One topic full of questions coming up!

[CrazyChris]

So I have a few things bugging me and haven't been able to find satisfying answers, once again I'm turning to you colony experts.

Map size, any advantage/disadvantage besides the obvious? More resources?

Dedicated soldier, are they that useful and how would I go about training them effectively in firearms?

High end turrets made of plasteel, how useful are they really?

Mortars worth it at all?

Preferred ''industrialization'' path for trade? I find myself trading excess food and primary resources like stone blocks and cloth/leathers.

Good way of getting new colonists? I now realize now it's much better to get a young colonist with passion in the trade you want than an old experienced one.

MODS!  I'm guessing they require a new game to take effect. Not looking for a RimWorld 2.0, just mods that add shit to craft like furniture, new power sources, weapons and armor etc.

Now I THINK I threw everything out there... Might be more coming up.

[Listy]

1: Map size, any advantage/disadvantage besides the obvious? More resources?
A: Its swings and roundabouts here. For example: Enemy take longer to reach you after spawning, but it takes longer to haul stuff or hunt.

2: Dedicated soldier, are they that useful and how would I go about training them effectively in firearms?
A: in the late game yeah a tricked out sniper team can nail those pesky Sieging enemies mortars. Train them by hunting or use Neurotrianers.

3:High end turrets made of plasteel, how useful are they really?
A: No idea, I only ever use steel as I expect my turrets to die after performing a function.

4: Mortars worth it at all?
None what so ever.

5: Preferred ''industrialization'' path for trade? I find myself trading excess food and primary resources like stone blocks and cloth/leathers.
A: Not sure I follow you here, do everything! Its not like you're on a clock or limited by time?

6:Good way of getting new colonists?
A: Tapping them upside the head with a mace. I have a way around my defences which means when the enemy break My assault squad can make it to the entrance before the enemies do.. and they all have maces.

[A Friend]

4: Mortars worth it at all?
None what so ever.

u wot.

A few accurate mortar rounds can DECIMATE numerous tribal raiders and any other clumped up enemies. Only useful if it's not an immediate attack though. (But people can pretty much just rely on killbox defense granted that it's decent.)

[Listy]

A few accurate mortar rounds can DECIMATE numerous tribal raiders and any other clumped up enemies.

Its much cheaper to release a few captured enemies than feed a mortar. But More importantly "Accurate".. In this game you're lucky to land in the same post code. If Mortars were a bit more accurate someone might do something with them.

[REMworlder]

1: Map size, any advantage/disadvantage besides the obvious? More resources?

I find map size's biggest effect is in super cold environments like ice sheet. If you use the large sizes, you'll hardly touch the edges of the map at all and visitors will tend to freeze to death before reaching you. Otherwise I tend to play on one setting above the normal size.

2: Dedicated soldier, are they that useful and how would I go about training them effectively in firearms?

The value of a dedicated soldier is it keeps your valuable money-making colonists off the front lines. They're not good as starting colonists though. Hunting improves shooting skill.

3:High end turrets made of plasteel, how useful are they really?

Not that much more useful, just a little more survivability. If you have tons of plasteel and lots of turrets already, consider putting a plasteel turret at the backline.

4: Mortars worth it at all?

That's pretty useful, especially for counter-siege. The accuracy has been improved since they were first introduced. Incendiary mortars are best if you can follow them up with small arms fire, shooting the raiders or tribals while they try to extinguish themselves. EMP mortars are useless.

6:Good way of getting new colonists?

A new colonist will join your colony a few days in and colonists fleeing raiders are pretty common. I find these alone give me plenty of colonists. Buying from slave traders is almost impossible on the harder difficulties because the prices are so artificially deflated. Recruiting captured raiders and tribals can be pretty easy unless the recruitment chance is really low, or you lack social colonists to do the recruiting.

[TLHeart]

Emp mortars are great, they disable the bubble warriors shield, meaning sniper shots are effective sooner, or turrets are more effective. If you allow the colonist to select the target, the accuracy circle is 8 cells, if you force target, the accuracy circle is 16 cells.

Emp mortars stun mechs, and they stay stunned, for a long period of time, no instant adapt and kill you. 2nd emp mortar stun does not clear the first stun, like it did before alpha 12.

[Mmgfrcs]

Map size, any advantage/disadvantage besides the obvious? More resources?
Nope. I prefer a decent map size, not too big and not too small so I have enough resource and battle preparations

Dedicated soldier, are they that useful and how would I go about training them effectively in firearms?
Yes, to bolster your defences. High shooting/melee skills are a great value. Train them with hunting or attacking something, at least. It's one of the easiest skill to train

High end turrets made of plasteel, how useful are they really?
Endurance. Plasteel turrets are hardest to destroy than any other turrets. For combat power, It didn't matter.

Mortars worth it at all?
Used correctly then yes. Regulars and Incendiaries are useful against hordes, EMPs are good against mechs and shield users. Make sure to stock on the Artillery bullet

Preferred ''industrialization'' path for trade? I find myself trading excess food and primary resources like stone blocks and cloth/leathers.
Just as starters. You should be selling normal-legendary arts and uninstalled, constructed items by the time you have your 15th raid

Good way of getting new colonists? I now realize now it's much better to get a young colonist with passion in the trade (trait?) you want than an old experienced one.
Capture raiders or Spacer colonists (the one you rescued during Escape pod event). Not recommended for endurance play, however

MODS!  I'm guessing they require a new game to take effect. Not looking for a RimWorld 2.0, just mods that add shit to craft like furniture, new power sources, weapons and armor etc.
Look at the Mods section of this forum for that. Some mods don't require a new game to be played, just using old saves. I myself has a mod (unfinished) to be played with, so have fun playing

[skullywag]

map size is also intrinsically linked to performance, the bigger the map the more things ticking, the more things ticking the more processor is needed. If you have a beastly processor 400x400 runs fine. (for reference im using an AMD FX8350 8 core, so technically my single core (game isnt multithreaded) clock speed isnt as fast as an i7 but still doesnt slow down on 400 size)

[Limdood]

Map Size:
Smaller - less resources, but faster ability to travel around.  If you have a tough time with getting caught in the open during raids, small maps might help.  Runs better/faster because there are less things to track.
Larger - more resources, travelling cross-map can take near a day.  Runs worse on computers. 

I find that dedicated soldiers tend to have SOMETHING else they can do...whether cooking, crafting, intellectual, or art.  I just have the soldiers do that 24/7.  As said above, hunting levels shooters fast.  Give them an inaccurate gun and have them hunt squirrels.  They gain skill for every shot fired, not every hit.

turrets - Just use steel.  They go down fast...the explosion is often more useful than the shooting.

Mortars - I've never found a use.  I rarely feel like i have time to take mortar shots, and i generally prefer meeting sieges head on.

Industrialization - wood Art, cotton -> crafting clothes, corn production, BEER.  I keep a big hops garden and mass produce beer to sell to pirate traders (you get about 66% more from pirates than from bulk goods for beer).

New colonists - as said, raids can give you a good, if unsteady source.  Having a lot of prisoners will also raise your social faster.  As an aside, you should learn which jobs AREN'T penalized by old-age defects, to better use old colonists.  And even otherwise useless colonists can often be set to clean and haul only.  Social (no dementia), animal, shooting (no cataracts), cooking (time is less an issue), growing (high skill is better than good manipulation for growing) are all jobs that old colonists can do with comparable efficiency to your younger ones.

[cultist]

One mortar is useless. The odds you will hit anything before you are forced to switch tactics is minimal. Once you have three or more mortars, things start to become interesting. There's a decent chance you'll hit a few raiders before they reach your base, and against static targets it's actually pretty useful. On soft targets, you probably won't need more than one or two hits. Against mechaniods, the best you can hope for is a few kills and softening them up, which isn't bad all things considered.

For this to work however, your mortars need to be exposed. They need to be close to your defenses/killbox, because you don't want your defenders stuck on mortars once the real fight begins.

[Listy]

A few accurate mortar rounds can DECIMATE numerous tribal raiders and any other clumped up enemies. Only useful if it's not an immediate attack though. (But people can pretty much just rely on killbox defense granted that it's decent.)

After seeing this and a few other tries I went out and tried it. Built 6 mortars and waited for the first use. It was a siege. So I manned the guns.

Yes Mortars are more accurate than before however that's only if you let the colonist pick their own target, and they invariably pick the closest. Which means a large portion of the shots drop short. After the gunfire was over there was a strip of land that I'd blasted clear well short of the enemy, and only a couple of rounds had hit the mob.

So far they've been distinctly under whelming. Certainly an improvement on before, but not massive. So maybe my original "None what so ever" wasn't kind. Maybe a "Just there fore the Giggles" is a fairer comment.

[Jarwy]

After seeing this and a few other tries I went out and tried it. Built 6 mortars and waited for the first use. It was a siege. So I manned the guns.

Yes Mortars are more accurate than before however that's only if you let the colonist pick their own target, and they invariably pick the closest. Which means a large portion of the shots drop short. After the gunfire was over there was a strip of land that I'd blasted clear well short of the enemy, and only a couple of rounds had hit the mob.

So far they've been distinctly under whelming. Certainly an improvement on before, but not massive. So maybe my original "None what so ever" wasn't kind. Maybe a "Just there fore the Giggles" is a fairer comment.

I recommend "targeting" your mortals when dealing with enemy groups who wait or siege. Pick a spot in the middle of the enemy group as a whole and you tend to hit the ones on the edge with less accurate shots. Usually I get the best effects from sieging enemies, because their own ammunitions will explode if your shells score even a grazing hit on a stack.

Now, the main selling point of a mortal is this: your incapable of violence colonist don't mind shredding enemies as they man mortals. You are not going to need them in the front lines so that's one way to use them in a battle.

Of course, if you do just fine without mortals, then more power to you.

[Thane]

I adore mortars for the late game. Early and mid-game they are useless, but as soon as you can make like 12-20 of the things, and have enough colonists to man them all; you are set. You can forget your killbox, make thick walls errywhere (6-7 blocks) and now the only raids you have to worry about are the ones that drop into the middle of your base.

It's hilarious watching 200 tribals literally evaporate under a hail of mortar shells. Also sappers are no more an issue. Just bombard them until they are begging for release and mop up.