Essentials Thread

[aerojet029]

the point of this is a compilation of ideas that would in theory take the game in it's current state and solidify the core aspects of the game with as few additions as possible

I will try my best to edit this first post with everything contained in this thread that is agreed upon. I have a few suggestions of my own

ambient sounds and music
                      (this is actually something I have a lot of experience with)
           options: toggle on/off (separate from game sounds like gun firing, selections)
                        volume slider
           incorporates: can be scripted with day/night cycle or weather
                               examples   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XRkEDCNyUI
                                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzN3yJXlWrg
                                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0461rkWmdc
                                              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZYQphn1ns
               i'm not sure how powerful the audio engine is, but maybe different ambient sound depending on the camera's frame of reference
               center of base would have different ambiance sounds than in the middle of the desert with smooth transitions
population economy
* already mentioned in other threads and something that just needs ironing out.
               maybe an addition of aging, natural death, and children? (maybe children could be left for later expansion)

endgame objectives
                 something to strive for
                         - permanently establishing a colony (for the good of the colony) vs escape (every colonist for themselves)
                                     each of these could have interesting game play styles and a game should be balanced so that a game can continue
                                     potentially indefinitely (using the adaptive AI story teller)
Prioritization
      -Manual Player Prioritization.
             Players need a way to highlight important task that would take precedence over the default hierarchy of generic task.
                     implementation would be like right click prioritize, except a list of prioritized tasks will generate, and anyone with the skill will
                     favor the prioritized task and tasks will be removed once completed
      -if the colony is starving, Growers will drop constructing and mining and grow food until a certain threshold is met (based on the size of
        the colony (*they will not automatically make hydroponics tables or growing areas and if all plants are set they will go back doing what
        they were doing until something is ready to harvest )
      -miners on the way back for food or sleep will automatically check near them for metal and haul 75 metal home and growers will haul 75
      food home
                         alternately, if not in a designated home area, any colonist will briefly check near them for resources they can grab real quick
                         (like an area of 6 or 7 blocks) when heading home
          it's a problem I keep running into were I tell them to mine an area, and they mine mine mine mine.. then in the middle of the day they make their way alllll the wayyyy home for lunch and don't bring anything home.. so i'm left struggling for metal for no reason

[Milo]

endgame objectives
                 something to strive for
                         - permanently establishing a colony (for the good of the colony) vs escape (every colonist for themselves)
                                     each of these could have interesting game play styles and a game should be balanced so that a game can continue
                                     potentially indefinitely (using the adaptive AI story teller)

I was thinking that a Swiss Family Robinson scenario would be cool for this. Warning: Swiss Family Robinson spoilers ahead . At the end of the movie the family is "rescued", but of course, they love their estranged life on the desert island, so they decide to stay, effectively "establishing a colony". The movie is set in stone, so it is what it is, but I can imagine that if they were rescued earlier on in the movie when they were fighting pirates the story would have an entirely different dynamic.

Maybe in RimWorld the endgame could be working towards communicating with the outside world galaxy. The colonists could build communication arrays made from hard-to-find resources and advanced research. If things are going poorly, this would be a fun goalâ€"try to survive until rescue. Alternatively, you could establish communication and instead decide you wanted to stay on the new world and build a colony. I think both would create interesting gameplay and narrative.