Toxic fallout/volcanic winter/multiple coldsnaps annoy the hell out of me

[James Swift]

I've been playing for 420 days, the winter just ended and today once again I have to slaughter 90% of my animals, 'cause it's toxic fallout time!

In 7 years I had two toxic fallouts, one volcanic winter and a lot of coldsnaps to kill my crops early. Are these livestock-destroying events supposed to happen that often? Am I missing some fun in recovering over and over?

[Vlad0mi3r]

Why are you loosing all of your livestock?

Unless you are running the 100 boars defence method Toxic fallout is not really a major issue. Set 2 animal zones one that is indoors/under a roof and another one that covers their usual grazing area. Once a day allow the animals out to feed by setting them to the grazing area. They will all rush out and have a feed then restrict them back under the roof. Back this up with some hay grass growing and your animals should pull through. Yes they will get hungry but they will not die from Toxic fallout.

You will need to get indoor growing setup as well. You can use hydroponics or just the ground with a sunlamp set up at least 2 grow areas getting the best fertility soil you can. 2 solar panels with a battery is enough to keep a sunlamp and heater ticking along (you will want to toggle the heater to power off when you are not dealing with a cold snap or you will need more power than just 2 solar cells.).

It can be really hard work at times keeping on top everything and yes sometimes you will have to "harvest" some of your animals. Unless you are trying to breed rhinos or elephants (very long gestation periods) their populations will bounce back.

[SzQ]

And if that is too much efford for you just get Dubs skylight
There are many ways to deal with various Rimworld difficulties even in vanilla.
You can use geyser to keep your plants warm. You can use mountain to set up hydroponics or terraform with Rainbeau's Fertile Fields.

If you are tribal you can set up winter growing building that is 25% unroofed and heated by geyser and few campfires and hunt.

[Dashthechinchilla]

In cold environments I use the ground\sunlamp method. Typically built on at least some rich tiles I only use the open ground during the warm months to grow surplus. I can sustain year round with covered crops, even if I have to feed the animals simple meals when they pass out from starvation. Also a good way to control population with miscarriage. Don't feed them raw veggies, it is nutrition inefficient. I keep two batteries per lamp for eclipse. Growing indoors is a little slower than outdoors because of the light level, so the Eclipse event is that much more annoying.

I am going to have to try the dual zone method.

Volcanic winter isn't so bad, it's only 15 *f or so colder. The biggest hit is to solar panels if you are growing indoors.

[James Swift]

Thanks for advice, guys. But it's just a rant:)

I have more than 100 animals. Something like 30 wolves, 30 boomrats, 100-200 turkeys and chickens, 10-20 muffalos, some wargs and bears. I already had similar herd ~3 years ago, had to kill most of them to survive toxic fallout + volcanic winter. I know, how to survive it, I just don't want to go through the process of losing and breeding animals again.

[SzQ]

Well, for the next run you can turn off these incidents by editing scenario.  If you got sentimental with your pawns you can redo them with EdB Prepare Carefully and save them.
Also it is possible to edit scenario by editting save file, don't know where i have seen it.
Also^2 you can go to rimworld\Mods\Core\Defs\Storyteller\Incidents_Map_Misc.xml and change <baseChance>0.15</baseChance> for any incydent you want.

[jamaicancastle]

IIRC events such as fallout are currently limited to one map, rather than regional, so you can duck them by forming a caravan and settling another map. (I wouldn't get too attached to that, though; making effects like that have a world map presence is exactly the kind of thing Tynan would do.)

[TheMeInTeam]

Worst is toxic fallout.  If you have a decent pawn count it can be really annoying to manually check their buildup levels and micro them optimally.  Some kind of buildup notification/toggle would be nice so I would know when to slam them back into sheltered zones.  There has to be a better way than constantly bringing up each health window manually.

That said unless these hit you early game (~1st 2 seasons) as a tribe I'm not seeing why they should be lethal.  Annoying I agree.  Even then cold snap/winter won't block fauna wandering in so hunting is in play.

[James Swift]

IIRC events such as fallout are currently limited to one map, rather than regional, so you can duck them by forming a caravan and settling another map. (I wouldn't get too attached to that, though; making effects like that have a world map presence is exactly the kind of thing Tynan would do.)

Had exactly the same thought, this can possibly save all my herbivores.

TheMeInTeam
It is not lethal for my pawns, it is lethal for my animals, without huge harvesting areas you can't survive winter with 200+ animals. And I hate killing off my animals every year or two.

[lancar]

Unless you're in a all-year growing season tile, I've noticed the game seems to notoriously hate plant life. I've had several games where the game just simply doesn't want you to be able to grow anything at all outdoors and just pops cold snaps or fallouts on you just as growing season either starts or a few days prior to first harvest. Y'know, just to spite you.

Just assume that all the natural vegetation you see is a lie and use hydroponics and/or sunlamps to cover your needs instead, and you'll always be just fine. Screw nature.

[TheMeInTeam]

IIRC events such as fallout are currently limited to one map, rather than regional, so you can duck them by forming a caravan and settling another map. (I wouldn't get too attached to that, though; making effects like that have a world map presence is exactly the kind of thing Tynan would do.)

Had exactly the same thought, this can possibly save all my herbivores.

TheMeInTeam
It is not lethal for my pawns, it is lethal for my animals, without huge harvesting areas you can't survive winter with 200+ animals. And I hate killing off my animals every year or two.

That's a good point.  I rarely play biomes where having 200+ animals before late game is a viable option (mildest 3 biomes typically).  Your only bet would be to multi-colony to get sufficient arable land/avoid disaster.  You could keep pretty large animal barns via hay using indoor growing in a mature colony, but I don't know about 200+.  I suppose you CAN set up ~2000 tiles of hay farming indoors with 10 sun lamps.  That's also ~30 solar panels, ~10 batteries and ~20 heaters.  Costly in steel and components but doable in year 4-5 or later for tribes, possibly sooner for crashlanded.  Would be doable outside extreme desert/ice sheet/sea ice.

[cultist]

Without mods, your land will quickly turn into a barren wasteland. Whether it's cold snaps, beavers or fallout, you're unlikely to see grass anywhere but the edges of the map once a year or two has passed.

If you really dislike it, stick to jungle and shrubland maps. Because there's no cold winters and plants grow quickly, you'll always have ample grazing areas for animals.

[TheMeInTeam]

Even on those, you need to grow/store a lot of hay or you'll lose animals to toxic fallout (starvation).

[Hans Lemurson]

I always just assumed that your people have been cursed by the gods, and this taints bleeds out into the land around you, rendering it desolate while you sin against nature growing plants behind artificial walls with artificial suns.  It is no wonder the people of the world wish to see you destroyed, and are willing to risk everything to see your blight removed from their refuge.

[lancar]

I always just assumed that your people have been cursed by the gods, and this taints bleeds out into the land around you, rendering it desolate while you sin against nature growing plants behind artificial walls with artificial suns.  It is no wonder the people of the world wish to see you destroyed, and are willing to risk everything to see your blight removed from their refuge.

Y'know, that actually makes a surprising amount of sense.