Rimworld Prototype Feature - Oxygen

[Crimsonknight3]

I played the rimworld prototype last night for a while and I really liked the oxygen mechanic... Air leaks random structural failures etc... Would be nice to perhaps have something similar put back in the game... Having to scrub then store Oxygen and use piping to pipe it into rooms. Not on the premise of having no oxygen on planet. That didn't make much sense with colonists outside for so long, but perhaps under the premise that there are chemicals in the air and pro-longed exposure will start damaging colonists or perhaps damaging their skills or pushing them hard to a mental break...?

They would only be able to survive outside with no clean oxygen for 24-48 hours and would need to stay inside an oxygenated room over a period of time to "purify" their bodies of the toxins? Would make for an interesting mechanic.

Good idea?

[Justin C]

Honestly, I'm just not sure it would add much to the game to make it worth the trouble. It would just be another utility that you need to manage, and power can be annoying enough as it is. With this you'd have to clutter your base with oxygen generators alongside all of the solar panels you already have.

I can see where the mechanic could be interesting if you give the colonists space suits and make the planet not have breathable atmosphere, but I don't think that would fit the rest of the game very well. That would be a good mechanic for an exploration game. For a builder it just means that your colonists will be accomplishing even less per day because they have to worry about filling up their oxygen tanks all the time (or with your idea, spending hours in an oxygenated room).

[mrofa]

That can be interesting mechanic for pollution

[Crimsonknight3]

I understand where your coming from, but I do think what rimworld lacks is a bit of that complexity of having to make sure to keep on top of things. I think power is too forgiving in rimworld... The only necessity is if you have an attack coming or slightly grumpy colonists for being in the dark... I think something more integral and tied into power, like purifying air would mean you *must* manage power well!

The spending hours inside isn't that much of an issue, your colonists have to sleep anyway! What this means is you can't spend days sleeping on the floor outside. It means you must make makeshift structures and get power up and running like any self-respecting future man/woman would try and do.

More ideas to come, gtg rub a pregnant womans back .....

[Justin C]

I understand where your coming from, but I do think what rimworld lacks is a bit of that complexity of having to make sure to keep on top of things. I think power is too forgiving in rimworld... The only necessity is if you have an attack coming or slightly grumpy colonists for being in the dark... I think something more integral and tied into power, like purifying air would mean you *must* manage power well!

The spending hours inside isn't that much of an issue, your colonists have to sleep anyway! What this means is you can't spend days sleeping on the floor outside. It means you must make makeshift structures and get power up and running like any self-respecting future man/woman would try and do.

More ideas to come, gtg rub a pregnant womans back .....

But you pretty much already have to stop them from sleeping outside to avoid the minus to happiness. Prolonged sleeping on the ground outside already causes mental breaks (which are usually as good as death to a colonist). You're not actually adding anything to the game for the added trouble of having another utility to manage.

You can't add things just for the sake of adding complexity. Complexity is good, but more important than complexity is depth. It's depth that you should be trying to add to the game. If you add complexity without adding depth then the game starts to feel cluttered and tedious.

When considering ideas for new features, you have to be asking important questions: What does the player get out of this? If you are adding more things that the player has to micromanage, what does the player get out of the added tedium?; What are the tradeoffs? If this feature makes one aspect of the game more difficult, does it make other aspects easier or more interesting?; What kind of depth does this add to the game? How will this feature interact with current features to make the game more interesting? What kind of scenarios could play out with the addition of this feature which aren't possible without it?; and etc.

So far this idea is basically just like a new version of power which depends on the old version of power to work: It is produced by a generator and stored in storage units. It will be connected to buildings that use it through a network of connectors. It will go out when things like solar flares and prolonged eclipses happen. Colonists get pissed off if they don't have it. It's just power 2.0, except unnecessary and overly tedious.

If you're looking for added complexity and micromanagement in the game there are plenty of features that are already implemented which could use expanding. I just don't think this idea would actually add much to the game.

[Crimsonknight3]

I totally agree with you in most respects but I think have oxygen purification  will add depth without tedium. It will add more variety to random events, and most of all it will give the player the feeling of their colonists really surviving on a hostile planet.

While yes prolonged sleeping outside for colonists does make them grumpy the current system is still quite forgiving... I mean some games I play I get to 12-15 ingame days before they have "rooms" or "beds" playing on randy random. I guess this really ties in with what the minami mod is doing. Adding more of a feel like the colonists are "surviving" rather than "thriving" on a hostile planet.

I know tynan is adding more pre-tech stuff in even as we speak and when completed the idea of oxygen purification early game would be ridiculous but i do feel that rimworld lacks that feeling where your colonists are really struggling to survive. I mean one of the features of the game is that these colonists are ordinary people, not colonists so to hop down on a planet and just simply live off the environment very easily seems a bit counter-rimworld.

I think the game definately needs a more difficult "survival" aspect. Certainly the raider attacks are the most difficult part of the game but i think "surviving" should be a bit more difficult, especially early game... Adding in oxygen scrubbers simply for enclosed rooms could help with that, but creating oxygen to supply an enclosed base could be another aspect that requires more infrastructure.

Don't get me wrong, I love rimworld but after playing minami it certainly fills the gap in difficulty in surviving/thriving which rimworld natively lacks. What are your thoughts?

[Coenmcj]

Ah... Eclipse Colony.
You could politely ask Tynan to get the oxygen system up to today's standards and include it as a mod, or perhaps turn it over to the general populace of rimworld.

I think I recall telling someone else this long ago... but I doubt I would find what topic that was on.
Edit : Cala13er's Alpha 3 mapgen+
However Tynan did not respond to such, so I am unaware of his stance on the topic.

[Crimsonknight3]

Ah... Eclipse Colony.
You could politely ask Tynan to get the oxygen system up to today's standards and include it as a mod, or perhaps turn it over to the general populace of rimworld.

I think I recall telling someone else this long ago... but I doubt I would find what topic that was on.
Edit : Cala13er's Alpha 3 mapgen+
However Tynan did not respond to such, so I am unaware of his stance on the topic.

I have to go to the hospital soon but when I have time I'll make a post and try and get tynans attention and see what he thinks on the matter. Even if it's not "oxygen scrubbers" i think the survival part of rim needs to be a little more difficult whilst still being sustainable long term... You could just add less metal to the game, make it harder to find, but then you get the issue where you spend months ingame mining and its very tedious... Having oxygen scrubbers could make it harder but not tedious... I imagined earlier oxygen scrubbers made of wood and charcoal for early game hahaha powered by a wooden wind turbine... Would be amusing to see... Like that episode of futurama where bender changes his body to a wooden one haha

[steveuk]

I'm quite new to Rimworld so I'm not sure on the long term plan.

I would like to see some added complexity and this could be brought about by having different planet types. Maybe a 1 in 3 chance of landing on a world without oxygen, radiated or maybe containing carnivorous creatures/plants etc.

The scope of Rimworld is only limited by the producers vision. Having different environments would make the games replay  value limitless and become a whole new challenge every time.

[Darkfirephoenix]

A nice idea to add an O2 system, maybe take a look at my "Idea Thread"? Here's the link: http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=3199.0. I have posted some ideas about an O2 system in there already

[Gerblemcriberle0]

Imagine being stranded on radioactive planets and needing to live inside with vent systems or die.

[Crimsonknight3]

It would be nice but ty has replied to another thread suggesting the same thing. The amount of work it would require to add such a small amount of functionality just isn't worth it. He would rather spend the time adding something better. Which is totally the right call

[vagineer1]

It would be nice but ty has replied to another thread suggesting the same thing. The amount of work it would require to add such a small amount of functionality just isn't worth it. He would rather spend the time adding something better. Which is totally the right call

I understand Tynan's stance on the matter but (In my opinion) if he turned the code for the Oxygen mechanic over to modders they would do wonders with it.

[mrofa]

Well you can create a zone that applies dmg to targets using

Code Select Expand

Room room = RoomQuery.ContainingRoom(position);
And few additional checks

[Cpt.Fupa]

I played the rimworld prototype last night for a while and I really liked the oxygen mechanic... Air leaks random structural failures etc... Would be nice to perhaps have something similar put back in the game... Having to scrub then store Oxygen and use piping to pipe it into rooms. Not on the premise of having no oxygen on planet. That didn't make much sense with colonists outside for so long, but perhaps under the premise that there are chemicals in the air and pro-longed exposure will start damaging colonists or perhaps damaging their skills or pushing them hard to a mental break...?

They would only be able to survive outside with no clean oxygen for 24-48 hours and would need to stay inside an oxygenated room over a period of time to "purify" their bodies of the toxins? Would make for an interesting mechanic.

Good idea?

Maybe you could merge the piping with power conduits