water as a semi rare resource

[Mattija]

One way or the other i belive the game would benefit a lot from having water as a resource. whathever way it is implemented however it should have a somewhat different mechanic compared to other prime resources in the game (food and power) otherwise it would just add complexity withnout adding meaningful choices for the player.

There are already plenty of great ideas posted here, instead of adding to them i'll just post the way i was imagining a possible system for water.

As a resource water would be defined by sources and outlets for usage

SOURCES
as Rimworld has this "desert planet" appearance it would be interesting if water avaibility was a real constraint for the development of a colony, as opposed to power and food which are only limited by the infrastracture you decide to build withnout any real limit except space.
The way i propose to do so would be through temporary water pools: what if the actual water was underground, and manages to rise to the surface by the means of tidal forces? It is implied that the planet is a moon of a gas giant, so it would not be unrealistic to have water to surface during the "high tide" and to recede underground during the "low tide".
The effect of this would be to have seasons of a sort that, provided water has vital uses for the colony, would force player to adapt by stockpiling enough water during the "water season" in order to survive the dry season.
This has also the advantage that would not be excessivly difficult to implement: we just need to add a special tile of terrain to the map generator. Let's call it "mud" for now, during the "water season" all mud tiles would be replaced by still water, which could be collected indefinetly by colonists (with the hauling job enabled) if highlighted under the "orders" tab; while during the dry season all still water would be converted back to mud tiles.
As for other, artificial, sources of water, of course there's space for all of them aswell, but you must be careful not to trivialise water management by making them easly avaible, perhaps they could be limited by weather, or be locked down as a difficult research topic. I see no problem making it buyable from trade ships though.

USAGE
Water collected would take the form of a carriable resource and could be stockpiled as other tangible resources in order to be consumed in various ways:
-Perhaps the most obvious use would be for colonist to drink it. Each colonist would need a "thrist" bar added to them, when it's empty he would go consume water from a stockpile or directly from a pond, it would be nice if said thrist bar would decay faster when the colonist is under sunlight.
For added complexity we could add a "water purifier" that works in a similar way to the nutrient paste generator, and add negative thoughts for colonists which have to resort to unpurified water.
-Another use could be farming, in this case each plant would have an "hydratation" value which would kill the plant if it reaches 0, colonists with the "grow plants" job would need to water the crops in order to not let them die. Obviously the system can be expanded: crops in open areas would be hydrated by rain, perhaps hydroponics would require more water, the addition of a "sprinkler" fueled with hoppers that hydrate crops automatically.
-Preventing fires: colonists would be able to douse flames quickly by using water (in this case perhaps it would be auspicable to increase the difficulty to do so withnout)
-Other non vital uses could then be added: showers or other hygienic furnitures are a common suggstion, lavish meals, perhaps as fuel for to-be-added fusion reactors, etc....

What i personally like about this idea is how it adds tension to the simple managment of the colony which scales accordingly the more colonists you have. Currently the only threats your colony face are external attacks, if left on his own colonies thrives with little effort, this would make for a more interesting experience.
In addition this would be easly tweakable, you could add a checkbox in the world generation tab to disable the tides and have water effectiely never disappear; or have different season lenghts with different storytellers.

Apologies for the lengthy post and for any language mistakes i surely made (i'm italian); also to those who posted ideas that go in different directions, i don't have the presuntion to think this is the only and possible way to implement such a system, i just wanted to add my idea as a possible and alternative inspiration.

[daft73]

Water as a resource, nice idea. Could be used for firefighting, consumption, eye-candy in game...plenty of other reasons.
Maybe the colonists could build a "above-ground pool" to capture rainwater.(this option, a new building vs new terrain,z-axis ect...easier to implement)


Then piped to connect it to a water purifier, fire extinguish system, ect. Could be possible to create a windmill/watermills system(though through extensive in game preparations..ie several 'buildings' working together).

Water, the next frontier.

[Veyda]

Not to kick a dead muffalo, but I really like this suggestion. Water is life. 

There were many great ideas here - some of them really costly and requiring extensive refactoring, some that can be implemented overnight.. but I believe most of it can be done in baby steps and a good place to start is probably agriculture and rain (since both systems already exist):

• Each plant, in addition to preferred light level and temperature, has a hydration requirement. Obviously, high for water-loving plants like rice, almost nonexistent for cacti.
• Plant's growth (and withering) is governed by where its current hydration is in relation to the optimal level (after light and temp).
• Too much hydration may also be a bad thing, especially for xerophytic plants.
• Hydration stat is replenished when it rains (snows too?), and depletes over time depending on surrounding temperature.¹
• Rain water can be collected into rain collector barrels (new structure), from which crops can be watered (new job) by a colonist.
• Since rainfall and biome are already correlated, native plant hydration balance shouldn't be too hard.

¹ - May render the Desert biome unplayable until other water sources are implemented. Possibly introduce one or two edible xerophytic crops.

[SSS]

Water as a resource could make ice sheets more than a mega-death biome, since even though the temperatures would still be insane, you would have tons of (frozen) water as a mitigating factor.

[Fred999]

Bumping this to revive it.

Everytime I play the game I wonder about water use...  water purification, water to kill fires..  AND water to grow ressources !!!

Tynan we really need water.

edit : would be perfect as we need it to produce beer 

[blub01]

I think water shouldn't be forced to be a rare resource, and instead be more like food. you need quite a bit of it, but it's not hard to come by. if you don't play in a desert, of course. or a swamp, because the water is really dirty there, and you'll have to clean it to get it drinkable.

[Gaiska]

+1 i wonder too that water isnt in the game. i think it should not be too rare because the game is hard enough. nice idea!

[Ectoplasm]

This is one of those ideas that once stated leave you thinking 'now I hear it - it's obvious'.

Water really should find a place in the game, it's key in every survival scenario after all! I really like someones idea above of an in base water generation device / room / system. Colonists could draw a portion of water each day, perhaps you could even ration the water amount - just like food - if your pawns get extra then they work a little faster and are generally happier.

Perhaps as default when you crash land, there is a dew collector in your supplies, like this;



Which is enough for say 5 pawns. Technology could be researched to increase the water production rate, to allow a large colony size, or better hydrate those pawns you already have. Perhaps even, excess water could be taken to crop fields..? Irrigation systems maybe..?

Fine idea OP. So much potential in this idea in so many ways.

[LittleGreenStone]

I was thinking water should be collected like solar panels collect power, there would be a rain catch that fills a tank that is used over time.

I have a great idea about stable water source, but I can't seem to remember its name...
Anyway, it's a simple yet quite efficient design given its natural properties, although in some case it takes more time to build. Still, once done, it easily provides fresh water for dozens, hundreds even.

I've tried to googled it,
the device should look similar to this.

[blub01]

One way or the other i belive the game would benefit a lot from having water as a resource. whathever way it is implemented however it should have a somewhat different mechanic compared to other prime resources in the game (food and power) otherwise it would just add complexity withnout adding meaningful choices for the player.

There are already plenty of great ideas posted here, instead of adding to them i'll just post the way i was imagining a possible system for water.

As a resource water would be defined by sources and outlets for usage

SOURCES
as Rimworld has this "desert planet" appearance it would be interesting if water avaibility was a real constraint for the development of a colony, as opposed to power and food which are only limited by the infrastracture you decide to build withnout any real limit except space.
The way i propose to do so would be through temporary water pools: what if the actual water was underground, and manages to rise to the surface by the means of tidal forces? It is implied that the planet is a moon of a gas giant, so it would not be unrealistic to have water to surface during the "high tide" and to recede underground during the "low tide".
The effect of this would be to have seasons of a sort that, provided water has vital uses for the colony, would force player to adapt by stockpiling enough water during the "water season" in order to survive the dry season.
This has also the advantage that would not be excessivly difficult to implement: we just need to add a special tile of terrain to the map generator. Let's call it "mud" for now, during the "water season" all mud tiles would be replaced by still water, which could be collected indefinetly by colonists (with the hauling job enabled) if highlighted under the "orders" tab; while during the dry season all still water would be converted back to mud tiles.
As for other, artificial, sources of water, of course there's space for all of them aswell, but you must be careful not to trivialise water management by making them easly avaible, perhaps they could be limited by weather, or be locked down as a difficult research topic. I see no problem making it buyable from trade ships though.

USAGE
Water collected would take the form of a carriable resource and could be stockpiled as other tangible resources in order to be consumed in various ways:
-Perhaps the most obvious use would be for colonist to drink it. Each colonist would need a "thrist" bar added to them, when it's empty he would go consume water from a stockpile or directly from a pond, it would be nice if said thrist bar would decay faster when the colonist is under sunlight.
For added complexity we could add a "water purifier" that works in a similar way to the nutrient paste generator, and add negative thoughts for colonists which have to resort to unpurified water.
-Another use could be farming, in this case each plant would have an "hydratation" value which would kill the plant if it reaches 0, colonists with the "grow plants" job would need to water the crops in order to not let them die. Obviously the system can be expanded: crops in open areas would be hydrated by rain, perhaps hydroponics would require more water, the addition of a "sprinkler" fueled with hoppers that hydrate crops automatically.
-Preventing fires: colonists would be able to douse flames quickly by using water (in this case perhaps it would be auspicable to increase the difficulty to do so withnout)
-Other non vital uses could then be added: showers or other hygienic furnitures are a common suggstion, lavish meals, perhaps as fuel for to-be-added fusion reactors, etc....

What i personally like about this idea is how it adds tension to the simple managment of the colony which scales accordingly the more colonists you have. Currently the only threats your colony face are external attacks, if left on his own colonies thrives with little effort, this would make for a more interesting experience.
In addition this would be easly tweakable, you could add a checkbox in the world generation tab to disable the tides and have water effectiely never disappear; or have different season lenghts with different storytellers.

Apologies for the lengthy post and for any language mistakes i surely made (i'm italian); also to those who posted ideas that go in different directions, i don't have the presuntion to think this is the only and possible way to implement such a system, i just wanted to add my idea as a possible and alternative inspiration.

Hydration should only really be necessary in rather dry biomes, and plants should require different amounts of hydration to thrive (rice really much, potatoes somewhere in the middle maybe?). also the tide idea is nice, but it should also be possible (with considerable effort) to access the ground water directly. you could also make it necessary to clean water, or else it's going to be quite likely that your pawns actually get sick from it.
in the early game, you'd have to distill the water at the cook stove, but maybe you could get some kind of automated facility later on. if you are in a hot biome, while it's going to be harder to actually get water, and need more, you could maybe also use the sunlight to distill it. of course distillation isn't ideal, because it drains everything out of the water, so you really want to get to some kind of chemical cleansing soon. also, settling on the coast actually makes sense now, because, although there are less mountains (and thus less metal), you have a practically unlimited supply of water if you can distill it to get the salt out. the tides shouldn't leave mud behind, but just create random pools when they come up. also, there should still be larger lakes, which would shrink during the dry season.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Ive edited the frequent suggestions topic to link to this thread as it seems to be the best discussion on water.

[FullMetalPant]

This post is necro. But I'd really like to see water system implemented in the game. It's like the most important resource for life to survive. I can't help but think when a pawn go berserk because he has been rejected 7 time by the same pawn, feel uncomfortable, ate a raw potato, think is room is too small and not good enough for his crash survivor fancy taste, that if he had drank a coffee this morning, his life would be different, but he had no water. And also, if he had took a shower, maybe he would smell better and have more success with the ladies.

Seriously, I can't help but to think all of this affect a colonist well being while he don't need water. Water being an omnipresent resource so abundant that there is no need to seek strategy to get it, while you spend so much time making pretty room to satisfy all those little prince and princess. He even have drugs now to cope with that girl rejection, what is next? A therapist to help with his addiction?

Water would add a full dimension to the game, a new challenge but not overwhelming, as we can all understand that we need water instinctively.

Water system should be in my opinion similar to electricity system. No need to make it over complicated with tons of animation and tons of requirement to find water. It should be as hard if not harder than electricity to distribute in a base, but we are also in 5500 and we space travel, I would think they have came up with a technology that can produce H2O using different method. A pump that extract water from a well, like those geothermal holes... it should be harder to get in desert that is for sure, but not impossible. I don't know. Seek in scifi.

I really like the game anyway, I just think that it is the most obvious missing feature that would improve the game play the most.

By the way, I like all those feature, drugs, relationship, beauty, joy systems and the game is awesome, again, just think that water at this point could be the next big thing to implement.

P.S. Thinking of those geothermal hole, maybe you could have a choice to make between using it for electricity or to extract water from the steam? Make a choice, easy water, or easy power?

[Pax_Empyrean]

I would rather pay attention to other things.

[chaotix14]

I really like the game anyway, I just think that it is the most obvious missing feature that would improve the game play the most.

By the way, I like all those feature, drugs, relationship, beauty, joy systems and the game is awesome, again, just think that water at this point could be the next big thing to implement.

P.S. Thinking of those geothermal hole, maybe you could have a choice to make between using it for electricity or to extract water from the steam? Make a choice, easy water, or easy power?

Except the feature is not missing it's deliberately not there(there is a reason why Tynan hasn't implemented something so obvious and in your face), if you've noticed all the colonist needs, then you might be aware that they mechanically are different from another. Water overlaps with food, it serves the same purpose and is mechanically the same(intake of resource to satisfy).

[Pax_Empyrean]

Water don't overlap food. Not more than comfort, beauty and joy overlap each other. Try to survive 3 day without drinking and come back tell me if water overlap your food. Not to mention hygiene and all the good things and strategy it could add to the game, maybe at some point this idea didn't made sense and was too costy to implement, but things evolve. Good for you if you don't like the idea, it doesn't mean that some other players wouldn't like to see it happen so if it doesn't interest you why don't you spend you energy on proposing things that you'd like instead of bashing idea you don't like. For your information, a month ago the game as been launched on steam which has give lot of attention to the game and a new pool of consumers that deserve the same respect than you and their suggestions has as much values than yours.

If somebody can't be bothered to read—and follow—the stickied post on frequently suggested features before jumping in, their suggestions don't deserve the respect of anyone.

The fact that you're still fucking going on about it even after it's been pointed out that this shit ain't happening per the stickied post suggests that you're probably a moron, and definitely a nuisance.