Wild and Wacky Biomes

[JimmyAgnt007]

on one hand, research to deal with the jungle makes sense, but on the other it kills the end game difficulty.  Maybe a psychic calming beacon on the jungle instead.

[jzero]

How about when you land you could have a chance ( more so in specific biomes ) to land in a region with a volcano, like say, you land on the map and the game warns you that you have landed in a region with an active volcano nearby. The volcano could occasionally erupt, raising temperatures considerably and spewing smoke (which could make it so that you could have trouble seeing outside and blocking the sun, disabling solar generators and maybe hurting people outside because of smoke-inhalation) followed by a phase of lava, flowing down the map and burning trees and wooden structures. Now obviously this would be forcing people to make mountain bases to hide from the volcano , but , there is only a chance of this happening when you play a map so it wouldnt be a big game-ruiner. After the lava is done flowing it would harden into obsidian, in some places being high enough to make a stone-like wall and in other places just preventing plant growth. After the lava was done the smoke would stay in the sky for another couple days and then just leave. This sounds awful but the volcano could also prevent raiders from attacking you. Reducing raids could be a nice balancing afctor for the devastation of a volcano erupting.

I know that this int particularly wild or wacky but i thought that it would be cool to post anyway.

sorry for text wall 

[killer117]

2 things

1: With those mutant forests, they sound awsome, but in order to keep the difficulty up even higher, you could make a new type of raider, one that only spawns late game. (im getting inspiration off the divisions cleamer enimies). these guys are hardcore dudes in heavy armour, armed to the teeth and using flamthrowers and molotovs to clear a path through the forest. these guys stay in a tight group, with flamethrwers up front, molotovs behind them and the troops up back.

also with those forests, imagine they snatch up one of your guys, and he bonds with the trees. now hes not under your control anymore and is making the forest far more organised and dangerous. the trees around his are getting thicker, stronger and more agressive. animals form patroling packs regardless of thier species, and hunt down stray people and defend the forst. other trees may obtain more colinsts or raiders and the ecome kind of secondary headquaters of the forest, also being more defended and patroled. then when raiders or you tried to burn up the forest the whole forest and wildlife would conduct an organised defense against you, throwing out waves of animals and plant monsters, and using vines to attack and drag off your people. the more people the forest obtains, the more animals, vines and other cretures it can field against you.

2: giant wrecked ship biome. imagine the ship gravyard biome, but instead of lots of ships its just one giant wreck. it takes up a large chunk of the map and has the capacity to be any one of the giant ships different sectors. it could be engineering with radioactive engines. it could be crew quaters with lots of bedrooms. it could be the cargo hold with loads of supplys. it could be the bridge with an AI core and lots of cool gear. it could be security with guns and armour ect. you could give each room its own fog of war, meaning you have to breach and clear each room one by one, any of them could be booby trapped, filled with automated defenses, squating raiders, machanoids, or even allies that need help.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Dang it killer117 i was just starting to think the mutant forest would be fun, then you go and make it terrifying...

A massive crashed colony ship or whatever would be rather interesting.  Lots of metal but almost no soil to grow food.  Danger everywhere, do you open up a room and risk everything for treasure that might be inside?

jzero, A volcano would be interesting, even if its not in your map, say its on the world map and your proximity to it determines how much it effects you.  I think it would actually discourage an underground fort since by the time we have that we will most likely have earthquakes.  Also magma vents might open up in the rock that could be the middle of your base.  Ash falls like snow and needs to be cleared.  Flowing lava would need its own fluid dynamics of some kind so its not easy but would be neat.  You rush to build stone walls to control the flow.  Good thinking!

[jzero]

jzero, A volcano would be interesting, even if its not in your map, say its on the world map and your proximity to it determines how much it effects you.  I think it would actually discourage an underground fort since by the time we have that we will most likely have earthquakes.  Also magma vents might open up in the rock that could be the middle of your base.  Ash falls like snow and needs to be cleared.  Flowing lava would need its own fluid dynamics of some kind so its not easy but would be neat.  You rush to build stone walls to control the flow.  Good thinking!

the lava could possibly be like a very specific form of fire. Such as you would have the lava texture, and much like fire it would spread. But the key difference is that when it spawns it is coded to spread only in one direction possibly with little side columns spreading from the main flow.

I like the idea of making stone walls to stop it but what i meant there was like that when the lava hardened, the flow would have been so big the obsidian would be tall enough to qualify for a wall (seems pretty silly now that i think of it) but if you could make stone walls they would have to be maybe double thick or something because if a bullet can pass through a solid brick wall then a steady stream of lave probably could get through it. I was thinking and maybe the only structures able to survive it should be thick stone-walled ones able to withstand the lava flow. Of course you would still get a warning about being too close to volcanoes so you would know to make those kinds of buildings.

P.S. sorry for text wall again 

[JimmyAgnt007]

That could work.  I think the bullet passing through the walls bug would be fixed by then but who knows what kind of tactics we would end up using to divert lava. 

Having a colony on the volcano itself would just be too insane unless we get some serious temperature control systems lol  Though id love the supervillain vibe from it.

I hope Tynan goes through this thread for ideas later on. 

[Draegon]

Maybe the plants could have a special bulb that could be harvested that when planted by the colony could either revive a recently dead colonist as a plant colonist or could grow a new colonist once.

[Draegon]

Figured I should keep this thread going since it's a neat thread plus it includes harder biomes not just weird ones. I had a post about ocean biomes a while ago, thought I should post it here

I was thinking about how currently we cannot make a colony in the ocean at all and I know it makes no sense to have a colony in the middle of the ocean, why not add archipelagos? It would be really cool to have a colony on an island or island chain.
It could also add new incidents such as

• Hurricanes
  Tsunamis
  Volcanic eruptions
  Sea Pirates

Hurricanes could do damage to anything made of weaker materials outdoors, the wind could force open or destroy doors occasionally and slow colonists considerably as well as create puddles all over the place on man-made floors (would be considered a mess like filth). Colonists and animals could get blown away if outdoors and would be killed or greatly injured by this. The event could give a mood debuff for during the event and a buff for surviving it. A weather station of some sort could predict the event if built but would cost a lot and or would be researchable. This event could also have varying degrees of strength like real life hurricanes. Plus it could affect colonies near the coast and could cause strong storms rather than a full on hurricane when you're an inland colony. (A Hurricane has hit the coast and will affect your area with severe downpours and winds) Could be the event message.

Tsunamis would be a rather devastating event, it would outright destroy or HEAVILY damage most structures. If an animal or colonist was outside and unprotected at the time they would be swept away and or killed (maybe a TINY chance that they would later wash up on the beach alive or dead) strong enough walls could protect things but if they break a room would flood for a while and stuff inside would be damaged. Would also spawn more water tiles that would replace soil ones but not stone. An indicator would be water tiles retreating (becoming mud terrain)  a couple tiles out from the shore a short time beforehand. (If your colonists are too far away from home when it hits they're doomed).

Volcanoes would erupt either on your section of the map or farther away. Ones erupting on your area would create lava which would greatly damage anything it touches but would mostly flow on specific areas. Perhaps the volcanic island could have 3 variants, active, dormant, and extinct. Active would show the caldera and lava pool in the center so you could possibly prep for it, dormant would be covered and look mostly like regular stone but would be a volcanic rock type, extinct would look the same but would never erupt. Volcanoes can change into one of the others of the three. Dormant and extinct could both have a hidden caldera until it's mined into. There could be an indicator where the earth shakes every so often or the caldera has an animation (bubbling lava for active, cracking stone for dormant). Volcanoes would spawn more land once the lava cools and the ash from the eruption would blot out the sun for a few days, kill many plants, and would cover everything in ash, but would temporarily enrich the soil to a varying amount of time.

Sea pirates would act much like normal pirates but would have a different look and special weapons as well as spawn in via ships or water pods onto the beaches. Water pods would be like drop pods but would show bubbles on the water surface as the pod rises. (It would rock to have variants like robot pirates or undead ones, each of which would have different ships) 

Another main idea for island and shoreline colonies would be Tides. When the tide is in the water reaches a high point where it covers more land and when it's low tide you can send colonists out to grab things that got stuck when the tide was out. Sea shells for decoration crafting, driftwood (a special type of wood), clusters of mussels for food, sea weed clumps that you could then grow in hydroponics. Tide pools would be a good joy source for colonists as they could poke around in them and rarely find neat items for their aquarium or decorations. Tide pools would have to be a special terrain tile to work well for this I think.
Aquariums would be another cool thing to have. I'm thinking of two possible types, a structure or a purely decorative one like sculptures. The structure one would be a walled in area filled with special water tiles that would show the fish in them. It would also require a water filter so the water stays clean. The decor type would likely be far easier and could have a few sizes, the smallest being a fish bowl, the largest being larger than the megascreen TV. They would have to be bought from traders or possibly require a high crafting skill. The larger ones would have a filter feature that would require power to work but would ensure the general health of the fish. The larger tanks could hold small sharks. I'd love it if they all were animated.

Coral reefs could be special water tiles in shallow water areas. They would have a faster movement speed when walked on but would come with the price of being a little dangerous. Colonists could get cut on a sharp piece of coral or stung/bitten by a dangerous and or venomous animal (rock fish, sea anemone, jellyfish) which would require medicine to fix or that could quickly lead to their death no matter what depending on the animal. Or a game universe animal could sting them and drive them to a berserk rage.

Some other ideas could be water creatures coming onto land (Some sort of amphibious creature that is hostile or neutral maybe).

Hostile sea animals could attack swimming pawns when they're in the water.

Bridges could be added along side this to be built across water, requiring more materials for deep water. Maybe have a bridge that can cross lava.

Fishing could be added with islands as well and so could growing sea plants for food. Palm trees could be grown for wood and or coconuts.

Scuba/snorkel gear could be added for a joy activity which would give much the same amount of joy as others activities but the colonist would come back with something they found while doing it.

Windmills could have a water variant perhaps since land would be more sparse. They would require more materials too.

There could be different types of islands as well, such as tropical (jungle like biome with native plants), desert (almost all sand and rocks with some palm trees), Icy rock (similar to ice sheet, just ice and gravel terrain), constantly active volcano (would have constant lava flows in set areas) fire popper like grenades or water based weapons could cool lava for a certain amount of time or maybe add an artifact for it. Feel free to post your thoughts or ideas for things like this here!

[JimmyAgnt007]

Very interesting.  A long way off like most of what we want in this thread :p but it would be fun.  Glad to see more ideas.

[Draegon]

I was thinking of how the game back stories mention cave worlds and was thinking that cave biomes would be pretty cool.
Cave biomes would be within the mountainous areas of the map.
You would crash land in a random spot within the cavern system or one of the systems depending on the chosen colony map size.

Terrain Features of the biome.
Caves would sometimes connect to the edges of the map.
Crash landing would open holes in the ceiling that would let in light.
Ravines would be long open areas that would have soil and light (Prime place to start out or find).
Almost complete darkness until lights are made.
Rare/uncommon areas other than ravines would be open to the surface.
Underground rivers would sometimes generate (could fish in it for blind fish and cave salamanders and frogs). Rivers would be one long section with some rocky shoreline but mostly just water. Bridges would be needed to cross deep sections.
Underground lakes would be relatively large areas of water that would be decent for colony use (swimming and other recreation) but also somewhat dangerous as it's near impossible to tell the depth of some underground lakes (detecting the depth of the lakes and rivers would require work).
Permanent bug hives could generate with special wall types, the bugs would be less aggressive than like the hive spawning event but would defend themselves to the extreme, if a bug is injured near any others they ALL attack. Bugs might hunt pawns when hungry. Bugs will grow their own type of fungus for food within the hive structure. They may also target colony crops as a food source for the hive.
Ore would be more abundant in the caverns but wood would be almost non-existent (would only grow in soil in the open to the surface spots).
Crystal ore would generate about as common as plasteel but in small veins. Crystal would be used for sculptures and charge weapons as well as exceptionally sharp blades.
Crystal clusters could be used as basic decor (would be a simple sculpture that requires little work but gives only a little beauty).
Fossil ores would be very rare ore like jade and uranium. Fossils would generate more often in Limestone. Fossils would be pieced back together as a crafting project after paleontology is researched. Would be great decoration and could give a small boost to research. Further research with the fossil boost could unlock bringing back extinct animals from fossils (Could also have frozen mammoths and other ancient life in ice sheet biomes).
"Deep Cavern" variant to the biome would be where lava pools block access to some areas until you can cool it. Almost always over 100+ degrees Fahrenheit anywhere near lava. Would be less geologically stable, new pools could spawn and earthquakes could happen more often.
Deep Caverns would have more ore and crystal than regular caves but would be more dangerous. Threats would include ancient structures built to withstand lava and extreme heat (special fire/heatproof mechanoids would spawn in here), lava pools which would increase the heat of the cave they're in dramatically, Lava lakes would be large sections of impassible lava (uncoolable lava), crystal based life (would do large cutting damage but be weak to blunt weapons), and new lava pools starting.
In the deep caves if lava and water were to generate next to each other stone would generate in between. This would be able to be walked on but the heat nearby would be dangerous.
Geothermal vents would be more common in both types of cave biome.

Colony Features of the biome.
Mushrooms would grow underground on stone and dirt and some would provide dim to strong light depending on the type.
Mushrooms could be grown in planters and hydroponics as light and or food (some glowing mushrooms would be edible)
Certain mushrooms would be toxic to human health but work as food for some animals.
Some could be used as an herbal medicine replacement and some would be a hallucinogenic drug (colonist would wander around or sit utterly but gain joy).
Colonists that grew up/lived on a cave world would get a small mood boost randomly of "this cave reminds me of home"
Most colonists would need the occasional rest near a sun lamp for their health.
Trading would be a bit more difficult as you would need to live in a cave connected to the map edge or have a tunnel to one that is plus for orbital trades you would need an open to the sky area.
Traders would have new animals for sale that can stand near constant darkness and would use tamed ones for pack animals.

Plant/Animals of the biome.
Cave Dwellers would be a type of faction who are all utterly blind and all pale skinned. They will have no interaction until an event. If recruited they will be blind but almost have a love for mining or skill in cave based life. If you choose to give them new eyes they will react good or bad. Some will view sight as a curse while some will love being able to finally see. They will use echolocation to some degree (may have good shooting skills despite blindness). Would have no mood debuff from darkness and would be a debuff from being in too bright a location for too long.
Large cave salamanders and frogs would live in or near shallow water and would spawn in it rather than come from the map edge.
Giant cave snails would be a rare sight but would leave a "harvestable" slime trail used in some crafting or cooking. The trail would degrade within a few hours if untouched but would be unsightly.
Bats would flutter around and eat small bugs or plants. Bats would have a large, aggressive, and blood drinking variant. The blood drinking variant would hunt living animals and drain them of some of their blood without killing them unless they were fed on by multiple bats at once or multiple times within a short period.
A few more bugs could be added for the game's caves such as millipedes, centipedes, and cave spiders.
Millipedes would be herbivores and eat various cave fungus or plants. Centipedes would be carnivorous and aggressive as well as venomous (bites could be treated with medicine but would quickly kill if untreated). Cave spiders could have two types, trap ones and regular, trap spiders would live within a special type of "wall" and would quickly attack anything that comes too close to it when the spider is hungry (to offset this as their only eating method they would not get hungry very fast). Regular spiders would be quite uncommon but would act like any other predator (minus their venomous bite of course). Both types of "Pede" would move relatively fast.
Most of the animals would be tameable but some would or course be dangerous to do so.

Events for the biome.
Earthquakes - Would range from minor to major and would shake the map for a few seconds to a few minutes all while spawning collapsed rock and causing wall damage to structures, Could kill animals and colonists if they're crushed as well as damage or destroy colony items.
Bug invasion - A hive bug would move to your colony crops, eat some and then return to the hive. If it gets to return to the hive more and more will invade your farm. Another type of invasion could be that the bugs decided to start a new hive IN YOUR COLONY, if allowed they will carve out a section and turn it into a new hive (destroying some of the colony in the process).
Vampire bat swarm - Vampire bats have swarmed into your cave system and they're out for blood, bats will attack and drain any mammal they can find en masse.
Cave in - Essentially a minor earthquake like event that CAN but not necessarily will trap or kill a colonist. If a colonist is trapped they will stuck in place and eventually run out of air if they are not rescued.
Mole Men - The colony activities have gained the notice of a group of cave dwelling people. Either positive or negative. Good cave dwellers might bring gifts of fossils, ore, or food and some may even join the colony. Bad ones will be a special type of raid where they wait in dark locations or set up traps and sneak attack colonists or just outright tunnel into the base faster than pirates would. Once the cave dweller event happens then you will now be able to contact them.
Cave Traders - Will trade items only found in caves and will use cave animals as pack mules.
Drilling Pirates - New type of pirate attack that will drill down from the surface into or near the colony.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Just wanted to remind people that this thread exists as a place for you to suggest strange and new biome ideas so you dont need to make a new thread every time.

[skinicism]

  I suggested a new biome last year. It was filled with nectar shrapnel shoots, red hot poker plants, hot springs among metallic grid ruins and electrical storm-filled canyons. The suggestion was for a board game that my family played.
  Now, Tynan hasn't proposed any new advanced civilization ruins map. At this point who knows what he wants to do with Rimworld? Could we face a map where colonists can't disassemble new, rare metals foreign to Earth? I think the question is how to deal with family members having sometimes terminal neurotoxicity. Could we even find a cure? There could even be particle fluidity problems among hot spring pumps.

  Also, the canyons could be filled with gypsum to help trees grow faster indoors once mined. I think it could be explosive though. Perhaps Tynan will allow us to put new plants in petrified wood too. However, I'm not sure if such a biome should have some acid rain that causes enhanced deterioration of clothing that's being worn. Tynan would know better whether such a biome would be suitable for Rimworld.

[Illusion Distort]

Gather a group of modders and have a go at it boiis. Many mods in the past added the biomes we current see in the game and tried to make a new gameexperience.

[Draegon]

I did gather a small modding team for my ideas, but sadly we lost our coder due to life interfering.

[JimmyAgnt007]

It would be neat if anyone who knows how to mod would want to get in on this.