Problems and Possible Fixes. Please Read This Devs

[quxzcover]

1. (Problems) ive maxed out at 60 population because the speed animals spawn and my 200 hydroponics basens cant support that many mouths to feed. i also find it hard to build more hydroponics basens because ive almost mined my world out of steel by creating an array of 5x5 cubes through all my large world mountains in the Boreal forest. so its hard to create enough solar panels to even support that much food productions. plus i cant farm outside because 90 percent of the year it snows so i build a fortress in the mountains. and also ive been playing on rough with classic cassandra. every time i play this game its always a struggle to keep my food supplys up and to keep my people happy. also with so much population the alien crashed ship is immpossible to defeat beacuse 40 of my people give up 3 days after the crash. not only that but the high expectations also dosent help because its hard to manage the clothes and personal needs of so many colonists. also after you get so much, mine out your world, create a massive base and have 30k silver in stock with extremely scarce trade ships the game starts to lose its luster. also the fact that you cant become completly independant through the fact that anything good ie: matirials such as hyper weave and weapons/armor that isnt medival also annoys me. why cant we slowly progress upwards in technology to eventually be able to create these things.

2) (Solutions) for the food problem breeding would be massively helpful as well as the power to create basins that yield more food faster.
another solution to quite a few problems is to be able to create a more in depth technology system where the higher you get on the tree the more advanced and effective production stations are that also create new better things such as advanced weapons and hyper weave. another idea to put on this tech tree is a station that lets you get rid of negative characteristics and lets people practice a skill obviously for a high maintenance cost becasue plus 15 break threshholds means there locked up or dazed 80 percent of the time. also smooth floor gives plus 4 beauty and carpet give plus 2. makes no sense if the higher tier stuff you can only use if you build into a mountain and want the most dull boring floor ever. also another thing that would be ever more awsome would be to be able to create vehicles that with whoever you load onto them you get to either start a new colony with those people and loaded resources on a nearby square on the map to later come back to your ariginal square with a good amount of loot or to legitally try to make a new colony. to be able to attack/besiege enemy bases would also be done by vehicles which would obviously yield alot of resources and slaves/new colonists and lots of gear but be very hard to take down. also expensive floors that raise movement speed up to like 150 percent. expensive enough to not mass place but cheap enough to fill hallways with or high traffic areas.


btw sorry for my horrible sentence structure and lack of capitalization that im pretty sure would make my English teacher cry.
If you have any other ideas or can relate please say so in the comments. and also developers, if you read this and think the ideas are good/terrible or the problems will soon already have fixes or are impossible to fix can you please elaborate in the comments. much appreciated and thanks!

[Mathenaut]

Firstly, holy shit.

Secondly, holy shit. (seriously, 60 colonists)

Though seriously, this is hitting on some very interesting points to consider.

[Kegereneku]

I'm afraid you are playing well beyond what the game is made for.

The deeper characterization of Rimworld is its major point and above a dozen or two of colonist the players will be overlooking most of that as good stat, bad stat.
Also, from what I heard the storyteller will actively try killing colonist over 10.

In any case, I would not want a rebalance that make surviving below 10 colonists too easy nor too high.

[RemingtonRyder]

Getting to sixty colonists is an achievement on its own. If you're struggling to feed them all, then you may want to put some of them in cryptosleep and wake them up much later.

As long as you have a smelter it is possible to make more steel, albeit very slowly, by smelting steel slag chunks.

[Mathenaut]

I think that we shouldn't dismiss or overlook what this person has done. This is extremely valuable data, and it's showing us what the breaking points are for the present design of the game.

I'd like to see more data on this colony. Share screenshots, explain more about function and hazards, or even just share the savefile.

200 hydrobasins can't feed 60 colonists. This suggests that the rate/return of basins vs colonist consumption doesn't scale properly, that there is an imbalance.

The fact that steel is the long-term issue instead of, say wood, puts a serious dent in the worry that treeplanting is a fundamental point of imbalance.

This also raises questions about how the mood system operates. If Tynan is reading this, what this guy is speaking off with the drone events is what I was alluding to before when I mentioned how adding a stress system could further complicate issues that already exist for larger colonies.

This is also a big point to raise against the 'high expectations' buff, though I hear that is already being removed.

[quxzcover]

I was finally able to stabilize my food after mining out my world and spending it all on basins. all my points still stand. and my screenshots take up to much space to put on here. as well i cant figure out how to insert saves. please reply if you know how.

secondly, the main reason i play games like this is to see how far i can expand until ive reached a cap. as someone who plays games like star craft my philosophy is to constantly expand, constantly using all resources available to do so. managing small amounts of people for long periods of time just isnt very fun to me. additionally without that many people taking down late game attacks becomes seemingly impossible. i play on rough and i almost never have a casualty because once you have a casualty for me at least it starts to spiral.

third, all steel slag on the map is processed about 4 hours after it lands.

fourth, i was over estimating. i actually had roughly 55 mouths to feed and 170 basins. now i have 65 mouths to feed and 208 basins and no steel left on the map. the problem is the more you make the farther away the basins become from your beds and food. making it seemingly harder and harder to harvest and replant it all. that and now after about 20 harvests ive almost filled my freezer simply because i havent been getting enough colonists. its probably 3 basins to one colonist. but that means a half of your colony has to be cooks/ growers/ haulers at least if not more. and just to power that i have roughly 70 solar panels and all 3 thermal generators. aside from the few coolers heaters and lights. food production still takes up 70 percent of my effort in this game.

and lastly, wood has never been a problem on this world mainly because i like playing in a boreal forest on a large map and i dont use that much wood. aside from all my furniture and doors im in the mountain. all my walls are marble. and also i find that what trade ships sell should scale the more advanced your colony is. in the start you should be getting simple prosthetics and crappy weapons. later on you should be able to buy lots of bionics from one trader and pretty good weapons.

[quxzcover]

another point i didnt touch on was the fact that the only changing aspect of your people (pawns gives them less character) is there skills. i think after you've killed enough people or seen enough dead bodies or survived harsh climate enough your colonists should start to get a buff like hardened. a buff that reduces the negative effects of these things as well as reduces the likely hood of things like hypothermia, heatstroke and starvation a bit more. kind of like how somebody in northern Russia or Canada is less likely to get hypothermia compared to someone who lives on the equator. after you've adjusted things like that these things should effect you less. another example is when you first become a doctor some people squirm at the sight of something like blood. but eventually they get used to it or lose there job. either way.
ima make a new post for this.

[Mathenaut]

The bit about hydroponics is most interesting. The idea behind hydroponics is to /not/ have half of your colony devoted to maintaining food. A part of me is wondering if the drag in the system is related to growth/harvest rates, hauling, or time in making meals.

There is a mod that I think you could try that allows chefs to make meals in bulk. I'd like to see what this does for your system.