Let's Play: Rimworld - Part 1 The Beginning

"The escape pod, no better than a rattling tin coffin built by the lowest bidder and the kind of thing you never hope to have need of. The burning heat of reentry turns the metal casket into a small oven, boiling heat churning around like liquid as the poorly fitted heat shield struggles, the whole pod shuddering so hard you worry you might lose a few teeth. All you can do is hope, pray, beg and hope the universe spares you as you grip the harness in white knuckled terror. Then as your eyes wince shut fearing you will be dashed against the planets surface the braking thrusters fire a split second before impact, throwing your shoulders hard into the harness, it seems the universe doesn't want to end your thread just yet..."

A safe landing, now where to begin?

Day 1

So it finally begins! First things first though I take a look around the map in an attempt to find a good place to start building, main priorities at the start are food, shelter and then electricity. With a small lake and a large tract of land just to the right of my starting area I think that is as good a spot as any, there's a sizable mountain that will help cut down any angles of attack as well. So now I just scour the map and make sure to un-forbid my starting supplies there's often a few extra survival meals lurking around. Seems our first pet is a female husky called Isis bonded with Syd our non-combat capable colonist, that may actually be pretty useful if we can train her to protect Syd.

I also make sure to give Angel the rifle as she is my main hunter and best shooter and Nicole the pistol, Syd will remain unarmed the knife I can save for someone else later. Next I'll be setting out a basic wooden building with four rooms, three of them will be bedrooms with the fourth larger one being a sort of dining/crafting/research area. Luckily there's a small stone building near to where I am building so for the first day or two my colonists sleeping spots will be in there, it'll stop them complaining about sleeping outside. With the basic layout planned I am going to throw in a couple of modest growing areas as well, 9x9 potatoes in one and rice in another, with this being a boreal forest map stockpiling for winter is going to be pretty darned crucial.

For now I am going to leave work priorities on automatic but I'll likely tinker with them as soon as the initial base area is constructed and the basics are in place. I opted to add a fourth bedroom which will act as either a medical bed or prisoner room, likely the former. I placed the stockpile behind the main building with a dumping stockpile for animal bodies next to it, roofing it is key as it stops supplies from deteriorating. So day one draws to a close with things off to a decent start!

Humble beginnings.

Day 2

This day should see the main building constructed with some certainty and it'll be time to build beds, tables and chairs and then begin working on a freezer for storing food. That in itself will require power, a couple of wood-fired generators and four batteries should be enough for that but first things first. A stove, butchers table, research table, dining table and chairs will be added into the main room with a bed for each of the four rooms as well.

Angel appears to be the go-to for doing most everything at the moment which I probably should have known but I think I may hold off on going too crazy with new build orders until she's got at least one or two of the fields planted. It's a good thing she sleeps more quickly than the other two, the lazy bums! There is now also a cougar roaming around which is making me decidedly nervous, get out of my base.. It has decided that Isis our pet husky looks like a good snack. Not good. Let's hope Angel can kill it otherwise Syd (and me) will be a little upset.

Disaster, there were actually two cougars and whilst Isis fought bravely she sadly perished before Angel and Nicole could fend it off. They did however manage to kill both of them before Isis became a meal, rough start to day two. So much for the idea of training her to defend Syd later on.

Rest in peace, Isis.

Luckily there are plenty of trees around though Syd is so slow at cutting them down once again Angel seems to be doing most of the work, I may need to switch to manual priorities to even out who is doing what. Things are starting to slowly take shape at least by the end of a slightly unfortunate day two, RIP Isis.

Day 3

No surprise Angel is up bright and early and moving to begin planting the two fields, the more food I can stockpile ahead of the winter the better as they are pretty brutal in a boreal forest biome. I decide to quickly throw in a horseshoe pin for some recreation as Nicole and Syd are getting a little grouchy, it should suffice at least for now whilst I am still trying to establish myself.

The building I will be using for my freezer to store food has also started, I kept it roughly 10x10 which will likely need two coolers to drop it below freezing to keep food from spoiling. Expanding the roof area over the stockpile and the right side of the main building near the mountain so as to stop the batteries I will build there shorting out in the rain. Syd after taking a long walk late into the night is still sleeping meaning Angel and Nicole are doing all the work.

The main structures are now up at least now it's just a case of building the beds so I can get rid of the 'slept outdoors' mood debuff as Nicole is getting extra cranky now. The research table now going down so I can start researching batteries which is going to be important to keep the freezer from shutting off. Whilst I let everything I have already set to build finish however a friendly visitor from a nearby settlement arrived, Alogo. Not really much I plan to do about them at this stage but I'm just glad it's not a pirate raid.

With the potato field fully planted now and the rice field starting at the end of day three with only really the beds and tables left I figure now is as good a time as any to end part one of this Rimworld Let's Play.

How my colony is looking on the end of day 3!

Let's Play: Rimworld - Part 0 The Set-Up

So, it finally begins the very first part of my written Let's Play for Rimworld. Initially I was just going to jump in and start writing away but I thought it might be best to include the set-up as well, a sort of prologue if you will.

First thing to select, the scenario, I did really consider playing the 'Lost Tribe' however I feel the classic 'Crashlanded' will do given I haven't played Rimworld since about alpha 16. Having more people to me is good but the lower level of tech you start off with means it's probably not the best idea given I am more than a bit rusty.

Next is choosing the AI story-teller and selecting the difficulty as above due to not having played in some time I feel it's best to keep it a bit more reasonable. So I'll be sticking to Cassandra Classic for my story-teller and keeping the difficulty at medium (I used to play it at rough or higher.) I will however be using the 'Commitment Mode' which used to be called Permadeath mode I believe. This is mainly because I feel the mistakes and failures are as important as the success and triumph in Rimworld. No save scumming here!

Now for world generation, I opted to change my seed to 'thewrittenletsplay' because why not, 30% world coverage is more than enough even if I do sometimes like the idea of using 100%. Average temperature and rainfall for now, if I do more let's plays of this we can change things up.

Not a bad little world, now for one of the most important steps in the set-up choosing a starting location. The kind of biome you opt to start within determines a lot, from the average temperatures at different times of year, the growing period for plants, the kinds of animals that call it home, the availability of certain kinds of rock etc. For me I already knew the kind of place I wanted to start in as it's quite possibly my favourite kind of biome, the boreal forest.

I enjoy the boreal forest biome the most as I have had some absolutely amazing games in them, they are not too different from a temperate forest biome but the differences make it more interesting to me. They have a decent enough growing period, warm summers, plenty of wildlife, however their winters are far more harsh than a temperate forest and there's something appealing about trying to survive in the snow to me. So as you can see above this is where I opted to have my landing site, large hills rather than mountains, mountains give me nightmares in this game.

Next up is likely the most important part of setting up a game of Rimworld. Choosing your reluctant colonists. It's important to make sure your starting three can do as many jobs and tasks as possible, missing out people who are good at building or farming can make things just a little bit tricky. So make sure you have a good range of skills between everyone, which is what I am going to do.

Didn't even need to randomise this lady at all, she has at least a modest amount of passion for most everything. Passion basically means they learn and improve that skill a lot faster than someone without passion. Her traits aren't actually too bad psychopath basically means dead bodies, violence, harvesting prisoner organs and other things which would make anyone else feel nervous don't bother her at all. Quick sleeper means she doesn't need as long to rest as others so she's definitely a good first one. Angel seems like a fairly ironic name though so I kept it.

And yet another lady being dropped from the sky onto this world, Syd is incapable of violence so she won't be able to help defend the colony nor take part in hunting. However her skill and passion at mining and construction alone would have been good enough. She even has high passion for cooking not to mention decent medical skill. Ladies and gentlemen, your doctor is in!

Last but not least is Nicole.. Yet another lady I guess this is just how things are going to be. She seems to be a bit of a wild card given her traits of being too smart and neurotic which may end up making things a bit interesting. However her skill with social and intellectual is hard to pass up, research is going to be pretty important plus she has decent combat ability like Angel does. Hopefully having two decent combatants will make it less of a detriment that Syd is a non-combatant.

So with everything set-up, watch this space for part one of this written let's play!

The 10 Things I am Looking Forward to Seeing In X4: Foundations

Ah, sandbox space games and me go all the way back to Frontier: Elite 2 so when I heard a new X game was dropping out of warp soon it was hard for me to not look forward to it. I have played a fair amount of the X series over the years from X2: The Threat to X3: Reunion and Terran Conflict so as I learned more about X4 I got more and more hyped for it. I won't be buying it on release as my PC is too rickety right now but it will be among the first purchases I make once I upgrade my PC.

So here are ten things I am looking forward to the most in X4: Foundations gleaned from the preview videos I have seen so far:

1. Fly Any Ship: This has always been a staple feature of the X games (save for Rebirth but we don't talk about that.) The ability to fly any ship from the smaller scout fighter to massive capital ships is always a win in my book.
2. Exploration: I love exploring in most games where it is possible but I love it in sandbox space games. From what I have been able to glean from the various videos and articles I have seen there are various wrecks and stations to find out there in the void which makes me wonder what other cool things exploration in X4 will have.
3. Dynamic Economy: Another staple feature of the X games and something I have always found pretty neat. Not just a feature for traders either as any smart pirates knows finding a good trade loot means lots of loot, yarrr!
4. Living Galaxy: The X games to me have always done a good job of creating the illusion of a living galaxy, the fact that things can happen with or without out. You can fly into a sector and find a battle going on or be stiffed out of your trade profits because that other trader landed first. This time around it seems they have really gone all out with it, factions can build stations, expand, go to war which is going to make every game very different.
5. Empire Building: Start off with one tiny ship and eventually have an entire fleet, stations and shipyards, almost makes this seem like it's going to be X4: The 4X. The new modular station building looks especially interesting.
6. Map Control of Your Ships and Stations: I think this is going to be a big improvement given from what I can tell you can control your fleets and such from the map screen like an RTS. Something I always struggled with in the previous games was managing a large empire.
7. Walking on Stations and Ships: Not exactly a feature I ever consider vital but I'll always appreciate that extra level of immersion. Being able to wander around ships and stations on top of flying around in space, I just hope it's not as clunky as it was in X: Rebirth.
8. Research: This one kind of caught my eye especially when you add in all the empire management aspects, though I do wonder just how in depth it will be or whether it will just be aimed at unlocking more exotic goodies, only time will tell. If it includes things like improving any ships you build, improving your crews and captains as well I think that could be very interesting.
9. More Accessible Mining: At least that is how it seems and sounds, in most space sandbox games if you give me a choice between mining or trading I'll usually take mining. In previous X games it always seemed like you needed a massive amount of set-up to even start doing it, however it now seems to be something you can do in any ship, slap a few mining lasers on a fighter or freighter and off you go which I much prefer.
10. New Universe (Kind Of): I am genuinely looking forward to seeing how the X universe has changed, different factions compared to before the story of the universe having moved on. 

Games I Love: Middle-Earth Shadow of War

As a big fan of the original how could I not love it's sequel which seems to dial everything up to eleven. I initially avoided it due to it's use of micro-transactions, which in a game as pricey as Shadow of War was more than a little dubious to me so I waited for the so called definitive edition and got it will all it's DLC's so, patience can indeed be a virtue! I'll apologise in advance for the screenshots, not many good action shots I'm afraid nor even shots of the interface.

I will do my best to avoid any story spoilers where possible but there may be one or two that creep in that I can't avoid. So, what is Middle-Earth: Shadow of War? It's an action game with RPG elements set in Tolkien's fabled Lord of the Rings setting. You take on the role of Talion, a ranger from Gondor stuck between the world of the living and the dead, as for why well, spoilers I don't want to give for those whom haven't played the first game. Personally I love the interpretation these games have on the setting so I found the story compelling enough to keep wanting to see what happened next but no spoilers!

Obligatory epic shot!

If you have played Assassins Creed or any of the Batman games you will feel pretty at home with the combat system here. There's just a lot more to it given the extra abilities Talion has access to this time around. There is something very satisfying about the combat system when you start getting access to more abilities and evading an Olog's club only to drop into slow motion and head-shot that archer before countering the dual wielding savage with a swift knee to the gut before using chain-drain to recover all your health and turn a ten against one into a five on five brawl.

There is even a more RPG like gear system in place now giving you not only different bonuses but sets and their bonuses too. Each piece of gear can also be slotted with one of three colours of gems doing  variety of things such as increasing damage, giving you life-steal or giving orcs you recruit a bit of a level bump. It's basic but I still found it enjoyable to get a nice new sword with a fun special effect or a new piece of armour which stopped me getting stomped on so much.

This was my end game Talion.

Much like a lot of things from the first game the so called Nemesis system makes a return dialed up to eleven as well. The orc captains return as a core feature to fight against or dominate and turn to fight for you, it's this feature which so many people have their own stories to tell about including myself. They can ambush you out of no-where, cheat death and return whether due to you killing them or them dying in your service, they can betray you, they'll remember if you ran away or burned, poisoned or even cursed them. I had one orc who was I believe a tank but also a spear throwing hunter with one of the nastiest perks imagined called 'no chance'. Basically when you get dropped to zero life you get a chance to fight back if you time your counter attack right. No chance removes that meaning if they drop you to zero you are gone.

Now this orc even followed me to different regions always showing up at the worst times and jamming a cursed spear into uncomfortable places. Not only that he always seemed to cheat death and return despite burning him, poisoning him even cleaving him in half cross-ways, he just returned and returned, more of him replaced by crude orcish metal each time. Of course him killing me kept powering him up. I even sent 3 of my own captains to ambush him and helped them but he ended up killing 2 of them and then taking me out until he was basically a boss fight in his own right.

I find the sieges to be a lot of fun, so much so that I think I must've done nearly two dozen online ones.

The forts and sieges are one of the new features of the sequel which sees you forming your orc captains into assault leaders in order to take over each of the five regions forts. Each fort has an overlord and anywhere up to six warchiefs (and their bodyguards) defending it. The warchiefs maintaining so called siege upgrades making it more challenging to attack so you usually have to do a bit of preparing ahead of time. Be it outright killing the warchiefs, dominating them to your side or infiltrating your own captains and turning their own bodyguards against them. There's nothing quite so satisfying as watching your orcs leading their former warchief into an ambush and pulling his head off. I find attacking to be a little more fun than defending for the most part which is unusual for me, the forts themselves are pretty impressive and have a style based on the overlords tribe.

The overlord fight is for all intents and purposes a boss fight, all your captains save your bodyguard and any turned bodyguards of the overlords remain outside meaning you better be sure you can take him. Ologs (basically war trolls) are a personal nemesis of mine as they need a very different approach to defeat.

After taking a fort you assign warchiefs and an overlord to defend it, purchase your own siege upgrades which you also purchase on attack as well and they all have counters and uses depending on various things. Spiked walls is likely by favourite on defence as it means enemies can't climb over the walls anywhere near as easily.

The pseudo online aspect also returns in the form of vendetta's and conquests. The former is basically you avenging another player who died to a certain captain which gives both some rewards and is back from the first game. The conquests however are new and see you attacking a copy of other players forts which makes the whole capture and upgrading of forts take on a whole new meaning as these are a fantastic way to get gear for yourself and training orders to improve your captains.

Like even the greatest of games it is not without it's faults and some of them can be pretty trying at times. Just a few flaws and gripes I ran into whilst playing:

• The movement and targeting system: For the most part movement is more than fine but more than a few times Talion got stuck on a ledge and refused to jump off and took a bit more than an arrow to the knee for it which can be punishing on the harder difficulty settings. Also there's no sure fire way to lock a target so that execute you just saved your might for might miss that captain and just snuff out one of his grunts instead. 
• Difficulty settings are a bit out of whack: This is more a gripe than a flaw, initially I mostly played on Nemesis as I found it the most balanced overall. Gravewalker makes it far too punishing and captains far too spongy to be fun. Brutal is a nice mix of ensuring you and the orcs both do a lot of damage but the rate at which captains can level up and the 1 turn timer on nemesis missions can leave you unable to recruit orcs if you aren't careful.
• Gear system is a bit basic: Again more of a gripe but the gear system could have been fleshed out so much more as it stands you end up scrapping most gear for currency in the end.
• Hands Off Pit Fights: Personally I think it would have been more fun if you got to control your orc captains and overlords when you sent them into pitfights, as it stands its more of a dice roll and even your legendary orc can lose to a lower level regular one if their traits hard counter each other. 

If you loved Shadow of Mordor then Shadow of War is basically that ramped up to crazy levels with lots of extra stuff. Personally I think it's a good game even if the install size made me wince (some 110GB.) I found myself playing at one point just to find the best orc captains to recruit or just roaming through a camp stomping, stabbing and arrow flinging just for the spectacle.

Obligatory shot of Mount Doom.