Multiple suggestions, covering Economy, Logistics, and Production

[TheGrover]

Whilst playing and getting my colonies off to a working start, I've come up with a few ways to help the game progress, and/or reduce the micromanagement required for a developing colony.

1) Upper resource limits
This one came to me whilst playing a modded version, whereby i needed 4 different crafting benches (smelter, stonecutting, sawmill and glassworks) to complete almost any construction project. Only having two full-time crafters, it soon becomes apparent that they were just sticking to the same two benches, resulting in unfinished buildings and micromanagement of tasks to keep the flow of resources balanced.

To prevent this, i suggest an upper limit to resource production/gathering. a totally optional system which prevents a colonist being tasked with producing or gathering a certain resource if the quantity of the resource in question in stockpiles is above a certain limit. (similar to resource cap systems in games like Banished or ANNO)

with this, i could set a limit to say, Raw Meat at 300 units. as my hunter finishes one task, a quick check of the total in storage determines whether their next task is to go hunting, or go to the next priority of task, so i can just designate a herd of animals and leave the hunter to manage the hunting to prevent overloading my cook's stockpiles.

2) Trader Frequency
This one was more of a though on the game mechanics. On the Wiki, the trader ships approaching is described as an AI storyteller game event, on par with raider attacks, crop blights, eclipses etc. however, the trading system of the galaxy is likely not left to chance, especially considering its the same ships passing every so often. instead of their near-random frequency, each supplier should have a frequency of occurrence, open to fluctuations, so the same trader will come into range every 10 days plus or minus 3 days, (between 7 and 13 days), perhaps longer depending on what the AI decides is best.

3) Colony Alarm
its probably a regular occurrence that when a Centipede attacks, and the player drafts their defence force, that they miss one of the pesky colonists, who decides to embark on an epic journey to collect a piece of rock rubble to craft with, only to bump into the deadly behemoth.

now, if this were a real colony, they would surely have an alarm system, to which should prevent anybody leaving, so why not add one here?
it doesnt need to be a complex system, at the simplest level, it could restrict colonist movements to prevent them pathing outside of the home zone, or even outside altogether. However, the same system could be rigged to draft certain colonists, direct them to their equipment, and then on to their posts, so after some careful planning, you can move your colonists into their defensive positions with just a couple of clicks. furthermore, this could also be used to activate some objects, locking certain doors or toggling certain structures, such as turning on turrets, extra generators, or hooking up your emergency battery array to take up the increased load on the system.

4) Hauling mechanics
when a colonist working at a cookstove needs some vegetables, they will go to the nearest pile, and bring it back. which is great if the pile in question is a full stack. but far too often, its some little piles left from a cargo pod crash, and they have to go on a mighty trek to retrieve them. which is fine, except that they come back with their pockets only half full, rather than collecting a full stack from where they were going.

now of course, we could take a leaf out of our Dwarf Fortress books and hire a few kindly named Plebs, whose only job is to haul goods about and clean floors, but as colonists are hard to come by, and our colonies tend to have far fewer people than Mountain fortresses have dwarves, this isnt a luxury easily available to us.

its also a problem that requires some logic being coded to fix, as making every hauling chef collect a full stack could result in them travelling to the four corners of the map (literally) to collect their goodies, by which time they have starved, passed out, or been ambushed by a raid or two, and lets not forget that they have abandoned their post for a couple of days too, letting the pantry be gobbled up by the never ending horde of travellers who insist on helping themselves to our food.

this logic could be defined as such:

Code Select Expand


if (travel to resource) > 30 tiles
   and
if (travel to nearest stockpile) > (travel to resource / 2)
   then
try to collect full stack

//when deciding how far to travel filling their pockets, after they have travelled
if (held stack) /= Full
   and
(travel to next available pile) < (travel distance back to post / 4)
   then
collect additional pile
   else
return to post and continue
(repeat after each pile pick up)


this function consists of two stages, the first stage prevents them wasting time filling their pockets when they're near the stockpile anyway, and the second prevents them travelling too far filling the stack (relative to their distance from home)

5) Secure areas
just try the "Colonist Only Doors" mod, use it to protect your food supplies and prisoners from the travelers, you'll get the idea. doors like these should be available in vanilla

6) Multi-Storey construction
Akin to the construction possibilities in Dwarf Fortress, the ability to build walls, floors and objects on different levels could add a whole extra dynamic to colony design, enabling more diverse kill-boxes, more efficient logistics, and more sneaky underground passages to flank raiders.

I'm not suggesting for a moment that we need all 300 levels to build upon like DF, but perhaps one or two underground levels, and one super-structure level:

Code Select Expand


Superstructure

Ground Level << Current playable level
________________
Sub-Structure

Deep Sub-Structure


Coupled with this would be an extention to the already fantastic cover system, allowing attackers on higher levels better chanced of hitting targets on lower levels (whilst also taking into consideration roofs and floors that could be in the way), so making elevated gun nests looking over a kill box would be great for dispatching raiders entering a colony, but potentially more exposed to mortar fire, and other hostiles may be able to engage from outside the kill box:

Code Select Expand


¦ > ,                        key: [¦ = Wall] [, = Sandbag] [> = Defender] [< = Raider]
¦    [kill box] ¦       <


here, the raider can shoot over the wall at the defender, so if the raider has a sniper, and the raider has an Uzi, then the kill box can be made safe without the raiders even setting foot in there.

I have no doubt that i will find more to suggest, and other's will have their own criticisms or refinements, so i'll continue to update this list over time

Thanks for reading

[SSS]

1) While I do agree the current system is a tad clunky, you can achieve the same effect by suspending the offending table in question. Also, make sure it's not a problem with the mod you're using. I've never noticed this in vanilla gameplay since there isn't anything that requires multiple tables to use.

2) My only problem with traders is slavers. They stop appearing entirely later on in an attempt to cap your population, but it's pretty frustrating when you're wanting to sell prisoners. Instead of disappearing entirely, it would be nice if they came without any people, or with only 1 or 2 if you're near the storyteller's population cap. Then, you'd still get a chance to sell any raiders you don't want to keep.

3) A simple "draft all" button would be nice. Actual alarms optional. :p

4) No comment. My understanding of the pathing system is limited (though Tynan's explanation video was interesting), but from what I've read it's difficult/time consuming to improve.

5) +1

6) Z-levels have been jossed multiple times. We aren't getting them, or we aren't getting them for a long time.

[Cyclops]

1. There is a "Do until you have X" in the queue for production buildings. It is not exactly what you're asking, but it is very useful. I'm sure it can be applied to things like hunting. Not sure if it is necessary though.

2. Frequency? Sure, why not? On the other hand, these are the RimWorlds and its not like you'll ever know if a trader is going to come back on schedule. This is not an Industrial complex, it's a colony in a world in the middle of nowhere. Slavers are a little rare though.

3. Has been suggested, no complaints from me.

4. You do know that for cooking and production building one can set the range of gathering so the "going to the four corners of the map" thing doesn't happen? I never had a major problem with it, I'm not sure if I've even seen such a thing in a while. But then, I always keep my stockpiles close to the production areas.

5. Not sure why you're keeping your major food stockpile near prisoners of even visitors, but otherwise things like this has been suggested. Visitors can be quite annoying in that regard. Until you wall them off and watch them starve to death that is.

6. Z levels have been denied. They are not a major priority and a lot of work.

[TheGrover]

1) as ive said in the OP, i am usnf a modded version, requiring crafting benches to convert raw resources into usable materials.

Didnt see the "do until you have X"option, ill check that out

4) this is in relation to hauling, not gathering. Set a cookstove to work when theres small piles of food far away and no close food. forbiding these items would prevent them being hauled properly to the stockpiles, and restricting ingredient search radius can mess up task priorities (normally my cook does cleaning when he/she is free as they are almost always within the colony, so having them haul to keep production going makes thr colony suffer)

5) im not keeping the two togethrr, but that doesnt stop the pesky travellers getting hungry and going hunting prisoners as they stroll through the colony unchecked

6) fair enough, i probably should have done a search :p maybe one day eh?