Town Clock and other cheap "Western" ideas

[ChrisW]

I just had this idea while pondering the food issues discussed in the other forum.

edit: I will keep adding to this in further posts.

How about an item that's a town clock. You could research it, then build it.
It would do only one thing - it would make the whole town (radius 100?) drop what they're doing as soon as it gets dark, and gather round the designated tables to eat together. Dinner time!

Of course it shouldn't override firing at raiders or anything, but.. the small stuff.
It would give them a few social chat points and a full stomach before bed, making them more productive in the mornings and possibly more balanced in mood when they wake up.

Another simple thing - Windows.
Nothing fancy, could re-use the doors for it.
Shooting through is allowed, could even take damage, acting like a bush, giving partial cover. No climbing through them tho.
They could - if employed right - even let the sunlight inside, so you don't have to build indoor lamps for buildings that are only houses with beds.

Also, haystacks.
Same as sandbags, but less hitpoints and made of wood (or if corn is introduced later, corn).
Just simple 1x2 haystacks to hide behind and look nice. I'm doing this with 1x2 firewood zones right now, and it adds greatly to a town flair.

Carts.
Simple version, the push-a-lot-around. Take wood, make cart, assign it to a colonist to push it around if he's about to go a long way to haul something back. Enables him to carry bigger stacks of stuff, saving another colonist from walking the same long way.
Complex version, for later, the (horse) carriage. Tamed animal + cart. Villager can walk up to the already tamed animal, then lead it around, with the cart being bigger and able to carry even more.
Needs animal taming mechanics tho. (Maybe see prisoners, special prison being a fenced off area and a haystack bed for the animal?)

Speaking of.. Fences. Simple wood fences. Same mechanic as sandbags, so climbable, and a bit of cover bonus. And fence doors, so you can make nice growing zones.

While I'm at it, might as well go for broke: Saloon interior.
Poker table - a round 2x2 table with cards on it, idle colonists could socialize over a card game instead of standing around. They could simply be more interesting than plain tables if you're idle, and less interesting if you're hungry and want a place to sit and eat at.
Bar - same differrence, spaced like a hydroponics thingy, but to sit at when idle and have a chat. Could even offer more jobs like Barkeeper and Whiskeymaker later on (I did mention growing corn, yes? Doesn't always have to go to a baker..)
Saloon interiors could also be allowed to be used by visitors from other colonies. If they do, you could get some loyalty points, or maybe even talk one into staying forever (prisoner mechanic - chat him up to stay, over a whiskey, meal or card game).
Another Saloon-ish thing, a 2x3 stage set. Artists (up to 3 per stage) could get instruments from crafting (new table, instrument maker), and actually be artistic by performing, adding entertainment (environment bonus). Stages could also be built on a town square like I set up in my town. Lets make ZZ Top out of space jockeys.
Saloon table - same as a table, only round, and actually a (default low priority) food storage (if even enabled) that visitors might use to quench their hunger at, using your supplies, growing more loyal to you.
Visitor mode for beds - design rooms for them to stay at overnight (see prison).
Saloon doors and guest room doors of course would need to be always unlocked (not requiring keys), so visitors can get to the entertainment bit of their visit.

Basically this would let you set up really nice rooms for people to be in, to counter the effects of psychic drones or the like, and also it would go a long way towards showing visitors how nice your colony is, so they can spread the word for loyalty points or even decide to stay at your town forever and join up.

Oh, right. I'd like more table variants. Especially 1x2 and 1x1, for colonist homes.
And the Equipment Rack, if made of wood instead, could be a great place to store clothing in.

[MrDecay]

These are some pretty cool ideas!

[ChrisW]

Thanks.. my shooting range gave me another idea.

Practice Puppets.
Basically scarecrows that can be used as targets for shooting and melee, so your folks can gain some experience.
They should get an on/off switch for recieving repairs and soak up a lot of damage.
That way you can (accidentally) destroy them while not shooting people who rush over to repair them.

[ChrisW]

Guys. Disassembling mechanoids is fun already. Know what would be more fun? Building robot horses out of a mechanoid shell or two and an AI core. Same table, differrent function. And.. sci-fi horses, man!

[StorymasterQ]

Would you settle for a MAI for now?

[ChrisW]

Only if it can give piggyback rides!

[SSS]

I am TripleSRank and I approve this thread.

[Zeta Omega]

Im usually one for the high-tech stuff and improved gameplay, But ahh screw it ill get right to the point -brings out a centipede and wears a cowboy hat- YEEHAA! someone make a mod for this

[ChrisW]

Since I mentioned fences and someone posted about guard duty..

Guard tower
Built from wood, 1x1 just basically a higher spot from which you can shoot, surrounded by 3 walls and a ladder at the 4th side. should give cover bonus and range bonus (due to being able to see further).

Patrol zone
Using the zones system you can set up a perimeter that people on guard duty will walk upon.

Checkpoint
L-shaped, the base being a 1x4 bar barrier made of wood, the 1x1 addition to it being a small sandbag cover for a guard to be at, at that end of the bar barrier where the bar pivots.
Defaults to being open, has a button to close it manually. If an enemy gets close, say, within 30 tiles, the guard will lower the barrier and take cover at the sandbag. You should be able to draft him to get him to safety, tho. Just a few hitpoints for the barrier, but enough to buy some moments to assemble your defense team.

[ChrisW]

Another quite western theme would be cattle farmers.
Though not a cheap idea, this might be worth looking at. Taming or capturing wild cattle at first, using a fenced area (big animals may not climb fences, see above, to protect crops) to keep them in, every now and then being able to hand over some meat to the cooks. This could also separate butchering from cooking duty and be a starting point for real horses ingame - which could for all I care require a certain rare species to be captured and put into some cloning chamber like thing that actually produces your first pair of almost-horses, homegrown via sci-fi shenannigans.
Wool or leather could come out of this deal, too. Could require cornfields for food.

[Halinder]

Instead of clocks automatically redoing job priorities, why not just make it like the prison architect schedules, turning colonist work tasks into routines? You group each colonist into a certain work schedule, like all the builders working at a certain time, all the farmers growing and plant cutting at a certain time, stuff like that.

[ChrisW]

That would require much longer days, which I don't think would feel right.
It also would feel way too industrial-age. I'd rather just have the option of my colonists being more chummy in peacetime.

[Monkeysaur]

Maybe when relationships are implemented friends can try to eat together, maybe even become happier sharing a room with each other/their friends than having their own room (if they are social).

[ShootyFace]

I just wanna tame muffalo and then train them to be battle mounts.

[ChrisW]

With 0.8 now being in a good shape, I'd like to remind of these items, as well as add a few new thoughts.

Permanent Campfire
- Once a campfire burns down, it is gone. How about adding a toggle option, defaulting to off, that allows you to tell your people to refill this one with wood? Would look so much nicer.

Colorful Clothing
- I would like to add a use to flowers. A dyer table could actually harvest them in a radius you can set and turn them into dye. We'd need a couple more colors, so a few more flower types. Using a dye item on a piece of clothing could color it. Bleach would be nice as a default action costing nothing, so we can make white stuff for doctors coats, too.

Equipment Racks
- How about we use a dual stockpile system with these, so you can specify what each of the two slots can hold? I'd like racks holding one pistol and one knife, for instance. In my opinion, the racks can double as stockpiles. For instance I could make a rack for slag chunks in my smelting hut, which people can fill while the smelter is doing his work. He wouldn't have to run far to get his next piece. He could also have a rack for the finished product, which would get emptied for him if it has a lower priority than a big stockpile.
- Racks need a switch. If I want a gun rack, I do not want my smelter to run over there and grab the guns out of it. By default he should look for stockpiles, or racks that have the stockpile mode switch turned on.

Colonist Inventory
- Since they can always engage in melee combat, I'd like an additional small weapon slot, so people would be able to carry a pistol and a knife (pistol defined as small weapon here).
- Background: A colonist being attacked by a squirrel/turtle/goldfish in melee cannot fire his gun. He will die trying, since being hit interrupts his action. Were he allowed to automatically switch to melee, a knife or even a fistbump to the face would save his life against these cunning predators.
- Maybe this could be done by fabricating 'wild west' pistol holster belts, adding a pistol carry slot and the ability to put the gun away if attacked in melee range?

Old injuries
- There's no way to repair a neck/throat yet. Colonists can get problems talking, eating, breathing, and we cannot fix it.
- Some colonists come with old wounds, too. How about if a doctor reaches level 10, he can perform surgery on old woulds, using the "replace body part" feature to add a surgery for healing them?

Town clock
- Another use I came up with in this playthrough.. if I had a way (jobs tab) to declare someone a soldier, the town clock could also be used as a manual emergency alarm, gathering the non-soldier colonists nearby (set radius) and switching soldiers to combat mode once they arrive. This would be ideal for declaring safezones and getting everyone to where they should be quickly.

Sandstone
- Since it looks very western-style, I like sandstone a lot. Yet I don't have a way of collecting it in temperate climate. How about letting colonists manufacture/gather it from the ground, yet slowly? Could be in a fashion similar to clay.. temperate zones have mud tiles that could be a slowly regrowing source.

Fishing
- Temperate zones have water. Colonists are hungry. If we can build bows, why not add fishing rods?

Animals
- My number one source of stuff always runs out. I'd like a way for animals to wander into my territory, or if I leave some alive, to breed more of them. So far the only thing I got enough of are turtles and squirrels.. oh and BOOMrats.

Guest beds
- How about a function to declare guest beds, similar to prisoner beds? There's so many friendly people stopping by, I'd like them to get comfy. Maybe gain some diplomacy points through making their stay a nice one (good beds, room quality, etc). Would work perfectly with the saloon idea up above.