Persistent Faction Population/Strength

Started by Professor Cupcake, January 01, 2015, 06:46:41 PM

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Professor Cupcake

Something that has been bugging me about Rimworld is that, no matter how many of these damn pirates I slaughter, there are always so many more to throw themselves against my wall of turrets and snipers. My colony has barely gotten into double figures for its population, yet there are 40+ tribals knocking down my door every other month, with barely 2 or 3 escaping afterwards.

What I'm suggesting is some form of population tracking for factions, or perhaps a "faction strength" that is consumed when they attack (and regained for every one that returns? Possibly with extras for kidnapped people?). This could also expand into the possibility of completely eradicating factions, removing them from the world forever.

BokaliMali

While that would improve the immersive realism, it would lameify the endgame. Your fifteen cyborg-power-armored-super-colonists and 27 turrets vs. the last four members of the Monkeys of Revenge. Or a neverending stream of mechanoids.

keylocke

nice, i like this persistent faction population idea.

each time a member of a faction dies it lowers their population. if it drops to below 50% they stop sending visitors or raiders for a while until their population increase above 50% again. (they regen population in time)

when this happens, event generator spawns more mech raids to compensate.

anyways, i agree with you guys, since it kinda gets ridiculous at the late game the amount of cannon fodder raiders the RNG sends to attack. but increased mech attack seem more plausible.

it's also good for the political system of rimworld.. since players can start forming alliances with different factions to repel the mech invasion, but they also need to keep casualties low 'coz every faction would only have a limited population to spare..

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tynan should also probably start fleshing out the visitor zone system or whatever. like being able to set up lodging for allies and heal the wounded, etc..

Professor Cupcake

Quote from: BokaliMali on January 01, 2015, 07:02:32 PM
While that would improve the immersive realism, it would lameify the endgame. Your fifteen cyborg-power-armored-super-colonists and 27 turrets vs. the last four members of the Monkeys of Revenge. Or a neverending stream of mechanoids.

That's where the second part of this comes in: allowing the AI to add/remove factions from the world as it sees fit (as well as giving each faction an organic growth rate, obviously).

Johnny Masters

I like that. Simple and sensible.

Probably would work better with an ironman (no dead pawn = reload) type of game

The game could also improve on how it challenges the player outside of combat: Disasters, ammo management?, apex predators, harder economy (no pawn-integrated-omnitool that makes all work easy), social relationships and decision making, etcetera.

Currently the game introduces too much too soon (too many enemies and the equipment they bring).

Being able to relocate your colony (migration) should allow for some tougher battles in which you must decide if it's worth dying for.

Dunno, just some ideas, but it is strange / annoying / immersion breaking  that in a rimworld planet you get never-ending suicidal peeps knocking as soon as you build your first lightbulb.

SuperCaffeineDude

Would love this, the balance of difficulty can always be achieved in other ways. And you could always just increase the amount of tribes that spawn, or better yet territorial/predatory wildlife, that naturally won't be dropping OP loot. (mega/forgotten beasts)

Hell have you could introduce temporary off-world imperial/pirate factions that are exhaust themselves and leave, perhaps coming back in more force a year later.

Regardless a flat out strength variable would be great, and might pave the way for diplomacy/story-telling options.

Professor Cupcake

Quote from: Johnny Masters on January 05, 2015, 06:08:30 PM
...
The game could also improve on how it challenges the player outside of combat: Disasters, ammo management?, apex predators, harder economy (no pawn-integrated-omnitool that makes all work easy), social relationships and decision making, etcetera.
...

You've hit on something right there that is also a big problem right now. It feels like the only situations the game has to throw at us are combat ones. There isn't even the option for negotiation (or simply paying a bribe, which any half-wit bandit would certainly prefer over having to assault a battle-hardened rimworld colony).

Probably worth making a thread about that, but then, there are already quite a few threads that touch on this sort of thing.

Kaelent

Have to point out I'm also a fan of these ideas. But if persistent faction pawns means people who flee come back then the same can be said for pawns that are released.

Captured outlander who you don't want to recruit? Well now...lets just give you bionic legs and arms then harvest them back from you so you're an amputee as well as a lung and kidney. Now go forth back to your people who are happy for your release. I can picture them coming back in the next raid just spawned on the floor ready to be captured again.

Bobthefarmer1

See, the organic pop generation would be a cool idea, if Tynan decides to add the ability to have relationships and kids, because then it can get more realistic.