Is Alpha 6 actually enjoyable?

[EmmaWayne]

Is Alpha 6 actually enjoyable?

1. yes!
2. alpha!

[Shinzy]

Tailoring the experience much like in XCOM (The second wave options 'random abilities' 'damage roulette' '100% flanked criticals' 'Random stats' 'decreased performance when wounded' etc)

That sort of thing would be very beneficial for this game I feel!
Cause I know people really like to play different For instance while I really loved to have all the extreme randomness and iron man route
My friend savescummed the shieeeet out of it because he doesn't enjoy starting over, over and over again when stuff hits the fan

Some extra options in the game start like "No permanent wounds" etc could work
But then again the prosthetics are coming so I guess the permanent wounds can be healed in the future
So options like that moght not even be needed

Edit: and you can still have your small size colony, then, only your guys will be more and more something like the agents straight out of Syndicate towards the end =P

[HatesYourFace]

My friend savescummed the shieeeet out of it because he doesn't enjoy starting over, over and over again when stuff hits the fan

I've never liked the term "Savescumming" If we aren't supposed to reload a saved game after dying, why does the game bother auto saving every 5 minutes? I don't consider reloading a save to be a cheesy tactic anymore than I consider rebinding keys to be cheating. It's just an ease of use feature. That said, I've had several colonies meet what I considered a satisfying "end" at the hands of enemies, and thus shelved them to start a new one... At heart this is a story generator and I don't think the game's over until you're happy with the story.

But yeah, an Xcom like menu where you can turn on/off things like: Ironman mode, Friendly Fire, Advanced damage modeling, etc... would be great!

[squidofluvplays]

i rly enjoy alpha 6. i find the new health system amazing and much more realistic. also i can now place my best shooter away from the enemy raiders shooting them and killing them with headshots all the time

[ZestyLemons]

My friend savescummed the shieeeet out of it because he doesn't enjoy starting over, over and over again when stuff hits the fan

I've never liked the term "Savescumming" If we aren't supposed to reload a saved game after dying, why does the game bother auto saving every 5 minutes? I don't consider reloading a save to be a cheesy tactic anymore than I consider rebinding keys to be cheating. It's just an ease of use feature. That said, I've had several colonies meet what I considered a satisfying "end" at the hands of enemies, and thus shelved them to start a new one... At heart this is a story generator and I don't think the game's over until you're happy with the story.

But yeah, an Xcom like menu where you can turn on/off things like: Ironman mode, Friendly Fire, Advanced damage modeling, etc... would be great!

Autosaves are pretty standard, and it's there in case the game crashes, or you accidentally close the game, or you forget to save the game before load another game, etc. Not really meant to be used for reloading over and over again so you can play the game perfectly.

Ironman mode would be a cool future feature anyway.

[Col_Jessep]

I really like the new health system - except for the lack of replacement limbs that are supposed to come in Alpha 7 IIRC.

The M24 needs some rebalancing though imo. Once the M24 is on the field you will start to lose limbs and colonist. If you counter with a couple of M24 yourself a large number of enemies you want to capture either die or are permanently crippled. I have currently 3 or 4 prisoners waiting for the next slave trader because I can't use them.

Another problem is that the M24 rolls dice for all your battles. You can play the same battle and get completely different results solely based on your RNG luck with the first couple of M24 hits.

But those are balancing problems and I can fix that in 10 minutes if it annoys me too much. More features however are always welcome, even if they are buggy. The new world gen is awesome!

[JonoRig]

I love the new system, sure it needs some work, but on the whole its pretty interesting, rather then the dull war of attrition it use to be. Plus, saying that it's taking the game away from rimworlds original vision and more towards dwarf fortress, well this health system was always on the roadmap for development, I remember it being clearly stated on ty's kickstarter for the game and was one of the reasons I got intrigued by it.

[longbyte1]

Totally unrelated to your question, but the forum actually includes a poll system. There's a "new poll" button right beside the "new topic" button.

Gah.. I though it was like vBulletin where the poll menu was integrated into the "new post" menu. Too late now..

I think the results of your own poll are pretty telling.
37 enjoy Alpha 6. (90%)
4 enjoy it, but only for awhile. (10%)
0 don't enjoy it. (0%)

Obviously people are going to say yes, because it's like a fine meal given to somebody. Could you do any better? Obviously not, so it's considered a good meal.

But from my eyes, the game is looking extremely complicated, like a big PCB. It's really hard to add something, because you have to change things around it.

By the way, Alpha only states the stage of the development of a piece of software. While early on, it reflects on the stability of the program, you can call a software "alpha" for its entire life and get away with the bug disclaimer. (See Dwarf Fortress.)

[ShadowTani]

Hypothesis: Players playing with small colonies, while exercising care with which pawns to convert to their cause, are more upset about this update due to the fact that a colonist can get permanently impaired by a single hit. The event is rare but pawns receive a number of hits that guarantees permanent impairment sooner rather than later, with no cure. Players playing with large colonies suffer little from a loss of a colonist, much less permanent disability.

I play with smaller colonies and I actually love this update - though it's possible it might be because I'm a big DF fan too. xD Regardless, you're right that the impairment issue is a pain in the ass when playing with a smaller group. I'm hoping for prosthetics/cyborg technology and organ transplants to get implemented at some point. If it's something that isn't commonly available (such as requiring a mechanoid body to create the artificial body part, and a high doctor skill for organ transplants) it would still make the impairment system significant, but without actually dooming a valuable individual to becoming permanently useless forever.

Edit: Ah, I just found that artificial limbs are coming in A7, now I just hope Tynan won't make it too easy to replace them. Don't want the damage system going from significant to a distraction only. ^^;

[ComradeCrimson]

To be completely honest, while I was interested in this game previous to Alpha 6 I did not consider buying it until I seen Alpha 6 and the whole slew of changes and new stuff it's adding. Knowing this game is steaming ahead in its production of new features and such detail in the gameplay is what is pushing me towards buying this game, and not only that perhaps writing up a custom character thing. I am seriously looking forward to how this develops and I am quite excited for how its going- the only thing I want to happen at the moment that's a huge step forward is the addition of different altitude levels, like subterranean or mountains/cliffs and potentially, sky and such. Buildings with multiple stories and such so I can make fortress walls where my colonists can blast their firearms down on some poor shmucks attacking my gates with makeshift rams or trying to bunker underground as terrifying pirates are barreling away with mortars on my poor folks.

[UrbanBourbon]

I love the new system, sure it needs some work, but on the whole its pretty interesting, rather then the dull war of attrition it use to be. Plus, saying that it's taking the game away from rimworlds original vision and more towards dwarf fortress, well this health system was always on the roadmap for development, I remember it being clearly stated on ty's kickstarter for the game and was one of the reasons I got intrigued by it.

It... it was? And it was! Holy sh--! Ok. Well... that just means my outrage has been largely baseless! I never saw that "roadmap". And it's clearly there on the Kickstarter page! And here I was, sometimes wondering if there was a public development plan of sorts somewhere... You can't underestimate the intensity of the facepalm I just did. On the other hand, even if I HAD seen it, I wouldn't have taken it seriously, because who was Tynan to me before RimWorld? A nobody. Possibly a con-artist, possibly a developer with questionable skills at best, trying to make a buck. Well, not anymore. Now it's more interesting than ever to take a(nother) look at the roadmap. So far every single one of the modules on the map has been achieved, and not all that many remaining. I'm not used to people keeping their words, not like this. Tynan, stop keeping your word so thoroughly. You're making me make myself look bad.

The 'roadmap':
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/955/032/03d82b80aadc4703b3264a87f643293b_large.png?1380126478

Alternatively:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tynansylvester/rimworld
(The 'roadmap' is slightly below halfway. In case the first link doesn't work.)

[Shinzy]

It... it was? And it was! Holy sh--! Ok. Well... that just means my outrage has been largely baseless! I never saw that "roadmap".

*hug*

[Celthric Aysen]

Alpha 6 actually what made me get back to modding and continue my mod called RimTECH.
so yes its very enjoyable, with all the new content ^_^

[HatesYourFace]

I think the results of your own poll are pretty telling.
37 enjoy Alpha 6. (90%)
4 enjoy it, but only for awhile. (10%)
0 don't enjoy it. (0%)

Obviously people are going to say yes, because it's like a fine meal given to somebody. Could you do any better? Obviously not, so it's considered a good meal.

But from my eyes, the game is looking extremely complicated, like a big PCB. It's really hard to add something, because you have to change things around it.

Are you implying that you could do better? If so, where's your game? I'd love to play it.

Autosaves are pretty standard, and it's there in case the game crashes, or you accidentally close the game, or you forget to save the game before load another game, etc. Not really meant to be used for reloading over and over again so you can play the game perfectly.

Sure they are, if that's how you like to play your game lol. If it wasn't "meant to be used" this way you would only get one save file per map (The latest auto save/save replacing the current one) and the Random events would work off a base seed generated when you start your map, so that reloading wouldn't change the next random event. I'd wager Tynan is more worried about whether or not you had a good time with your colony, not how many times you saved/reloaded.

[wolfman1911]

I just saw on the roadmap the part about religions. I knew there was a reason this game has been giving off this slight Warhammer 40k vibe!

Anyway, I suppose what you think of this update depends on how and why you play the game. I play to completion, which is to say, I play until all my colonists die horribly, and then I annoy my friends on facebook with a several page story of how it happened. I'm not sure why I do that, this is the first game that's ever engaged me like this. I tried playing Xcom on iron man, and couldn't do it, losing people hurt too much. Here, though, I let it happen and press on.

Because of that, because I'm playing for the emerging storyline, I think that the health system is great.