New Player! Guides and Questions

[StormingKiwi]

Hey everybody!  I bought the game this week and holy heck, this is a gem I am kicking myself for only just finding out about. It is an amazing game with so much depth and breadth. Wow!

It is really hard navigating the breadth of guides to get a good handle on information!
So do the community have any guides they would recommend?

Do colonists ever reproduce? I noticed that animals on the map do, but female colonists don't seem to get pregnant.

I am struggling with the sheer amount of decisions I am presented with,  and this seems to take away from the games concept. Choosing a starting zone is next to impossible if you are manually searching for a good landing spot.  It would be nice to be able to filter landing spots in game (Ive already downloaded a mod to do this).

With starting colonists, I'd quite like the ability to manually allocate points to starting colonists. I also feel like there is too much choice and it is slow to get back into the game when my colony fails during the first summer when a thunderstorm burns everything,  destroys all my storage and raiders make off with most of my silver. My first impression is that the character generation needs tweaking to offer colonists who aren't completely garbage. I feel like I should be spoiled for choice in the original 8, rather than quickly eliminating candidates.

(I'd also like the ability to encounter a scenario where you are stuck with your roll)

Also does anyone know whether thickness and material of insulation on freezers matter? It doesn't seem to matter much, nor does leaving doors propped open.

How big should farms be? Big enough to ensure sufficient production but small enough to ensure efficient production.

[Canute]

It is really hard navigating the breadth of guides to get a good handle on information!
So do the community have any guides they would recommend?

I suggest not to read to much and just play it.
Play at last 2-3 round without any mods at different biomes with different strategies.
After that you got a feeling about the game and then you can browser the mods and decide if you can need that mod or not.

Do colonists ever reproduce? I noticed that animals on the map do, but female colonists don't seem to get pregnant.

No, but a mod can change that.

With starting colonists, I'd quite like the ability to manually allocate points to starting colonists. I also feel like there is too much choice

Another mod, Prepare Carefully allow to adjust your starting pawns and equipment.
But like i mention before, just play a few rounds after that you know a feeling what you are needing.
A perfect colony (start) is boring.

Also does anyone know whether thickness and material of insulation on freezers matter? It doesn't seem to matter much, nor does leaving doors propped open.

Material doesn't matter, wall is wall. Double wall isolate a bit better but you only notice a different at extreme temperatures.
But open door's or when pawn's move through doors made a different.
If you don't notice any, maybe you put in too much cooler.

How big should farms be? Big enough to ensure sufficient production but small enough to ensure efficient production.

Maybe read
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=48785.0

[StormingKiwi]

I suggest not to read to much and just play it.
Play at last 2-3 round without any mods at different biomes with different strategies.
After that you got a feeling about the game and then you can browser the mods and decide if you can need that mod or not.

I've installed

   
• PrepareCarefully
• Level Up!
• Prepare Landing
• Allow Tool
• Work Tab

Prepare Carefully, Level Up and Prepare Landing are because of convenience of information flow and reasons already identified. .
Allow Tool is convenience of execution (I've mostly installed it to be able to select similar stuff in a larger area)
And WorkTab is because I'm already sick of my colonists getting food poisoning because the cook doesn't clean his damn kitchen!

No, but a mod can change that.

Oh ok that's disappointing. I was thinking it would be like Banished or Fallout Shelter.

Another mod, Prepare Carefully allow to adjust your starting pawns and equipment.
But like i mention before, just play a few rounds after that you know a feeling what you are needing.
A perfect colony (start) is boring.

The thing is I don't want a perfect colony, I want a viable colony for a new player. I don't find the early game of most strategy games (execute a certain, predefined build order) particularly fun, so I don't like restarting. I am making the suggestion that rather than endlessly rerolling to find viable colonists, it might be better from a game design point of view to have points to spend on character creation, much like PrepareCarefully actually does. this could be improved if you had only so many points to spend on traits, and had to spend some points on 'vices' to make up for the virtues of the colonist team.

Material doesn't matter, wall is wall. Double wall isolate a bit better but you only notice a different at extreme temperatures.
But open door's or when pawn's move through doors made a different.
If you don't notice any, maybe you put in too much cooler.

Thanks. So wood doesn't insulate more than steel than stone?
My cooler is heating up my kitchen, whose door is open and leads into the rest of the interior of my base. The kitchen is 33 degrees, the corridor is 26 degrees. The next room is basically at ambient temperature.

Maybe read
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=48785.0

Thanks that was a really helpful thread.

Edit: Forgot to ask: How do you get your cook to clean the kitchen, then cook?

[Canute]

At plain vanilla it would be.
Cleaning priority to 1, so he will clean the whole base first before he start cooking.
Better assign another pawn to cleaning too, like the one who do the research.
I allways disable the auto. expand of the home zone, so they don't clean useless outdoor areas.
Tip: metal tile floors give a small bonus on cleanliness, you have early access to them and they arn't that expensive like sterile tiles.


Alternativ, use the mod Common sense.
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=48297.0

[Bozobub]

Of note, Prepare Carefully lets you use randomized (in other words, normal) skills, traits, stats, and etc.  It merely lets you specify whatever you like, as well.  It also lets you save setups (colonist(s) + scenario) as templates, a handy feature.

Its optional point-based character generation system (where you can change the total point amount per character as desired, notably) is another interesting possibility, if you want to help make sure you don't make "OP" pawns but want to fiddle a bit anyway; it feels a lot less "cheaty" .

[BLACK_FR]

I can recommend my guide for max difficulty - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46290. It can be useful on lower difficulties too.

[StormingKiwi]

At plain vanilla it would be.
Cleaning priority to 1, so he will clean the whole base first before he start cooking.
Better assign another pawn to cleaning too, like the one who do the research.
I allways disable the auto. expand of the home zone, so they don't clean useless outdoor areas.
Tip: metal tile floors give a small bonus on cleanliness, you have early access to them and they arn't that expensive like sterile tiles.


Alternativ, use the mod Common sense.
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=48297.0

Great advice, I hadn't considered that.
Oh fantastic, that's a great mod.

Of note, Prepare Carefully lets you use randomized (in other words, normal) skills, traits, stats, and etc.  It merely lets you specify whatever you like, as well.  It also lets you save setups (colonist(s) + scenario) as templates, a handy feature.

Its optional point-based character generation system (where you can change the total point amount per character as desired, notably) is another interesting possibility, if you want to help make sure you don't make "OP" pawns but want to fiddle a bit anyway; it feels a lot less "cheaty" .

I absolutely agree, and I think that this part of Prepare Carefully should be in the base game as a feature, rather than added as a mod. I love games that do have great mod support, and this feature seems to be a great part of added value to the base game

I can recommend my guide for max difficulty - https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46290. It can be useful on lower difficulties too.

Fantastic thank you. I guess I see where you people are coming from, I'm more after guides on mechanics. Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

[BLACK_FR]

There are all non-obvious mechanics there. If you have some specific mechanic in mind that you have problem with - just ask, many people here can answer. I learned almost all from rimworld wiki.