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I don't know why...  But for some strange reason, I had horde of cats that were THE worst alcoholics I've ever seen.  Kittens were getting blackout drunk.  Despite the fact there were meals and proper meat available...  (And the bodies of our enemies for them to consume.  Seriously, there was a prison break, prisoner got killed, and they descended AND ATE HIS HEAD OFF.)

I've sold them off, because I just didn't want to deal with the guilt of KITTENS getting carcinomas.

I don't even know anymore.  It's a nice place, really...  It is.  No need to drink that heavily.  Holy shit.

Photo evidence below.

Cirrhosis?!
Blackout Drunk
Chemical Damage!!
He died from it!
More Cirrhosis!
Aww, Jaysus!  A kitten with a Carcinoma?!

I understand the need for sappers in the game, because you have to make even the best bunker builders sweat.  The trouble is that right now, sappers are not so much over-powered as much as they just simply cheat.  Like completely cheat.

1.  They have perfect knowledge to calculate the best spots to dig from and know exactly where to dig.  (Even if no raider has ever stepped foot in the base or much less exited the map to tell the tale.)

2.  They can mine, even the miner in question technically can't mine, and they mine at a ridiculously fast rate ignoring any traits of the miner.

3.  Once in, the group sometimes splits.  Often sending half the group to die at the defenses... they were trying to avoid.

4.  Also once in, instead of using the magical drills that can power through solid rock to take out doors and other barriers, they instead use explosives....  In tightly enclosed spaces, after possibly destabilizing the structure of the base, underground with a mountain of rock overhead.

If this was a tabletop pen and paper RPG, these are the types of tactics I'd expect from a very bad, very vengeful game master who is just trying to give the party (who was smart enough to make use of their mining prowess to create a safe home) THE biggest middle finger possible.  Right before saying, "Rocks fall. Everyone dies."


Suggested fixes to this...

1.  Raider sappers have to explore a bit, especially if none of their previous folks ever returned home to give any information about the base.  If you killed most before they got to the base proper, they first have to find the base.  Then, they'll have to scout to find the least protected spot to set up shop.  And when they start mining, they won't know where to exactly go....  but, they use equipment to detect equipment vibrations, temperature differences, and electromagnetic transmissions.  From that they'll start homing in.

2.  Teams must have miners to with skill to actually mine, and their rate is dependent on their ability.  Teams must also have people to operate sensors to help direct the miners.  (Could be spare miners doing so.) 

3.  Sapper teams will have two assault groups.  One guards the entrance, along with the breach team...  Right up until the miners thing they're about to get through.  The breach team gets right behind the miner, miner gets through the last bit, and they rush in.  After not encountering or taking care of initial resistance, the outside guards will join up.

4.  Sappers don't use grenades or large area explosives.  Too risky and explosives in an encloses space is bad time for all.  Instead for walls and doors, miners can use shaped charges to damage doors and walls enough to let them through.  They set them, stand back, and wait for them to blow.


This would make the sapper raid feel fairer.  Instead of the game just outlandishly cheating, the game is at least playing by its own rules.  It adds a bit more drama, gives the player a chance to react in a variety of ways:  Need to buy some time to get the forces together to run out and take care of them?  Turn off power, equalize temperature, and rig everything for silent running.  (And in fair play, the sappers running the sensors can have to chance to realize the sudden silence is probably the fact the base knows about them. And will put the rest on high alert, possibly causing breach teams stay outside help the entrance guards.)

There needs to be an element to keep the best mountain vault builder wary.  But, it can be done so to provide more game, rather just the AI ignoring all the rules to be a dick because a "power that is" doesn't much care for mountain vaults.

(Side note:  Though the game still hasn't given many convincing reasons to NOT build a mountain vault base.  Seriously, crashed landed on an alien world with psychotic pirates that melee machine gun turrets, cannibal tribals, toxic fallout, lightning striking, manhunter animals, and temperature fluctuations that makes it seem like mother natural has stopped taking her bipolar meds....   But....  I have the ability to mine through solid rock in very little time and surround myself with an actual mountain of granite...  or I can chop trees down and build a stick hut right in the middle of it all.  Right.)

It would be nice to have some non-combative options when dealing with colonists that have broken.  For example, those have are lost in a Daze, it'd be nice to send a colonist out with decent social to lead them back. (Retrieve)  And another option to try to Talk Down people gone berserk.

Patching everyone up after breaks gets a bit expensive on the medical budget (whether through wandering out into combat or applying "Advanced Sedation"), would like to think my 15 Social level colonist could maybe try to get one back down occasionally.

I've been designing a mod to handle heating and cooling via thermal piping.  (For reference: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=17721.0 )  And after some initial layouts and thought exercises, it seems that having something similar to the power network would be the best bet to simulate everything correctly and to do so efficiently.

Basically, individual buildings would be the "front end" of sorts to the system, but the core simulation should happen in one place.  This way the simulation of all components can happen synchronously and in a predictable manner.  Poll all the components, figure out the net energy change, and then update everything appropriately, all without any one component getting too far out of "tick sync" with the rest.

The actual simulation logic isn't the issue...  It's where to put such a component in the game to be called and used that's baffling me.  I've looked at some other mods, seen references to bits that seem like good candidates, but can't seem to find the puzzle pieces I need for it to make sense.  So if anyone has any info or advice on the matter, I would greatly appreciate it.

I'm curious as to how the power network simulation works in code detail.  It seems really close to what I may need to do, but the core details are hidden way in the compiled.

I've seen the mod for duct work and such, but I'd hope in the future they'd figure out a better way that'd be simpler and more straight forward.  I'm extrapolating heatpipe and split-unit AC tech to what form it may take.  Also, duct work is a pain in ass to deal with in real life.  I'd figure if people figure a way to make heatpipe/split-unit AC tech easier and more logistically efficient, it be a preferred method to heating and cooling.  I mean you've crashed on and alien world and gotten basic production going and have finally researched some good tech.  Would you rather spend time making metal tubes to pump air through and figuring out where everything flows... or would you rather just roll out a Thermal Pipe like a cable and hook it up to indoor and outdoor unit?

So, I'm trying to design the mod and mostly figure out what would be compatible with the game.  I've gleaned some info about how heat is handled, but there's quite a bit of the details I'm not familiar with.  I also wanted to figure out any simulation issues to make sure I don't engineer something that's going to be a simulation resource hog of doom.  And I'm also trying to avoid clashing too much with the rustic future western vibe.

Here's what I got so far, I do see room for upgraded versions and other tech improvements...  But I just want to get the basic set of bits first.

Key Traits to all Thermal Piping bits:

Thermal Capacity - How many joules of heat it takes before it increases 1 degree C.
Thermal Transfer - How many watts of transfer the component can take.  (Joules/sec, hence watts)
Thermal Leakage - What percentage of currently store joules will leak out of/in component, depending on the Delta Temperature, into the surrounding environment.


Thermal Transport:
Thermal Pipe (Bus?) - The basic thermal transport pipe.  Low capacity, Very High transfer, and Low Leakage.  Has a max safe temperature.  If exceeded, the pipe will start to take damage (with a random factor to keep whole segments from blowing all at once).  Damage decreases capacity and transfer, and increases leakage.  When damaged completely, the segment will break and drastically "resolve" the differences of heat between it and the environment.

Transfer:
Thermal Sink - Simplest block of metal designed with fins to increase the surface area and move heat between it and the surrounding area.  Looks like an old steam radiator for style.  Medium capacity, Medium transfer, Very High leakage.  Has a max safe temperature.  If exceeded will take damage (with a random factor).  Damage decreases capacity, transfer, and leakage.  At full damage, the device will just melt into a useless pile of slag or just fall apart into useless rumble.  (Depends on how hot it gets.)

Movement:
Thermal Pump - Using a strange hybridization of phase change and Peltier effect, this device moves heat from one end to another.  It's highly configurable.  It's bi-directional and has low and high temperature cutoffs for both sides.  Uses a moderate amount of power (similar to current in-game coolers, maybe have tech to improve efficiency) and generates a little excess heat.  Low capacity, low/medium/high transfer, low leakage.  Has a max safe temperature.  When exceeded, the unit takes damage (with a random factor).  Damage decreases capacity, transfer, and power efficiency.  It also increases leakage.  At full damage the device can fall apart, explode, short the electrical system, violently resolve thermal differences between it and the surrounding area, OR....  D. All the above.

Storage:
Thermal Capacitor - Using some tricky physics, this device can quickly store a moderate amount of heat.  Medium capacity, High transfer, low leakage.  Useful for buffering surges and lulls in the system.  Has a max safe temperature.  If exceeded, the device will take damage (with a random factor).  This decreases capacity and transfer.  Increases leakage.  At full damage the unit will rupture, releasing all stored heat into the surrounding area... and possibly sending fragments of itself everywhere.

Thermal Battery - Using an electrically stabilized endothermic chemical reaction, this unit will store a tremendous amount of heat and keep it so long as it receives power.  It has a store temp (triggers above X) and release temp (triggers below X) setting.  Very High capacity, Slow transfer, and Very Little leakage.  Uses a varying amount of power depending on the amount stored and the delta temperature.  When it loses power, it'll start to release heat into the system.  If it can't release it into the system, the unit will start to take damage.  At full damage, the unit will rupture and quickly release the heat stored in it as the protective measures for the chemistry fail.  This will melt the unit.


I think that collection of devices would allow a good range of heating/cooling configurations.  More could be added later, but basics first.  Also, the failures and leakages would still require people to use coolers, heaters, and vents.  So instead of being a replacement, it'd be an enhancement to go along with everything else.  And with anything RimWorld, there's still plenty of interesting things that can go wrong.


I'm still trying to learn the RimWorld core.  Unfortunately, I haven't found much on the simulation side of things when it comes to how heat is being handled.  So, I'm curious if there's anything that's been documented about the nitty-gritty details of how heat is simulated and handled in the game. 

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated. 

Pirate raid happened.  Saw they were trying to dig in...  (By the way, kinda bullshit...  at least how fast they always seem to go and they somehow know where to start digging without any knowledge of the base.)

Checked character sheet of miner.  And saw he technically cannot mine.

You thought base breaches were bogus?  Welp, wait until the game cheats to do so.

Picture:  www.bestwithstuff.com/RPGStuff/BullshitMiner.png

EDIT:  Fixed slashes in URL.  Slash Dyslexia is annoying some days.