Your Cheapest Ideas

[Mkok]

Make it so that "start with research" scenario option doesnt make you start with half of all research already researched when you choose to start with a high level research.

I just started a scenario where I made my guys start with ship antimatter reactor technology just for fun, and I ended up with a bunch of other tech as well, including high tech research table and ship structure beams.

[ToXeye]

I have a cheap but useful idea: There should be two kinds of "arrest". One kind is pulling the person to his room and locking the door (hard to implement since there is only one key in the whole fortress colony). So this leaves me with arresting the person and putting him in a prisoner room. The easy solution is to turn a bedroom into a personal enclosure, making his bed area also his prison.

I actually have three suggestions, not two. The inquisition is upon us.

In one way the second suggestion consists of two variables. One variable is that once you can't arrest a person who is part of the colony, even though you want to release the colonist as a prisoner. The other variable is that you can't exile the colonist so that he/she leaves in a much more intuitive way.

So you can see how these ideas would make things much easier when you accidentally recruited the pyromaniac brawler and end up shooting her/his foot off.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=730049234

[ToXeye]

Wheelbarrows, railways. Of course, this is a basic touch on the idea of having vehicles in the game. Vehicles would escape the simple 1x1 grid of colonists, but you could easily have a wheelbarrow move around in front of the colonist's grid and put items in the wheelbarrow. This could introduce more realism to how heavy objects are handled. But this is really a "use tools" idea, so it would be hard to implement over half an hour/half a day since it tangents all the other things involved in tool usage. As it is now, there is one tool only and that's the single weapon slot. It would be nice to have multiple tool/weapon slots, effectively giving a bit of inventory tetris to the player and allowing more flexible ways to equip soldiers who have multiple combat skills.

Even a modder could introduce range weapon/ melee weapon hybrids without changing the system too much (I at least think? I should try modding some time : - /    ) But if it's easy for a modder, it's a lot more easy for the maker of the game. They [colonists] already do melee even though it's a ranged weapon, but it defaults to the ranged weapon being replaced with the fists. Even hitting someone over the head with a rifle in any way would be more effective.

[ToXeye]

My last idea gave me the idea that you could have additional apparel, like status symbols that either enhance or ruin a person's ability to recruit new people if they either have the trait that they are impressed by wealth, or if they are repulsed by it... Overall, since they are on a rimworld, it would probably end up being hard to keep the clothing industry going, so there would be a lot of jewels and tattered clothes unless you have your designated tailor.

*addition* sorry if this idea can be modded somewhat, if it is moddable to impress upon the new recruits by apparel, weapons and jewelry, but I guess it isn't yet

*addition* think of how impressed the player of fallout is by the brotherhood and the enclave. Even if they are kind of indifferent or even the bad guys, their sheer level of technical sophistication makes the new player think "i want one of those armours, now how do I make them give one to me?". Trigger happy could be put in conjunction with the trait of being impressed of weaponry. Shooter syndrome could be yet another development of the trigger happy trait, such as having the combination of antisocial traits and weapon-loving traits.

*explanation* This is one idea: Opulence being both global and local, so that a particularly well dressed person can outdo the overall value of the whole colony. It is not really that much about weapons, but that idea kind of ties into the whole idea of opulence. Because otherwise, wealth of the colony becomes the sum of all clothes, rather than what clothes are being worn.

[ToXeye]

My last idea gave me yet another idea.

If colonists can be overwhelmed by another colonist's clothing and jewelry, they should also be underwhelmed by certain clothing and jewelry. Things like tasteless beads as opposed to opulent crowns. Different tastes, such as being attracted to wealth or being attracted to kitsch.

*explanation* This idea is not necessarily that easy to implement, since it ties into many different things that will have to be re-fitted. It would also add a lot of chaos to the gameplay, since what is good for one colonist is bad for another - and we already know that having bad traits can make the colonists hate each other.

[ToXeye]

And yet another, this time cheaper idea:

It would be easy to generate a set of objects that the colonist would like seeing in artwork, and things they rather would not want to see.

It does not have to imply that people don't like seeing, for example, bears. It just means that they would not like artwork of a bear.

*explanation* Because in Dwarf Fortress, there's cages. And in cages you can have wild animals. And it would probably be easy to program that a dwarf colonist would like his caged/chained animal even without having a bond to it. But that's difficult to put into code [I just contradicted myself] but that's a bit of code that relies on a certain database of items to produce a certain set of favourite things...

[ToXeye]

Adding a fallow option among the different kinds of crops for growing zones.

[SpaceDorf]

Adding a fallow option among the different kinds of crops for growing zones.

That and/or additional a stop planting option that the guys don't replant after harvesting your last crops in autumn/winter

Or a logic check.
Pawn McPlanter repeat after me. : I will not plant any crops if the ground is frozen.

And another logic check.

Again, repeat after me : When I am going to the kitchen to eat, I will take the harvest with me.

Like : if pawn.work.haul!=0 && pawn.job.current==(sleep|eat|joy) && distance>X
             check.for.stuff(radius(Y)
                if stuff==true
                   pawn.setjob(haul.stuff)

[asanbr]

A food log for each animal would be nice, showing what their last 10 meals were.

A common problem is animals eating the wrong kinds of food, and I don't have time to watch over them, but if I could simply check now and then to see if my bears were eating fine meals, wild squirrels, or my tame dogs, it would be of great help.

I kept a few bears for a while in a restricted area adn I have no idea what they feed on, but they seem to survive although there aren't many wild animals around. But I had a bunch of tame animals. didn't see any disappear though.

[Roadie]

A simple idea that would reward careful design of rooms and smart use of haulers: Add an 'output range' slider to workbenches, stoves, etc., much like the current "ingredient range" slider.

Now you can speed up the crafting process by managing small input/output stockpiles close to workbenches.

This could also open up room for a new option for "until" crafting, "until all output stockpiles are full".

[b0rsuk]

When you kill or down a faction leader during a raid, the raiders should flee.

[Evilkwiet]

Hello!

I have a small suggestion. When you place roads above your power conduit, the power conduits are still too much visible.
So how about an option to hide the power conduits? I find it more beautiful to see my roads without the power conduits covering it. So you can make some sort off upgrade wich makes it more beautiful for the colonists?

Greets,
Evil

[Mendel]

tldr: if job produces raw material, check if the raw material is needed by the same pawn in his next job before hauling it to a stockpile.

Split cooking work into butchering and cooking works.

When doing Job 1 that produces raw material A, do not haul raw material A into stockpile if you immediately need raw material A in job 2 that the same pawn is set to do next. instead haul raw material directly to where it is needed.

example1: pawn is butchering an animal (job 1) and cooking simple meal (job 2). Do not haul the raw meat to food stockpile between these job steps.

example2: pawn is chopping down a wood and after that he is going to make a wooden stool. do not haul the wood to stockpile between these jobs.

follow up idea: Set a pawn as a stockpile

butcher  should be giving raw meats directly to cook when two different persons are doing these job steps.
wood chopper should bring wood directly to place where another pawn is building something that requires a lot of wood

[SpaceDorf]

Two small Suggestions :

Give a priority option to workbenches like storage zones allready have.
So I can make some things more important than others.

Second stolen and maybe repeated from Havan_IronOak

Allow Power Switching as part of a task. Even my best cooks leave the stove on overnight. And does the Fueled Smithy really need to be lit when not in use?

Modified to : Please give powered workbench a conserve power option to turn them on/off before tasks
this should be offset by some extra time used to power up the workbench.

Or waste power to conserve time.

tldr: if job produces raw material, check if the raw material is needed by the same pawn in his next job before hauling it to a stockpile.

Split cooking work into butchering and cooking works.

When doing Job 1 that produces raw material A, do not haul raw material A into stockpile if you immediately need raw material A in job 2 that the same pawn is set to do next. instead haul raw material directly to where it is needed.

example1: pawn is butchering an animal (job 1) and cooking simple meal (job 2). Do not haul the raw meat to food stockpile between these job steps.

example2: pawn is chopping down a wood and after that he is going to make a wooden stool. do not haul the wood to stockpile between these jobs.

follow up idea: Set a pawn as a stockpile

butcher  should be giving raw meats directly to cook when two different persons are doing these job steps.
wood chopper should bring wood directly to place where another pawn is building something that requires a lot of wood

Some of your concerns can be adressed by setting the job to drop the ressources on the floor instead of bringing them to the optimal stockpile.
Especially in food production its optimal to set up the butchers and stoves next to each other in a cooled and enclosed area
with the stockpiles directly next to them.

[thuban]

A "funny" trait, to help thoes poor ugly guys not to be rejected.