Messages

I can't tell you how infuriating it is to pick the "perfect" group of colonists after about 10 minutes or more, get to the colony, and then it turns out 2-3 of them have bad backs and cataracts.

So much for that lvl 15 medicine with a bad back and 2 cataracts and unable to afford bionic eyes for a LONG time (especially in A9 balancing).

You can check the health screen, but it's annoying to go 2-3 clicks back and forth to see what you are getting.

One trade beacon under a roof (mountain or constructed).

Optionally, second trade beacon outside to designate a "drop zone" to prevent weird shipment locations. I usually put one right outside the door so colonists can go pick them up quickly and take them inside.

You can leave silver outside and other items that don't deteriorate so they stay where they land and can be traded later if you setup the stockpile for the outside beacon correctly.

Don't know if you consider this cheap, but:
Basically, adding a hauler skill bar.

High level haulers can carry more haulable stuff such as weapons, armor, crops, etc. The more the character hauls the higher the skill goes. The logic behind that compared to real life is questionable though hehe.. Gaining experience from moving items around? I guess...

Anyways, I was also thinking of adding onto that idea with an ammo system, but this is probably way more than a cheap implementation.
Basically, higher level haulers can also carry more ammo clips with them at one time. For example, a level 12 hauler can carry 12 clips on them. I think this would make the game a little more realistic and add more of a challenge to the game. That would mean adding a new bill to the ammo crafting table to make clips for ammo, and making clips available to purchase from combat suppliers as well as one type of item that can be found in wrecks. Clips can be stored in ammo crates and can hold a large amount where characters will automatically reload on empty.

This would make it balanced when fighting sieges and attackers as they have limited ammo, however so do you.

By itself, it also makes Melee skill more important.. Say your characters run out of ammo?
Oh, and why not let experienced haulers carry more weapons at a time that they can switch out.

... definitely not cheap ... but it's an implementation that would enhance other vanilla features and create more enriching stories.

How in the world is hauling a skill? Its just menial labor. Your arms can only carry so much weight, and so much volume.

I get that its really dumb, that the pawns can't bundle what appears to us Humans as obviously low weight, low volume items or items with low weight that can be condensed.  But that can be a pretty PITA problem to solve. It requires probably going through each item in the game, and giving it more information, so that way it can be hauled differently.

And the only way to increase the hauling capability of a pawn, would be very similar how its done in real life. Tools. Wheel Barrows, pallets and pallet jacks.

I agree and disagree.
If you ever did manual labor being a little weakling, you will gain muscle, learn to handle objects better ways, etc. It's labeled "dumb labor", but you can always learn something new or gain physical strength.

The cheapest way to implement it would be hauler skill controlling how efficient they are. Like: hauler lvl 0 has a 0.1 walk speed and hauler lvl 10 has 0.5 walk speed and hauler lvl 20 has 1.0 walk speed. It would make sense as carrying heavy stuff would make you stronger/faster.

Also, this would penalize you for putting your doctor/cook/grower/etc as a hauler as they waste a ton of time. It would be brutal in the early game, but when you get that one hauler who is good at nothing else and can max out, it would be great. However, that would be assuming haulers would get a speed BUFF, and it doesnt seem right they move faster than normal when hauling and kinda broken if they can zip around at 2x speed when not hauler. Might be fair to make them 2.0x speed when not hauling but only 1.0x when hauling with 20 skill level but also seems weird that everyone would get super fast just from moving stuff around (like constructors hauling materials), but I guess it could get skilled up ONLY from hauling slag/chunks. You could get a super fast hunter/hauler.

Hmm... Or maybe just have a "body builder" trait that gets speed gain from hauling and his negatives would be he can't do anything but fight and haul.

If that is true, cannibals are just a specific trait, but it hardly seems right that all the other colonists would be fine with the one guy eating human flesh. I would be weirded the f*** out by some guys passing me in the hallway knowing he would like to eat me and EXTREMELY disconcerting if he were eating at the same table as me with human meat on his plate and joyfully eating it right in front of me.

My suggestion wasn't a "break the game because food is always available and anyone becomes a cannibal".
My suggestion is, rather, a "different play style that can be fun but also challenging".

I don't know exactly how that will be attained. I think it should start with having 3 cannibals though. This would deem your colony a cannibal colony and that alone is a challenge to roll all three that way.

On top of that, the negatives should be higher in same way to make it balanced, and their should be a way to grow your colony to have more cannibals (which are rare) without actually having regular colonists around just eatting regular food. That's no fun. As it stands, you could have 1-2 cannibals with infinite food (as long as it's refrigerated) and no downsides. As it stands, I think it is broken, honestly. It's basically win-win-win as when you run out of normal food, you STILL have one guy extremely happy to eat human flesh and the others dont care that they do but do when they do (if that makes sense).

Brain and eye damage are always permanent, red brain damage will always render your colonist unconcious forever, orange and above will severely limit his skills and movement speed.

(...) heart injuries never heal naturally, and instantly become 'old' when they happen.

Heart damage doesnt heal naturally but can be treated, unless you re already talking about an alpha9 change I dont know about.

Oh. Right. What about "head" injuries? Do those turn into brain damage with bad treatment or is it direct damage to "brain"?

Never tried but, I imagine that there is a negative, or there should be, when eating food not as a cannibal.

It would be interesting to have a cannibal colony where your new people eventually get the trait "cannibal" after so many human meat meals. Basically, they get a negative for a while and then it turns positive.

As far as balancing, it kind of is at the start from the negative, but it should have a lasting disadvantage (other than shortage of raids/etc) like not having human meat for a while causes negative thoughts or eating normal foods will (other than meat, which would just be neutral?).

It would be an interesting new challenge.

For small stuff, maybe, but I don't see a single working moving a geo gen-y by himself/herself.

[In short I think we should be discussing the very opposite of "breeding" : Keeping the animal alive like it is (amusingly problematic) to replace.]

Note : I wrote a pretty big answer then a sudden refresh ate it, I wish this forum had a autosave, I had to rewrite it

You got me dead wrong.

Treating the animals like plants like you suggest is precisely what would ruin the ambiance (if you use undefined quantity like "output" or "slaughter the rest" you are on the wrong track). Regardless if it's 1 self-replicating living nutritive-paste-slimes or 20 gendered bunny in 1x1 cages.

Micro-management is precisely what we need here, because that what we are dealing with. In my last tundra game with 12 colonist I used to hunt around two big animal per season and only once I wanted regular fine meal. It's not enough to wipe out herd, but it's too much for credible reproductive cycle.
You can have animal that copulate if you want but I don't see the point since hunting is more efficient for small population.

YET, just being able to drive a small herd in fences so one can take his pick with ease would be interesting, especially if there's other perk that come with it, including from other "unrelated" feature.
Ex : imagine if there was event where other tribes or predator would come on your map to hunt "your" herds, then having a pasture zone would "protect them".

In short I think we should be discussing the very opposite of "breeding" : Keeping the animal alive like it is (amusingly problematic) to replace.
Finding features that make keeping animals, single or in herd ALIVE useful and wanted.

Exemple with your own compost/fertilizer-suggestion : Feces as a fertilizer could be used as a resources to make more efficient farm-floor differently than the electric-fertilizer. It would be low-cost (no-metal), ideal to farm before having the research and so ideal for game start. However since it take TIME you wouldn't kill that specific animal.
Another random example : some kind of mechanism allowing a colonist to use an elk/mufallo as a pack beast...or else.

ALL THIS to explain why I think animal husbandry wouldn't bring anything good. Easy animal reproduction even look like a bad thing for me. It cheapen life !

Well, a cheap implementation would be walls that are just fences (no protection, just can't walk over them) and the ability to get them to come in. Maybe just make them like to eat plants you have harvested. This would allow you to make a small stockpile to attract them or simply give you a reason to defend your crops. Otherwise, a specific crafted item or "trap". Maybe just a trough that works like nutrient paste dispenser either via hopper or directly (like stockpile zone).

Like you said, it would be a cheap/nice start. Later, things like fertilizer/manure could be implemented and it already has a starting point.

The only catch is a door that can stay open or closed (looks like switches are being implemented soon or have been?), but that might break combat allowing flanking from dumb ai taking quickest route and getting trapped (giant incinerator anyone?). Maybe either a fence that only opens one-way for animals and both ways for people (almost like child safety things).

Even cheaper still would just be the "feeder" that just attracts them and they eat the food. Pretty wasteful if you don't take advantage somehow though. Seems silly to use food to get food, though you do get leathers, which are pretty worthless unless your colony is poor and you are taking in more colonists than you can cloth and can't afford trading for clothes.

You know... I might be assassinated for that but I don't think Animal husbandry would bring something good to the game.

Not many animal have a "fast" reproductive cycle, and I kind of like SEEING the seasons pass.
I know, the plant also grow too fast but they do abstract the seasons. Don't tell me it would be the same with animals I'm just pointing out that birthing/killing, birthing/killing the animal as if it is another machine (to me) wreck havoc in the already tenuous feeling of survival.

Just HERDING animals that come across the map (luring them with a potato/berry/herd food) so as to have a emergency supply would be enough, I rarely ever make them hunt because it can ask to travel far in thick snow. But gathering the occasional big herd be killed as I see fit would definitely.

Bunny of course would be the exception... THEY can reproduce a lot.
This whole feature isn't in my top 10 of most wanted anyway.

I completely agree. But then I disagree. You could "fix" such problems. I think you are thinking of just throwing it in and letting it run.

No one wants to get 2-4 muffalo and a few seasons later they have 100 of them (cat-splosion in Dawrf Fortess!) and rotting carcasses everywhere. Also, no one really wants to micro-manage them where they have to individually pick what to slaughter. You don't do the same thing for growing plants do you? No, they grow full size, get cut, get replaced. You could do the same for animal husbandy. Add a fenced-in area (or just a "pasture" zone with no fences/walls) and you pick something similar to crafting tables where you "keep 4 and slaughter rest". If you have played "Banished", you could see how well this can do. You could even have similar "blight" issues where your animals can all get sick and die. Possibly even spread it to colonist (OH NO! SWINE FLU!). Although, animals would probably have to have their genders removed (not genitals... they can keep those, just don't say they have a gender) and you could basically "keep 2, slaughter rest" for minimal or "keep 10, slaughter rest" for optimal meat/milk/leather output but will take much longer to get up and running and can get wiped out from disease before it even becomes productive.

Edit:
Considering the work required, I don't think this is really a good feature. I would much rather see more fruitful stuff implemented. Animals come in enough as it is and are only needed for "fine meals" if you can get a proper farm going. It would work well with a "meatlover/vegitarian" trait and requiring fine meals to be used for more than a temporary mood enhancer (I'd like to see them as a mood fixer from bad moods from bland foods).

Just screwed myself over in tundra before I realized fertilizer pumps were "cut".

I'd like to see a compost pile for dead bodies (currently only humans would be viable unless butchering leaves off-fall guts, etc) to create fertilizer that is an item that growers must use to grow indoors.

Hydroponics is cute and all, but you lose your crops (unless I missed a change) when the power goes out from shorts/fire/solar flares/eclipses(when using solar power). I'm fine with that as they grow faster, but I haven't even bothered to make them once I heard they instantly wilt with power outage, which just seems silly that power makes things grow (I can understand the heaters and sun lamp going out causing it though).

This is going to sound kinda silly, but maybe also allow collecting animal feces as fertilizer, but it would have to rot/disappear faster then they poop it out or otherwise you have crap everywhere... literal.

You would then need a crafter to make fertilizer from these items. The soil would have to be fertilized to keep growing indoors or can simply be used outdoors to make "fertile soil" (I think it's called). This could be useful but possibly breaking the difficulty in a desert. The step I am missing her is transporting the "soil" indoors unless you can plop down fertilizer on rock... I don't know if I want to see a "dirt" item, but maybe the compost pile will create "fertile soil" item and that turns to regular or unfertile soil (indoors) and requires fertilizer? Maybe someone might have a better way in this area...

Later on (much), fertilizer could be used to make explosives (make grenades, dynamite, traps, etc).

True, but my point was that blights have even LESS point to blights for people like me/us who grow several kinds anyways. I don't know the exact amount, but if you make 7 different farms and only one kind gets blight, then you aren't losing much. You would basically have blights just to have them. Currently, they serve a purpose. A selective blight by itself makes sense but only poses a challenge if you plant only one type and even then it just works as it does now.

But thats exactly what I was saying, at the moment there are players who go all-potato style and It has no effect on gameplay. With selective blights that would be challenged. Of course people who already grow everything don't see a change. ^^

As long as it's additive, not replacing. If you have selective blights ONLY, you dont really ever see a famine condition. Ever. Then you just 100% always make different kinds and NEVER have a problem (just less productive by a small %).

Additionally, maybe we could get vegitarians/meatlovers as a trait or event and also make people get a negative or positive effect from eating foods that are the same or different. No one wants to eat potatoes every single day. Some might like to eat fine meals after a while (make it a requirement to skill up a cook in the long run) but that would pose a problem with vegitarians unless they were "immune" to wanting fine meals.

But he said he doesnt touch the file, it just finishes downloading and bam...windows everywhere.

His browser is probably set to open it automatically and he probably associated .zip with something he shouldn't have.

Forgive the pun, but that sounds like the unity sound bug. Can't do anything until they fixed it. Not Tynan's fault (this time).

Thanks. Yes, that seems to be the same old Unity bug even now. Lame.

[right-click the download file]

(re)install winzip or winrar or 7-zip and check the settings to be sure they are associated with .zip (for 7-zip on NT6/Vista+, you need to run it as admin first before those changes take effect properly)

open explorer and go to your download folder where the file is (do NOT open through your web browser!) right-click the download file and "extract here". Run the exe inside the extracted folder.

as far as the problem with it opening a bunch of stuff on download or download finish, that's either the association you need to fix (first part of my post) or your browser setting (what browser and extensions?).

if you are worried about viruses being the cause, install and scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

It's normal. You colonist got shot in the brain and you didn't have a good doctor/meds and it didnt get healed properly.

Being that it says "old", there is nothing you can do about it.
AFAIK, they are a vegetable for good (because it's red).

Sometimes it's less severe and they can get up, but they will be slow and stuff.

You could put him in cryo put him in your ship to be brought with to space, if you decide to end the game that way. Otherwise, just euthanize then bury/burn his body or do as jack020 said and edit the save.