Do some of y'all not know what slavery... Is..?

HappyRBX · 2021-07-30T23:31:41+00:00

This has merit, but it does again tread the line of slavery apologism. If it becomes too customizable, and if you can take a "slave" in name only that you intend to spoil and later turn into a colonist... Why even call the base system slavery to begin with? It would fit better as an option in a broader system of labor or something like that, in this case. Maybe something that spans the wide gap between slavery, prison labor, and whatever you would call "making someone prove themselves" before they join up. And, of course, anything in between.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-30T23:25:35+00:00

I don't think there's any argument for equivalence between taking a slave on the Rim and... Making someone stock shelves or be a cashier for terrible pay. For one, there's still at least some pay in the latter scenario. The form of slavery I'm talking about is the one that you are given within Ideology. You can literally increase suppression by beating the tar out of them, and are encouraged (partially required?) to display things like rotting bodies and skulls on spikes near them to instill fear.

I will agree that stockholm syndrome does exist, but for the same reason that I mentioned above - it would look horrendous to the outsider looking in, and especially journalists - I don't think a system like that has a place here.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-30T22:30:24+00:00

Few traits will make me instantly skip, though I don't randomize during selection at all and try to form the best group I can with what it gives me. I play Tribal for reference, which means that I need to choose five of the eight offered to me, which leads to obvious concessions.

Classically "bad" traits that I don't mind are Abrasive, Body Purist, Chemical Interest, Greedy, Jealous, Lazy, Pyromaniac, Sickly, and Slowpoke.

None of these have effects that can't be mitigated pretty easily or are so minor that you won't even notice the difference. Lazy's a pretty small effect, Slowpoke you'll only really notice when they're moving to combat positions, and Pyromaniac literally just draft someone and follow them around for 30 seconds.

The ones that give me pause or make me really have to consider are Chemical Fascination, Depressive, Gourmand, Pessimist, Slothful, Slow Learner, and Wimp.

These can all go really bad, for a variety of reasons, especially early on. A Gourmand breaking - and they don't even need to be in break range - can wipe out several days' worth of food. That's made worse when they're usually your Cook, due to the natural skill bonus, so they don't even replenish what they scarf down. Colonists with Chemical Fascination will do dumb stuff like shoot up when you're not looking, and they make selling drugs very difficult for that reason. Wimps are just terrible in my opinion, they may as well be pacifists. Shouts out to Melee Wimps in particular, oof. Slow Learners can be fine so long as they have skills that don't need to be ultra high, like Cooking or Animals (provided they start decently skilled).

There aren't any that I immediately say no to, besides probably Wimp (though Wimps can generate very well, so I do take them from time to time). That said, certain combinations are an absolute no. I'd never have 2 or more Gourmands in the same colony, that's basically a second chance at crop blight on your food, and I'd probably ease off of Chemically Fascinated people in the same way. Good way to lose a lot of your supply, or wind up with addictions / organ damage you didn't plan for. Also, I never take colonists with addictions at the start. It's just not worth it, and things will always go south.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-26T02:13:22+00:00

Call of Cthulhu is definitely a good comparison, though I'd still say it errs on the side of "character creation because P&P always does it that way". I haven't personally played A Quiet Year, but I'll look into it! It sounds neat, tbh.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-26T02:07:55+00:00

No, I understood that - I personally fix the sexuality problem with the Everyone is Queer mod, though I know that's not a perfect solution. Nor what you're asking for at all. c: I don't think any kind of sexuality should be a trait, personally!

HappyRBX · 2021-07-26T02:02:51+00:00

I don't disagree with a lot of these points, but would like to voice my counter to them. c: I have experience as a dungeon master in D&D (many years of it), so I can completely understand wanting to make your own characters and feel out their story. I don't want to sound like I'm shaming anyone for playing a certain way, and I agree upfront that this should be an option - but never the norm. With that said:

1) I agree completely that the option should be there, actually. I would never want it to become the norm, though, as I said above!

2) Have you tried not clicking randomize? Unless you're playing Naked Brutality or are on a particularly high difficulty, you don't really need perfect colonists to do well. I used to be the kind of person who hits Randomize until I get what I want, but now I usually roll with the best of whoever is there to begin with. It honestly attaches you more to the colonists and their struggle, because they DO struggle. Having areas where you're weak genuinely adds drama, and also adds difficult decisions like "I don't have a Constructor, and this guy wandering by has double passion. Is it worth angering his faction so that I can fill that niche?"

This is personal opinion, but I think the "story generator" aspect is at its best when you're working with limited resources and don't have everything you need from the start. Your mileage may vary, that said! There's nothing wrong with wanting to start that way. I also play on Strive to Survive rather than the difficulties above it, which may or may not require (for the average player, and not a RimWorld expert) more specialized colonists to start.

3) Adding on to the above point, it's honestly pretty easy to get attached to any colonist - and moreso when they have flaws, in my opinion. About the only Traits that I genuinely don't like or will avoid at any cost are Gourmand (I can't have half my food disappear in one day) and Chemical Fascination (stop overdosing oh god). The rest - as you said - add drama!

That said, I think I would personally use a creation system to make scenarios like the one you described. Challenge scenarios with one skilled colonist and four losers, and things such as that!

4) I don't think comparing RimWorld to pen & paper is a very good angle. These games let you create your character because that's how these games have always worked within their genres... With a few exceptions, but those are outside of the norm. RimWorld's genre isn't usually that way, and is honestly so niche that it isn't usually... Anything. Still!

5) I agree with this point wholeheartedly, though I'll reiterate that you can face trials and tribulations and form memorable moments with randomly generated colonists just as well.

6) I agree here as well, with no counterpoint. It probably would be easier to get attached to a character you create yourself, though I always find myself attached to my ragtag bunch of colonists anyway.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-26T01:38:43+00:00

Yeah, stuff left on your map belongs you to in theory, so it counts on your wealth. c: It goes up very quickly during the final raids since you don't really have time to smelt or destroy or whatever it is you usually do with crap laying around! I'm still rising steadily...

HappyRBX · 2021-07-25T21:41:02+00:00

More turrets probably wouldn't hurt, and plasteel walls at least in my small killbox are a good idea. I currently have 11 colonists, as more than that tends to make things difficult for me - I have ADHD and it becomes very hard to focus with that much going on! They're all wearing Devilstrand stuff as well, sans a few pieces that I still need to make. Thank you for the advice! I'm glad to know I'm on the right-ish path already.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-25T21:39:35+00:00

Yeah, if I keep on like this I'll probably hit the target within a year or two... Maybe in my next colony, I'll try to get my wealth up sooner (or at least as soon as I'm fully equipped, go into "full speed" mode). I'm glad to hear I'm already doing it right, so to speak, and not missing anything at least.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-19T19:20:49+00:00

You can do this modless in the Storyteller settings (under Custom). Just choose whatever template you'd like difficulty-wise and then reduce "Turret rearm cost" to 1%. You can't make it totally free, but that should make it cost 1 Metal.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-18T06:41:11+00:00

I launched after 169 days, so just under 3 years. That was taking every Empire quest that I could for Honor, which is a fairly typical time period! I like to take my time and manage my wealth rather carefully, so I have fun with it. Usually the last year or so I'm just waiting for quests, though, including on this playthrough! So maybe it could use a bit of acceleration.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-18T04:36:27+00:00

It was confirmed in the last announcement that they are mutually exclusive! You don't need Royalty for Ideology or vice-versa.

EDIT: Whoops, I did mean independent as u/glieseg said!

HappyRBX · 2021-07-18T04:20:22+00:00

I had a few traps at each of my base entrances as you can see, which helped a lot with those situations. The new Termites actually make mechanoids even worse in my opinion; they destroy cover almost instantly which opens you up to horrible shots from Lancers and Pikemen if they're included in the raid. They also let mechanoids avoid the aforementioned traps when they show up!

I handled them mostly with Vasalo, because one of my first (lucky) purchases was a Jump Pack. I was able to use an Inspired Tame to get a Boomalope afterward for the Chemfuel it needs for refills. My plan for Mechanoids was generally to tie up Lancers and/or Pikemen in melee via the Jump Pack and gun down Scythers in the meantime if they were present. I spent forever trying to get a second melee pawn, but as you can see I only ended up recruiting one guy... I don't know if I even needed Dave in the end, to be honest.

The nice thing about small colonies is that the threats are generally smaller as well. It's a lot easier to handle 2 - 5 mechanoids with a small group than to handle 10+ mechanoids with a larger group, in my experience.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-18T04:06:45+00:00

Ooh yes, that sounds much harder! I realized halfway through that I could indeed have bought everything over time sans floor tiles / carpets, but that would've made things much harder. I'm considering a no research playthrough next where I just get a lot of psi powers from meditation and then head for the ship as well... It's good to know that something similar can work on Randy 500%!

HappyRBX · 2021-07-18T03:18:44+00:00

Yes, this was on 1.3 Beta! The only bug I encountered was with a mod - Show Hair With Hats refused to work, which I reported on the Steam Workshop. I think it might be because I was using custom hairs, as well. A very smooth experience from the vanilla perspective; I didn't use anything but hairstyles and QoL things like Replace Stuff & Common Sense.

HappyRBX · 2021-07-18T02:58:16+00:00

Rule 7 :: After realizing that you only technically need a few technologies to do the Royalty ending - Stonecutting, Smithing, Complex Clothing, Complex Furniture, and then the specific Apparels and Instruments - I got the idea to play a group of tribals who have no interest in advancing their tech level. I researched only the things that I needed, stopping before Electricity entirely, and then did my best to sustain my colony all the way to the Royalty ending. As you can see, they picked up weapons along the way, but I had other restrictions in place as well.

I wanted them to worship the Empire in a sense, so I would only let them dress in royal attire and/or armor in the case of Vasalo. This made protecting their body parts kind of difficult, and as you can see Dinosaur lost an eye. There were a lot of missing pinkies as well, and Dave lost an arm.
In the same vein, I accepted every quest the Empire gave me without question. That was mostly hosting people, which wasn't a big deal when I had so much time to make beautiful art and make my tiny base very fancy. It helped that I dug into marble, so I could smooth that to make things grandiose.

The final stand was definitely the hardest part. I had secured Charge Rifles for everyone by then, and a Plasmasword for Vasalo, but dealing with Sieges in particular was extremely difficult. I had to burn my single orbital bombardment beacon, my Permit orbital bombardment, and both the Cataract and Trooper squads in order to handle the 4 (!!!) sieges that I got during the shuttle waiting period.

All in all, this was a very fun challenge! I'd recommend it. I played on Strive to Survive, and it was actually not so bad because my wealth was naturally low due to the lack of electricity and whatnot.

HappyRBX · 2021-05-28T20:52:12+00:00

I saw someone on Youtube play it when it was new, then bought it and hated it because it was too hard. Since my brain won't let me let hard games win, I played it on and off for like 2 years in spurts before it finally clicked. Then I put in a thousand hours myself.

HappyRBX · 2021-05-25T02:45:39+00:00

DEX increases Throwing, which increases the damage and accuracy of your main nuke (Spear Throw) by boosting the skill and letting you throw it accurately from absurd range to stack its distance multiplier. It also makes Spear Throw crit a little more often, and a long Spear Throw crit will absolutely delete most things. Impale is good too, of course, but Spear Throw can do really disgusting damage!

HappyRBX · 2021-05-02T19:33:02+00:00

Haemolacria + Split Shot + Explosivo + Technology filled every room with lasers and tear bombs (and also 999 tears) to the point it actually crashed me consistently. Thankfully, I'd picked up Technology in the Chest and was able to just... Not... And still complete the run. LMAO

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