Growing your colony mod

[slauenbach]

Is anyone thinking of making a mod where it is easier to grow your colony because it would be awesome if someone did!

[Igabod]

if all you want is higher numbers of colonists then you can make one simple change yourself easily in the Incidents_Good_Misc.XML file located in Mods/Core/Defs/IncidentDefs/ folder. Find this bit of code:

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  <IncidentDef>
    <defName>WandererJoin</defName>
    <workerClass>IncidentWorker_WandererJoin</workerClass>
    <chance>0.4</chance>
    <favorability>VeryGood</favorability>
    <populationEffect>Increase</populationEffect>
  </IncidentDef>


and change the <chance>0.4</chance> part to a bigger number. Start small on the increase and bump it up a little till you hit the desired rate. It takes a little trial and error to get it perfect, but the change is super simple to make on your own. You don't even need to make a mod for it if you aren't using any other mods that change the incident defs. Always be sure to back up the original file before changing any of the base game files though just in case.

[edit to add]Or if the free colonist incident feels a little too cheaty for you then you can increase the crashed pod survivor incident instead and get one you have to work to recruit. Here is the important piece of code within the same file as the other one:

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<IncidentDef>
<defName>RefugeePodCrash</defName>
<workerClass>IncidentWorker_RefugeePodCrash</workerClass>
<chance>1.5</chance>
<favorability>Good</favorability>
<populationEffect>Increase</populationEffect>
</IncidentDef>


again, just change the <chance>1.5</chance> to a higher number and through trial and error adjust it to perfection.

[edit again to add]Also, you might just want to change the storyteller def a little bit if you're happy with the frequency of those incidents but just want more colonists. First you need to find the Storytellers.xml file located at Mods/Core/Defs/StorytellerDefs and then in that file choose whichever storyteller you prefer. I personally use Randy Random so that's the one I'm using in the example, but the important parts are the same no matter which one you edit. Here is the code to look for:

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<StorytellerDef>
<defName>Randy</defName>
    <label>Randy Random</label>
<description>Randy doesn't follow rules. He'll generate random events, and he doesn't care if they make a story of triumph or utter hopelessness. It's all drama to him.</description>
<quotation>The world is random, dude. Stories should be too! Hey, you got a light?</quotation>
<incidentMakerClass>IncidentMaker_Random</incidentMakerClass>
    <listOrder>40</listOrder>
<portraitLarge>UI/HeroArt/Storytellers/RandyRandom</portraitLarge>
<portraitTiny>UI/HeroArt/Storytellers/RandyRandomTiny</portraitTiny>
<desiredPopulationMin>3</desiredPopulationMin>
<desiredPopulationMax>16</desiredPopulationMax>
<desiredPopulationCritical>50</desiredPopulationCritical>
    <random_AverageIncidentsPerDay>0.8</random_AverageIncidentsPerDay>
    <random_GeneralWeight>0.79</random_GeneralWeight>
    <random_ThreatSmallWeight>0.1</random_ThreatSmallWeight>
    <random_LargeThreatWeight>0.11</random_LargeThreatWeight>
    <random_MaxThreatBigIntervalDays>22</random_MaxThreatBigIntervalDays>
  </StorytellerDef>


the important part is <desiredPopulationMin>3</desiredPopulationMin> and <desiredPopulationMax>16</desiredPopulationMax> and <desiredPopulationCritical>50</desiredPopulationCritical>. You will want to tweak those numbers specifically. If you want an easier start and more colonists earlier on then I'd changethe Min to something like 5 or 6 to increase the chances of Randy throwing something your way to increase your population. Bump up the max so that randy will keep sending you the events like slave traders and wanderers even when you have more than 16 colonists. I personally never like to go higher than 20 colonists. But you might want to bump it up to 50. I'm not quite sure what the Critical one effects, but play around with that too and see what changes. This is such a simple change to make that you can afford to play around and go wild. Just don't delete anything except the numbers and replace them only with numbers and there isn't really anything that can go wrong.