Cumulative List of Sir's Suggestions (Pt. 1)

[Sir]

I'm a huge fan of RimWorld and can't wait to see what's in store, I just bought this game a couple of days ago and have already logged upward of fifteen hours. (It reminds me of the Alpha days of Minecraft ) Anyways, here's a list of my suggestions, I'll be adding to them as I come up with them:

Check out Pt. 2!


1) Management

• Intuitive Interface Controls
  
  • I'd really like to see a bit more of an intuitive management style for picking orders, setting zones, and building structures. Right now, the game feels an awful lot like Towns, and while Towns is a good game, the control functionality is cluttered and clunky. As soon as RimWorld begins to add a few more objects, orders, and zones to the game, half of my screen is going to become management during construction. Perhaps some type of circular layout or even just smaller icons with better categorical management. i.e., Furniture, Lighting, Standing Lamp.
• Organize Removal Functions
  
  • Rather than having the removal function as a separate task, combining it with its relative or "parent" order / zone / etc. would better organize the menu interface (Right click to select removal?). If not this, then being able to hold a pivotal key like "Cntrl" while using a specific order and having that change it from creation to removal would be another way to do it.
• {Order} Prioritize
  
  • Being able to prioritize specific orders / blueprints without selecting an individual colonist would make gameplay a bit more streamlined. Rather than having to scroll through the closest colonists trying to find one able to build blueprints to speed up certain defense structures and whatnot, I should be able to quickly prioritize (in order of selection, so a numerical quota) whatever I need done. I'd probably see this being a new tool "Prioritize," which can be used to click on any blueprint, mining order, hauling order, cleaning order, etc. Whatever is clicked on would then become the immediate priority of all applicable workers / colonists.
• {Order} Color-Coded Plans
  
  • The addition of Color-Coordinated for the Plans Order would be awesome for planning the future designs of my base and being able to differentiate between different plans for structures. At the moment, a massive box of white plans doesn't quite help me remember what I wanted to do with my base. (Right click to change color?)
• Forced Colonist Commands
  
  • Whenever I take out a siege on the other side of the map, I always end up having massive amounts of items that need to be transported, often causing colonists to get close to a mental breakdown because they leave the base when they're both tired and hungry. Please allow me to click on a colonist and "send them to bed" (either by right clicking on their bed or as a basic command function) / "make them eat" (either by right clicking on a meal / food or as a basic command function).
• Stack-able Command Quotas
  
  • Whenever I do end up giving colonists specific orders, I'd like them to be stack-able, so if I tell one person to burn all of the bodies, I don't have to micro-manage each and every cremation. If I could just select one person and go "burn," "burn," "burn," and "build" before they return to their autonomous work, that'd make it a lot simpler to prioritize specific work for individual colonists - which is often the closest.
• Better Item / Trading Management
  
  • Being able to move specific items to different stockpiles would make the trading life much easier, right now I have to continually toggle my stockpiles to get the right items into the range of my orbital beacon. Either being able to see my entire stock and having colonists automatically move something into range that I sell, being able to tell them to move specific items I set into the right stockpile in range, or being able to create "range extenders" that connect to the orbital beacon would all be suitable solutions to this problem imo.
• Colony Red-Alert
  
  • A single structure or order / command that could be used in combination with a built-in zoning tool and three basic functions to keep my colonists out of harms one. The first function being the ability to have my colony go on red alert and confine every colonist to a zone that I've set, preferably behind my walls and within my base, so that colonists won't just go running out to chop down trees while raiders are attacking immediately. Second, being able to toggle this structure / order (like a warning bell, perhaps requiring a colonist to activate it) and have all colonists drop what they're doing and surround the item or a zone I've set, running immediately and as quickly as possible. And lastly, have a "Prepare for Combat" mode, where (in combination with some of my combat suggestions below) each colonist immediately goes and grabs armor if they don't have any, the best weapon available to them, a combat meal, grabs some metal for emergency sandbags, and (potentially) eats a quick meal to prepare for battle (all within the base, as set by the first function). Then, these "prepared" colonists congregate in the same area / zone as used for the second function.

2) Gameplay

• Better Construction AI
  
  • Whenever I'm building a wall that's behind an object, the most accessible blueprint is always built first, stopping the colonists from being able to beuild the rest of the structure because the remaining blueprints are walled in and become inaccessible. It'd be great if colonists would use some forethought and build the furthest blueprints first, so that they don't block them off. At the moment, I have to individual place each blueprint as they get built so that they can all get built.
    
• Storage Crates
  
  • Being able to build crates that act like mini-stockpiles on top of stockpiles would be awesome, even if the crates could only hold one type of item. The material could then affect the amount of items the crate can hold, whether it be food, materials, clothes, silver, etc.
• Local Faction Trading
  
  • Seeing as there are so many factions nearby - most of the time - I think that our colonies should be able to trade with them through the Comms Console. This is probably already planned, but I think it'd be great to get implemented sooner rather than later. If the other factions had variable inventories that changed over time and directly correlated to their specific type of colony, it'd bring a wonderful flavor to gameplay. Then each faction could have their own specific ratios depending on their type of colony and whatnot, etc.
• Trade Ship Requests
  
  • There have been times where my colony goes months without seeing a single trade ship, so I'd love it if I could interact with the Comms System or Trade Beacon to request a trade ship at the cost of trade ratios, giving my colony an even worse deal because I had to request the ship come to me rather than have it just be in my area. Requesting the type of ship would also be awesome, especially if it came with an even harsher ratio because I requested a specific ship rather than any ship.
• Reasonable Trade Ratios
  
  • I could understand several trade ships having poor trade ratios, but once in a while, I'd like to see ships with really good ratios and reasonable deals. It seems like no matter the ship, they're always trying to screw me, which is understandable, and probably realistic, but it'd be nice to be able to sell something not at a major discount.
• {Zone} Prison Yard
  
  • A "Prison Yard" Zone would be great, allowing Prisoners to see the light of day when escorted (and watched?) by a Warden (Maybe a toggle-able shoot on sight if they leave the Prison Yard or require a perimeter w/o a roof?) Primarily for that pesky cabin fever.
• {Research} Power Usage Efficiency
  
  • Adding the ability to research more efficient power usage for each individual item (or categories?) would be awesome, as once I finish researching everything, there's nothing left - yet my base still consumes massive amounts of power. Even things like "Reduce Power Surges" would be a good research project.
• {Research} Power Creation Efficiency
  
  • Along with the ability to make items more efficient on power usage, I think that more efficient power creation would also be more realistic as well as a worthy research project. Being able to multiply the amount of power by researching better versions of each generator / panel (even if I have to rebuild the generator / panel with the more efficient version) is something I'd really like to see as soon as possible. I'm tired of creating massive solar farms just to keep the night-lights on for my colonists
• {Research} Power Safety / Reliability
  
  • I think that along with being able to research power efficiency, we should be able to research power reliability, something that would stop overloads and short-circuits, or at least lessen their chance at happening. I could also see this type of thing being associated with Quality Modifiers (along with a lot of my other suggestions) rather than research.
• {Research} Mobile Stockpiles (Wheelbarrow / Cart)
  
  • The ability to research and build a wheelbarrow (less) and / or a pull-cart (more) that can carry X amount of items or X stacks of items would make life a lot easier. Perhaps with a new workshop or even connected to the Machining bench, often requiring that the wheelbarrow / cart be repaired after so many uses or so many tiles traveled, etc. I'd see different materials being useful as well, each giving their own bonuses, such as wood being easy to repair but breaking down more quickly, stone being slow but capable of carrying a bunch more, and metal being strong but expensive to repair. Hopefully some AI tweaks would allow colonists to autonomously grab a wheelbarrow / cart when needed (w/ the ability to tell them to when I want them to, including drafted colonists) then having them return the wheelbarrow / cart to a "Parking or Station Stockpile" when it's done being used, so other colonists can grab it and use it. I'd see it being used for cleaning up after a battle, carrying supplies into an anti-siege, mining off-base, etc. Even a settings functionality (like a stockpile) would be a boon, so I could set exactly what materials can be carried by each wheelbarrow / cart. i.e., a mining cart, a "bring out yer dead" cart, a weapons cart, a medical supplies cart, etc. (Maybe at some point, even a mobile medical station that can be pulled and set up in any four square tiles?)
• {Research} Better Doctoring
  
  • I sincerely hope you add the ability to eventually craft things like robotic surgeons, life support, medicine, drugs, etc. It'd add an extensive and variable facet to the health system in RimWorld, which is currently predicated on trade ships for medicine and the doctoring levels of some of my colonists. Some more functionality, possibilities, and depth would really go a long ways.
• {Research} Mechs, Exoskeletons, and Augmentations! Oh my!
  
  • Something for later on in-game would be various mechanical augmentations for colonists, probably linked to the Machining table. i.e., Combat Mechs which have things like dual-weapon holders (dual-miniguns?!?!), better shielding of the operator, a faster movement speed, and improved shooting skill; Mining Mechs which have things like dual-pickaxes, increased carrying capacity, a faster movement speed, and improved mining skill; Growing Mechs have things like a multi-square harvesting / planting radius, increased carrying capacity, and improved growing skill; Exoskeletons would be similar to Mechs but would provide only some of the same benefits and / or lesser ratios of the benefits, to make Mechs more effective; Augmentations would be things like the bionic eye, but could go so much further than that (Bionic Commando anyone?); etc. All of these machines could either consume materials like metal or uranium in order to operate or have charging stations that they need to be returned to once they reach low battery. This could either be something that you designate when constructing the machine or is directly related to the type of machine, i.e., Mechs = Uranium, Exoskeletons = Charging, and Augmentations = Biology of Colonist

Changelog

• 10/26/14 - Renamed some suggestions, began proofreading, and split the thread due to maximum character count.
• 10/24/14 - Added suggestions to all sections and added Misc. section.
• 10/23/14 - Thread created, basic suggestions added.

I will go back through and proofread this soon, wrote it all pretty quickly to get the ideas down.
(10/24/14)

Thanks!

[EarthyTurtle]

These are pretty good suggestions, I can see a use for most all of them.

[Sir]

These are pretty good suggestions, I can see a use for most all of them.

Thank you, I'm glad someone else agrees with me

I just went back through and added a bunch more (also cleaned up the thread a bit) so hopefully I've added some more good ones. I'd really enjoy some feedback on any of my ideas and am willing to clarify further if needed. Now I just need to go back through and proofread everything, since it's kind of a mess word-wise.

[SPAZZx7]

I see one or more things that I've thought silently to myself while playing...

+1