Tales From the Rim: Rimworld Adventures

[Darkfyre99]

I did not expect to read such a resumé but it's a worthy finish to the narration.

I really bungled my approach to my first mech cluster. It was a total party kill. I reran that scenario four different times, just for the experience, and the best I could get was half the group dead, and only because neither of the canisters spawned another fire-spewing inferno wielding centipede. Just one of those things had half my people running around on fire, which made it pretty hard for them to fight back.

It was only after the last attempt that I realized that I'd forgotten that mortars were an important part of a base's defenses, especially EMP shells against mechanoids.

But I'm honoring the initial total party kill, despite my temptation to save save scum.

Next up: adding ideology to the mix. I'm tempted to use an ideology based on the Church of the New Ark from Surviving Mars.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I really bungled my approach to my first mech cluster. It was a total party kill. I reran that scenario four different times, just for the experience, and the best I could get was half the group dead, and only because neither of the canisters spawned another fire-spewing inferno wielding centipede. Just one of those things had half my people running around on fire, which made it pretty hard for them to fight back.

It was only after the last attempt that I realized that I'd forgotten that mortars were an important part of a base's defenses, especially EMP shells against mechanoids.

But I'm honoring the initial total party kill, despite my temptation to save save scum.

Next up: adding ideology to the mix. I'm tempted to use an ideology based on the Church of the New Ark from Surviving Mars.

You can use psychic lances and powers on them, just in case you didn't know.

 

[Darkfyre99]

You can use psychic lances and powers on them, just in case you didn't know.

I knew that. But the psychic powers I’d gotten weren’t very good for combat. Great for breaking the resistance of captured pawns, but bad for combat.

I just realized the paralyzed Imperial “guest” we were hosting starved to death as well. Oops!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I knew that. But the psychic powers I’d gotten weren’t very good for combat. Great for breaking the resistance of captured pawns, but bad for combat.

I just realized the paralyzed Imperial “guest” we were hosting starved to death as well. Oops!

Yeah, I never used these neither. In my tribal runs the whole meditating ties up to a quarter of a workday - that's why I refrained from the psychics in my recent run. The odd Knight will have to do. I'm more concerned about the mechs, too. While my toxic, desolate valley protects me from organic enemies quite well, the mechs just dont care. And the mod reworks a lot of the armour and shooting stuff. I might end up with guns and weapons that do nothing.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Well... making an Ideology was a little easier than I expected, primarily because Rimworld did a pretty good job selecting the precepts from my starting memes of Collectivism and Proselytizer. I decided to choose Randy Random as my storyteller.

My starting pawns landed in a temperate forest with small hills, beside a small stream. They were a well rounded batch: aside from combat, all the major skills were well represented.

Matzi - A farmer who would spend his free time researching. Because his combat skills were all but non-existent, he defaulted as the melee fighter of the three, and got the starting knife.

Kat - The "big girl" of the group, she was a builder and the miner of the group. She also was skilled with animals. She got the starting pistol, and started the game with a knee spike installed in her left leg, thus allowing her to fulfil both roles in combat.

Anna - A skilled cook, medic, and with strong social skills, she also had decent crafting skills. She got the starting rifle, being the shot (relatively) of the group.

Things started fairly well, until on the third day and everyone came down with muscle parasites. Then Anna got killed by a bear. And then we got attacked by twice our number from the cannibalistic neighboring tribe, Kat got taken down by a lucky shot, and that was it.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Which difficulty level did you set Randy at?

 

[Darkfyre99]

Which difficulty level did you set Randy at?

I’d bumped up the difficulty another notch, so “Blood and Dust,” and I’d decided to take the training wheels off, so I went with commitment mode.

It was a perfect storm of disasters. If not for the parasites not being cured faster, Anna could’ve outraced the bear. If not for Anna being unable to escape the bear, Matzi and Kat wouldn’t have been out in the open near where that raid spawned, in a vain attempt to save her.

Well, at least I had time to try out my new starting strategy, which had gotten us set up in record time, muscle parasites or not. It was heartlessly utilitarian, but it had tiny bedrooms for everyone, a common hall, a granary containing our first rice harvest, and we’d managed to tame a breeding pair of turkeys using the fruit from nearby berry bushes. My only mistake was using herbal meds to treat the infection.

I’m going to start a new game tonight. Keep the difficulty level and AI, but allow saves again.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I tennd to use barracks in the dining / rec room. I find work time is the major limitation and keeping pathing to a minimum gets more stuff done.

 

[Darkfyre99]

I tennd to use barracks in the dining / rec room. I find work time is the major limitation and keeping pathing to a minimum gets more stuff done.

Hmm... my instinct is to get them out of barracks as fast as possible, but this might be worth a try, at least at the beginning. Hmm...

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Hmm... my instinct is to get them out of barracks as fast as possible, but this might be worth a try, at least at the beginning. Hmm...

3 rooms in one. They get the likes for impressive rec room, impressive dining room and impressive barracks just visiting once and disturbed sleep is capped at -3. The crib goes in, too and everyone gets a thought from baby interaction.
And when the enemies land smack in the middle of the room it'll be one hell of a bloodshed. Best air raid I ever had. Best use case for tox grenades: indoors.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

What I sort out is dudes with jealous and greedy traits. Pyros are no gos to (too much babysitting). The "nobles" eventually get their own quarters. Or the loner melee specialist a room next to the prison cells. I used to do it Dwarf Fortress style but it really bloats the distances. In barracks they get up, play games, eat, snort yayo and have beer all in one go. Also better to get the socialising to work. I also tend to have one big workshop in order to have many peeps interact as much as possible. Recently I turned to sort out the abrasive and social fighters, too.
I usually restrict slaves from the workshops and weapon storages but they can be inventive with a beer bottle. I also risk lives by trusting slaves to do the doctoring. Saving colonist lives is a good way to earn the ticket to freedom. Betrayal however is a severe charge.

 

[Darkfyre99]

What I sort out is dudes with jealous and greedy traits. Pyros are no gos to (too much babysitting). The "nobles" eventually get their own quarters. Or the loner melee specialist a room next to the prison cells. I used to do it Dwarf Fortress style but it really bloats the distances. In barracks they get up, play games, eat, snort yayo and have beer all in one go. Also better to get the socialising to work. I also tend to have one big workshop in order to have many peeps interact as much as possible. Recently I turned to sort out the abrasive and social fighters, too.
I usually restrict slaves from the workshops and weapon storages but they can be inventive with a beer bottle. I also risk lives by trusting slaves to do the doctoring. Saving colonist lives is a good way to earn the ticket to freedom. Betrayal however is a severe charge.

Not to mention, it'll help slow down the wealth creep I keep having to deal with. In a normal bedroom, you have one bed, one nightstand, and one dresser... for at most two colonists. In a barracks, you can cram in eight colonist beds around two nightstands, with one dresser between them.

Definitely going to try it this time.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Not to mention, it'll help slow down the wealth creep I keep having to deal with. In a normal bedroom, you have one bed, one nightstand, and one dresser... for at most two colonists. In a barracks, you can cram in eight colonist beds around two nightstands, with one dresser between them.

Definitely going to try it this time.

There are no dressers nor nightstands in my barracks - this is the Rimworld, not Hotel Excelsior. Such amenities only go into private bedrooms, either reserved for the decadent imperial minions or colonists who rightfully take a seat at the table of power. Can't have a representative without a proper night stand, carved from jade or uranium. But largely, luxury items are not issued.
But yeah, I think it also would cut down on the wealth. However I take measures to enlarge and enrich this central room of the colony with art and tables and billard and what have you.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Randy's been kind of kind to my second colony of the Church of the New Ark. The first raid was two rabid rabbits that were easily dispatched (and added to the stew pot). Then came a single space pirate with a shotgun, who was killed without doing anything more severe than a few bruises, which gave our colony a little more firepower when two tribals showed up... with clubs.

My starting colonists are a family unit:

The father is Gecko, with strong passion for research and construction skills, and minor passion for cooking and animals. The older/younger son is Stone, with decent combat skills, as well as a strong passion for construction, and minor passion for cooking and crafting. The younger/older sister is McNeil, who has a fast learner, as well as strong passion for crafting and medicine, and minor passion for social. She also has the best plant skill of the three, making her our current default farmer. She also came down with fibrous mechanites, which is coming in handy because she's been doing the bulk of the hauling between harvests.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Randy’s still being kind of chill with my colony. McNeil was appointed the Colony’s Confessor as soon as we had enough plain leather for a cape, which allowed us our first lantern ceremony, which drew in yet another child of Gecko, the youngest son/oldest child of Sugar, a very passionate farmer and researcher, with stronger medical skills than McNeil. I love how no FTL in this universe, combined with cryo-suspension, makes for such interesting relationships between everyone.

First cotton crop is in, allowing everyone else to wear dusters. The colony now has leather cowboy hats as well, except for McNeil who is looking regal in her guinea pig fur authority cap. We now have power as well, allowing for a freezer for meat and animal carcasses waiting to be butchered, as well as an air conditioned common room/barracks. The biggest raid have we faced was six rabid raccoons, with Sugar getting an infected bite, necessitating the use of some of our good medicine. The biggest threat we faced has been multiple predators wandering into our vicinity, which thanks to our hunting have attacked the colony’s hunter-gatherers. Due to nobody having muscle parasites, most were easily dispatched… except for the bear who managed to catch up with Sugar before he managed to completely rejoin the others. He was only lightly mauled before being stunned by Gecko’s newly acquired masterwork gladius.

Here’s hoping the first crop of healing herbs matures soon, so I don’t have to send Sugar so far afield to keep our meds well stocked… and we can switch to herbal meds for most injuries. I’m also hoping for a pawn with strong social skills to appoint as our leader from the next lantern ceremony.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Randy still behaved himself during last night’s session, relatively speaking.

The Empire has asked our colony to look after a pair of pet cows for 19 days, in exchange for some masterwork bows. Don’t really need the bows at the moment, but if the cow gives birth before we need to send them back, we get to keep the calf. We also tamed a female turkey, but we need a male to have them reproduce. A small flock of sheep have also decided we’re their new owners, which will turn pasture land into meat and wool. Our granary is groaning under the weight of our first corn harvest.

Six pirates attacked, which we managed to drive off with only minor injuries. Three were killed outright, and we captured two: “Sister” (no relation) and Nathan. The former has high skills at mining and several other useful skills, and the latter has decent social skills, as well as decent melee skills. We stored them temporarily in the church before building a proper prison to house them. It’s going to be a long time before they become productive members of the colony: first we must convert them to the Church of the New Ark, before we reduce their resistance.

Our second lantern festival was an overwhelming success. We welcomed Lucky to New Jerusalem, a second decent shooter, with high skill at farming and several other useful skills. Time to do some reorganization of the colony’s priorities, and grow some devilstrand.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

New DLC, new playthrough(s). I have settled with emergency mod list and take two families into the toxic waste. The women seem to prefer their Greek origins, already the first babies popped out - it's two boys. We need but one, should I go full Sparta on them? I have this as chill playthrough. These settlers would never touch that strange monolith, no sir.
However, I can't rule out the kids. Dunno if kids can interact with the monolith, but for roleplay purposes I just assume Daimos stumbles over the sinister, smoot steps and touches the humming thing where noone should never ever have touched the accursed thing.
For now I have invited a creepy superpeep, like end game level peep. The "dealmaker" (with the devil or what?) - I ordered a surgical examination and everything checked out. He's a blooddrinker worshipper and cannibal but that doesn't bother my Toxmaxist community. The thing really going is that he is "one of us" - as in it's a peep from my custom geneline and my guys are firm genelineists (how else would you survive otherwise in this wasteland).

Already had the first raids and unintended deaths from prisoners and guests dying of toxic enrichment. Most unfit of this realm now arrive with gasmasks, I discovered - cheaters. This playthrough will see ample use of turrets.

 

[Darkfyre99]

It’s been a while since I’ve played Rimworld, so I may have to give the new DLC a spin. So many games, so little free time at home.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

There was a tale of horrible treason and a (hopefully) catharsis. The session ended with a distress call from enemy faction and a lot of death. If you don't run and persist being thorough it can pay out well.
Random joiners come mostly as baseliner so I turn them all away. Evgeni, the sinister dealmaker has been rechristened Neumann (I know, not a lot of finesse on my part but it gave me a funny thought about adding "Alfred E." maybe - he's a silly peon). All the animals hog the entry to the map (it's a hidden valley surrounded by mountains) and then cling to my fields (because it's the only space not polluted). Wood is getting sparse and we ran out of components. A caravan to the city might do the trick, combing the mountain in my back didn't - only gave the insects a vector to my base, but I have the new flamethrower from a quest...

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

And what a good flamethrower it is indeed. We bought out the city's components - how long until the store refreshes again? More combing the mountain and nothing. Got chunks I put into the rock grinder to make concrete (that's a mod). The Rimatomics workbench seems to generate errors.
Melodus the youngling investigated the monolith despite being told not to. A dreary fog settled and out of nowhere a creture attacked a passing-by caravan. Could it be related? We have prepared some high security containment to investigate further... The music is ominous - good work.