Alpha 18 unstable test build is released

[gillsminnow]

so after 5 year in game time i have breakdown event every day 90% of the time its AC unit 10% its something else is this normal for A18? or its just Randy?

Also on Randy and also seem to have an unusual amount of breakdowns.

[nemostein]

so after 5 year in game time i have breakdown event every day 90% of the time its AC unit 10% its something else is this normal for A18? or its just Randy?

Also on Randy and also seem to have an unusual amount of breakdowns.

For some finicky reason Randy (intense) likes to break one of my wind turbines (the same every time) over and over again... I'm yet on A17, so, I don't think that it's a A18 specific problem, its more like an AI storyteller problem.

[Yoshida Keiji]

People keep complaining about looting weapons way before they research them, but I don't see that as a problem in general. Sure you loot tons of weapons. Most of them are crap though, either crappy make or old and worn out. Even if lukcy and get a superior 100% sniper rifle on a tribal start, so what?

It adds the story element, the powerful relic of war salvaged from the raiders and used by the tribes best warrior, passed on upon his death to the next and so on.

Once you unlock manufacturing, you can reliably create good guns of any combination you want to properly equip colonists, rather then relying on the luck of the drop and hoping for a superior shotgun, because the one you looted earlier is at only 19%.

TL;DR: I see no problem with looted weapons coming before research. Think of it as a story opportunity.

Edit: That said, I'd argue that at best looting a weapon that's in good shape (over 90%? normal or better quality?), and beyond current manufacturing abilities, ought to be a story that can show up in art. But that's about it.

Are you commenting in response to my post? If yes, both TheMeInTeam and myself are not complaining about looting. We are pointing out that the research tree length takes too long in comparison with raids RNG to the point that catching up with enemies fire power had turned too hard. Because the Research tree was modified so that long range weaponry takes excessively long to complete.

[Anvil_Pants]

We are pointing out that the research tree length takes too long in comparison with raids RNG to the point that catching up with enemies fire power had turned too hard. Because the Research tree was modified so that long range weaponry takes excessively long to complete.

Longer in comparison to A17 isn't necessarily too long. Seems to me that Daimonin is reading your opinion as a complaint because they disagree with the reasoning that got you there. It looks like you've decided that disruption of a familiar metagame strategy (a specific research tree route, played at a specific game configuration) is reason enough to invalidate a more recent game design choice.

If that's how we got here, then the above reasoning is neither true or false. It lacks detail.

Do note that implicit in RimWorld starting conditions is the fact that the player begins at a disadvantage relative to peer AI factions. We know that because the other factions are already established on the map, complete with buildings and inventory, when we crash land.

Therefore, it's reasonable to say that expecting our research to reliably get us a technology before we are forced to play against its product (so long as we choose the research sequence correctly; e.g., metagame) is the same as expecting our research to complete faster than the AI opponents can do. We would need to catch up from being behind.

Some will see that as complaining.

PS: Raid strength scale is one of the things Marvin publishes mods to. It's in Combat Readiness Check and Sometimes Raids Go Wrong. Raid-to-research balance is not an A18 feature problem. It's also not a research points balance problem; it's a raider and raider gear selection problem.

[Limdood]

Are you commenting in response to my post? If yes, both TheMeInTeam and myself are not complaining about looting. We are pointing out that the research tree length takes too long in comparison with raids RNG to the point that catching up with enemies fire power had turned too hard. Because the Research tree was modified so that long range weaponry takes excessively long to complete.

but you're playing a tribal start, which basically assumes you'll be out-teched.  Furthermore, you have access to looting, overland trading, and comms console (likely far sooner than making your own advanced weaponry).

Weren't you just telling people in another thread to stop whining for things to be easier and get good?

[Yoshida Keiji]

Yes, I agree that my post itself can be seen as lacking detail. This is a forum problem in the sense that I am already backing up most of my statements on comments that I have already written before. There are two options that come to mind fast. I could be re-re-retyping everything I said before to complete my new statements, however that will overload later posts with excessive explanations. Which in a way is necessary so that those users who are reading me for the first time can get a better idea of what I am saying. The other alternative (what I do) is to spot users whose writing clearly denote they know what they are saying and then go to their profiles and back track their previous posts to "get" the persons views better.

This is something that happens to me too so I don't just judge people straight away from the first post I see of X user and say something with more weight after I think I know who I'm talking to.

We just need to familiarize more with each other. I have been talking with the Lost Tribe angle for so long now that other users had already pointed me to mods that only create tribal factions removing outlanders for a more neolithic experience. I know we are different factions with different timings. My previous posts include comments on how much I wish we could "live" more the stick and stones life, long before we modernize. Which is of course part of my latest post as getting fire arms loot from the very first raid, breaks the experience. And yes, I know we can choose not to equip them. But as the latest post goes, I did receive good quality sniper riffle and bolt action riffles as loot, which of course did not fit in the expected low quality or low HP that should be defaulted too. So TheMeInTeam and myself we are both suspicious that the unstable version missed to patch something up.

Nobody is complaining here, just reporting our experience as requested by Tynan. If you guys can roll to the first posts within this same thread, you should be able to read that I already stated that there is awkwardness with the new bedrolls, as tribals can already build wooden walls and doors...so it is strange that they can't make wooden beds. A bed is basically a wall laid horizontally. And others have also commented that the technology tree needs re-arrangements. I see that at least the tea research value was reduced already. Others gave opinions about the link between Machinery and Microelectronics basics.

And in another thread, I'm also suggesting that bedrolls should be crafted by tailors instead of constructed.

Like I said I know I can't assume people will know me like since childhood, I'm just trying not to sound like a broken record.

So the motion in these lasts posts is about a strange feel on research tree progress. Please share your opinions on that so that we keep ourselves "on topic".

[Ebolakush]

I feel like this problem is solved by choosing rich explorer and a combat engineer but than i feel like thats lame i would rather have it more balanced but at the end of the day all u need to do is have a good defense setup. Im testing
alpha 18 right now

Started with a grower/crafter and just had a nerd join my colony

[RemingtonRyder]

I find that early raids tend not to outclass the massed firepower that player tribals can bring to the table. Having archers loosing arrows from the cover of sandbags is pretty devastating. In the first year or so you can have some decent steel melee weapons for when the enemy turns to flee.

However I'm usually testing the low end of the difficulty scale. When your enemy starts coming at you with better weapons, you need to be at a higher level of readiness than just having recurve bows or greatbows and sandbags for cover.

Getting the first gunsmithing tech will help you out a lot, as the bolt-action rifle's accuracy at long range means that you'll be dropping enemies at distance. So, it makes sense that if you're playing as tribals, you'll want to place down more research benches.

I agree that it's a bit odd that at some point, pirates are basically throwing advanced weapons at you. It's like the old days of the original XCOM when the aliens send in their weakest units but with heavy plasma rifles. Sure, it's really bad for you if they manage to gun down your guys with it, but if you capture and research those weapons you basically never have to manufacture them.

That's why in one of my OpenXCOM mods, I altered the weapons progression so that (heavy) plasma introduction is slower.

Now, in RimWorld, weapons have durability and quality, so what you loot from pirates or buy from traders may not be as good as you can make yourself, but they're still serviceable. You can still do an XCOM and gun down the raiders with their own weapons.

By the way, something that A18 changed with regards to 'raid points' is that injured colonists count less, down to about a third of the default value.

[eugeneb]

Haven't had a long run on A18 yet but wanted to add my $0.02 about the weapons. My experience is basically similar: my weapon needs are 95% satisfied by looting raiders and I end up crafting weapons as the very last thing after I've run out of other things to do. Sure, if I have a good crafter, I can may be craft a slightly better weapon or the exact weapon layout I need but I get plenty of 100% good or superior guns in the long run for crafting to be a very low priority.

This was also my experience with clothing before D modifier was added which I think is great and now I actually have to manufacture or buy clothing!

The gun problem is trickier though - you can't just give raiders low quality and low % weapons because this will make raiders much less dangerous. Not sure what a good solution for this would be. Perhaps an expanded line of high tech weapons that are programmed to be usable by certain pawn or to self destruct after pawn death. Or maybe make  them degrade with usage or even when just carried around (similar to cloth).

Other than that, huge thanks for this game! This is easily the best early access game I've ever had by a huge margin and among most played games in my steam library overall.

[Dashthechinchilla]

Given the increase in component and steel cost of the ship, I don't mind getting most of my weapons from raiders. I have noticed that I tend to get a lot more sniper rifles than assault rifles in A18 than A17.

[Daimonin]

Are you commenting in response to my post? If yes, both TheMeInTeam and myself are not complaining about looting. We are pointing out that the research tree length takes too long in comparison with raids RNG to the point that catching up with enemies fire power had turned too hard. Because the Research tree was modified so that long range weaponry takes excessively long to complete.

Nah, it was more in general, I saw a few posts bring it up in various ways. Some with more info, other's less. Most seemed to be against the current progression, so I gave some feedback from the other PoV.

[Tynan]

Updated to 0.18.1717! This is now a non-dev build, so performance should be a lot better.

Please keep all feedback coming!

Raw changelog:

Player content update.
Language data update.
Made ship much easier to build.
Remove badly-written death messages for non-pawn targets.
Fix: Combat log resolution errors when animals use bite attacks against non-pawns.
Add grammar resolver debug output for custom rules.
Fix: Scythers tend to use melee weapon tools instead of blades.
Use appropriate utility function to determine awakeness.
Fix: Sleeping targets are considered mobile by the combat system.
Fix: Greedy buff and debuff activated at the same time
Reduced all gun production research project research costs by 30%.
Fix 3162: AI Ship can spawn on tiles that normally can't be built on
Add map generator debug run.
Increased research speed by 10%.
Move research costs into the ship reactor.
Fix: Healer mech serum prioritizes missing rib over brain injury.
Fix: Token names that were never renamed properly.
Fix 3159: Possible naming error in RulePackDef_Transitions
Fix 3158: Megasloth1258011 started 10 jobs in one tick. newJob=WaitDowned (Job_5242720)
Added forced traits to Kena 'Kena' Réveil.
Fix: Doctors don't tend to wild men.
Fix: When a single battle log entry fails to generate it causes a continuous error spam.
Fix 3155: Chemical interest may start full-on psychite binges
Removed logging hack from GrammarResolver.
Tuned resurrection serum.
Fix: CompAnimalInsanityPulser can send a message about enraged animals even if there are none.
Fix: Simple helmts automatically build themselves out of uranium and silver and other inappropriate materials.
Fix: You can build floors on marshy soil.
Fix: RunWild mental break doesn't send any letter.
Changed IEDs research description.
Fixed some power bugs.
Made sure fire can't attach to things without CompAttachBase.
Swamps are now auto-choosable.
Fix: -quicktest can sometimes cause errors.
Added more info to patch operation failed errors so it's easier to see which one failed.
Changed double bedroll description to make it clear that cloth isn't necessary and to match the single bedroll description.
Fix: PrisonCell thought typo.
Fix: ThoughtDef.Label doesn't handle stage labels properly.
Fix: Spread blight debug command is visible even if dev mode is off.
Fix: Entering the escape ship with all your pawns and with enemies on the map will result in the ship being torn down.
Small changes to PatchOperationFindMod behavior.
Add command for mortars to remove their current shell.
Fix: Several creature types are significantly overvalued in terms of combat power.
Reduce cost of advanced components.

[Pope]

Thx for the update!

[Alenerel]

Non dev build means official release? If not, what does it mean?

Shouldnt you create already the A18 category in steam workshop?

[lauri7x3]

i got a colonist who refuses to fight but with ambition in both melee and range combat ... ??

Update: ok.. somehow the patch fucked with that colonists traits... he wasnt refusing combat before and he still is armed with a gun...