[B18] Nature's Pretty Sweet: Weather and Environment Mod

Started by tkkntkkn, November 25, 2017, 06:15:29 PM

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tkkntkkn

Hi! This is my first mod and I'm hoping to get some feedback. The mod is...



Nature's Pretty Sweet!

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1211694919
Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/rimworld/mods/229/?
Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixrtdvftjp5izm5/rimworld_tkkn_nps.zip?dl=0

I camp a lot and Rimworld runs on my laptop (thanks!). Buuut the game's world doesn't really feel like an environment, so here's my attempt to make Rimworld more alive. Colonists already face off against other pawns, animals and mechanoids... but now they can face off against lava and floods and stuff!

TKKNTKKN's Nature's Pretty Sweet adds additional terrain elements, weather and biomes. It also updates the map in response to weather, giving a more wild, untamed and alive feeling to the world.

Requires a new save. Some of the weather affects might cause a little bit of lag (at high speeds or if you're really zoomed out) but you can turn them off in the options.

Most new elements will generate in the standard biomes, but there are some biomes that guarantee new features, and a few elements are ONLY available in some biomes. Most of the elements were directly inspired by places I've camped in the US.

There are also new resources, items, dangers, natural protection from raids and other effects. Resources can be harvested to get items, which can be sold or consumed.

Added:

Weather:

  • Soil and sand will darken when wet. Wet sand and soil increase fertility. Deserts will see a lot of growth after it rains.
  • Puddles form after rainfall and snow melt.
  • Rivers flood from rain, and are higher in the spring and lower in the fall.
  • Water freezes in the winter.
  • New weather:

    • Dust Storms (deserts only)
    • Overcast
    • Windy
  • New Effects:

    • Lava Smoke
    • Frost
    • You can see pawns' breath in the cold
New Biomes:

  • Desert Salt Flats:

    • Description: Desert with a lot of salt flats.
    • New plant: Salt weed, a special plant that grows only on salty earth. Separates salt from water.
    • New items: Salt and salted meat.
    • New floor: Salt the ground to prevent plants from growing for one year. Create a barrier around your base to protect from giant snails and fire.
    • New weather: Dust storms. Dry and wet versions.
    • Inspired by: Badlands Salt Flats from Death Valley
  • Redwood Forest:

    • Description: Temperate area with a lot of rain and fog, redwood trees and old growth forest.
    • New trees:

      • Redwoods, huge trees that take hundreds of years to grow and yields very large amounts of wood.
      • Old Growth Oaks, larger than your average oak.
      • Old Growth Hazel, larger than your average hazel.
    • New item: Red wood. Valuable, beautiful, fire resistant wood.
    • New weather: thick fog.
    • Inspired by: Redwood National Park in California
  • Volcanic Fields:

    • Description: Tropical. Tons of lava rock, rich soil, steam vents and lava. VERY DANGEROUS.
    • New animals: Fire salamanders and  lava pet rocks. Lava pet rocks naturally radiate heat. Very very very slow moving. Once tamed, can be cooled off and hauled to a room to heat it.
    • New item: Lava rock. A black stone that can be used for crafting.
    • New power source: steam vents. Just like geysers, but temporary. You can use the cheap vent generator to get power from a steam vent.
    • New terrains:

      • Lava: Destroys/burns items, burns pawns. Hardens and cools into lava rock.
      • Lava rock. Plants cannot grow on lava rock, but there are more steam vents. You can mine lava rock here, and it is where pet lava rocks grow.
    • New building material: Lava rock blocks.
    • New terrain: Lava. Impassable terrain, but it generates heat.
    • Inspired by: Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
  • Desert Oasis:

    • Description: Lush, life filled area that is affected by desert temperatures.
    • New element: Cold springs (see below)
    • New element: Wash. A dried riverbed that will flood in the spring.
    • Inspired by: Big Bend National Park in Texas
Reworked Terrains:

  • Beaches

    • Tides - very large bodies of waters will rise and fall like tides and waves.
    • Junk, shells and treasure might be left behind on the shore. They will wash away if not collected before the next tide.
    • New animals: giant crabs
    • Inspired by: A combination of beaches in Florida and beaches in the pacific northwest.
  • River banks

    • River banks will flood in the spring and recede in the fall
    • Rivers will flood after a large rainstorm or snow melt.
    • Rivers will leave behind rich soil after flooding.         
New elements:

  • Hot springs:

    • Spawns in all biomes except...

      • Desert (all)
      • Volcanic Fields
      • Icesheet
    • Surrounded by rich soil and healroots
    • Usually spawns next to a river/creek/etc.
    • Resting in a hot spring will temporarily reduce pain and exhaustion.
    • Gives off a small amount of heat.
    • Inspired by Arkansas Hot Springs
  • Cold spring:

    • Spawns in all biomes except...

      • Desert (except for the desert oasis)
      • Volcanic Fields
      • Icesheet
      • Tundra
    • Surrounded by rich soil and ambrosia
    • Usually spawns next to a river/creek/etc.
    • Resting in a cold spring will temporarily reduce pain and give joy.
    • Gives off a small amount of chill.
    • Inspired by Crystal Springs and Blue Springs, FL
New minerals:

  • Amber (orange material)
  • Petrified Wood (dark brown material) (inspired by the Petrified Forest in Arizona)
New sculptures:

  • Seashells
New plants:

  • Hazelnuts, bushy-like trees that grow in temperate and boreal forests.
  • Ferns, moss, grasses and other cosmetic plants
If you like this mod, consider visiting the actual National and State Parks. Visitor numbers are really important, and these features all look waaaay better in real life :)

Future Plans: (in no particular order)

  • Biome: Sequoia Forest from Sequoia National Park in California. Has huge trees that can be mined to build a base in.
  • Biome: Glaciers from Glacier National Park: will expand in the winter and shrink in the summer. Can be harvested for ice.
  • Additions: River Delta and flooding from New Orleans, Louisiana: River flooding leaves behind fertilizer that will make a temporary, hyper rich soil.
  • Biome: Lakes from Voyageurs National Park: Biome filled with water that freezes into ice in the winter.
  • Additions: Cave dwellings from Gila Cliff dwellings: Ancient dwellings with loot. You can also live in them.
  • Additions: Cave formations inspired by Colossal Cave in New Mexico, Florida Caverns in Florida, and Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico. Natural sculptures that are incredibly beautiful and valuable.
  • Biome: Geothermal Fields from Yellowstone National Park: Dangerous biome that spawns acid, geysers and hot springs.
  • Biome: Prairie biome inspired by the Great Plains. Fertile, flat land with few trees, lots of tornadoes and new animals. Add new, tornado proof area (storm cellar).
  • Event: Polluted waters from Cuyahoga River: Rivers catch on fire and flood, leaving behind poisoned earth and garbage.
  • Additions: White Gypsum from White Sands, New Mexico - spawns in scrublands. Watching the sunrise and sunset here gives "unreal sunset" and "unreal sunrise" bonus.   
  • Event: Resource raids. Poachers or thieves will arrive to steal resources.
  • Event: Wildflower bloom, inspired by the super bloom in Death Valley, California. In early spring a huge amount of flowers bloom. Gives mood bonus.
  • Event: Bluebell bloom, inspired by all the bluebells in Texas. In early spring a huge amount of flowers bloom. Gives mood bonus.
  • Event: Destructive floods, pawn drowning.
  • Additions : Fossils, river washes, harvestable ice for coolers, more mood bonuses and take aways, etc.
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1211694919
Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/rimworld/mods/229/?
Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixrtdvftjp5izm5/rimworld_tkkn_nps.zip?dl=0

Moasseman



kamuii

This sounds like a really cool mod. Gonna give it a try. :)

Pilz

Wow, this is a handful!

Pretty impressive work, gonna try it tommorow, I think the redwood forest is particularly cool, though the ne textures clash a bit with the vanillar artstyle.

Is this incompatible with other mods? Will modded animals still spawn in new biomes?


Anyway, damn fine work!

tkkntkkn

Quote from: Pilz on November 25, 2017, 07:18:59 PM
Is this incompatible with other mods? Will modded animals still spawn in new biomes?

It probably wouldn't be compatible with anything that changed world generation on the biome level. But most of the stuff is actually loaded into biomes after the map is generated (for example... flooding and tides just check if there's an area where water hits not-water and then makes that a tidal area or bank) so I think it'll be pretty compatible. I don't think that any animals will spawn in other biomes, although I do think they can be purchased.

Quote from: Pilz on November 25, 2017, 07:18:59 PM
Anyway, damn fine work!

Hahaha hopefully it works out. I've played it alone for about a week but there's always things you don't find.

RanDumSocks

Great mod! Just one thing I noticed right off of the bat when I was testing and such to see if it was right for me. Whenever it rains for awhile, the oceans and rivers turn into soil!

Anyway, I'll still be playing it and try to keep up on my thoughts here.

Dingo

This looks like a really ambitious passion project, it's cool to see how you combined your IRL hobby with the game.

Two very minor nitpicks:
- It would be cool if you included a Source in the mod folder and/or GitHub, but obviously that's your call.
- I think you might've built the DLL in Debug mode and with one or two minor code segments that you could omit.

But again, I must say I'm impressed. Welcome to the community.

Umbreon117

Very nice, very cool, and very wanted...Just have one little problem.


I refuse to start a save after spending forever just getting the foundations in my swamp base set so bloody plants don't grow into where I am building.
I'll shoot your colonists...After a long nap.

AlyfoxLP

I posted on Steam about this issue, but I'm reposting it here cause I have some video of it.. it might help, or it might not.

So, I was watching a friend live-stream Rimworld with this mod.. he embarked on a Desert Oasis, no lava on it to start. Then a message came up indicating a sandstorm, and then lava started appearing all over the place.

Here some video clips
->   https://clips.twitch.tv/ObeseShakingLadiesMcaT
->  https://clips.twitch.tv/SmallBlushingCocoaStinkyCheese

This is a list of the mods he's using -> https://pastebin.com/nekJh6H1

Possibly related, I embarked on a Salt Flats map, and out of the blue I started having random rich soil and regular soil appear on the map. There was no weather going on at the time, and the soil appeared in such a way that it looks like it might have generated normally in that shape, but.. it appeared out of nowhere.

Canute

Very impressive work,
i think this could be one of the must have mod in the future.

Bozzarr

#11
How does one mine salt out of the flats?

Dust storm in salt flats started raining lava all over my newly formed colony.

Dust storm on every map causes lava eruption.

tkkntkkn

Quote from: Umbreon117 on November 26, 2017, 12:34:02 AM
I refuse to start a save after spending forever just getting the foundations in my swamp base set so bloody plants don't grow into where I am building.

Aww </3. You can try it on an old save. The rain and events should work, but most of the other stuff happens on the map generation.

tkkntkkn

Quote from: RanDumSocks on November 25, 2017, 08:37:28 PM
Great mod! Just one thing I noticed right off of the bat when I was testing and such to see if it was right for me. Whenever it rains for awhile, the oceans and rivers turn into soil!

Working on this right now

tkkntkkn

Quote from: Dingo on November 25, 2017, 10:30:46 PM
I think you might've built the DLL in Debug mode and with one or two minor code segments that you could omit.

I'm such a noob I'm not sure how to build it in any other way... but I'll look into it! Thanks :D