Tips and Tricks

[Calahan]

Woah, i never realized that level 20 locks it.

There was a recent post by Tynan in the bug forum that suggests that piece of Wiki information is incorrect (or out of date).

...skills can degrade from level 20 downward as well.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=17753.msg197510#msg197510

[humblebundle]

Woah, i never realized that level 20 locks it.

There was a recent post by Tynan in the bug forum that suggests that piece of Wiki information is incorrect (or out of date).

...skills can degrade from level 20 downward as well.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=17753.msg197510#msg197510

Thanks for clarify that, it's to bad it's changed
Otherwise it would make sense leveling to 20.

[Fluffy (l2032)]

I'm not really sure what Tynan was referring to there - maybe it's an A13 change, maybe he's talking about not maxed out lvl 20, but the code for A12 does not allow a maxed out lvl 20 skill to degrade.

For those interested and with a decompiler at hand; the code is in Rimworld.SkillRecord.Learn( float xp ), the following is the pertinent line;

Code Select Expand


if (this.level == 20)
{
this.xpSinceLastLevel = Mathf.Clamp(this.xpSinceLastLevel, 0f, this.XpRequiredForLevelUp - 1f);
}

Basically, if the skill level is 20, is set to be between 0 and whatever would be needed for levelup - 1. The result is that a lvl 20 skill never gets to 21, but also never degrades.

[mumblemumble]

Damn,  i personally think skills should,  after 10, degrade to only 75 / 80% of the highest they have ever gone. For instance,   hitting level 20 would only lower to 15, and no lower.

[asanbr]

Wait... Isn't wiring sun lamps only to solar panels defeating the purpose of the sun lamps?

Not if you're planing on enclosing the sunlamps for winter.

unless you have walls dividing it,  and a closed roof,  the winter cold would kill the crops anyways... So you couldn't put them directly on the panel,  or there would be either no sun,  or too cold from the open roof.

What are you trying to say?

The point of wiring sun lamps to solar panels is so you don't need to flick off the sun lamp at night to save power, when the plants don't grow anyway. Saving power and not draining your batteries.

You would do this with a heated indoor greenhouse, and the heating would need to be wired to something else, so it doesn't turn off at night in the winter which would kill the plants.
Maybe you tried to say that, but I couldn't really decipher what you were typing.

[mumblemumble]

But solar panels aren't powered at night... I'm not understanding why solar panels are good for sun lamps over windmills,  geothermal,  ect.  Unless you are suggesting sunlight during the day makes it even out,  in which case,  i guess,  but its still using power,  but the panel feeds it during the day.

Or are you suggesting that  it syncs up with the sleep cycle? That i guess is true,  though you are screwed if a eclipse happens...  And really,  having a timer mechanism on things would fix this.

[Shurp]

I'm not sure where the idea comes from that solar power is good for anything.  Save the steel for batteries for your windmills -- or for more geothermal plants.  Maybe it makes some sense if space is at a premium (lots of people play Mountain bases) and you need to fill the space in between your windmills with something useful.

[Listy]

But solar panels aren't powered at night... I'm not understanding why solar panels are good for sun lamps over windmills,  geothermal,  ect.  Unless you are suggesting sunlight during the day makes it even out,  in which case,  i guess,  but its still using power,  but the panel feeds it during the day.

Or are you suggesting that  it syncs up with the sleep cycle? That i guess is true,  though you are screwed if a eclipse happens...  And really,  having a timer mechanism on things would fix this.

Ok my logic goes thus:

Sun lamps use a colossal amount of power. A single geothermal plant can't even power two sun lamps.
You need sun lamps for Greenhouses, and if you're not using greenhouses you're opening yourself to serious risk. Even on mild climates due to the power of a Toxic fallout, cold snaps and volcanic winters. Greenhouses eliminate some if not all of these threats.
Plants rest at night, and so don't grow. Therefore powering a sunlamp for 24 hours wastes an awful lot of energy.
Three to one ratio means you get a constant flow of power, enough to power the sunlamp for nearly 100% of the plants growth cycle during daylight. If you get an eclipse then you loose that growth for 24 hours, however if you've wired up your hydroponics (if using them) and  your heater to a different constant circuit then you only loose the growth not the crop.

[Shurp]

Eclipses only last 24 hours?  What game are you playing?

But yes, if you want to let your sun turn off the lamps instead of doing it manually or burning excess power a separate grid connected to lots of solar panels will work.  But keep in mind plants don't sleep 12 hours so you're losing growth time that way.

Also one geo plant (+3600) can thoroughly power two sun lamps (-1600) with a little to spare.  In vanilla at least.

[Listy]

Eclipses only last 24 hours?  What game are you playing?

But yes, if you want to let your sun turn off the lamps instead of doing it manually or burning excess power a separate grid connected to lots of solar panels will work.  But keep in mind plants don't sleep 12 hours so you're losing growth time that way.

Also one geo plant (+3600) can thoroughly power two sun lamps (-1600) with a little to spare.  In vanilla at least.

Thought they only produced 3000 power? Either way one or two still isn't a good use.

As I said 3:1 ratio provides just enough power to cover 99% of the entire growing period. If you stack all of them onto a single circuit, say all the Solar panels linked into one circuit which all the lamps are attached too, then it provides enough power for some of the lamps to cover the entire period.
It can make wiring a large base up... interesting... to say the least.

[Devon_v]

I find that building defensive fortifications around your base, even if it's for short people, is quite valuable, especially in mods that tone down turrets. They don't even need to be solid walls, you can build on every other tile, build small fortified bunkers, just somehing tough that your fighters can cover behind. I find that this gives you an excellent firing position against raids when you have to fight them yourselves and confuses the heck out of sappers who are looking for a traditional killbox. So long as you remember the Maginot Line and think about how your wall will conbat attacks behind it, it even works on mechanoid drops.

[Limdood]

Set a 2 hour joy period for each colonist each day to drastically reduce poor mood on routine days (marching your whole colony out to fight will still likely make people sad).  Set the joy time right before or after sleep restrictions (if you use them).  Set 2 separate 2-hour joy times on each colonist to keep the positive joy moods running.

You can maximize joy efficiency by using different kinds of joy objects (repeated use of a certain kind of joy diminishes effects).  I recommend a large, impressive dining room (for the positive mood after every meal) with horseshoe rings, a chess table, and a TV if you want to use one...even just horseshoe and chess is dirt cheap, and provides dexterity, cerebral, and social joy types

On almost every colony i make, if i have a barn, visitors tend to congregate there.  If you raise sturdier non-hauling animals (like cows, muffalo, alpacas, cobras and the like), it can be good to keep a large number of animals on hand in the barn, as the visitors will get the "very crowded" -20 mood and often break, providing free weapons, clothing, and if they violently break, some bodies.

If you have enough pawns to scratch out a living and are "gifted" with an old person that you don't want to kill off, stick him on cleaning or social duty, alternatively, place a chunk and a cut stone stockpile next to each other, a stonecutting table in between, and let him have at it.

when fighting minigun or heavy charge blaster wielding centipedes (AFTER scythers are dead), simply put your best shielded or least valuable pawn close to the centipedes with NO other pawns within about 7 squares.  Most minigun and heavy charge blaster hits are actually collateral damage from shooting at the nearest pawn and hitting the others, since minigun bullets are programmed to land in a spread pattern AROUND the target.

Hunting rifles and Snipers are great for getting KILLS.  Assault rifles, PDWs, and LMGs are good for causing large amounts of pain, usually downing an enemy without killing them OR removing a limb...ideal for capture.  The assault rifle in particular is my personal favorite for this...with range of just shy of a hunting rifle, and a fast aim and recovery time, they're ideal for both shooting down charging melee combatants and popping a few runners at the end of a raid.  Charge rifles split the difference between the two types of guns.  They shoot fast, nonlethal shots like the assault rifle, but hit harder (they will often kill or remove limbs) - they're one of the best weapons in the game fore pure damage output...as long as you can make their relatively short range work for you.

If you have the range, the setup time, and the terrain for it, using personal shielded melee (or non) combatants a few tiles in front of your shooters AND behind cover can give a serious edge in a shootout.  Enemies target the closest target to shoot at, and if they shoot at the shielded, armored pawn behind a tree peeking out from a corner instead of the sniper in the open 4 squares back, you'll last a LOT longer - just be sure to offset your shooters so you don't pop your own guy in the back of the head with a stray shot.

[Shurp]

If one of your colonists goes berserk, have all your other colonists grab wood logs and beat him down.  He probably won't suffer any permanent injuries.  And then you can rescue him, which works much better than imprisoning him.

[Devon_v]

If one of your colonists goes berserk, have all your other colonists grab wood logs and beat him down.  He probably won't suffer any permanent injuries.  And then you can rescue him, which works much better than imprisoning him.

Heh, the loonies aren't allowed to have armor. If they break, everyone in the room beats them down and tosses them in their bed to think about what they've done.

In Combat Realism shotguns are actually very good subdual weapons at moderate range.