RimWorld

[Hooahguy]

Just picked this up. Apparently its popular enough that the developers never put it on sale which is interesting. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks fascinating. Sort of like Prison Architect in graphics but with more action than just building and maintaining a facility. And much more of a story with developed characters. Anyone else play it?

[Csargo]

I've seen a few youtube videos of it, and it looked fun. An interesting mix of elements, and things to do. I haven't bought it yet, but I'm definitely think it looks worthy of a purchase. Seems like it would have loads of entertainment value. Let me know what you think once you've played a bit of it, because I'm very interested in the game.

[Hooahguy]

Did the tutorial and then played a little bit more. Its pretty complicated starting out, lots of mechanics that the tutorial doesnt seem to explain, but I will keep at it.

[Beskar]

Aww what happened to Fragony's post?

Anyway, in reply to him, definition of Rim:
Noun: the upper or outer edge of an object, typically something circular or approximately circular.
Verb: 1) form or act as an outer edge or rim for. 2) mark with an encircling stain or deposit.

[Fragony]

Got trimmed I guess

[Hooahguy]

Yeah my bad, felt it was a bit too explicit for this sub.


Anyways, Im a bit more into the game now. Its slow to start, but things are picking up. I have gotten a new colonist now, and I am expanding. Finally figured out how to make a refrigerator so all my food doesnt spoil. Making more crops than just rice and potatoes. Wish my colonists would be more useful instead of whining about every little thing. And one of my four colonists is apparently incapable of violence, and another a brawler and gets mad if I give her a ranged weapon. Thanks a lot, you useless hunter.

[Hooahguy]

Just lost my main colonist. Dammit.

EDIT: I loaded a save and saved my main colonist. Im new at this, sue me.

Winter is coming, so Im frantically stockpiling food, wood, and warm clothes. Its pretty tough out there.

[Hooahguy]

So here is my colony as it stands:




Its a pretty decent colony I think. The main issue is that we have problems defending ourselves. We have a shotgun, a bolt-action rifle, and a pistol. Diver up there fancies herself a brawler and as such wont use a ranged weapon. Best is a damned pacifist and has to hide whenever someone so much as sneezes. I'm currently crafting a broadsword for her so she will be useful. Anyways, a colony of beavers attacked us in the middle of winter. Aerin lost her foot in the attack when a bad infection took hold. She sorta hobbles around now but still works harder than most of them. Meowski is labelled a computer or something and managed to get herself mauled by the beavers. She probably needs a weapon stronger than a pistol. She barely survived the attack. Then there was a power surge and we lost all of the stored power, and we lost the plants in the greenhouse. Had to start fires to keep the heat. I also was using the greenhouse to make hops for beer but now I gotta start over again. Spring has just begun which means we can grow food again. Thankfully food was not an issue during the winter, as I had literally thousands of potatoes and rice meals.

This game is really great. You get connected to the characters easily. Like when Aerin had that infection I got panicked over the thought of losing my best colonist. Amputating her leg was a necessary sacrifice in order to save her life. Even minor issues can easily blow up (literally), forcing you to scramble to adapt. When the power surge happened I figured that once the power came back on the batteries would simply be recharged via solar panels and life would go on. But something I didnt consider is that the current power needs were so much that when it was daytime, the solar panels couldnt deliver enough power to recharge the batteries very much. So at nightime all the lights went out. It took a bit of time to figure out a solution, which was a generator plus more solar panels. Kinda have the feeling it will happen again though, but my batteries are recharging thankfully.

Some annoyances though, like I wish I could designate food storage and raw materials storage. Like theres no need to put stacks of wood in a freezer alongside the meat. Also need to find a way to get more silver, cant find any on the map. Kinda need the money for more medical supplies for when the next attack happens.

[Fragony]

Yeah my bad, felt it was a bit too explicit for this sub.


Anyways, Im a bit more into the game now. Its slow to start, but things are picking up. I have gotten a new colonist now, and I am expanding. Finally figured out how to make a refrigerator so all my food doesnt spoil. Making more crops than just rice and potatoes. Wish my colonists would be more useful instead of whining about every little thing. And one of my four colonists is apparently incapable of violence, and another a brawler and gets mad if I give her a ranged weapon. Thanks a lot, you useless hunter.

That's ok I knew it could be

[Hooahguy]

Update:

My little colony has doubled in size now! Remo kinda stumbled into the colony, and then three more were saved from either crashed pods or people chasing them. And then one guy was saved from pirate slavers. Things are going pretty well. Two of my colonists got married. Two colonists got cancer and I managed to successfully remove it from them (took a couple botched operations though). At one point half the colony burned down but I managed to rebuild, albeit with some difficulty. Finding enough raw resources is proving to be difficult at this stage. Ive had to start drilling but the game mechanics arent kind to the drilling feature. In the game, you build your drill and it will extract all the resources in a 3x3 square. But you cant uninstall it when its done extracting, you have to completely disassemble it which means you lose valuable resources. But thankfully at this point it has become easier to survive. My colonists have automatic weapons now, decent clothes, arent cold, and Ive managed to harness geothermal power so I rarely run out of power nowadays. Also trying to drain the local river so I can build more. I manage to deal with the Ancient Terror pretty easily by waiting for some heavily armed weapons traders to stop by when I opened the vault and the megaspiders poured out. No need to waste my colonists on them when the arms traders had grenade launchers right?

Anyways, heres the colony as it stands:

[Hooahguy]

Update:

The story of the colony of Parthos is over. Their numbers had strengthened to a full 13 colonists after I rescued two people from slavers. This seems to have angered some people I shouldnt have, as I began to be attacked by a number of large raids which I managed to fend off with no deaths on my side thankfully. But also then I found that it was time to go. Resources were getting scarce. The winters were getting harsher as crop yields dropped. Whereas before I was taking in about 10,000 units of crops each harvest season, it was reduced to about half of that due to random blights and cold snaps suddenly wiping out my crops. It was time to go. So I spent years scrounging for enough parts to build myself a rocket ship, and I blasted off into space. One colonist death, two marriages, god knows how many animals domesticated, 30 hours worth of gameplay.

Final snapshot of the colony, just before the ship took off for better lands:




So now I started another colony of course: Marbosia. Started off with three colonists, saved that last dude from some raiders. He has the bloodthirsty trait which makes fighting with others more likely. He is also a fantastic shooter, so I hope by giving him a gun wont end up blowing up in my face when he fires at someone for annoying him. Two of the other colonists already married, Moff and Skye. Married in like the 5th day. Four huskies joined our colony so they have been helpful hauling food. Trying a more methodical approach to my colony building, whereas before it was rather haphazard. The space to the left of my barracks are reserved for the hospital I will eventually make. The first year or two is always the hardest as you try to get into the swing of things. After that it stabilizes and you get to do more adventurous and creative things. So right now I am focusing on gathering as much food as I can before winter sets in.

[Beskar]

Fine you convinced me, I am going to have a play!

[Csargo]

Fine you convinced me, I am going to have a play!

Yeah me too. I'll probably purchase it soon, it seems pretty fun and interesting.

[Hooahguy]

Great! Also small note, the game literally never goes on sale, so no point waiting for the Steam summer sale.

[Beskar]

I have played for a couple of hours at least, but it is not the easiest game to get into from my initial thoughts. From. getting attacked by gattling gun totting slug monsters and constant raids, my poor colonists are missing body parts left right and centre. A lot of things seem to be locked behind research too that I had to Google solutions on how to get components and I think I cleared the map of them.. need to find where to make them.

[Hooahguy]

For people just starting out I would start with the lower difficulties and then raise it as you get your footing. Makes it much easier to learn the ropes as you arent being raided every other week. As for components, you can make them with a certain kind of workbench, but your colonists need level 10 crafting to make them. Especially starting out, a lack of components is one of the most frustrating setbacks possible (besides raids, fires, and blights). Almost froze to death one winter when all my generators broke down and I lacked components. Then I found that you could make a campfire to help heat rooms.

[Beskar]

Need to get to grips with the world map bit.

I did make a terrible mistake in landing at an estuary initially too, I would have thought water was important for water, fishing, and what not. Turned out, all it does is prevent me building stuff or getting in my way.

[Hooahguy]

Yeah, water is a weak point in the game in my opinion. I hope that they end up adding fish or something in the future so theres another source of food but I made the same mistake. Twice.

[Sir Moody]

Yeah, water is a weak point in the game in my opinion. I hope that they end up adding fish or something in the future so theres another source of food but I made the same mistake. Twice.

Once you get a bit more experienced in the ways of the Rim you will think differently - deep water has an amazing advantage that can help you massively - I'm rather enjoying your write ups so I wont spoil it - once you figure it out the game gets a little less special.

I will say the game does have a very active modding community and there is a pretty popular fishing mod.

[Hooahguy]

Once you get a bit more experienced in the ways of the Rim you will think differently - deep water has an amazing advantage that can help you massively - I'm rather enjoying your write ups so I wont spoil it - once you figure it out the game gets a little less special.

I will say the game does have a very active modding community and there is a pretty popular fishing mod.

Hint? Ive been trying to figure this out and no luck. Not even google has helped.

I will update my story later today!

[Sir Moody]

Hint? Ive been trying to figure this out and no luck. Not even google has helped.

I will update my story later today!

think along the lines of the Problem Beskar was having with water - the problem he was having presents a very big benefit when applied to hostiles...

[Hooahguy]

Well in the sense that you can easily funnel enemies into kill zones, if thats what you are talking about.

[Sir Moody]

Well in the sense that you can easily funnel enemies into kill zones, if thats what you are talking about.

Thats exactly it - deep water is impassable so building on the coast means you never have to worry about raider attacks from one direction (hell there are a few seeds which have coast on three sides so you always know where the raids will come from) this simplifies defence designs a lot - in addition shallow water slows movement massively making it very helpful in slowing assaults.

Once you master funnelling the enemies the only types of attack that can hurt you are Drop pods, Space ship crashes and Sieges (add in infestations if you build into a mountain).

some of my late colonies dont even require colonists to defend - the traps plus turrets just decimate even large tribal hordes... it makes the game a little more dull and predictable which is counter to what makes the early game so fun (you are always one bad event from failure).

[Hooahguy]

Thats exactly it - deep water is impassable so building on the coast means you never have to worry about raider attacks from one direction (hell there are a few seeds which have coast on three sides so you always know where the raids will come from) this simplifies defence designs a lot - in addition shallow water slows movement massively making it very helpful in slowing assaults.

Once you master funnelling the enemies the only types of attack that can hurt you are Drop pods, Space ship crashes and Sieges (add in infestations if you build into a mountain).

some of my late colonies dont even require colonists to defend - the traps plus turrets just decimate even large tribal hordes... it makes the game a little more dull and predictable which is counter to what makes the early game so fun (you are always one bad event from failure).

Oh well that makes sense. I actually have already done that. When I get home I will post my defense setup! I got a bridge mod which allows me to build walls on water so I actually sealed off one of the water entrances. Might seal off the other one to prevent wild animals from killing my pets.

[Hooahguy]

Alright so here is my colony in its current form:

Top half of the colony:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bottom half:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Things are pretty decent right now. Manged to get enough steel to ring around my colony. Plenty of food, and I have been able to fight off raids with ease. I have a bridge mod which allows me to build walls on the water so I can seal off those ends.The AI funnels itself into the corridor on the left where there are plenty of deadfall traps. Combined with the automated turrets on the bridge, things are pretty decent. I have a bridge mod which allows me to build walls on the water so I can seal off those ends. I also have a mortar which is pretty sweet. Have had difficulty expanding my colonists though. The new people I have taken on have all been pyromaniacs, who promptly try to set things on fire. So I have to end up killing them which is a bummer. Really wish there was a way to reduce the amount of offspring my animals are having. They breed like wildfire it seems. I've had to put down more of my own animals than I have enemies.

[Sir Moody]

Just a few pointers.

First steel walls aren't always a good investment - they aren't the strongest (between wood and stone in health) and worse they are flammable so they can spread fires - last thing you want is an fire storm spreading into your colony via your walls. Granite is the best bang for buck if you have it in your seed - if not any other stone will work as well.

Second (and i may be wrong here as your images are quite zoomed out) your fridge isn't very efficient - doors and walls conduct heat and so will force the cooling units to work harder - the most efficient design makes use of double thick walls with an air lock door (door clear space door). Having an inefficient fridge isn't a big deal when things are going well but a heat wave in summer will overwhelm you quickly.

Lastly your trap entrance - while it looks pretty good its generally a good idea to lay traps in a chequerboard pattern - this allows colonists to pass the traps without walking over them thus preventing accidents.

There is more but I don't want to go to far...

[Hooahguy]

Just a few pointers.

First steel walls aren't always a good investment - they aren't the strongest (between wood and stone in health) and worse they are flammable so they can spread fires - last thing you want is an fire storm spreading into your colony via your walls. Granite is the best bang for buck if you have it in your seed - if not any other stone will work as well.

I know, and I plan on replacing them at some point but at the moment I cant due to lack of resources. Its on my list though.

Second (and i may be wrong here as your images are quite zoomed out) your fridge isn't very efficient - doors and walls conduct heat and so will force the cooling units to work harder - the most efficient design makes use of double thick walls with an air lock door (door clear space door). Having an inefficient fridge isn't a big deal when things are going well but a heat wave in summer will overwhelm you quickly.

Thanks for that tip! I wondered why the larger fridge had a hard time so I will fix that now.

Lastly your trap entrance - while it looks pretty good its generally a good idea to lay traps in a chequerboard pattern - this allows colonists to pass the traps without walking over them thus preventing accidents.

There is a door next to the trap that friendlies use, so only animals and enemies use the trap entrance.

[Sir Moody]

There is a door next to the trap that friendlies use, so only animals and enemies use the trap entrance.

The colonists will walk over them to get items dropped by "beneficiaries" - Pawns always take the shortest path so they wont walk around.

[Hooahguy]

So I just had a large assault where some of them walked through my trap area, and some blasted through the wall with grenades. Thankfully I was more than prepared and they were defeated quickly, but it showed me that enemies arent going to automatically use the trap area.

[Montmorency]

I guess this game doesn't have an option to run for the cities or call the govt for help?