[Outdated] Marvin's Hot and Cold Pack IV

[Kaballah]

e: Seems to work quite well. Here, try out v1.0.7 of Hot and Cold Biomes and see what you make of it. I added a new terrain type to Arid Shrubland (Dusty Soil) which is similar to Poor Soil but different texture.

Okay, thanks for the update.

The patches should be the right size for the particular biomes they appear in, I had time to test each of them and adjust. However, particularly on non-flat terrain, it's possible that the patches won't give you a lot of farmable land.

I think that's fine then, as non-flat maps are a lot easier in other ways (better cover, more metal and rock resources, better insulation).

[Kaballah]

This looks just right:

[Kaballah]

I can't tell any visual difference at all between poor soil/dusty soil.

e: never mind I see it

[RemingtonRyder]

Forging ahead with the Alpha 10 version of Winter is Here, I seem to have fixed the problem with minifying hydroponics basins. The workaround I used, was to rotate the texture around to be horizontal rather than vertical, and also make the basin one cell smaller (though with less material cost and power needed).

Had problems with minifying turrets though, so I think that I will leave them in their current implementation.

There's a bit more to do, but it's looking good.

[Kaballah]

Hey I really have problems distinguishing between poor and dusty soil textures.  I think you should make them a little less similar somehow.

[RemingtonRyder]

Marginal and Dusty? Yeah, it's a bit of a pain. The thing is, in the game they get lit up by the sun, so it's a trial and improvement process. I'll upload a texture fix in a bit.

Here's v1.0.8 of Hot and Cold Biomes (also updated on Marvin's Misc Small Mods). Or, just the updated texture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6zvl44uhrnhxea/DustySoil.png?dl=1

e: Also, the top post was too long so I trimmed some of the changelog and put it over on my site. You can find the link for that in the top post. If that means you can't find a download link for an older version, I still have them on DropBox, let me know which one you want and I'll PM you a link.

[Kaballah]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[RemingtonRyder]

Also today, I'm releasing a test version of Winter is Here features, including a DLL fix for the turret problem. It's not a complete release, just some of the minified stuff.

Test Version 1

I suggest starting a new game for this, mainly in case it breaks an existing save due to errors or balance issues.

e: Known issues:

• Can't rotate tables. EdB Interface bug. Get latest version (2.7.2) and that should fix it.
• Can't do anything on tables. Let me see, did I forget the workgivers? Yep, I did. *grumbles*

Test Version 2

e: Known issues:

• Crafting tables are very dark. Stuff system thing. I'll see if I can do a mask for that. Or, possibly revert to the usual textures since they're not on a menu any more.
• Some things are craftable at the smithing table even though the research for them hasn't been completed. Fixed for next version. Needs another DLL, that's all.
• Some of the workgivers were not updated to A10, gives a yellow log message. Fixed for next version.

Test Version 3

e: Known issues:

• Some tables are still not masked (see above).
• Workgivers for kit-based smithing and tailoring tables are out of date - colonists with Crafting job can do bills on those tables. Fixed for next version.

[Kaballah]

"boiling" is a good seed if you want a lot of equator/very hot Arid Shrubland tiles, fyi.

e: yeah the new texture is much easier to distinguish, thanks.

[RemingtonRyder]

Something I noticed about marginal soil is that because it affects growth rate, you may actually need to manually harvest before the crops are fully grown, otherwise they come to the end of their lifespan and die without being harvested. Devilstrand is one to harvest early!

[Kaballah]

Huh, I guess that would explain why my devilstrand plants sometimes just disappear.  That's pretty bad actually, excessive micro.

e: I don't have any ideas about how to make that less of a problem other than maybe to extend the plant's lifespan to compensate /shrug

[RemingtonRyder]

Well the lifespan is I think based on the growing time. Which has me baffled honestly - if taters can reach max growth before dying, why can't devilstrand in the same conditions?

Also, other crops tend to die off gradually - the HP decreases - which gives some warning. So, possibly a bug! Have to take a second look, repro without mods (ugh).

e: Nope, unable to reproduce. However... I had to do the test without the storyteller turned on. Which means no cold snaps, heat waves, etc. I think that it's possible that a heat wave could delay growth long enough for plants to die. It's also possible that animals nommed on the devilstrand when I wasn't looking first time around. Either way, I guess it's best to farm precious devilstrand with a wall and some climate control.

[Kaballah]

Well I guess it's fair enough that you have a hard time growing the most valuable crop, but it's just annoying to micromanage when you notice they're start dying off.  I sat there and watched mine for a while and I'm sure it's not animals eating it, and yeah I didn't see them taking damage either, they just poof.

[RemingtonRyder]

For the test, I grew devilstrand on gravel, which in vanilla has the same fertility as marginal soil. And once it was walled off, lit and temperature regulated, it grew to maturity without dying. I'll need to test it in the mod, but I expect a similar result.

Anyway, I decided that I'm also going to override the default growing period of devilstrand in XML and set it to 12.5 days rather than 45. I'll probably have to fine-tune the balance there.

Also today, I modified the minified turrets. They're taking a nerf to firepower and range, but will have more hitpoints and use less power. Explosion radius is also decreased.

My reasoning here is that I want them to be a distraction to enemy invaders and soak up some bullets, and also be more suitable for built-up areas.

And then obviously since there's going to be some different upgrade paths (really only limited by the number of turret sprites I can make) range and firepower can increase along some of them.

e: Testing has gone well. Here's Test Version 4.

Oh, and if you have Space Meals mod then you want Minification to load after it.

[Falcon_the_Slut]

Cant get this to work. I tried it with both mods and core enabled and once with both mods and no core, but either way I just get a black screen or a menu screen with no buttons to push. Does this not work with alpha 10d?