(02-25-2020, 03:43 PM)jammi Wrote: After the colonists sprang to the baron's defence and bludgeoned the angry squirrel to death, the Imperium saw fit to demonstrate its gratitude. WolfsGhost is now considered to be a Yeoman of the Imperium, and has been granted access to a psychic amplifier.
I haven't plugged him into this yet, as while it will grant useful psychic abilities, nobles are usually whingey layabouts. What do you all think?
I've been working with my own game for a while now just to get an idea of how the nobility stuff works. Yeomen are effectively just psychic colonists, and there isn't much entitlement that they crave as a Yeoman. Just be sure you take it easy with their promotions and have a throneroom and a separate bedroom ready for them once they get up to Dame and the like, as well as the noble clothing and fine meals. I had mine promote instantly from Yeoman to Dame and had to deal with an angry, unproductive noblewoman for about 2 seasons while I built up a small 'palace' for her so she'd stop going berserk.
tl:dr
Think ahead and have their promotions in mind, and if you get the missions to promote them but aren't ready for it, you can let them go without any repercussions.
I haven't used any of the psychic powers yet, but they seem interesting.
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Day 16 - 30: Marital Strife
Day 16 dawned with ONIKS heading out to go hunting and bring back some more delicious capybara. Unfortunately, part way through this trip a nearby boar spontaneously flew into a manhunting frenzy and decided today was the day for murder.
After missing an initial salvo of shots, ONIKS fled back to base with the pernicious pig pursuing persistently. Hearing cries of distress and / or annoyance, brave husband Spectre rushed to her defence with naught to hand but a mere pocket knife.
Following a protracted scuffle, the porcine threat was laid to rest. A bloodied and bruised Spectre stood tall in victory, before turning to his grateful partner. ONIKS took his hand, looked deeply into his eyes and... informed him that she wanted a divorce. Oh well.
Joseph deFrance, huh? What a homewrecker.
Spectre then spends the night sleeping alone on the floor in the fridge. Waking up to the glassy eyes of a dead capybara reminds him of ONIKS and drives him to a mental break - he spends the next day wandering listlessly, too sad to do anything productive. After placing his Minecraft bed next to ONIKS', WolfsGhost wakes up with psychic powers - the ability to allow people to ignore pain. I'm sure that was a coincidence however.
A short while later, a call for help is received on the radio. A techdoctor is on the run from a rabid duck which is doggedly pursuing him. He exclaims that we have a mere 4 days before the menacing mallard that's been trailing appears.
A few terse questions reveal that duck, in this case, is not in fact some euphemism for 'horrific archeotech mechanoid menace', and does in fact refer to a small, slow, feathery waterfowl. The colony warily agrees to deal with it and let him stay. Colonist @Chuba joins our ranks.
As a turbonerd who is literally incapable of caring, Chuba immediately surveys the base area and gets started on constructing some defensive duck repellent. The aptly named Op F*** DUCK proceeds apace and before long a chokepoint has taken shape, lined with spiked traps. Almost immediately a stray monkey gets perforated and thrown in the fridge. WolfsGhost sulks through most of this, as Chuba's skillset has made him almost entirely redundant, save as a potato farmer.
While this is going on, ONIKS has got started on mining out some large bedrooms and a great hall. This project isn't fully finished before our food supplies start looking a bit dicey, so she goes out to hunt again. It is at this point that the infamous duck makes its appearance. Taking ONIKS by surprise, it draws first blood by savagely nipping her elbow. ONIKS retaliates by... well...
She drags the duck back to the fridge but bumps into Spectre who's in the kitchen. This causes an argument with each colonist insulting the other. This drives Spectre over the edge and into the warm embrace of another psychotic break. He immediately goes on an eating binge, manically devouring part of the raw duck corpse as a... power move? Who knows. Spitting feathers and babbling incoherently, he gathers an armful of simple meals and retreats back to his newly mined bedroom.
Not long later, there's a loud boom as an escape pod falls from the sky. The pod manifest says the inhabitant has no affiliation with Discovery's existing factions - maybe they'd want to join the Salt Miner's Guild? Hopeful, ONIKS patches them up as she's our least incompetent first aider. Once the orbital refugee recovers enough to stand up... they promptly sod off. Apparently they didn't like the look of Gallia. What a waste of glitterworld medicine.
Thankfully the food situation is put to rest as two fields of potatoes are ready for harvest. While Wolfs Ghost is out toiling in the fields, another message arrives. Countess Arema of the Imperium wants our help... to look after her pet turkey for 12 days. The puzzled colonists agree, if only because they could eat it if things took a turn for the worse. 'Chipper' the turkey arrives a few minutes later via drop pod.
As we reach day 30, the colonists are starting to feel a little more secure. They've got a steady source of food from the fields, fresh meat, and individual bedrooms are on the way. No raids as yet, but we now have the security to weather a decently sized attack.
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Day 31 - 45: Rimworld Royal Rumble
Bright and early a message comes through from the League of Henoueron - a collection of outlanders and raiders who aren't particularly fond of us. One of their caravans is being harassed by a pair of manhunter lynxes, and they want to lure them to Gallia so they don't need to deal with them anymore. We agree, and the lynxes soon fall to the spiked glory of Op F*** DUCK.
As a reward, the outlanders drop off a present of construction neurotrainer. Without so much as a second thought, Chuba sticks the needle in his eye... and becomes a regionally famed master builder. Even so, it'd probably be a good idea for him to go get checked out for unwanted infections once we recruit a competent doctor.
Meanwhile, Spectre has been churning out fine meals using the fresh lynx meat we'd come into possession of. A short while later production grinds to a halt as he has another mental break over the divorce, and is found sobbing into a bowl of mashed potato. ONIKS tries to snap him out of this haze by firing off a tirade of insults.
This does not work.
After clocking ONIKS in the face, Spectre ends the fight and retreats back to his bedroom to nurse his wounds. ONIKS patches herself up and goes for a nap in the corner of the utility room, lacking a private bedroom of her own. During the night, a tribal raider tries to sneak in, and is immediately killed by the spike traps.
Waking up bright and early, ONIKS is still in a foul mood. She processes these emotions entirely rationally, and goes berserk at Chuba, calling him a cannibal and insulting his body hair, aunt's relationships and ambitions. The last one was the straw that broke the camels back, and Chuba got brawling.
The thoroughly battered ONIKS goes back to bed. In an attempt to lift the now utterly horrendous mood, WolfsGhost hosts a party in the utility room (where ONIKS is trying to sleep). No-one attends. It's very depressing.
In more positive news, the first crop of cotton is harvested, allowing Spectre to start tailoring some fancy cowboy kit for the community. Chubba also cracks the secrets of large scale battery storage. Capitalising on this, ONIKS starts digging out a secure area for the batteries to go, and Chuba starts building a second windmill.
A shuttle turns up to take Chipper the turkey home. As the closest person, ONIKS tucks him under her arm and drops him off. For reasons unknown, the Imperium sees this as a great service rendered, and grants her the noble rank of Freeman.
As the shuttle lifts off, a panicked message for assistance is received - a doctor is being chased by a pack of ravenous manhunter tortoises! They're 5 days away! Help! Gallia graciously accepts the new colonist: @Ramke.
After running across the map, Ramke arrives at the base panting and sweating... and then doesn't stop. Apparently she's just like that. The others find this slightly offputting, but it's good to have a capable doctor at the very least.
Finally, a glitterworld intelligence officer contacts us to ask for temporary refuge while her handlers arrange to get her off world. Apparently her adversaries are onto her, and she needs somewhere low profile and discrete to hide out in the interim. She notes that Gallia is certainly low profile.
Her people are happy to give us some cash and archeotech brain implants in exchange for assistance. There's a real risk that trouble could come knocking however. What do you all think? Take her in or not?
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Day 46 - 60: Press F to Pay Respects
There's a mutual decision to take in the glitterworld intelligence officer, and so @"The Only Hokan" joins the colony for a period of 13 days. She's a seasoned combat operative, and is highly proficient with both blades and guns. Unfortunately, she's also a complete psychopath, and prone to starting fires when bored. She also has a bad case of fibrous mechanites, a parasitic nanite disease. Somewhat suspiciously, WolfsGhost also develops a case the morning after.
The sun rises with the advance of 4 manhunting tortoises - the very same pack Ramke had been outrunning walking. ONIKS and Hokan decide to sally forth from the defences for a bit of sport. They take slightly too much pleasure in bloodily dismembering the poor tortoises from range. While this is going on, a large pack of feral squirrels rolls into the area.
While the two hunters are distracted by wanton cruelty to animals, the squirrels set upon them. The squirrels are tiny, vicious and hard to hit. Before long the pair are bleeding from countless tiny wounds. They retreat back to the base, while Spectre holds the doors and bludgeons any intruding wildlife to death. Both ONIKS and Hokan head back to their beds so Ramke can patch them up.
Moments later a pair of raiders from the Grey Devils arrive and launch an attack. The colonists hole up behind the walls and are relieved to hear the traps do their work. Even more fortunately, the pair were armed with a rusty old shotgun and revolver. These are quickly passed around.
Before any work can be done to patch up the spike traps, another tribal raiding party from Issao of the Hills attacks. Five of them armed with spears and bows charge the base. Two are killed by the traps, but the rest make it into the Courtyard. The traps are spent.
A gunline of colonists stood ready behind the sandbags, opening fire as the attackers entered range. Hokan quickly shot one through the head, with ONIKS rendering a second into salsa with her new shotgun. The last remaining raider flees and makes it out before anyone can catch her.
After this, there are no more traps left at the chokepoint - the base is vulnerable. Unfortunately, as Chuba rushes to patch the breach, a third raid arrives - another from the Grey Devils. This time there are five, all armed with autopistols and machine pistols. Chuba manages to get a few traps set back up, but couldn't escape the spiked corridors before the raiders were upon him.
The marauders immediately begin shooting and clubbing Chubba until he succumbs to his wounds and collapses. One of the bandits immediately hogties him and begins dragging him away.
The other colonists rush to try and help, but only Specter is nearby. Adeptly taking advantage of the tight corners of the chokepoint, he guts two of them with his knife and sets off after the kidnapper. Sadly, he's not quite quick enough and poor Chubba is hauled away to fates unknown. Furious, Specter turns back towards the one remaining bandit who was also attempting to flee and slices him up.
Three raids in one day is nuts. Just to top things off, both WolfsGhost and Hokan are struck down by a nasty case of malaria. Ramke should really look into the how's and why's of them two always sharing diseases... In any event, WolfsGhost finishes repairing the traps before retiring for bedrest and chicken capybara soup.
ONIKS is out practicing with her shotgun when a fourth raid occurs. Fortunately this is only a pair of tribals from Issao of the Hill again; one with a club and another with a spear. Easy, no need for backup. She quickly dispatches one, but the clubber gets in range, and... crunch. ONIKS goes down, with the raider going down to a spike trap shortly after.
RIP in Pieces.
Strangely, despite his wounds, the last raider refuses to die. Ramke stabilises him, drags him into ONIKS' old room and locks the door. No-one is quite sure what to do with him yet, other than Spectre who is somewhat ghoulishly satisfied that his ex is dead. Somewhat pragmatically he notes that bygones should be bygones, given that the colony is now a pair of hands short and recruits shouldn't be wasted.
God damn, that was your wife!
Fortunately, the tragedy is followed up by a tiny glimmer of positivity. A wandered called @Lythrilux petitions to join the colony - she's fleeing from the menacing Marduck, the nomadic Son Crusher. It turns out that this is indeed just a regular duck, albeit with a nasty attitude. Lythrilux initially gets started on clearing up the truly awful amounts of blood, vomit and filth that are encrusting the base, before moving onto a new and special project.
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Day 61 - 75: King of the Jungle
The day begins with the sound of pounding on doors. The prisoner has gone berserk from cabin fever and is attempting to smash his way out. Specter rushes in to stop him, and eventually subdues the unruly escapee by stabbing him through the hand.
Not long later, WolfsGhost and Hokan get over their malaria, but are almost immediately stricken with sensory mechanites. The colony is becoming increasingly suspicious of Hokan's position as the resident Typhoid Mary.
Almost as soon as he's well enough to stand, the prisoner goes berserk again. Specter catches him breaking down the door to the utility room and attempts to get the situation under control.
Unfortunately, Specter is punched out cold, and it falls to Lythrilux as the only other nearby colonist to sort things out. She successfully smashes the prisoner to the floor with the butt of her shotgun, and drags him back to jail.
The shuttle eventually arrives to evacuate Hokan. She bids her fairwells, drops off ONIKS' old rifle and departs for bigger and better things. As thanks, her handlers drop off some cash and the data schematics for brainwiring, which could prove handy for the future.
With the last of our capable ranged fighters gone, and Spectre bedridden from his brawling injuries, our defences are looking precarious. Lythrilux says she has an idea, and disappears off into the wilderness. She vanishes for the daylight hours for the rest of that week.
WolfsGhost also attempts to improve the situation by blocking off some of the mountain passes with steel walls. This will force attackers through a much longer path, buying the community time to prepare defences. WolfsGhost swears during this time that he saw Lythrilux off in the distance bullying a monkey.
With Lythrilux away attending to a 'special project', hygiene in the community falls into disarray, with dirt and blood being walked all over the place. This leads to huge amounts of food poisoning due to the kitchen being a mess, adding vomit back into the mix too.
There are a number of small raids after this, culminating in a large attack from the Henoueron. The raiders pile into the trapped corridor, with one being killed and another severely injured and left unconscious. The survivors swap fire with the colonists, until a further raider is killed and their nerve breaks. As the marauders retreat, Ramke drags the survivors back to the base and dumps her into ONIKS' old room with the tribal.
Meanwhile, Lythrilux is in a horrible mood due to painful stomach cramps from a massive case of food poisoning. Something in her brain snaps and she develops a corpse obsession. Marching out into the Courtyard, she seizes a crowbar, cracks open ONIKS' sarcophagus, exhumes her and finally dumps her mouldering bones onto the grand hall's dining table.
The other colonists are understandably distressed by both this unconventional table setting, and Lythrilux's incoherent shrieking. Specter finishes his dinner before laying ONIKS to rest again. Presumably he volunteered to ensure he had to spend the least possible length of time looking at his ex wife.
After that, the colonists have a chat about what's causing the food poisoning and Spectre concedes that it probably isn't a good idea to butcher wild animals (getting offal everywhere) right next to the cooking station. The others give him a hand with hauling the butchering station into the fridge.
The two prisoners are starting to get pretty ancy about having to share ONIKS' old bed. Before long the Iasso prisoner goes berserk again and starts a fight with the Henoueronian. Simultaneously, there's another raid which ends in much the same way as the last. Yet another Henoueron prisoner is dragged in, as WolfsGhost and Ramke gang up on the Iasso to punch him into submission.
It's eventually decided that everyone should have their own bed in opposite corners of the room.
Finally, a strange transmission arrives. A refugee asks to join the colony, as he is hiding from a newly awakened AI persona core. That sounds slightly more serious than ducks, but the colonists reluctantly agree - @"Auzari" joins the community.
Thank god we have a miner again.
With new concerns about what a hostile AI could spell for the colony's future, Lythrilux unveils what she has been working on: Project MONKEY MASH. She rings a bell and 8 tamed monkeys charge into the Courtyard. Soon these will be fully combat trained, and ready to tear our enemies limb from faeces-smeared limb.