"Right shoulder - shot off" and how to fix other weird stuff...

[HattoriHanzo]

Howdy dear colonists!

I purchased the game last week (good job so far!) and played my first 2 years in a beginners colony at the weekend to get into the game mechanics.
I soon discovered odd stuff happening, for example:

"Maddy" is a masochist pirate I imprisoned and turned on my side with excelent food from my 3-star-cook "Ian". Maddy is an expert sniper and equipped with energy armor and a sniper rifle, hell yeah!
One day, a group of ~10 pirates came to my colony and started to kick up a row. Brave Maddy took position behind the turrets and defended his new homeland like a brave scothish lad on the side of William Wallace but got shot at heavily by the pirate leader.
Long story short: he was hit at his right shoulder, which was gone (erm, what?!) but his right arm was fine (erm, double what?!).
I'm not an expert in medicine and stuff, but when my shoulder is shot off, my arm would be gone, too, wouldn't it?

Furthermore, ma buddy Maddy also took 2 shots to the chest, which resulted in bleeding wounds, although he has worn energy armor, which is stronger then a kevlar west (which handles a couple of shots quiet ok).

So, my suggestion to make the damage causes more realisitc is:

- shoulders shot off result in 1 arm less, which further results in an inability of using 2-handed weapons like bows and rifles

- Shots on an armored body result in broken ribs and 3 broken ribs result in a blackout

Otherwise: great game, had lots off fun so far!

[200Down]

lolz, yea there are a few adjustments needed with body parts, extremities, and medical in general. Good story though.
If you're really feeling ambitious I think the arm/shoulder thing could be fixed just within the core mod.

Like the broken ribs idea too. Sadly pawns forgot they needed ribs at all it seems Heck maybe they do have ribs and I never noticed.

[HattoriHanzo]

Like the broken ribs idea too. Sadly pawns forgot they needed ribs at all it seems Heck maybe they do have ribs and I never noticed.

They do have ribs, you never had a colonist with a broken rib?
Some aggro tribesmen where hitting my people with some clubs early in the first playthrough and one got a broken rib from a hit to the body!

[200Down]

lol ouch poor guy.

Yea I think I do recall ribs being "shattered" or something on one of my dudes that literally persisted through the entire game. Which is fine I mean if they where "shattered" and all.

So if the ribs where shattered how would the game deal with blackouts if there's no way to repair them(currently)? Heck I guess that would give me a reason to use the cryptocasket .... they'd just have to stay frozen until the next alpha hahaha

[muffins]

Could be worse ...

[200Down]

That's is true for sure. There must be an awful small chance to get decapitated with the base game weapons. Don't even know if I've ever had it happen to a colonist yet. Ether that or I'm just that dang lucky.

If your getting decaps all the time then I'm guessing your defense isn't set up quite well enough. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think decaps happen most often from the m24 weilders(or high damage per shot weapons) and sense their accuracy sucks inside 15 tiles you shouldn't be getting decaps hardly at all with a decent defensive setup.

Something like this. Just inside the 15 tile poor accuracy  range of the m24's.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Enemies Enter Here
IIIIIII     IIIIIII<---- M24's will stop and shoot right in the gap here which should
II                 II    be less than  15  tiles from your guy's defensive position seen below.
II     Death   II
II     Zone     II
II                 II
II                 II
II                 II
>                 > Main base entry from both sides. Locked during raids.
IIxxxxxxxxxxII
IITIxIxIxIxITII
o o o o o o o   

Legend
T=turrets
I=walls(no wood obviously)
x=sandbags
o=your colonists
>=doors(also no wood)

Just a theory though to lower you chances of decaps. It's close to my normal setup.

Great thing is... you only need 2-3 turrets even late game. Although I would highly suggest building the "plasteel" variants in that settup as soon as you can. On lower difficulty levels you won't even need turrets. Unless of course you don't have any shooters in which case some grenade abuse could be used. Note I don't use nades at all accept emp's. So this is based on a no-nade defense lol. Hope they get a cooldown hike for the next alpha at least because they really are broken right now.

I mean you could very easily just leave one space in your perimeter.. throw sandbags around it and pitch nades all day for defense but it ruins the fun imo but that's your choice. Sorry went way off the rails there haha

[SlimeCrusher]

Furthermore, ma buddy Maddy also took 2 shots to the chest, which resulted in bleeding wounds, although he has worn energy armor, which is stronger then a kevlar west (which handles a couple of shots quiet ok).

As far as i know, armor doesn't REALLY absorb damage, all it does is add a chance the bullet will ricochet harmlessly, i believe its about 45% or something like that. The same for blunt damage. Have you ever tried to kill a centipede with about 5 colonists? You will note that some bullets tend to make a small spark and will not damage the centipede, that is exactly what happens with armor.

Yes, i agree with you, if you happen to wear power armor, 9mm bullet shouldn't penetrate through 3cm of plasteel armor and make you bleed. An easy way would be "every bullet that does less than X damage, should be converted to a blunt damage with about 3x damage absorbed" or something like that. I agree with the rib thing, most raiders i killed died because of either a headshot, bleeding to death or got their "torso" destroyed, and about 3 of all raiders i killed had rib damage... I would suggest making all bones easier to destroy via blunt damage (that may be already added, but i almost never use melee attacks so i may be wrong).

[muffins]

If your getting decaps all the time then I'm guessing your defense isn't set up quite well enough. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think decaps happen most often from the m24 weilders(or high damage per shot weapons) and sense their accuracy sucks inside 15 tiles you shouldn't be getting decaps hardly at all with a decent defensive setup.

I have 64 colonists and multiple layers and types of defences. At the time I was fighting pirates and mechs simultaneously that were coming in several waves and from two directions. You know how it is in those situations. There are multiple epic firefights going on and some idiot decides to wander into the crossfire to tidy up some sandbags or mop up some blood. BOOM! Headshot.

It was more of a micromanagement fail. You can remove home zones, forbid items and lock doors but there will always be one doofus who will try to haul a just-crafted shirt to the trading beacon though a firefight or whatnot.

[200Down]

That's kinda the choice you make when you capture so many people though. Believe it or not the higher difficulties can be managed with much much less of a population. Try playing with 10 or less and only having one entry to the base. Micro is cut way way down and very few losses, if any, because you can manage the few you have so easily. But hey, if you enjoy the chaos and don't mind occasional  losses then more power to ya  Love that about this game. You really can decide your own level of insanity After you get used to things that is.

Edit: There's also something else I shoulda mentioned that makes quite a large difference. Overbuilding, very much something you SHOULDN'T do when playing with only small populations or you WILL get facerolled eventually. It's just the way it works atm. I'm sure there's a cap on enemy count per raid but I've yet to see it with such small populations.