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I wasn't sure exactly how to word this or where to post it, but I had an issue while playing a game of B18 today.

Without getting into it and making it a whole story, the gist of my problem is this:

I was being attacked by two tribals after another catastrophe had a few of my fighters out of commision, and I kept my people inside. I did this because I knew that the tribals would automatically attack my pets, 1 warg and 1 timber wolf. In my mind, I naturally thought that once attacked, they would fight back.

Instead? Red, the Firekeeper, with 4 melee skill, stabbed my warg to death with a plasteel shiv. My wolf watched it happen and also was stabbed to what eventually became death via infection.

How does that work? Something about the coding, I'm sure, but I can't be the only one that has this issue?

If my colonist is going to get attacked back by a Beaver when melee attacking it, how is a tribal going to attack a WOLF, allied or not, without getting attacked back? This is especially considering that the wolf self-tamed, and I felt that it would be dangerous anyway since such animals are only so trainable in real life. The danger of a snap always exists, like with tamed monkeys and such.

My suggestion is just that this should be fixed. More feral or beast-like animals should have an automatic chance to snap at ANY interaction (like a .01% chance or something like that) as well as an automatic defense when they are melee attacked. There is no reason an animal of any kind would attempt to flee if it knew that it COULD NOT flee, like a warg or a wolf being stabbed with a shiv, but most small animals would reasonably be able to weasel their way out of combat to safety.

Maybe it will never happen, but for the sake of immersion, and the sake of the sanity of the colonists (that warg's master was immediately screwed up about it even though he was dead asleep at the time. He still knew) and the players, please consider doing something about this. 

This story has been updated and is now on Tapastic!

https://tapas.io/series/Tales-from-the-Outer-Rim

Feel free to continue reading it there, or just look below:

--------------------

"How dare you?"

"Mort, I'm just-"

"You're just a monster that has unveiled itself now that it has power!"

A tense silence struck the room in that moment. It was just the two of them: Morticia and Doug. They stood across each other over a small dinner table on the other side of the kitchen from the one exit. It was three in the morning, which meant nobody else was up, and the situation got more dangerous the longer they silently contemplated violence.

Times had been rough for the colony since Trigger's departure. He had been a crucial component of many dynamics in the base, and though the celebration honoring him had spanned many days, the grief was still present. Doug, for one, had changed. Many had changed in the last fifty-seven days. But Doug...

Behind his back, they used to call him Doug the Rug on occasion, to belittle how easy he was to walk all over. He was just a scientist, after all. But those qualities that Trigger had seen in him were really the many faces of a lurking monster.

Now, they talked about him in hushed, venomous whispers. He had heard all about it, and was in fact counting on it. He was far smarter than he let on, and he played them all like chess pieces. He knew they were not all pawns. He respected their powers, their abilities, their roles. But he knew how to play them perfectly. The discordant notes coming from the composed orchestra now were planned.

He knew they would crescendo, but finally there would be a harmonic release. A reset in the form of an implosion. The new start after that would be the vision of spring, thriving to the symphony of flutes and cellos.

Doug had anticipated this, too. The proposition to isolate and, essentially, bury Trigger by building a wall again where the new door was had upset Morticia, and for good reason. Doug had swayed many to believe that it was for the best, that it was more efficient energy-wise to keep Trigger on a self-sustained power grid, that he would be "safer" that way, isolated where nobody could "tamper" with his cryopod.

Morticia felt otherwise. She felt that he was trying to erase Trigger from existence so that he could better take his place. She had an intuition for such motives. She had always known this, but could never truly imagine at this time to what extent.

"I think..." Doug started, then cleared his throat to clear the air, "I think it is..." He glanced at his watch, "3:17 in th-oh..." He looked back up to see her revolver pointed at his face. She had been given the Earth relic as a gift from Trigger just before he had gone to cryo. She hadn't wasted any time since getting good with it. She had to earn a place by his side, and she had to make sure he came back.

Doug had not  anticipated this.

He knew better than to try anything. He'd seen her in combat, and she was no slouch. She had become refined since her acceptance of modernization. From tribesperson, she had ascended to the Mortician, which had earned her the nickname Morticia, and thus, 'Mort'. The name she had been given at birth was hers to erase, and she did so with no regrets.

"I think, it's time for you  to listen." Morticia was too calm now. The ever-observant Doug felt something very different than usual in the energy in the room. It wasn't the tension that had been building to this moment. It was something he couldn't place.

The thought unnerved him just as much as the gun aimed at his face. She was too far for him to reach manually, and he wasn't fast enough to get to his own pistol since she had beaten him to the draw.

"You're going to step down from your place as leader and-"

"WHAT!?"

"Shut up!" Her agility in rushing forward to knee him in the stomach was impressive, and due to his shock at the demand, he had been ill-prepared to block or absorb it. The blow left him winded clutching his torso. He was not a fighter. He was barely a shooter.

The next blow was the cherrywood handle of the revolver to the back of his head, and it was practiced. He was on the ground, and she was on top of him like a Black Widow in seconds, revolver no longer necessary. She had grown up grappling.

Her arms were around his neck in little time, and he struggled to cry out for help. He was silenced by an increase in pressure to his airway, a simple matter of a twist and flew of her arms.

"Listen here you little shit, I have evidence on you. I know you were behind Ollie's 'accidental' death in the mines. I know you have been manipulating everyone. I know you're a snake. You're going to step down, and you're going to do it tomorrow morning. You're going to leave the spot open for an old-fashioned vote to choose who to replace you. Is that too much to ask in exchange for me not having you thrown in prison for life? I could just end you right here..." He seemed to struggle harder at this point, but it wasn't noticeable.

"You're not going to keep my love from me. Not you. Not after all you've already done in your short tyranny."

--------

8:17 am, the following morning.

"...and for those reasons, I have decided to step down. I believe it best that a vote is held in order to choose my replacement. All in favor, say 'I'."

A resounding call of 'I' echoed through the meeting room. It was populated by new faces and some old faces had passed for better or worse.

Morticia was happy for the first time in a long time, feeling like she had some modicum of control over the chaos that had taken over their lives.

In short order, Dick had organized the colonists into groups so that they might more efficiently cast their votes. Given paper, they manually wrote their votes and folded them to be deposited into a closed box at four designated tables. All counts would be double checked by two different sets of hands to make four total counts for accurate numbers. They had time.

As the votes were counted, those that were no good with numbers spent the time socializing. They hadn't taken this kind of time off in weeks, and it was good to be able to have a drink and unwind for a while, not to mention sit down.

Once the group was called to order again to announce the new leader, there was a silence that had goosebumps showing on some and others waited with bated breath.

"The new leader is..." Dick flipped the card over, "Morticia!" A grin was stuck to his features as soon as he read it. It was a shocking development, but Morticia had been playing her own game of mastermind behind the scenes. The thing was, she was better at it, using good energy and motives to bring people together under a cause.

This had been recognized in her practical leap into leading the growing numbers of dissenters under Doug's command. She was the mouthpiece for the people, the one to articulate the problems and express the passion to demand that something be done to fix them.

Now, her plan was coming into order. A steady bass line and drum sounded in her heart, and it had been infecting the other colonists. Now, all but those most loyal to Doug danced to her tune instead of his. Still, she had been surprised that she was the one to be picked. Downright unprepared to accept the role, as it stood. She had always suggested someone like Dick to do it. He was level-headed and experienced.

"I don't know what to say, you guys..." Morticia blushed behind the podium at the front of the room. She started to falter, the weight of the situation pressing down on her, but as she started to sweat she understood that she was losing it. Calming her breathing, she steadied her mind and summoned memories of how Trigger had been when speaking to them. He had always been so...commanding. His reputation as a respected member of the colony was undisputed. His presence was enough to soothe, intimidate, or motivate, depending on what you needed.

She had always admired him for so many things. Nobody else ever seemed to notice, in her eyes. How could they miss it? They obviously just didn't understand how much they should appreciate him. She could never imagine taking him for granted. Not again. She'd made that mistake and now she was without him. When she got him back, she vowed to never lose him again or take him for granted.

"I guess I should start with, 'thanks'!" She kind of laughed, trying to break the somewhat awkward air, even though there were plenty of smiles around the room. "I appreciate that you all have given me the chance to be a bigger part of the colony. I will never forget my roots, where I came from, and how all of you played a part in shaping me into the person you voted for today. I hope that I can do everything you hope for and more." With a short bow, she hurried off the small makeshift stage and merged back into the crowd, just like she wanted.

She didn't want to be above them.

-----



As time passed, things gradually got better. Morticia ended up putting forward the evidence she had on Doug, condemning him to prison where he would slave away at research under the threat of torture by instruments and methods of his own twisted design.

Once the extent of his monstrous nature had been revealed, this was the softer side of what some had wanted to do to him. Ollie had had a pregnant wife, after all.

Dick, Morticia's newfound right-hand man, was incredibly good in fulfilling his role. That role was summarized as filling in the gaps where Morticia was lacking, and they complimented each other perfectly for that system.

Her first plan of action, of course, was to figure out a way for Trigger to live.

"Dick...we need ideas. What have you got?"

"I've got some whiskey, some glasses, some ice, and some marijuana I save for such sessions." This had Morticia raising a questioning eyebrow.

"What, you've never...?" He already had a joint in his mouth, lighter in hand, eyebrows up pointing towards her.

"I don't know-"

"You DON'T KNOW!?"

"I...-about what?"

"All the time you've been here and...wow."

"Dick, please." She covered her face with her hand, massaging her temples and feigning frustration, unwilling to show that she was having actually having a good time.

"Marijuana!"

"Mari-what?'

"JUA-NA!" He lit it as he said it and suddenly, the smell hit her.

"Ooohhhhhhhh!"

"Ohhhh?"

"You mean Ogra's Bush?"

"Ogra's Bush?"

"I guess that's not what you guys call it. It's what they called it in the tribe."

"So you...?"

"Sure. I mean, typically, it was reserved for rituals and stuff, but I always felt the feeling to be more pleasurable than something that should be wasted like that."

Their meeting lasted several hours, and by the end, a plan of action had been formed.

About to go live right now!

Man, I'd highly encourage anyone to go check out the latest video in my twitch archive. At least near the end, where I took down a trade caravan that scored me a Grand Jade Scuplture and an AI core. The whole stream was pretty crazy but kind of long haha. Still, check it out! Or just catch the next one. Updates are always on Twitter prior to streaming.

That's what I meant by wanting to see the original image, the unmodified one
so I could compare them with the modified one

you know the before after images, seeing them side by side. I just find it fun to um analyze

Oh, well, I would love to, but I've actually just reformatted my computer and no longer have many of the originals. I can tell you that you can find most of the renders on a site called PlanetRenders, but I used some stock images and stuff as well. The From Dust one, for instance, was made from a wallpaper the game had released with it. The Tomb Raider one is a render, as is the Venom one. The galaxy one is from a stock photo from Nasa (public domain) I believe and the rest are things I would have a hard time finding again. Usually, the originals are just very plain, so all the color and stuff added around it is what I added. I'll try to make a fresh one soon when I redownload Photoshop and show you the process to some extent, if not at least a Before and After.

I'd love to see the originals just for comparison!

I really like this style of painting, by any chances, do you take requests? I'll not bother you over time, but I'd really like to suggest making something like this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bWbO2HLkGpY/UZEZFInOL2I/AAAAAAAAUGU/xGOFUa2eJGk/s1600/caravelas-oleo-sobre-tela-52C11.jpg

But add the style of the other posted in here.

So sorry, but there seems to be a misunderstanding about how these were made. Allow me to clear that up! I'll edit this in to my original post as well, haha. I didn't paint these. I wish I had, honestly, but no, I made these with skills i picked up from GFX forums. You see, the whole idea is that you take an image that you want to use as a focal point, often times a Rendered image (meaning that it is just a character or object with a transparent background) and modify it by adding filters, brushes, background colors and C4D's, etc.

This is just a collection of stuff I made using these techniques. There is no original that i used for reference, these are just modified images. More akin to photomanips than actual productions of my own imagination, though there are many techniques that provide a wide array of finished products.

Fuck me. You were right.

Don't try to play games angrily, kids.

I've gone through the Mods one by one to check and see if there were issues, but it is making no sense to me. I'm using

Mod Order
More Factions
Rimsenal Core & Hair
Medical Training
and High Caliber

I checked the forums to see if anyone else was having problems with any of these mods and it seems like most issues have been resolved. I'm not seeing anything about why mod activation would fail to actually do anything in game. It doesn't say anything to me about mods being messed up, and it says that the worlds are created with those mods activated, but they clearly aren't. For instance, when I activate Mod Order, it does not show the updated Mod Order screen when I reopen the Mods window. Further, when I activate More Factions, I create a new world and it does not show more than the original amount of factions. Again, this does not seem to be a problem anyone else is having, and I'm unable to understand what is going on.

I've tried redownloading Rimworld 13 and then tried activating More Factions again. Same result. Has anyone else had issues like this where mods say they are activated but they aren't really? I've never had this issue before. In fact, yesterday, before I reformatted my computer, I was having no issues with any of the mods loading and activating. Could it be an issue with reformatting has caused?

Can anyone help?

...At this point in our history, we have evolved our morality to the point that the vast majority of the world thinks that slavery is immoral...

That's subjective, honestly. No way of saying whether or not by the point we've spread to all these different worlds, over 3.5k years, that cultures would not deviate in all ways. We don't know the lore of this universe, regardless of whether it is our future or not. On new worlds, different people could have risen to power, changing the rules for future generations, and changing the culture entirely. People growing up in a Medieval style society, slaves, lords, etc, would be accustomed to the idea of slavery, forced labor, and servitude in general. They are extremely familiar with hierarchy, and there is no way we can entirely cross out the idea that exactly this would happen. Can we assume anything? No, but given how people are, we can take a guess.

You don't necessarily have to be a psychopath to be taught to believe that slavery is okay. In the same way that people are raised to believe any number of things that don't make sense. If they are never taught to question it, they'll live their lives under the assumption that what they are told is true. We cannot pretend that every world we settle on will turn out like our society now. Our society is flawed, as every society before ours, and as every society beyond ours will likely be.

There are sex slave backgrounds, and it is unlikely that all of these colonists were from only medieval worlds. There are likely more cultures and planets that have slavery, whether in the underground or in the regular economy. Perhaps Roman-styled cultures or other cultures that use indentured servitude or forced labor? Remember, there is more than one form of slavery.

Hey no problem man, I try to encourage good artists when I see good artwork. I'll be around the forums, so hopefully we'll see each other around. I'll be looking for more posts in this thread for sure.

Streaming live right now and getting my ass kicked! Come watch the brutality!

https://www.twitch.tv/saintall

After Stream Edit: Man, that was a crazy session. If you're interested in watching it even though I'm no longer live, it will be archived for a while. All kinds of fun stuff went on in this one, including a siege that was pretty intense and a botched attempt to kill and steal from some traders lol.

If a mod sees this please delete this thread. Links to photos were deleted and I am not going through the trouble of uploading them elsewhere and relinking everything again @.@

Haha that Thrumbo encounter. I know that feel bro. I'm scheming immediately when I see one come on screen. I never have the gear or manpower to take it on but I did take one down with just three colonists anyway lol. Almost lost two of them but hey, that thrumbo horn is worth money. Not to mention that meat is plentiful

I really want to ask you for an art trade but all I have to offer are okay GFX skills. I make forum signatures, wallpapers, that sort of thing. If you're interested, message me, I'd like just one sketch for one scene from my story a few threads below this one. If you're not interested, or don't have time, I understand. Just know that I support your work and I hope you do a lot more with it in the future!

Is that a new thing? I swear on the health tab when that happened it said his stomach was destroyed and his eating was 'none' or whatever. This was a game a few years ago so maybe the version was different? Either way, he died for sure, and it was from starvation because he couldn't eat. So I don't know. Doesn't matter now, the story remains the same lol

This is such a cool thread! I love your art style too man, very talented in my opinion. Sparkles the Jeweler lol how fitting. Honestly, it'd be great to see a comic of some kind in this style for Rimworld.