Mental health, RNG, and other complaints.

Started by zathura, December 10, 2016, 08:08:45 PM

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zathura

I could write several paragraphs about why I think Rimworld is unbalanced and "too hard" even on the easier settings, but nobody would read it, so here's the TL;DR version.

1: For people stranded on a "Rimworld", trying to become self-sufficient...they're all just a bunch of whiny babies.

"My room is ugly! I asked a girl out and she said NO!...I'm gonna get my shotgun and shoot everyone I see, and set fire to the WHOLE F***ING PLACE!!!!!"

2: I know the timescale is diminished, (people can heal broken bones in just a day or two), but having a raid every other day, when you're trying to get things done? (And this isn't even on a "hard" difficulty.) I think there should be more differentiation between the difficulty settings...which leads into my next point.

3: The only end-goal is to survive as long as possible.

You know...that kind of pointlessness was fun for awhile, but I've had one or two colonies that lasted long enough to launch a cryo-sleep ship, and I really wanted something other than the two paragraphs of text I got for all my hours of trouble.

There's a point in a game's life where being difficult for the sake of being difficult isn't a feature, it's a flaw. All it says to me, after a couple years of playing it, is that the devs haven't come up with an ending yet, and therefore don't want you to succeed.

I'm not like some of you who enjoy "experimenting" with obscure techniques to see how long they'll last. No...Every time I start a new game, I kind of want to reach that end-point of researching all the ship parts, getting hold of an A.I. persona core, and getting a handful of my colonists off the planet.

A game isn't complete, in my mind, unless it has an end. I DON'T want to play something I'm guaranteed to lose 99% of the time.

Now...there are a lot of settings, and of course there are mods, and various difficulties......but afaict, all of the vanilla settings are designed to make it as hard as possible on you, the only difference being how quickly you fail. A game should -never- rely on mods alone to make it accessible to people.

I don't WANT to fail at a game...I want to succeed. I don't mind trying, over and over again, if need be, but when completely random bullshit is thrown at me (like a toxic fallout, volcanic winter, and blight, all in the space of a week), it's out of my hands, and I can either frustrate myself by trying to recover, or I can start a new game and hope for better dice.

...That's NOT a good game. The term "story-teller" doesn't even make sense in that respect. You may as well say, This difficulty has dice with 4-ones on them.


(Edit)

Oh, and on the subject of the mentality of the pawns....

"Witnessed an Outsider's Death"....is just plain stupid.

In almost every case, they're trying to KILL YOU! Why would you be sad about it? Moreover, -I- think there should be a POSITIVE mood buff for fending off a raid without losing a colonist!

.....

<.<

Sorry...just had to scrap a game I'd spent well over 10 hours on and had it shat on by RNG in a way I couldn't possibly recover from, and I'm a bit peeved.

Spdskatr

Very High Expectations : -15 Mood

But in all seriousness, this game is only in ALPHA. There's a lot to do and we shouldn't be bothered by broken mechanics. In fact, these things kind of give me hope that the game could get better and better as time goes on.

And as for mood management, we've all been there, and just to tell you something, in my first colony two of my three starting colonists were pyromaniacs ;D

Wait a few years and... Who knows? Maybe the game will finally fulfil it's purpose and have an end-goal.

It's only in alpha. Don't kill it with high expectations PLEASE.
My mods

If 666 is evil, does that make 25.8069758011 the root of all evil?

RawCode

Quotebunch of whiny babies

second this, sadly, with implementation of "joy" need and social stuff, game suddenly drop into "tamagotchi" management game, with top threat "mental health of already mentally ill colonists"

if people will not "kill it with high expectations" all issues will get into release and actually kill game, all issues should be resolved "now".

pyromaniac colonists some kind of unfun punishment for players, who not yet aware about, what pyromaniacs can and will do time to time.

Spdskatr

I really have no way to describe what a game being in "alpha" really means, so I got this excerpt from Wikipedia.

Quote
Alpha
See also: Alpha release
Alpha is the stage when key gameplay functionality is implemented, and assets are partially finished.[153] A game in alpha is feature complete, that is, game is playable and contains all the major features.[154] These features may be further revised based on testing and feedback.[153] Additional small, new features may be added, similarly planned, but unimplemented features may be dropped.[154] Programmers focus mainly on finishing the codebase, rather than implementing additions.[152] Alpha occurs eight to ten months before code release,[153] but this can vary significantly based on the scope of content and assets any given game has.

Code freeze
Code freeze is the stage when new code is no longer added to the game and only bugs are being corrected. Code freeze occurs three to four months before code release.[153]

Beta
See also: Beta release
Beta is feature and asset complete version of the game, when only bugs are being fixed.[152][153] This version contains no bugs that prevent the game from being shippable.[152] No changes are made to the game features, assets, or code. Beta occurs two to three months before code release.[153]
RimWorld isn't in code freeze yet, so fixing minor problems may not be the best approach to the game development, as new features could be implemented in later alphas that counter the problem or render the problem irrelevant. I still agree that major problems with new mechanics should be solved, but maybe Tynan doesn't think this is a huge problem. Let's still respect his opinion.
My mods

If 666 is evil, does that make 25.8069758011 the root of all evil?

Wanderer_joins

I think these kinds of mood issues are meant to be an incentive to improve your colony and get the various boosts from rec/dining/bedrooms, comfortable furniture...

You also have to have a careful look at the traits of the pawn you'll try to recruit. Great brawler but whining too smart depressive? Pass.

TamTiTam

Quote from: RawCode on December 10, 2016, 09:23:37 PM
Quotebunch of whiny babies

second this, sadly, with implementation of "joy" need and social stuff, game suddenly drop into "tamagotchi" management game, with top threat "mental health of already mentally ill colonists"

I really like colonists having feelings and memories. It adds a lot of flavor and "story" to the game and gives more incentive to do stuff (rather then just "build a bigger kill box").
Some moods and Breakdowns are a bit off, but the Moods are important and should stay.

All in all, they don't seem like crybabies to me. They endure a lot - and yes, sometimes small stuff can be the last straw.

Also I don't find managing emotions too difficult (Cassandra - tough). Did you try drug-managing?

Boba Phat

Quote from: Wanderer_joins on December 11, 2016, 04:13:35 AM
You also have to have a careful look at the traits of the pawn you'll try to recruit. Great brawler but whining too smart depressive? Pass.

That's great, except you're often not given a choice.  I mean... look at your name.  I've had an abrasive pyromaniac show up my door and invite himself into my colony with no useful skills whatsoever, and the only thing I could do about it was salvage his organs and suffer severe mood debuffs for months as a result.

Konscience

Just as curiosity, do you all play in fast speed mode?
I only accelerate the time when my colonist sleep!

With the game on x1 speed I can manage all the other stuff like stockpile status, optimising jobs assignements, work priorities, buildings planification...

Sure it look nice when you play it fast, but shit happen really quick.

Maybe that's the issue?
I know that people can't stand to wait for pawns getting the job done, my brother is like that, always on x3 speed...

Illusion Distort

Please, nothing says "get out before it's to late" like a wall of text. Try to keep it small and on one subject, makes discussions easier to follow, and we wont end up discussing the same stuff on multiple topics.