Messages

Fall the 8th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

I beat it - the infection is defeated. However, my primary physician was that creature, Upgrade. I'd almost rather have died than had him poking me and prodding me with Glitterworld Medicine he barely understands. Ugh. I need a shower.

The mining parties discovered another route into our base, which suddenly feels very vulnerable. It's our hope that any raiding parties are as ignorant of the local geography as we were when we settled here.

I was able to get back to work today, but the entire colony seems... crabby. Particularly Owl, who I'm pretty sure is ready to snap. It seems like some kind of oppressive psychic presence is telling me... no. I'd best not dwell on it.

Vlad, the big oaf, seems unaffected. He's just happy to have me out of the hospital.

-Anna


Fall the 8th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

It is as I'd feared. One of the mining parties returned without Owl. Apparently she attacked them, and then ran into a cul de sac in the terrain. Hopefully she doesn't freeze to death before coming to her senses.

-Anna

Fall the 14th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

I can't believe it's still fall - it's been snowing forever, and outside is absolutely frigid. We are still working on crafing sufficient parkas to keep warm, and Command is constantly finding new cold spots in our underground base - we have heaters virtually everywhere, and may become more dependent on reliable electricity that we should.

Part of the problem is that our base wasn't built into a mountain - it was built through a mountain, and there are exposed, poorly insulated sections peeking out on all sides. The difference between theory and practice, I suppose.

Our underground greenhouse, in particular, was producing very slowly, because of the temperatures. It is well heated now, though, and growth rates are much improved.

-Anna

Winter the 1st, 5508:

Dear Diary,

Today was officially the first day of Winter, although honestly it feels like it's been winter for weeks already. Another Insectoid hive poked its way into Bentley's bedroom, but they were swiftly killed.

Nobody particularly enjoys eating insectoid meat, but if we use it in kibble, the alpacas don't mind.

Also, a Muffalo wandered into the camp, behaving as though it was already domesticated. It may have gotten separated from its previous owners, or maybe the lumbering beasts are just smarter than we give them credit for. Either way, we are keeping it alive for now, since it will likely be useful as a beast of burden on our next journey.

-Anna

Winter the 2nd, 5508:

Dear Diary,

I helped cull another group of Alphabeavers today; we hit them as a group, this time, and even though they attacked, no-one was harmed. I have to admit I'm relieved, especially after what happened to me last time.

Bentley has been starting fires again; nothing seems to be wrong with him, except we've all been feeling a bit cooped up. Sometimes I wish we could shut the cyborgs down when fighting isn't imminent. But I suspect I'd be overruled on that anyway - with bionic legs, they make wonderful workers and haulers as well, moving more than twice as fast as a normal human.

-Anna

Winter the 6th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

Vlad finished making Ox his new power armor. He did a good job, too. He made one more set, as a backup - Coty's will probably need replacement next.

Marie and Swan got in a fight; I don't know about what. But they left a lot of blood on the floor of the dining hall, and more work for me.

-Anna

Winter the 7th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

The power went out again last night. We built some campfires in the garden space to keep the plants from freezing, but... It is forty below now, and the heaters struggle to keep most of our base above freezing. Command has been reconsidering our travel plans for this summer. If we choose to use transport pods to give ourselves a head start, we will need to start building them soon. It is likely we will start later in the spring, or even in summer, and try to survive the winter on stored food and hunting, rather than farming. That's a big shift for us.

-Anna

Winter the 12th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Crow insulted Owl today, and got a face full of fists for her trouble. Owl's a loose cannon and everybody knows it; I don't know why Crow even went there.

Happily, the damage wasn't too bad - not like when somebody gets in a fistfight with Ox or one of the other... Soldiers? Abominations? I don't know what to call them. But power claws leave big scratches.

I gave Bentley his annual physical yesterday. He's very enthusiastic about synthetic organs, but we don't even have the tools to build the tools to make those. Or the satellite communications to buy them from passing traders. At least not anymore.

Thankfully.

We weathered another Warg assault the other day - the mad beasts. Things like that almost seem more commonplace up north. Hardly worth writing about. No injuries to report, but ever more warg meat and leather in the storeroom.

The transport pods for this summer's journey are constructed, and we have people working on fueling them. I even got some time on the mining drill myself, bringing up chemfuel. It's fun, like old times - before I was the primary medical officer here, I was the primary mining operator. But, well,  that was before Corvousier left with the rest of them on board our first ship.

-Anna

Spring the 4th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

There was a pirate raid today. Only five of them. The cyborgs met them in the corridors and tore them to shreds. Two of them died while trying to run away, and the fifth died pleading for his life, already neutralized. We used to capture people like that. Help them. Give them a home. My own husband was one.

They barely had a chance to fight back. Bentley checked into the infirmary and said he had bruises on his leg that needed treatment... which is weird, because it's a bionic leg and doesn't bruise, per se. I let one of the junior medics handle it.

"The greatest victory," it is said, "is making an ally of an enemy." But we don't... what kind of excuse is that, anyway? "We don't have time for that now."? Don't have time to be human?

-Anna

Spring the 6th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Temperatures rose above freezing for the first time in what feels like forever, although I know it's only been about two seasons.

Living in the north, coping with Winter... it makes all the trials and tribulations we experienced in the south feel like nothing. Living in the constant, bone-chilling cold just requires vigilance like nothing else.

-Anna

Spring the 11th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Today we loaded the transport pods and took off into... well... not quite space, exactly. But we travelled half of the distance to our final goal in an hour. It was incredible. At the same time, we still have so far to go.

Layla remained in the shelter... she was berserk, and refused to get on the transport pod. We couldn't wait for her; we'd already spend a hard three days loading the pods, and were very much behind schedule. And... she didn't want to get in the pod. She's alone now.

Maybe some day we will see her again. Maybe when she comes out of her stupor, and realizes she's alone, she'll build another pod and catch up with us. Or maybe she'll find her own way offworld.

I hope she survives. I don't know how many more friends I can lose.

-Anna

Spring the 12th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Command instructed us to hold out position this morning. Rumor has it that we are to link up with another convoy; it could only be Layla! Vlad told me not to get my hopes up, but... it could be her.

-Anna

Spring the 12th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Layla made it! She's not my best friend in the whole world, but she is my family, in a sense, and I'm glad to see she came to her senses and caught up with us.

Tomorrow we strike out for the ship - it should be a fairly short trip, all things considered.

I admit to being a bit nervous. To put myself back in cryosleep again, and leave my ultimate fate up to another AI... it's frightening. Rimworld is scary too, but at least it's a danger I understand.

-Anna

Summer the 1st, 5509:

Dear Diary,

We are making excellent time to our destination; we should be there in two more days. Travel in the summer is downright easy! I remember how dreary the mountains were last year, but over plains and through forests, it's much easier.

-Anna

Summer the 3rd, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Vlad took me aside tonight and... well... he shares my hesitancy. We were both relieved to find out that we weren't the only ones. We will arrive at the ship tomorrow. At that point, I don't know.

-Anna

Summer the 4th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Vlad and I split off from the group this morning, with the Muffalo and all the food we could carry. We saw the ship; saw our friends get onboard. But I couldn't do it. Vlad seemed... relieved. He wouldn't answer me when I asked him what he would have done if I'd gotten onboard.

But that's a silly fight to have. It's a moot point now. The ship is gone, and we are on our way back to our previous settlement. It's a ruin, I'm sure, and we won't arrive until late in the fall. But perhaps there will be... enough... that we can survive the winter.

-Anna

Summer the 7th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

We received a distress call from an elderly man being chased by the League. He asked us for help, but we don't have good relations with the League, nor can we risk getting in a fight at this point. I heard his screams... Vlad held me until I stopped crying.

Part of me thinks I should have gotten on the ship, but I know this is where I belong.

-Anna

Summer the 11th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

The muffalo died today, after we fought off a second gang of pirates. Unfortunately, it ruined most of our food supply in the process. We have no choice but to try and make camp here, and obtain enough food to sustain ourselves. Otherwise we will be dead in a couple of days.

Our attempt to make it back to out previous encampment was, perhaps, ill-advised in hindsight.

-Anna

Summer the 13th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

We have spent the last two days building a shelter and picking berries. They, at least, are plentiful. Two escape pods have deposited poor souls on our doorstep, but we are in no position to take in injured refugees. We allowed the to die on their own, instead, although we did take their synththread clothing.

-Anna

Summer the 15th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Another refugee being chased by the Gray Desert League called us on the emergency radio today. The calculus has not changed - we cannot afford to make more enemies, nor can we succor the needy. But... that doesn't make me feel better about it.

We buried the bodies yesterday.

Vlad and I should have enough food to last the winter. It will be monotonous, but it will be nutrition.

-Anna

Fall the 2nd, 5509:

Dear Diary,

A man named Urist joined us today - just walked alone into our camp and made himself at home. I find this most... disconcerting.

He is a nudist, and incapable of violence. He does have a certain... charisma though. Vlad and I both think we would be best to be rid of him, but, well, there is simple decency to consider.

-Anna

Fall the 11th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Another refugee tried and failed to get our help, fighting off the Facebeaters. We have food, but our clothing is tattered, and it's dangerous to go outside, unprotected as we are.

As of yesterday, we have constructed a fairly large indoor farm, and are feeding grow-lights power from a nearby geothermal vent. This should be efficient enough that we can begin to focus on other needs.

-Anna

Fall the 13th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

That uninvited interloper, Urist tried to romance me today, in full view of my husband. He truly has no shame.

He and Vladimir get along so well, that... I don't even know what to make of that. They're as thick as thieves.

Vlad and I were supposed to return, south, and be together. We were not supposed to found a new colony, full of political intrigue, interpersonal conflicts, and... broken promises.

I don't know what I'm going to do about this, but I don't like any of my options, either.

-Anna

Fall the 14th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

We rescued an escape pod crash victim; I couldn't stand the thought of letting any more innocents die, and we have enough of a surplus to afford a bit of charity from time to time.

He is not, however, what I would consider a "pleasant" person. When he is healthy, we will send him on his way.

-Anna

Fall the 15th, 5509:

Dear Diary,

Ito is still healing. A timber wolf joined us today - the same way Kiko did last year. Nothing else new. Urist is still being a damned fool, going outside without clothes on, and getting frostbite. Frankly, I hope he dies.

-Anna

Winter the 8th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

Ito fell out of the sky again. Or, at least, somebody named Ito. naked this time. It looks like the same guy.

I'm not even going to ask how he got back into orbit; just going to patch him up and hope he doesn't stick around.

-Anna

Winter the 9th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

Ito decided to stay. We are... ecstatic.

Vlad has been wonderful about it, but it was just supposed to be the two of us.

-Anna

Winter the 10th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

We sold two wolves to a passing bulk good trader. They seemed intent on breeding, and we wanted to avoid having too many mouths to feed. In return, we were able to procure more steel. Not enough, but more than we had. Progress is slow. Vlad has mentioned that he would like to stay in this place, instead of moving further south. I'm not sure if I can take that.

-Anna

Winter the 11th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

We opened the cryptosleep caskets we found under the nearby hill. The people inside were friendly and are recouperating in our living room. I hope they are decent enough to leave.

The materials from the deconstruction of the caskets will help.

-Anna

Winter the 11th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

Well... no. Ayano - some sort of weird mutant half-giant if you ask me, but apparently female (?), has elected to stay with our group. Perhaps she will deflect some of Urist's attention from me.

Why can't they just leave us alone? Why do they have to... I need to take a deep breath. They are refugees, the same as us, ultimately. They deserve our hospitality and camraderie, no more, no less.

-Anna

Spring the 1st, 5510:

Dear Diary,

It is still so... cold. Spring is kind of an academic curiosity at this point. We MUST move south. I will talk to Vladimir.

-Anna

Spring the 2nd, 5510:

Dear Diary,

Ito made a pass at me today. Ayano's voice is apparently kind of a turnoff to the other colonists.

I... I want to kill them.

-Anna

Spring the 14th, 5510:

Well, this is it. We're loading the transport pods once again, and we are going south. This "ten day growing season" thing is horrible.

Vlad didn't take much convincing, after I reminded him how terrible the last winter was. If only that Muffalo hadn't died, we would at least not have had to rebuild a shelter from scratch.

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder.

-Anna

Spring the 14th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

I got a message today over the radio, saying that a Rat name Zoe, who was a pet that had bonded to a woman named Naoki, had died.

I was a little surprised to read it, since Naoki left in the first ship... how many years ago? 4? Still, it warmed my heart to know that people are keeping track of these things.

Now if only I could get the rest of this food loaded into the pod so I can fly south and warm the rest of me.

-Anna

Summer the 2nd, 5510:

Dear Diary,

We have been underway for a couple days now. We went past the ruins of a previous settlement, but declined to stop there - our food and supplies are sufficient for a trip to a more southerly destination, and it's our hope to end up somewhere in the fall, where there is still some useful days left in the growing season.

Vlad is, as always, wonderful. The others are taxing, but we will carry on with or without them.

-Anna

Summer the 12th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

We were charged by a rhinoceros today. It died. We've been making good time and have not otherwise been molested on our journey.

I have been considering our options once we arrive... back where it all began, our initial planetfall.

-Anna

Fall the 5th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

The original base was... chaos. Beyond destroyed. We could not re-settle there. We are, instead, travelling to the next mountains northward. A few hours of walking, at most. We will begin there. Again.

-Anna

Fall the 9th, 5510:

Dear Diary,

We've been working hard the last couple days to build a proper base and shelter. Yet again. This time, though, we intend to stay put.

Vlad has been walking around without pants for the last couple days - his old ones were simply too worn out. I can't say that I mind all that much, but he's been on edge.

Someone else joined our group yesterday, name Kiyoshi. He's another one of these "pacifist" types - won't even lift a finger to defend himself. We have three of them now.

I might forget to lift a finger to defend them.

-Anna

Winter the 9th, 5511:

Urist died of hypothermia while trying to recover from frostbite in the hospital. I don't think it's any great loss - the man insisted upon walking around naked in the winter.

After all this travel, though, to get to a part of the world with a year-round growing season and balmy climate, we're three days into the worst cold snap I've ever seen. It's dangerous. And ironic.

-Anna

The new chief's name is "Alligator Barra." He is unknown to us, but with a name like that, I fear our hopes for peaceful relations may remain only hopes.

-Anna

Spring the 8th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

Mountains suck.

They're beautiful, really, and the temperatures have been better, but to walk all day, turn around, and see the mountaintop where you camped the night before... it's disheartening.

We think we will be through the mountains soon, and thereafter our pace should pick up tremendously. We brought out the planetary survey maps last night, and held a vote - our destination for this winters' settlement is... the base of a mountain range. I was not pleased, but I was overruled.

Unfortunately, I could not fault the logic - building our shelter into the side of a mountain makes it much easier to defend. But I am not looking forward to going rock climbing every time I need to use a toilet.

I'm also not looking forward to the risks of encountering insectoids, burrowing through the bedrock. We were lucky in Progreso, to only deal with that particular danger a few times. But Vlad mentioned they are more active in this region - apparently they dislike warmer climates.

I fear this may a mistake; I certainly cannot survive without the group, but the group may have chosen the method of its demise last night.

-Anna

Spring the 11th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

We reached the Tundra; it is a beautiful but deadly environment. We won't be stopping here, but the open, flat land has made travel much easier. I think our spirits are up, overall - making good time has that effect on travellers.

-Anna

Spring the 12th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

We were ambushed by some mad elephants today. Our usualy strategy of forming a firing line worked - only one of the beasts came within melee range, and it didn't manage to actually harm anyone before it was dispatched as well.

In the calm afterwards, we actually took the time to butcher them and bring the meat with us. However, shortly before we left, and with all of our gear packed up, Marie decided she didn't like her pants anymore... which made the next several hours a bit... awkward. She did manage to get something out of stores when we stopped for the night, however.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person around here with a sense of shame.

-Anna

Spring the 14th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

When we woke up this morning and broke camp, we found that Manabu, the oldest Alpaca, had died in the night. Probably of a heart attack.

The alpacas are a valuable part of our group - we wear clothes made of their wool, they bring us joy when they nuzzle us, in their innocence... despite our many faults, to them, we are sort of benevolent gods, and their love for us makes us better. It's the way of pets, I suppose.

More sad, I think, is that I feel more for his death than I do for the hundreds of other humans whom we have killed (and, in our darkest hours, done worse to) in our quest to survive on this world.

I hope that the AI is there. I hope it takes us away... to a Glitterworld or Industrialworld where there is warmth and comfort. But I don't think I deserve it. Vlad thinks I do, though. The fool doesn't know how terrible I am. What I've done. What we all did, before he joined us.

But I love Vlad with all my heart, and sometimes I think he loves me even more than that, if that's even possible. Maybe that will be enough. Redemption through love? Haha! Like some stupid romance novel.

-Anna

Summer the 1st, 5508:

Dear Diary,

We made it! We arrived at our new "summer home" in the early evening, and begun setting up camp, and digging our redoubt. There is not much in the way of animal life around, and most of what little open land is here, is wetlands. This will likely make farming difficult.

Hopefully there is enough left of the growing season that we can restock our supplies for the winter, otherwise we may... suffer.

-Anna

Summer the 13th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

It has been quite some time since I wrote. This summer has been very, very busy - we have gotten one crop of potatos, despite the blight, and will likely get one more before the end of the growing season. And our winter quarters are coming along nicely, although there have been some issues with water in the caves. They should at least stay fairly warm in the winter, and we have our underground growing chambers up and running.

We've already had one encounter with the insectoids, as I feared, and another with pirates - we met and took pity on a horrendously ugly young man named Upgrade who was being chased, and the... umm... well.

Bentley, Ox, and the rest of our bionically enhanced melee warriors laid an ambush on the path from where Upgrade had come. The pirates' deaths were almost immediate - only one of them got a shot off, which actually hit members of a passing trade convoy instead.

Unfortunately, we do not yet have a method of disposal for bodies, so as I write this, the bodies are still... there... mostly. Power Claws are ugly weapons.

Bentley started setting fires again today. It wouldn't be so bad - one of us just follows him around putting them out - except we are low on bricks, so much of the material shoring up our cave roofs is wood, and therefore highly flammable. I think there's something wrong with his AI chip, personally, but I haven't been about to figure out what. I am tempted to remove it, but that would only leave him a shattered husk. And to think; Bentley wanted it so badly - to feel nothing, to think with the speed of a computer in combat... I can't imagine what it's like.

After his children died, he says, he wanted nothing to do with human emotion. But I fear I'm damned for giving him what he wanted.

-Anna

Fall the 2nd, 5508:

Dear Diary,

I just want to state, once again, for the record, that Upgrade is one ugly son of a duck.

I mean, just... damn. Wow.

That probably shouldn't matter to me so much - I mean, one, I'm married, and two, he pitches in and works his kiester off along with the rest of us. But he's still... just... SO UGLY. Oh my god, I hate him, and so does everybody else.

A spacecraft crashed in the marsh to the north of our base; we had to destroy it before the psychic emenations caused us problems, of course. That's how it usually works on this planet - damned if you do, damned if you don't. Fortunately there was only one Scyther and a single Centipede onboard.

Perhaps even more importantly, the Scyther was killed in combat, so we couldn't remove its claws to make more bionic power claws. And since we have no more of them, I can't be asked to... yeah. Thank goodness for small favors, I suppose.

Ox and Coty were a bit banged up - attacking a Centipede with your bare hands will do that, whether your hands are bionic power claws or not. Half the hits were friendly fire - we really need to work on that. But their armor did its job; they'll be fine. As I was tending to their wounds in the medbay, they were beeping back and forth in that computer communication they use. I think they were insulting me.

There was a frost last night - we cut and harvested the rest of the potato plants; even those that were only half-grown. We don't have nearly the food surplus going into winter that we did last year, but with the plots we have under grow-lamps in the cave, it should be enough.

-Anna

Fall the 6th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

A pack of wargs attacked us today. Fortunately we drove them off and our refrigerator is better stocked for their efforts. It is cold now - thirteen below. We mostly all have parkas, and have been working outside to mine plasteel and recover old components. Ox's powered armor finally gave out, and it may take us some time to construct a replacement - we have the knowledge, but not yet all the requisite materials.

-Anna

Fall the 6th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

I nearly died today. Vlad saved me.

An alert went out concerning a pack of Alphabeavers. We received instructions to hunt them down, since without wood for fuel, our position would be grave. They scattered as we shot at them, but two of them turned on me and began to attack. Crow was injured too. It seemed they scattered all over the map, and command had trouble keeping track of them. Vlad carried me back to camp after killing the Alphabeavers that had attacked me.

Fortunately, my injuries were not permanent. Upgrade - that ugly bastard - patched me up, and I should be alright in a day or two.

-Anna

Fall the 7th, 5508:

Dear Diary,

If there is a loving god, it seems to have decided that our group should survive this winter. Meat fell out of the sky today, not far from our camp.

My own fate, however, seems less certain. The wounds I sustained from the Alphabeaver became infected. It will be a race between the infection and my immune system, and we have no penoxycycline to give me an advantage. Pain is moderate, it's sometimes hard to think straight, to keep a thought in my head.

Time will tell. I do not fear death, though - too many have preceded me.

-Anna

It happened again, but there was no Windows Event Log leading up to or during the freeze.
Logging starts after the PC has rebooted.

I don't mean to talk down to you here, but you did check ALL of the logs, right? Not just Security or something?

Sorry. I work in IT. I have to ask. 

Reverse order.

2) Those mods do exist. Seriously. Just look a little harder - you should have no trouble finding them.
1) Yes. I don't think it's just Cassandra, I think it's more of the RNG. Every colonist is good at something, usually, but it's very rare that you get one who's good at things you want them to be doing.

I usually farm and just accidentally forget to rescue some of the pods that are terrible, although it is a real pain when someone with no skills arrives and goes "Oh hey, I live here now".

That's when they get their useful bits harvested, arrested, executed, and turned into dog food and hats.

I reroll my beginning 3 for psychopath/cannibal/sanguine. If you can't keep up, you're hats.

As a step up from "Berserk" have pawns commit suicide.

Beautiful or vain pawns with physical deformities are more likely to do it. Also prosthophobes with prostheses.

Pack animals are buggy enough that I can't recommend using them.

Moving bulk goods between bases is best done by pods.

You can also play tricks with stockpile areas and priority - create a stockpile right next to wherever the muffalo is, give it critical priority, and allow it to hold whatever you're loading the muffalo with. Then bump the work priority for hauling. Everybody will haul to it, and the one convoy dude will just make a lot of really, really short trips.

Here are some quotes from the Testers forum regarding this:

Q -  Cannot settle in old abandoned base.

This is by design. It says you will be unable to return to the tile after you abandon it.

As Marvin said, it's by design. The idea of abandoning is we won't be simulating the base or storing it, for technical reasons.

So my take is that it's primarily for either performance concerns (keeping in mind the current version of the game already has some memory issues, which likely wouldn't be helped by storing and tracking abandoned tile data), or issues relating to saving the data (ie. maybe even as basic as the size of the save file as already mentioned. As I doubt Tynan wants to see save files ballooning to hundreds of MB's).

Either way I personally wouldn't expect this feature to be added anytime soon (I do not know if it can be, or has been, added via mods or not).

Ah, I see.

Well, maybe some future version. It would be nice to be able to do, for narrative and closure reasons.

[why]

So, it's apparently the case that you cannot re-enter or re-settle an abandoned base.

This seems intentional, so... not a bug. But it raises the question, IMO, why can't you re-enter or re-settle your abandoned bases?

Had two (heavily armed) pawns and a muffalo in a caravan, carrying mostly food. (Something like 200 simple meals.)

The muffalo got killed by pirates. When it died, all the simple meals simply disappeared. Pawns starved to death.

Why weren't the pawns able/willing to pick up the stuff they could carry off the Muffalo? Or give me the "caravan can't move" alert and let me choose what to discard...

What kind of graphics drivers/hardware are you emulating in the VM? That's probably the issue.

I run Rimworld on Linux Mint (an Ubuntu derivative) without problems. But it's a bare metal install, not a VM, and I put no small amount of effort into getting my GPU working properly. *ugh*

See, and here I was kinda hating on cargo pods, because if I order four people to get in them, 3 will get in immediately, leaving the last one to make return trips to and from the storehouse, eventually starving, collapsing, going berserk, and forgetting entire about loading the pods.

FWIW, 80 steel + Component (so, 90 steel) isn't all that expensive if you've got core mining. Strip out half your map and you're talking tens of thousands of units of steel.

I like the mortars as-is, frankly. Following the age-old principles of warfare; if your weapons can't be accurate, they should at least be numerous. 6-8 mortars will definitely ruin a centipede's day... eventually. Probably before it gets to your killbox and lights all your pawns on fire.

I haven't done too many base raids, so I'm not sure what tactics I like for those.

i want 3 double Cheeseburgers and a coke.

Isn't it "two whole fried chickens and a coke."?

I usually just request bulk traders from friendly settlements via the console. Generally by the time I build a ship silver is just as common as wood. They always have plasteel sometimes a lot sometimes a small amount but always some.

Smokeleaf joints as a cash crop. No shortage of silver. Buy every Plasteel thing you see.

But deep core mining it is still the quickest/easiest way to get it. The plasteel deposits tend to be smaller than the steel deposits, and larger than the gold deposits, so if you go around the map building mining rigs on all the medium sized green blobs, you'll find plasteel pretty quick. The only catch is you need plasteel to get to that part of the tech tree. So you still need to buy some.