Messages

Version 3.00 released:
- Updated to Alpha 10.
- Reworked radiation damage. It become a staged injury.
- Still not compatible with EdB Prepare Carefully . There is a special link, to a compatible version, but only for easy mode.

On linux, I get graphics issues and the crash notification textboxes have weird names.

Video linked.

https://youtu.be/Gbdxek_uvNc

Sorry, but the video does not show gameplay. It freezes soon after the start.
I can hear sounds and see video from personal camera in the top right corner, but no gameplay video.

Yep, sorry.  What I get for trusting the encoder to work after only viewing the first 30 seconds or so.

Basically, most of the crashlanding parts are boxes with a red X, and the dropdown message boxes are something like "EventName_SmallShipPartCrashing."  Not a huge issue, but might be symptomatic of something else.

Can you remember crashlanding parts that are not boxes with red X. If they are: Ship Engine, Ship Reactor, Nutrient dispenser - parts with vanila graphics, that means the problem in mod textures.

The only part without a box that I am sure of was the structural member, but the seconday ones it sent out that sometimes become members were Xd out as well.

Version 3.00 released:
- Updated to Alpha 10.
- Reworked radiation damage. It become a staged injury.
- Still not compatible with EdB Prepare Carefully . There is a special link, to a compatible version, but only for easy mode.

On linux, I get graphics issues and the crash notification textboxes have weird names.

Video linked.

https://youtu.be/Gbdxek_uvNc

Sorry, but the video does not show gameplay. It freezes soon after the start.
I can hear sounds and see video from personal camera in the top right corner, but no gameplay video.

Yep, sorry.  What I get for trusting the encoder to work after only viewing the first 30 seconds or so.

Basically, most of the crashlanding parts are boxes with a red X, and the dropdown message boxes are something like "EventName_SmallShipPartCrashing."  Not a huge issue, but might be symptomatic of something else.

Version 3.00 released:
- Updated to Alpha 10.
- Reworked radiation damage. It become a staged injury.
- Still not compatible with EdB Prepare Carefully . There is a special link, to a compatible version, but only for easy mode.

On linux, I get graphics issues and the crash notification textboxes have weird names.

Video linked.

https://youtu.be/Gbdxek_uvNc

With A10 out, I have a new request... can I get a magazine fed Dragon automortar?  Small caliber, 1 shell = ~5 projectiles, max range ~120 tiles, and minimum range ~ 10 tiles.  Im having issues in the newest version with defiladed enemies, which is pretty awesome from an AI standpoint, but annoying as a player.

If impossible, I will understand.

Never heard of it TBH and Google only turns up this. Going by your description its fairly easy to implement from a technical POV and I'm not opposed to including something like it in the Defence Pack. Problem is I'm not a spriter and the best I could come up with in that regard would be a reskinned vanilla mortar.

I'd be  fine with a reskinned sprite.  I never worked with the Dragons, and only had scuttlebutt to go on, but it supposedly had cassette fed rounds and could acquire and fire a mission within 30seconds of recieving a digital call for fire.  Probably just rumor exaggerating \ conflating the Dragonfire.

Like I said, I was thinking shortrange, low damage, and a burstfire type system, just something to help clear out pesky pirates hiding in defilade.

With A10 out, I have a new request... can I get a magazine fed Dragon automortar?  Small caliber, 1 shell = ~5 projectiles, max range ~120 tiles, and minimum range ~ 10 tiles.  Im having issues in the newest version with defiladed enemies, which is pretty awesome from an AI standpoint, but annoying as a player.

If impossible, I will understand.

Hoping this returns soon, I miss mending all the raider's gear...

I love the new timetable scheduler, but Colonists don't seem to obey the schedules you set very well.

If anyone can figure out how, a schedule enforcer would be awesome.

Also, an expansion of the timetable, with work as well as more specific duties, ie hauling\cleaning\crafting\cooking would be awesome as well.

"An hour of cleaning in the morning, followed by 3 hrs of work, a free hour, then an hour of hauling, then 3 more of crafting."

I asked for this in my Twitch stream, a NewGamePlus option would be awesome.

It would also give us a reason to build bigger\better space ships, as we could include cargo carriers that would have a chance to drop with you.

Not a problem, I see it now that I recreate your test.  Thanks again!

Version 1.1.2 is up

Rebalanced mortars and tweaked raider AI, for more details see changelog.

PS To anyone having trouble with Centipedes, in my recent test game I finally got around to using an EMP mortar and it is extremely useful. One shell will stun mechanoids in a large area and for a long duration while colonists are free to take potshots at them, so if you're having trouble try one.

Im still testing, but so far, Im not seeing the new more accurate behavior.  Will continue to test.

Speaking of fun, I finished my work on accuracy: forcedMissRadius was reduced from 20 to 17.4 and is now multiplied by 1 - targetDistance / maxRange. So it would be 0 tiles at range 500, 10.44 at 200 tiles and ca. 16 at the minimum range of 32 tiles (any closer and the mortar could score a direct hit on itself and that's just silly) corresponding to a CEP of 0-8 tiles from max to min range. For reference, fragments go for up to 16 tiles.

I have now started conducting some ingame tests to balance lethality



My metric is that balance is right when a shell hitting the center knocks out half the pawns in the blue circle (~7 tiles).

In unrelated news I also made some tweaks to the AI and if I'm right pirates should actually engage from much larger ranges now instead of wading through MG fire for no reason. I'm currently doing some playtesting to confirm this and as soon as that's done the new version will go up.

From what little I can see, that looks awesome.

81s can be 1manned, but not accurately.  How are you gonna hold the adjustable leg down and safely drop the round?  You can sandbag the fixed leg, but the adjustable leg needs your palm, using your foot would either jostle it or let it move too much for accuracy.

Keep in mind that Rimworld doesn't use modern day mortars but some kind of homemade that is a) a fixed installation and b) uses a control panel to operate. Most of the mechanical tasks are probably done by machines and the operator only has to load and adjust angle and elevation on the panel. When comparing to modern day equipment it would be closer to something like a 2S9 than a man-portable mortar. That said I'll probably go with a 81, simply because the lower range is more meaningful on Rimworld scale.

I was not the Artillery, so towed\self-propelled systems are beyond my experience.  I would think they were more accurate than the man-portable and man-transportable options though.

Also, Id never heard of the 2S9, so I looked it up.  Neat toy, someone should drop one off in my driveway for my birthday. An amphibious 120mm mortar in an articulated turret?  The local duck population will never recover.

Is it at all possible to make Mortars more realistically accurate?

At no point should Circular Error Probability exceed burst radius, and with the sheer amount of aiming time spent, the aiming error should be rather small as well.

Max accuracy should be at 50% of maximum range, with worst accuracy trending towards the minimum range limit.  The accuracy degradation from midrange to max range should occur at about half the rate as the degredation that occurs between midrange and minimum range.

As a former 0341 Infantry Mortarman, the mortars in this game make me very sad.

Changing the way aiming works is pretty trivial, it mostly comes down to creating a mathematical algorithm to calculate the accuracy at any given range (and not kill your CPU in the process). Current calculations are based on a CEP of 50m and a scale of 1 game cell = 5m. Using the game's ForcedMissRadius (works by generating a random angle and a number between 0 and ForcedMissRadius and applying the resulting vector to the original target you get the cell the mortar will actually shoot at) I set it to 20 so half the rounds should land within 10 cells.

So going with your model and assuming the Rimworld mortar is 120mm with a max range of 6-7km (?) that would put maximum range at 1400 and maximum accuracy at 700 game cells. Now I never operated a mortar so I don't really know what kind of accuracy you can expect at that range and at minimum range (40 cells) but provided some accurate data on the start and end points it should be simple to make the accuracy scale linearly with target distance. Also, what exactly do you mean by burst radius?

On that note, depending on how accurate the game's ForcedMissRadius models CEP that can be adjusted too. I'd love to have some input from an actual expert on military matters when it comes to implementing these things ingame, rather than having to rely on stuff I read on the Internet.

Edit: I've been considering changing the scale of cells to meter from 1 cell = 5m down to 1 cell = 7.5m at least for the long range weapons (=everything except SMGs, pistols and shotguns) so range would be bit more balanced in relation to the game's map size (maximum is 400x400 cells). Anyone have thoughts on that?

Burst radius of the shell - the area covered by the 50% probability of causing lethal injuries.

Rimworld Mortars are probably 60mms or 81mms, not 120mms, as 120s cannot be single manned.

Infantry mortars can be aimed without an FDC, and 60mms can be operated by a single person.  The amount of time the pawns spend aiming the mortar makes me think that they are doing their own FDC math, not just aiming by eye.

Modern 60mm infantry mortars have an effective range of 3490meters with the common M888 HE round.  The lethal radius is approximately 28meters.  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/7-90/figb-5.gif for reference, Vietnam\Cold War era.

EDIT: This would make the mortar bursts have a smaller radius than current, but be much more accurate.  If there is a 6tile lethal and a 12tile casualty radius, impact error should be 8-11 tiles.  Aiming error at 50% range should be no more than 2 tiles.  Obviously, this would need to be tested for playability, and the superscience used by the colonists, but the current system is nowhere near realistic.

120mm mortars can be two manned. You can single man a 81mm mortar. It is most likely a 81mm mortar not a 60 (it is way to big), 60s can be held and carried by one man thats why infantry platoons carry a mortar section with 60s on patrol. And yes mortars can be aimed without FDCs through direct line but these mortars are lobbing over mountains and structures good luck hitting anything without line of sight or a FO. And they could possibly be using a plotting board since it takes them so long. As far as I have ever known the 60mm mortar has a kill radius of 25m 81mm 35m and 120 70-75m.

Also remember at 3490m a 60 is shooting charge 4.

Charge 4 is no issue.

81s can be 1manned, but not accurately.  How are you gonna hold the adjustable leg down and safely drop the round?  You can sandbag the fixed leg, but the adjustable leg needs your palm, using your foot would either jostle it or let it move too much for accuracy.

60s on charge 1, handheld, max out at either 400m or 500m IIRC, and fire a LOT faster than these.  It is still possible for a 1st year enlistee to get steel on steel hits on a tank hulk.  It was either a Patton or an Abrams before it became a target.  (I know, because I've both done it and seen it done by others.) 

60mm mortars have a minimum range of 70-100meters depending on datasource, my memory claims that was 75meters was the short impact range we had aiming data for.

81mm mortars has a minimum range of 83m per http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=146

If the mod author prefers 81s, it is 6490m, with a lethal burst radius of 8tiles and a casualty fragmentation radius of 16, with CEP of 0-7 tiles, and aiming error of 0-2tiles at medium range.  (All tile numbers based on 5m tiles.

Is it at all possible to make Mortars more realistically accurate?

At no point should Circular Error Probability exceed burst radius, and with the sheer amount of aiming time spent, the aiming error should be rather small as well.

Max accuracy should be at 50% of maximum range, with worst accuracy trending towards the minimum range limit.  The accuracy degradation from midrange to max range should occur at about half the rate as the degredation that occurs between midrange and minimum range.

As a former 0341 Infantry Mortarman, the mortars in this game make me very sad.

Changing the way aiming works is pretty trivial, it mostly comes down to creating a mathematical algorithm to calculate the accuracy at any given range (and not kill your CPU in the process). Current calculations are based on a CEP of 50m and a scale of 1 game cell = 5m. Using the game's ForcedMissRadius (works by generating a random angle and a number between 0 and ForcedMissRadius and applying the resulting vector to the original target you get the cell the mortar will actually shoot at) I set it to 20 so half the rounds should land within 10 cells.

So going with your model and assuming the Rimworld mortar is 120mm with a max range of 6-7km (?) that would put maximum range at 1400 and maximum accuracy at 700 game cells. Now I never operated a mortar so I don't really know what kind of accuracy you can expect at that range and at minimum range (40 cells) but provided some accurate data on the start and end points it should be simple to make the accuracy scale linearly with target distance. Also, what exactly do you mean by burst radius?

On that note, depending on how accurate the game's ForcedMissRadius models CEP that can be adjusted too. I'd love to have some input from an actual expert on military matters when it comes to implementing these things ingame, rather than having to rely on stuff I read on the Internet.

Edit: I've been considering changing the scale of cells to meter from 1 cell = 5m down to 1 cell = 7.5m at least for the long range weapons (=everything except SMGs, pistols and shotguns) so range would be bit more balanced in relation to the game's map size (maximum is 400x400 cells). Anyone have thoughts on that?

Burst radius of the shell - the area covered by the 50% probability of causing lethal injuries.

Rimworld Mortars are probably 60mms or 81mms, not 120mms, as 120s cannot be single manned.

Infantry mortars can be aimed without an FDC, and 60mms can be operated by a single person.  The amount of time the pawns spend aiming the mortar makes me think that they are doing their own FDC math, not just aiming by eye.

Modern 60mm infantry mortars have an effective range of 3490meters with the common M888 HE round.  The lethal radius is approximately 28meters.  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/7-90/figb-5.gif for reference, Vietnam\Cold War era.

EDIT: This would make the mortar bursts have a smaller radius than current, but be much more accurate.  If there is a 6tile lethal and a 12tile casualty radius, impact error should be 8-11 tiles.  Aiming error at 50% range should be no more than 2 tiles.  Obviously, this would need to be tested for playability, and the superscience used by the colonists, but the current system is nowhere near realistic.

Is it at all possible to make Mortars more realistically accurate?

At no point should Circular Error Probability exceed burst radius, and with the sheer amount of aiming time spent, the aiming error should be rather small as well.

Max accuracy should be at 50% of maximum range, with worst accuracy trending towards the minimum range limit.  The accuracy degradation from midrange to max range should occur at about half the rate as the degredation that occurs between midrange and minimum range.

As a former 0341 Infantry Mortarman, the mortars in this game make me very sad.