Energy Managment and more

[Spielesocke]

So, i want to review this game and i'd really like it, so far but there are some things i have questions about:
First, the energy managment does not work in my colony. I have about 15 solar panels and they don't give me enough energy for like 5 heaters, a few automatic doors, 2 plan-growing-lights and 3 working benches where one of them is a smelting bench. It seems to be strange, because if i dissolve the energy network and let only a few solan panels connect with a few of the energy drainers (by staying with the same numbers of consumers and suppliers) it seems to have far less energy consumption.
I really don't get it.

I also don't manage to build a plant farm (i play i a winter biome) it just drains so much energy, i can't handle it with many panels and it is hard to get metal to build them or to get them builded at all, as it takes a long time for my 5 fellow citizens.

So i mean: lets say the i can't get a colony running, without a lot of micromanagment and clicking the colonists that they do a specific task so often (because the don't if i don't click, they just eat and sleep the whole day, only doing 10 seconds of work) while the events went on and on and get more difficult.

In my phase of the game i get attacked from 6-7 pirates at once, while still not able to get even the crucial tasks in my colony done. To build a weapon or clothings seems to last forever, so it's not worth the try. The only way to feed my colony is canibalism, because i can't grow more than a few plants and the only food source that comes every few days are.. eeew.. pirates.

i have already done almost a full research of all things but there is no better energy source to research, which just keeps the colony running and there are only a few things that are worth a research it seems. (also my best researcher is a 96 years old geezer and i fear to lose him anytime soon)

so there are many parts of this game that are great fun right now, but that whole colony managment doesn't seem to work right. The time i managed to prevent one crises there is the next (and i play on low difficult) and if i don't look closely on every single colonist, they just get nothing done at all, which is stressfull, like having children. If that part is more polished, than i think this game will be great but until then..
it's to much of a struggle, if you know what i mean.

[muffins]

Keep your sunlamps on a separate circuit to the rest of your base. They gobble up huge amounts on energy and only need to be on during the day (two solar panels to one lamp seems to work well). If you're using hydroponic basins then you'll need them connected to the bases' uninterrupted power supply and not the same supply as the solar lamps. Also keeping turrets turned off saves a ton of power. You can still link them to power switches so you can turn them on remotely should your colony get attacked.

If your colonists are not getting things done you can open up the work tab and set work priorities for each colonist, so for instance you can have your best grower completely dedicated to growing food. Having specialised workers is the way to go. Eventually you'll have high skilled workers that can complete tasks at a much faster rate and get a better result.

[Spielesocke]

first of all, your solutions are all right, as far as i can see, but that is not the point. It's just more micromanagment i have to do in a game which is so far much, much, much micromanagment. I don't get why several circuits draw less power than one big. i reworked my colony again and again to pay the prize for this knowledge but i ran out of time before i could manage to build it that way.

And i really don't like it. I want to build one big solar-park which just spends energy for the whole colony and not sever small circuits for every single light bulb or solar bulb that i have to click on and off every few minutes. that bugs me.

I mean.. if pirates shoot at my one big solar park. i am fine with that. that is the risk but that park should logically not produce less energy than several small circuits.

i know the work tab and i use it all the time but it still does't work well. it's like this: he is hungry he eats, now he  is sleepy, now he wants some fun and between all this are some seconds of actual working, which make me want to slap my colonists for doing something.

And i have only five people. i don't even want to know how hard is it to get more than five doing stuff you want them to do. I know this game is still in an early phase and i see some good potential here. But it needs a few patches to get me interested again. Right now, its just Micromanagment all over the place without ever having the feeling:"yeah it finally works."

[muffins]

I don't get why several circuits draw less power than one big.

A sunlamp draws massive amounts of power but the plants growing in its growing zone will only grow during the day, so if you have a sunlamp on a separate circuit it will automatically power off at night when the sun goes down and not waste any power from your main grid at night.

i know the work tab and i use it all the time but it still does't work well. it's like this: he is hungry he eats, now he  is sleepy, now he wants some fun and between all this are some seconds of actual working, which make me want to slap my colonists for doing something.

Most of the time they should be working. If they're walking long distances through snow then that will gobble up a lot of potential work time. Also, check the restrictions tab to make sure that they're working, resting and having joy in the amounts that you want.

And i have only five people. i don't even want to know how hard is it to get more than five doing stuff you want them to do. I know this game is still in an early phase and i see some good potential here. But it needs a few patches to get me interested again. Right now, its just Micromanagment all over the place without ever having the feeling:"yeah it finally works."

My current colony has 79 colonists and requires very little micro-management. My cook stoves are set to keep a certain level of meals available, all my sunlamps are on a separate circuit and turn on and off automatically as the sun rises and sets, I have dedicated cleaners and haulers and dozens of animal haulers. The early game is harder in my opinion because you have so many jobs to do and so few colonists, but as you gain colonists and knowledge of little tips and tricks that help manage a colony it gets much easier.

[Spielesocke]

i just can say: how? how do you even nurture them? if i just see how much food i need for my 5 colonists i never have the space to nurture 70, even if i place plant farms all over the place and eat every single pirate that comes by 

[Spielesocke]

and i will start over again, but  the last time i came not close to the point where you are. I don't even know how you get so many colonists. Most of the time the few souls i find are suffering from infectet wounds and die very soon after. Are we playing to different games?

so, even if i believe what you wrote and i don't have a reason to not to. the starting is so hard that i never get to the point where this game is actually fun.

i mean, there are many things that are great but i don't ever get to the point where it just works. the point i get to in similiar games where i know how much food i need, how i can get some money, how big a house should be. and i could get to the point by reading lots of forum postings and guides but i think a game should be som kind of self-explanatory. 

But maybe that are planned features.  It's still an early version of this game and there can be many upcoming things. So i stick to the point that right now it is possible to have a big colony but it is just to hard to reach that point as if it could be fun for me to do so.

So i will start over again and try a few other things
someday

[muffins]

If you hunt local wildlife and use the meat only for fine meals (5 meat, 5 veg) you can make your crops produce twice the meals that they would have with simple meals (10 veg). Of course that requires a good cook and a dedicated hunter, which is difficult in the early game since there are so many jobs to do and so few colonists to do them. Also, different crops require different amounts of labour because they have different growing speeds. Over very long periods of time they all produce the same amount of food (I did some experiments). Rice grows fast but has small yields, potatoes grow medium and have medium yields, while corn grows slowly and gives you big yields ... but harvesting and planting takes the same amount of labour. Myself I mostly grow corn to save on labour.

EDIT - Whenever you capture someone, select them then go to their prisoner tab and make sure that they are permitted medicine! By default it is off (!!!) but prisoners with infections need medicine or they usually die. Also make sure on the same tab that they are set to "chat and recruit" and that you have a colonist with high social skills that has the Warden job as their main (1) job

EDIT 2 - Here's an old screenshot of an older colony of mine that had over 100 colonists. It is possible! 

http://i.imgur.com/FaLSnOi.jpg

[Spielesocke]

but i rarely have any animals in my reach. I play in different biomes and most of the time i have one person who is able to hunt. Right now i have two but there weren't any animals for a few days now. I also have two people who work and build. As they are the only one that build stuff, and one of them is also doctor, the other one also cook it's hard to get anything build and that is a setup i had in every game. How to get more qualified people?
I have to build a cell, waiting for prisoners to come by, building energy supplys which takes a long time, because my to workers have to cook or heal others,too and metal is rare.   

if i finally manage to get a prisoner i have to feed him which i cannot do because i don't have foot most of the time.

i have one person who can do plants but she is old and slow and if my other people do the plant stuff it just does not work. So every setup i have barely two people who are useful while the others are not.

on the other hand i  have a little progress after some time but it takes so long that at the point were i finally can nurture my colony the pirates are so many that they kill everyone. 

so it seems i have to shuffle so often till i have a team of useful people to start with.

[muffins]

How to get more qualified people?

Your colonists will improve their skills as they use them. A miner will get better as he/she mines and a grower will get better as he/she grows and a cook will get better as he/she cooks. A colonist with a "passion" or "burning passion" for a job (they will have a flame next to their skill stat) will learn extra quick so try to have colonists with passions for a job do that job so that the colony gets good people quickly.

[Spielesocke]

that is not my point. my point is: Most of the time i get people with useless passions and i have to shuffle so often till i get some that are helpfull to start a colony with. because if you start with 3 people who don't do building work and only one who does you have the a very slow start. i know how that passions work.

i don't know how to get new colonists other then by catch some and spending many days to finally get them to work with you.

Or the other way round: if your only guy who has a passion for plants is a 60 years old guy with slow movement, even with high passion he still moves like a snail

so you can restart the game, because you won't get very far. And its not a good mechanic if i have to restart a game so many times to get finally a crew of colonists who have a chance to build an actual working colony.

so what you say is: You can grow a cool big colony and my point is: maybe but the afford is so big and the time you have to spend to do so is not worth the afford. So that is my critism. And i hope the developers change that or integrate more options that are not as time comsuming. Because i think that is the main flaw of this otherwise good game right now.

So, if i play an colony simulator that concentrates on a storyteller-a.i i want to concentrate on the storyteller a.i and colony building and not feel like an energy grid and plant manager.

in my opinion it is just to complicated right now. i just detest the energy grid managment part. i leeches all the fun out of rimworld for me.
ok, done with critism. i try a few other things. maybe i get past the 5 colonists someday.

[muffins]

Or the other way round: if your only guy who has a passion for plants is a 60 years old guy with slow movement, even with high passion he still moves like a snail

Chop his legs off and give him a pair of bionic legs!

That also works for colonists with brain damage strangely enough

EDIT - You'll want to avoid starting out with old people. The first three colonists are critically important so having younger people that are capable of most/all jobs is a must. Peronally I try to start with colonists that are good at growing, cooking, mining and building.

[jzero]

(restrains urge to spout out some remark about your attitude that will probably get me temp-banned)
Muffins explained very amazingly what you should do but i've got a few tips too. You say that there are no animals on your map? then play in a easier biome. I mean, i'm pretty horrible so i play in the normal forest biome. You say you need more food? as long as you dont play in one of the two insane temp biomes then you can build farms outside to start with. They dont cost any power and you an make them massive. And sure the game advertises the awesome storyteller ( which they are) but, I mean come on man you ARE playing a colony manager sim here. Not the sims. A colony manager sim is meant to have all the features that building a colony would have. If you were starting a colony on some planet then you WOULD have to manage power. Also, if power is that big of an issue than make batteries, at least five or six. It doesn't matter how many solar panels you have, if you don't have batteries than the power will shut off at night. And just accept Muffins help man, i mean you refuse to do the whole seperate cuircut thing (which is pretty smart by the way) so how can you complain when he is trying to HELP YOU with your problems. And finally, just, GAA YOU NEED TO MICROMANAGE. I mean COME ON. This game isn't even that massive on micromanagement, i normally hate micromanagement too but it isn't that bad in this game. And you need to do whatever micromanagement is necassary. Also, you need to be patient with Rimworld, it does take a while for things to work. But they do even tually if you stick with it.

WHEW rant over. Hope i didn't offend anyone too badly with that.

and one more thing, try to check your spelling mate, please 

[EarthyTurtle]

Hey broski, I'm also a bit of a Ice-Sheet Masochist. Keep in mind that the Ice-Sheet and similar winter biomes are meant for extremely challenging play. Muffin's said a lot of good stuff but I thought I might add my 2 cents and try expand a little too.

So, i want to review this game and i'd really like it, so far but there are some things i have questions about:
First, the energy managment does not work in my colony. I have about 15 solar panels and they don't give me enough energy for like 5 heaters, a few automatic doors, 2 plan-growing-lights and 3 working benches where one of them is a smelting bench. It seems to be strange, because if i dissolve the energy network and let only a few solan panels connect with a few of the energy drainers (by staying with the same numbers of consumers and suppliers) it seems to have far less energy consumption.
I really don't get it.

Winter biomes work a little differently to regular biomes (from experience not speculation), the sun never truly sets in the summer but neither does it completely rise. In the winter you see even less sunlight and sometimes none at all. So in saying that while solar is certainly more predictable than wind, it is less powerful in a winter biome. Ideally you would like to have 2 solar panels and 1 wind generator.

Are you using batteries? If not use them! They are almost critical to survival. Because power output is unpredictable you need to be storing power for when times get hard. 1 battery, 2 panels, 1 wind should be enough to run a small farm of hydroponics, sunlight, doors and comms console (you will need that as soon as your colonists are safe from the weather).

Later you can work on establishing a more permanent solution to your power issues, you WILL need to utilize geothermal at some point but never go off the battery network, always pack an extra room of batteries in-case of blow-outs.

I also don't manage to build a plant farm (i play i a winter biome) it just drains so much energy, i can't handle it with many panels and it is hard to get metal to build them or to get them builded at all, as it takes a long time for my 5 fellow citizens.

If you use batteries you shouldn't need to waste so much metal on building panels, as I also said use wind, it gives you that extra power you need with batteries to stay online. 10/10 would recommend. Plant farms will become your main source of food as animal husbandry is not really an option on winter maps. With no natural sources of food animals die out or get killed by the winter itself.

Your first priority is research hydroponics, you will want a strong research on this task and if timed right your supplies will run out as you get your first crop yield. If not that's why you get a comms console and pray a farming vessel comes along as a back-up. (there is some element of chance to surviving the winter)

So i mean: lets say the i can't get a colony running, without a lot of micromanagment and clicking the colonists that they do a specific task so often (because the don't if i don't click, they just eat and sleep the whole day, only doing 10 seconds of work) while the events went on and on and get more difficult.

I would designate times for sleep in increments of 6 hours. Keeping your colonists on 'anything' is easy and makes sure they don't go insane. But if you do wanna ensure they 'work' I'd make their play time in the morning so they don't just skip play time after work for sleep.

There will be a finite amount of things your colonists can do in a day and you will need to check each person for traits. Someone who is frail with a bad back will take forever to haul so keeping them on colony duties would be the best option even if they are a 'fast walker' or not suited to any kinda detail. As stated before colonists can learn over time even if it takes them forever.

In my phase of the game i get attacked from 6-7 pirates at once, while still not able to get even the crucial tasks in my colony done. To build a weapon or clothings seems to last forever, so it's not worth the try. The only way to feed my colony is canibalism, because i can't grow more than a few plants and the only food source that comes every few days are.. eeew.. pirates.

if you have 5 colonists and 6-7 pirates it should be a quick battle, you have the home field advantage so change up your terrain to suit your needs. I prefer melee, so working on some steel weapons early game gives me a huge advantage (I only usually take this route if I have a strong crafter to begin with). But make bunkers if you want to engage long range. Remember that in winter some enemies will not be equip for the cold so sometimes waiting out an enemy is actually your best weapon. Victory through attrition.

Clothing is a mid-late game thing, till then kill and steal as many parkas as you can xD.

i have already done almost a full research of all things but there is no better energy source to research, which just keeps the colony running and there are only a few things that are worth a research it seems. (also my best researcher is a 96 years old geezer and i fear to lose him anytime soon)

Alright at 96 check your geezer's health, I would honestly be surprised if they don't have dementia or some other age related illness that prevents them from researching at full capacity. If they have Dementia, Cataracts, frail and bad back even if they are a 20/20 researcher likely their research speed with be something like 26% (compared to the average 12/20 youngly that is 110%). Age, traits and health are incredibly important to your colonists work efficiency. Geothermal is the only other power source you can research besides a ships reactor... but that's WAY too expensive for what it's worth xD. Aim for geothermal in your mid game though, your priorities are food efficiency in the early game. MAYBE stone cutting after that.

so there are many parts of this game that are great fun right now, but that whole colony management doesn't seem to work right. The time i managed to prevent one crises there is the next (and i play on low difficult) and if i don't look closely on every single colonist, they just get nothing done at all, which is stressfull, like having children. If that part is more polished, than i think this game will be great but until then..
it's to much of a struggle, if you know what i mean.

This is a Colonial Simulator. I'd recommend you switch over to a more friendly biome, if your a fan of winter choose one that is warm in summer but drops bellow -1 Celsius in winter (that'll give you a nice blanket). This kinda micro-management, addressing each new problem as it comes up and adapting to changing circumstances, is the way Rimworld is meant to be played. Don't get me wrong I find it frustrating sometimes too, but I know that some of the lower options on phoebe chillax will make enemy threats minimal and give us time to practice this.