Blueprints: Keyboard Macro Equivalent

[SpaceEatingTrex]

One of the fun elements of games like RimWorld is being able to design your own base. However, mostly every game is going to require you to build certain things, like bedrooms and power sources + batteries and etc. The 42nd time you make a bedroom with a door and a bed and a light and maybe carpet might not be as fun as the first.

Games like Dwarf Fortress have internal support for keyboard macros to help with these kind of tasks. A macro lets you program building a whole room (or even more!), so you can do it with one keypress instead of dozens. I think RimWorld could benefit from a similar idea. Since RimWorld is more user-friendly and graphically oriented though, it would be good to have a GUI interface.

Here's an example of how it could be implemented:



First you'd need a menu option to make a new Blueprint or open an old one. That would give you a blank blue area and all the Architect tools to build whatever you want, as if you had infinite money and resources with no obstructions in the way. Then in-game you would have a Blueprints option that would let you see all the Blueprints you've made and choose one to build. Players would be able to name blueprints and write a description for easy identification. Ideally Blueprints would be saved as separate files so that players could share them.

I think this would help players a lot by removing the tedium of repetitious designations so that they could focus on the story and other elements of the game. What do you think? Would you use a system that let you build multiple things at once?

[salt1219]

i need to think this one over, i normally love macros and i do like the idea of pre-made buildings.
the issue i have is wont this end up with me making all my bases basically the same and getting bored?
then again for those more difficult settings i could crank out a base faster... hmmm

[GC13]

I can see this as being very helpful, especially when I build my dormitories.

I'd definitely ask for the ability to rotate the blueprint as I would anything. Also, it would have to be smart enough to say "you're trying to build a blueprint wall on top of an existing wall: I'll let you build, since the end result is what the blueprint wants."

[salt1219]

I can see this as being very helpful, especially when I build my dormitories.

I'd definitely ask for the ability to rotate the blueprint as I would anything. Also, it would have to be smart enough to say "you're trying to build a blueprint wall on top of an existing wall: I'll let you build, since the end result is what the blueprint wants."

yeah, if it was rotatable and i suppose i could cancel certain parts to make the rooms different. okay i think i will vote yes on this one

[Pheanox]

the issue i have is wont this end up with me making all my bases basically the same and getting bored?

Well, I think that if making bases look the same makes the game boring, there is something wrong with the game over a blueprint system.  Of course, nothing would force you to use these blueprints, and you could even make up new ones for each base.  Could go Prison Architect style and just clone rooms you've made this play-through.

I love planning and organizing (as I've said too many times before) so I'm all for this idea.

[SpaceEatingTrex]

the issue i have is wont this end up with me making all my bases basically the same and getting bored?

Well, I think that if making bases look the same makes the game boring, there is something wrong with the game over a blueprint system.  Of course, nothing would force you to use these blueprints, and you could even make up new ones for each base.  Could go Prison Architect style and just clone rooms you've made this play-through.

I love planning and organizing (as I've said too many times before) so I'm all for this idea.

I agree with Pheanox here - an important thing to note is the map generation should mean you can never build the exact same base twice! Rather, this is a way for players to save time and effort on common structures. For example, in an LP I watched a player build 9 solar panels in a 3x3 square. That takes a number of designations to create, but with a system like this it could take only one!

In another thread, I think Tynan made a great post describing why a system like this would be a great addition:

Yeah, my attitude on micromanagement is basically this: The player is going to output a certain number of clicks every hour. We want as many of those clicks to relate to interesting decisions and interactions, and as few to thoughtless tasks as possible. The problem with micromanagement like turning off your guns to save power is that it is clicking without thought - interaction not tied to a valuable player experience. More and more of that eats up more of the player's click budget per hour until the game becomes a mindless exercise. We don't want that.

If you've already made one bedroom and you plan on making the same one for 9 more colonists, that's a lot of mindless clicking! Having a system that allows multiple designations means players spend more time on meaningful interactions.

[Hypolite]

The scale of the game is little enough for you to be able to cope with at most 20 bedrooms. I'm not supporting that idea.

[GC13]

Twenty bedrooms, which is still enough of a pain to set down that I'd like to be able to automate it.

[Spike]

The scale of the game is little enough for you to be able to cope with at most 20 bedrooms. I'm not supporting that idea.

It's a *neat idea, but I have to agree with Hypolite.  In Dwarf Fortress, the default population is 200.  In Rimworld, I think Tynan mentioned an average of about 20.  With the lower scale, I don't think it's necessary - and Tynan's time is better spent on other features.

* Many years ago, some friends and I got into playing Magic: The Gathering.  One said the hard thing was to avoid the "neats".  Yes, there are all kinds of "neat" cards you could add, but you should just build a deck that would work well, every time.

[SpaceEatingTrex]

Although people saying you'll build less in RimWorld than Dwarf Fortress are correct, I'm assuming people won't just play one game of RimWorld. The purpose of having the Blueprints be separate files is so that they can be used in multiple games. Again, building 5x6 bedrooms in your 99th playthrough might not be as exciting as your first.

I think allowing players to build multiple structures at once is important for increasing the ratio of meaningful clicks to total clicks, which seems like a worthwhile design goal. However, this Blueprints idea is only one way to implement that. Does anyone else have any ideas for how to allow players to build multiple things at once?

[British]

My idea to build multiple things at once: Hit pause, build the things, adjust if need be, then un-pause.

The advantage with that process is that you don't necessarily build the exact same things.
How dull would that be to have, in each and every single one of your games, the same rooms, with the same furnitures at the same places, the same solar generators/batteries/equipment racks clusters, even if the layout is different ?