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What makes inter-faction trade interesting? What keeps it from making space trade obsolete?

It seems like a real feast or famine tradeoff: constant faction trade versus hopefully a bulk space trader shows up this year. Tynan seems to have been really careful with balancing colony wealth and trade, and expanding trade options to nearby factions seems to go in an opposite direction. What's the catch?

The reason it's like this is because Valve policy doesn't allow us to promise Steam keys to people indefinitely. They seem to be generally cool about it when it's just for a Kickstarter or something, but after a while policy kicks in. They're running a business and they only make money off Steam sales, so I see their position on this.
I'm sorry for creating a bit of heartbreak about this. I'm going to see if I can get keys for people who may have missed the official deadline, but I definitely can't promise anything. Obviously I want to give as much as possible! But Valve's policies do win in this situation.
Regardless, everyone will always get all future updates at the same time, whether on or off Steam.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/2m90ma/why_wont_i_get_the_steam_key_if_i_bought_it_after/

Unfortunately Valve doesn't allow developers to promise dev keys indefinitely, otherwise Tynan would probably continue to guarantee Steam keys. If you're curious there are a million old threads about the topic, and I think some might address mod workshop usage.

RimWorld is definitely on its way to Steam but it almost certainly won't be available for sale there until Tynan's back.

Oh wow I completely forgot about this. I have no idea what the benefit is, though. Comfort makes sense.

May 1
Various bug fixes.
Colonists now benefit from chairs at work benches.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_rCdGYp3nbSUXFG4Ky96RZW1cJGt9g_6ANZZPOHyNsg/pub

I have a few older versions of Rimworld sitting on one of my hard drives
Earliest is around late Alpha 2 I think

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=13196.msg135661#msg135661

Itchy's got us pretty beat. Anyone have the pre-alpha prototype beta test napkin sketch?

Have the factions bring their animals when attacking (Rhino, Thrumbo...etc.) and be able to capture them when they go down.

That's a really neat idea, I never thought of attackers having animals before. This could open the door for a new type of attacker.

I expected to see people mention trade, but not almost every post. Dang.

You're playing RimWorld and drinking nutrient paste when suddenly your communications console whizzes to life. A message spits out. It's from Tynan, who's rafting down the Amazon and only has intermittent access on his handy two-way satellite text messaging device.

GIVE ME A FEATURE TO ADD TO THE FACTION SYSTEM. ONE SENTENCE ONLY PLEASE.

What do you reply?

Just like how you won't find and can't breed non-adult Megascarabs, I'm guessing it's just a placeholder or brainstorming leftovers from when Tynan was working on implementing the different stages of life.

Oh neat, I never realized you could uninstall batteries. I'm still getting used to all the uninstallable stuff this alpha.

You can also use power switches to create new circuits too, though this is arguably cooler.

I'd love to see faction relationships fleshed out, though the rank system is weird. Advisors in particular seem to be addressing a problem that doesn't exist, and in a four or five-person colony it's weird to have a chain of command.

I think the biggest issue a factions system needs to address is keeping the game dynamic, otherwise players who engage in successful diplomacy -- paying factions off -- end up with everyone as their ally and make the game more boring in that regard. This is in contrast to IRL diplomacy that's full of tradeoffs, treachery, and backroom deals. The trick is finding a good way to express these things without excess complexity.

Oh cool. Do you think it have any effect on gameplay? If not, should it?

Removing or changing the barracks debuff based on background makes sense, especially for the colonists with a military background. RimWorld lore specifically mentions vat-grown-type soldiers having special mental preferences and traits oriented towards military life. Adding a trait or two that addresses shared space would be a nice fix to this discrepancy.

That said, I'd say the barracks debuff does make sense for many RimWorld backgrounds. Used to live in a fantastic glitterworld mansion and now you're sharing a shoddy blood-stained room? Bad thoughts. Starship trader used to having an entire ship to himself? Bad thoughts.

[No Utility: Fixing a Problem]

Sharing beds and living quarters with animals is an age-old practice, perpetuated by millions of pet owners nightly and by idioms like three-dog night. Anyone who's had a dog knows beds are irresistible magnets for sleepy canines, a habit practiced for generations by peasants, pharaohs, and kings alike.

No Utility: Fixing a Problem
Small animals serve very limited purpose in RimWorld because they can't haul or rescue, and die easily. While we have nuzzling, it's unreliable.

Small dogs and other small pets have been bred for centuries for companionship, but in RimWorld large animals like tamed wargs provide just as much companionship -- nuzzles -- as a small lap animal like a yorkie, while also providing much more utility by being able to haul. Expanding on the animal-colonist relationship by introducing a special, simple mechanic for small animals would solve this discrepancy.

Defining the Mechanic
Small animals can sleep on human beds, treating them just like animal beds

3 Ways to Implement
Basic: animals can sleep on human beds
Two-stage: if animals are small they can sleep on trainer beds
Complex: small animals can sleep on trainer beds, providing automatic nuzzle bonuses whenever a colonist is also in the bed. The animal occupies the lower portion of the bed, or the unused side of the bed for royal beds.

^{Where small animals could sleep on the complex iteration}

Examples of Player Usage
-The player has a depressive colonist who has lots of mental breaks, so he buys a yorkie to improve the colonist's mood.
-Instead of killing off the starting small animal in a tragic accident, the player keeps it because it provides a mood boost every night.
-

Variations
-Hot dog. Animals sharing bed offset "slept in cold room" penalty thoughts
-Disease vector. Animals sharing bed track dirt onto bed.
-"Three dog night." More than one animal can sleep on royal beds
-Dogs only. The mechanic only applies to dogs. Sorry chinchillas.
-Prison rehab. Animals can sleep on prisoner beds.
-No master. Tamed animals will sleep on any colonist bed, with no preference.
-Muse. Animals sleeping on human beds get mentioned in art.
-Lamarr! Megascarabs are cuddly too.

Is this Needless Complexity?
I really like this mechanic because it humanizes colonists, playing into RimWorld's emergent form of storytelling. Animals don't feel quite like pets, but this establishes character links and makes it visually obvious to the player: the small animal is sleeping on the colonist's bed. This all involves players and helps them develop personal stories.

On top of improving the narrative, the mechanic balances out small animals. My starting yorkie, or tamed squirrels, rabbits, etc are all pretty useless and nuzzling it pretty uncommon. It's hard to establish a meaningful relationship with animals when the player gets almost nothing out of it at any level.

I think we need to remember context before we rush to judge the new toolbar.

Part of what makes the current iteration annoying is there's not much use for several of the new buttons that used to be more hidden, like history and factions. But, when factions get expanded on, the button will probably be much more commonly used.

So what seems useless right now may have a ton of utility one or two patches from now.

allowing you to access the items you want in a menu and place them where you'd like

Forgive me if I misunderstand, but how is this different than turning on Development mode?