How to bring the colonies out into the open again?

[quxzcover]

I think living in a mountain is a perfectly reasonable idea. its already mostly balanced for the fact that you need so many hydroponic basins. and it s almost impossible to get a good base going in colder climates and those are my favorites. all this stuff you guys keep on mentioning would just want me to play less and less. additionally its a single player game. why would you guys care that much if you have your own choice. and for my 60+ colonist bases good luck not going mountain side in a colder climate. point is if you make mountain basing worse it'll give another reason to stop playing besides the obvious lack of a proper start to end game tech tree and progression and the fact that i feel like im playing in a medieval based game and not a futuristic game. also for besieges i just hide in my base for 2 years. and i go back to last auto save if theirs a crashed ship part because 90 percent of my people go insane in the first couple days.

[DrSumDoom]

Putting mood for staying inside is a cheap way to have players decide if they want to have base outside of caves or not. But it's not fun. How about raiders adapt to your base defense? Do you have a cave with an outside power source? Mortar the power out. Go to the main door and smoke the colonists inside their own base. Or they can set fire to that nice looking carpet you have all over the place and seal the door to have you burn alive. Raiders should have key targets: Power source, unprotected wall and backdoors. Lone colonist left behind... Why not have raiders cut power lines? This would make things alot more startegic. Having your base outside, prevent to expose some weakness. You can wall your power supply inside your main base and protect the power lines. You can even have a no roof section to avoid being smoke to death or burned alive.

[CB elite]

In my opinion, a good game is one that offers more than one way to play the game and still succeed. However, each play style should offer its own unique challenge; as to not take away the fun aspect. Being out in the open means you can be attacked from several different angles, and you are more susceptible to a lot of the dangers (raids, sieges, lighting strikes, etc.). I honestly don't think this way of playing needs any more challenges for now :p

Anyways, people should be allowed to hide in the mountains if they want. But, this strategy should have some sort of unique challenge (other than feeling grumpy all the time, because blah environment). We don't need complex AI to make the game fun. Sure, it certainly helps, but the game is still in development and that stuff can come later. A lot of people have suggested earthquakes/cave ins. I think that's a terrific start.

[Johnny Masters]

Currently, the investment both in time and resources to build underground are far less than for building outside, actually, you only need to spend time to build underground. Sure i understand going underground for protection, and it should offer better protection than outside, but if you are building The Norad, its expected a little bit more of investment than say, a wood Villa.

[Argon]

Perhaps a challenge for mountain bases could be asbestos veins, if mined into the lungs of the colonists would be ravaged and require replacement.  Depending on timing the effect could range from annoying to utterly debilitating.

-Argon

[anotherrimworld]

We need slower mining times but faster woodchopping and/or a woodchopping skill.

I also think that adding fog of war along with different watchtowers, more variations on turrets, traps, pillboxes and more defensive structures in general. Watchtowers would need to be manned and enhance a character's sight range/skill. Now that characters have timetables having people on guard shifts would make sense.

[CB elite]

We need slower mining times but faster woodchopping and/or a woodchopping skill.

I also think that adding fog of war along with different watchtowers, more variations on turrets, traps, pillboxes and more defensive structures in general. Watchtowers would need to be manned and enhance a character's sight range/skill. Now that characters have timetables having people on guard shifts would make sense.

From what I gather, Tynan isn't a huge fan of the idea of fog of war It makes sense as to why, but it's still disappointing...

I don't really think tree cutting needs to be shortened, as it seems to be fairly decent as it is. However, mining speed is way way way WAY too fast at the moment. The fact that I can mine a huge room for my colonists to sleep in by the end of the first night tells me that mining is way too easy right now...

[apljee]

We need slower mining times but faster woodchopping and/or a woodchopping skill.

I also think that adding fog of war along with different watchtowers, more variations on turrets, traps, pillboxes and more defensive structures in general. Watchtowers would need to be manned and enhance a character's sight range/skill. Now that characters have timetables having people on guard shifts would make sense.

From what I gather, Tynan isn't a huge fan of the idea of fog of war It makes sense as to why, but it's still disappointing...

I don't really think tree cutting needs to be shortened, as it seems to be fairly decent as it is. However, mining speed is way way way WAY too fast at the moment. The fact that I can mine a huge room for my colonists to sleep in by the end of the first night tells me that mining is way too easy right now...

OFf-topic, FoW should just be toggleable for those who want it and for those who don't.

[CB elite]

OFf-topic, FoW should just be toggleable for those who want it and for those who don't.

Agreed. And I imagine there is/will be a mod for it, but it would be nice to be part of the main game. Raids would be a lot scarier ._.

[Johnny Masters]

I don't remember Tynan stating he's not a fan of FoW, specially since the first versions of rimworld had it. I remember him saying that he took it out to avoid some non-specified confusion. Could someone provide a quote?

The problem with a toggle-able FoW is that having it would require a number of balancing done and perhaps even some new systems like line of sight and better AI pathing.
But I guess a toggle would be better than nothing tho'

Just to be clear where i stand: i'd love to see FoW (re)implemented, but the community is currently cooling off on that subject, for a while. It does pop up again every now and then.

[CB elite]

I'll be honest and say that it was a secondary source of information that I used :/

Shame on me

[b0rsuk]

point is if you make mountain basing worse it'll give another reason to stop playing besides the obvious lack of a proper start to end game tech tree and progression and the fact that i feel like im playing in a medieval based game and not a futuristic game. also for besieges i just hide in my base for 2 years. and i go back to last auto save if theirs a crashed ship part because 90 percent of my people go insane in the first couple days.

You should try building outside for a change. The same tactic that you use to deal with crashed ship part would work just fine against sieges, lightning, forest fires and insane animals. Just reload whenever the game gives you something challenging and you will be fine.

[JimmyAgnt007]

I dont need FoW but it would let us use bigger maps with less lag.  Though hunting would need to change into a bill at the butcher table or something.  Since we couldnt just select everything on the map to go kill.

As for the point of the thread.  I almost always build in a mountain.  Ive tried not doing it and it works ok but now that drop assaults dont focus on the primary trade beacon like they used too I am back to dwarf mode.  I very seldom ever had issues with cabin fever unless they were prisoners or brain damaged.

The reasons I stay inside in case its helpful to list.
Thick mountain roofs block everything. Drop pods and artillery.
One entrance is easier to defend.  Killbox or not.
Small thin roof mountain areas can be exposed to create protected parks or filled with solid walls.  Or used for thermal vents.
Natural mountain walls dont get attacked by the AI like player made stuff so they only ever focus on your main entrance. 

Drawbacks?
Temperature can quickly build up.  I make thermal halls that i dump my heat into.  I expose them to unroofed areas if i can but it doesnt matter.
Power generation is tricky.  I like modding the anti-matter reactor into something more realistic with power generation and making it build-able indoors but geothermal and solar fields are generally the only option otherwise.
Wood needs to be harvested but when there isnt an attack its easy and removes any cabin fever issues.  Food is all internal.

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.  Mountain bases arnt a bad thing, but game balance is better served by looking at the pros and cons. 

[quxzcover]

In my opinion, a good game is one that offers more than one way to play the game and still succeed. However, each play style should offer its own unique challenge; as to not take away the fun aspect. Being out in the open means you can be attacked from several different angles, and you are more susceptible to a lot of the dangers (raids, sieges, lighting strikes, etc.). I honestly don't think this way of playing needs any more challenges for now :p

Anyways, people should be allowed to hide in the mountains if they want. But, this strategy should have some sort of unique challenge (other than feeling grumpy all the time, because blah environment). We don't need complex AI to make the game fun. Sure, it certainly helps, but the game is still in development and that stuff can come later. A lot of people have suggested earthquakes/cave ins. I think that's a terrific start.

one door. that's all they can attack. geothermal power and hydroponics are all indoors for the most part and can last me forever. sieges I just leave there.

[Jamodon]

Maybe add an event where you need to leave your base to contest something. For example, a medship with valuable tech crashes, and immediately or shortly thereafter raiders show up and try to loot the ship and leave, ignoring the rest of your base. This would be both realistic and reward going on the offense.