[1.0] What the Hack?! v1.2 - last update: May 30, 2019

[Ser Kitteh]

SO after 2.5 years in, I think I have enough of an opinion to write about what I think of this mod.

Cassandra Rough
230 days in
About 190k wealth
14 colonists

1. I took around 2 years to actually properly create a mechanoid workshop. On the crafting tables themselves I like how they work but the hacking bench confused me at first. As I understand it, they're kinda like beds of sorts which would explain how you're able to perform 'surgery' on the mechanoids. So something to keep in mind, as a new player might expect bills or the like.

2. The art is great, 8/10! Though if you're wondering why not a full 10, it mostly has to do with the module crafting bench as it's not as long as a fabrication bench and it never quite correctly connects to the wall. The charging 'bed' also can be quite confusing as it looks 'tall' and it too never quite correctly sticks to the wall. The modules themselves look awesome, no complaints here! If I were to be a bit more nitpicky, the 'bedroll' could use some thicker black lines.

3. On the mechanoids themselves, my first mechanoid is a centipede with the charge blaster which I named CRAWLY_BOI 1 and it stays in the workshop until I activate it for a raid. My impressions:

3a. I'm not entirely sure why the hacking chance is so abysmal. I have my best, completely healthy 5 Crafting, 17 Intellectual pawn. I have 4 10+ Intellectual pawns who could do it. It takes like 5-6 times for them to properly get a proper success chance.

I understand this is the cost of having a machine fighting on your side, and I DO like it! However, seeing as I've only been attacked by mechanoids three times, those mechanoid parts were too few and far between. Yes, I can buy some of them, but it's atm, somewhat unreliable. The 12 day reset time is however okay, but I do wish I could do make early maintenance if I want to go raiding as even travelling to enemy bases/outposts can take a while.

3b. I have Sparkling Worlds installed, and sent a 4 man raid team along with CRAWLY_BOI 1 with a mini-turret installed to go raid a downed spaceship (think ancient danger, more or less). I didn't have a controller belt at the time, but the team was able to take the four scythers within down. The 20 man raid salvage team? Not so much.

While I was able to do it, I feel I could have done it with my 4 man team (my mechboi got downed). The centipede's arsenal was not enough to have the situation under control. Now I had the 'bedroll' brought along, but it was so heavily damaged and slow on the way back I more or less wanted to dump it. However, with drop pods the raid team was able to make it back.

4. Defense wise, my centipede was much more useful, able to stay around and absorb the rounds from raiders from my bunker. It's great at this, greater still being controlled by pacifist with a controller-belt. I do like how he's more or less tagged along for the ride, but is it perhaps possible to move him around into cover? I see this as a trade-off, but it's kinda silly my pacifist is standing out in the open and NOT decide to take cover behind that convenient tree.

5. The charging 'bed' uses mechanoid chips and honestly, it drains it enough that I've used the 'bedroll' to charge CRAWLY_BOI 1 instead, leaving the 'beds' as more or less hospital beds for healing. Mechanoid chips are unreliable to get, needing to wait for a raid or a trader to get them. Chemfuel however is plenty, as I have enough boomalopes to feed my power structure. I would actually prefer it if the 'bed' uses chemfuel instead, as mechanoid chips are too uncommon as a resource.

My TL;DR is this: they're great! BUT, and this is a big but, I do feel they might not be 'good enough' for its cost. Not only do I need to build two benches, both of which are expensive, but I also Need to craft modules for them to be useful in combat. CRAWLY_BOI 1 simply doesn't have the stamina to stay around long enough for battles at times, and he's of doubtful value in raids (he's great in defense however). Why should I spend my time hacking mechanoids and making modules when enough turrets and colonists can do the job AND not increase my colony wealth, y'know?

At the moment, I have my second mechanoid, STABBY-CHAN the scyther in my workshop which I have not used. Whether it's worth keeping mechanoid chips fed, that I cannot say. This is not my full 'review' as I've not used mechanoids enough nor encounter any humans with mechanoids as of yet. Either way, I shall continue to play, and keep you posted.

[Roolo]

Thanks a lot for your elaborate and clear review Ser Kitteh! Much is in line with my own experiences, so expect improvements in the future. I'll respond to your points individually:

1. Useful feedback. Since the mod adds many aspects to the game that deviate from vanilla Rimworld, I understand things can be confusing. I did add learning helpers, but I don't think many people read them. I'll think more about how to clarify new concepts better.

2. I agree with your points. The module bench (named mechanoid workshop) was originally designed as a 1x3 bench, however, when implemented in the game, 1x3 felt awkward because of how large items are in the game, making it look like some miniature bench. Therefore I made it a 2x5 bench, but the sprite still needs to be adjusted to reflect this properly. Malistaticy created that sprite, and he was busy last week, but he'll likely have time for it soon. For the mechanoid platform a similar story is true. I've drawn the sprite, and didn't really think about dimensions that much, and made it a sprite suitable for 2x2. However, clearly, you can't put a mechanoid in the middle of a 2x2 sprite, so I made it 3x3. Making the entire sprite 3x3 would look ridiculous, so now the object is 3x3, while the drawing on the object is 2x2. I had many higher priority things to solve and drawing the sprite took enough time already so I kept it like this for now.

3. I think some bad luck was involved. You should have a relatively high chance of success at that level. However, it's much more attractive to have a 10 crafting, 10 intellectual pawn than a 5 crafting, 20 intellectual pawn as lower levels scale quicker. This is to reflect that if you're clumsy as hell, being very intellectual won't help you as much, and vice versa.

4. Good suggestion. I'll look into letting controllers take cover, but it might be too complex to implement to be worth the time. Many factors have to be taken into account. In many situations taking cover will result in the pawn running into an even deadlier situation, and also the distance between the mech and the pawn has to be taken into account to make sure the controller range is satisfied. By the way, a somewhat micro-intensive solution already exists: you can draft the pawn controlling the mech, let it walk to cover manually, and undraft, and it'll continue controlling the mech after that.

5. The platform only drains mechanoid parts to repair your mechs, and not to power them. So using the portable ones instead of the normal ones doesn't make sense . You can even disable repairing and regenerating at the platform so it doesn't consume any parts at all. Also, you can set the desired part level.

I agree with you on that the parts are too scarse, especially at lower difficulty levels. Today I'll add an update that lets difficulty level affect the drop rate of the parts. At rough you should get 20% more parts after the update than you're getting right now. Moreover, I really think there should be more ways to actively attain mech parts. I'm not going to add part crafting, but it'll more likely be something like a mechanoid beacon for attracting mechs to your base, and ways to track down and destroy mechs at the world map.

[Ser Kitteh]

2. Hmm, perhaps it would be just fine removing the 'pillar' of the platform? Now it looks cool as heck in your preview image but alas, my mechanoid workshop is quite tiny and it 'looks' off and well you know about the value aesthetics and such.

3. Now my bunker means that Tiger the pacifist can hide behind the walls just fine. I view CRAWLY as support first and foremost, not an active combatant like my better pawns. I do think the cost of using an AI core is appropriate.

5. Oh wow, I feel way more comfortable then! I thought it was using mechanoid parts just to keep it powered! Knowing this, I feel much more comfortable seeing they're more or less 'medicine' for my mechanoids. In that case, I think it's fine for the purpose as is.

I'm happy that more parts will be drop. This will perhaps fix the issue of maintenance then. I know you've got a lot on your to-do list, but perhaps some suggestions:

1. Dedicated mechanoid medicine. Mechanoids need a platform to charge, and I think that's fair. However, as I've mentioned in using them in player raids, it's very finicky to unload and place on the map.

That's more of a vanilla thing, as healing on the field is finnicky. However that's what Smart Medicine is for, and there's no way (other than the repair arm module I've yet to try) to heal them on the field. Would it then be possible to have a way to craft Mechanoid Medicine? It should be more or less Glittermeds for mechanoids, and cost a hefty chunk of mechanoid chips.

2. A lot of the modules reduces mechanoid speed, which is far. I'm then somewhat surprised there's no dedicated speed module. The centipede is painfully slow, and had I not brought CRAWLY along my caravan would have reached the ship a day or so earlier.

[Roolo]

Thanks again for your feedback. Keep it coming

2. Hmm, perhaps it would be just fine removing the 'pillar' of the platform? Now it looks cool as heck in your preview image but alas, my mechanoid workshop is quite tiny and it 'looks' off and well you know about the value aesthetics and such.

Let's see how it works out when the mechanoid workshop is adjusted first before doing anything like that.

1. Dedicated mechanoid medicine. Mechanoids need a platform to charge, and I think that's fair. However, as I've mentioned in using them in player raids, it's very finicky to unload and place on the map [...]

Be aware that the portable charging platform doesn't repair mechanoids, so deploying it is only needed to power your mechs for a longer time during your raid. Right now, the only way to repair mechs on the field is to use the repair module and the repair arm (unless you also count placing normal mechanoid platforms of course, which might be viable if you have a mod that allows you to install/deinstall any kind of building). Though the repairing modules could use some tweaking as they're a bit underwhelming, especially for mechs that take a lot of beating before getting downed, like centipedes. I'm a bit hesitant to add in another way of repairing as that'll introduce a new dimension of balancing issues. I'd rather make the repair module and arm a bit more accessible and useful. 

2. A lot of the modules reduces mechanoid speed, which is far. I'm then somewhat surprised there's no dedicated speed module. The centipede is painfully slow, and had I not brought CRAWLY along my caravan would have reached the ship a day or so earlier.

Fair point. I'll definitely add such a module, but simply didn't have time to put it in yet. Right now there are already a lot of modules, and each of them required hours of work. You can certainly expect more modules to be added, including very interesting ones, but it'll all take time.

[Madman666]

Welp, i know what to try drawing then. Oveclocked locomotion servomotors.

[Roolo]

Update:
v0.19.5
- Support for Giddy-up! Mechanoids (new mod in the Giddy-up! series).
- Adjusted drop chance of mechanoid chips and parts to difficulty level.
basebuilder: 2x
easy: 1.5x
medium: 1.35x
rough: 1.2x
hard: 1.1x
extreme: 1.0x
- Mechanoids now revert to their reactor when the hacking breaks. No longer you can drain their battery when you're running out of parts! You can however store them in cryptosleep caskets.

[Ser Kitteh]

Hey can someone link that artwork where a pawn rides a mechanoid thx

Amazing work, Roolo. Granted, I don't have Giddy-up installed atm, but maybe something I can work on down the line.

[rawrfisher]

Code Select Expand


System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at (wrapper dynamic-method) RimWorld.Planet.DaysWorthOfFoodCalculator.ApproxDaysWorthOfFood_Patch2 (System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Verse.Pawn>,System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Verse.ThingDefCount>,int,RimWorld.IgnorePawnsInventoryMode,RimWorld.Faction,RimWorld.Planet.WorldPath,single,int,bool) <0x009b7>
at RimWorld.Planet.DaysWorthOfFoodCalculator.ApproxDaysWorthOfFood (RimWorld.Planet.Caravan) <0x0016c>
at RimWorld.Planet.Caravan.get_DaysWorthOfFood () <0x0006b>
at (wrapper dynamic-method) RimWorld.Planet.Gizmo_CaravanInfo.GizmoOnGUI_Patch1 (object,UnityEngine.Vector2,single) <0x00462>
at Verse.GizmoGridDrawer.DrawGizmoGrid (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<Verse.Gizmo>,single,Verse.Gizmo&) <0x00857>
at (wrapper dynamic-method) RimWorld.InspectGizmoGrid.DrawInspectGizmoGridFor_Patch0 (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<object>,Verse.Gizmo&) <0x007aa>

Verse.Log:Error(String, Boolean)
Verse.Log:ErrorOnce(String, Int32, Boolean)
RimWorld.InspectGizmoGrid:DrawInspectGizmoGridFor_Patch0(IEnumerable`1, Gizmo&)
RimWorld.Planet.WorldInspectPane:DrawInspectGizmos()
RimWorld.InspectPaneUtility:ExtraOnGUI(IInspectPane)
RimWorld.Planet.WorldInspectPane:ExtraOnGUI()
Verse.WindowStack:WindowStackOnGUI()
RimWorld.UIRoot_Play:UIRootOnGUI()
Verse.Root:OnGUI()


Code Select Expand


System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at WhatTheHack.Harmony.Caravan_Tick/<>c.<MaintainMechsIfNeeded>b__1_0 (Verse.Thing) <0x0009f>
at System.Linq.Enumerable/<CreateWhereIterator>c__Iterator1D`1<Verse.Thing>.MoveNext () <0x0016b>
at System.Linq.Enumerable/<CreateCastIterator>c__Iterator0`1<Verse.Pawn>.MoveNext () <0x0017f>
at System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Verse.Pawn>.AddEnumerable (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<Verse.Pawn>) <0x000d7>
at System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Verse.Pawn>..ctor (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<Verse.Pawn>) <0x000e5>
at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList<Verse.Pawn> (System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1<Verse.Pawn>) <0x00070>
at WhatTheHack.Harmony.Caravan_Tick.MaintainMechsIfNeeded (RimWorld.Planet.Caravan,System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Verse.Thing>,System.Collections.Generic.List`1<Verse.Pawn>) <0x0012e>
at WhatTheHack.Harmony.Caravan_Tick.Postfix (RimWorld.Planet.Caravan) <0x00347>
at (wrapper dynamic-method) RimWorld.Planet.Caravan.Tick_Patch1 (object) <0x00139>
at RimWorld.Planet.WorldObjectsHolder.WorldObjectsHolderTick () <0x00098>
at RimWorld.Planet.World.WorldTick () <0x00064>
at Verse.TickManager.DoSingleTick () <0x003bf>

Verse.Log:Error(String, Boolean)
Verse.TickManager:DoSingleTick()
Verse.TickManager:TickManagerUpdate()
Verse.Game:UpdatePlay()
Verse.Root_Play:Update()


2 errors that I highly doubt are worth the time to look at but I'm quite sure its cause I have mechanoids but no chargeing pads or chemfuel in my caravan

Update:  Ok so I tried with platforms and fuel still had a broken caravan but no errors were thrown so I think it was just to many items lol  I'll leave em up just in case.

[Roolo]

Feel like it's too hard to get mechanoid parts? This update will certainly help you then.

v0.19.6
- New operation called "induce emergency signal" is added, its description: the colonist deliberately tries to trigger a self-defense mechanism in the mechanoid that transmits an emergency signal to nearby mechanoids when activated, attracting them. This is a good way of getting some extra mechanoid parts, but also a good way to get your base blown up. Make sure to research "attracting mechanoids" first.
- Many new mod options to tweak the balance are added, and the options are redesigned.
- When an operation on a mechanoid fails, you'll see what the chance of success was now.
- The default drop rate of mechanoid parts is increased slightly for all difficulty levels.

[Sleeeper]

I saw faction settlements selling a lot of parts, so they never were a problem to me. Just needs to send a caravan.

[Roolo]

I wasn't quite happy with what I did with the last update as it made getting mechanoid raids a bit too easy and it was quite exploitable. So therefore this quick update to get things vanilla friendly and balanced again:
v0.19.8
- Added long cooldown (up to a quadrum) to the "induce emergency signal" operation.
- Added Korean translations (by Hungry Ramen).
v0.19.7
- It'll take much more time until the mechanoid raid arrives after an emergency signal is transmitted. The time it takes is now hard to predict for players to prevent exploits.
- An alert will show when a mechanoid raid caused by an emergency signal is incoming.
- Your colonists can only start the "induce emergency signal" if no mechanoids are already attracted by a previous signal.
- Capped success chance of "induce emergency signal" to 50% at maximum.

Now it's much better in my opinion. Sorry going a bit haywire with the updates. Sometimes important ideas emerge only after I release something.

[Raf's]

Is anyone having the problem of missing limbs in mechanoids not being fixed?i do have parts, or are they not supposed to be fixed?

[Ser Kitteh]

@Raf's do you have auto-regen body parts on the mechanoid platforms turned on? That should fix your problem.

[Roolo]

Is anyone having the problem of missing limbs in mechanoids not being fixed?i do have parts, or are they not supposed to be fixed?

Also, a minimum of 4 parts must be loaded as regenerating parts costs extra parts (up to 4 per generated part).

[Raf's]

thx, seems like the problem was that my colonist where't refueling it even tough i have 19 colonists and some of them should have time to refuel them.