Alpha 18 unstable test build is released

[TheMeInTeam]

I just had the "new blight" and I didn't like it. It feels like it was reduced to a "manhunting turtle" level threat, just cut out a few plants and you are safe.

The "old Blight" enriched the game. If you had zero food stored and you get Blighted, then you deserve to succumb. But even then, you can sort to berries, hunting and even a rice plantation in rich soil can prevent your colony to die from malnutrition. And those are the easy options, any player could just go caravan 1 tile away from the colony or just turn into cannibalism...or even go the closest friendly faction to buy food. Or a lucky caravan visit, they almost always have pemmican.

This "new Blight" seems to go against your own direction, you want players to go out and explore the World, Blight was a good excuse for that, and settle other peripheral outposts. Without it, the "new Blight" is almost nothing, and now nobody has to "leave" the map and can stay there. While with the "old Blight" player ingeniousness was key to survival. And all this assuming the worst case scenario of a player without any food stored. Because if you had some, a normal rice plantation can release you from taking any hard measures.

Rollback to the "old Blight".

No thanks.  Overgrowing protected you with "old blight", except it had no grace period so it could decide to screw you early without real counterplay.  That is not a legit problem with "new blight".  New blight could be made to spread a little faster but insta-resource loss with no counterplay sucks.  I've said this many times in this thread already but the core gameplay of Rimworld is to punish the unprepared + control mistakes.

When you prepare to the max ability the game allows and still get screwed over, Rimworld is subverting it's own design.  It'd be like having a raid type where no matter what you do, when the raid decides to run away some of your stuff disappears no matter where it is.

[Ser Kitteh]

Did a "go to outpost for goodies" mission yesterday. It was a joywire. I think that is a fantastic idea rather than just a simple "masterwork 1x2 table" (and yeah I got that one too). I like the new death lasers added, but if you really want to encourage people to travel, why not a couple of bionic limbs or the like? Idk if that's in the game as of A18, but more than one bionic limb is a serious reward and one I would very much send my raid team to acquire.

Also agree to have Repair back. And maybe Deconstruct as well? Deconstruct is the LAST thing builders do despite the fact it's probably the more important things a player does (say deconstructing steel walls or stone walls for building). Either put it as the number one thing builders do or separate it to a new task.

[Dashthechinchilla]

I just had the "new blight" and I didn't like it. It feels like it was reduced to a "manhunting turtle" level threat, just cut out a few plants and you are safe.

The "old Blight" enriched the game. If you had zero food stored and you get Blighted, then you deserve to succumb. But even then, you can sort to berries, hunting and even a rice plantation in rich soil can prevent your colony to die from malnutrition. And those are the easy options, any player could just go caravan 1 tile away from the colony or just turn into cannibalism...or even go the closest friendly faction to buy food. Or a lucky caravan visit, they almost always have pemmican.

This "new Blight" seems to go against your own direction, you want players to go out and explore the World, Blight was a good excuse for that, and settle other peripheral outposts. Without it, the "new Blight" is almost nothing, and now nobody has to "leave" the map and can stay there. While with the "old Blight" player ingeniousness was key to survival. And all this assuming the worst case scenario of a player without any food stored. Because if you had some, a normal rice plantation can release you from taking any hard measures.

Rollback to the "old Blight".

No thanks.  Overgrowing protected you with "old blight", except it had no grace period so it could decide to screw you early without real counterplay.  That is not a legit problem with "new blight".  New blight could be made to spread a little faster but insta-resource loss with no counterplay sucks.  I've said this many times in this thread already but the core gameplay of Rimworld is to punish the unprepared + control mistakes.

When you prepare to the max ability the game allows and still get screwed over, Rimworld is subverting it's own design.  It'd be like having a raid type where no matter what you do, when the raid decides to run away some of your stuff disappears no matter where it is.

I prefer the new blight, as a real life gardner. It feels realistic. I think it could be easily amped up with a few things:

Spread to and from wild flora.
Spread by contact. Many plant diseases are spread this way, like powdery mildew. In the same way walking through sand will spread it around your clean floors, so can blight be spread.
Have a hidden initial period to spread as above the same way ailments like flu and pluage have.

[kiesu]

-New mental breaks:
----Sadistic rage. Melee attack prisoners for a while. Fists only. Only occurs when there are prisoners to attack. Does not attack downed prisoners.
----Corpse obsession. Dig up a corpse and drop it on a meeting spot table or in a random high-traffic area. The mental break then ends.
----Catatonic. Collapse on the spot into a downed state with a psychological breakdown. Recover some days later. This can be implemented by a "catatonic breakdown" hediff.
----Slaughterer. Slaughter random colony animal(s) periodically.
----Murderous rage. Hunt down a specific colonist or prisoner (randomly chosen) and attempt to kill them by melee attack. Uses melee weapon or fists, as equipped. Keep attacking until the target is dead.
----Run wild. The pawn basically starts acting like an animal. You can tame him to try to get him to rejoin.

...A-are you ok Tynan?

Holy crap this game is turning more mature than most hyperrealistic "adult" games. I love it.

[nemostein]

I prefer the new blight, as a real life gardner. It feels realistic. I think it could be easily amped up with a few things:

Spread to and from wild flora.
Spread by contact. Many plant diseases are spread this way, like powdery mildew. In the same way walking through sand will spread it around your clean floors, so can blight be spread.
Have a hidden initial period to spread as above the same way ailments like flu and pluage have.

This makes a whole lotta sense to me!
I'd say the same for tornadoes. Having a grace time, a preparation phase and a way to counter it is what I value most.

[pktongrimworld]

yay combat log! Gnomoria all over again

[BlackSmokeDMax]

yay combat log! Gnomoria all over again

Gnomoria Dwarf Fortress all over again

Fixed that for you!

[East]

The part about escaping to the mountains about the tornado is a little ambiguous.

What if the starting terrain does not have a mountain roof? I am exhausted by the quest and the world map forcing the dry shrubbery. (Long travel time of other terrain) Choosing to restrict starting terrain is not fun. So do not say that the mountain is the answer.

I think it is a good idea to build a high-cost basement. It is a space where you can escape to natural disasters and store valuable living items. And tornadoes should be created somewhere outside the residence or pawn. You have to give time to evacuate.

If you build a basement, you'll have to 'worry' about additional research timing, costs, and space allocation. 'It is fun to worry.' You will make it before you create an advanced assemble.

It is a game that should form a countermeasure in this way.

[Bozobub]

It's quicker and easier to note that tornadoes need user agency for a countermeasure.

[iota_x]

Feedback on the new raid notification sound. I love that there is differentiation between event types, but the raid horn is too quiet/subdued.

I'm not a fan of savescummimg, but I've found myself having to reload an autosave on a couple of occasions due to simply missing the raid notification.

I like to play with the volume reduced while listening to podcasts, and in the past I never had a problem with having my attention grabbed when a raid was coming.

And I must be dumb, because I can't seem to find the combat log...

[Yoshida Keiji]

    -   Trees seem to give the same amount of wood per tree. DF trouble - if you have any trees on the map, you will get far more then you will ever able to use. 

Amen to that, Trying the tropical swamp, just clearing the space to build some buildings and I have no idea what to do with the wood. Crafting a million statues I guess.

Really ? .. Tropical Forest Biome is the one where I have the most ressuply problems with wood ..
I admit I use a lot of wood in the beginning ( walls, furniture, workbenches, floors .. )

The densitiy of the forest is lower than in other Biomes and the yield per tree is also less.
I would love if there would be some more giant trees in the jungles. ( like wooden mountains )

I'm fed up with trees, impossible to run out of wood in Tropical Swamp.

[erdrik]

...
Rollback to the "old Blight".

I like the new blight.
But I do think its a bit more tame, and was able to cut it out of my crops swiftly with no ill effects.
(outside losing the cut crops)
Ive noticed this run Ive had way more harvested crops stored up than I normally have, so maybe it needs to be made harsher, like spreading a bit faster, or having the initial event impact more crops.
That said Ive only experienced it once.
Still I like the new blight's concept and would like it to stay.

[Ser Kitteh]

I don't get why people dislike the new blight. Set some people to 1 in Plant Cutting, turn off sowing and boom, you're good.

I had my first "rescue colonist" mission half an hour ago. Some poor legless sap was downed near a bunch of sleeping mechanoids. I know Tynan mentioned on reddit it's a bug but seeing it for the first time is lol.

I sent my best combat medic and drop pod right onto him. Turns out he's 80 and has shit skills. Like if chased colonists gives you info (age, job) then just apply it to downed pawns! Imagine if I sent a caravan, wouldn't that have been a pain.

Downed colonists are a much bigger investment than chased refugees. Apply the same info as chased refugees. OR have that pawn give more detailed info (passion, best skill) OR if it was a pawn from a friendly faction, give faction rep boost and maybe a gift from them as well (like medicine or components).

[erdrik]

...
I sent my best combat medic and drop pod right onto him. Turns out he's 80 and has shit skills. Like if chased colonists gives you info (age, job) then just apply it to downed pawns! Imagine if I sent a caravan, wouldn't that have been a pain.

Downed colonists are a much bigger investment than chased refugees. Apply the same info as chased refugees. OR have that pawn give more detailed info (passion, best skill) OR if it was a pawn from a friendly faction, give faction rep boost and maybe a gift from them as well (like medicine or components).

I actually would like to see both events support a reward system that isn't "the rescuee/refugee joins the colony".

Ive taken to offering safety to chased refugees, only to banish them immediately if they don't have the traits or stats I want/need or would be a strain on the colony. I'd be more inclined to actually let them in the walls if there was a chance or options for:
"Thanks for saving me, Im going to go back to my family at X non pirate faction now. Here is a reward!"
-gain X amount of resource
-gain X amount of relations with faction refugee is apart of

Same could be done for "rescue colonist" missions.
(provided they actual have the means to move on their own after rescue)

[Alenerel]

I sent my best combat medic and drop pod right onto him. Turns out he's 80 and has shit skills. Like if chased colonists gives you info (age, job) then just apply it to downed pawns! Imagine if I sent a caravan, wouldn't that have been a pain.

I think this should also be reward based, like everything else. I mean, for cache mission you invest something big and get something bigger. In rescue missions you invest something big and you have a 95% chance that what you receive is worthless (either a regular pawn or a bad one, never a good or even outstanding one).

They are not worth it, better wait until you down the right raider or someone falls randomly from the sky. You invest much less to get the same.