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I thought to check it out in-game. I started a colony on a freezing map and another on a sweltering map and then induced raids using the Dev tool. I compared the raiders' comfortable temperatures and it looks as though non-player pawns' apparel does adjust to the map temperature, although that doesn't necessarily mean that all raiders in the group will be within their comfortable range at extreme temperatures.

I was thinking of starting a new game on an ice sheet world by lowering the global temperature at game setup. Will the non-colonist pawns, such as raiders, caravan traders and visitors, wear warmer clothing than normal, or will I find them constantly dying of hypothermia on the map?

These are the standard bedroom sizes and contents I'm using in my current game.

Having already decreased the population cap from Randy's 50 to Cassandra's 18, I'm now playing with Angus, who uses a critical population cap of 13. I now have 26 colonists, as well as five prisoners, at least two of whom look to be easily recruitable.

I've just got another "refugee chased by pirates" event, so now my previous two game events in a row have been "gain extra colonist" events.

So something isn't working right. I'm wondering whether it has something to do with multiple colonies, as I've read elsewhere that the population cap is done per colony. I have two resource-gathering colonies aside from my home base, which each contain a hut and no permanent residents.

Could it be that the game is effectively tripling my population cap now because I have three colonies?

A lot of the "friendly fire" deaths in the vanilla game would not be justifiable as accidental or even negligent homicide in a court of law. They would result in a verdict nothing short of 2nd degree murder. (I am not a lawyer).

In any case, one can toggle the friendly fire option on and off for each colonist, so if there are times when a colonist is being swarmed by enemy and you want to let rip regardless of the consequence, then you can do so, and I have done once or twice.

One should also be aware that one can fix such issues post facto with the Dev tools, through resurrecting and healing pawns.

I used it in my current game when I had a pack of manhunting cobras infiltrate my base. One colonist got trapped in a room and there were some cobras breaking down the door. I had him repair the door, but, with lots of stuff to deal with around the base, I neglected to stop him repairing the door before he had fixed it, whereupon he immediately and automatically opened said door, and got eaten by cobras. I thought this was so silly that I used the Remove Hediff tool in the Dev mode to heal him of his injuries and also replace the door.

I wish I'd known about this in my previous game, which had a sombre pall hanging over it when, early in the game, my hero guy inexplicably shot this woman colonist in the head with a sniper rifle and killed her in a situation of no danger. Knowing what I do now, I would have immediately revived her with the Dev tools and swept this tragic non sequitur incident under the rug. Incidentally, this hero colonist in my previous game was eventually killed by immediately opening a door he'd been repairing, and getting killed by manhunting animals. I would have used the Dev tool to fix that too.

It would be good if colonists could do some things while drafted.

Fixing a door, for example, as colonists will often open the door immediately after completion of the repair, as they have to be in auto/undrafted mode to do this, whereupon they are eaten by manhunting cobras.

Maybe hauling specified items, too. I don't see why one shouldn't be able to tell a drafted colonist to haul something and then have them wait when they've arrived at their destination, rather than them then automatically go off and do other things.

I still get apprehensive when I see a walker taking a path directly in front of a shooting hunter as their warm-up timer gets ready to fire. It's so nice to see them now hold their fire, as in the vanilla game the hunter will just shoot the other colonist.

Considering pawns in this game have some basic AI, like eating, sleeping, fleeing, putting out fires, doing jobs and so on, I would have to say that the complete lack of attention placed on preventing colonists from shooting each other in the vanilla game in no-risk situations to be in my top ten of dumbest things I've ever seen in a video game.

While I find it inexplicable that this mod would not be integrated into the base game, I guess the most important thing that there is at least now a mod available that addresses and fixes this issue, so at least I can enjoy the game again now.

The prisoners hadn't already bottomed-out at 99% difficulty, had they?

Nope, still getting prisoners with percentages of 70-80% recruitment chance in their prisoner tabs.

I've been experimenting with different numbers for both the population axis, such as trying critical caps of 18 and 50 colonists, and the modifier axis, such as changing the critical cap modifier from -1 to -3. I then checked the prisoner recruitment chance stat from the Numbers mod for the prisoners in my game and there was no change to the percentage value under any permutation.

So I'm not sure what to make of it. As I mentioned before, changing the description text of Randy in the Storytellers xml showed up in my game, which would suggest that changes to this file are being taken into account, but I also haven't noticed prisoner recruitment getting any harder than when I had only a handful of colonists.

Another thing I'd like to know is whether population cap is, in theory anyway, just something that just affects the chance of recruiting colonists, or whether the storyteller will also try and actively reduce the players' population, if over the population cap limit, by increasing the likelihood or intensity of raids and suchlike.

EDIT: I've now observed actual prisoner recruitment attempts in my game with various population cap settings and there is no change to the prisoner recruitment chance under any permutation.

As a way to try lower the number of colonists even further, I've been thinking of modifying the population cap curve to make it even steeper. Here's Cassandra's population cap curve (and Randy is the same, except the final limiting modifier is at 50 colonists rather than 18).

Code Select Expand


<li>0, 8</li>
<li>1, 4</li>
<li>5, 1</li>
<li>9, 0.5</li>
<li>13, 0</li>
<li>18, -1</li>
</points>


Here's a modified steeper curve which would be interesting to try. I'm currently calling it Angus, after the cat in my current game.

Code Select Expand


<li>0, 8</li>
<li>1, 4</li>
<li>3, 1</li>
<li>5, 0.5</li>
<li>8, 0</li>
<li>13, -1</li>
</points>


Here's a comparison of Cassandra and Angus displayed on a graph. The curves are not dissimilar.



I think there are some auspicious signs with Angus:

- Since it gets harder at 3, the game is guiding you towards forming a Dynamic Duo.

- Since it gets harder at 5, the game is guiding you towards forming a Fab Four.

- Since it gets harder at 8, the game is guiding you towards forming a Magnificent Seven.

- Since it gets hardest at "unlucky" 13, the game is guiding you towards forming a Dirty Dozen.

I'm now up to a population of 25, with another batch of prisoners coming through. I'm still getting "person fleeing from pirates" events bringing new colonists. Should I still be getting these free colonists once past the upper population cap of 18? I know that this is not a fixed cap, but I haven't really noticed any slowing in the rate of possible recruitment odds.

Cool. I might put a couple of wood-burning torches in it - it should be a cool place to hang out, day and night.

How does multiple Rec Rooms work with the Rec Room bonus? Is it the highest score Rec Room, combination of all Rec Rooms, or maybe the Rec Room the colonist most recently visited?

What happens to outdoor lights - wood-burning torch lamps and electrical lights - in rain? Amazingly, Google did not provide me the answer to this.

If they are destroyed by the rain, would they be made safe from water damage by placing them next to a wall with a 1x1 roof over them?

I want to build an outdoor walled patio garden with table and stools, flower pots, statues and a horseshoes court.

When the horseshoes pin is placed, the room counts as a Rec Room, but the addition of the table and stools turns it into a Dining Room. Does it matter? I already have a Rec Room, and also a Dining Room by the kitchen, so the patio is probably not going to become a primary venue for either either of these uses. Will the horseshoes joy activity be hampered at all by taking place in, in effect, a Dining Room?