Alpha 17 is on public unstable branch

[MikeLemmer]

Xeo - that's really strange, I haven't done anything to change that that I know of. That said, stuff does creep in. (Edit: In my bad memory I may recall a rebalance on some body part sizes. I will have to check the logs.)

If anyone else can shed light on body part loss I'd be appreciative.

I'm also pushing a new build right now. Main change is:
-Better alignment and tooltip explanation of seasons/quadrums

Yeah, I'm experiencing that myself. My melee colonist has lost a body part in nearly every fight she's been in. She's lost both ears, two toes, and a finger in a little over a season. (Speaking of which, it's still crazy to me that animals can hit any body part regardless of size. Neck wounds from a rabid turtle are mind-boggling.)

As for the season name discussion, after experimenting with various other merged month names, I recommend going with the actual months, but give each month just 5 days. I think people would understand that quicker than seasons, quadrants, hybrid names, or skipped months.

[Rimrue]

By "seasons/quadrums" I mean "seasons and quadrums", as in I made adjustments to both of them together.

Also in many ancient calendars seasons were based on growing, planting, harvesting. Not so much to do with climate or the weather.

I do believe these activities are quite closely related to climate... Try telling an Inuit about "planting season" and "harvest season" and see how meaningful that is to him.

Anyway, again, seasons are still in the game and you can easily tell what season you're in. The game also announces seasons as they begin IIRC. But there has to be a global date system, otherwise it's impossible to make sense of time. E.g. "This person died on X day of Y season" is meaningless when you have moved across the planet and the place you're in has totally inverted or different seasons than the place he died. There are lots of examples like this. Seasons are not usable as a global date system, which is why don't use them for that in real life either.

Climate was the wrong word to use. I was referring to the tilt of the earth that causes seasons to change. Ancient seasons were not necessarily calculated by that.

In an equatorial climate where you can grow food year round you might have multiple growing seasons over the course of the year. You see that for example in the ancient Hebrew calendar. They had several seasons based on the crops they grew. Barley was one. Can't recall the other.

It's your game, of course. I just feel adding quandrums is over complicating things and causing added confusion for players.

[Tynan]

Equatorial climates typically have two seasons - wet and dry.

Currently the game only outputs the 4 temperate seasons, but I'd like for it to actually name the local seasons more accurately. There would be 3 basic regimes:
--4 seasons
--Wet and dry season
--No seasons (desert, high polar regions)

There are probably others as well. I'd have to do some research.

Anyway the upshot is that you really cannot use this sort of local climactic pattern as a global calendar.

But you do need a global calendar. The main options I see are:
-Quadrum names as now
-Use real month names and skip 2/3
-Some other quadrum names (maybe latinized numbers - unumber, duember, etc or something better).
-1st quarter, 2nd quarter
-No month or quadrums, just use "1st day of year", "23rd day of year", etc.

I'm happy for suggestions but just asking to have seasons without any dating system will leave quite a few unsolvable problems.

[ArguedPiano]

O Negative started a thread to brainstorm ideas for quadrum names here:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=32177.0

[ja7833]

I'm happy for suggestions but just asking to have seasons without any dating system will leave quite a few unsolvable problems.

How about a Julian date calendar - adjusted so that day one is the day you crash land (vs January 1, 4713 BC).

[Conventia]

RimWorld is a story engine rather than a game and in most cultures calendars are named after major characters in stories (usually Gods/Goddesses). So, why not name the months in RimWorld after major characters in particularly memorable RimWorld stories that you've heard over the years? I suppose the only downside is the potential of playing favorites but I suppose you could help fix that by having a vote or some other mechanism. You could even include references to the stories somehow.

My only other comment is that I agree that calendar and season are different, but I also think it's important to communicate both to the player in an obvious, clear fashion. If the game can accurately generate weather appropriate for a season, it should be able to describe that season in some way, whether it's a name, numbers, icons, etc.

[RemingtonRyder]

Tynan, random skill checks are getting a bit frustrating (according to the people over on the Steam forums).

See, here's the thing. The more random skill checks RimWorld does, the more we see how pseudo-random number generation is not fun. Like when a level 12 constructor fails to build a cooler three times in a row and then the colony just dies from heatwave. Again, example provided by the Steam forums.

In that particular example, the problem is that the level 12 constructor is having to roll at all to build something which should not be difficult for them.

You only really want to introduce randomness (and thus a random skill check) when actual difficulty is present. Otherwise, failure is not dramatic at all, it's simply everywhere.

In addition, buildings which can breakdown (like a cooler) already have a maintenance cost over time. It seems like a double whammy if they are both difficult to build and maintain.

[Rimrue]

Sorry, I think you misunderstand me, Tynan. I am merely refering to the term "quandrum" not the system you are using to create actual climate and seasons in the game. I think the latter makes total sense and is an excellent addition to the game. My issue was simply with the term "quadrum." I feel "season" conveys the same information without being confusing to players. Or perhaps "quarter" if you really want to use something different. I don't think enough people are familiar enough with the term quadrum to understand what it means.

[Rizooo]

I get the part about infections being more frequent, but are they supposed kill you so quickly? I had a guy die at 33% infection. This early it would be impossible to even save him so an unlucky infection would just outright mean death.

[DariusWolfe]

While I don't disagree that quadrum is kind of an awkward term, I don't know that I think that's reason enough to change it. I doubt many people could guess what a spelopede is either until they've encountered them in Rimworld, but once you've had colonists gnawed on by one a few times, you'll probably remember.

Same with Thrumbo, warg, and other uncommon or straight up made-up terms used in Rimworld. If Tynan sticks with quadrum,  I'm sure we'll get used to it.

[Tynan]

Sorry, I think you misunderstand me, Tynan. I am merely refering to the term "quandrum" not the system you are using to create actual climate and seasons in the game. I think the latter makes total sense and is an excellent addition to the game. My issue was simply with the term "quadrum." I feel "season" conveys the same information without being confusing to players. Or perhaps "quarter" if you really want to use something different. I don't think enough people are familiar enough with the term quadrum to understand what it means.

Got it. Thanks for clarifying.

Marvin - Since I removed the mining failures, there actually aren't any new random fail checks in this build. These checks might still be problematic in general but this wouldn't be something new. I think we should watch and let the feedback mature before making a move on this.

[Xannieh]

Yup my people keep losing fingers and ears as well. Easily.

[Rimrue]

While I don't disagree that quadrum is kind of an awkward term, I don't know that I think that's reason enough to change it. I doubt many people could guess what a spelopede is either until they've encountered them in Rimworld, but once you've had colonists gnawed on by one a few times, you'll probably remember.

Same with Thrumbo, warg, and other uncommon or straight up made-up terms used in Rimworld. If Tynan sticks with quadrum,  I'm sure we'll get used to it.

Oh, I suspect I will just have to get used to it. Lol

I will point out, though, that spelopedes, wargs, and thrumbos are unique creatures. They do not already have other perfectly useful words to describe them.

[ReZpawner]

On the subject of the Julian calendar, it should probably be mentioned that July and August were added after all the rest - because of Julia - a powerful aristocratic family in Rome. I'm guessing that very few others were annoyed by those months being used, but meh. 10 months just makes more sense.

[CoyoteWAN]

Marvin - Since I removed the mining failures, there actually aren't any new random fail checks in this build. These checks might still be problematic in general but this wouldn't be something new. I think we should watch and let the feedback mature before making a move on this.

One idea for construction, is having multiple checks and any failed checks just adds extra work to the task.  With maybe several checks in row causing a failure.  I only mention this because I have did a few jobs around the house like new A/C or new Window, and sometimes I have "failed at something or not thought about it correctly", but then I end up figuring a new way around it, so ultimately it works out.  This way a minor failure might just add an hour or two and not lead to ultimate failure.