Alpha 13 Thoughts and Suggestions

[PotatoeTater]

I've played four different colonies during Alpha 14 testing, and would like to share my thoughts on the social system and the new approaches to threat management.

1 Social Interactions

I have found that the overall social improvements are a good addition, that being said, I have found that mood in certain conditions can be more difficult to manage. Originally you could get away without joy building, decent food, and tables/chairs for a while and have no real mood drops; however, with social interactions playing a bigger role, I have found that colonist that get on the bad side of one and other or end up having breakups during romance makes having these these items a real necessity. I honestly feel that the new colony bonus should be increased to off set early social draws as the initial priorities are usually starting food production and gathering up your starting resources over actual home making so to speak. Also as a story from one of my colonies, I had a colonist named Frank, well Frank was very unique in the way that he almost always spent his joy times praying or meditating. Not only did I find this unique, but in addition to these habits, he was almost always the colonist that would visit others in the hospital. Now, long story short but we had a guest end up in our hospital that was almost certainly doomed to die, and Frank was right at his bedside as our guest made his journey to the long dark.

2 Prison Breaks, Infestations, And Animals Oh My

Now, covering a bulk of the update, I have found that these features have vastly improved the game, especially with the inclusion of threat management. First off to cover prison breaks, I was one of those people that liked to play a slaver, I would build my colony to gather and hold as many prisoners as possible for sale. Minus the food drain and possible mental breakdowns, it was a relative safe and easy method of income. The risk of a mass prison break reduces the ease and increases risk making the game more unforgiving and difficult, (which I enjoy). Second, Infestations, I personally like to think that these bugs are from Starship Troopers, (a personal favorite of mine). This has really put a damper on what I like to call bunker bases. I personally believe that there should be a way of preventing or early detection of them before they appear, but over all they are a very good threat addition to the game. Last but not least, the new animals. I have very little to say here, other than that the new animals fit well into the game and add an additional level of immersion. My only complaint is on Boreal Forest maps, the bears can become quite the fearsome threat to colonists as they like to roam close to the colony.

3 Economy

I have found that while early game components are something to not worry about, if you dont manage their uses, you can actually run out way before you run low on steel. Moving on to the addition of trade caravans, I found this an interesting concept with a lot of possibilities. I do have to say it isn't without a downfall, I have always favored using minefields or protection and sometimes the trade caravans will like to wander around the field or a day or two, which can occasionally cause one of the mines to go off creating hostilities towards the caravans faction.

4 Suggestions

I have found that some of the new improvements could uses some additional items/buildings to pair with.

1. Church Pews, Not trying to say that marriage is only a religious event; however, during marriage ceremonies, I feel that a new type of seating would be nice so other colonists can be comfortable while watching. The dining chairs in my option just don't fit the marriage vibe and with a pew they could be made to hold 3 colonists at once.

2. Fences, with animals becoming an increasing industry for both profit and colony support, I feel that fences should become a thing in the future, this would allow areas to be closed off for animals to roam and graze, while protecting them from predatorial animals. (This would also make farm colonys look a lot nicer)

3. Corn Power (Ethanol) I have found the fueled generators a great and well needed addition to the game; however, I have found that during a toxic fallout event, or beavers, or even just deforestation, you can run out of wood to run them. Since corn is a really profitable crop to grow, I thought it might be an idea to have another brewing option to make ethanol that the generators could run on instead, maybe even have tanks to store the fuel in and run pipes like the power cables to the generators.


Final Remarks

Overall, I have found alpha 13 to be a great addition of one of my favorite games and it was a pleasure to test during this cycle. Additionally I would like to express the possibility of doing some rimworld poster prints, I work at a large format print shop and think it would be cool to print off a few posters in the future.

[Tynan]

Thanks Potato, I appreciate the detailed feedback. Fully read, though I can't respond to every point.

Posters would be fun but I don't really have any use for physical posters, I'm afraid.

I'm going to move this to Suggestions as well.

[PotatoeTater]

Thanks Potato, I appreciate the detailed feedback. Fully read, though I can't respond to every point.

Posters would be fun but I don't really have any use for physical posters, I'm afraid.

I'm going to move this to Suggestions as well.

Sounds good, and I just though as more of a novelty thing with the posters. I have a lot of prints hug up around my house of my favorite things.

[Mathenaut]

I think that Tynan's social improvements have really tipped the balance of the game in the direction he's been aiming for it to go toward. Less RTS/more Sims, if that makes sense. I wasn't looking forward to it much, but I have to say that I am surprised.

It's like he's added roguelike elements to a random story generator. Less about the game, more about keeping the story of the colony going just to see what happens next. Kind of like how the appeal of high art was to see what hilarity would ensue with each creation.

You did good, Tynan.

One thing, though:
I have yet to see these bugs that will be threatening my caves, but I WOULD like to know if I could scrub the threat by building floors and walls - actually building a structure instead of just carving out a cave hole and living in it.

I know that there is alot of hub-bub about how 'easy' it is to build a cave base. Though, let's not kid ourselves, you can easily just rip out some stone and build a massive enclosed structure outside. Functionally little different.

[Tynan]

There is no way to stop infestations from happening besides just not tunneling into large mountains. Floors and walls are irrelevant.

[Mathenaut]

When the nests begin to multiply, can they spawn through walls?
More importantly, are they auto-hostile to turrets?

I suppose that I could just hit debug mode and answer this myself, though..

[PotatoeTater]

When the nests begin to multiply, can they spawn through walls?
More importantly, are they auto-hostile to turrets?

Technically they can spawn through walls and yes turrets will auto attack them, but not the nests, only the actual bugs.