Messages

I think some mechanoids should come equipped with a self-destruct for when they get downed.

I like Cassandra, but I'd prefer a version that resets the timer-based threat strength when you abandon your colony location. As it stands, it's never a viable strategy to evacuate, even in the event of an existential threat.

I like to put the "permanently downed" colonists into an ancient cryptosleep casket until it's time to launch the ship. But that's just me.

I try to minimize colonist exposure to danger, even at the cost of expendable animals and material resources like turrets and IEDs. Anyone who can pull a trigger eventually gets a sniper rifle, with preference to high shooter skills. Brawlers get maces, shield belts, and a swarm of muffalos, huskies, or hauler-animal-du-jour. Sniper colonists stay far back from the turret line.

Does prisoner happiness impact anything besides their likeliness to break/break out? It would be kind of neat if a luxury prison made them easier to recruit, but I've never heard of a mechanic like that.

Usually I just make a few extra colonist-sized dual purpose bedrooms that I can switch back and forth easily when pawns get recruited or captured. With two prisoners to a room, if one breaks, they fist fight and tend to conveniently neutralize each other.

Yes and no. It depends, really.

But, only when the circumstances dictate so.

I've seen this happen in earlier alphas, in colonies that last a long time. This might be a bug of some sort, since the game really shouldn't let you apply the tame tag/command on animals in blue (owned by another faction)

I think the fastest reliable way to make money in the early game is to plant all the available fertile land on the map with rice as soon as possible. It sounds a lot less exciting than planting psychoid, but rice has a much quicker return and costs less colonist risk, labor, and technology.

A couple times I've had a pawn with Fibrous Mechanites who missed a treatment for a day or so. If you skip a treatment, the pain you get from the ailment increases substantially. So it doesn't seem very sustainable to try to keep a pawn infected with it indefinitely. The pain penalty was something ridiculous like 60% IIRC. Maybe with a Painstopper? Otherwise definitely a problem.

It's rather nice to have on a pawn with the rare masochistic trait.

I have internal defense positions in my base. It helps with sappers, and when drop pods or ships drop right on your base. They are just wall segments under roofs my colonists can take cover behind.

Plus sappers get to eat mortars while they work, which helps. I make sure to run out the cool down after I used them last.

This is a good way to go. I've found that having 100% outdoor turret coverage inside the base perimeter saves lives. Also keep in mind that your colonists can pack up and move turrets anywhere that you have power available much faster than sappers can tunnel.

Due to the implications, I'll be sad when the product v1.0 is released. It's hard to complain, though. I've already gotten my money's worth of entertainment and then some.

In A17, other non-caravan colonists can help to load your pack animals and launch pods. Hauling animals cannot assist in loading pack animals and launch pods. If preparing a caravan with a lot of goods and animals here are some tips:

• Create a small animal zone around the caravan spot and confine all caravan animals into it before creating the caravan
• Create a high priority stockpile around the caravan spot and move non-perishable trade goods into it before creating the caravan
• Temporarily de-prioritize all work above hauling on any colonists that you can spare to help load the caravan

As I've mentioned before, I feel that caravans are still unwieldy in A17 because:

• there's a lot friction in setting up and loading caravans, especially with pack animals
• the creation screen does not provide enough visibility into colonist/animal movement speed
• there's no way to manage the risk exposure of your caravaneers to costly adverse events like raids and manhunters

Dogs, wolves, etc are a godsend in getting that stuff hauled in and leaving your skilled workers to do their skilled tasks and only haul if they've run out of better things to do and there's something to be hauled that the animals aren't getting to -- or you have something you need hauled urgently.

Usually my colonies train boars to haul early on due to their availability on most biomes, and then switch over to huskies at the first opportunity. Huskies are the ideal hauling animal because they won't eat crops, breed fast, they're easy to train, and they have better temperature tolerance than labs.

Rebalancing of the caravan system and its quests to make it more rewarding than just staying at the base.

I agree with this, and I'd also like to see further enhancement to the caravan mechanics to improve caravan usability. A17 was a big improvement, but in general, there's still too much friction involved with setting up and loading a caravan:

• Hauling animals should be able to help load and unload caravans and drop pods
• When a caravan enters the map, pack animals should proceed to the caravan spot instead of grazing at the corner of the map. They should then jettison their wares onto the ground for the haulers to pick up.
• In the caravan assembly screen and the drop pod loading screen, there should be feedback visible in the UI about the factors that will impact the caravan travel speed. For example, the player needs to know if muffalo 44 is missing three legs, and it will slow the whole caravan down.
• Same as above regarding caravan food consumption
• As Rulin notes above, the reward incentive for "item cache" missions are pretty modest relative to the labor & security opportunity cost, the travel risk premium, and the food overhead. Instead of increasing the size/value of the rewards, it might be better to increase the scarcity of some types of resources from other sources
• Adding a randomized wide variance of buy/sell prices in faction colonies could make a "trading" caravan approach viable
• Instead applying random events uniformly across all cells of the map, some mechanism should be available to help the player manage caravan risk. One way to achieve this could be through introduction of "elevated threat zones", which could be centered around hostile encampments and other points of interest.
• A different approach to risk management could be a "deterrence factor" based on the aggregate firepower of the caravan relative to the value of the cargo.

With some types of excess animals, such as chickens, I prefer to banish the extras to a zone outside of the colony base. As long as food exists somewhere on the map, they can continue to breed without taxing colony resources. Free roamers are a good asset to slow down raids, buying extra mortar time. Even if they starve or freeze in the wilderness, you're no worse off than slaughtering them.