Messages

1. What if you strike a deal not long before the trader would ordinarily leave? Does he just cancel the deal and leave as usual? How do we feed back that this is going to happen? Does he stick around? How long? How do we feed that back?

2. If you trade multiple items (as is almost always the case), when is what swapped? Say you buy two pistols and some medkits. Your guys get half the silver to the pad. Does the trader immediately swap the silver for half the order? Which half - the pistols or the medkits? Or does he wait until it's all done? Does that make players execute a series of tiny trades, to optimize them into resolving sooner?

1. A time limit can be given for each deal struck. If your end of the bargain isn't ready on a launch pad within, say, one hour, then the traders will cancel the deal. This way they can delay their original departure by one hour, but no more, and no further deals will be made during this delay.

2. I think it's best to not split up trades. The swap should only be carried out after all of the agreed items are ready.

But I understand why this is not a high priority at the moment.

I concur. Having all those valuables lying out in the open makes me uneasy, even though I know raiders won't actually touch them. Anyway, it tends to be inconvenient, in terms of logistics, to have storage spaces outdoors.

Can't they just gather around the water cooler, like normal people? Or around the nutrient paste dispenser. Whatever.

Also, slightly on topic, I sometimes really wish for a go to bed, young man! Yes, now! command, because sometimes, little colonists don't realize that staying awake is what makes them so miserably tired.

Alternatively, you could go all Dwarf Fortress on this thing and try to accurately simulate how PTSD actually transpires. Worth the effort in terms of gameplay fun? Who knows.

Regardless, I think we can agree that space colonists ought have different personalities and react quite differently to each kind of mental stress. I'm sure it's coming in a future update.

Maybe one of the ships you trade with one day warns you of a pirate ship headed your way. Or maybe one of the wanderers reveals herself to be a bounty hunter, and the group of raiders she's been spying on is about to attack the base. Etc.

But yeah, raids definitely need to be less frequent.

I also agree that something like this would be good. A similar idea is discussed in the Circuit Breaker thread. But the in-game tech doesn't necessarily have to be super advanced, with sensors and what not. Some places you could simply imagine the colonists use a manual switch to turn on and off stuff when they need it. A plain ol' light switch is pretty basic.

And about the electric doors... you could argue that it's kinda odd to exclusively install Star Trek -style sliding doors in a make-shift shelter dug into the ground by a rag-tag group of refugees in the wilderness. Obviously it's there because it's easier from a game-design perspective, and I presume low-tech, manual, hinged doors will become an option in later releases.

Or... the colonists could research concrete. Then they can manufacture the resource cement bags, which allows them to build mortar-and-stone walls with unprocessed rock debris, right on site.

(After all, bricks are not made from rocks, but from clay.)

Nah, not really. I mean, maybe at one point when the game has become really complex and deep, it may be appropriate to have that possibility, but it's not exactly on my wishlist. The article just had a special significance to me in light of the excessive amount of RimWorld I'm currently playing.

My colonists, though. I think they might like the idea. That unavoidable, instant blight... it's just so... thorough.

(...or did you mean to ask if I want these GM potatoes for real, outside of the game? Sure!)

Mines have for a while been the cornerstone of my raider defense, sometimes so effectively that it makes every assault a completely trivial routine event. Still, I like the idea of specialized anti-personell mines a lot. I think explosives should eventually be made into several techs you can research separately:

• Rock blasting - using mining skill, colonists can drill into rock and blast it into rubble. Much faster than mining pick. Slight danger of accidents. Useless as weaponry.
• Upwards-firing proximity mine - instantly kills any human-or-larger target that steps directly on it, nobody else affected.
• Omnidirectional mine - triggered by nearby activity, posibly tripwire. Instantly fires a large number of bullets in random directions. Should be pretty easy to implement, and much more realistic and interesting than the predictable fixed-range, fixed-damage blasts we currently have.
• Claymore mine - fires a bunch of bullets in a 60-degree arc, in a direction determined when laid down. Remotely triggered, but instant, or possibly trip wired.

I kinda like the idea of a mine field so you won't have to put down mines individually, but this may be a bit tricky to get just right.

About the "friendly fire" issue; keep in mind that mines are specifically made to be hard to spot, and while those who laid them will know the general area, they can't possibly remember exactly where each one is. Accidents will, and should, happen in the game. No-go zones is a necessary mechanic, but let colonists sometimes stumble one or two squares into such zones, so that you can't just make a bunch of 1-square zones exactly on top of all the mines. You have to make large actual fields where the colonists know there are mines, without knowing each individual mine.

Edit: Further idea - let quality mines be weapons you buy from arms dealers. You can build crude, home-made versions, but these are dangerous to make, dangerous to store, dangerous to deploy, and often don't detonate when they should. Could make for fun "oh shit!" moments. Also, maybe you'll sometimes get to recruit a guy with rare bomb-making skills, allowing for a bit of variation in your gameplay. Until he suddenly dies in a tragic bomb workshop accident.

This caught my eye today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26189722

Want.