Rimworld's most want (features for long plays)

[akiceabear]

A recent comment about colonist birth not really being a long play feature due to little change in the years of immaturity got me thinking about another question: what feature(s) would add the most to RimWorld's long term gameplay? Entirely subjective, of course, but perhaps a fun one to think about.

I generally get bored of a colony by the end of year two or by the time I hit 15-20 pawns. Most productive facilities are built and running at full efficiency, surplus is generating more mineral wealth via trade, and the colony is largely in equilibrium with the exception of growing raids. From that point on wards its merely a race of escalating attacks and escalating defense, which I either succumb to or choose to quit. That is, the gameplay mechanics largely peter out after two years (if not earlier) for me. Your mileage may vary.

A few thoughts on "big" gameplay mechanics that would help with make later years more interesting, and why.

Events - I personally find the variety of events still quite low. I hope that eventually there are dozens of events unique to each biome, and also colony size, longevity and wealth. Those latter events would ensure that there is a reason to play longer - you see a completely different set of events in later years than in earlier years. Whether the events are procedurally generated by game play mechanics or hard coded is irrelevant to to me, but more variety here (especially on the time axis) would help a lot with long plays. Hopefully at one point we get a event-intensive update, rather than the 1-2 (?) trickle per alpha that we've seen so far.

Relationships and preferences - Tynan has stated that the big feature for A13 might be relationships - that would be a welcome addition. In addition to colonist relationships (i.e. they love/like/dislike/hate other colonists or groups of colonists because of a range of attributes), I hope preferences are also added. Perhaps this is splitting hairs, but I think important. Relationships decribe colonists' preferences with regards to other pawns, while preferences are with regards to everything else. Preferences can influence relationships (but not vice versa?), but also impact broader colony-level goals. For example, if I add many tribal pawns to my colony I may eventually have a substantial bloc that is suspicious of technology, weakening my ability to use it (and some may even sabotage it). Perhaps they decide that mech corpses are to be worshipped, rather than smelted down (as the jaded glitterworld pawns prefer). This creates a choice for the player - do I appease the tribal bloc in my colony, or the more advanced pawns? What are the implications for relations with nearby settlements, let alone the long run prospects for the colony? If I ignore the problem how long will it take for frictions to reach a boil? Another example would be cannibalism - colonies shouldn't simply grin and bear it because they have a decent horseshoes pin to distract them. Some preferences should be well beyond the remit of general joy to solve. Pawns should have preferences about pretty much everything in the colony, and they should actually need to be satisfied in somewhat specific ways, rather than just providing a pool table (one of several cure-alls to any colonist discomfort). Moreover, as wealth increases they should "gain" new preferences based on their background - e.g. for construction of temples, major infrastructure projects, etc - which would be general enough that the player had considerable flexibility in addressing them, but that had to be addressed nonetheless (or ignored at the risk of colony stability).

Z-levels - doesn't need a huge amount of description, but I think is worth including because it does radically increase the scope for creativity on longer play. For example, a player has a set of pawns that generally want a major project to be built with some broad characteristics, and the player manages the colony in a way that satisfies it. Even within pawn preferences players would find a lot of ways to exhibit their creativity with this kind of mechanism (e.g. I managed to build this and survive 10 years on CC Extreme while doing it!). What prompted this (in addition to the post cited above) is reading more stories from Dwarf Fortress lately. My impression is that many long plays in DF focus on players arbitrarily deciding the pursue some insane construction project, and then all the problems they run into along the way as a result of the interaction with game mechanics (whether the fail or succeed). RimWorld's current construction scope doesn't allow for that level of creativity or variety of projects, which means there isn't much reason to play longer than it takes to launch  ship, except for those who really want to see "one more colonist/raid".

So, what mechanics/feature would add the most for your long game? I clearly have chosen some that aren't anywhere near the development roadmap, so please don't feel constrained - what would add the most for you? Perhaps Tynan (or Ludeon in general) will tackle some of them sooner or later...

[christhekiller]

Perhaps being able to expand past the borders of the starting map, it would be cool if you could like, send colonists to conquer neighboring provinces from say, a small(ish) pirate base, or being able to purchase more land from some sort of governing entity (A la Prison Architect) though that goes against the lore a bit,

And being able to attack other settlements would be freaking, phenomenal, like, destroying a pirate base and ensuring they don't attack you for awhile, or being able to raid settlements for cash and prisoners.

Speaking of, expanded diplomacy features would be great too. Currently the only way to improve relations is to either rescue a downed ally, release an enemy prisoner, or give not-hostiles silver. So it's rather eh, it's okay, just eh.

[Toggle]

Z-levels just aren't even really being discussed by Tynan. It would be an entirely massive gameplay change, unlikely to ever be added really.

[ZeeOvenfresh]

I kind of like the idea of forming a governing body on the rimworld. having all factions love you and establishing a congress would allow diplomatic decisions for the rest of the world kind of like the world congress in Civilization 5. Maybe the other factions send diplomats to your colony and all of them bicker if they should ban chocolate or embargo one of the pirates.

[ttgg]

I would love to see added events.

Trading with neighbors? Rather than them just randomly passing by, why not stop by our (built, manned and maintained) trading post? Offer cheap prices to slowly build reputation, or squeeze them for every dime to slow erode your reputation (eventually resulting in hostility).

An "inn"? Someplace for your neighbors to come hang out, drink beer and build relations, again rather than them just passing by.

Being able to sweet-talk guests into joining the colony, perhaps at risk of losing relation with their faction.

Diplomatic visit from neighbor ambassador or leader. You have to protect them while they're in your zone, or risk diplomatic disaster (huge reputation loss, think Franz Ferdinan)

Build simple robots for various tasks, like cleaning and hauling (can build space-ship but not a roomba?)

A counselor who could provide emotional support for those with low mood.

[ZeeOvenfresh]

Also perhaps ransoming prisoners for resources? Raiders can also ransom their prisoners(captured colonists).

[Noughtilus]

An idea I just had while reading this.

Cryosleep hibernation.
Set up your fortress for automated defence and set a time for when to wake up. Everything but the room you're in goes dark, time speeds up (drastically), things happen on the map, your fortress dilapidates crops spread unattended or die, etc. When you wake up there might be settlers, aliens, etc elsewhere on the map. Or you may not even make it to your desired wake-up year, the storyteller could test your defences with progressively more difficult intruders (simulated, not shown), they might wake your colonists prematurely or at least you might have a destroyed facility when you wake up.

You could get messages, as you do presently, about happenings on the map, i.e. "Your fortress was attacked, X was destroyed", "A new colony has been formed nearby, they're steering clear of your fortress... for now"

There'd probably have to be an improvement on electrical storage, generation and defence systems. But this could lead to some really interesting design problems when it comes to power management, strategic defence building, and what not. Needing to build redundant battery arrays and more protected power generation systems. With technologies to research like longer life, higher capacity batteries and heavier duty defences this could easily become a huge resource sink for late game players that want to go down this path.

Sorry, this is written kinda haphazardly.

[akiceabear]

All nice ideas. I especially like the one about adding some mechanics to cryo-caskets - make your colony into an ancient ruin to be stumbled upon! Would make for an interesting start of the game

I also like the idea of a larger meta-game which somehow takes more advantage of the world map. One idea I posted in the past was almost an Oregon Trail extension - you have a random colony location and need to build up enough to save up cash to fund a trip to a destination (e.g. where other survivors are, a crucial part for your ship, etc). That could be done by paying pirates for transport, but it takes a few stops and colonies along the way. It would force you to rebuild and restock a few times with the same set of survivors, across different biomes with different challenges (perhaps difficulty gradually ramps up?). Would not really require radically different gameplay, just destablize life with your precious colonists if you wanted to reach the meta "goal".

World governing body would be nice if the underlying game mechanics supported it, but I think we are good way from that point That would require gameplay in the range of decades or centuries - which I would love, but only if the intervening years were interesting!

ZOMBIE2 - I'm well aware of the development hints Tynan has posted, and what is unlikely to be included. This thread was only for the sake of discussion, not to dictate anything to anyone, including Tynan. Also, just because its unlikely does not mean impossible - maybe Ludeon will one day decide a RimWorld 2.0 expansion is commercially worthwhile and hire another person, which would allow Tynan to move onto other projects as he's said is his eventual plan. Regardless, that doesn't prevent us from discussing remote possibilities here.