How is the pacing in Alpha10d or later?

[Tynan]

Pacing chasing again. I desperately need your feedback.

Experiences from Alpha10d-f are all good, no big balance changes occurred between these versions.

Please don't vote unless you've played some hours on these versions, thanks.

Also highly desired:
-Play stories explaining what happened and how it affected you.

Also good:
-General opinions and analysis of your experience so far.

[stefanstr]

I haven't played Alpha 9 much, so my comparison is more to Alpha 8. I find the pacing much better now, mainly due to smarter AI when it comes to hauling materials to building sites. The time saved on this is enough to offset the time now spent on "joyful" activities, in my opinion. I get a lot more people to join the colony now which also makes everything go faster. I think I had three people randomly join my colony in the current playthrough. I am playing on Cassandra Rough.

Joy is something I mainly ignore: I give the colonists 2 hours of joy before bed and a few toys to play with (chess, TV) and never have anyone get unhappy after that. Maybe I haven't played long enough yet.

PS: can you please make this forum accept the "non-ASCII" apostrophes and quote marks? It is a lot of pain writing posts here if your computer auto-generates these.

[PotatoeTater]

I had a day off so I literally played for a full 10 hours straight and I can say the pacing seems decent, at times it can get a little fast. I had 5 random colonists join within my first 2 hours of playing and it really made the raids amp up. I had to sell them off to make it through my second winter. I noticed also that escape pods happen every now and then. I feel that instead of an early colonist just joining it should be like back in alpha 5 and 6 where at the beginning you almost always got an escape pod early on. I feel this lets you pick your colonists so you dont get the mood debuff for killing them or selling them off. Late game the raids and sieges are not spaced out that well and just come and come and come. Also mechtoids seem to come very often now and I dealt with 9 evil ships over the 10 hours.

-NOTES-
-Crop Growth is Good and Stable
-Raids are Smaller Until You Get a Lot of Colonists
-Wealth Increase by Buildings Seems High When You Get TV's and Stuff
-Evil Ships Seem To Happen Too Often; however, They are Manageable
-Early Joining of Colonists Seems Limited to Older Pawns (Youngest I got was 55)
-Escape Pods Happen Again Often
-Melee Raids are Often Significantly Smaller than Armed Ones
-Clothes AI Pathfinding is a Little Random At Times

Side Note, Evil Ships can land on top of marshes and water.

[laston]

I just finished a in game 4 year game.  Alpha 10. Base builder, Cassandra.
Ended with 10 colonists leaving on the ship and had 5 die throughout the 5 years.
The longest part was all of the hauling that had to be done.  Especially with all of the clothing.  I started taking the bodies without stripping them because it was easy to haul a bunch. 
There were plenty of times I felt the Ship/Mech attacks were overpowered.  The mechs are the only ones that killed my colonists.
Even with all of the hauling, very enjoyable game.  I plan on playing another one soon.

[Andy_Dandy]

Starting up a new one now. Haven't played since the A10 testbuilds (so little time lately). But must say I's loved the slower pace one Extreme in the testbuild, and all the new things to do, prioritize between and concider. Can't wait starting up an Alpha10f-game right now.

[Dave-In-Texas]

10d-f: the trick is reading the info tabs, experiment and adjust your play style.  oh, and the fast forward button is good for the quiet times - the same way it has always been *grin*

[UnknownSeeker]

AI/Difficulty: Phoebe Basebuilder/Basebuilder
Biome/Terrain/Grow: Boreal Forest/Mountainous/May-Aug
Day 792

I started this colony with the Alpha 10 release and would say I put in about 10 hours of late game play on 10d-10f.

Last night playing 10f I felt there was way to may lighting strikes per storm causing fires... One place in my colony got hit by lighting twice within minutes in the same storm.

Difficultly has gone down since Alpha 9. I enjoy the long time between raids using Phoebe and basebuilder but when they come I want them to come harder like they did in previous builds. Maybe have a new challenge level of Hard Basebuilder? I want to be able to build a fortress and watch as the enemy nearly demolishes it just so that I can build a new fortress and wait for the next raid to nearly demolish it. The number of enemies per raid seems way down and their willingness to give up and run away is a bit to high... At least some of the raids the enemies should be willing to die to the last man. I mortared a siegeing (with mortars) raid and after half of them died they just ran away scared never even trying to attack my colony themselves. Difficultly of Mechanoid attacks and Ancient Ruins still seem to be a good level but that hasn't happened to me since before 10d. Since on most raids I don't have to worry about rebuilding my defenses (since the raids are to light) the pacing seems to lull in the late game with nothing to rebuild.

Trade ship pacing seems good for exotic/bulk/combat are good. However there is a severe lack of normal or above quality armor. And since I can't specify in the outfits tab to qualify armor in a different way or even able to make armor forcing colonists to wear armor sub par quality is a bit tedious. Slave trade ship pacing is HORRIBLE. I have yet to see 1 in my entire game. You would think trade ships would come to backwater planets to stock up... Hey new enemy mission: "A passing by slave trade ship has thought your colonist would make good slaves, prepare to be attacked."

Also I think it would be neat to see a new type of enemy AI. The roving band of theives. They would basically try and force you to stay in your base for about month. They would never assault your base and you wouldn't have to attack them. They would start their mission with about 3-5 times more enemies then a current raid of your game level would and would wander around the map but never get with in attacking range of your base. As they wander around they would pick up anything of value on the map not in your base. If you had been mining a vein of steel but didn't have time to pick it up or if a drop ship comes in they would pick up the materials and bring it back to a central base of theirs (like a siege base without the mortars) and when they left they would take the stuff with them. This would also mean you couldn't farm outside your base, chop trees outside your base, or hunt animals because you would be risking being attacked by some of the roving thieves. This could all be very bad especially if it happened during those times when you need to stock up for winter. Also since the thieves don't typically stay in one spot mortaring them would be a waste with high number of misses or end up destroying the stuff they collect in their base.

[Cassey]

Random Randy, Challenge mode.  291 games days into the scenario, about 17 hours of play time.

10c took forever to recruit - I compensated by just selling every 99 difficulty person captured.  But you knew that already.

10d-f:  Rate of events is a LOT lower from previous releases, but feels much better.  Its now a pleasure when a ship comes by, and any thoughts of earning a living via trading (such as buying medicine from combat ships and selling to virtually anyone else) have gone away.  That is appropriate - we are suppose to be in survival mode! 

Difficulty scaling is keeping it challenging.  Not so much with raids, those are pretty ignorable since they are still mostly coming at me with primitive weapons, and my kill boxes take care of that.  I have started to see some variation in that though - like one group maxed with shields and melee weapons.  Evil ships are still my biggest challenge - trying the "wall in" approach now to see if I can force them into a special built kill box.  Would be nice if Evil ships mechanoids could be defeated some other way.

My personal challenge in the game is to never lose a colonist.  Have to admit I've allowed one who was never satisfied to die.  About the 6th time he went berserk my classic approach of having 2 colonist melee him back into submissions resulted in his death - and I literally said  "good riddances!"   Why do I take this approach:  Only makes sense to me if your going to spend 20-40 hours playing a set of people, improving their skills, giving them bionic parts to replace shot off ones, etc. that you do your utmost to keep them alive.

A couple of ask: 

1) Allow for timed save files, such as once an hour or so.  I try to save at key points, but forget sometimes...
2) Allow priorities to be set for item construction - not by colonist as it is now, but by object.  Its a pain to cancel all my pending projects in order to force the colonist to build around an evil ship.  Ideally, this could be done as a "Priority zone" so that each segment of wall would not need to be prioritized.
3) The totally random character selection gets old.  Spend a LOT of time hitting randomize, just to find out that the world layout is REALLY bad and I need to do it again.  I think it would be nice to be able to say, check 1-3 characteristics, and just see random characters with high stats in those areas.  It would be REALLY COOL to be able to save characters between worlds and import them.  Given the age and "wear and tear" aspect of the game, that would become self limiting.

I just looked, and I registered on this forum a bit over a year ago.  I've been playing EVERY release since.  I've even gotten to the point where I apologize to my wife in advance:  "Sorry love, new release of Rimworld, see you in a couple of days".

I do tend to marathon it - playing 10+ hours is not unusual, and seldom do I play for less than 1 or 2.  Both of my young children (now 6 & play as well, although its a bit much for them - still, I've spent a couple of good "parent/child" days playing with them - and those sessions typically last 6-8 hours...  THANKS!

[TLHeart]

may hours of 10d and a mornings worth of 10f. Cassandra rough.

I am a builder, and enjoy watching them run around doing their daily choirs, and working towards the goal of survival.

The early random wanderer join followed by an escape pod before day 10 can overwhelm a colony. Sometimes I just have to let the escape pod die of their injuries.

The change to clothing in f is welcomed, as now my little people don't run around refusing to get dressed like a 2 year old.

Then comes the first raid, that will not retreat, another well do we really need him, as none of the crops have come in yet, and we are already low on food.... decisions decisions.....

Slave traders come early, and often, when I have no money. Never see them again when I do have the silver to trade.  Once in a great event, i do get to sell an impossible recruit... it is a rare event.

There are long periods of time when very little is happening. the occasional drop pods, the locals walking by, sure wish we could set down and feast with them. maybe a mad animal, got to be careful of those they can sure wreck your day.  The game I presently am playing, my new recruit who was on hunting duty one shot a mad turtle... amazing. 

Then it is siege time... i like the change to sieges, that they will bombard the base, but will not attack the base until you go out and assault them. A 3 man team, to pick off a few, and lead them back to base usually works.

I captured an old chief, with a bad back, and dementia, so I treated him and released him.... he was moving so slow, that he dropped from starvation, and my doctor ran out there and rescued him, brought him back the to colonist medical bed, fed him, and then he wandered off again, and made it off the map. 

Joy in my colony is a non-issue... I assign work duties according to their passions, not what they have the highest ability. Helps the early game joy. Also build beds quickly, and a table to eat and socialize at.  It may just be a pick nik table under a tree, but they like it. I leave about 3 hours of anything time to start, and add an hour of joy to those who need a little extra boost.

I still dread the evil ship drops, but am having fun with different lines of attack to take them down.... one ship dropped against a cliff face, so my rifle brigade was able to fire at one side of the ship which spawned 3 scythers...My team of 3 melee just stood on the other side beating on the ship, in total peace, until the ship broke. by then the rifles had taken two down, and the 3rd just kept turning in circles, until dead.

For me pacing is good. I generally play on speed two, and slow to one for battles.  I also enjoy just setting back and watching the screen as they do the jobs I have qued up...I tend to only have a small amount of jobs to do each day, so that they get done what I want done, and if something comes along to change the plans, they are not buried under 100 other things to do first, so that I have to micro each job.

I have found myself starting a game, and not able to walk away from it. and then the sun rises, and reminds me there might be another world out there.

[Windmoor]

I have been playing Rimworld since A8/early Jan or late dec...can't remember now...lol. I have greatly enjoyed the game, and to that, I thank you Tynan. I registered on the forums today, cause this was the first time I seen something I felt I had to contribute to. I have been a lurker since dec. lol.

State of the game in A10d/f:

The amount of time required for joy can become excessive. I have read 1-2 hours of joy is all they need, but i'm finding my peeps taking half the night to fill their needs then waking at 6am to start the day again. I "had" them set to sleep till 6 am, anything for 1 hr, joy for 2 hrs, work till 2100, anything for 1 hr, sleep at 2200. half my peeps are ok with this, but the other half get to bed between 1 and 3am. I gave up on the dictating their hours thing, and turn them into anything 24hrs. I feel this compromise is serving to negate a feature of the game. I was really looking forward to creating a shift work team, but had to do this fix before I had 6 peeps. I love the idea of the joy system, and the hours system, but find it too hard to manage with the amount of time they require to do things.

The apparel system is awesome. It is working great...as long as my haulers can get the gear into the stockpile before it degrades too much. It was this degrade thing, along with an amazing mod pack (epyk pack), why I didn't play A9. Not to say the game didn't add some great features, it just was a little too much micro mgmt. Now that my peeps can deal with their own needs of clothing, it puts it in a better place. I also like the fact I can still tell them to wear something specific.

The melee fighters are now my worst enemies; But be known I'm only 1 year into a game. With the shields, they have become a formidable foe. Yes mechs can mess up my peeps pretty bad with very few shots, but melee groups can wipe my civilization if they get in close. And when its time to flee, they are already on top of my downed comrades so scoop them up and run off. This is not a complaint, I actually like this. I didn't think I would like the shields when I saw them in A9, but this adds quite a thrill, scary thrill, to myself when a raid of these guys come in.

Things I would love to see added:

An interface where I have an on screen interactive list of peeps in my civ. Its a major pain to try finding that certain person for a task you need done now, ie: trade ship, doctor, hauler...ect.

I know people don't want tower defense. But sometimes it nice to know that I can leave my peeps resting, or allow then to finish the job they are preforming while attackers are being delt with. The range on the turrets are short of the range on some guns. It would make sense that a stationary large turret would be able to shoot much farther then any handheld gun. I would like to see variants to the turrets. Maybe a short range burst gun, and a longer range sniper. I'm sure many know the mod I'm talking about..lol

On that note; I would also like to see base shields. ya ya, I know; "we don't want tower defense". But being able to adapt and survive, would mean natural evolution to better, stronger defense systems. As it stands, we end the game with the same level of base security as we start the game. With the exception of mortars and 1 extra round per fire on turrets. Yes our peeps get more advanced gear and weaponry, but our base gets nothing, just seems odd to me.

Once again; Tynan, Thank you for such a great game.

almost forgot. Randy Random, Rough.

[Garlandgreeneyes]

I'm really enjoying it so far, I'm playing cassandra classic on extreme difficulty. 

I have a big map and some things were taking too long because they're so far away, so I've set up a permanent outpost... basically running two colonies.  I can just barely do it, which feels about right. 

I dislike having to micromanage my miners, it'd be better for them to just not go out and mine at all rather than be almost tired and hungry and start mining plasteel, and not stop until they have a breakdown.  Maybe you could put in a small check to see if their rest and food levels are above half before allowing them to start mining anything that takes a long time, or, upon a poor mood, check to see if they are mining and make them stop. 

On a big map, sieges are difficult because it takes so long to get there, that's good.  Ships are difficult because it takes a while to get back to my defenses, also good, though I could just mortar it until the attack triggers. 

Food seems too easy now, either grown or killed.  A couple small muffalo herds and my muffalo meat is in the thousands.  I should have to hunt more, and grow more.  The activity level seems right, but the amount gained is high. 

Power seems a little too easy as well.  I think the geothermal generators give a little too much.

A great change I think I've seen, pawns seem less likely to die from being shot, and more likely to lose a hand or foot,  I had one colonist lose both hands and one foot, and had her only doing research for months while waiting for a ship to sell some bionics and prosthetics.  I really like that aspect of it, that we have to take care of our casualties. 

I think it could go even more in this direction, though brain injuries basically mean that the pawn is untreatable and not worth keeping, it'd be better if there was in fact some way of treating it (extremely expensive glitterworld nanobots?).  But why would we keep our casualties when we can just replace them?  Maybe a permanent mood debuff when our colonists die?  (Missing friend -1) Just a thought. 

Skill rate gain seems higher than before, I'm enjoying it, but maybe a little too high. 

Tribal attacks are too easy, though they come in great numbers, they're too clumped together,  if they were to be more likely to have bows and space themselves out a bit they'd be a real threat. 

10c was just slightly too hard to recruit, 10f seems too easy to me, the pawns seem to forget that I killed all their friends pretty quickly. 

Clothing changes are happening better than previous releases.

I realize that I'm a pretty hardcore gamer and my opinion may not be indicative of an average gamer.   Sorry if I got a little off topic there.

[CheeseGromit]

It's difficult to make an overall assessment of pacing as I've been changing difficultly levels fairly regularly with the various alpha builds as I try to find something that suits my tastes.

I'm currently playing on Cassandra base builder. Last A9 game was on Phoebe base builder but modded.

My only comment at this stage is that the pirate radiers seem to coming with more advanced gear earlier than I remember in A9. It's probably progressing a bit too fast for my tastes. The last couple of raids came with sniper rifles and power helmets. The gear is not of high quality though.

The current raid that I need to deal with when I get home is a siege and they've regressed to pistols and knives. I don't know if that's related to it being a siege or because there are two pirate factions and they have different tech available.

This is a personal taste thing though. I prefer longer slower paced games and am trying to get away from the idea of hoards of raiders, mountain bases and lots for turrets.

[Tynan]

Thank you greatly for the excellent feedback everyone.

I can't respond to each point, but I'm definitely absorbing all this with great interest. This sort of 'experience description' feedback is really super valuable. I'm pretty blind without it!

[Kegereneku]

Only talking about the Night-day / work and joy pace this is about right.

However in Cassandra Classic "Challenge".
I think I'm having too many attack and they progress too fast in size. Although true I had 6 colonist, I just lost one after the 4th tribal raid at one month of interval. Still remembering the first raid was followed by a sneaky solar flare to make sure I would not use my turret. (which wouldn't be needed if I didn't feared all the time to be overwhelmed, that's the downside of adaptive difficulty)
On the plus side, the number of tribal was indeed lower and they ran away easily, making it relatively survivable had I time to create defense. I'm the sort of guy who don't built wall all around his settlement and even less a killbox, I just build turret and let them take the bulk of the enemy, mostly by exploding.

My biggest concern is my near incapacity to make money, I have a 10+ artist trying to pump out the most legendary sandstone grand culture that will ever exist, but even if I made it AND I meet a trader I'm pretty sure it would only cost something like 1000 with my best negociator (7+ social and perfect health)
My second biggest concern is that I didn't checked the age and health of my colonist. Meaning I have an incredible artist, crafter and a doctor, but with frail back, dementia, and cataract.

This was my settlement at its earlier state. Will take a comparative screenshot during my next game.

As you can see I'm still sizing my bedroom too small.

At the rate at which raid improve however, I fear to be overwhelmed the next time raider come (the last time I was only saved because ally were visiting and took them on while they rushed blindly).
I really do hope Raid become a MINOR feature of Rimworld and more emphasis is done on other aspect of survival or say diplomacy.

That's all from me.

Update :



Got a colonist killed, managed to recruit an awesome female ninja warrior interested in bionic, still trying to recruit an equally hard 16years old genius engineer, rescu/captured a Soldiers.

Again : Day/Night and seasons spacing are about right, Attack on Cassandra Classic ROUGH are still very very hard and threaten the existence of all colonist unless I get lucky or revert save.

[pieman7414]

Short, but I was about 10 min into the game on Cassandra Rough and I got a crashed ship part.