In Progress Let's succeed at RimWorld!

[baud]

Not sure how that works without an activator but iirc they in dormant sleep until you attack them? If so, simply create few storage spaces with 1mortar shells next to all the crap and then start a fire(molotovs?) to explode them and create some kind of chain reaction with one of the rocket launchers. Well, provided that we can start that fire and have enough mortar shells.
Should work much better than regular mortar fire which is blind AF. And we probably won't waste any orbital bombardments.

Right now we have 6 explosive shells and 4 incendiary, no idea if that's enough.
Also I don't know if the centipede wakes up when we get close (and I think we'd get raped pretty bad at close range by the inferno weapons)

 

[Johannes]

Are those green dots power cells? Just blow those up and chain reaction should follow. Salvaging them would be cool to use them as bombs later, but I think that's not possible since they'd likely blow up from the turrets explosions anyway.

Also usually it's not worth it to sell animals, better to butcher and process them first and then sell that. Even if you just sell the meat n skin iirc, and takes only minimal effort. And if you process that to survival meals and clothing, that's much more lucrative still but takes more work (but also trains colonists). Selling meat since there's so much of it, and keeping the leathers for crafting is usually a good idea, also because training crafters is more valuable than cooks, at least by the time you have a cook who can butcher with full efficiency.

 

[baud]

Are those green dots power cells? Just blow those up and chain reaction should follow. Salvaging them would be cool to use them as bombs later, but I think that's not possible since they'd likely blow up from the turrets explosions anyway.

No, the green dots are just small lamps, so I won't be able to do that.

Thanks for the information on the animals. I think I'll mostly slaughter the newborns animals then.

 

[Johannes]

Hmm, then a decent way to tackle those mechs would be just EMP and firepower. EMP won't stun them for forever, but if you have enough guys shooting, knocking them out before they wake up could work. If you can't hit them all with 1 EMP grenade at once, craft some new grenades / launcher. The big turrets can cause an explosion when they die, the small ones might be close enough to take damage from that. The centipede will take a lot more punishment to kill unless you're really lucky, but when the turrets are out, you can just hit it in melee with someone, which makes it a lot less dangerous - it hits kinda hard in melee, but that's nothing compared to the inferno cannon.

And have some animals around to act as easy targets, to spare the colonists from getting shot if shit doesn't go perfectly. Or some imperial / allied help.

Also just letting them chill there to help against a future raid is an option.

 

[baud]

First of Septober to 6th of Septober

(note: was done before Johannes' above post)

Early in the morning, once both Demo.graph and Tindlri are up, I send them to start shooting at the cluster with sniper rifles. The idea is to pull the fat slug away from the turrets and shoot it, while trying to stay out of range of its inferno cannon. Once the centipede is dealt with, we'll be able to deal with the turrets at our own pace.
I've prevented any animals from following them, as I don't think they would have been of much help here.

Tindlri immediately loses a toe to a turret. I was too slow when moving him away after the activation. This will even more reduce his move speed, in addition to the penalty brought by his leg scar. I guess he's at the top of the list for bionic legs, once we can build them.
Maybe I should have awaken them by mean of a mortar shell or two.

And then gets set on fire, as if it wasn't enough.

After a few minutes, I successfully pulled the centipede away from the cluster and start plinking away at his massive healthbar. With a colonist on each side, the centipede will change targets, so that both stay out of range of his weapon, but that doesn't help the fires that had been lit all around the area.

Then Tindlri got fed up shooting at a giant slug on an empty stomach (I drafted him before he had time to eat) and go back to grab a snack. At least at this point the centipede is damaged enough that he doesn't pose any threat to Demo.graph, who can finish him on his own.
I have Azira arrest Tindlri, so I can send him get treated at the hospital.

But then I got pulled away from the colony because Comtesse has reached her destination and is trading with our neighbors. I just get a marine helmet, to improve someone's protection, before sending on her back home.

The centipede finally fall, leaving behind a big forest fire. I then undraft Demo.grah, who's thoroughly fed up, just like Tindlri (no food and no distraction while slowly emptying the centipede's health bar).

And Demo.graph immediately overdose in the dining room, just so that can join his brother-in-arm Tindlri in the hospital!

But to celebrate our first victory against the cluster, SmartCheetah throw a party and everyone come (Tindlri hasn't arrived yet in the picture above)!

Next day, I send Tindlri to work on the turrets, which is slow going, but he avoids any injuries and destroyed one of the big turrets. As the sniper rifle allows him to stand just on the edge of the turret's range, the turret keep missing, whereas the sniper rifle usually hit.

But then I realized that the fire had continued to spread and I didn't want for all the map to burn down.
First thing I did was moving a firepopper on the edge of the blaze, which give us some breathing room.

But as I send our colonists deal with the fire, I got a new distraction, with Comtesse getting ambushed!

But it's just a distraction and the two mad animals are quickly put down by Comtesse.

Then Randy makes fun of my efforts and just sends rain to stop the fire.

Next day, I continues, Tindlri destroys one of the small turrets and the resulting explosion catch the big inferno turret.

And Demo.grah finishes the job.

But Randy continues and we get a short-circuit. But the damages are minor and since it happened during the day, the solar panels quickly refill the batteries.

As a reward, Tindlri receives the nuclear stomach, to reduce the time he need to spend eating. (well Johannes bought it for him and I don't have a better idea) On the other hand, increased risk of cancer, but hey, life's on the Rim is short either way.

Randy isn't done and we get a blight on the healroot. Again, not a big issue as we have a lot of healroot already stored.

But the upside of this is that had freed some space to grow some more food.

Beating the mechs give a mood boost, that's nice.

Comtesse comes back and celebrates her return by cracking open a cold one, while the other colonists unload the caravan, with the new rifles being distributed to the colonists and the rocket launcher stored with the others.

I think it's the second time it happens, but at least this time I think of preventing the animals from accessing this area. I also use this opportunity to expand the length of the trapped corridor.

The fabrication tech is finally researched, so I start building a new room to put the fabrication bench, above the current workshop. I also start researching gas operation, with the idea of researching next the autocannon turret.

And I get a new quest, so I guess it's a good spot to stop this part. I'm pretty sure I'm going to accept and I was thinking choosing the goodwill from the Empire, since it will make our relationship reach 100, so the allied status, so we'd be able to request aid and caravans.

TL;DR: finished the mech cluster, Randy is a dick, Tindlri is now augmented and I got a new quest.

 

[Johannes]

If you put the fabrication bench in the same room, it can benefit from the same toolboxes as the other benches.

 

[baud]

If you put the fabrication bench in the same room, it can benefit from the same toolboxes as the other benches.

I forgot about them, thank you for the reminder. I'll see if I can't fit it there. Or just remove the wall between the two rooms

 

[baud]

6th of Septober to 8th of Septober

In preparation for the next quest (and its associated raid), I give Johannes the shooting neurotrainer

Nice.

I select Comtesse, Falski, Demo.graph, Tindlri and Johannes to protect the shuttle, so I will give them all our armors and make sure they have the brand new pulse rifles.

I accept the quest with the goodwill reward.

The shuttle lands just above our colony.

Three guys disembark. I can't control them (I would have sent them behind the walls in that case), so we'll have to defend the crash site.

The team is around the shuttle and the raid arrive (the blood on the ground on the second picture is from an earlier hunt).

I wanted to give the insanity lance a try, but it's a shock lance, so the target will only be knocked down.

Falski and Comtesse are engaged in melee while the rest keep on shooting.

And again superior firepower wins the day, with the tribals leaving their dead and one unconscious colonist. They also leave a big pile of pemmican, perhaps I'll just let the colonists eat it, that'd remove the mood penalty from the nutrient paste.

I think I'll try to recruit him, perhaps to use him as a handler (and then discharge Tindlri from that job).

Damage is light, Falski is bruised and one of our donkey is wounded.

The crashed colonists then leave in another shuttle and now we're allied with the Empire. Nice.

One of our dog has cirrhosis. I'll guess that dog had been stuck in the training area there without food and drank alcohol to survive?

Got another quest, doesn't seem too complicated, so I accept if for the medicine and plasteel.

A hare tries to have a go at our colonists but it dies on the first trap. More meat for the freezer!

Cleaning up the corpses from the raid. I don't think I'm ready with dealing with human butchering, so I prefer to just burn them, so that to avoid possible mood penalties.

Got an imperial trade caravan, but I just bought some mortar shells.

After this, as planned, I start on the turret tech. After I think the next project will be bionics replacement.

Here you can see the fabrication bench. In the end I just put some more crafting material in the new room above. I also stockpiled some packaged meal next to the trade beacon, that way we'd be able to sell them.

Randy! Long time no see, ain't it?

Spoiler

 

[Johannes]

Animals will drink booze if they're allowed in the area where the booze is. Forbidding it will stop them from imbibing, but overall you can't control their diet. Same with ambrosia, since these are drugs with small nutritional value.

 

[baud]

Animals will drink booze if they're allowed in the area where the booze is. Forbidding it will stop them from imbibing, but overall you can't control their diet. Same with ambrosia, since these are drugs with small nutritional value.

yes, I got some issues with that, I keep realizing there's a food source I don't want the animals to eat, I forbid that and so on

 

[baud]

11 Man-Hunting Polar Bear VS Primordia

While the polar bears approach, everyone is getting into position. Haulers animals take refuge behind the walls, guard-trained animals join their master, sniper rifles are exchanged for shorter range weapons and turrets are activated.

Then I remember Comtesse got some friends above who are ready to send some meatshieldsbrave defenders of truth and justice.

STEEL REHN!

The plan was for them to hold position on the side and grab the attention of some of the bears.
But then start a good old comedy of errors, showing the limits of the Rimworld pawn IA:

The troopers move towards the bears then follow those that were already in the trap corridor.

Except there was a second group, just behind the first. The dead trooper on the left is emanating acid from an implant, preventing me from retrieving his stuff.

Stuck in a narrow corridor, the troopers are slaughtered by the bears. Too bad the acid thingy doesn't do any damage to enemies around the dead troopers, could have been fun.
In the end they only killed one bear and caused the bears to arrive in one group instead of split into two, a pretty poor showing. But some of it could be laid down at my feet, as I deployed them too early and too far from the rest of the colonists.

Then the bears bull through the trap and enter the killbox, under the fire of our turrets and colonists.

The usual clusterfuck melee.

Melee which is won by our brave colonists!

Comtesse is bruised.

And some animals got some various wounds.

Got 5 non-rotting bears out of this.

Cleaning up.

I wanted to send ValeVelkal to heal Comtesse's bruise, so that she'd leave the hospital, but realized she was otherwise occupied.

 

[baud]

Not much has happened so far, so no post yet, but I got an offer for a difficult quest:

Should I try it?

 

[Azira]

They will not do any work, but they can be drafted IIRC. How confident are you handling mech clusters?

 

[baud]

They will not do any work, but they can be drafted IIRC. How confident are you handling mech clusters?

Not that much, but it depends if they try to attack as soon as they land or not.

 

[Azira]

Well, this is a fun LP, is it not? Does not matter if you fail horribly and get everyone killed. It's all part of the fun, yes?

Do it. I've no preference as to which reward you choose though.

 

[Johannes]

Definitely go for the sword. Call for allies (caravans can help too when they're around), fire rocket launchers, animal kamikazes, human kamikazes (could devise something with drop pods - or with the jump pack, however that works)... Whatever it takes, must acquire loot

Edit: wtf is the thing that Falksi is wearing

 

[baud]

Definitely go for the sword. Call for allies (caravans can help too when they're around), fire rocket launchers, animal kamikazes, human kamikazes (could devise something with drop pods - or with the jump pack, however that works)... Whatever it takes, must acquire loot

Edit: wtf is the thing that Falksi is wearing

Falski is wearing a new item from one of the latest patches, a cape. I crafted one to checked how they looked and Falski grabbed it.

And ok, I'll give the quest a try

 

[baud]

9th of Septober to 14th of Septober

After the manhunter pack, we're rebuilding the traps.

Some walls were still in wood.

That's interesting, I think I'll keep that until we see a rare animal. Maybe a Thrumbo if we're lucky.

ItsChon's sister (and one of the only person he appreciates) comes by.
We sell her one of our statue, because every little bit of silver helps.

Lol, two double size mechanoid cluster, I'm not doing that. Or at least until asking the thread about it.

Research for the autocannon turret is finished, but I'll have to do some change to the killbox before building one. As planned, research on bionics replacement start.

As Johannes is our main researcher, he gets the research implant that was lying around.

At least she doesn't botch surgeries often.

A smelter is built to use all the stell slag chunk, as I hadn't expected how much steel was needed for the autocannon turret.

Speaking of autocannon, it is now built, on the side of the killbox.

Well, at least it's affecting two prisoners, one who is leaving in a few days, so it's not too bad.

I realized the mechanoid cluster had left behind a lamp, so I wanted to use in the rec room, as a kind of trophy, but with -20 beauty, I put it in storage, to be sold at a later date.

Got a trader.
Bought a bull (to get a breeding pair with the cow we already had), some steel, plasteel, components, neutronamine and low shield. Sold some sculptures, the packaged meals and crafted clothing.

The low-shield pack. I then realized I could have easily crafted one, as it's unlocked with the same research as the shield belt.

Before accepting the quest, I start building the guest quarters.

Thanks Randy, I guess?

Bionics are researched, I start building one for Comtesse. Though that shit's expensive, I'm glad we stockpiled plasteel and advanced components.

The quarters are finished. All the beds are reused, either from the prison or from storage.

ItsChon should really step up his insult game.

But before I can start the quest, I got a nice little gift from Randy.

 

[Azira]

Yay you! Practice! Randy delivers.

 

[baud]

Yay you! Practice! Randy delivers.

I'm going to use your pawn as target practice and you'll see how it goes!

Or maybe as a meatshield? I mean the Empire won't send more of them and I want to be able to call for help when doing the quest

 

[Azira]

I'm a wimp and won't use weapons. One angry look from the mechs, and I'll be lying on the ground, bleeding.

 

[Johannes]

Why autocannon? At that range the small turrets deal more damage, and dont have the threat of such a big explosion when they're shot.

 

[baud]

Why autocannon? At that range the small turrets deal more damage, and dont have the threat of such a big explosion when they're shot.

I wanted to give it a try. (though right now I have a solar flare, so everything's shut down)

 

[baud]

14th of Septober 1st of Decembary

So the ship spawned with 6 pikemen and 4 lancers. A lot of long-ranged firepower.

I start by equiping all the available armors and bringing most animals inside.

Then the plan was to awake the mechanoids with mortar fire, then hoping they'll try to attack, going through the killbox, where we should have enough firepower to kill them.

The awaking part worked, but the mechanoids stayed around the ship, even after I dropped a few more shells on them, though it killed a lancer.

I got another quest while I try to deal with this mess, but 8 colonists is too many, that'd leave only two colonists back at the base. It could be doable if we could take animals with us and/or less than 8 colonists.

Demo.graph is sent with a sniper rifle to see if she can't get the mechanoids to follow, but no luck, even if one pikemen is killed.

Then a rainy thunderstorm start lighting fire everywhere.

And because Randy don't want to think he's forgotten me, I got a solar flare. No more turrets for me! Good thing the mechanoids don't go into our killbox then!

Winter is coming, plants are starting to die from the cold. I harvest all I can from inside the walls. Those outside are out of our reach as long as the ship is there, I tried to grab some psychoid leaves (because yaaaaaayo) there and ItsChon got shot for it.

So since using the killbox isn't an option and I don't want to rush everyone in, the new plan is to try to do slowly with sniper. As you'll see if you read further, trying to outsnipe that group of long-range mechanoids wasn't a very bright idea.
In retrospect, I think I should have dealt with the ship by building barricades around it (even bringing some turrets) and shoot it dead and/or overwhelming them with numbers. But now that the mechanoids are awaken it's a moot point.

The next day I have another go at the mechanoids, with Demo.graph is sniping at them from above and I send Comtesse in the confusion, using beckon to bring one of the mech closer, to hit him. But the mech just get shot by his allies. I then retreat, with Demo.graph having taken a few flesh wounds.
Tindlri is sent to try and snipe them and suffers the same fate.

While I try to redo the same thing with Comtesse, a herd of thrumbo arrives. Maybe I'll use Tindlri inspired taming on them, but right now he's stuck in the hospital.

Well Comtesse's next attempt doesn't go as well as the first and she loses another finger and failed to bash to death the lancer she influenced with her mind powers! Good thing I built a new arm for her, though.

Randy doesn't stop.

At least something good happened that day, one of our prisoner returns to the stars and we get some plasteel and medicine.

At this point, the enemy is down to 2 lancers and 4 pikemen, all with various damage.

While the thrumbo are still there, I tame one. I'll hunt the others if everyone can get healed up in time.

I then send the thrumbo toward the ship, but sadly it doesn't attack the mechanoids, instead fleeing when hit. But that allows Demo.graph to snipe mostly uninterrupted.

When only two mechanoids are remaining, I send the thrumbo to get healed, while Falski (with some animals) and Johannes are sent to help finish the job.

The usual friendly fire accident.

Then Johannes and Falski are tasked with destroying the ship, but...

Spoiler

I stopped there, so I have no idea how it will end up

 

[SmartCheetah]

Goodbye Falksi? Maybe somehow he will survive this... Maybe.