letting you relax. It's "job" is to force you to escape the planet as soon as possible. The more wealth and happiness you have the bigger the threats it throws at you. This was GREAT for a game that simulated being ship wrecked, half starved, and always on the verge of death. She is even named after the mythological prophet who always predicted doom and was never believed . . . but was always right.

Even Pheobe does the same thing. She just gives you time between nasty events to recover. So the eventual explosions are larger, but you can stay on the planet longer and do more base building. Only randy isn't tied to how wealthy and comfortable you are. But he really doesn't care if your prosper or not. He could send a huge raid on day one.

Now that we have other scenarios I'm hoping alpha 16 will really focus on win and lose conditions and improving the way the stories are told. Right now TECHNICALLY you can never lose. If everyone dies wait a few minutes and a new story will start when some random guy comes and claims your old base. But I'd rather tell THAT story with a lone explorer scenario, random ruins, and ancient evils scattered on the map from the very start. Stuff I didn't set up for him to make his story "easier".

The way I currently play is that I pretend it is hard core. If my original crash landed guys die it's game over. I quit. If my lone explorer dies. I quit. Game over. I lost. If my tribe dies out ditto . . . For win conditions I try to survive longer and make my own challenge. Sometimes it is toeing the line and living as long as I can.

Other times, since that is BORING . . . I try to build gardens and make as huge, wealthy, and comfortable a base as I can and see how long I can survive while also prospering and NOT turning everything into a fortress.

Other times it is sim fortress with death boxes, and turrets everywhere inside in case a swarm appears. It's early access. Make your own fun until Tynan fixes the story tellers.

I like your suggestion Flying Rockbass. If we could combine the scheduling, zoning, and priority systems into something more functional that would be amazing. Though what we have still beats using Dwarf Therapist to hack the program, and is even a bit nicer than the similar system currently in place for Stonehearth. lol

Currently you got a full colony with... like 7-8 colonists.
You don't need no more cuz there aren't any more necessary professions usually. And you can very easily accomplish space-ship victory with 7-8 pawns

Just a quick note because this is a pet peeve of mine . . . building a space ship and feeling the planet is a LOSS. It is never a victory. My rich explorer has a ship in orbit and is here to conquer/tame the planet.  My lost tribe doesn't want to run away from the blood machines, they want to rebuild their tribe and kick some metal behind.

The crash landed folks DO want to escape . . . but that scenario probably needs to have it's description altered so it fits in with the rest of the game. Fleeing the planet should ALWAYS be a loss. You failed, your colony is kaput, dead, gone, game over. For the harsh feel of this game their shouldn't even be a consolation prize. lol

I love this suggestion and hope it gets implemented ASAP.

I like Daniel and Herman, but a lot of the others seem poorly fleshed out or just plain masochistic. The problem though isn't what I like . . . it's that no matter how many different options we come up with there really isn't a way to vote and let Tynan easily see what sort of story tellers we want.

Also some of the ideas seem to need more game development to really make them "fun" . . . Ghengis would be very interesting IF we had more options for defense. Fences, sandbags (that don't require steel!), different types of Turrets, patrols of guards/trained animals . . .

I agree!

When this was a crash landing simulator it made sense that the story tellers were trying to push you off the planet . . . but now it's just annoying. My lost tribe or rich explorer doesn't want to escape the planet into space ... this is supposed to be a colony simulation and it should feel like you can get ahead.

Sure not every colony should be successful but . . . skill should be rewarded with new layers of colony management not just bigger disasters. As it stands if your goal is to survive as long as possible the game rewards you for doing just the minimum. You need to meet the colonists needs without growing your wealth level, or making people too happy.

If you manage that day after day drags on following routines and dealing with the same basic problems over and over again until it gets boring. There is no score counter for how long you survived . . . and you can't try to complete the scenario.

The lost tribe is never going to become rich and powerful enough to defeat the death machines from the stars . . . we don't have the layers of defenses and such needed to turn our base into a perfectly safe fortress yet. The lost explorer isn't going to conquer this world at some set point.

The BEST you can do is LOSE. I define losing as building a rocket ship and fleeing the planet for a safer environment. The lost explorer gave up on taming this world, the lost tribe is running away from the death machines . . . and that is fine if the story is supposed to be about loss but most games where you "can't win" at least reward you for doing better each time you play.

There might be a high score list of some kind saying "You lose, your rocket ship races away from the planet after 3 years . . . that puts you in third place please type in your initials".

Right now the game seems a bit broken. It's not a crash landing simulator where you are trying to escape the planet; but you can't input any win conditions and the story tellers are simply broken. Even Phoebe Basebuilder is trying to push you off planet, she just gives you more time to recover between bad events.

More good events certainly would help balance things out.

In short, Harden Up.  Use Mods.  Do the Research, or RTFF, such as they are.

Mods are a great solution for a finished game . . . even in alpha they CAN be good as they show what people want enough to code themselves, while also giving the developers some idea of how popular the change is. However sending a tester off to find mods seems a bit counter productive.

Someone has to test the base game without alterations and give the developers feed back without the caveat that any problems they encounter might be caused by modifications to the game.

Comparing this game to Dwarf Fortress also is unfair. I love that game, but it is a FREE game developed by two brothers. There are a lot of independent add ons to customize it any way you like. It's not aiming for a big player base. The developers do what they want because they love the game. They aren't SELLING it on a major gaming platform.

Plus it is in all of our best interest, if we love the Dwarf Fortress inspired Genre, to make it as inviting to new players as possible. Maybe the guy who starts out playing Rimworld is going to later move on to other games . . . Gnomeria, or even DF itself.

Great idea