A hate of Infestations as is

[RazorHed]

I hate infestations as they work now. I have to turn them off in the scenario editor every time. I like the idea, but its a system that punishes you for not making a mistake. What I mean is , it is not a mistake to mine rocks and metals , but if you do you'll eventually get an infestation and even a small infestation comes equipped with a lot of bugs. The only type of preventative measure you can use to combat this is to plug up any rock roof type cell with a wall which makes caverns useless.
By contrast , a system that punishes you for making a mistake , such as building wooden walls , will rightly so punish you by burning your base down from a electrical fire, flash storm , pyromaniac. In this case there are things you can do to counteract some of that like building stone walls, not using battery , pathway barriers to fire , foam poppers etc.

In my opinion  infestations would be better if they appeared anywhere on the map , but gave you time to react. For instance , you could get a warning somehow , like maybe an infestation was going to appear somewhere and animals would retreat from that area, or you could research a seismograph which could detect upcoming infestations. Or don't give a warning but lower the initial bug count to a few megascarabs, so if you notice it you can deal with it , but if you don't you'll have a bigger problem.

[cmitc1]

I wouldn't mind some small infestation nerfs, but not too much. Its the only thing that discourages building into mountains and getting heavily fortified with kill boxes.

[PiggyBacon]

I prefer them as they are. Building in mountains is the perfect way to defend against raids/sieges so it should be a gamble.

[Jorlem]

I'd prefer a "carrot" to encourage building outside of mountains, instead of a "stick" to punish building into mountains.

It really feels like a quite a few of the things in this game were added or changed as sticks to punish certain playstyles.  Infestations for mountain bases, sappers for killboxers/heavy trappers, the removal of the ability to set targets for autoturrets, ect.  They all punish the most successful playstyles without addressing the reasons why those playstyles became dominant while others faded away.

[RazorHed]

You don't need to build into mountains to be heavily fortified though. It might be cool if there was some sort of cavern system in the game though where you would want to dig in to find some  valuable hickey jigger or another.

[Elixiar]

I prefer them as they are. Building in mountains is the perfect way to defend against raids/sieges so it should be a gamble.

This.

People who complain about this also complain about colonists being able to die.

[schizmo]

Since the goal of infestations is to combat the Mountain Base, having them spawn "anywhere" ultimately defeats their purpose and just turns them more or less into raid drop pods.

I do somewhat like the idea of seismic detection of an incoming infestation, though, that's a neat idea.

[RazorHed]

Yeah it would be ok if you had some warning and time to prepare . or if they started off way smaller , and if you don't deal with it right away you get overwhelmed.

[Swat_Raptor]

I don't mind mountain bases having vulnerability. However currently there is one vulnerability to mountain bases, and as we all know 1 is a small number.

I think there should be more types of trouble one might experience when carving a home out of the mountain.

here is a few fun ideas.

have some events which will trigger only after a sufficient number of empty tiles with overhead mountain are present on the map.

Hallucinogenic fungus, Cavern plants which if you come in contact will give your pawns a disease which lowers their mental break threshold. 

Bug Horde, no hives but a large swarm of bugs will appear next to a exposed wall tile near to the maps edge, (Man hunter swarm of bugs) ( they also randomly dig are your walls)

This is how you get ants, the smaller bugs just randomly spawn in your home areas.

. 

I would make a slight change to the current infestation event,  i would add a longer initial delay (like 7 seconds from the current 2 second delay) for bugs to spawn and have the initial hives react like the psychic ships when damaged.  if bugs spawn next to prisoners, well tough luck. however while I don't feel this to too brutal in the case of a chained prisoner I do have a problem when you have a colonist who is immediately drafted and tries to run out of their room to safety but can't because there is no time and the bugs spawn next to them right away, it feels like a unavoidable and unmitigable fee which Rimworld will withdraw from your account without notice.

modified to correct typos

[OFWG]

I do somewhat like the idea of seismic detection of an incoming infestation, though, that's a neat idea.

If there was a way to detect (and avert them, ideally) then sure. Seriously, multiple bugs several times the size of a person just poof into existence in an actively-used bedroom? Nah, look up "balance" and "gameplay" and get back to me.

The dev menu is basically required at this point in the game.

[gchristopher]

Yep, infestations (magic teleporting bugs!) are stupid to the point of adding nothing to gameplay. It's best to just disable infestations in the scenario editor.

People that argue "you shouldn't be able to have fortifications/dig into mountains" are making a fetish of one particular way of playing the game, and demanding everyone else play their way, by having silly game mechanics to enforce the idea.

It's one way RimWorld doesn't quite grasp what makes Dwarf Fortress so great: there's a million ways to play the game successfully, and "small squad militia defense" is only one. In RimWorld, there's some idea that small squad combat is somehow core to the game experience, and everything else should be built to force that to happen. That's too bad, to elevate one idea of how to play the game to the level where it's a fetish, and demand everyone else play that way, too.

[JuicyPVP]

I turn them off in scenario. I used to play with them. Until they spawned inside my hospital... In the center of my base. I did fight them off. Lost 3 pawns and 2 dogs. and 1/3 my base. I finished that play with launching all colonists in the ship, but I never got over how unlikely it seemed to me that they made it into the center of my base unhindered with a dozen bugs and 2 hives.

[OFWG]

In RimWorld, there's some idea that small squad combat is somehow core to the game experience, and everything else should be built to force that to happen. That's too bad, to elevate one idea of how to play the game to the level where it's a fetish, and demand everyone else play that way, too.

That is a fine and insightful comment.

[GiantSpaceHamster]

I hate infestations as they work now. I have to turn them off in the scenario editor every time. I like the idea, but its a system that punishes you for not making a mistake.

I disagree with this. You're arbitrarily calling mining "not a mistake" and using wood for walls "a mistake". Neither is or is not a mistake in general. It depends on your play style, the current events, the map, etc. Personally I don't think infestations are a sufficient disincentive to building inside mountains. I consider them one of the easiest types of encounters. If you learn to manage them well instead of just getting frustrated I think you will find that they are not really a problem.

Mine out areas that you are not building in. This decreases the odds that an infestation will appear in a sensitive area of your base. Infestations may appear without warning, but they don't spread very fast. You have plenty of time to build extra walls and set up traps or whatever you need before luring them to a good place to fight. Which brings me to the next point...don't just rush into the room the infestation appears in. Lure them out to a position you can have multiple pawns fire from. Make sure to put your melee guys in the front line.

Or, my favorite, raise 1-2 dozen animals to fight and release them on the insects with no risk to your colonists. A dozen panthers does short work of an infestation. Takes a bit more planning ahead, but if you get a hold of a herd that can also haul, it's well worth the investment.

[deslona]

There is no other active hostile event in the game that gives so little reaction time after the fact. Even hostile drop pods in your base have a longer delay. There needs to be a gap in reaction time or a more gradual build-up of attacking bugs. Such as 1 after the initial 2 seconds then another one 10 seconds after continuing for about a minute or so of play time.
I like some of the negative mood fungi ideas. If a time 'under deep mountain' hasn't been cleaned for a long time and a random variable (x) occurs a fungi may spawn and start to spread. Either forcing the player to allocate resources to maintaining a clean mountain home OR ignoring the area/threat at their peril. Thus giving the player agency over the situation. OR alternatively encouraging it by forcing travelers into their hall of madness. Which is similar to how infestations work now.