Haven't played in a while, a few questions!

[baronjutter]

Mostly loving this update, I haven't played in a few version though so I have some questions, some are questioned I've had for a very long time.

How are attacks decided?  Is there just a random chance for some sort of attack, then the hostiles are randomly chosen, then their method of attack chosen?  Or are there weights?  Do attackers choose to just attack right away,  siege, or sap based on previous experience or is it random?

Why are half my colonists constantly suffering from some disgusting painful crippling illness now?  I like the idea of dealing with illness, but give me some tools to help avoid it.  It feels totally random, and many of the illnesses are quite chronic.  When I sample my population it seems a good half of them constantly have gut worms or muscle parasites or something along those lines.  Also how are my colonists so frequently getting food poisoning?  My food is all frozen and my cooks high skill, am I missing a food poisoning mechanic?

I love that traders now physically visit you rather than the messy trade ship and beacon system, but it's resulted in a real lack of trade opportunities.  I have warehouses of nice stuff to sell and many things I want to buy, I wish trade ship frequency was tied to the amount of trade you do, or that ground traders had a bit more variety and bought/sold more things.

What exactly sets how difficult someone is to recruit?  Most savages I capture are at 99 difficulty so I end up releasing them all.  Pirates often start around 70-90 but after I recruit the first few they generally jump up to 98-99 very fast.  I've never liked the whole "grow your population via stockholm syndrome" mechanic really.  I like that you can sometimes rescue people being chased by pirates, or people just wander in to join your colony, but I wish there was a bit more of an immigration system.  Depending on the fame and quality of life in your colony people would ask to move in from time to time.

Is there any real difference in the crop types?  Do my colonists appreciate the diversity or is it just for fun to grow anything other than potatoes for food?

Is there any way to get a wall builder to build a wall from a certain side?  Often I want to block off an area, but the builder will decide to stand on the wrong side of the wall and build them selves in.  I'll try ordering them to build the wall while they're on different sides, but it frequently just seems random (or they refuse to ever change where they stand).

How do the room stats work?  Size and value are fairly obvious, but the others I'm less sure how to increase.  I had a greedy colonist and despite building her a massive palace of a bedroom filled with art, she was still never happy.  Despite being extremely pleasant and high value, it wasn't impressive enough.

[RazorHed]

Pirates are easier to recruit than tribals initially because I guess they are semi civilized. Once you get more colonists though , the storytellers will make it harder to recruit more colonists.

Some crops grow faster than others, taste bad when eaten raw, have a higher possible yield, are affected by rich soil differently. Strawberries grow fast and don't give a raw food mood penalty. Corn grows slow but has a really high yield and also can be eaten raw safely. Rice grows really fast in hydroponics. Potatoes are useless !

As for bedrooms , If you want the spacious bedroom buff I use this method 28+amount of squares taken up by objects you can't walk through + (amount of squares take up by objects you can walk through)/2.  You can improve the beauty of a bedroom by putting down pretty floors and wooden or stone walls . Also by getting a good constructor to make really good beds and other furniture .  They can make legendary beds that have like 600 beauty .  For that greedy colonist turn on the room stats and check every other rooms impressiveness , then assign the best to her . Maybe there was a better one somehow . like with a much higher beauty bed

[Alitaria]

Everything listed below is heavily weighted by your choice of story teller. Cassie and Pheobe will start things off small and build it up while Randy will just throw shit at you and hope it makes some pretty fireworks.

The timing of raids is determined by your story teller as mentioned above, but the size and tactic of the raids are determined by your wealth and defense. Should a particular area of your base be heavily guarded, they will choose to sap a location to avoid that. While Tribals and Mechanoids will just do a frontal assault.

Illnesses like malaria and plague are quite dangerous if untreated but ultimately will pass over time providing you keep up treatments. Same with infections. Things like Gutworms MUST be treated with medicine or they will spend many seasons infected. My only experince with Gutworms was when my primary constructor contracted it for an entire season.
Food poisoning occurs when either a colonist consumes raw food, consumes badly cooked food (random chance when cooking, higher at lower levels) or I believe the sterility of the cooking area can affect the poisoning chance.

Nothing you can do about the traders situation, just hope.

I believe the difficulty to recruit is tied to a couple of things. The faction they came from, space refugee being the easiest and Tribal/Pirate being the hardest. And the population of your colony. The game tries to limit expansion by making it harder to get new people as you grow larger.

Colonists gain no mood buff from diversity in food but some foods grow at different speeds and yield different amounts of food. And others can be eaten raw with no mood loss. In my experience rice seems to be the most efficient crop. But I could be wrong.

As far as I can tell, no. Builders are stupid. My builders trap themselves in 1x1 holes all the time. Just be careful how you place down the plans/foundations. They will generally build from the side they approached from.

Greedy colonists are a pain in the ass. I more often than not just take the mood debuff. But a rooms stats are based on the size of the room, i think something like 6x6 will give the spacious room buff providing the bed isnt in the corner, the value is affected by the quality of the furniture/art in there. Using masterwork/legendary beds and art will massively increase the value. The cleanliness also affects the value. Make sure the room is kept clean as that is a massive draw on room stats.
The impressiveness stat I believe is an overall score for the room based on all the other stats.

Massive wall of text but I hope some of it helped.
Other people feel free to correct me on anything I may have gotten wrong

[cultist]

Mostly loving this update, I haven't played in a few version though so I have some questions, some are questioned I've had for a very long time.

How are attacks decided?  Is there just a random chance for some sort of attack, then the hostiles are randomly chosen, then their method of attack chosen?  Or are there weights?  Do attackers choose to just attack right away,  siege, or sap based on previous experience or is it random?

It mostly depends on difficulty settings and the type of AI storyteller. Pirates tend to try different things, though they will often attack the same spot if you fail to reinforce it (sappers in particular). Tribals just rush you with numbers every time. Townspeople are usually like tribals but they sometimes have nasty weapons.

Why are half my colonists constantly suffering from some disgusting painful crippling illness now?  I like the idea of dealing with illness, but give me some tools to help avoid it.  It feels totally random, and many of the illnesses are quite chronic.  When I sample my population it seems a good half of them constantly have gut worms or muscle parasites or something along those lines.  Also how are my colonists so frequently getting food poisoning?  My food is all frozen and my cooks high skill, am I missing a food poisoning mechanic?

A bunch of new diseases were added in A13. They're not technically disesases as you can't die from them (I think), they act more like debuffs to mood and other things. These include all parasites and gut worms.

Are they actually getting food poisoning? Gut worms causes massive vomiting as well. I have 4 cases in my colony right now. Puke everywhere. If it is food poisoning and you cook isn't terrible it's usually because your kitchen is dirty. Either that or RnG trolling. Or you are eating too many raw berries.

Is there any real difference in the crop types?  Do my colonists appreciate the diversity or is it just for fun to grow anything other than potatoes for food?

Lots. Rice grows faster but has lower yield. Corn grows slowly but has massive yield. Can be eaten raw with no negative mood. Taters are sort of middle-ground. Strawberries can be eaten raw and grow pretty fast but they are fragile (can't handle cold). Different soil types affect growth rate as well, rice grows super fast in rich soil, taters grow faster than other crops in poor soil.

This is not so important on easy maps, much more important on maps where you can only grow 1-2 months a year or not at all.

Is there any way to get a wall builder to build a wall from a certain side?  Often I want to block off an area, but the builder will decide to stand on the wrong side of the wall and build them selves in.  I'll try ordering them to build the wall while they're on different sides, but it frequently just seems random (or they refuse to ever change where they stand).

It's an AI issue essentially.

How do the room stats work?  Size and value are fairly obvious, but the others I'm less sure how to increase.  I had a greedy colonist and despite building her a massive palace of a bedroom filled with art, she was still never happy.  Despite being extremely pleasant and high value, it wasn't impressive enough.

Space is important too, but not that much. I can usually satisfy greedy colonists with lots of art and dumping all the gold/jade in their room. Also keep the room clean as dirt has a big beauty penalty.

[baronjutter]

Thanks for all the info!!

Another quick question:  bug infestations.  THey'd always happen in some far away mine, but I had one pop up the middle of my very busy very well developed dining room.  Why did this happen? It makes me feel scared they can pop up anywhere in my base now.

Should I go build some big abandoned mine on the other side of the map for them to spawn on?? Did they spawn in my dining room because it was the only interior under-mountain space on the map?

[RazorHed]

bug hive will pop anywhere there is an overhead mountain

[Alitaria]

Hives always spawn under either "Overhead Mountain" or "Rock Roof (Thin)"
Its just luck of the draw as to whether they spawn in an unused section or in the middle of your freezer