(B18) Kyber: A full story of a rimworld adventure with plenty of pictures

Started by MiniKeeper, December 19, 2017, 12:08:16 PM

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MiniKeeper

I would have included that this run was modded, but it I hit the character limit on the title.
Difficulty: Cassandra Classic on Extreme difficulty with permadeath enabled.
Landing point: Mountainous tundra, has a 20-day growing period from the 11th of Aprimay to the 1st of Septober.
Scenario: The Rich Explorer
Mods installed: JecTools, and three Star Wars mods for B18: Lightsabers, the Force, and Factions.
Yes, I finally did it, my first recorded modded run. You should totally check out these mods. They add lightsabers. Lightsabers.

Starting colonist:
Willow: A 20-year-old female herbalist.
Notable skills: 8 melee, 9 medicine, 8 growing.
Traits: Night owl and Sith (a trait which reads "Willow has begun the journey to the Dark side of the Force") this means she is force-sensitive and can use force powers. All she needs now is a lightsaber.
She has 1 force ability, force rage, a dark side ability which has a 70% chance to throw a target into a berserk rage. This is a pretty good ability.

Some other things to note about these mods:
-Characters who can use the force gain force XP as they do tasks, which allows them to unlock new force abilities or upgrade a pawn's proficiency with a lightsaber.
-The mod adds new armor and weaponry which is pretty powerful.
-Enemy raiders can be force users (jedi or sith) and can use their force powers on your pawns.
-Force powers each have 3 levels, while lightsaber skills each have 5 levels. Using force abilities costs force energy, which can be replenished through force meditation.
-This mod isn't exactly the most balanced, but it is really fun.

Day 0:
A picture of the world. There are imperial bases, rebel bases, and the white skull and crossbones are "hives of scum and villany."


Day 2:
Willow has reached force level 6 (she started at level 5). I decide to put the point into a new force ability: heal self. She is no longer a sith, she is now a Grey Jedi; devoted to maintaining balance in the force.
This is the base so far:


Later that morning, the first visitors arrive. One of them is force sensitive!


Day 5:
The first raid has arrived. It's a lone tribesman. He does not yet comprehend the power of the dark side.


She uses force rage on him, though it doesn't really do much. Then shoots him into submission and uses her new self-healing ability to patch up the wound she got.

Late that night while building a marble door, Willow becomes force level 7. I use the new point to get the mind trick ability, which has a 70% chance to put a target into a confused wandering state. This should be useful for taking prisoners.

Day 6:
Huntsman, our tribal prisoner, heals up enough and is released.

Day 7:
We get the peace talks opportunity event from the tribe Huntsman is from. Given that the meeting spot is somewhat far off, and Willow has 0 social skill, I don't think we'll be attending.


Day 9:
Things are coming along. Willow has hit force level 9, which I spent on upgrading her force pool.

I have rice, potatoes, healroot, cotton, and pine trees growing. I've also got a small stonecutting hut. Right now, preparing for winter and stockpiling food and supplies is very important.

Day 11:
Two more tribal raiders have arrived. Time to use the force.

But, it turns out the raiders are a bigger danger to themselves, as they start a social fight.


They soon stop social fighting, but the damage is done.
One of the tribals is quickly downed and taken prisoner. I decide to have little fun with the other by repeatedly spamming mind tricks. This might be a great way to get a guaranteed prisoner, shoot, mind trick, repeat until subject faints from blood loss, then capture.


Sure enough, my plan works.


I capture Peza and then release him along with the other tribal prisoner. Willow has 0 social and their recruitment difficulties were too high to recruit in a realistic timeframe.

Day 12:
Willow has level up to force level 9. I unlock force lightning with it. Willow has now became a Grey Master.

Late that night, an artic wolf goes mad and downs Peza who is trying to leave the map.


(There is a bug with the mods that causes 2 of each alert to appear).
Willow mind-tricks the wolf and shoots it a few times, causing it to bleed out.
Peza does get up and leave, but I didn't get faction points for the release.

Day 14:
We get the alert for the friendly AI ship. It's pretty far away.


That night, three tribal raiders attack.


The raiders are easily dispatched using the power of force rage in combination with the charge rifle. Willow really needs a lightsaber.

Day 16:
Willow leveled up to force level 10. I'm saving the force point to use on force lightning.

Day 19:
Willow has leveled up to force level 11. However, she must once again turn to the dark side in order to level up dark side abilities. Time to spam force lightning.

Day 21:
A group of six pirates has arrived.

But, using the power of the dark side, Willow easily dispatches five of the six assailants.

Day 22:
The cold kills much of the healroot and cotton overnight. Willow manages to save a moderate portion of both plants, but not anywhere near the amount I would have hoped.


Day 23:
Willow has leveled up to force level 12. I'm still saving points for dark side abilities.
Late that night, I try casting force rage on a wall, which causes Willow to go berserk.

Day 24:
We get another peace talks opportunity from a local tribe. I'm still not going to travel to it.
Willow recovers from her berserk rage and after a little lighting spam, is now a Sith Lord. I purchase force lightning level 2. I also buy force rage level 2.

Day 26:
Willow has leveled up to force level 13. A little progress update is due as well.

Things are going well. I'm digging out a weapons and apparel shed to store all of the junk of the raiders. Next, it's time to build some power generating buildings.

Later that night, a rebel bulk goods trader arrives.


I sell all the garbage clothing off the raiders and buy a sith hood. They don't have any lightsabers though.
Later, I search for information on the mods and discover that you can get kyber crystals from refining rocks using the electric smelter, and create lightsaber parts at the component assembly bench. I know what I need to do next.

Day 29:
Winter has began and Willow has leveled up to force level 14. Good thing I've stockpiled food. Willow has also reached mining level 8, which means she can mine steel without penalty.

Day 33:
Some travelers are passing by from the Galactic Empire. These are the first imperials to show up on my land.


Then, I get this alert, which is a demand from the Empire.


I need to pay a 100-silver fee, then contribute 20% all silver earned in a yearly income tax paid to the empire. If I don't do this, I will become an enemy of the empire.
I choose to pay the taxes. For now...

Day 34:
Willow has leveled up to force level 15. I spent the 3 points I have saved on force lightning level 3. She is now a Sith Master. The trait reads:
"Willow is attuned to the dark side of the force, able to tap near-limitless power."

Later that night, a group of 4 tribals arrives. The group includes one sith tribal. Willow could use an apprentice.


I kill three of the tribals, but the sith escapes. I mind-tricked her, but when the tribals got the alert to flee, it updated her mental condition, causing her to break free of the mind trick and escape. A pity.

Day 37:
Things are going well enough at the base. Willow has reached force level 16. I spend it on a force pool upgrade.
The base so far.


Once I've finished the new prison, I'm going to open the ancient danger that is conspicuously unopened near the bottom of the screen.

Day 43:
The prison is coming along well. In other news, 6 raiders are attacking.


I should be sort of worried, but these raiders have no idea what awaits them.

Sure enough, Willow scatters the raiders and captures 2 of them. Even if I can't recruit them, I want to keep one of them around to level Willow's social skill.
As it turns out, Grump, one of the raiders, may be worth recruiting.

Day 44:
Grump is healing up from his injuries. He has an infection in one arm, but we luckily have a decent amount of herbal medicine. Willow also reached force level 17. I unlock force choke for Willow.

Day 48:
Willow has reached force level 18. I'm planning on upgrading force choke.

Day 49:
I get another peace talks opportunity from the local tribe. I'm still not going to it.

Day 52:
A trio of 3 manhunting panthers have arrived. On the bright side, it is now spring, so I can continue growing food to replenish my stores. Willow easily disposes of the panthers, making good use of her new force choke ability.


(The last panter was mind-tricked).

Day 55:
While Karina the warg is being attacked by a panther, a tribal raid arrives.


Karina is wounded and loses a paw, but survives.

One of the raiders who I drive berserk using the force attacks a cougar. Bad idea.


Day 57:
Unfortunately, a bug which involves the warden not offering a recruitment pitch is preventing me from recruiting Grumpy. This is especially irritation, as I reported this bug in A17 and it didn't get fixed.
If you're interested:
My A17 report: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=33607.msg342978#msg342978
My A18 report: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=37186.0

However, Grumpy is at +89 opinion of Willow. Maybe once his opinion reaches 100+ I'll just use dev mode to recruit him.

Day 58:
Willow has reached force level 20. I spent the point on upgrading force pool to level 3.

Day 60:
Karina is getting attacked by a grizzly bear. She quickly perishes.


Day 63:
A pack of 14 manhunting hares have arrived. This isn't good.


Day 64:
Willow has level up to force level 21 while couped up inside one of the small shelters. I'm not sure what to do.

I tunnel upwards to the small butcher shack and purchace force storm. My plan is to force storm, meditate, and force storm again until all the hares are dead. I hope it works.
Then my plan fails because force storm requires 9 points to be spent on dark side abilities to be unlocked. Sigh.

Day 64:
Willow is downed from innumerable hare bites after trying to fight the horde of them. She is already suffering for malnutrition. This is the end.


The worst part is: if there was no bug and I recruited Grumpy, this wouldn't have happened.
This is such an awful ending. A mighty sith master killed by some hares. Some damn hares man. I'm extremely salty right now.

Day 65:
Grumpy sits in his cell starving to death while infections set in on the mighty sith master. She already has 6 different infections.
Later, Willow dies.

A pity Grumpy is sitting in his cell starving to death. If he lived he would be able to tell his friends...

"Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Willow the wise? I thought not. It's not a story the raiders would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Willow was a Dark Lady of the Sith, so powerful and so wise she could use her force powers to kill 5 or 6 raiders without taking a single hit. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, she could even keep the crops she cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. She became so powerful... the only thing she was afraid of was losing her power, which eventually, of course, she did. Unfortunately, she had no apprentice because of recruitment bugs, then the hares killed her in her sleep. Ironic. She could save her crops from death, but not herself."

Yes, this whole story was supposed to lead up to that joke.

Suddenly, as if the storyteller was using dev mode because he felt cheated out of a good run by a bug Force influenced the very world, Grumpy was convinced to join the colony by the dev mode recruit toolForce.

In addition to this, Willow miraculously recovered from her injuries due to the dev mode resurrect tool Force.
As it turns out, Grumpy was actually called Grump all this time, so I just change his name to Grumpy.
Then as I would later discover, I proceed to use both Grump and Grumpy interchangeably several times through the story. Oops.

Now that I have a second pawn, the popup to name the colony appears. I name the faction Kyber and the colony Miracle.

Grumpy:
Notable skills: 9 animals, 10 mining, 7 crafting.
Traits: Too smart, fast learner, and jogger.
Incapable of caring.

Later that night, a bulk goods trader from an outlander town arrives.


Right after the trader, a tribal raid arrives.


After this, Grumpy has a catatonic breakdown. He'll be unconscious for several days.

Willow easily disposes of the raiders. She sells some of the junk clothing to the trader. Then a caribou self-tames.
After this, a heatwave occurs.

I decide to open the ancient tomb, as I have a trade caravan backing me up. Inside are two centipedes and a syther. However, I think Willow is stronger.


The first syther easily goes down. The caskets are opened, revealing four hostile sleepers. I have Willow grab one of the visitors who was downed.


Willow downs the remaining spacers in a desperate melee after the centipedes are killed. She captures one spacer named Kong.

Willow also rescues another outlander.

Day 67:
Willow has released on of the outlanders and stuffed the other, a brain damaged one, in cryptosleep. This is in addition to our prisoner Kong, who isn't worth recruiting. On the bright side, a wanderer named Blackout has joined the colony.
She is really awful.

Notable skills: 11 medicine, 10 cooking. Incapable of firefighting.
Traits: Psychically hypersensitive, careful shooter, annoying voice.
Age: 57
Health conditions: Go-juice addiction, frail, artery blockage (minor).

This is a bad omen.

After she arrives, an imperial slaver from the Empire arrives.


After the slaver arrives, a poison ship lands. I think it's time to pack up and leave. There are so many events occurring right now.


Day 68:
Grumpy recovers from his breakdown. My plan from here is to research component assembly and electric smelting and then leave this tile and migrate to reset my wealth.
Later, I get another peace talks opportunity.
We get an item stash opportunity for an antigrain warhead, but I refuse.

Stupid character limit. I've got to split this post into two again.

MiniKeeper

Part 2 of the story... I hate the character limit.

Day 69:
The poison has begun to reach our crops. I send Willow out to destroy the ship alone.
Only 1 centipede comes out. What a joke.

Willow easily takes out the centipede, but suffers a minor eye scar to her right eye (8/10). This is disappointing. I'll need a bionic eye now.

Day 72:
Blackout is researching the multi-analyzer. Grumpy had the slaughterer mental break and executed caribou 1. Rest in peace.


Day 73:
Willow has leveled up to force level 23. I spent the point on force choke level 3.

Day 74:
Well, we've run into a problem. Blackout has run out of go-juice and her withdrawal along with her other health conditions has caused her to have a blackout. This puts a wrench in the research plan.

Later that day, a horde of tribals attacks.


As the tribals break and flee, a bulk goods trader from a local outlander town arrives.


Day 75:
I sell some junk to the bulk goods traders and put Blackout in a cryptosleep caskets as I can't afford to feed her.

Day 77:
Our first infestation. Those bugs made a big mistake.


Day 78:
Willow has leveled up to force level 24. I spend the point on force pool level 4.
Later, some herbal medicines land in cargo pods.

Day 79:
Some "Scum" has arrived. From the "Hive of scum and villany", they are basically pirates with better apparel and Star Wars guns instead of gunpower weapons.


The raiders are easily dispatched. Grumpy stuffs one of the prisoners into a cryptosleep casket.

Day 80:
We get a call from a chased refugee. Since the backstory is a runaway dancer, I'm not accepting it.

Day 81:
A squirrel has self-tamed itself.

Day 82:
An exotic goods trader has arrived from the rebels. They have a purple kyber crystal.

The kyber crystal cost waaaay too much silver though. Seriously. 5000+ silver.

Day 83:
An imperial slaver has arrived. They have a sith stormtrooper with them. I'm going to capture her, and destroy the caravan. Nobody takes an income tax from me.


I then quickly discover casting force rage or mind trick on an imperial doesn't count as a hostile attack. I found a big exploit. Lucky me.

We end up capturing 3 prisoners. The sith stormtrooper, and 2 others.

Day 84:
Luckily, since I'm back on my regular computer rather than a laptop, I can recruit prisoners. Weird, I know, but a bug is a bug.

Day 85:
A tribal horde has arrived. Time to send out Willow.


She easily disposed of them.

Day 87:
We get a peace talks opportunity from the Empire. I still don't think I'm going to it. Squirrel 1 also got torn to death by a bear.

Day 88:
Uh oh.


Time to send out... you guessed it; Willow.

After Willow kills the mechs, she destroys the psychic ship. Apparently they don't drop AI cores anymore.
Later that day, some incendiary mortal shells land in drop pods.

Day 89:
Willow has leveled up to force level 25. I'll save the point for now

Day 91:
Sarai has joined the colony. Now, Willow has an apprentice.


Notable skills: 11 constuction, 10 intellectual.
Traits: Slowpoke, Sith. She also has force storm level 1 upgraded, along with some lightsaber skills at level 1.
(It was a 13% recruitment chance).

It's only a matter of time until the others join the colony. They are both at 100+ opinion of Grump, who now has 9 social.

Later that day, a rebel exotic goods trader arrives.


I buy a bionic eye for ~2300 silver.

Even though, I could, I'm not going to use the mind trick exploit to get free goodies. I used it once on the imperials as a test, and I'm not going to exploit it anymore.

Day 94:
Grump and Sarai have come together and are now lovers. This will be a good mood boost.


In other news, cremation and electric smelting have been researched. We just built a multi-analyzer and are going to research component assembly next.

Later that day, Sarai reaches force level 6. I spent the point on heal self. She isn't fully committed to the dark side and can still purchase light side abilities. Sarai still has a long way to becoming as powerful as Willow though.
After buying heal self, she becomes a Grey Jedi.

Late that night, a bulk goods trader comes from the local outlander town.


After the bulk goods trader arrives, an aurora fills the sky, giving my pawns a mood boost.
I sell a little bit of junk to the traders and gain 6 whole silver. Sigh.

Day 95:
Willow has leveled up to force level 26. We are very close to lightsabers now. I save the force point for later.

Day 96:
Willow is corned in a mine tunnel and nearly killed by an artic wolf. Luckily, she managed to break it's neck with the force. I love force choke level 3.


Grump refines 80 stone blocks into two blue kyber crystals. Now, we just need to turn them red by focusing dark side energy into them.

After this, 2 thrumboes arrive. I could use the food more than the horns to be honest.


I force rage one thrumbo, then force chock it into unconsciousness and euthanize it. It doesn't drop a horn. I then kill the other thrumbo with a combonation of guns and force powers. It also doesn't drop a horn, which makes me suspect they now drop them after being butchered.


Even the wisest creatures in the universe do not understand the power of the dark side.
After the thrumboes die, a female psychic sooth event occurs.

Day 97: The Tragedy of Darth Willow the Wise.
A triple hive infestation has occurred in a prison barracks. This isn't good.


The prisoners go down. My three pawns are forced to retreat. A horrible accident occurs. Sarai uses her force storm, which somehow only targets Willow. She gets almost 30 different burns and is killed almost instantly.

What should have happened is the lightning should have hit Willow a few times, but the lightning also should have been spread out among the other entities in the radius; the insects.

Ugh. I can't believe Willow died like that. Well, now Sarai will have to tell people:

"Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Willow the wise? I thought not. It's not a story the raiders would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Willow was a Dark Lady of the Sith, so powerful and so wise she could use her force powers to kill 5 or 6 raiders without taking a single hit. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, she could even keep the crops she cared about from dying. The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. She became so powerful... the only thing she was afraid of was losing her power, which eventually, of course, she did. Unfortunately, she taught her friend Grump everything she knew, then her apprentice killed her in a tragic accident. Ironic. She could save her crops from death, but not herself."

Seriously though, I have no idea why the force storm only targeted Willow when other targets were in range. I'm pretty salty about this.

Well, since dev mode the Force can't bring her back again, I need to give her a proper send-off:
She was the hero of the colony and the strongest pawn in terms of raw power I've ever had. Her skills, even without the Force were excellent, and I would have loved her in a regular colony.
Notable skills: 9 melee, 11 medicine, 8 construction, 11 growing, 12 mining.

Anyway, Grump was downed by the bugs and Sarai barely managed to escape. From here, I need to research as much as I can and flee to reset the colony's wealth.

Sarai patches up Grump, but is cornered by three spelopedes. She uses force storm, which causes a bolt of lighting to fall front the sky and hit her, killing her through a death by a thousand burns. I guess that's some Rimworld poetic justice.

Ironically, force storm still didn't work properly. And if, by any chance I am completely wrong about force storm and it is supposed to work like this, please correct me with a comment.

Well, it was a good run. I tried.

Day 98:
After narrowly escaping a spelopede, Grump has a mental break. This is the end.
My sith are dead, my prisoners died a long time ago, as after the infestation they were the first to go down. Now Grump is having a mental break.

Grump is later downed when he walks into some of the insects.


Honestly, his trait combo of too smart and fast learner meant he had so much potential. He could have been the 10+ in all skills pawn. But alas, it was not to be.

As Grump lies on the ground dying, I get a chased refugee event. It's a deep space miner being chased by some scum.
Ah, why not accept.


Despite his alcohol addiction, Gaston is a pretty good pawn.


Notable skills: 9 shooting, 7 construction, 11 mining, 7 crafting.
Traits: Pessimist, psychically sensitive.
Incapable of: intellectual, artistic.

The scum shortly arrives. A manhunting fox is also after Gaston.


Gaston manages to kill the fox with some moderate injuries. But, the scum is coming.
The scum steal what they can and leave after a brief skirmish with the bugs that left many insects dead.

Day 99:
Despite his best efforts, Gaston is unable to save Grump, who has somehow survived this long.


Remember how I ticked off the Empire earlier? Well, they decide to send in a siege force. No soldiers, just tax officers with guns. Sigh.


As a horde of alphabeavers migrates through the area, I send out Gaston to try and enrage the horde. All he gets for his troubles in a mortar shell explosion, and has to retreat to the base to treat his wounds.


In one desperate last act of defiance, Gaston uses a psychic animal pulsar, driving all the animals on the map insane. Unfortunately, this includes the bugs, and Gaston is cornered inside the mechanoid tomb. This is the end for him.

Gaston is downed but, he dies knowing...


...the imperials got what they deserved.

At least, that's what I hoped would happen. In reality, the imperials lost a couple guys, but the power of OP Star Wars guns prevailed.


The Empire sacks the base, and so ends "The Tragedy of Darth Willow the Wise."


In conclusion, I think a lot of the problems in this run could be solved if I was a little more competent. I made a lot of errors, but you also need to understand these things:
1. This was my first time using the mod in a semi-seriously playthrough.
2. The recruitment bug kind of screwed me over.
3. I was trying to have fun rather than actually win. Otherwise I wouldn't have revived Willow after she died early in the story.

Endgame statistics:
Play time: ~11 hours.
Major threats: 18
Enemy raids: 10
Colonists killed: 5 (counting Willow who died twice).

But, a run is a run. This was pretty fun too. I definitely recommend these mods for anyone interested. This story took up 70 pages on Microsoft Word and contains about 4300 words. I may do a more serious second playthrough with the Star Wars mods at a later date.