Tales From the Rim: Rimworld Adventures

[Darkfyre99]

Finally finished with spring. I think the biggest benefit I got from taking that mission was that having most of winter forced into “foggy rain” is that it meant that Cassandra couldn’t send another cold snap our way. This allowed us to have all our crops planted and ready to start growing once the actual growing season arrived. Having the rice already half grown was just a bonus.

Sturdy outer stone walls have replaced wooden fences for our fields and pastures, and the main base is expanding further. We’ve endured several raids, but no worthy candidates for recruitment. We’re also getting quest offers from the Empire that requires us to deal with multiple mech clusters. Given that Cassandra just dropped a defoliator on us without any mechs as protection, I think it’s safe to assume that we’re under strength for that kind of thing at the moment.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Winter has arrived, and despite a cruel summer…

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ml3nyww80


We’ve arrived in a relatively good place. Our food stores, including hay, are full to the brim, everyone has muffalo wool outerwear, and we’ve tamed our first boomalope to provide chemfuel. We finally also researched batteries, so a wind turbine is also providing our base power.

We’ve added a ninth pawn to the colony, Carey’s niece, a miss Von Doom, who we successfully “rescued” during a pirate raid. We also truly rescued the two survivors from the tribal trade caravan, who had the bad luck of getting caught between them and our base. Thanks to our poor research speed, we’re really struggling tech wise, but those pirates allowed us to upgrade from bows to something from the Industrial Age. Von Doom is letting me add a second researcher on an opposite schedule from Loser, so hopefully we’ll able to wield something more modern… eventually.

I really need to recruit some more male pawns. Not only is Cassandra aware of the current heavily skewed ratio between men and women, and keeps inundating us female-targeted psychic drones, but there’s the morale benefits of having most people in relationships.

Speaking of psychics… I’m really beginning to regret making Loser one. Her abilities are of limited utility, and the amount of time required to keep her psy-focus levels high enough to use them is eating into her limited research time.

 

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My colony is put on hold. The darkness is a bit much. I'm not sure if I will continue it - it is really a bit too dark for my taste. And I picked the darkness loving in the ideology. It just might not be for me. Got three babies, with one kid dying in horrible accident. It was a pretty memorable colony so far.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Winter's over... and it was surprisingly low-key. No cold snaps. Only one raid, plus two small packs of man-eaters: timberwolves and polar bears. Between them and my herds, I had so much animals waiting for butchering, that I had to build a second freezer for them. Aside from fulfilling a delivery of cowboy hats, and building a second "dreadful monument to an AI persona," our focus was research and improving the base.

I think I also spent way too much fine tuning my production queues.

This year's crops have been planted: corn, cotton, and most importantly, devil's strand. Since we're no longer growing rice, my planters will now be able to focus on other tasks.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Oof… Cassandra hit our colony hard with a one-two punch of breacher raids. First came a mechanoid raid with a Termite accompanying them. And of course they came from a direction that would bring them into range of the dreadful monument we had to keep intact, less we provoke an even larger mechanoid raid. We hadn’t even finished healing when the pirates attacked with explosives and incendiaries. Parrot, our cook, lost her leg, and Cobra lost her life to an unlucky shot. Which was particularly bad because she had both the “fast learner” and “too smart” traits, and she’d already reached level 10 researcher from basically nothing.

The only silver lining was that we’d “rescued” a crashed pod with a woman with a passion for research and medicine. And Loser’s psychic powers were the only reason the pirate attack wasn’t worse.

 

[Surefoot]

That's why I play Randy: Cassandra in addition to being boringly predictable (your base wealth increased a lot..) is consistently punishing you for growing your economy. Randy doesnt care

 

[Darkfyre99]

That's why I play Randy: Cassandra in addition to being boringly predictable (your base wealth increased a lot..) is consistently punishing you for growing your economy. Randy doesnt care

That’s the sense I’m starting to get as I dive deeper into the game: “Classic” Cassandra is the harder but predictable. Randy is easier but chaotic. Phoebe “Chillax” is kind of Cassandra Light than being then truly easiest AI.

I suspect what provoked the attacks was our supply of gloriously comfortable Muffalo Parkas and Dusters. Each pawn had their own parka from the winter, then started switching back to dusters with the spring. That’s a lot of “spare” wealth that is just lying around.

 

[Surefoot]

Randy on Merciless difficulty (now called "losing is fun" from what I can see) gives, then takes away.. in a quite unpredictable manner. IMHO that randomness creates more fun and storytelling. Ice sheet challenge in merciless mode with Randy was quite memorable.

 

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Randy has a tendency to fall asleep sometimes. Then no one comes visiting and I like my raids in between.

 

[Surefoot]

Yeah and then suddenly you have multiple mechanoid raids in sequence, on a colony that's barely able to contain just one of them Followed by a surprise fur parka crate drop because why not. The surprise factor, and the unfairness is what makes him entertaining - you cannot anticipate what's going to happen, then maybe nothing happens, maybe Randy decides to destroy half of your colony...

 

[Darkfyre99]

<<< That feeling you get when you realize skill progression is entirely time-based, so maybe investing in a great workshop might be contra-indicated at this time.

 

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I've tried my save again - having activated Combat Extended mod. I ended up having frequent flicker and no clue how to produce ammo. There is a loading bench though but noone wanted to buy it. It sounded kinda interesting. Maybe a new playthrough? Destroying the sunblocker site didn't help so I guess the mod is the culprit.

 

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<<< That feeling you get when you realize skill progression is entirely time-based, so maybe investing in a great workshop might be contra-indicated at this time.

I had these strange reward spike in one of the recent playthroughs and that brought the fun to me gates. Some sort of hundreds of uranium. Never had that much. Gave dozens of Hives, too at events. Party hard. Each clean up session took quite a while.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Spring has finished, and Summer’s hit us with yet another heatwave. And I have two pawns who refused to give up their excellent muffalo parkas for inferior cloth and leather dusters of their own free will, and got heatstroke when outdoors… or indoors in unconditioned areas. Loser’s caravan arrived at the nearest friendly city and unloaded about 5500 silver worth of muffalo parkas and excess muffalo wool, and returned with a pair of breeding chickens, one young male husky (they had no females), and all they had of plasteel and components.

Base expansion has continued. The common work area has been divided into a proper workshop by the new storeroom, and a “Research Lab”. Each single colonist now has her own personal, though very small, bedroom. Perimeter bunkers have been set up in case of another breeching attack. And work priorities have been changed to emphasize cleaning for all non-critical role pawns (namely the cooks, crafters, and researchers).

 

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New playthrough. But old genome, i.e. the tox resistant dwellers genelines were used and I expect with the update to see maybe the odd other NPC crop up with the geneline. Peeps aren't tribals though - the constant meditations got on my nerves. Instead I picked a toxic wasteland to settle. Toxpotatoes are not good, I can tell as much. A bit of clear soil is recommended for all the other crops you might want (cloth and droogs). This time my map has two entries: One main and one mountain pass road and I put my base right on top of the road. It is a bit like the fortress on top of Kankra's lair.
Last time I opened up one of these ingress points by mining but the raids still came from main entry point (or by air) - not sure if this time the "Stairs of Cirith Ungol" will be used for fun visitors. In any case - I am somewhat prepared.

Animals are mixed with the normal ones suffering toxic buildup which can lead to rot on death. Toxalopes are not milkable, which I booed at. Preparing raids incur a tox debuff when they stay on polluted ground - the immediate attackers usually dont stay long enough in danger zone.

Peeps come with empty guns and need ammo bench under the "Combat Extended" mod regime. Armour and Pen have been reworked but so far the Hoollow Point and buckshot deals fine. My impression is the AP ammo does far less damage and just penetrates. AP round of a common caliber 12 dmg compared to hollow point of the same caliber at 25 dmg. Cover is also reworked and I don't know how it plays out. The decriptions make it sound like helmet is good idea.

Plan is to take it slow, enjoy the fuming wastes and enemies breaking like waves on the stout concrete of my fortress and get backbroken by my hardy defenders. No nutripaste, we like our toxitaters tasty and we are full of ourselves quite because we can live under these hard conditions (supremacists). Not gonna take the darkness ever again - I bring the memes with light and fire. Maybe I go tunneler and they go all sweet corrupt gollums at some point. Doesn't sound half bad. I always liked fishse.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Here in our little colony, the action has started heating up. We drove off one raid of pirates, which included Parrot’s husband. We wanted to “recruit” him, but he was in the vanguard of the assault, and died to our traps. At least I don’t have to worry about the social problems that would’ve been caused by his death at the hands of a colonist. On a positive note, we’ve added our second man to the colony. Hopefully, he’ll pair up with one of the lonely ladies here.

Then we had to deal with an assault by another mechanoid raid, including another termite. Thankfully, they approached from a direction with prepared defenses, but it was a close thing. At least nobody lost any limbs this time.

Our last groups have been gathered, including the devilstrand we planted in our fertile soil, before the first cold snap of winter arrived. Our granary is full to the brim, our herds are bountiful, and I just realized that I can have our muffalo graze among our fallow fields during the winter.

And we got a plasma sword for completing an Imperial Quest.

 

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First serious test of firefights. Carys, mother of the newborn, took 3 headshots. Member what I said about helmets? Yeah, I promptly ordered more of them. Carys lost an eye - I tend to have these outcomes.

Also rats, there is lots of rats. Rats, toxrats, boomrats. A whole ratatouille. So far no pollution based insects emerged. I'm sure they'll spawn in the living room when I least need them. Mortar research is under way. Combat Extended claims to have spotter and indirect fire worked out. We'll see about that. The machine gun emplacement was to heavy to lug from the near town. Maybe I can try now with the volunteer donkeys. Overall it is slow pace. I am a bit miffed the only young male in the basket doesn't resonate with any of the three blood-young, gorgeous females. I have no words for it. Carys is liased with off-map father so no interest there. The others just dont match. Yet.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Well, I just had a mech cluster drop in my proverbial front doorstep. My colonists are doing okay food wise, but it took me half the winter to realize why my crafters weren’t producing devilstrand dusters at all. Turned out I had restricted their production to >10 skill, and the only one meeting that requirement was busy producing flak vests and heavy SMGs.

Van Doom managed to catch our second eligible male’s eye, and Cassandra dropped yet another daughter of Loser (and the rather fecund Trev) on our doorstep. Nearly half of our current colonists are related to Trev, and each other, in one manner or another.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Spring had arrived, and the caravan guard Trev was in a good mood. He was really looking forward to their stop at Konewood in general, and his daughters and lover there in particular. The relatively new settlement was really coming together: strong walls protected bountiful herds and fields, and the central compound was becoming increasingly comfortable, if not outright luxurious. Which, to be judged by the mass graves and expanding lines of defense surrounding settlement, attracted hostile as well as envious attention. At times, Trev regretted getting separated from his family during the crash, but he was also rather fond of the traveling life… despite its hazards.

He frowned when one of caravan’s scouts crested a hill in the distance, waving the black and red flags indicating danger ahead. The caravan master immediately ordered a halt, and Trev and the other guards readied their weapons. It took an agonizing long wait for the scout to return. The fact that the scout was walking, and not running, did little to relieve his growing anxiety. It probably meant that Konewood was under siege by bandits. Again.

Tree’s sense of dread grew as the scout whispered her report the master, pointedly not looking in his direction. The caravan master then approached him, face grim, as he placed his hands upon Trev’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, Trev. I know you had kin there.”

The caravan master watched sadly as the distraught man ran towards the former settlement of Konewood. When one of his people moved to stop Trev, he said, “Let him go. He needs to see for himself what happened there. If he survives, he’ll hopefully catch up.” The master watched as Trev struggled up the hill. “Hopefully.”

He turned to his forward scout. “Are you sure it’s not safe to loot the place?”

“No sir. Whatever devilry the mechanoids did there poisoned the entire area. Their herds are dead, and I’m still having trouble breathing from getting close enough to confirm that much.”

“I’ll tell the doc to give you the good stuff.” He turned to the rest of the caravan, raising his voice. “Okay, people! We’re going back the way we came! We’re not resting until we reach road. I want as much distance as possible from this cursed place.”

He hoped he could sell the information on ruins of Konewood when they reached an Imperial Settlement. Adventurers would no doubt be willing to risk looting the place, Mechanoids or toxic fog be damned.

It was, after all, just another day on a Rimworld.

 

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