Wild and Wacky Biomes

[JimmyAgnt007]

The new Extreme Desert biome will be the new hardest mode and thats pretty cool.  (sorry for the ironic pun) Then I got to thinking of something even harder than extreme temperatures.  In the latest blog Tynan mentions the "Self-reproducing, spreading underground insect hives" and I got thinking.  What about a biome that is difficult but not because of the temperature. 

For example an "Infested" biome where there are enormous numbers of these hives and you are under near constant attacks.

What about other types of biomes that arnt typically found in nature.  In one of the UFO games (Xcom clone) the aliens spawn biomass to cover the earth.  Mutant animals cover it and the ground is all organic.  Something like that would be neat.

What are some extreme locations you can all think of that would be fun to play?  Either because of extreme difficulty or just to radically alter your play style.

[Austupaio]

aliens spawn biomass ... Mutant animals cover it ... ground is all organic

Isn't this what you want to see when you step out of your escape pod?

Also active calderas.

[Regret]

A forest where 1 in every 100 tress is a Flesh eating tree hat is indistinguishable from regular trees, until it attacks one of your colonists that is. After that, you'd better remember which it was because nothing outwardly obvious would distinguish it.

That would make the choice of going far into the forest scary and thus interesting.

Similarly: quicksand.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Yes, land in a Zerg Hive!  Renaming my colonist Jim Raynor. 

Molten lava would be an interesting environmental challenge.  Maybe a Volcano lair?

I love the idea of ravenous Ents munching on your colonists.  Hostile trees are in Dont Starve and they are kinda scary lol

Quicksand is also good, maybe when water isnt just something to build around we will get it.  Great Ideas people!

Id love to see a Crystal biome, like that one scene in the movie The Core
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/The_Core_Geodes.jpg
Full of silicone based life, maybe a space geode crashed on the rimworld and split open. 

[REMworlder]

Adding some alien -- I mean something different, no xeno -- elements to the planet would be really neat to see. Something to make RimWorlds special. I mean, I don't even have to leave Earth to freeze to death or, if I really want to, get shot to death by bandits.

Dwarf Fortress has some crazy environment, like Evil regions that have cursed land that causes corpses to reanimate shortly after death and Evil weather that does nasty things to dorfs out in the open.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Surroundings#Evil

Regret's mention of fighting trees is almost exactly what was implemented in Towns, and was kind of a cool feature. Tree Keepers would look exactly like a normal tree, then would defend themselves or their dumber tree relatives against tree-harvesting Townies.

[JimmyAgnt007]

hmmm... how about then a bit more tame version of the zombie mod.  A special toxic fallout that causes the dead to rise?  I burn all the dead attackers but colonists get put in coffins.  Not sure how others play it but i bet they would start burning corpses if this was used.  Or just have it biome specific that some raids are zombies or zombies wander the map like animals and attack if you get too close.

[Toggle]

So random biome oddities is one thing suggested in this thread.

• Quicksand
• Lava Pockets
• Ravines

I think ravines would be interesting just to be a challenge for the map. You'd not be able to walk across it, they would basically be giant black ditches, couldn't see or go into them. Maybe a special bridge construction would be nice, something that allows building across water, and the 2 suggested. The lava pockets would probably melt/burn them.

And we have the biomes themselves.

Hive-mind Hell
OP's Suggestion, likely a biome that's very warm, it's a biome which is the base of a hive. Prepare for a lot of retaliation if you walk over the wrong tunnel.

Tree Roulette
Likely a forest biome, it's inhabited by ents. If your colonist simply disturbs the wrong tree you can have a fearsome battle on your hands.

Crystal Chaos
A cold location, some ancient technology has crystalized the majority of the biome. About 60-75% of the map would be crystalized, to try and give the player a chance at survival. You can also mine the crystals, when destroyed they simply crumble into dust, but whatever was inside of them still lives(Raiders, angry thrumbos, food, soil that can be used for planting etc)

Red Mist Rage
Likely a warm location, the Red Mist Rage is a biome full of a red mist. It slightly tints the entire map the colour, unless indoors, making it hard to see at night. The red mist is not the only thing that is odd about these biomes though, as mysterious weather changes and talk about the colonists rising from the dead is known.


Hey, so this is kinda the thread listed up. Took your idea's, listed them, added some more details or defined them or such.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Thanks!  That helps a lot! 

If there is ever bridges and other water related features implemented I could see a colony floating on the water.  Maybe centered on a central island, volcano, or coral. 

I would love to also see an underwater biome as the ultimate challenge.  I think thats been discussed before.

Or in opposite of underwater, a moon base in total vacuum.

[Toggle]

Yeah. It could always be a type of floor, "Supported Tiles", which would allow building on top of them and could be placed in water. And bridge floors would be wood, wouldn't be able to build on them, but could go over ravines and such. Supported Tiles couldn't go over ravines though.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Well we could just have a single type of bridge to keep things simple, if its not supported by the ground its a suspension bridge.

[SteelHeart]

well jimmyagnt007, you pointed me to this thread, so I guess I`ll spew forth my ideas...

Waste Lands
An area of the world that has been scarred by a past disaster. It is generally a decent temperature for living in but there is some radiation to be afraid of. If you stay out too long, you get a slow but steady radiation burn. the soil is not fertile, but you might be able to get some potatoes to grow if you give them extra attention.

Ship Bone Yards
A massive collection of long forgotten ships. Maybe they were colony ships, or war ships, or mining ships, you will never know. The hulls are good salvage and there plenty of goodies in their old holds. Just be sure you don't trigger any of the security systems, don't want a nuclear fail safe to go off on your doorstep.

Ancient Monoliths
There are tons of monoliths everywhere. They are big structures from ages past that actually look rather nice. They give a good bonus for science, healing, growing things, and they hide some pretty nice loot. Don't go looking for it though, it will activate its defenses and the local tribes wont appreciate you defacing their heritage.

Paradise
This place is perfect it has a constant temperature of 21*C, and all the ground is fertile. Plus, the mountains contain extra goodies and the ruins will not have any threats. OK, you saw it move along... I said move. What, you think people would just let you settle down on this place? Oh, you do? Ok, better set up some defenses using those abundant resources, expect heavier raids from enemies, they want this as bad as bad as you do.

[Runa]

This is the main reason I want to create mods, to be able to work on these things a reality in game. First though, I have to learn basic things since I have no experience in coding or artwork.

[JimmyAgnt007]

The Wastelands would be neat.  Though rather than the whole map suffering fallout (like you seem to be suggesting) some rather severe local sources would be neat like poisoned ship parts but all over the map.  Keeping the safe parts limited.

Ship Boneyards would be awesome, ridiculous amounts of resources but so much danger if you poke the wrong thing.

I cant remember if I saw Tynan mention monoliths yet or not.  They should make wildlife intelligent and/or provide random buffs/debuffs on contact.  Ultra smart researcher or suddenly brain dead for a month.  Happy or berserk.  Turned into wildlife maybe? lol

A Paradise would be an interesting setup, give the player lots of everything and all of it awesome but savage them with attacks.

[Regret]

The Monolith idea reminds me Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the best thing to come out of the Civilization series ever.
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Monoliths

So in my opinion the monoliths should have the following traits:
- Indestructible and too high to build a roof over.
- They randomly change a stat or trait once and only once per colonist. This should be mostly positive with a small chance of being negative.
- Once a day when touched they should have a small chance (1/10) of healing one point of damage from an otherwise permanent injury. Missing limbs cannot be replaced by this effect. Regardless of effect this gives a small boost to happiness.
- There should be a very small chance that touching the monolith for whatever reason does something very strange, the  options here are nigh on endless but one of them should be the colonist disappearing permanently. This gives the possibility of an Ascendancy victory condition where every colonist Ascends. (Or is eaten by the monoliths, who really knows what happens to them? There is no way to know, so no one knows.)
- Other Factions should come to visit the monolith as well, it may even cause an enemy faction to send a peaceful pilgrim. I wonder what would happen if you killed the pilgrim regardless of his peaceful intentions?
- Mechanoids are incapable of coming close to a monolith, no one knows why.
- I'm sure I could think of more options but i'm going to the pub now.

[REMworlder]

The monolith idea is pretty neat, I wonder what similar mysterious environmental features could be found on rim worlds