I want to hear about exploit strategies!

[Boston]

I think some of what we're seeing here aren't exploits, so much as they're strategies.

Setting a Thrumbo on fire and taking advantage of the panic reaction is simply smart. I think a big animal is going to be more worried about the big hurt all over its body than the small hurts of your bullets. Same with getting a Thrumbo drunk.

An exploit is the use of a bugs, glitches or game systems to gain an advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers. While I'd be surprised if he actually intended beer to be used as a hunting tactic, I think it's one Tynan would call fair; It'd work in real life, after all.

Thanks for the explanation... and yes... basically, other players are calling "setting fire to the strongest animal in the game so it might be killed with next to no risk"... "use of (...)a game system to gain an advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers". Same for beer until they die.

It makes no sense for me that the "wisest animals of the universe" (or so the legends say) can be downed in such pathetic and dumb manner.

Actually, as a whole, I think fire in combat is so OP that its clever uses are exploits. I mean pawns can get ears ripped off, mauled, shot off, lose their liver, even one arm and STILL BE FIGHTING !!!! But, if they start burning they enter complete panic mode, running out of cover in stupid movements toward the things that set them in fire and only deigning to start to removing fire from oneself when begin to be major.

People have fought on in real life after getting limbs ripped off, actually. Same thing with getting organs destroyed.

However, burns? Burns are some of the most painful injuries to experience.

[DariusWolfe]

People have fought on in real life after getting limbs ripped off, actually. Same thing with getting organs destroyed.

However, burns? Burns are some of the most painful injuries to experience.

Agreed, not to mention that fear of fire is so primal that panicked escape is about the only thing that'd occur to you. Maybe a super disciplined person could find some semblance of calm while being on fire, but even they would make putting the fire out their first priority.

I don't disagree that fire is probably a little overpowered. Anything short of an animal or colonist being drenched in fuel and set on fire (i.e. incendiary weapons) should be able to be put out in a reasonable time frame, and even animals should be able to roll on the ground to put out the fire (especially if they're genetically engineered for higher intelligence). Plus, the fact that human pawns flee AWAY from assistance is just stupid.

[pdxsean]

Over on reddit someone explained an exploit of calling for traders, killing them all, then using the money gained from traders to buy back loyalty, order more traders, and so on. Personally I'd like to see trader murder carry a high permanent penalty, but unfortunately the problem of them getting caught in the crossfire by wandering randomly between a firefight makes such penalties seem unfair.

Maybe traders could adopt the "flee" posture when there are enemies nearby? As in non-colony pawns in red mode as opposed to colonists in draft mode.

Anyway here's the details on that exploit (not my OP) and a link to a twitch of it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/500g5w/alpha_v15_just_released_on_steam/d70adgv

[kasnavada]

People have fought on in real life after getting limbs ripped off, actually. Same thing with getting organs destroyed.

However, burns? Burns are some of the most painful injuries to experience.

Agreed, not to mention that fear of fire is so primal that panicked escape is about the only thing that'd occur to you. Maybe a super disciplined person could find some semblance of calm while being on fire, but even they would make putting the fire out their first priority.

I don't disagree that fire is probably a little overpowered. Anything short of an animal or colonist being drenched in fuel and set on fire (i.e. incendiary weapons) should be able to be put out in a reasonable time frame, and even animals should be able to roll on the ground to put out the fire (especially if they're genetically engineered for higher intelligence). Plus, the fact that human pawns flee AWAY from assistance is just stupid.

Actually... humans & animals ignore burns too when on adrenaline. When adrenaline falls though...

About fear of fire I saw it as something that applied much much sooner than when you've starting burning. I think that just seeing fire is enough for most animals to be wary. Then again, the animals in rimworld ain't afraid of humans, something which...well. Anyway, it should not trigger randomly panicking and running round into fires... rather fleeing (far) from it and fast.

[Franklin]

I'm surprised 'closet bedrooms' hasn't been brought up, maybe it's not seen as an exploit.

Making bedrooms just 1x2, and fill that space with a bed, with the idea that negative moods associated with the awful room don't count when the colonist is asleep, which is all they can do in that tiny room. When they wake up they leave the awful closet and its negative effect.

Obviously the solution to this can't-be-sad-when-you're-asleep exploit is to either a) make it so negative moods associated with awful rooms slowly degrade after leaving (some sort of 'slept terribly' moodlet), not immediately on leaving, and/or make it so colonists have a hard time falling asleep in a terrible room, subjecting them to more of the negative moods associated with the awful room.

[EvilMoogle]

Over on reddit someone explained an exploit of calling for traders, killing them all, then using the money gained from traders to buy back loyalty, order more traders, and so on. Personally I'd like to see trader murder carry a high permanent penalty, but unfortunately the problem of them getting caught in the crossfire by wandering randomly between a firefight makes such penalties seem unfair.

The loyalty "cost" should be balanced in such a way that stealing goods (with or without killing) has a penalty of at least the value of the goods.

I'd argue that likewise a trader dying on your site (or a visitor) should have a similar penalty if they die on your site.

[mumblemumble]

mining with mini-guns.... I kind of wonder if maybe walls should have armor factors themselves, ranges in real life have concrete walls which are impervious to small arms rounds, pistol rounds, and small caliber non rifle rounds (not sharp tip rounds) because the rounds just flatten on the concrete. I suspect rock walls would do the same in this, especially with tiny mini-gun bullets.

[Shurp]

You can mine with *water* if you have enough of it under high pressure.  Mining with pistols is certainly inefficient but if you have unlimited ammunition why not?  Yes, the bullets will smoosh but they will also chip the rock and gradually erode it.

Eventually you might have a giant pile of lead to cart off

[Tynan]

Let's please try to keep this on-topic. This thread is for reporting exploit strategies - off topic posts may be removed. Thanks.

[mumblemumble]

Heres a pretty nasty exploit : manhunting animals and military aid.

Military aid never fight with animals unless attacked, so summoning military aid often means free gear, as guys walk in, get surrounded by boars, and get killed without ever firing a shot. If you can then kill the animals, and rescue them, you can make a profit ALL AROUND, with the weapons you get, extra reputation from rescued folks. (assuming you rescue enough)

This could be fixed by at least making them fight manhunting animals, as now it is WAY too easy to abuse, even a couple hares can down a band of fighters because of how they act

[Mehni]

https://youtu.be/Ym81dn39b3Y?t=134

Pardon the Russian language, not my video. Walk towards a door to open it. Once it's open it's possible to shoot out, but raiders can't shoot in.

[theubie]

Over on reddit someone explained an exploit of calling for traders, killing them all, then using the money gained from traders to buy back loyalty, order more traders, and so on. Personally I'd like to see trader murder carry a high permanent penalty, but unfortunately the problem of them getting caught in the crossfire by wandering randomly between a firefight makes such penalties seem unfair.

Diminishing returns on silver paid for bringing faction up.  Problem balances itself out.  After a while, they just don't see the shiny as worth it, which would be a bit more realistic.

[ThiIsMe007]

https://youtu.be/Ym81dn39b3Y?t=134

Pardon the Russian language, not my video. Walk towards a door to open it. Once it's open it's possible to shoot out, but raiders can't shoot in.

That's an exploit, alright, I think we can all agree on that. However, this is also a perfect example of why the game pushes the player to exploit, because :

1/ it fails to offer more valid options to the player against tactical odds (enemies have unmatchable accuracy = mechanoid scythes, unmatchable numbers = insectoids or raiders, ridiculous power = a herd of rabbits can easily kill an armed brawling expert, often also ridiculous moving speed, etc.)

2/ it enforces "rules" that are counter-productive (no windows/embrasures to shoot through, that could protect colonists against a melee rush, no amount of combat training prevents "friendly fire", which can be lethal to colonists even after a single shot, but is totally disregarded by enemies, who don't mind lobbing scores of grenades, incendiary devices or other RPG shells into a blob of allies as long as they see one colonist near it, even skilled and well-equipped colonists will miss shots against "easy targets" several times in a row, as seen in the video (pistols at short range), traps are useless since bothersome to manage and almost more dangerous to colonists/allies than foes, etc.)

I'll keep this message purposefully short, since I'm mindful that this thread is to report "exploits" and not discuss opinions or features.

The game needs to seriously improve in how it currently handles combat. The very existence of "killboxes", the mother of all exploits in Rimworld, demonstrates my point. One could spend an eternity fixing the symptoms, but they won't go away if one doesn't fix their cause.

[Britnoth]

https://youtu.be/Ym81dn39b3Y?t=134

Pardon the Russian language, not my video. Walk towards a door to open it. Once it's open it's possible to shoot out, but raiders can't shoot in.

That's an exploit, alright, I think we can all agree on that. However, this is also a perfect example of why the game pushes the player to exploit, because :

1/ it fails to offer more valid options to the player against tactical odds (enemies have unmatchable accuracy = mechanoid scythes, unmatchable numbers = insectoids or raiders, ridiculous power = a herd of rabbits can easily kill an armed brawling expert, often also ridiculous moving speed, etc.)

2/ it enforces "rules" that are counter-productive (no windows/embrasures to shoot through, that could protect colonists against a melee rush, no amount of combat training prevents "friendly fire", which can be lethal to colonists even after a single shot, but is totally disregarded by enemies, who don't mind lobbing scores of grenades, incendiary devices or other RPG shells into a blob of allies as long as they see one colonist near it, even skilled and well-equipped colonists will miss shots against "easy targets" several times in a row, as seen in the video (pistols at short range), traps are useless since bothersome to manage and almost more dangerous to colonists/allies than foes, etc.)

I'll keep this message purposefully short, since I'm mindful that this thread is to report "exploits" and not discuss opinions or features.

The game needs to seriously improve in how it currently handles combat. The very existence of "killboxes", the mother of all exploits in Rimworld, demonstrates my point. One could spend an eternity fixing the symptoms, but they won't go away if one doesn't fix their cause.

No exploit there, just the AI being utterly retarded about beating on random doors. Like always.

There is no reason to use exploits to win:

1. There are many perfectly valid options to fight raids. The vanilla game is very, very easy once you know how to fight.

2. It is called game play balance. There is a mod that adds embrasures. It totally breaks the game and makes even huge raids get mowed down by a handful of turrets or colonists with good guns. Might as well just disable raids.

3. Killboxes are not an exploit. A weak AI does not make any tactic that works against them an exploit. Improve AI or remove turrets. Don't call people cheats.

~~~

Seriously, is this thread STILL being misused?

The only things I would consider borderline status that are currently in the game are:

1. The current issue with vents behaving strangely between rooms of vastly differing size. Letting you cool or heat huge areas with just 1 cooler/heater.

2. Using reconnect as an instant on/off switch. Considering you can remotely order turrets to hold fire, I don't see this as a contradiction in the game rules unless other elements of the game were changed to require pawns manual flicking.

3. Diagonal melee attacks when the horizontal and vertical tiles are blocked by impassable terrain. You cannot shoot through the gap, but you can hit someone with a club though it? Very questionable.

[giannikampa]

Don't know if it is an exploit, but when i need to shoot my incendiarylauncers and i can't find a target i just place an animal's sleeping spot near my objective and so I can manually fire at it.