Alpha 15 unstable branch testing feedback

[Tynan]

Yeah that audio pop issue has been around for a while. I don't even know how to start approaching it, though, considering how rare it is and how it obviously doesn't come from my gameplay code...

Thanks for the save Edixo but I already shot the video!

I don't think deterioration is urgent enough to put in the fixed tutorial. There's a lesson about it on the learning helper, though. You can't just try to pack everything into one mega-lesson. People have a limit to how much they can/want to retain at once so I've tried to design around that by spacing lessons out with the learning helper.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Yeah that audio pop issue has been around for a while. I don't even know how to start approaching it, though, considering how rare it is and how it obviously doesn't come from my gameplay code...

Thanks for the save Edixo but I already shot the video!

I don't think deterioration is urgent enough to put in the fixed tutorial. There's a lesson about it on the learning helper, though. You can't just try to pack everything into one mega-lesson. People have a limit to how much they can/want to retain at once so I've tried to design around that by spacing lessons out with the learning helper.

If deterioration is in there, then that is awesome. If people have the info at their fingertips, that should be good enough. If they don't want to bother reading some helpful info, that is a different issue

[Franklin]

Played some A15. Do not like how those drug policies work.

If I set some pawns to "no drugs" policy they should not do drugs (unless I change policy or give manual order). It is super frustrating when I want them to not take drugs and they do it anyway.

You're looking at them as robots over whom you should have 100% control, or as RTS units from StarCraft. They're really not. They'll also insult people when you don't want, go on mental breaks, etc etc. If they were robots this game would be a lot more boring. There's not a lot of room for characterization in a robot.

I know this has already been hashed out so I wont continue on with it, but I wanted to say thank you for this approach. Half the excitement from this game is the dramatic psychology of the colonists you have no control over.

[MikeLemmer]

Yeah that audio pop issue has been around for a while. I don't even know how to start approaching it, though, considering how rare it is and how it obviously doesn't come from my gameplay code...

If it helps, there's only one other game I've played that has a similar bug: Orcs Must Die Unchained. The really weird thing is, it doesn't happen in the game itself; it only happens in the launcher for the game.

[Zalzany]

It does mention you got cover the stock pile I think. It should show how to make a freezer maybe I had no clue as a newb I thought for the longest time you had to unlock it in the tech tree though cooler was just an ac unit like we got here in the desert and it wouldn't go that low. That was a big game changer when I sorted that out.

Also is the passive cooler suppose to be caped at 15c? I mean it works for heat waves but I was kind of hoping I could preserve meat with them I built like 9 of them in a cooler on tribal run to test it and it refused to got below 15c, just seems odd. A dehydrated store room would make he food last longer but this can't since it can't lower the room to at least refrigerated temp. I am still stuck not being able to chill meals in bulk till winter or I get electricity saddly. And that is my go to in the first season,  I love boran forest even as tribal so first goal is farm as much as I can before fall, second fill the pantry with meat, so I can stockpile hide for parkas and what not.

As tribal I went stone tech and clothing first to help me survive didn't know the passive cooler didn't work for storage at all pretty much useless for my fave biome lol. But it does have uses for other climates for sure.

[Tynan]

For tribal food preservation, use pemmican.

[MikeLemmer]

For the Malari-block, could you include a description of malaria (and in which biomes people can get it) in the item description? I'm having trouble telling when, exactly, I want it and when it's useless.

[Tynan]

I'm currently uploading a build with a reworked drug policy system that allows setting parameters for non-scheduled usage.

Current todo list:

---

Balance deep-mining economy. High-value things appear in giant lumps with absurd amounts of value easily extractable.
In the info tab or inspect pane for fermentation barrels, state the temperature limits.
Fix: my menus say I have 1184 raw resources, but individual resources only add up to 666
Test tolerance and make sure it actually builds up over time.
Test withdrawal timing. Give feedback on withdrawal progress.
Write an econ path analyzer and balance growable products profit rates.
Even ascetics should prefer meals a bit, for efficiency. Add a general optimalityOffset to IngestibleProperties.
Split drug binge into major and extreme: major is beer and joints, extreme is flake, yayo, etc.
Ensure prisoners can take drugs in their cells.
Fix: No ingest effects while relaxing socially.
Fix linux: Player.log is created only if you run the game from the console. If you run the game through steam then Player.log is missing.

[MikeLemmer]

I'm currently uploading a build with a reworked drug policy system that allows setting parameters for non-scheduled usage.

Nice. Should we make new colonies in this patch? Or keep running our old ones from the weekend build?

...
Test withdrawal timing. Give feedback on withdrawal progress.
Write an econ path analyzer and balance growable products profit rates.
Even ascetics should prefer meals a bit, for efficiency. Add a general optimalityOffset to IngestibleProperties.
Split drug binge into major and extreme: major is beer and joints, extreme is flake, yayo, etc.
...

So glad ascetics will prefer meals now. They ate so much of my raw crop.

I also approve of separating drug binges into major and extreme.

The econ path analyzer also sounds good. Not only am I wondering if cocaine products are too undervalued now, but the joint-value discussion has me pondering the going rate for meals. I never sold many meals because they were too useful, but they might be as easy to make as joints...

As for the withdrawal timing, I have some (recorded) feedback on that. (Video: https://www.twitch.tv/mikelemmer/v/85130819)

00:30ish: I buy 10 bottles of beer from a pirate merchant.
00:43:30: Redfields drinks his first bottle of beer, immediately gets addicted.
Once the 10 beers are gone, Redfields starts going into withdrawal, which includes 3 bouts of wandering sadly. This normally wouldn't be much of a problem, except...
01:56:50: ...he goes into a sad wander right as a raid hits, wandering along the outskirts of the battlefield. Luckily he isn't attacked, but I'm down 1 of my 3 gunners and one of them gets her hand chopped off as a result.
Redfields's "one bottle" withdrawal has lasted for 5-10 days now and shows no end in sight.

My opinion? This is rather ridiculous (although that might be what you're aiming for). The odds of a 1% addiction possibility activating on the first bottle are slim, but it happened to me. (Additional note: Are % chances screwed up? I swear 1% chances succeed on the first try way too often.) Just 10 bottles of beer have caused a colonist to go into heavy withdrawal for nearly an entire season. I have no indication of how close he is to breaking the withdrawal either, which is also vexing. (If there's tolerance and withdrawal values, would like to see them displayed for testing.)

It's unbalanced that there's a .1% chance of marijuana dependency, but a 1% chance of beer addiction. That needs some tuning, although the "addicted at first beer" could highlight a problem with the addiction chances itself: consuming 1 a day for 3 days in a row has the same chance of addiction as consuming 3 in one day.

[ShadowTani]

Uhm, might have found another typo. In the "[Pawn] has developed an addiction to [Drug]." pop-up message, it said "[He/She] will automatically consume the drug to fulfil his need." Where "his" should probably be either replaced by a "[his/her]" or "this" as it sounds weird when it happens for female colonists.

Anyway, keep up the great work, having a lot of fun with this update. :3

[NolanSyKinsley]

Please, for the love of all that is good, make previous addictions(or at least usage) a requirement for binging on drugs during a mental break. Random invaders drop drugs, and even if you forbid them any colonist (other than teetotaler) can and will end up binging them when they get a mental break.

A binge should come from a desire, a desire for drugs should come after an addiction, or for persons with chemical interests. A regular joe ins't going to suddenly want to start a drug binge on a drug he has never used before just because he is a little upset.

[Leatherhead]

I would like to give some feedback on Deep Mining.

Firstly: It seems to give out HUGE amounts of resources over a very small amount of time. I tapped my first vein, and ended up with thousands of gold in a few days, and I haven't even re-tapped the vein yet. This may be too much.

Secondly: I don't care for the split research between the deep scanner and the deep driller. Yes, you could theoretically stumble about popping drills down everywhere trying to find something. But practically, you can't use one without the other. It seems like you could make "deep drilling" give you the drill and a basic scanner, and then have "advanced deep scanner" research to let you see what the deposits are before tapping them.

Thirdly: The 3x3 square the drill mines out is very cumbersome. You only get those squares before you have to disassemble the drill to move it, and you have to give it power somehow. If you re-balance the veins to give out less resources, you should make it so that the drills are easier to move, or perhaps give them the ability to branch out over time (similar to the Moisture pump) in order get more of the resources.

[ShadowTani]

Secondly: I don't care for the split research between the deep scanner and the deep driller. Yes, you could theoretically stumble about popping drills down everywhere trying to find something. But practically, you can't use one without the other. It seems like you could make "deep drilling" give you the drill and a basic scanner, and then have "advanced deep scanner" research to let you see what the deposits are before tapping them.

It might not make sense that they are split up in this patch, but I'm hoping this is the first step towards vehicles, where you'll be able to scan for oil deposits, allowing you to produce petrol or something. Or look for other underground features - meaning the drill won't be the only thing needing the scanner.

But wishful thinking aside, I think the scanner research should at least be a prerequisite for the drill research if they are to be separate.

Oh, and welcome to the forum. :3

[ReZpawner]

Any way to use older savegames in the new update? I keep getting errors with the new drug system.

[Kaiser23k]

Permadeath mode not working as described.

"In permadeath mode, you get one save file and can ONLY SAVE when QUITTING the game. You cannot reload the game to fix mistakes, and when the colony dies, that's it."

Currently my game auto saves at most twice per game day while using Permadeath mode.