Sigh... I guess that many gamers have this problem. I love these long-form intricate strategy, survival and management type games. These are the sorts of games that play out over hundreds of hours as you grow your kingdom/colony/toon from basically nothing, scratching around to just exist... to a more complex system of survival and interdependence.

... then you take a break from the game and try out something nice and shiny, and you return back to the game. Everything that you used to know so intimately about the game is now different and weird... and things that you had planned to do, well... those plans are lost to the mists of time and incoming old-age brain! Worse still... the developers have not stood still, and new mechanics are being developed and added to the base game... along with new expansions!

I currently have three long form games that I want to get back into... and those have been last touched about 6-12 months ago! Rimworld, Stellaris and Phoenix Point. Last night, I fired up Rimworld... my older daughter wasn't sleeping well, and Rimworld is pretty gentle on a gaming laptop and it meant that I could sit at the foot of her bed and play a game whilst keeping her company until she finally succumbed to sleep.

... I have no idea what is going on! I was almost tempted to restart the game from scratch... but I know how that goes, in a year from now... I will be in the same position of confusion with the newly restarted game. So, I decided to slog on... and try and relearn the game mechanics, integrate the new ones and try to remember what I had planned for my group of space-marooned colonists.

As you can see, I have had already built up a pretty decent base with a nice roster of people manning the colony. Power, food and manufacturing was pretty self-sufficient... and I was also able to beat off an attack by mechanoids without too much trouble. So, some pretty solid base defences as well... no shortage of any supplies as I could see, and I was manufacturing export goods and also weapons and armour of a pretty decent tech quality.

... oddly enough, I hadn't fully roofed a few sections. There was the exposed beer brewery and the newly built hydro-generator.Those sections were walled off, but completely exposed to the elements due to the lack of a roof! I have plans to kit out the brewery a bit more and construct a drugs/medicine capability in that same sterile area. Possibly it might be a good idea to add in a more distributed energy storage solution (perhaps little cells nearer to the generators) in case of disaster... after all, all my turrets and base defences are electrically powered and if the power goes out and the central cells were disrupted... it could be a bit dicey!

Sometime since I last played, the developers had added some changes to the way that livestock was handled. Instead of just designating zones for them to wander around and stay content in... you now need to build enclosed pens and gates... otherwise they start to wander away and go wild again!

Sigh... I hadn't noticed this for a few in-game days... I kept getting notifications that some animal was starting to wander and might go wild unless a trainer hauled them back to a pen... but I couldn't figure out what was causing it. I finally figured it out, and I have constructed four large outdoor holding areas, and two undercover barns as well. At the moment, I have just let the game AI figure out where to stash the livestock... I will try and streamline it later when I better understand it.

... yes... there is a LOT of livestock that I have accumulated. It might be time to start slaughtering a few for meat, or to send off for trade. I appear to have tamed quite a few of the more dangerous animals... they will be useful in combat, and if I'm lucky a few of them might get culled as well. A bit ruthless... but that might need to be done. However, I will have to keep an eye on the people that they have bonded with... as an dearly loved pet dying will be pretty traumatic for them, and some people are specialised trainers with about 5 animals bonded to them... losing them all in one ill-timed firefight might send them crazy in a bad way!

Yes... the all important worker priorities. Currently, I have no memory of why I have set it up like this, so best to leave it well alone. Messing around with things here can cause the colony to go dysfunctional as critical jobs are not completed. It works... for now.

Luckily, I did give everyone nicknames that have their preferred jobs... so, that sort of organisation has left be with a few breadcrumbs to follow!

Near the end of my play session, I figured that it was time to strike out and set up a trading caravan. Four of my better colonists (soldiers, traders and a medic) along with a huge array of pack animals formed up with most of our excess gear and export goods. They will make a tour of the friendly villages close by and hopefully bring back some interesting gear... on the other hand, I'm not especially short of anything at the moment... so, I'm not entirely sure what they might find out there that I either don't have or can't manufacture.

... but a quest did just show up... and there is something here that I really want. A persona core for the spaceship construction. I don't have one of these, and it will be necessary to construct the computer that will control the spaceship. Unfortunately, the deadline is 5 days... there are 7 opposing tribepeople... and my best soldiers are currently out on a trade route.

I think I will be able to piece together a decent raiding force, but things will be a bit thin at home in terms of defence (people) and just general hands on deck for running the colony. Plus, all my horses and pack animals are out on the trade caravan, so I won't be moving as fast as I would hope. Still... a persona core is a highly sought after prize!

... I guess I will have to take the risk and hope that my home base runs fine whilst the raiding party and caravan are both out.

One little annoying thing that I learnt. The two mortars that are the core of my long range base defence... well, they need to have reinforced barrels replaced. For some reason, you CAN'T manufacture those!??!?!?!... you can manufacture bionic eyes and limbs, charge rifles and lasers... but a reinforced barrel from 20th century tech? NOPE!

Weird...

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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