Rim world story clarification

[nomadseifer]

will be interesting to see how this pan's out

I think it has panned out since trade ships are already in the game.   

[Lechai]

will be interesting to see how this pan's out

I think it has panned out since trade ships are already in the game.

Yes, trade ships are already in the 'pre-alpha' game.
It's a long way between here and release, and there will be many broad changes to come....
this 'may' be one of them, who knows. 

[Spike]

will be interesting to see how this pan's out

I think it has panned out since trade ships are already in the game.

Actually, there really aren't any "trade ships" in the game.   It's a mechanic.  You get a message about the ship, use the com console to interact with them, and trade.  It could easily be changed to a message about a pit to the Underworld opening, using your magic com circle to interact with the denizens, and trade.

[AspenShadow]

Ahhh glorious cynicism, how I've missed you.

But the fact remains that Lechai is quite right and with the scope of technological advancement 'prophesized' for the final release it's only sensible to assume we won't always start with the ability to produce a Comms Console nor the constant traffic of ships over our head.

[hermesdj]

Hello,

I have been thinking about the inconsistency of ships passing nearby and our survivors not leaving with it. Damn, that is something major to me and kinda immersion breaking. And the whole point of the game is the story right ?

I gave it a lot of thinking and came up with something fairly easy to implement and that just make sense. Let me explain :

There is already a loyalty system in the game. Add a modifier when a ship passes nearby. If the loyalty is below the threshold, the colonist simply just leave with the ship. And if it is the last one, then your story ends like this. If you wished for them to stay, then you failed in making them happy enough or scared them enough.

This would make a lot of sense ! Besides, ships appear really too often actually so it should be scaled down : its a rim world !

The way i see it, three survivors crash and try to survive stranded on a planet. But after a few months, they begin to feel like home and want to stay here. Some will leave when a ship comes, others will stay because hey, that is not so bad, or it is worse in the rest of the universe ! Or they are ruled by one of them by fear and threatened to be killed if they wish to leave.

This could be completed by the backstory of a character : a survivor with family should have a bonus to his wish to leave. He may also wish to make his family come to this new home if he is happy here. Etc. Thereare many possibilities based on this idea and i dont have time to enumerate every one of them ^^

So, what do you think?

[Tynan]

The trader thing isn't weird at all if you just realize how big space is.

To have a trade ship, it has to pass between different parts of the planet at least, or maybe different plants in the system. That's a journey of less than a day to perhaps a few months.

To travel to another star, you have to travel for decades. The distances are thousands of times greater. It's a totally different kind of space travel.

So basically, asking why you can't hitch a ride with a traders is like saying: Hey, you're trapped in Bangkok, why don't you just hitch a ride home with a passing food vendor? Even if he was willing to take you, he's not nearly equipped for the kind of travel you need.

To us on Earth it seems like space is just space. And fictions like Star Trek and Star Wars make it seem like that. But when you understand the proportions of space, you realize that there is space, and then there is interstellar space, and they're as different as a park pond and the Pacific ocean.

[null]

To us on Earth it seems like space is just space. And fictions like Star Trek and Star Wars make it seem like that. But when you understand the proportions of space, you realize that there is space, and then there is interstellar space, and they're as different as a park pond and the Pacific ocean.

Actually, fictions like Star Trek made it obvious that destinations are pretty much unreachable if you're below warp, unless you're in the same system and can reach it with impulse. Or you meet a Q, that is.

[Nocebo]

So basically, asking why you can't hitch a ride with a traders is like saying: Hey, you're trapped in Bangkok, why don't you just hitch a ride home with a passing food vendor? Even if he was willing to take you, he's not nearly equipped for the kind of travel you need.

Not to mention the game itself doesn't seem to be in a friendly place, slave ships moving around, raiders everywhere. Trade ships are probably highly suspicious by nature. And on top of that. What could a handful of colonists offer a trade ship for "rescue". There is nothing to offer. And trying to hitch a ride on a trade ship will most likely just end with your colonists being sold as slaves to someone else.
(at least in my mind..)

[Galileus]

I find it hard to believe your settlers would be afraid to be taken as slaves. I think it would be the other way around.

"Hey there, pilgrim! I see you have a nice ship. How many people there? 5? Great, listen, we have 12 heavily armed and firefight-hardened veterans that would just loooove to see your ship. I'm sure there would be a place for a field trip. What do you mean no way? Listen man, we're really friendly folk, really! I'm sure we'll get along and WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SHIP LEFT COMMS RANGE!? THEY JUST GOT HERE!"

[sparda666]

I find it hard to believe your settlers would be afraid to be taken as slaves. I think it would be the other way around.

"Hey there, pilgrim! I see you have a nice ship. How many people there? 5? Great, listen, we have 12 heavily armed and firefight-hardened veterans that would just loooove to see your ship. I'm sure there would be a place for a field trip. What do you mean no way? Listen man, we're really friendly folk, really! I'm sure we'll get along and WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SHIP LEFT COMMS RANGE!? THEY JUST GOT HERE!"

It would be likely that a trade ship capable of interstellar travel would need more than 5 people to operate it. ships carrying large amounts of valuable goods would also be heavily guarded

[cidjikai]

So basically, asking why you can't hitch a ride with a traders is like saying: Hey, you're trapped in Bangkok, why don't you just hitch a ride home with a passing food vendor? Even if he was willing to take you, he's not nearly equipped for the kind of travel you need.

Yeah but you could ask the trucker to take you out of the slums and drop you to the closest airport. The meat carrying spaceship isn't going to travel through the universe but he'll eventually stop by a spaceport where the refugees could embark. After all, they have tons of money after selling all these genetically engineered potatoes grown in the hydroponics.

[Nocebo]

I find it hard to believe your settlers would be afraid to be taken as slaves. I think it would be the other way around.

"Hey there, pilgrim! I see you have a nice ship. How many people there? 5? Great, listen, we have 12 heavily armed and firefight-hardened veterans that would just loooove to see your ship. I'm sure there would be a place for a field trip. What do you mean no way? Listen man, we're really friendly folk, really! I'm sure we'll get along and WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SHIP LEFT COMMS RANGE!? THEY JUST GOT HERE!"

I was using the logic of the current game mechanics. It costs about $1500 to $2200 for decent slaves, your crew of 12 would fetch a sizable price tag.. Since the ships don't seem to land. Your conversation could also go something like this: "Hey there, pilgrim! I see you have a nice ship."
--"Yes, she's top of the line, comes with AI and self defense systems!"
--"How may we help you?"
"Well me and my 11 stranded well equiped friends were wondering if you could take us somewhere else. Preferably civilized"
--"Ah! So that's 12 well equiped people? How much would you be willing to pay for your passage?"
"We were hoping the kindness of your soul would be satisfied with a thank you..."
--"Sure! Just step into this armored container here and don't mind the jail bar doors. They are standard!"

Unless they have anything seriously amazing to offer, why would traders NOT sell your colonists as slaves?

[Galileus]

Because there are slave hunters out there. And there are slave hunters out there because traders usually don't run with assault teams at bay. Bad for business. Also - costly. And if they do they aren't traders but slave hunters. Why? Because no one ever would trade with them again.

Some lost guy out for himself, sure. Everyone knows how this works. But taking out a dozen of armed men?

[Matty]

I had thought of this before, and had a few scenarios.

1. Research will eventually lead to the possibility of faster than light travel (information only).
Testing this theory would require lots of resources, power and strange objects found on the planet or from crashed pods to create a machine capable of sending messages to the main planets about your discovery. They could also send help to the nearest friendly planet asking for rescue. This would take 10-15 days before they arrive, but during that time, raiders come in big waves to capture your device. (one possible ending)

2. If all trading vessels are automated-beings (robots) that endlessly search the galaxy, then they wouldn't have stasis pods meaning no way for them to pick you up.

[richard]

I've been thinking about this issue some more and I think that there might be a simple enough answer to the problem of "why don't they just leave". Let's just say that they can't, for one reason or another. Each of the three initial colonists are from a destroyed prison ship. If they go back to mainstream society then they'll be locked up. Here they have some freedom. That leaves two other groups of people who join the colony: raiders and random unfortunates who also crash there. Raiders also can't leave because of the threat of incarceration. As for the others, well some of them might also be from the prison ship. The rest ... well so far I've always played the Nice Guy when converting random people into colonists. Perhaps with people who don't have a reason to stay they need to be made to stay through fear. Eventually loyalty kicks in.

Just a thought