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And once there is milk, I would love to make some cheese or something like that.

there already is milk.

I didn't read it exactly, but i think there wasn't. and they're gone for maybe 3 months/30 days now.

or water/sand buckets, for early game, and for the base, a sprinkler system would be better anyway.

Maybe Rimworld isn't optimized... but Rimworld has many colonists, raiders and animals. That's a lot of pathfinding. 3D pathfinding would be even more expensive.

Minecraft is mostly static, isn't it ? It also uses different data structures. I'm not sure voxel octrees or whateer minecraft uses were around when DF was developed.

I'm not competent enough in game programming to evaluate, but this article sounds informative. It describes the difference between flat arrays and octrees, cites Minecraft etc... http://0fps.net/2012/01/14/an-analysis-of-minecraft-like-engines/

I'm not good at programming in general, and as a result I understood almost nothing, but I think the article basically says that code that runs again and again and again(like physics updates, lighting) is far more important to optimize than random access(placing blocks, and i think player movement counts), by a factor of the radius of the map squared, if i understood it correctly. It(the article) then proceeded to go into detail about how to optimize iteration, at which point I ceased to udnerstand a word of it.

I understand that it can be very complicated. Even after all those years, Dwarf Fortress still didn't get it 100% correct! Tamed flyers can't fly. Hatches are invulnerable from below, monsters can't see what's above them - does it mean bowmen can't shoot creatures on towers ? I don't play DF, I just read wiki and stories sometimes. I dabbled in it and found the interface/micromanagement insufferable.

But it's also a very lucrative feature. Many fun things become possible. As I hinted above, it doesn't have to mean copying DF. Rather than digging down, Z-levels in Rimworld might focus on building UP. Flying vehicles, flying creatures, jetpacks, orbital strikes, drop pods on your roof, meteorites, parachutes, cats falling 10 stories with just minor injuries, collapsing structures...

It's also very hard to have convincingly running water without Z-levels. How are you going to implement rivers ? Heightmaps ? How to visualize it on a single plane ? Does it sound exciting to play a game like this without rivers ?

As far as I remember Z-levels is one of reasons Tynan hasn't implemented embrasures. I think he said if he implements something like that, it will be via Z-levels.

also, it could maybe be an optional thing, so weak computers can run 2d rimworld, while better PCs provide fancy 3d rimworld.

And it's harder to program something to be optional rather than either on or off. And I'm not sure you understand the increase in complexity. Just consider the number of tiles. On a 200 * 200 map you currently have 40.000 tiles, which track state, what floor does it currently have, what floor is there when deconstructed, furniture, creatures, items. 200 * 200 * 200 map (200 zlevels) would be 8.000.000 tiles.

Suppose a modern computer can just barely run Rimworld (not true). Do you think 200x more powerful processors exist on consumer market ? How many years would we have to wait ?

Maybe it would be more reasonable to limit Z-levels to a low number, like 5 or 10.

I suggested a solution to get more "complete" z-levels without killing the game on weaker computers. Also, I'm kinda curious what is the difference in the code that allows minecraft to load up 16^4*12²*Pi(about 29740000) blocks at a time while rimworld struggles with 300²(900000)? is it because the jobs? because you usually have quite a big number of entities in minecraft too. the temperature system can't really be it because there aren't enough rooms for it to truly matter. maybe rimworld isn't optimized in some important regard?

Personally I couldn't careless about full realism in these games, after all; if I wanted realism I wouldn't be playing games.

However, I do see the point of having at least some realism in a game. For example, I wish that there were more days in a month, instead of ten make it twenty. Make the days a bit longer, as I've seen that it seems to take a pawn almost an hour to eat their food (which makes no sense), so make it take less time for them to do that in order to make the days feel longer.

actually, a biggish meal not eaten in a hurry, maybe with some talking in between, takes about an hour, so in my opininion that shouldn't be changed. What should be changed is the movement speed in relation, as that is just plain unrealistic, and, as a result, the levels of time acceleration.

Also I'm the opposite, realism over game mechanics every time man. 

Realism can oftentimes enhance gameplay (and many game devs tend to discard this fact too quickly for my liking) but it must never detract from it. You should never implement realism if it makes the game less enjoyable. Down that path lies only damnation.

In what way does this suggestion make gameplay less enjoyable? Also, you're right that if realism makes the game less enjoyable, it shouldn't be implemented, but there are a lot of views on what is enjoyable and what is not. some people like it superrealistic and grindy as hell, others want it very easy. that's just the way it is. that's why the communitie's feedback is needed, because not everybody has the same opinion on what is good for the game.

Experiment on animals! Gene-splice them, genetically modify them, turn them into cyborgs! Make them bigger, stronger, faster than they were were before! I want a pack of cyberwargs.
It could be a way to add in home-made bonics research, if after you research the tech and get the workbench your scientist still has to perfect it by experimenting on prisoners and volunteers and critters.

And yes I do like things to be a little gritty and dark sometimes :p

did you notice the thread is called "your CHEAPEST ideas"? your suggestion does require quite a lot of work, even if you leave out the special research required(on prisoners, etc.). There is just absolutely nothing like genesplicing in the game, so Tynan would have create an entirely new system for it.

also, it could maybe be an optional thing, so weak computers can run 2d rimworld, while better PCs provide fancy 3d rimworld.

I think this was mentioned somewhere, I just can't find where, but how do i make the drill head for the drilling rig?

100 iron bars at machining table (hi-tech tab) or at deep mine industries trader

thanks.

EDIT: I sent half of my pawns to help a visitor whose brother had been captured by slavers, they haven't returned for a few months now. is that normal?

I don't even want maximum time accelleration to be slower(actually, I'd like it to be faster), I just want different activities to be realistically balanced.

oops sorry missed a few 0s. facepalm. the values are the relation of time in rimworld and time in RL. you are literally multiplying the values of time accelleration i propose with the current ones, which simply doesn't make sense. I can understand that my post was confusing because i messed it up a bit, but that so doesn't make sense that it is ridiculous.

I think the point is to add more flavor to the map, and, say, randomly help you with a raid or kill a group of visitors entering the map there, which is pretty much the opposite of predictable.

Hm. Interesting idea. Although that's basically what the normal ship part crash is, except it would just auto-deploy them.

making it  impossible to prepare the site of battle, but allowing to gather resources required to adress it first, which is quite a difference.

No, I like the time balance at the moment. Nothing jumps out as me as being bullshit and unbalanced about time management in the game. It makes enough sense considering the entire game is, by its very nature, a general abstraction so you can play through days in minutes. ANY game like this would need NPC's to look like they're teleporting around the map in order to match up activity and walking times.

When you're complaining about guys taking just as long to eat as to diassemble mechanoids, you might as well go find the toilet thread and hang out with that guy, because you've lost the plot on how the game isn't a minute by minute detailed life simulator. Their 'breakfast activity' stands in for the God knows how long we all spend in our day putting stuff in our face....especially if we're, you know, a hard working colony builder. I know I certainly don't eat once in a day. But it would be ridiculous to simulate our colonists running off to kitchens and mess halls three times a day for their major meals and carrying about snacks to eat, to service a food bar that would go down so fast that the time to use a sniper rifle would be longer than the time before they get hungry again.

"[...]Nothing jumps out as being bullshit[...]" But requiring about a day to walk 250m. Or, if movement is impaired, for example, it can take that long to go to the rec room, eat something, do some joy activities, do one job(as in, craft one item), and barely make it back to bed before dropping from exhaustion. That jumps out as bullshit. Being able to build a turret while raiders walk the last few dozen meters towards you jumps out as bullshit. I don't want a minute to minute life simulator. I also want Rimworld to be a logical game, and such an inconsistency in time requirements is NOT logical in any way, and fixable by changing a few parameters.(pawn speed, time accelleration).

I think this was mentioned somewhere, I just can't find where, but how do i make the drill head for the drilling rig?