Some events are predicted if the colony has the related item.

[patoka]

I mentioned a while ago something that a colonist could use to predict weather, and this would be a great add-on. However, it kind of depends how long until the event actually happens from when you predict it, as this could make the difference from completely overpowered to pretty useless.

I like an idea where you could call up a friendly faction on a comms console and ask if they know anything about impending events. Tribes may know more about things like eclipses, pirates know more about things like raids.

pirates probably wouldnt tell you squat because they also laugh at you if you send them money to improve status.

the idea is interesting though but i dont know if players would like it that they had to call people regularly for only this kind of info

anyway, i would find it more fitting if friendly spacers could tell you about meteorological and astronomical occurences, while friendly tribals could tell you if a local squirtel herd has gone wild for example, or if they saw a wandering pack of farm animals nearby, or if there was a warg infestation somewhere, or if they heard stories of an ancient towering beast that devours trees and smashes through mountains in search of eternal wisdom and so on

[NeverPire]

I mentioned a while ago something that a colonist could use to predict weather, and this would be a great add-on. However, it kind of depends how long until the event actually happens from when you predict it, as this could make the difference from completely overpowered to pretty useless.

I like an idea where you could call up a friendly faction on a comms console and ask if they know anything about impending events. Tribes may know more about things like eclipses, pirates know more about things like raids.

It would need too many micromanagement's and will use already useful items, what I prefer to avoid to make predictions a gameplay choice from the player and not a feature he has just get by hazard. 

[doomdrvk]

I'm pretty against the idea of predicting events, it just makes the game easy when its suppose to be difficult, also I don't believe colonists have the skill of figuring out when these event happen using the equipment, you may have the equipment but do you know how to use it?

It also harms one of the main features, random events. Knowing when or where something is going to happen takes away from the unpredictability and story telling aspect of Rimworld which is what gives it its character. Overall I think it would do more harm than good to Rimworld.

Also why exactly would you look through a telescope directly at the sun to figure out if a solar flare is coming?

[NeverPire]

I'm pretty against the idea of predicting events, it just makes the game easy when its suppose to be difficult, also I don't believe colonists have the skill of figuring out when these event happen using the equipment, you may have the equipment but do you know how to use it?

It also harms one of the main features, random events. Knowing when or where something is going to happen takes away from the unpredictability and story telling aspect of Rimworld which is what gives it its character. Overall I think it would do more harm than good to Rimworld.

Also why exactly would you look through a telescope directly at the sun to figure out if a solar flare is coming?

About solar flares, scientists in the real world doesn't do anything other than looking in big telescopes to predict them by studying sunspots.

The game would become too easy only if you predict events too early. In my idea, predictions would work only for some hours or at max a few days before the event, just allowing you to take it into account. Maybe at the moment of this prediction, you are almost attacked by a raid or forced to manage another problem. Predictions just permit a better management of the colony.

I never speak about predict where an event will augur. This depends of the hazard of the nature or the own decision of raiders so it's unpredictable.

However, what do you think about make some wrong predictions to counterbalance the positive income ?

[patoka]

I'm pretty against the idea of predicting events, it just makes the game easy when its suppose to be difficult, also I don't believe colonists have the skill of figuring out when these event happen using the equipment, you may have the equipment but do you know how to use it?

It also harms one of the main features, random events. Knowing when or where something is going to happen takes away from the unpredictability and story telling aspect of Rimworld which is what gives it its character. Overall I think it would do more harm than good to Rimworld.

Also why exactly would you look through a telescope directly at the sun to figure out if a solar flare is coming?

i guess you are right for the most part. rimworld lives from its random nature. it's why people love randy so much (i dont, but i dont count )
i would enjoy predictability at least in certain, very limited aspects in the game. i have to admit, my ideas of creating and launching satellites into orbit and using them for this purpose is wayyyy too much. even being able to predict so many things and what the last poster said, days in advance is overkill.
it still shouldnt be a game where you have to write down all the prediction you get so that you dont forget them until they happen. a few hours in advance is good, half a day is the upper max no matter what, even if it is nuclear winter with toxic fallout and psychic poison ships all combined at once with a solar flare with a cold snap to top it off. (it was your choice to play randy random on extreme afterall)
predicting raids might be a bad idea. but predicting the weather might still be an option especially because there is a realistic component of those prediction that just go wrong.
predicting many things is useless anyway. what are you going to do, if you know that there will be drop pods with rocks landing soon, be even more alert than you normally are? (game gets paused anyway)
maybe these predictions could be more of a hear say and you get only one a quadrum. for example you get a message that a nearby townfolk or wanderers told you that there was a mass of squirrels looking for human flesh on their way. you could arm all your pawns to the teeth and await them in defensive positions or just hope that it was a false alert. maybe you get more of these if you are on the road or near another town rather than on the north pole.
maybe a particularly large raid could get a warning message, like refugees running away tell you that there is a huge army of pirates rampaging through the region and they already burnt their town to ashes. but definitely dont make all raids predictable, that is the best part about them. also, the raiders would usually make sure that they arrive undetected.

[NeverPire]

I didn't think about predict raids, I have just followed Patoka's idea. These needs to stay unpredictable in my opinion.
However, long term weather event like volcanic winter, cold snap or toxic fallout are really interesting to predict. They make them more affordable without reducing drastically their generousness.
A non-prepared cold snap can be a direct death if you are a new player and don't know it can occur or just forget to take it into account.