Any tips for new Player starting out? + Happy Holidays :)

[Kane Hart]

Hello I'm new to RimWorld and the game looks amazing and I like to record some videos and yes boring, south park references, etc But I do find that my community tends to be influenced to try new games out through these videos and I also enjoy just sharing my experience it sort of brings a artificial Multiplayer experience for me.
So I guess I'm looking for tips starting out. I have a few basic questions as I tried to research watching others as well

• What is the best biome to start in?
• What is the best optimal temperatures to start in?
• AI Story Teller any chance of a better explanation on this? Classic I assume is just things get harder overtime. Random I assume just mix of difficulty at times maybe hard wave then a easy wave? And Builder not sure this one I assume AI even less often or maybe not at all? But then again not sure why there is difficulty options for it then.
• Is there still need to worry about performance of Large Maps? I watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMBQn_sg7DA [1] So I'm thinking large maps is fine now but I heard a lot of warnings about them.
• Is it better to build in mountains or build your housing from scratch? From what I hear wood burns really fast and often assurances.
• What is the best recommended power system? Solar or Wind? It seems like Wind can have a lot of downtime and issues with things getting in its way where solar is stable but requires batteries to store power.
• What would you recommend for a starting food. A cook / butcher or the special food green paste process thingy I forget what its called.
• So how does the entire world work? You pick one spot off a large world. Can you visit other zones or you trapped in your own zone? What happens when you run out resources like ore? Feel free to explain that whole area if you can and attached areas.
• Does having Multiple Colony on 1 World have any effects?
• Any mods you would suggest. I'm sure first time or few times no but I'm talking about special tweaks or information. For example I would love to see total power generate, stored, using, etc. That sort of tweaks via modding if possible.
• Is Tynan Sylvester as Canadian as they get?

Thank you and I really hope you are you family are having a great Holiday!

[Shinzy]

Hallooo!

- best biome to start possibly the 'forest' what's it called, the light green biome and mountainous -> easier to take cover and plenty of resources

- can't say for optimal temperature =P it doesn't really matter in the long run
but I wouldn't go to a desert or tundra for the first game! (totes would)

- I doon't play on the large maaaps so I can't say! (you're not gna need that much space anyhow, it just gets troublesome with longer walk distances and ugh)

- I've never had 100% mountain base, but wood burns really fast! so research the stonecutting asap and build out of that =P

-solar is prolly better in the woods (?) I'm pretty sure the trees get in the way
on the desert wind is fantastic =P but you're still gna want to settle near the steam thing cause that's the most reliable power source

- potatoooes! you can get along with 100% with just simple meals made of potatoes forever
I have a backup nutrient paste dispenser in a freezer room with exess potato supply where they can't spoil ever =P

- the world map provides nothing for now you can just ignore it! you'll be stuck in the zone you pick

- other colonies have no effects other than blocks you from building another colony on the same square =P

- EDB interface is a must mod to have But I'd personally go unmodded for the few first colonies

- I searched the amount of "Eh"s Ty's said and got no results and only one page of "Sorry"ies so
I think he could try harder =P

[Kane Hart]

Thank You!

Everything has been going really good though I fell into some issues. I'm having trouble giving clothes to prisoners and visitors.

• I'm having trouble force feeding prisoners for example sometimes we run low on food or just get busy and forget them.
• Is it bad to have prisoners separated? What is the best conditions?
• Some visitors in fact 2 already have gotten injured. I captured one while their villagers were around and caused World War 3. Second time I did it with the same one I waited till they left. I'm able to strip them down without any issues but I'm unable to offer any kind of medical attention without capturing them.
• Is there any advice and tips capturing people and getting them on your side?
• I'm finding it harder to keep up making food and feeding the prisoners and doing many other tasks.
• I keep getting messages of Roof caving in I think it's due to mining large areas. Is this something to worry about if I'm not living inside? Could I get hurt? Any other tips while mining.

[Hugglesgerbil]

you can try using a Nutrient Paste Dispenser (NPD) with the distribution end facing into the prison, and the back end boxed in a freezer and keep the hoppers in the freezers.  I haven' tried that myself yet.

If you separate the prisoners, they'll be happier as they aren't sharing a bedroom, but if you keep friendly interaction, usually that bonus will negate any negatives they're experiencing.

At the moment there's no way to save a visitor.  There's some mods that will allow you to rescue them and put them in a visitor bed.  I haven't done that yet.

When you capture people, after you drop them off in the cells, click on them and click on the prisoner tab. Select recruit and make sure friendly interaction is selected.  Some will be more difficult to convince than others.  You can also release prisoners to gain faction points to make a hostile faction friendly.

Lots and lots of farmland! Try not to keep too many prisoners as you may find yourself just dealing with prisoners more than sustaining your colonies, if there's too many prisoners and you don't want the morale impact of executions or euthanasia, you can simple just release them and they'll run off back home. 

For roof cave-in, there's a maximum size of unsupported roof. I can't recall it off the top of my head, just build a 1 square support or leave a 1 square support around every 5 blocks in every direction of the support and that'll keep it from falling it.  You can experiment if you want to find out what the maximum distance is.

[Element4ry]

Maximum distance of unsupported roof from one support pillar to another is actually 5 blocks. If you mine out more than that, the roof will collapse.

[Goo Poni]

Thank You!

Everything has been going really good though I fell into some issues. I'm having trouble giving clothes to prisoners and visitors.

• I'm having trouble force feeding prisoners for example sometimes we run low on food or just get busy and forget them.

There's no way to prioritize eating as far as I'm aware, whether that be force feeding colonists or prisoners. When you feel the time is right, start laying people off of jobs and make them more dedicated to particular roles. Having everyone be a Grower is great, but colony production will grind to a halt every time the fields need reaping. Same with large scale mining jobs

• Is it bad to have prisoners separated? What is the best conditions?

Generally no issue with separating the prisoners. The best conditions would be luscious rooms with lighting, a table and chairs to eat, roominess and bed. However, this can be impractical unless you build these rooms with the intention of making them non-prison rooms once their captive is converted

• Some visitors in fact 2 already have gotten injured. I captured one while their villagers were around and caused World War 3. Second time I did it with the same one I waited till they left. I'm able to strip them down without any issues but I'm unable to offer any kind of medical attention without capturing them.

The base game has no way to offer aid to wounded visitors. Try Haplo's Miscellaneous w MAI if you're not opposed to mods. Their collection of mods contains a "Visitor Bed" mod which allows you to build visitor beds specifically for helping wounded visitors. You select a colonist and r-click a visitor bed, same way you would prioritize a job, and if there are wounded, their name should appear as an option. Visitors often leave trinkets behind for your aid, though if they are incapacitated, they will need at least a peg leg to restore their movement before they give their thanks and head home. It also improves relations with their faction slightly.

• Is there any advice and tips capturing people and getting them on your side?

As mentioned earlier, have your prisoners in very good living conditions (sometimes to the point of being better than the colony itself) and make sure your most socialable person is your Warden. A single Warden should be capable of talking to all prisoners you can reasonably expect to have each day.

• I'm finding it harder to keep up making food and feeding the prisoners and doing many other tasks.

Prioritize. Don't have every colonist doing every job. Life in the colony can really slow down when everyone suddenly drops what they're doing to focus on some more important task that has suddenly cropped up (like lightning strikes setting fire to grass near the colony) Dedicate some to cooking, some to growing, mix mining into everyone's agendas. Generally my colony of ~10-20 people will have everyone able to build ticked for construction duties, half the able bodied will be growers and half the able bodied will be miners (able bodied meaning those capable of doing actually doing the job), three or four will be cooks and the more menial tasks on the right side, everyone can do. If maintaining a stockpile of raw food is your trouble, expand the farmland or build some hydroponics and sun lamps to reap the benefits of the greatly improved growing speeds in hydroponics. If you have sufficiently cold refrigeration for maintaining food, having a large excess of food will make it easier during rougher months or when crop blights strike.

• I keep getting messages of Roof caving in I think it's due to mining large areas. Is this something to worry about if I'm not living inside? Could I get hurt? Any other tips while mining.

Cave-ins and roof collapses occur when a part of the roof has no support (a wall or chunk of unmined rock) within 5 blocks. The roofing of buildings can collapse, leaving a mess on the ground while thin rock roof collapses lead to chunks of rock on the ground and overhead mountain collapses lead to a support being created in the form of a mound of collapsed rock that needs to be mined away (after support is put in place, or it'll immediately collapse again). ALL of these collapses will destroy items and "small" (those that fit under a roof, geothermal fits under a roof but ain't small at all) structures and kill colonists outright without leaving a body. If you're mining large swathes of rock at once, it's easy for people milling back and forth from the mining site to be crushed under falling debris. Leave a chunk of rock in place every 5-6 blocks while you mine to avoid cave-ins, though you can have supports a maximum of 10 blocks between each other, each supporting the full 5x5 area. You can get very devious with this mechanic, using it as a defense against raiders by having large open tunnels with badly damaged supports that can be shot to cause collapses and crush raiders.

My answers are in bold here.

[Shinzy]

I've found it easier to feed prisoners in same room
secluded guys usually have starved first =P
the grouped up prisoners can "share" their meals -> the hungriest ones possibly steal the meal from whoever it was meant for so
and your guys will be carrying them trays to that room all the time. You could make like 1x1 stockpile for berries or something in there aswell, so they can eat those if nothing else is being given (those spoil though so there's that)
and if you make a stockpile of apparel in the cell they should pick up and use any of those they need
(shirts and pants if they're naked, not sure about parkas if they're cold)

[Goo Poni]

My prison rooms are usually just a couple rows of beds, a few turrets if prisoners riot and little more than that. Wardens deliver food as necessary.

[Kane Hart]

Thanks everyone for the tips. I will share some my experiences via Video later so you can all laugh at my first time playing

[Kinakin]

A bunch of tips i think are usefull. Some may have been mentioned before.

1. Try playing peacefull mode to learn optimal setups for food and learning how the logistic and task system works. This will let you play around with how to best prioritize jobs.

2. Getting money/silver.
currently the best way to earn Big amunts of silver is selling art. A good pice can sell for like 10-15k silver.

3. Getting new colonists
early on recruting pirates will be your safest bet. Once you start getting more silver buying slaves is a good choice. But the best way is capturing friendly vistors. And then paying their faction silver to avoid having them turn hostile.

4. Trade beacon.
this is something most pdople learn the hard way. Often people will place it in their main stockpile. This is bad. The beacon also works as a landing signal for hostile drop pods. Best bet is having it outside yor base or at least heavily guarded. Then controle what gets placed there by using multiple stockpile zones and priority settings in its effect zone. Like 1 for silver that is critical. And others based on what you are are trying to sell.

5. Imoortant skills
Hauling will become insanely important as your game progresses. Make sure you dont have to many people inxapable of it. And make sure you dont put to much armor on them. As it redu es movement speed and makes them haul slower.

[Kane Hart]

4. Trade beacon.
this is something most pdople learn the hard way. Often people will place it in their main stockpile. This is bad. The beacon also works as a landing signal for hostile drop pods. Best bet is having it outside yor base or at least heavily guarded. Then controle what gets placed there by using multiple stockpile zones and priority settings in its effect zone. Like 1 for silver that is critical. And others based on what you are are trying to sell.

Welp this explains a lot of things

Thanks for that and all your tips they were wonderful and very useful.

I recorded 15 episodes so far my experiences going to upload and start posting them daily so people can laugh at me