[A16] MarsX v3.0.2 - Musky Edition

Started by Dubwise, September 11, 2016, 09:34:48 AM

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GrimTrigger

Have recent changes/additions to the game caused a loss of progress to this project?

Dubwise

No, sorry for not posting here, i always forget about the forum and notifications are totally broken on this site, here's my discord if you want to come bug me for info https://discord.gg/bajcjsu

I'm still targeting rimworld v1, i haven't updated this to the last few rimworld versions because there was changes to world gen in a17 preventing me from doing an easy update, then i got lots of requests for standalone versions of mars content, and the updates didn't add anything of any use to the mod, you know like tribal masks? bedside tables? not much use really so i changed my focus to making all the standalone mods, i could have had mars updated a lot sooner but i think most people are probably happier to have hygiene rimatomics and the other mods in their normal rimworld games.

The big plan was to build those mods with the ultimate goal of using them as the foundation for the next version of mars, so every time i thought of something new to add i would be thinking "oh this will be great to use in mars". So now i have these 6 mods which are all working pretty well together and have had lots of time to mature, and i'm loading all of them as sort of base mods into the B19 build of mars, some bits like the skylights don't really need any changes, but the big mods like rimatomics hygiene and rimefeller are more like a library of modifiable classes that i can use to crank out new stuff.

So for example from rimatomics there is the research system which replaces the default rimworld research entirely, and the reactors are similar but obviously smaller, using thermocouples, mini turbines and radiators. The needs from hygiene plus extras are obviously taken care of, then you have all of the water and sewage stuff plus the oil drilling from rimefeller that comes together to form all of the resource management in the mod, like drilling for ice and minerals, storing gasses, pumping it all around, leaking it, processing it, making all of your materials, curing, plastics metals composites, there is all the stuff to do with grids, overlays, textures, moving liquids and gasses around the environment, making them combustible, on and on

Jake

Have you considered the possibility of turning MarsX into its own separate game? Not only would you not be compelled to work within the limits of the existing source code (albeit at the cost of having to do a bunch of stuff yourself from scratch), but I think the fact people are more interested in the standalone modules is part of a wider issue: The gameplay changes are so radical and comprehensive that with this mod active, people aren't really playing Rimworld anymore. And switching between MarsX and the regular Rimworld experience is rather fiddly even if you've got something like MOD-E installed to automate the job of activating all your mods in the proper order.

Dubwise

i need to finish the mod, then i'll think about it, and its easy to swap between vanilla and mars since b18 because it auto enables the mods when you load a save, and i'll probably put in a check to disable all your mods when mars boots up unless they are on some kind of whitelist because hardly any will work

eksynn

#769
any news on updating this mod to 1.0?
or, you know. making modules for it? (so for example, i only want specific aspects of the mod, especially the oxygen thing and a couple of others, in my current world. i don't care much for mars, but everything else is really awesome xD)

edit: oh! i get it! "musky" edition! lol

Dubwise

it is already in modules, all of my other mods, and doing air is pretty much not possible for vanilla rimworld what with the million different variables involved with animals plants raids mods and so on, it requires a total conversion to do it or its easier to just make a new game from scratch

eksynn

but for 1.0? i can't seem to find it anywhere

Canute


coldheartzero

One of the best mods ever, I keep a dedicated copy of A16 on my desktop just so I can play with this mod. It has a few oddities that I'm sure you're aware of and will fix but like others I'm itching for a 1.0 version. You're a great modder, you don't do anything halfway it seems. Thanks for your efforts.

blackrave

First of all, thank you for this fantastic mod (or should I say conversion?).
My first colony is thriving and just refueled first ship and sent it back to Earth.

Second, few suggestions that could maybe give you few ideas for future content.
1a.Food- condiments are good, but frankly, humanity has something better for all kinds of dishes (meat, veggies or desserts) and we had it for quite a long time. It is small, light and has very long shelf life (if processed and stored properly) and most of it can be grown relatively easily even on Mars. I'm talking about various spices- dill, parsley, basil, mint, pepper, etc.
Could even include fresh and dry variants, with fresh having more intense flavor and requiring less of it (nutrient-wise you use 2-3 units of fresh to get 1 unit of dry), but spoiling fast (1-2 days). Dry spices meanwhile would require extra processing step (drying, milling, maybe even packaging in small amount of textile/polymer/?paper?), would lose some flavor and require more, but those would have very long shelf life (year or more). Maybe even add small NaCl patches as a mine-able mineral veins that would require processing chunks into dry spices (I admit that it would be a bit weird to have organic and inorganic spices mashed together, but gameplay-wise both would have same function and separating those would just introduce unnecessary clutter). That should cover fine meals (even if it's just salted rice).

1b.Food- revenge of the protein. Any thriving human colony would require tasty and balanced food to survive- martian colony is no exception. So colonists need reliable source of lavish meals. Luckily you don't have to transport cows to Mars (well, I guess you could if you REALLY wanted to, but it's inefficient). So first, vegan options (that Vegetable Garden already did)- beans and mushrooms. Can be grown out of beans and mycelium that can be transported from Earth (and can be easily made from beans and mushrooms, if you'll implement seeds). As an added bonus mushrooms do not require sunlight, but they do require warmer humid air.
Vegan is fine and dandy, but what about other more carnivorous options? Good news- transporting frozen fish roe and semen isn't hard. Even better news- most fish simply disperse those 2 near each other and wonder of life happens on it's own, so fertilization would require simple defrosting and mixing. Bad news? "Land Shark" lied to us- fish can't live on land and require water basins (shocking, I know). Even worse they need food, but don't despair, this is where various forms of algae comes in. One could simply seed algae into basin and occasionally provide it with some nutrients (I knew that crappy dry-frozen slop would be useful for something, and if everything fails we can always feed algae with that useless artist that can't do anything but make sculptures... wait, did I said it out loud? You can't prove anything!!! I have alibi.), sunlight and CO2 and algae would convert it into more algae and O2. Next it would be just balancing act to make sure fish has enough algae to eat (with occasional culling for tasty fish stew). Bonus point- algae could be grown on it's own without adding fish roe to basin for low quality cooking ingredient (basically treat it as vegetable version of insect meat with mild mood debuff because it tastes weird). Even more- besides basic fish (some small edible herbivore fish- there are several, pick any) one could introduce trout or salmon as tastier alternative (with mood bonus when used as ingredient), but those are carnivores, so they would require basic fish for food.
Even more I'm pretty sure chicken and other poultry could be transported in similar fashion (frozen eggs+ frozen semen= defrost, inject, place in incubator, pray to the Bridge god that your scientist didn't mess it up), so birds could also make comeback (or anything that reproduces via eggs, really).
If you plan going near future, then eventually, frozen embryos could be transported as well, defrosted and matured in artificial wombs, but similarly to fusion reactors that tech currently is in early prototype stages, so there is no guarantee when (or even if) it will be finalized.
And one last note on ingredient mood modifiers- imported meats (chicken, pork, beef, lamb, etc.) should provide mood buffs if used as ingredients (except maybe in case of vegan/vegetarian pawns- new traits that give debuffs if meat is consumed, but grants buffs from different plant sources).

2.Economy- the big one. While I like your idea of research based economy, I find it a bit lacking, frankly. How about having it as an option A- you build comms console, various Earth space agencies (main six are- NASA-Americans, RFSA/Roscosmos-Russians, CNSA-Chinese, ESA-European amalgamation of national space agencies, ISRO-Indians, JAXA-Japanese) provide you with various missions- ranging from simple low gravity experiments, sending them back examples of specific martian samples (a number of limestone chunks, for example) up to travelling to specific hex on a planet and taking specific sample from that place (would require spawning unique mission item) and sending it back to Earth. Then space agencies would reward your company with monetary reward (either simply USDs or, if you want to go a bit deeper, their national currencies)
Now for option B- sending back various refined resources (noble metals, rare earth minerals, isotopes, rare gems, etc.) to Earth to sell them. could even include real, genuine martian art (I just know some hipster would love to buy sculpture that shows how mission commander Volkov puked his guts out after getting food poisoning from badly cooked meal). Either simply pack them up, send back and, the moment ship lands on Earth, everything gets converted to currency to be used on further resupply missions, or...
Option C- regional markets and price fluctuation. Once ship lands, it's cargo gets loaded into warehouse, then you go to six regional market tabs (corresponding to six mentioned space agencies) and sell stuff off your warehouse.
Each of those regional markets have it's own national currency and have more or less independent price fluctuations on goods AND currency of other regions (so you could for example exchange your stockpile of euros into rubles, if price is good and/or you need something from russian market).
Then you spend money on fleet maintenance, building new rockets, refueling, hiring and resupplying. Maintenance and building could have options to either outsource them to companies form various countries (based on what currency you have on hand) or do it in-house (if you have enough resources in warehouse). Fuel and supplies could be simply bought off the markets (for example 1000 units of methane would be required to launch rocket, so buy it where price is good). Hiring would be done in two steps, picking currency (influencing nationality background) and then picking how much you're willing to pay- the better the pay, the better the traits and stats (or even sell tickets to get totally random pawns).

3.How about robotic addition, similar to Misc. haulers and cleaners? While cleaners would be just that- basic roombas to roam base and clean floors, haulers could be a bit more interesting.
Electric hauler would be just like cleaner- roam the base, haul stuff, dock to batteries to recharge itself.
FC Rover would be akin to manufactured hauling animal that "eats" liquid fuel, but instead of dieing from starvation it would simply deactivate itself once fuel bar runs out (or could be done manually to save fuel), turning itself into station/workbench. That station would be required to filled with fuel and manually activated by pawn, for rover to become entity again.
RTG Rover, like FC one, but can operate much longer and instead of liquid fuel it requires nuclear fuel rods to operate. Could "excrete" spent fuel rods if you ever decide to implement breeder reactors.
FC and RTG rovers could be like hauler animals- haul stuff to stockpiles and aid in expeditions, but instead of food, those would require liquid fuel and nuclear rods.
All of those could occasionally break down and require component to be fixed.

4.Research. I think vanilla research system could be retained, but used for slightly different purposes. Unless you're planning to send Tony Stark to Mars, I doubt many colonists could figure out how to build compact fusion reactor in, let's be honest, a cave. So purpose of vanilla research could be less of a research and more of an adaptation of blueprints and patents to manufacturing techniques that are available to colonists and Mars environment. So most if not all research would have specific patent prerequisite. Patents could eventually start appearing on the markets once relevant discoveries are made on Earth. And of course those would not be cheap.


Now, a bit of nagging about beacons.
First one worked like a charm- ship landed in designated area.
I deactivated it and built second one, but next couple ships scattered in area.
Then I deconstructed first beacon- next ship after that landed as planned.
It seems multiple beacons confuse game (even if only one is active).
Would it be possible that only active beacons are taken into consideration?
If not then at least allow us to re-install beacon in different spots.

Also, I understand why you don't allow rotating many stations- you talked about some graphics looking weird, but the fact that beacon only has right positioning is sometimes infuriating.
Could you please add button that flips landing spot from left to right?
That way beacons could be a bit more versatile.

And that's about it.
I know I wrote a lot, but I was thinking about it for some time and this is result of that.
Anyway, I hope you haven't abandoned this mod, it is too awesome to die.
Hope anything I wrote will peak you interest and give you few ideas to try to implement.
Good luck!

Boogeyman

#775


Dubwise

still working on it, i post lots of screenshots and chat about it on my discord if you are interested  https://discord.gg/QqF5P7D

Nord

We are still waiting. Almost without hope, but we are still here...
This is... was? the best mod for the rimworld.