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3.  Shield belt/hospital solution.  Presumably you have specific pawns who use melee weapons and don't swap to ranged.  Make a custom outfit for them, then set them to it, then remove shield belt from the list of allowed things on everyone else's outfit.  Putting a TV in your hospital facing the beds also allows the recovering pawns to gain some recreation, though some might still get up to leave, it should at least help.

5.  ....but do NOT assign a target....the miss radius is smaller on auto-targeted shots than forced target.  Pause, hold fire, wait for mechs to lose interest, then repeat. 

I do try to put out fires, at least on downed pawns, but not by leaving cover. That is way too risky with bullets raining down on us. I pause a lot and try to keep a watch on the most damaged people and the already downed pawns.

Thanks for the tip about outfits. Have set up a Brawler outfit now, which I hope will help, by disallowing belts for the Anything outfit. Already have a TV in the hospital, plus lots of other stuff, and the mentioned food on the floor. But they still get up to do all kinds of silly stuff, which is very, very frustrating when they are bandaged from head to toe and can barely walk. Spending half a day to grab a meal, then breaking due to hunger or whatever (doctors are supposed to feed them after all) is annoying. I just want them to stay in bed and heal up, and that's why I have set it to 1 (with fire and basic set to 2, to try to prevent dumb stuff).

On mortars... that actually works?! I didn't think they would fire unless I set a target for them. Certainly had no idea it was more precise without that. I don't use them much in fairness. Haven't even researched it, but do have 3 mortars from previous sieges (I try to snipe them, which sometimes triggers the whole lot to rush us instead of bombarding the base).

I did finally tech biofuel, so can try the mortars approach next time if we get enough shells by then. I've just had very poor experiences with them before, so haven't seriously considered trying it again. Seemed like a waste of resources with most shells going into mountains 10 tiles away, or with luck hitting one mechanoid.

Thankfully the poison ships aren't too bad, so it's possible to prepare (and I can re-use the un-triggered traps). It's the psychic ship that is truly brutal, and needs to be dealt with ASAP (within 2.5 days), or else there is a very real danger of people flipping out before you're able to take it on. Animals can turn manhunter too, which happened when my guys were on route to the built up defences. Wasn't pretty... Horrible timing.

Would a doomsday rocket work well against mechanoids? Believe it starts fires, which does nothing, but if the blast radius is large enough, it should be possible to hit a whole heap. And since I'm using Pick up and haul, it's possible to bring another weapon with them and change in the field.

Since you write "18.3" I suppose you have Linux Mint?

Hard to know what the issue is, but one thing you can try to check is whether the file you are probably using to start the game with is set as an executable. Otherwise it might just blip and close again.

Right-click on the "start_RimWorld.sh" file, and select Properties. Go to Permissions tab and tick the checkbox for "Allow executing file as program". Maybe this is set by default, but I don't recall because it's a long time since I installed the game.

You can also create a launcher and put it on the desktop for easier access, which links to this file. Hopefully this is straightforward since it's been a while. Right click on the desktop and select "Create a new launcher here". Then insert the path to the abovementioned file, which in my case is:

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/home/pangaea/Games/RimWorld1-0-2282Linux/start_RimWorld.sh
Allow to run as a program under Permissions, and I think you should be set.

Of course, it's entirely possible there is a bigger issue than just this (check the log), but it's worth a shot.

It was brutal. Horrendously brutal. 8 centipedes.

But we survived. All of us. Barely. Set up a field hospital with 6 bedrolls, which was nowhere near enough, so packed 3 more sleeping spots in there afterwards. We lost a lung and a host of fingers and toes, and a bionic leg was very close to getting shot off, but it seemed to have gone relatively well.

Still, lots of fires, over half the colonists went down, most of the wall to the east got blown to smithereens from all the bullets. I had about 5 people over there with EMP and frag grenades, plus two brawlers nearby. The shields went out in the total chaos, think it was from one of the two EMP traps that went off. Very big blast radius. But all in all it could definitely have gone worse. As long as at least one EMP trap goes off, that will help for a while. Even so, you can just forget about stunning everybody and enjoying free and safe shots. Not going to happen with so many mechs. Unless you have a ton of pawns and can toss EMPs at them from all angles I suppose.

Almost tempting to say the worst bit this time was after the battle, when they flip out. Not small stuff either, but murderous rage, killing animals, and such. Thankfully it worked to arrest the girl who was going to murder one of my other pawns.

I always find this stuff so silly after tough battles. They are hurting because they are injured, maybe aren't properly fed. The colony has barely survived after all. And then they start flipping out, one after the other. Honestly think it would be better to disable that stuff while people are in hospital, at least when they are so badly hurt. They can barely move for crying out loud, but are upset, and will start crawling around the place with evil thoughts.

And of course, the instant they are able to walk, they'll start crawling across half the map to play hoopstone or pick up a meal. It's so utterly blockheaded, and frustrates me to no end that we can't turn this off somehow by using the priorities. You'd think surviving and then healing up is rather more important than playing game-of-ur or picking up a backup meal.

So then I have to use workarounds like tossing pemmican on the hospital floor and banning doors to equipment. Otherwise they WILL crawl towards shield belts the instant they are no longer blacked out, because they lost the weapon when they got downed during combat.

But all this chaos (and gameplay frustrations) aside, I think it was better to use EMP and frag grenades. It's just so darn hard to do any of that somewhat safely. Basically have to hope nobody gets killed, because they are going to get inside bullet hell one way or another.

I actually did the wall-sandbag-wall thing earlier, I see. From what I recall we still got butchered, but hopefully not quite as badly. But from what I've seen so far, the main problem isn't really the bullet-spraying centipedes or even lancers (unless they hit something vital), but the inferno centipedes and scythers.



Not played much longer, but already a new poison ship has landed. In the meantime I've built some EMP shells and am working on more EMP and frag grenades, so will try out some of the advice here and hope it works better. Plus I'm putting up some EMP traps. Hopefully they can help deal with the super-nasty scythers that bumrush us. If we get 8-10 of those, it's impossible to kill them before they do horrible damage to lots of guys.

I've plotted down this, which I hope will help us out. Not sure about the sidewalls, but the idea is to have some grenadiers over there. Going all out on steel traps this time, because I have to expect probably 25 buggers to pop out, which is utterly brutal to deal with.



Volcanic winter hit shortly before the ship landed, so Cassandra really wants us dead now.

If I use EMP traps, especially this many, I have to be very careful with the melee (shield) guys. Looks like the range is pretty big.

Really don't much like this part of the game, I have to say. It's definitely a challenge allright, and you can easily lose many people. But the game just becomes mech raids and mech ships one after another, which isn't much fun. Especially these blasted ships since we have to take them on in the field without proper defense and often far away from base (read: hospital).

Thank you for the detailed answer, this is fantastic stuff

Have tried some of this before, like the sniping and triggering the ship and then hoping to take them on in smaller groups. It's hard, though, and they don't really chase all that far before turning back. And with lancers out, it's very hard to do anything somewhat safely.

Wall-sandbag-wall sounds like a good idea. I'll try that next time. But even if the front row of sandbags doesn't do anything directly in terms of cover, bullets still hit there and it means the damage will be spread more out, so less chance of the crucial sandbag-between-walls to get blown to smithereens.

How do you set up your grenadiers though? Behind separate walls or something? Range is only 13 tiles, which is nothing against such a brutal crowd. And with so many popping out, some will often be behind the ship, so it will be hard to impossible to hit everybody in that first salvo, meaning pawns in the open are very vulnerable to non-stunned mechs. That said, I should probably try it out next time and see how it goes.

Once mechs get the "Adapted" text, EMP grenades do nothing, right? Or is it still worth tossing them in?

Frag grenades is a good tip too. Hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense, especially when coupled with some EMP guys to freeze them in place. I can see how that might be effective.

One weapon that has certainly been effective (wish I had more), is a masterwork Charge lance we got from a quest, which does 38 damage per hit.

Have had very poor experiences with mortars previously. They miss way too much. Triple rocket launchers can be good, but they take a long time to aim, meaning it's hard to get any of the dangerous scythers.

Kinda wonder if a horde of snipers would do better. I just had a siege with 27 guys, all wielding sniper rifles (strange), so we have a few now.

How do you deal with these monster encounters?

Popped one earlier, in year 5, and 20-odd mechs streamed out, including 5-6 centipedes. Total nightmare. Have to admit I save-scummed because I'm tired of people dying. Especially when Gillespie died, who was recently "resurrected" from brain damage.

On the third try everybody survived, but only very marginally. Had to fix 3-4 people in the field, during combat, by putting out sleeping spots (and banning the door to the hospital to prevent the idiots trying to carry them across the entire map back there). Several people fainted on the way back, and one was 0.8 hours from dying. The first back to base I had to stuff in cryptosleep because he only had 2 hours left and no doctor was in sight. Looking at it now, 2 legs were lost, 2 arms, and one eye, plus a handful of fingers (heh).

I set up like this, which has worked well enough previously.



(It's raining in the picture, and the first attempt was indeed during rain (thought the roof would help, but I guess not since we couldn't hit anything), but it was clear during the actual onslaught.)

Two brawlers with shield belts trying to divert some attention and taking them on face-to-face. But with so many machines firing at them, the shield goes out instantly, so I had to try to be careful. I had a few people by a wall closer to the action too, including one with a chain shotgun.

Ugly as hell, though, and a lot of luck is needed to survive. The worst enemies are the scythers and the inferno cannon centipedes. Both create total havoc.

There must be much better ways to deal with such big-ass encounters than this though. I tried EMP earlier, but it doesn't last very long before they're adapted, and ofc you need somebody to get close enough to throw it, and get back to cover without dying. Not easy against such a force.

This time I even used a triple rocket launcher. It did decent damage and killed a few lancers, and injured some of the centipedes. Simply too many mechs to really make much of an impression, though.

Since the reproduction machanism met an entire remake, the reproduction speeds of all wild plants seem forced bonded together, only left a single biome reproduction speed. How does it work with plants with different grow days? Is there any way to speed up the reproduction of a single kind of plant?

Depends what you mean with reproduction. But looking at individual plants, this may be useful, in for instance Plants_Wild_General.xml

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<growDays>2.5</growDays>

Presumably the below is a ratio of sorts, which may be related to more direct reproduction (new plants, not faster growth). This is from Biomes_Cold.xml

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    <wildPlants>
<Plant_Grass>8.0</Plant_Grass>
<Plant_Brambles>2.0</Plant_Brambles>
<Plant_Moss>4.0</Plant_Moss>
<Plant_Bush>3.0</Plant_Bush>
<Plant_TreePine>5.0</Plant_TreePine>
<Plant_TreeBirch>1.5</Plant_TreeBirch>
<Plant_TreePoplar>1.2</Plant_TreePoplar>
<Plant_Berry>0.16</Plant_Berry>
<Plant_HealrootWild>0.16</Plant_HealrootWild>
</wildPlants>

That's not a bug it's the "CastEdgeShadows" flag. It drops that ugly puddle to simulate a shadow. You can use xml modding or RIMMSqol to change it inside the game.

Interesting, and thanks for confirming it's not a bug, but a 'feature' of sorts.

Since I see you are the author: Would it be possible to use this mod for only this feature (changing the shadows) and not the plethora of other stuff? Is it safe to add it to save games and then remove it again?

Is this mod only available on steam? I don't use steam and never will.

In the image, which is from a trade screen from a visiting caravan, the named pig is listed as both 13 and 14 years old. I would expect this to be the same, whether that is due to rounding up or down.

She hasn't been in cryptosleep btw. The pig has been with us from the start as tribals, and survived a heart attack.

Not entirely sure if this is a bug or some type of shadow feature, but am posting it here since I think it looks a little off.



The rec room has an entirely smoothed stone floor, and as you can see from the picture, the area around the sculptures is darker than the rest of the room. The workshop room to the left has normal stone flooring, and I don't see the same effect there, or at least not to the same degree.

There appears to be a fainter similar effect under the tables, but not the poker table.

First time ever getting the Wanderer joins event -- and it happened with 12 people on Cassandra Savage. I'm guessing the chances for that is on the low side.




Good grief. That's a terrifying sight. The map border is right there. No time to run anywhere.



Am I glad it worked to quickly build some steel walls? Yes, a little! Not too confident she could have taken on 20 bears by herself.

So then game, are you up for it?






\o/ YAY! No need for save-scumming and fixing her eye first, and chopping off her hand to "cure" the missing finger.

Hushes whisper: Please don't die in the next raid.


Didn't really get all that much value out of Gillespie's "work faster for 8 days" inspiration earlier, but hopefully she is worth this. I like pawns that are versatile, although the Too smart trait is kinda shitty tbh. They flip out way too often.

^^ Blindness, huh? At least that can be fixed.

Much, much later. Researched crypto sleep, tossed her in, and waited. Finally got a quest that we truly needed.



I was going to test if the game is smart enough to use it on the worst condition, in what a human will inherently know is the worst, namely the brain injury. She also has a cut out eye and a missing finger. Will lost limbs be higher in the hierarchy so the serum will be used on the "wrong" condition?

But err... how do you actually use the darn thing? 

The patient is in a vegetable state, so can't move. And unlike for resurrection mech serum, there doesn't appear to be a way to use this on somebody else. When I use it on somebody, even a fully healthy one, they will just use it on themselves, which is pointless -- in this scenario.


Edit:
Looks like I was a dumb tit as well. Look around a bit more, and you shall find...

If you want keep these pawn for the future, you should put him at a cyro casket. So you don't need to feed him.
I can't recommend to use Luciferium to heal the brain damage. Sure it works but it will take ALOT time and endless supply of the drug.

True enough, it may be a terrible idea and take forever. But I don't have any other means right now. Don't have cryptosleep caskets either, and the map doesn't have an ancient shrine. Perhaps the best idea is to hope for another quest with mech serums. Looking at the wiki page, it will indeed take an extremely long time to heal damages.

Healer mech serum should solve this problem. Some world quests provide it. You can even scum save-load until you get the right one.

Well, there is another way, but a little tricky, and I've never tested it. You can put pawn to death, leave corpse in a freezer with hungry dogs, wait until the head is eaten and then use resurrector mech serum, profit!!! Resurrector should resurrect even if head is missing, right?

Also, if you don't want to waste food and time on currently useless pawn you always can store the body into ancient cryptosleep casket and wait until better time.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten any of those in this game, neither resurrection nor healer mech serum.

But it seems like Cassandra taketh, and Cassandra giveth? Should probably take this on as I have no other options available right now. The pawn is useless right now anyway.



Wish the base game had more bionics than just limbs and eyes though. It's so frustrating to get head injuries and brain injuries, and even chopped off noses. I mean, they can put in a bionic heart and spine, but nosejobs is out of the question?