#rimworld best story generator

[pushing500]

Hey! I just wanna say I binged the whole Mechanitor’s Message saga last night, I just forgot to like the posts as I was going through :P I love the Jones boys so much, I wanna draw Kwahu with his nice braid sometime <3

I'm so happy you liked the story, and I hope you'll stick around to see where things go!! ❤️❤️

If you do end up drawing anything, I'd love to see it if you're up to sharing! 😁

[thydungeongal]

Actually, in reference to that 'how do games mechanics advance the story' ask, and specifically the quoted notes - Do you have any experience with Rimworld? Is there a system you'd recommend for something to approximate it on the table?

I am not familiar with Rimworld, but reading a bit about it: its concept of a futuristic setting where human habitations across the universe are spread out, isolated, and technologically varied very much reminds me of the setup of Stars Without Number. Stars Without Number won't really get you the colony management aspect, though.

The best I can think of, off the top of my head, would be something like Legacy: Life Among the Ruins with the addition of the Generation Ship Worlds of Legacy supplement. Legacy is a game of post-apocalyptic survival where players take control of various factions trying to survive in the wasteland, and the game allows for zooming in onto a personal level, where each player has a character representative of their faction that they are in charge of, as well as zooming out to a faction level. Generation Ship takes that gameplay and puts it on a colony ship flying through space, on its way to an uncharted planet, but some people have accidentally woken up from cryosleep and things are fucked up now.

Not quite the same, but it would allow for zooming in onto a personal level as well as playing things on a wider, colony level, as well as being concerned with survival and resource management. That's the best I can come up with with my limited information.

[schlauttism]

HEY YOU!

if YOU have MCYT autism, you may be interested in getting hyperfixated on THESE non-minecraft things...

-Vinesauce's Vineland Island Tomodachi Life series

Had its own sexyman, Vlinny, and oodles of fanart. The SB edits (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUIE_CDqQ0YlTMriTb9uwKnDsRDwra07X) are the best way to watch if you don't want to watch full vods. Don't go for the extended special, it tries to cram literal days of footage into an hour and a half and leaves out nearly everything.

-PBG Hardcore

Watch clueless people stumble through block games they're bad at! If someone dies, they're out of the series, to be mourned by their allies! No need to watch in order. Lots of the seasons are Minecraft, but it's also a lot of other games too.

-Jreg's centricide series

a rabid sect of neurodivergent teens got fixated on this one back in its prime. I remember the politics yaoi. this one may come with "cringe" and "problematic" caveats given the subject matter is political extremism. cringe is only a problem if you're weak, anyways

-HFJONE

not remotely the same type of content but it's just vibes man my crystal ball is telling me this one hoovered up some ppl who were obsessed with SAD-ist's DSMP stuff

-Jerma

all of him.

-Mr. Samuel Streamer's "Rimworld: Generations" series

Rimworld provides the stories and Mr. Streamer provides the interpretation and pizzazz. A teeny microfandom makes art in his discord. "prepare to die - archonexus" had some great emergent story moments too! There's probably even more gems on his channel I haven't seen.

My highly biased picks. Promo your own suggestions in the tags!!

[homosexualasstransbian]

Alright so as per request, here's a post about my rimworld colony, which is currently recovering from a cold snap.

this is the current state of it, i play with a load of the Vanilla Expanded mods, i'll add the modlist in later, they're all outdated by now i'd assume since i downloaded them like, many months ago.

So to start off, i went with Ariadne Archduchess for my storyteller, basically, the higher your wealth the more she chooses to fuck with you, that is if i understood her storyteller profile right, and the difficulty setting is adventure story.

Ereal is currently, probably my strongest pawn.

Mechanitor that also has really strong psycasts and a shooting skill of 12, which is i think the highest any of the pawns have, but my memory might be very bad.

As for the psycasts, i have the vanilla expanded psycast thingy, which means i can choose them and the psycasters level up by meditating a bunch, so now Ereal has the resurrect psycast, and also a couple lightning psycasts. Luxemburg, my dear friend Luxemburg, has got regrow limbs which helped a lot, since i had a massive component shortage and couldn't make prosthetics for missing limbs, and also makes resurrect infinite, since you have to sacrifice a finger to resurrect someone, but regrow limbs y'know, regrows the limbs.

Minnie is also a psycaster, went with the Empath and Archon route, which means at some point i'll get to do mindbreaks with her <3

Sheyon and Rush were people i got from the "wanderer joins" event, and Tetraquart is a kid that was born very recently, from parents Hitomi and Roubel.

I think The Fabulous and Amira were from the cryptosleep casket in the ancient danger, Theo, Hitomi, Stomp, Vector, Reinald, Roubel, Pokeek and Penelope are all former prisoners.

Sass was a kid that i bought from a trader, i decided to recruit him instead of keep him as a slave, he's currently the 2nd best planter in the colony, after Jacaranda, which is a phytokin offshoot that eats wastepacks and can plant polux bushes. Jacaranda is also bonded with a guaranlen tree.

As for how Jacaranda joined, it was a charity quest where we had to save her from some bandits. That's pretty much it for the colonists, i think the only thing i might've omitted was that Sass and Stomp are Saurids, Sheyon is an Yttakin and Hitomi is a dirtmole.

Now to the Ideoligion of these bitches:

The narrative was just randomly generated, but i think it's decent so here ya go:

And the precepts are:

I haven't gotten any of the relics yet, but i'm planning to get around to that once i set up a genetics lab.

Speaking of genetics.

I have this funny little thing called an Archowomb, which if i do some silly genetics stuff with, i could make an archocentipede, which is, from what i've heard, really fucking strong. Can't wait to get around to that.

For animals, i've got some horses, very useful for expeditions, i have 2 megasloths tamed, and some muffalo + sheep for their wool.

Food, and plants in general: i have like 3k human meat stored, very useful for meals. I have 10x10 planting zones for carrots, green beans, corn, bell peppers, rice and potatoes, 5x5 fields for sunflowers, psychoid plants, smokeleaf plants and some healroot, plus a much bigger healroot field because i was running really low on medicine.

another 10x10 for canola flowers, it's how i keep my colony running, very good for making chemfuel, and chemshine also is quite nice.

and a bigger field for cotton, because i gotta get that cloth somehow.

and da stats for this colony are:

As for stories for this one, i think the only interesting one was that time a mechhive raid dropped right into the fucking food freezer during a components shortage and almost made the entire colony starve.

[simulation-machine]

Update 8: The Great CC Purge of 2024

Ok, so after a nice break from even looking at my PC, I’ve started making decent headway in my project of deleting all the CC I either never use, or no longer want in my game anymore.

More details under the cut!

I pretty much stopped loading the game altogether and just started to sort and delete things using the Sims 4 Mod Manager (click here to check it out). It’s really streamlined the entire process.

My only complaint is that it’s not useful for CC that doesn’t have thumbnails and it doesn’t detect broken CC at all. But I’ve already gotten rid of 100 GB of CC I knew I didn’t want this way, and I’m maybe 3/4 of the way through my first round.

Eventually I will need to load up the game to do the final round and use the Sims 4 Tray Importer (click here to check it out), and while I’m dreading that part, it’ll take so much less time now thanks to the mod manager.

When my brain’s gotten too fried I’ve been playing some RimWorld. It really scratches the story itch Sims 4 usually does for me, tho it obvs uses lo-fi graphics and has an entirely different vibe. It’s more of a resource managing story generator than a life sim. And it’s hella sci-fi. Not sure if there’s much of a fan base for it on Tumblr, but it’s probably my second favorite game to play after the Sims 4. I’ve put in almost 10k hours since I started playing it Early Access in 2017.

So, yeah! This project has been so much more of an undertaking than I initially thought it would be, and I’m done predicting when it will be done since I’ve had a lot of random obstacles thrown my way throughout this whole ordeal. But I’m starting to see the faintest bit of light at the end of tunnel.

The best part about all of this is that I miss the game so much that it’s probably all I’ll wanna play once this is done. I have a draft detailing the process in the works that will make this a lot less painful for anyone else needing to do this.

Welp, back at it!

[27lands]

Rimworld 1.6 Daydreams

So, last night I was wondering what would make a great addition to a hypothetical future Rimworld DLC, and ended up coming up with a whole bunch of ideas that I figured I might as well share here. Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments, and suggest your own ideas about what the purely speculative “Rimworld 1.6” should add to the game!

(Disclaimer: I am not a sicko; I do not think that electroshock therapy, painful executions or any of the unethical things mentioned here are in any way funny IRL. This is all meant to just be speculation, and if you disagree with anything mentioned here on moral grounds, that’s entirely fine. However remember that Rimworld is a story generator, and very often the best stories can come from gritty, serious subject matter. I like to think that there is just as much potential for lighthearted, fun storytelling in this imagined DLC as there is potential for warhammer-40K levels of immoral dystopian lunacy. Like with biotech and ideology, it would all depend how you wanted to play it.)

My imaginary Rimworld DLC, which I think would be called Psychology, could include the following:

A character editor that allows you to customise the age, sex and backstories of your characters before starting a game, but not their skills, traits or health. I don’t really like to use the character editor mod these days, because you can use it mid-game to give your pawns ridiculous buffs, and I always end up giving into the temptation sooner or later, which really spoils the experience for me. A base-game character editor would, ideally, not be accessible once you loaded into the game, and would also put more limits on the kind of characters you’re allowed to create with it. 

More traits that affect character behaviour and create the possibly of new, dangerous mental breaks, such as suicidal, (causes random instances of self-harm when mood is low) apathetic (quarters move speed, manipulation and eating speed) or cruel (mental breaks are always either insulting sprees or social fights)

A fluid system of trait acquisition; characters can gain or lose traits after certain events or mood. So a character might gain the nervous or neurotic traits after the first few raids or animal attacks. If they are forced to kill many people over a short period of time, they might acquire the psychopath or bloodlust traits. If they work as researchers for long enough, maybe they acquire the academic trait. And if their mood gets low and doesn’t change, then maybe they acquire the apathetic or suicidal traits. 

A better prison system incorporating a simplified form of psychiatric care; you can arrest a colonist or capture an enemy, and select “offer psychiatric care” in their prisoner tab. This allows you to select certain traits to be removed or added to this character. Those assigned to wardening will then attempt to offer psychiatric care to this prisoner, slowly accumulating “points” until eventually the prisoner is brought around to your way of thinking; basically the same way research or VE psycasts’ meditation works. Certain personality traits require more points to remove or add than others, with adding most useful (like sanguine) or removing the worst, (like slow learner or suicidal) requiring the most points. 

A system by which colonists are considered guilty after certain mental breaks such as insulting sprees or berserk rages, which allows them to be detained without affecting colony mood.

New craft-able and buildable items that can speed up psychiatric care, like therapy couches, special soft walls that can’t be attacked during mental breaks, and straitjackets that reduce manipulation to zero to prevent prisoners harming each-other or themselves. 

A way of automating psychiatric care, conversion and recruitment using a device caused an electroconvulser. Electroshock therapy is much faster at reducing will,  resistance and certainty, and continually generates psychiatric care points while the colonist is in bed, but also has a risk of causing burn damage, which scales with time. 

Splitting the “warden” work type into a “counsellor” and “guard” work types, with counsellors performing psychiatric care, as well as delivering food, converting and recruiting, while guards wait outside cell doors to prevent prison escapes, escort prisoners and perform executions. 

Hallucinations! This would be a big one; when characters consume certain drugs, there is a chance of them triggering a hallucination; a mental state similar to a sad wander, except it gives positive mood buffs with weird flavour text, like “the sky is such an itchy green” or “man, who saw where that pig went?!”

New builds for execution, such as guillotines and electric chairs, as well as more painful constructions, such as iron maidens or stakes for burning people.

New, non-lethal weapons, parodying those added in Vanilla Weapons Expanded, such as anaesthetic guns or tasers, allowing you to safely control prisoners. 

Ideology integration, with precepts that make colonists prefer either counselling, electroshock therapy or no care at all, and which increase the speed of their preferred method when incorporated into your colony’s ideo. Other precepts are added regarding execution, with some preferring painless methods like guillotines and electric chairs, while others prefer more painful methods like the iron maiden. Still more precepts either make your colonists neutral towards hallucinations or exalt them; flavour text suggesting that they believe hallucinations are messages from spirits, gods, archotechs, etc. Perhaps these precepts could be integrated into existing memes; maybe individualists prefer no psychiatric care because of their whole “free expression” thing, while collectivists prefer to make people conform with counselling, and gestalts use electroshock therapy to force compliance at any cost. Ideologies with the “guilty” or “pain is virtue” memes are the only ones that prefer painful methods of execution, and perhaps buildables like the iron maiden can only be unlocked by having these memes. And of course, ideos with “high life” as a meme would consider hallucinations exalted; greatly increasing both their chance of occurring as well as tripling a pawn’s psychic sensitivity afterwards. Maybe also certain traits, like elder or greedy, are gained after colonists acquire certain ideological roles? 

Biotech integration, with new genes that code for particular traits, making mods that add such genes effectively redundant, and maybe also adding unique xenotypes characterised by these traits, such as cruel goblin people and kind faeries, along with maybe a few cosmetic genes that add to these races’ aesthetic (pointy ears and faery wings, etc). 

Royalty integration, with special neurotrainer devices that code for certain traits, which can only be acquired through quests to help or betray the empire. 

I don’t play with anomaly, so for all you anomaly players in the comments, suggest how any of the above could be integrated in a fun or unique way!

[unitygamedevlopment]

RimWorld

"RimWorld" is a colony simulation game . Initially released in 2013, the game has since undergone continuous development and updates, gaining a dedicated following and widespread acclaim for its deep gameplay mechanics, emergent storytelling, and dynamic world simulation.

Key features and elements of "RimWorld" include:

Procedurally Generated World: "RimWorld" features a procedurally generated world with diverse biomes, each with its own unique terrain, climate, and resources. Players must explore the world, establish outposts, and exploit its natural resources while dealing with environmental hazards, wild animals, and other colonies.

Emergent Storytelling: The game generates dynamic and unpredictable narratives based on the actions and decisions of the player and their colonists. Each playthrough of "RimWorld" is unique, with unexpected events, character interactions, and plot twists shaping the course of the story.

Deep Character Simulation: Colonists in "RimWorld" have their own individual traits, personalities, and backstories that influence their behavior and interactions with others. Players must recruit new colonists, manage their relationships, and address their needs and desires to maintain harmony within the colony.

Multiple Endings: While "RimWorld" does not have a traditional win condition, players can strive to achieve various goals, such as constructing a spaceship to escape the planet, establishing a self-sustaining colony, or surviving against increasingly difficult challenges. The game offers multiple paths to success, allowing players to play at their own pace and according to their preferred playstyle.

Overall, "RimWorld" offers a deep and immersive colony simulation experience that challenges players to think strategically, adapt to changing circumstances, and overcome the many obstacles that stand in the way of building a successful colony. With its rich gameplay mechanics, emergent storytelling, and extensive modding support, it has earned a reputation as one of the best simulation games available, beloved by players around the world.

[strangecloud]

So I've seen some analyses of the subgenre of simulation games that people call "Story Generators", which include games like Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress, among some others. The gist being that these games are designed with depth and simulation in mind to allow for a variety of emergent, memorable outcomes and where winning or optimization is secondary to simply making interesting memories of playing. In other words, generating a story.

So that was a weird thing for me to write. As an aspiring game developer and designer, I've always been under the impression that memories and stories were the primary motivator behind any sort of game.

I'm serious, that's the best way I can define what a game even is. It's a self-contained structure of rules and agents that interact in such a way as to create conflict, tension, protagonists and antagonists and eventually, a resolution involving all participants.

If over the course of a game of Civ, one of the players amasses an empire that is considerably more powerful than the others, there's tension there. If some of the players band together to combat this empire in some way, we have conflict. Relatively speaking, we have antagonists and protagonists, the identities of which will depend on the perspective of each individual player. If the empire is defeated, the conflict is resolved and this moment, this micro-story, reaches its conclusion.

Even if you're matched against a computer controlled opponent, or other non-human entity, you as a human are naturally predisposed to assume some degree of intent and emotional motivation behind their actions. A computer can just as much be a character in the emerging story we tell in games.

I firmly believe that people engage with games, as opposed to toys and other entertainment activities, because of this layer of interactive storytelling. As a player, you get to be part of a story, and your role in the story is enforced by the flavor of the game. Every game mechanically boils down to moving pieces around a board, but it's how these pieces are presented and the wider context of the game that makes us care.

The story is the game. You cannot separate the two.

[tamiveldura]

Ok I'm not ever saying that RimWorld is a cozy game. Please listen. RimWorld is at its best when you use the Geneva Convention as a to-do list, alright?

What I AM saying, is you can turn off all the war and combat, load up a 2x map and ignore the warning that says "the game is not balanced at this size" and then crank the ranching up to 11.

You can separate animals by gender to control breeding. You can use mods to add medical shit. You can add mods and ranch dinosaurs. Or dragons from HTTYD. You can caravan around the world and trade with other settlements.

You can control every minute aspect of the game to make it what you want. It is a "story generator." It's just really good at war and horror and tragic stories.

You can make RimWorld a cozy rancher.

But please, dear God, be prepared for war crimes when you open that Steam page.

I like Stardew Valley don’t get me wrong, but God I really wish there was a game that focused more on ranching instead of crops i’m so sick of crop based farming games they’re all doing the same thing I’ve said this before, If you’ve played one farming game, you’ve basically played them all. 

I stick by the fact that harvest moon animal parade was probably the best farming game I’ve ever played. No other game has ever come close to how good that game was. We need another harvest moon animal parade badly. 

[pushing500]

This is just a hypothetical, and you don't have to answer it if you don't want, but I was playing Rimworld and a thought stuck me due to something that happened. How do you think the Jones Brothers would act if Rimworld pulled a Rimworld and Ivy ended up being seriously hurt, or worse? Do you think they'd go on the warpath against the people responsible? It would be kinda cool to see them building massive mechanoids in order to avenge/protect one of few people they actually care about.

Anyway that's the thought. Love the comic!! I ended up reading it all in one day and now I keep an eye out for new updates, I love this little family you've made out on the Rim. Thank you for posting the stories!!

Oh, no question about it. If anything happens to Ivy, anything at all, Mechi and Kwahu will take out everyone else on the planet and then themselves.

If the Jones boys can't have their sister, they'll just have to dedicate their lives to their adopted niece instead.

Also, I'm glad you like the comic, and I hope you continue to like it!! ❤️❤️

[a-rebellious-waffle]

So, I bought RimWorld. Allow me to share one of the stories it has generated.

We begin with Mikey. Mikey was part of the five-man force that defended against a megaspider attack as my colonists were tunneling deeper into our mountain. The tunneling pissed off a group of four megaspiders and two megascarabs, so naturally I grabbed my five best soldiers and set them in a defensive perimeter. Four ranged soldiers, one melee.

Now, two megaspiders managed to reach the shooting line and attacked two of my colonists. These colonists were Rubber and Mikey. Rubber was actually knocked out of the fight by this breakthrough, and nearly died, but we were right next to the hospital and she was rescued in short order the moment the final megaspider was slain.

Mikey was still up and about, though wounded, so I sent him to go to the hospital.

On the way to his bed, Mikey snapped. He had a major mental break.

He decided to set the medical ward on fire.

He started with Rubber, who was lying, unconscious, on a wooden bed.

Luckily, I had two of the unharmed soldiers nearby--Louene and Setsuko. Louene put out the fire and Setsuko arrested Mikey.

It should be noted Setsuko and Mikey were engaged.

Mikey was thrown into the single jail cell we had, which was really just a cave with a steel door. No more than that.

Well. Winter came along, and the temperature in the base plummeted. I didn't have enough wood to keep the fires going, and I hadn't constructed heaters, because I am bad at the videogame, so I was struggling to keep just my non-imprisoned colonists alive. I mean, it was 2 degrees Celsius just in the normal bedrooms!

This really should've been my first sign that something was wrong, because if it was 2C in the heated rooms... what was it like in the dungeon?

Turns out the answer was, "-17C".

Mikey froze to death not long after this.

RIP, Mikey. You were a twat, but you were still a crewmember aboard the Ashtarte.

[maryellencarter]

excessively detailed headcanon meme from camshaft22 about Wes

What does their bedroom look like? Lots and lots and lots of extremely colorful pillows and blankets. Not a hell of a lot else. And Kettch.

Do they have any daily rituals? Um. Not particularly, I think? He’s spent his entire adult life in the military, which pretty much defines what he has to do when.

Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often? Yes. We know that Wes is fairly good at hand-to-hand combat. I figure he also does weight training and cardio. 

What would they do if they needed to make dinner but the kitchen was busy? Tricky question, as it often is for characters from military canons. But I’m thinking he’d either barge in and work around the other people using the kitchen, or if all the stoves/ovens/etc were busy, find a ration bar or something.

Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.) We have pretty much nothing on this in canon. I tend to have his workspace covered in datacards and so forth, because he has that sort of ADHD vibe where your brain needs more than one screen to spread thoughts across. We do know that he has quite a good sense of smell, so he’s probably fairly cleanly in his personal life.

Eating habits and sample daily menu?��Again: military. He eats what’s there to be eaten. Probably a fair amount of it, because all that muscle needs a lot of calories. I suspect during the Rebellion he helped supply the cooks by hunting for meat.

Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time? Good question. He’s not as hyper as Shalla; there are a couple of points in the books where we see him lying down doing nothing when he has some free time. (Once toward the beginning of Iron Fist iirc, when the three ersatz Zsinjes are discussing plans, Wes is lying on a sofa with a glass of brandy while they talk, and then when Myn goes to find him for the “you can’t look dignified” talk he finds Wes lying down in bed though he has a chair in his quarters.) He’s probably always thinking about random shit and entertaining himself.

Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging? I think it really depends on the context. On Adumar, we see him cutting loose and enjoying the fame and adulation, and also capes and swords. In the Wraith books, he’s more disciplined, because his quacklings need him to be, but he definitely enjoys pranks, and also setting up the sort of prank-like training methods he uses. I don’t think he really has any guilty pleasures as such, not that he would consider guilty.

Makeup? I kind of doubt he’s been in a context to encounter it much, other than Face’s stage makeup. In universes where he has, he definitely likes body glitter, and has probably experimented with using contouring techniques on his biceps.

Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such? You can’t be a Wraith without neuroses. He sits on them pretty effectively, but he’s a mess around the whole business with Kell’s father, and he’s fairly fatalistic about his own prospects of survival. 

Intellectual pursuits? Good damn question. We know he’s smart, good at numbers, remembers obscure training protocols. We don’t know if he reads philosophy or writes poetry or... what exactly are “intellectual pursuits” anyway?

Favorite book genre? There are a lot of these questions that we don’t especially have answers to. I mean, I know this is a headcanon meme, but a lot of them I also haven’t pondered much. I don’t think we ever see Wes reading for fun, although I speculate he reads NR training manuals in order to figure out ways to mess with his students. I’ll have to ponder on this one.

Sexual Orientation? And, regardless of own orientation, thoughts on sexual orientation in general? Wes is pansexual aromantic. He pretty much respects that everybody has different orientations, but finds romance confusing and occasionally distressing, especially when it interferes with his friendships.

Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.) Um. Not really? The whole Star Wars bacta thing takes care of a lot of that. I have been messing around with a completely self-indulgent little sleep apnea headcanon, because you could just wear a specialized rebreather to sleep instead of a CPAP machine. I haven’t done anything with that, though.

Biggest and smallest short term goal? At what point in the story? That’s the trouble with a shared universe that spans 44 years at least.

Biggest and smallest long term goal? Ditto.

Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress? Ahahahaha yeah. XD Wes is famous, or infamous, for his unique sense of style -- although apparently there are things even he doesn’t want to wear, because Wedge was able to threaten him with letting Hobbie choose his clothes on Adumar. He likes bright colors, capes, shiny things, weaponry, and glitter.

Favorite beverage? I have no headcanon about this. Star Wars foodstuffs are difficult. 

What do they think about before falling asleep at night? Probably ways to cause minor trouble and cheer people up. Or maybe he tells himself stories.

Childhood illnesses? Any interesting stories behind them? Well, I decided the “Hesken’s fever” that kept him out of the first Death Star battle was space chicken pox, and that he had it as a kid but it didn’t take, because I had chicken pox twice as a kid myself.

Turn-ons? Turn-offs? Sexually, or what? I’m old enough in internet years that I’m never quite sure whether we’re using this in the sense of things that you generally like and don’t like. Also, for as much Wes smut as I’ve written (it is a lot), I don’t really feel that I can produce a list.

Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen? Paper airplanes, possibly decorated with dicks.

How organized are they? How does this organization/disorganization manifest in their everyday life? Honestly, Wes is pretty damn organized when it comes to squadron stuff. I feel like this could go either way -- that he’s also super organized about his personal life, or that he’s completely and utterly disorganized outside the military structure.

Is there one subject of study that they excel at? Or do they even care about intellectual pursuits at all? Wes Janson, Ace Statistician. XD Honestly, he could probably be good at most things, he’s a lot smarter than he acts sometimes.

How do they see themselves 5 years from today? Again, at what point in the story?

Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t workout? These are really difficult to answer without specifying a timeframe.

What is their biggest regret? Definitely the Doran Incident.

Who do they see as their best friend? Their worst enemy? Best friend is Hobbie. Worst enemy is probably whoever Wedge is currently pointing him at. Wes doesn’t really have a lot of personal enmities.

Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?) Go extremely organized and make everything happen that needs to happen. 

Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies) Sit on his feelings until they stop bothering him.

Most prized possession? Kettch.

Thoughts on material possessions in general? He really doesn’t need much. I tend to figure he likes comfy cozy cuddly things and fancy capes, and other than that he mostly does with what the Rebellion / New Republic gives him. Hobbie probably invests his money for him (Ralltiir is a banking planet), and Wes doesn’t pay much attention to it. By the time he gets out of the military at last, he probably has a pretty fair pile.

Concept of home and family? The Fab Four are his family. I forget why, but I also decided he has some attachment to Taanab and probably goes back there to live once he musters out. The air and gravity just feel more correct there.

Thoughts on privacy? (Are they a private person, or are they prone to ‘TMI’?) Wes gives the impression that there’s not a thought in his head that doesn’t come out his mouth, but at the same time he has secrets he doesn’t tell anybody until he has to. So, some of each? It’s a balancing act.

What activities do they enjoy, but consider to be a waste of time? Um. I’m not sure he has any. I mean, this is a guy who unabashedly bounces on his bed to make a point.

What makes them feel guilty? Not much. Except the Doran incident and things that remind him of it.

Are they more analytical or more emotional in their decision-making? Emotional, to the point that he’s made a principle out of it.

Would they consider themselves a Type A or Type B personality? I honestly don’t know what this means. *googles* Well, I have learned a lot about tobacco lobbyists in the 1980s... ;P If I’m understanding what these mean, though, Wes is definitely not a Type A personality, and therefore is by definition a Type B personality.

What recharges them when they’re feeling drained? Being around people. Having fun. Conversation. Cheering other people up.

Would you say that they have a superiority-complex? Inferiority-complex? Neither? Probably neither. Sometimes he pretends to have a superiority complex as a form of goofing around, which is much more difficult to do when you actually have one of these complexes. (Compleces? Plurals are complicated.)

How misanthropic are they? Ahaha. Not very. Hobbie does all of that for him. XD

Hobbies? BEHOLD A PUNE *koff* Sorry. I don’t really know that Wes has any particular hobbies, although I suspect he can sew for purposes of making Kettch new outfits. Somebody had to make that gray Hawk-bats flightsuit.

How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education? Well, he definitely left school on Taanab by the time he was about eighteen at the oldest. I feel like he was probably kind of self-conscious about being a Rimworlder for a while (all three of the others are Coreworlders), and that might mix into his feelings about having left school early, if he did.

Religion? When I write Wes, he’s kind of an agnostic. It so happens that he never refers to the Force at all in the X-wing books, in any way, so I’ve riffed on that to a view that, while he’s seen Luke do things with the Force and knows it exists, he ascribes it a lot less power than the Jedi do. He sees the Force basically as a nonsentient temporally-amorphous ocean of impressions, which Jedi can use to foresee things like blaster bolts (which is useful), but when Jedi get larger and vaguer impressions about the “will of the Force”, he’s pretty sure they’re projecting. This doesn’t do too much harm when Luke does it, because Luke is a ball of sunshine who just wants what’s best for everyone, but it means that Sith and other fucked-up people have their own really dangerous views on the Force’s will. ...I may have thought this out rather a lot.

Superstitions or views on the occult? He probably has them. I’m very fond of space superstitions but I don’t think I’ve written any myself. Wes seems like the sort of guy who would laugh over ghost stories and then accidentally scare himself in the middle of the night.

Do they express their thoughts through words or deeds? Ummm I’m not quite sure what this means. *ponders* Nope, I’ve got nuthin’.

If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal? That’s also a hell of a question. Like does it mean who would they fall in love with? Are we talking that Anne of Green Gables shit about only being able to fall in love with a tall dark stranger with a melting voice?

How do they express love? Snuggling. Also annoying you into cheering up.

If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like? More or less a mixed martial arts thing. We see him use some wrestling moves and spinning kicks. I suspect Shalla gave him some lessons after she joined the Wraiths, because he seems a lot more confident about his hand-to-hand abilities on Adumar than in the first Wraith Squadron book.

Is this person afraid of dying? Why or why not? Nope. He knows he’s going to die very soon; he’s a soldier in a war with an extremely high rate of attrition. His goal is to have as much fun as possible before he goes.

[bluebeads-art]

October 25th, 2019

Meet my two new accidentally adopted OCs; Rovo and Subahn

In the game RimWorld I normally play with custom made pawns, but in my current colony I wanted to try playing with (mostly) randomly generated colonists. Then I accidentally gave these two too much personality and then accidentally fell in love with them, so I customized them and developed them more.

I dunno how much I’ll call Subahn “Goat,” which is the randomly rolled nickname she got, but for now I’m considering it like the level of nickname only your casual friends call you (like a username), while Rovasro’s nickname “Rovo” is more like shortening the name Christopher to “Chris,” and most people call him that.

I’ll go more into detail about them under the read-more, but to summarize them, they’re autistic (Rovo) & ADHD (Subahn) solidarity, and since their strengths and weaknesses are in different areas, they basically share a brain cell to become one (1) functioning adult. As such, they’re basically inseparable and best friends.

Rovasro ‘Rovo’ Gulias (Pronounced like “Ro-vas-ro Joo-lee-as”)

Rovo’s a quiet, soft, gentle giant with a big heart. He’s not very good with words, so he generally doesn’t talk to people he isn’t close with due to fear of being ridiculed. He’s not confrontational at all and doesn’t really stand up for himself, which is usually where Subahn comes in. She acts sort of like an interpreter, since she’s the chatty, takes-no-BS one, and understands Rovo just fine.

His biggest special interest is animals, with a focus on domestic animals, and he met Subahn when they worked at the same farm. His second biggest special interest is rifles and hunting, but is very adamant about responsible and respectful hunting, i.e. only hunt out of need. He loves animals FAR too much to just hunt them for sport. He’s generally either savant-level good at things, or just can’t wrap his brain around the subject.

Rovo’s bisexual with a slight preference for guys, which made him not very well liked among his fairly conservative family (alongside their ableism towards his autism), hence why he spends so much time with animals. He’s also intersex, which has a little meta story behind it. When I was rolling his character in RimWorld, he was originally female, but I already had a lot of girls in the starter pool by that point, so I gender-swapped him. It took me a while to realize, but EdB Prepare Carefully got a little confused, and gave him a male body but kept his head and hair female. I corrected it for fear of glitches, but I was like, heck it, that’s canon now. Mooore trans OCs! Never enough trans OCs.

Subahn ‘Goat’ Graf (Pronounced like “Soo-bahn Graf”)

Subahn’s got the energy and subtlety of a brick through someone’s window, which is partly why Rovo likes her. Her body language and expressions are super exaggerated, making her easy to read, and she's straightforward and honest. She’s got a very uplifting ‘you can do it!’ kind of attitude, and likes to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves. She’s sturdy, tough, and likes to joke that she could suplex someone twice her size with the right leverage, although that might not entirely be a joke.

She’s very active and loves taking care of animals and plants, and can talk about either for hours. She ESPECIALLY likes the weird mushrooms and plants you can find in forests. She also has a soft spot for rats (she has a rat army in-game). She learns slowly unless the subject interests her, but if it does interest her, she can’t get her mind off it. She gets SO focused sometimes that she forgets to take care of herself, but Rovo and his love of schedules is there to be like, “Dude, it’s dinnertime. Go eat.”

Sometimes people find her overbearing or naggy, but a lot of that is because of undiagnosed obsessive compulsive tendencies, where she MUST do some things EXACTLY this specific way. Rovo doesn’t care, because he likes things being consistently squared away too.

Like Rovo, Subahn’s bisexual with a preference for guys, but is generally too obsessed with other things to bother with romantic relationships. Her philosophy is, “If a relationship happens, it happens.”

[linuxgamenews]

RimWorld next expansion offers unique new content

Biotech is the next game expansion for RimWorld on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Due to the serious and ongoing commitment of developer Ludeon Studios. Due to release on both Steam and Humble Store. Ludeon Studios reveals RimWorld - Biotech as its third game expansion. Due to hit the sci-fi colony sim for Linux. In Biotech, you can raise a family with children, control semi-sentient machines, and play with genetic modifications. Fight or ally with xenohuman factions. A Linux game that is due to explore the dark secrets of the blood drinkers.

Children and reproduction

Now you can raise a family and tell your story for generations to come! With Biotech, colonists (and outsiders) can become pregnant and give birth. Pregnancy can begin naturally, or via tech means. Which can also be controlled by a variety of methods. Babies bring joy, but also challenges. Colonists’ hearts will melt when the baby coos and giggles in their arms. But it takes effort to keep a baby happy and healthy and loved. So you have to create a safe haven for them in a cozy pastel nursery. A place where there is always warm milk and a comfortable crib. Overflowing toy chests and kind caregivers. In Biotech, a rich childhood makes a capable adult. So every few years, you choose which traits and passions a child will develop. The better raised a child is, with smarter education and more attention. Which also means the more choices you’ll have. The better their chances are to become a happy and talented adult. Some colonies will give their all to give a child the best upbringing. While others will use growth vats to pump out cheap workers and soldiers. The choice is up to you.

Biotech includes the mechanitor

Build and control mechanoids by making your colonist into a mechanitor. Within Biotech, this is a person with a special brain implant. Which lets them psychically command semi-living machines. Create mechanoids in Biotech by growing them inside high-tech gestator tanks. Command the original centipede, lancer, and scyther. Plus a wide variety of new combat and labor mechanoids. Due to grow your swarm from a few small workers and fighters to a feared squadron. Full of massive ultratech war machines and industrial behemoths. Mechanoid laborers can manufacture goods, rescue and tend to your colonists, build and repair structures, sow and harvest crops, haul stuff, and more. They never get sick. They don’t freeze in the snow or get poisoned in toxic fallout. Also, they don’t suffer mental breaks from long hours in dark mineshafts or filthy garbage yards. Combat mechanoids in Biotech are also diverse in form and function. Some are cheap swarmers that overwhelm the enemy with numbers. Others project shields over their allies. Or roast enemies with beam weapons. Charge up for massive concrete melting hellsphere attacks. Mechanoids wield melee claws and blades, sniper weapons, and even flamethrowers. Depending on which mechanoids you command. Your tactical options will vary greatly.

Gene modding

You can genetically modify people to create xenohumans in Biotech. These are humans with exotic traits. Genetic modifications range from subtle personality traits and eye color to hulking furry bodies. Also glands for fire breathing, rapid regeneration, and even immortality. The RimWorld world contains a new set of xenohuman types and factions. Including unstoppable super soldiers and fur covered animal controlling arctic settlers. There are also toxin immune human bioweapons. Fire breathing horned desert imp-people and psychic-bonding concubines. The darkest of them drink blood, live in shadows, and live forever. You can make your own xenotypes from scratch in Biotech. While you build a network in your colony to enhance your people. Due to offer a collection of exotic genes by purchasing them from traders. Accepting them as quest rewards. Or extracting them from your array of xenohuman prisoners. You can harvest the genes from anyone. But also implant those genes into your colonists and prisoners. You can also mix genes to make bizarre and better mixes of traits for implanting. Test them out with gene extraction and recombination. Due to build your colony of xenohumans. Biotech is the third expansion for RimWorld coming to Steam and Humble Store. Along with game support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. For more expansion detail, you can also check out the Steam post.

[supreme-leader-chancellor-merkel]

Adding a few indies, some AAA studios I trust with my life and picking my personal faves from the above:

Personal Faves:

Downwell - I recommend grabbing it on switch

Loop Hero - Surprisingly addictive, might have it if you take all free epic games

Into the Breach - Fun as Hell, just prepare to beat yourself up over mistakes

Gunpoint - No really, there's an entire achievement for finally holding someone at gunpoint.

Triple AAAs done right:

Valve - Their whole thing is setting new industry standards

ATLUS - Persona 5 has never gotten an update and I only know of a single bug, which is an exploit

Paradox - Expensive as all hell, but by god are you getting a lot of game, just make sure you join in early

Now finally, some more Indies:

Enter the Gungeon - Probably the best top-down shooter I've played! Everything is a gun, sorta, kinda!

Project Zomboid - The Zombie Survival game, now with multiplayer! Feed your friends some Bleach because they got bit and are wasting away!

Stardew Valley - How did one man create this work of art.

Starsector - The only site you can buy it on looks like it came out of the 90s but by god is it worth it. Space Trading game with some light planet colonization! Great fighting system that needs to getting used to.

Hardspace Shipbreaker - You're dismantling spaceships in 20 minute shifts. It's a whole lot of fun trying to strip all the valuable stuff before your time's up, though the story does get in the way a bit.

Infinitode 2 - Free on mobile! Endless tower defense with minimalistic design and amazing music!

Kingdoms and Castles - Fun little Kingdom builder with focus on defending against enemies

Dorfromantik - Beautiful landscape builder where you place octagonal tiles in order to make some of the best looking scenery in games. Super relaxing.

Synthetik - This game started as a bolt action rifle simulator, why am I currently mowing down robots with a rapidly overheating minigun? Overhead shooter that focuses on adrenaline.

Paradise Killer - Somehow the mortal that got possessed by a demon is the least suspicious in this open world murder investigation game.

Slipways - Colonize a new part of the galaxy by connecting the various planets with warp gates. Really fun puzzle game.

One Finger Death Punch 1&2 - Love-letter to kung-fu movies where you only have to press left and right in accordance to where the nearest enemy comes from, at least until they start dodging.

Buck Up & Drive - Literally every Eurobeat song fits to the gameplay. Go 200 Fasts/Hour and drift your way past or through cars. Disabling pride flags in the options causes every billboard to display one.

Wildermyth - Builds a story that lasts centuries, where your heroes will eventually mentor the next generation, die and slowly become myths. An dnd campaign stretching out over hundreds of years, with all kinds of evils.

Caves of Qud - In this world, the banana trees harvest you. Permadeath rpg that expects you to subvert it to the point where you can use a spell to essentially save-scum in-universe.

Mini Metro / Mini Motorways - Small games where you build Metro Lines / Streets to get as many people to their destination before your system gets overwhelmed by the steady increase. I recommend getting it on your phone, they're pretty much designed for it!

And finally, the two games I recommend the most:

Deep Rock Galactic (150 hours and rapidly growing):

Hoard Shooter. A group of 4 dwarves is sent down to a fully destroyable cave system to accomplish a mining goal while fighting of huge bugs. Amazing community, amazing atmosphere. Each mission is fun and provides at least one scene worthy of being promo material.

Rimworld (760 Hours):

Colony sim. Calls itself a story generator instead of a game and it's not lying. You crash-land on a lawless planet and have to survive long enough to build a spaceship and fuck off. Not that most people ever do that, because it's way too fun to stay with your colony until a new, amazing looking mod is released. Expect some warcrimes, just a warning.

I agree with this entirely actually like this is just the correct take to have

[mzyrimworld]

Duster Part 3 - Quadrum 2

Last time on ‘Rimworld’! Our colonists had gotten crops growing, a few buildings sprang up, they captured a promising raider and had an ibex ram join them! But a wild cougar had deprived Henry’s beloved pet husky, Jethro, of his tail. The planet Duster is a dangerous place, so let’s see what happens next...!

With one season down, it is time to reveal to the colonists where the spaceship they can use to escape the planet has landed! 

Here it is, the other side of the planet. According to our calculations, it would take them over 60 days straight travelling to reach it from their current location, including travelling around the edge of the ice sheet at the southern pole. This isn’t a journey you can expect to do in one go - expect multiple bases, if they survive long enough.

Back at the base, the ibex ram has hardly joined the colony before a wandering grizzly bear attacks it for food. The colonists jump to its rescue, scaring it away - perhaps this protection is why the ram joined in the first place.

Dead manages to finish the bear off, but not before it manages to take a large bite of her torso despite all her armour. Luckily Henry is on hand to tend to her as soon as possible...

There’s only so much that can be done for the ram, though - the bear shattered its jaw with its initial attack. Fortunately Henry is a trained vet, or that might have been a death sentence in itself.

2nd Decembary: a woman crashlands from the sky! She doesn’t have the worst possible wounds, but she is bleeding a lot. Hopefully Henry will help her before she bleeds out...

She’s barely begun to recover, but she decides to join! Everyone say hello to our fourth colonist on the journey!

From what we gather, Lisa Hogan crashlanded on the planet whilst on the run from the law for illegal joywire activities! But she only got into those after growing up very poor and working from a young age to cover her sick mother, which is a very sad story for which I’m sure we can lobby the government for a pardon if she survives this ordeal!

She also seems very well equipped in personality (if not skills...) - being beautiful and optimistic, and not wanting very much out of her living arrangements (a sensible choice). Of course the only member of the colony who is interested in women is Zeiph, who is notoriously bad at socialising. Who knows if any relationships will be on the cards...

5th Decembary: Another member of the prisoner’s tribe has shown up to raid. She is similarly ill-equipped in terms of clothes and weapons, but appears to be a lot better skilled with the weapon she does have. This may require all three original colonists...

Zeiph and Henry were doing their best, but Dead was slow to react, meaning Henry was downed before she could even get there! She’s not dead, but this is clearly going to be a harder fight than anticipated...

What a close shave! Nobody is dead (not even Dead), but all three have been injured - fortunately Zeiph managed to finish it, or Lisa may have been forced to drag herself out of her sickbed to fight the raider bare-handed.

Fortunately it didn’t take Henry much to get her back on her feet and tending to people. Mostly she was bruised, but her smallest toe on her left foot was completely destroyed in the fight.

Zeiph was similarly unlucky, down to the same foot, but his lost toe was the middle one.

It can’t be fun losing any part of your body, but Dead probably has it worst; her entire right ear was destroyed, which may have permanently damaged her hearing.

Still, everyone made it out alive. And signed waivers acknowledging that this sort of thing could happen. Bear this in mind, future applicants!

A few days later, the colonists receive a distress signal from a stranded man half a day’s journey away. Our colonists have been fairly generous in helping people, but they��re still not in the best shape, and are still so few that it’s probably not worth risking losing anybody. Perhaps he is better off hoping somebody else comes along...

Even as they heal from the brawl, that doesn’t mean the health problems are over! We’re not sure where muscle parasites come from that only Zeiph has got them, but he’s not fit to go out on any rescue missions right now.

12th Decembary: After so much negativity this quadrum, Henry decided to throw a party. It’s far from a glitterworld party, but at least now they have a table and chairs for it to feel more like a living area.

14th Decembary: The prisoner has finally been persuaded! Legua Lion, a 50 year old (as in actually born 50 years ago) tribeswoman!

She seems fascinating from an anthropological point of view - her history seems to be very stereotypical for what we understand of the tribal people, but apparently she loves parties and aspires to technological body parts! Regardless, she has a lot of very useful skills that the colonists can make good use of.

In fact, with their fifth member, they decided it was worthwhile trying to help the distressed man before he dies of exposure. They decided that Henry needed to go in case the man required serious medical assistance, and Lisa was most easily spared, together with both animals.

The journey isn’t that far, mostly across flat, temperate ground and involving a couple of rivers. As you can see from the satellite image, there are large roads nearby, but they aren’t worth following from their position this time.

Henry and Lisa made it to the man without trouble on the way, though the man could be some trouble himself - his wounds were only really severe bruising to both legs, but he appears to have a long-standing addiction to the Wake-Up drug, which the colony does not have any supply of (so far). They helped him in any case.

After staying the night, Henry and Lisa made it back with our sixth colonist, Joel ‘Beryl’ Gemhunter.

He doesn’t seem to have a lot of skills, but he’s clearly very good at melee fighting given his pit-brawling past. Probably sensible to put somebody younger (and more expendable?) between Dead and future attackers, lest she lose her other ear!

Although, we note that he and Dead have very similar personalities... Could there be a relationship on the cards now? Or given the age gap, will he be like a son to her?

It will be interesting to find out, next time on Rimworld!

Final stats:

Henry: Minus 1 toe

Jethro: Minus tail

Zeiph: Minus 1 toe

Dead: Minus right ear

Lisa: Fine... for now.

Ibex ram: Minus jaw

Lion: Recruited! And useful!

Beryl: Addicted to a very limited supply of drugs.

Colony: Gained 2 colonists this quadrum