Alpha 15 unstable branch testing feedback

Started by Tynan, August 17, 2016, 03:02:20 PM

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Tynan

This thread is for all feedback about the Alpha 15 unstable branch test!

I could also really use some savegames for recording the release video on! I'm really just looking for natural colonies - not some weird fancy artwork. Ideally, with a drug production operation. If you've got a savegame like this, please zip it, put it on Dropbox or another file hosting service, and drop the link here.

Thanks all.
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

Mehni

Hello Tynan,

Let me start by saying nice job on the A15. Quicker than expected, and I am psyched! Thanks for providing an unstable branch.

I just completed the tutorial and a few minutes of regular gameplay, and I feel one or two things are missing from the tutor. The most common newbie mistake I see mentioned on the RimWorld subreddit is to do with capturing instead of rescuing people from escape pods. The second most common 'mistake' is the buttons on the bottom right; regarding the automatic expansion of the homezone and categorized layout of the resource list.

Thanks again, and I'm off to play more!

Helixien

I will try it over the weekend.

If I may ask, when will the final A15 be out (in less than two weeks or not?) Since I am working on a mod and if its out in the next 2-3 weeks, I would make it for A15 right away and not bother with A14.

pdxsean

Hi Tynan

First off, amazing turnaround on A15, that was the fastest I've seen. I love it and can't wait to start a real colony. Especially to see the food preference tweaks. Finally my pawns will (hopefully) eat those fine meals instead of raw rice!

Anyway, I played through the tutorial and took some notes. Take them for what they are worth, this is in the order that they occurred for me.

When choosing a landing site - I didn't see any info on important factors like temperatures and growing periods. Maybe a brief mention of them, or like "Check out the stats of the landing site, every site is different, the further north you go the colder" or something. 

When creating pawns - Maybe a brief suggestion that your pawns have all the primary skills (social, cook, build, mine, grow) amongst them to continue. Maybe a brief indication to look at the little good and great skill modifiers and what they mean. I do love your instruction to not just reroll in search of perfection. 

When unforbidding the steel/wood/etc you start with, the 'unforbid this' text covered up the items completely until I got to a very low zoom level. Since this comes on the heels of the zoom in/zoom out instructions there's a good chance noobs might not be able to find out what it is they're supposed to click on.

When selecting weapons - Maybe suggest they look and see if a pawn has better skill in melee or ranged weaponry. Also the first colonist I tried to instruct to grab a weapon was busy vomiting, so clicking on the gun to equip did nothing. A noob might not understand what is going wrong. Also I am not sure but can violence forbidden pawns be instructed to carry weapons? This is a potential roadblock to the tutorial. 

Finally, when placing your pawns behind the sandbags, the hover text instructing them to take cover remains even after all pawns have complied with the instructions. Since previously this text would disappear upon compliance, this may confuse noobs who think they're pawns aren't properly in cover. 

A few small suggestions for additions:

A brief rundown of character needs. This is something people really seem to be baffled by, even after playing for hours. Particularly on the subreddit where I am active, it seems like a majority of new player frustrations stem from them not understanding the value of the needs tab. Getting this in their mind from the get-go seems like a good idea for an orientation/tutorial. 

Similarly, setting up a basic electric network and refrigeration system, and explanation of deterioration would be good for a tutorial IMO. I know this is covered pretty well in the next-level tool index thing, but it's so vital it might be worth putting in the basic tutorial.

I haven't had a chance to do any more with the new alpha but I wanted to give some quick feedback on the tutorial. Thanks as always, this game is the best!

Tynan

Thanks for the notes everyone.

I can't respond to every detail, but I am definitely extracting some tasks and thoughts already.

Still looking for a decent colony to shoot the update video on!
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

newcadence

#5
hey tynan, i'm working on a colony that specializes in marijuana production. It's on Randy Casual, and i whipped together a scenario that starts you with drug production and microelectronics, at the cost of your first 3 having chemical interest and cannabis dependence.

is this the kind of colony you'd like some info on?

also WOW you buffed "lovin'" to 24 mood
actually, that's really weird, one of my colonists has got some lovin x2 with +29, and her partner has got some lovin x2 with +12

Tynan

Lovin depends how much they like each other :)

As for the colony, just a natural colony is all I'm looking for. Nothing weird or special.
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

NolanSyKinsley

Hunters are hunting sleeping animals now. If I remember correctly they used to not hunt any sleeping animals.

Perhaps the sleeping mad animal fix changed something?

Tynan

Quote from: NolanSyKinsley on August 18, 2016, 01:44:52 AM
Hunters are hunting sleeping animals now. If I remember correctly they used to not hunt any sleeping animals.

Perhaps the sleeping mad animal fix changed something?

They always hunted sleeping animals.
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

MikeLemmer

In a recent game, I had a dozen tribal people visit my colony. They promptly raided my food stores and devoured most of my meals. Could you please give them some pemmican so they don't do this?

kanukki

Hey Tynan, I just started up and was a bit surprised to see drugs as 'marijuana' and 'coca'. I'm certainly not offended myself, but I imagine not all folks/govts/game ratings boards are as enlightened. I think Prison Architect (or some other game?) had to change the realistic names of the drugs to more fantasy names to avoid potential trouble.

lowdegger

Crack and weed. Brilliant. Just played the tutorial, two comments:

1. The bit where you're taught how to unforbid items makes the lack of a simple, draggable unforbid tool glaring. I think people will just be wondering "why is this such a hassle?" There's a perfect mod which adds this, I think you should implement it.

2. The raid part of the tutorial went a bit wrong for me. The raider spawned with my little house and stockpile between her and my sandbags, so the first thing she did was hit my house a few times, then gave up and went round it towards my dudes - but seeing she was outnumbered, she turned around, grabbed ALL OF MY MACHINE PARTS and ran off the map. This is all perfectly good gameplay, it's what she should do to punish me for not moving my dudes to defend the stockpile, but would have made for a confusing introduction to combat in Rimworld since I was told to let them sit there and have a shoot-out. Also the tutorial told me to pause the game but the game auto-paused, so if I'd pressed space I would have UN-paused it!

That's all. Keep up the good work! Rimworld is one of the best goddam games I ever played. Haven't had this much fun with a new game since FTL came out. (Also please add some kind of futuristic pistol. Surely a few could make it here from the Glitterworlds if the charge rifles have?)

Michigo

Quote from: kanukki on August 18, 2016, 06:36:37 AM
Hey Tynan, I just started up and was a bit surprised to see drugs as 'marijuana' and 'coca'. I'm certainly not offended myself, but I imagine not all folks/govts/game ratings boards are as enlightened. I think Prison Architect (or some other game?) had to change the realistic names of the drugs to more fantasy names to avoid potential trouble.
Many older games have avoided real drug names for this very reason.

The important question is:
Does it matter in 2016, or is it a problem of the past?

Bigby

I'm liking some of the changes so far....Always thought it was weird that we couldn't request a trade deal.

We really need a 'visitor spot' similar in function to a 'marriage spot'. That way visitors don't decide they need to hang out between my turrets and the incoming raid. I could park them in an air conditioned building safely away from the fighting and main food stores. I could supply them with some beer and beds, etc....

Renzo471

Really liking the changes  my colony feels more fleshed out with another route to weigh pros and cons of is always welcome for me, the drugs are going to make some interesting colony breakdowns I had one already it was glorious.
I always found it a little odd that our colonists lose friends and now family members they make moral choices that affect their moods considerably they can do terrible things to prisoners to save their own but there wasn't much we could do to "try and forget", gameplay wise it was there with joy and beer and social interaction but for me it felt strange that committing war crimes and harvesting organs could be offset by talking to someone you dislike and watching tv. For me drugs make that a lot easier to deal with from a gameplay and story perspective I think If I play a colony of brutish crack addicts taking prisoners and selling them an ends justifying means kinda colony seems more fitting than just randomly slaving cuz bored or my lack of a focus.
I think tolerances and addiction rates might need some tweaking my colony had 5 addicts within a single trip to the stockpile but admittedly when I added a new one in the drug policy I left everything default and I think that may of been the problem it was fun just maybe an easy way for a newer player to wipe if a big pile of hard drugs appears somehow