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Can't say I'm thrilled about the mining changes. Getting 25 steel per tile is going to make me burn through my resources amazingly fast.

It also takes longer to chop down a tree than it does to build highly complicated electronic devices like a solar panel, which is baffling.

Edit: played with mining, see it goes up by about 3 per level. I was getting yields of 30 at level 4. In order to get to 75 that would take 15 more levels, or 19 mining skill, assuming it scales liberally like that. That's... not encouraging.

Really don't understand why this game becomes more and more difficult every patch without any real balancing factors to give players robust options and new choices. Its not like you have any alternative to mining in early game.

Its always neat when outside factions come to the colony, but right now we get perfect information on who's arriving the second they show up. I think it would be pretty interesting if sometimes small groups of travelers couldn't have their identity determined immediately. You'd have to put a security detachment on standby in case things go badly. Maybe they're friendly, maybe they're hostile, maybe they're just passing through, who knows! You could send a colonist to "make contact" to reveal their nature, friend or foe, which may immediately start the bullets flying.

as well as the scary likelihood for permanent damage or death from social fights (OR the lack of tools to stop such fights).

Yeah. Three out of the four social fights I've had have resulted in scars, and two were to eyes. I now have a colonist that's nearly blind because someone punched him in the eye over an insult. Guess he's off the front line shooting brigade.

I don't mind the bruises and stuff from the fights, but I really wish they'd be a little more forgiving on the permanent damage.

Honestly, both sides valid. The detractors are missing the mark though. It's not "inexcusable" to take a break during development; he doesn't report to us in any meaningful way. But it still feels really dangerous. I've worked on large-scale projects before... amateur video game design, novels, collaborative online efforts with other people. Dropping completely out of that for six months is psychologically deadly. Restarting work after so long of having your mind on other things is an enormous mental hurdle to overcome. I did my best work when I resisted the temptation to take long breaks, countering burnout by focusing the energy in different parts of the same project as opposed to other things entirely.

I put tons of hours into the game as is so I won't be super disappointed if this is all I gets. But there will still be that twinge of sadness that I couldn't see anything else be added, not to mention *another* reason to avoid early access before release.

The lore specifically states there was no alien life on other planets.

Though I still feel that this is a meaninglessly limiting factor, it's not a constraining one. They can wing it however they want to make it work with established lore. Genetic engineering or divergent evolution. I've had colonists that have been in cryosleep for hundreds of years - that's plenty of time for some crazy scientists to try biological experiments and gene splicing that have spread in the wilds.

With tundra, it's just a matter of rushing geothermal and plopping a sun lamp down on rich soil. The rough rule of thumb is 1 geothermal = one sun lamp, taking into account the other power requirements of the base. Even a single sun lamp on rich soil making rice can feed a massive colony. Supplement your food by murdering every large animal that wanders into range.

Still working out tundra. I really don't want to have to resort to cannibalism.

Yeah, the AI during sieges is a bit weird. They seem to want to stay close to their base camp and are reluctant to engage. If you take a small, well-trained team of 3-4 pawns equipped with long range weapons (hunting rifles are really good for this) they can usually pick off enemy pawns on the outskirts of the camp before the enemy can fire back and without attracting the wrath of the whole enemy base.

Other than that, fight fire with fire. If you have a few mortars yourself, you can get off a nice-sized volley before the enemy siege camp is even established. The size of the camp and the wandering habits of the enemies counteract the poor accuracy of your mortars, making you much more likely to hit something of value. The biggest priority target is actually the enemy's shells - they explode immediately if hit, and that deprives the enemy of their own shells to fire at you should it come to that.

A careful shooter with a sniper rifle can solo small waves of mechs that land by their ships at midgame, since they can outrange anything with the sniper and are nearly guaranteed to land every shot, making any mechs that try to approach take very reliable damage, often fatal to scythers.

In a massive shootout though with battle lines, yeah, its pretty useless.

To the best of my knowledge, Rimworld doesn't track hours played, which is probably for the best because I would be terrified at the huge number at this point. While I am enjoying it immensely for its narrative potential (name the pawns after your friends and the stories write themselves!) I don't think its much of a secret that the game needs more content overall.

Here's my list suggestions at this point:

1) non-earth biomes and animals - too many landing sites look like obscure parts of Earth. I wasn't expecting to find squirrels, marble, and pine trees on a remote, alien planet. Don't be afraid to pump the game full of exotic strangeness! I want weird, purple stones. I want unusual aliens that shoot spines when they're angry. I want trees that take melee swipes at people that pass by! Some of the most fun I had was figuring out how to handle the exploding animals and the burns that came with engaging them at melee range - I want more unexpected surprises like that!

2) more exotic surgery options - replacing limbs and organs and installing joywires are a GREAT addition to this game. I'd like to see more, stronger, stranger options! Again, more sci-fi! What about a genetic splice that gave something a natural, thicker skin, so they didn't need to wear a coat and had resistance to melee attacks? Or maybe one that made the pawn run and work faster, but tired out more quickly? Maybe a sight mod that lets them see - and shoot - much farther. Or someone who was solar powered and could only gain rest if they were laying outdoors in the sun. Someone who glowed in the dark at all times, never needing light. Imagine fighting enemies that had these installed too - that could really change up some of the tactics needed to defeat raiders.

3) more exotic colonists in general - some of my greatest stories are built around a pawn with an unusual backstory, trait, or skill set. Dealing with nudists in the tundra, or a trigger-happy shooter with a passion to learn but 0 skill, or a neurotic hard worker that always seems one step away from losing it. I want even more drastic weirdos to work with! It's always a bit of a letdown when I get a new pawn that has very basic, uninteresting stats.

4) laser turrets - I don't care how or how practical. Bullet turrets are a good first measure, but it won't feel properly futuristic until those things are shooting beams of light

5) more accessibility to higher end gear - waiting for trade ships to fly by and hoping they have a suit of power armor that's above awful quality is not a very satisfying way to outfit my pawns at endgame. I'm not saying it should be easy. It should be very difficult and expensive to acquire these in other ways. But I'd rather be building towards goals instead of killing time and waiting for random events to occur. This is my biggest objection with endgame in general - inaccessibility of anything other than basic gear. It's hard to get shields, sniper rifles, and power armor even after my vault is bursting with silver and my colonists have hit godly crafting.

6) more decorations - on a lighter note, how about some more ways to spruce up our colonies? I planted a pine tree in my town square for Christmas, wishing there was an easier way to decorate. In game they could have minor beauty effects, but I'm just looking for ways to theme and decorate areas even if they have no particular effect in game. Flags, statues, signs, chests and boxes - that sort of thing.

7) - more options to mess with floors. I want to be able to spend time to plant soil if there's rock there. Even if takes forever, in some cases I'd do it. I want the options to dig moat-like trenches or put in small lakes, and build bridges over them.

8) more coherency with beauty - on that note, what's up with floor beauty? I was shocked and confused when smoothing out rock gives +3 beauty per tile, but the same rock stonecut and put down in tile adds only +2. And beautiful wooden floors are +0? I don't see how looking like the inside of a cave is more comfy than a log cabin.

9) more incentive for animal training - right now the only animals that seem worth my time are dogs and similar high intelligence animals that can help out on the base or chickens which breed fast enough to sell en mass. Low intelligence, low breeding animals are too impractical right now and go straight into the cooking pot. This is another good opportunity to add sci-fi elements - either new, alien species that breed quickly or technology means to aid this process that can be built or crafted.

10) craftable robots - pretty much a staple, I'd think. Maybe the way to put a dying colonist's brain into a newly crafted robot, to give them some measure of a second life.


I really do love the game. Gotten a few people to buy it now from all my stories and screenshots and am looking forward to seeing what is added in future updates. If the devs have even greater ideas then mine, then hey, that's fine by me.