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

[s44yuritch]

A couple small things related to the pirates using hacked mechs.

1. A pirate mech is downed, I get the notification that mechanoid is low on power, deactivate it to return to platform. Problem is, it isn't my mech just yet, so I can't deactivate it.

2. After hacking said mech, it is now hacked twice! Which kind of is the case, but still, should it really have two hacks applied to different body parts? (see attached screenshot)

[attachment deleted due to age]

[drd23]

A couple small things related to the pirates using hacked mechs.

1. A pirate mech is downed, I get the notification that mechanoid is low on power, deactivate it to return to platform. Problem is, it isn't my mech just yet, so I can't deactivate it.

2. After hacking said mech, it is now hacked twice! Which kind of is the case, but still, should it really have two hacks applied to different body parts? (see attached screenshot)

I ran in to this a couple of hours ago but hadn't got my hacking workshop set up yet so I just had to finish them off because I was afraid that once its battery drained, it would call a normal mechanoid hive for backup

[Roolo]

A couple small things related to the pirates using hacked mechs.

1. A pirate mech is downed, I get the notification that mechanoid is low on power, deactivate it to return to platform. Problem is, it isn't my mech just yet, so I can't deactivate it.

2. After hacking said mech, it is now hacked twice! Which kind of is the case, but still, should it really have two hacks applied to different body parts? (see attached screenshot)

Thanks for the feedback!
1. I'll make sure this warning only shows for your own mechanoids. I thought I fixed this before, but apparently not for all situations.
2. This isn't the intention. The hack should be replaced. It was always like that but I think one of the recent updates changed this unintentionally. I'll make sure to fix it.

[Ser Kitteh]

@Roolo

Just wanna point out that there's this glitch where the mechanoids go YIPYIPYIP, you know the one, and while not too annoying it does make that sound while the camera hovers of the mechanoid room. I'm not too sure how to fix it myself, save for using devmode to delete my mechanoids and just remaking them again.

[Ruisuki]

ello there. I am wondering whether this mod will be compatible with the newest release coming next week? If not i figure i better wait before i jump back in

[Ruisuki]

Roolo what do you think of quest like mods? Assuming the author (mehni) agrees - would you be ok with a mission that requested a certain amount of mechs for sale, or mechs with specific upgrades?

[Roolo]

Update:
v1.0.0
- Updated for Rimworld 1.0
- Added portable mechanoid disassembly bench. No longer you need to carry the metal companions that don't offer you a warm welcome during your travels all the way to your base. With this bench you can scrap them on the go! This will definitely be useful when the update I'm working on is released. The credits for the sprite of it go to Madman666, thanks for contributing!
- Added polish translations (by Gt.zgame.pl).

@Ruisuki
The version I just released is compatible with 1.0 .

Roolo what do you think of quest like mods? Assuming the author (mehni) agrees - would you be ok with a mission that requested a certain amount of mechs for sale, or mechs with specific upgrades?

The update I'm currently working on will add exactly this, and more!

@Roolo

Just wanna point out that there's this glitch where the mechanoids go YIPYIPYIP, you know the one, and while not too annoying it does make that sound while the camera hovers of the mechanoid room. I'm not too sure how to fix it myself, save for using devmode to delete my mechanoids and just remaking them again.

Sorry, I forgot to respond to this. Do you mean they just make their mechanoid sound, just like any pawn in the game make sounds? I missing the point on what's glitchy about that, but I'm not sure if that's what you mean. I do think they make their sounds a bit too often, and I was thinking about adding a mod option or something to mute them at some point, but there are higher priority things I'd like to do first.

[Madman666]

Cool, looking forward to what you'll cook up next!)

[Ser Kitteh]

@Roolo well that was B19, and I haven't played in like almost 2 weeks (I haven't updated the mod to 1.0 for obvious reason). Basically, my mechanoids whether they are charging or patrolling, they make a high pitch YIP YIP sound. It may be stuck in a loop glitch, but Hugslib does not register the glitch so there's no point in even giving the log.

But seeing as I'm gonna make a new colony with this mod installed, that shouldn't be too much of an issue. If it is, while I'll get back to you on it.

I do have a similar micro-review, my final thoughts more or less. So do wait for that!

[Roolo]

I shouldn't have rushed the releases this morning . Apparently some changes in 1.0 make What the Hack cause crashes when enemy raids arrive. I just uploaded a fix:

v1.0.1
- Fixed crash occurring when enemies try to raid your base. Unfortunately this fix interferes with a fix I published for Giddy-up Battle Mounts. Due to this, enemies either won't have hacked mechanoids, or no mounts, depending on your load order. The issue is actually pretty complex since I need to take into account both Rimworld 1.0 and B19, since both versions are supported (I already regret that XD), so I need a little more time for a proper fix that doesn't have the side-effect, but for the time being, this'll do.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

@Sir Ketteh.
I'm looking forward to the review then

[SargBjornson]

Hi Roolo!

Getting a super weird incompatibility with Alpha Animals. The nightlings are nocturnal, so to avoid them sleeping during night I'm doing this on CompTick:

Code Select Expand

        Pawn pawn = this.parent as Pawn;
                 if ((currentHour >= 19 && currentHour <= 24)|| (currentHour >= 0 && currentHour <= 9))
                {
                    pawn.needs.rest.SetInitialLevel();
                    RestUtility.WakeUp(pawn);
                }


However, people are reporting this error:

Exception ticking AA_Nightling70007 (at (20, 0, 180)): System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at WhatTheHack.Harmony.RestUtility_WakeUp.Postfix (Verse.Pawn&) <0x001f5>
at (wrapper dynamic-method) RimWorld.RestUtility.WakeUp_Patch1 (Verse.Pawn) <0x0010b>
at AlphaBehavioursAndEvents.CompNocturnal.CompTick () <0x002ed>
at Verse.ThingWithComps.Tick () <0x0006c>
at (wrapper dynamic-method) Verse.Pawn.Tick_Patch1 (object) <0x00095>
at Verse.TickList.Tick () <0x00487>

However, looking at your Harmony PostFix I don't see anything too obvious! Any idea?

[Roolo]

Hi Sarg.

I've tried reproducing the issue, but it works fine for me. I also took a good look at my code, and the only way I can imagine it throwing errors is when the nightling doesn't have any job, which should never be the case (I think), unless some other mod causes it to bug out. I'd love to see the complete log, as I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot more going wrong. The least I can do is just build in another check to ensure the nightling has a job so my mod won't throw errors when somehow the nightling is jobless. I'll release this extra check when I've solved the issue I mentioned in my previous post.

[SargBjornson]

I'm going to tell the user to send me logs! Sometimes they even do so! XD

[Roolo]

Update

- Fixed conflict between spawning mechanic of What the Hack and Giddy-up, causing hacked mechs and mounts to exclude each other.
- Fixed error thrown when pawns don't have any job.
- Fixed mechanoid platform being a bench instead of a building, and showing an interaction spot in the form of a chair as a consequence.

So now the temporary fix in the previous release is replaced by a definite fix, and Giddy-up and What the Hack work fine with each other again when spawning mounts and hacked mechs.

I'm going to tell the user to send me logs! Sometimes they even do so! XD

Haha, who knows . Asking for a full log might be the question I asked most of all questions past year, yet I rarely get to see one. It's almost so bad that when my mother would ask me how I'm doing through the phone, I'd answer with: "please provide your log by pressing ctrl+f12 while in-game and place the link you'll get.. oh it you mom XD". Anyhow, the update I just released potentially fixes the error being thrown in my mod, but I can't know for sure until I'm able to reproduce it.

[Ser Kitteh]

Same colony, 8 years later, 16 colonists, 500k wealth, temperate forest, cassandra extreme. The same gripes I had with art especially the platform and module bench still applies.

There is one major question that needs to be answered in regards to What the Hack, and that is simply, are mechanoids worth the upkeep? That is answer is yes, but it's more of a 'yyyyyeeees ... kinda.'

Combat and economy, these two are far too intertwined and far too many players ignore them. As mechanoids are designed to be well, murderbots in Rimworld lore, the mod doesn't really change much in regards to that. Every upgrade for mechanoids is designed to make them better and more efficient in combat. This makes them very much less flexible than colonists, who can do a variety of things including combat, and IMO, I think most experienced players would prefer to take 6 pawns over 3 centipedes.

Skills are a major factor in regards to how useful mechanoids are because you need a LOT of prep to actually make one worthwhile. A player not only needs good researchers, but also crafters and builders. I find the requirement of 5 crafting and 5 intellect too much of a hassle as even though I had 4 good researchers, most of them can't craft to save their lives save for 1. As such, I spent an inordinate amount of time having my researchers making shitty t-shirts just so they hit that minimum 5 crafting because my 1 dedicated mechanoid guy was always getting sick.

Sure I could also make my best crafters researchers, but researching IS a limited thing and players are racing to get better tech lest they get overrun by the dangers of the Rim. I realise this is partly a vanilla issue what with the medicine crafting double requirement of INT and Crafting, but as such, I would even go as far to say that it's better to cap it at 1 to save players the hassle.

As for the modules, I really have no issue with them. They are balanced (despite a certain YouTuber may lead you to believe), their art is lovely and the ups and downs of making them are fine.

Another issue that I think that does need addressing is my inability to upkeep my maintenance whenever I want. I was hoping that the newest update (as of the time of writing this, was 1 minute ago on github lol) would allow me to set a treshold ala the drop pod launcher or just force feed mechanoid bits into them. This is especially problematic in regards to raids, and needing to keep an eye on maintenance AND food/health/animals/distance/season. Basically, just let my mechanoid guy upkeep them at any time.

Mechanoids are for all intents and purposes support. EXPENSIVE support. It requires:

1 bench
1 charging platform
3400 research points
1 downed mechanoid
4 mechanoid parts to heal (assuming minimal damaged)

minimum to make work of one as a guard. A guard you can't control, requires energy, parts to make them work. By the time you've got that workshop setup, you've already have a proper weapon/armor assembly and a few competent combat colonists. Players, unless they're doing it on purpose, are GOING to research what they need for their colony before even touching mechanoids.

By the end of my B19 run (as in, I stopped, no spaceship), I had 4 mechanoids. One megarigged centipede with blaster and turret on top, 1 scyther and 2 lancers. Out of all of them, the duo combo of AI lancers were extremely useful in raiding other bases. They were absolutely worth the hassle to get them upgraded. It certainly is a delight to use these Men of Iron against my enemies, but it comes at a steep economic and time cost and that's really the crux of the issue.

It's actually the very opposite of Giddy-Up now I think about it. Download your preferred horse mod, get your best handler and presto, lots of ups with minimal investment. You get to zoom around the map and world map, haul things quicker and have an advantage against most dangers. What the Hack requires lots of research, space, combat to down a mechanoid, modules, and so on and so forth.

I wouldn't actually know how to 'balance' it any further save for making the upgrades cost less research. Any player that wants to get into the mod would need to spend a large amount of time to make combat better, diverting resources to make combat better the way the game intended (better weapons, armor, turrets, bunkers, etc).

Maybe if the mechanoidss had the modules already pre-installed, and maybe allowed cleaning and hauling (as you were already planning), this would be more useful. I personally am not a fan of the other mods that make robots basically be colonists, that makes the game TOO easy. What the Hack certainly has a niche it fills in the mod market with robots that can do combat, but is otherwise not useful outside of it.

I certainly enjoyed my time with it, but that's time that I could also have used to make more power armor and charge weapons. And that's the end of my micro-review.