Alpha 17 is on public unstable branch

[XeoNovaDan]

Yeah, following the shooting skill changes as they stand, I was wondering where abouts scythers would fall in line... they were pretty accurate to begin with, but now they're almost dead-on. 99% is around 1.46x more accurate than 98% at 37 tiles - which is the charge lance's maximum range (68.945% vs 47.355%). Then again, mechanoids are more advanced than the charge rifle, so this is unsurprising really.

[Tynan]

I'm gonna rebalance the scythers.

[XeoNovaDan]

I'd say take them back to 98% post-processed - give them a noSkillFactor of 0.7. Or if you was to aim for 40% accuracy at 37 tiles (before factoring in weapons, and personally I liked 98%), then 97.55% post-processed - which would be a noSkillFactor of 0.61

[Zhentar]

It would make a big different if scythers had a lower range; there are only a couple weapons you can hit them with at their maximum range and leaving cover is suicide. And maybe it's just my imagination, but it's seemed like they like to stay at maximum range more than they did in A16.

[kenmtraveller]

On Scythers:
I like them being long range and fast, but fragile -- it makes them a great late game opponent but differentiated from centipedes.
If we're going to make pawns autoprefer cooked meals over packaged meals, there should be an exception for colonists with the Greedy trait

[wyoian]

On raids.
I'm not sure if this is a bug and I will probably post it to the bug forum later if i can reproduce it consistantly along with my save, but 2 raid the 4 raiders split up. First 2 left to go attack my base through the "open" path through deadfalls, about 10 seconds apart. The second two stood there for another 30 seconds with the status "standing". While this was happening my game crawled to a halt, exactly until they began to retreat at which it resumed at full speed. I wonder if its because the path to get to my interior base is incredibly long (around like 3 mountain ranges) but it is open so they prefer it.

[Tynan]

On raids.
I'm not sure if this is a bug and I will probably post it to the bug forum later if i can reproduce it consistantly along with my save, but 2 raid the 4 raiders split up. First 2 left to go attack my base through the "open" path through deadfalls, about 10 seconds apart. The second two stood there for another 30 seconds with the status "standing". While this was happening my game crawled to a halt, exactly until they began to retreat at which it resumed at full speed. I wonder if its because the path to get to my interior base is incredibly long (around like 3 mountain ranges) but it is open so they prefer it.

It sounds like a bad bug. Can you give any savegame where it happens? You could just post your map.

Please post it in the Bugs forum if you can!

[Tynan]

New build is going up!

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Camera in gameplay map now clears to a solid color. This should fix: Leaving RimWorld in windowed mode and in the background causes visual trippiness
Changed Unity asset serialization mode to force-text.
Fix: Breakdown envelope references non-existent work type.
Fix typo in Star Squire backstory.
Adjusted tropical rainforest color to contrast better against rivers.
Potato grow days 6->5.8
Balanced wool to be a bit less crazily profitable (especially alpaca).
Added 0.40 noSkillFactor to ShootingAccruracy to make scythers less accurate. Also capped the influence of sight and reduced the influence of manipulation.
An attempt to fix a rare bug where only a half of a savefile is written to disk.
Fix: Pawns can sometimes slaughter sold animals.
Fix: Deconstructing flatscreen and megascreen televisions doesn't yield any resources.
Fix: Manhunters cause 10jobs/10ticks errors when there's only 1 standable cell.
Fix: All unfinished things have mass of 1kg.
Fix: Orbital trade beacon zone sometimes cuts off at region edges.
Fix: Filth generated during map gen doesn't have its growTick set properly.
Standardize Claimable semantics; clean up definition of "claimable" a little.
Fix: Error messages with crashed mechanoid ship part incidents.
Fix: Memory thoughts don't tick when the pawn is in a cryptosleep casket. Fix: MemoryThoughtHandler doesn't set 'pawn' links properly.
Fix: Raiders will try to destroy deconstruction-flagged ship chunks.
Fix: Pawns refuse to clean rubble for ten seconds after loading a game.
Fixed minor CaravanArrivalTimeEstimator bug. WorldRoutePlanner now overestimates the result slightly when no caravan is selected.
Fix:  Animal getting tamed won't cancel map exit.
Phrasing improvement on a comment.
Fix: Deadman's apparel does not apply to reform caravan.
Amp up splash size effects quite a bit.

[XeoNovaDan]

Added 0.40 noSkillFactor to ShootingAccruracy to make scythers less accurate.

96% accuracy for sophisticated mechanoids is certainly too low; they've gone from pretty reasonable (98%), to a tad on the tough side (99%), to now just pathetic accuracy-wise (96%!). I can't speak for the others, but I think 98% was pretty reasonable as an absolute figure (0.70 noSkillFactor) - or at least 97.5% (0.60). They've gone from something that truly reflects their level of sophistication (according to the fiction primer), to just as accurate as a makeshift turret with basically a couple of potatoes wired together for an 'AI chip'.

[Naxdar]

I don't know if that's intended, the hunger bar on chicks decreases very quickly when they are malnourished (~5% loss every update when the bar is high to 1-2% when it is low). Their hunger goes from full to starvation in only 2-3 hours in-game and they can't really get out of it between their need for sleep and their slow wandering.

[Tynan]

Thanks, I'll look at these issues.

Scythers will get a bit better I think.

[Mehni]

You also wanted stories, so here goes:

My colonists felt safe and secure in their modest homestead so they decided to embark on a caravan trip. Equipped with decent weaponry, they set out with ambitious plans: to obtain the contents of a weapons cache, grab some uranium and maybe destroy a raider outpost or two along the way.

The first step along the way was a raider outpost. The local tribe had promised us a decent sum of silver for the seemingly easy task of murdering a handful of raiders. When we arrived, we set up behind a handy wall and started taking potshots. It wasn't long before the raiders noticed our presence and started to return fire. Everything was going well: we had superior cover, superior weapons and then our doctor got her head blown clean off by a lucky sniper. Oops. Despite rumours to the contrary, our doctor was unable to function without it.

With morale amongst the troops slightly lowered, we still managed to destroy the outpost. One of the raiders was captured, he looked like a good replacement doctor. In the meantime, we must try to tend to our own wounds.  A search was ordered for the missing head, but none was recovered. A shame really, it was a lovely looking head.

After two or three days, we start getting restless and decide the move on. Our minor injuries have healed without notable issue, so we can carry on with the mission. Next stop, a cache containing valuable uranium and gold. We get there - there's a single guy and half a dozen turrets. The lonely pirate guarding the fort decides to attack us (we suspect he was just a drifter - he was half naked and all he had was an improvised shiv). He makes it ten steps towards us before he's dead and somehow the turrets turn off. It's an anti-climactic battle, all in all.

Running low on food, we decide to hang around as long as we can. Keuneke is slow because he lost a leg to an earlier incident and he could use some rest. After about 2 days though, something spurs us to move on.

And that's when we get ambushed. There's 3 of them and 6 of us - so it's no real problem. We outgun, outrange and outnumber them two to one. The sound of a survival rifle fills the air and the first raider drops. Our careful sniper seems to take forever calculating their shot to compensate for wind and the angle of the sun - but their shot rings true. The minigunner simply doesn't care and starts shooting at random. The assault rifles and brawler are kept in the wings - all they need to do is watch on.

Again, we rest.

Before we get a chance to properly recover and reform the caravan - a second ambush! A conservative estimate puts it at two dozen enemies - but later regaling of the story will put the number at 30 and future tales around the campfire will surely buff the number up to 60. But there they are.

Chickens.

They tear through limbs, their sharp teeth beaks pecking at our legs and tendons. The few prisoners we have go down first - we're thankful to have such well-behaved prisoners that act as a distraction. It's not long before they turn on us though! Their tiny nimble bodies are seemingly immune to bullets. The brawler tries to flee but goes down. The heinous chickens turn their beady eyes on Keuneke. His comical hopping/hobbling on his single leg send our fighters into a giggling fit of friendly fire: there's more maiming than actual aiming.

By now the team is reeling. They somehow manage to defeat the onslaught, but morale is low. Food is non-existent. The caravan is quickly reformed, but things are looking pretty dire. Our only hope is a resupply with medicine and a proper doctor from basecamp, but the list of infections is long and time is short.

TL;DR: I got rekt by chickens.

[Neotic]

Have the heat waves been tweaked? I'm getting 140f/60c and that's absurdly high because i'm in a temperate forest that's really north highest temp is 84f/29c.
Edit: The Caravan menu isn't showing how many days worth of food gonna post this in bugs

[MikeLemmer]

Also, caravans are occasionally ignoring some supplies when forming. I've noticed it while making caravans first thing after landing (it's the easiest way for me to move lots of stuff to a different side of the map). It seems that if a colonist stops to puke while gathering supplies for the caravan, he'll completely ignore the stack he was heading to. I've just noticed it during my initial caravans because half my colonists have Cryosleep Sickness during it.

[East]

I escaped the space ship twice from A17.

cassandra Extreme. permadeath mode.
Once without any restrictions. Once in a scenario without traps and turrets, set it to raid every four days.
A17 Let me evaluate the added content.

It is interesting that you have to play quite differently from the existing play. I have to stop the battle and solve the puzzle, and such trouble is a pleasure. When one puzzle is released, another type of enemy comes and a new puzzle begins.  Alpha 17 ended the defensive battle, and now they have puzzles to build the raid.

Ai Change is very interesting. In the past, it was too easy to attack the nearest target and understand only the defense method.

Infection continues to change, so omit.

Increasing the cost of merchants and reducing their holdings seems to be a way to induce a quest. However, some of the quest rewards are too bad and can not be rejected. It is not fascinating to go through a long journey and battle to get a table. How about letting it be 'silver or item' or rejecting it?

The arid shrubland got better again. It is also easy to trade and easy to quest. On the contrary, boreal forest and Tundra was again bad again. I feel as though I am forced to play in a arid shrubland rather than playing in various areas. Personality disappears and only weakness remains.

The smoke belt needs a function to inhibit the activation and a function to force it. It is also a problem to pop out from unnecessary places and not to pop out from where it is needed.

The Long Range mineral scanner is the worst. You need to study separately and you need 500W electricity to find it. It will be once every 30 days, not a lot of discovery. In order to catch the resources that are found, we have to organize the personnel separately and make packanimal to transport it. And I have to travel that person over a few days, and it can be dangerous there. The resources that can be obtained are just useless minerals worth about 2000 silver. It is not a unique resource that can be found there.

The shield belt is likely to be usable as the melee combat strengthens. but There is no fundamental reason to make it. The enemy will come up with a sufficient number of belts. Why should I create a production system instead of purchasing it or taking it away?

Finally, I would like to add the option to turn off forced event speed. It is too slow for simple battles.