The Fall of Languish a (heavily modded) Rimworld AAR

[Razgovory]

I have been playing a lot of Rim World lately, and thought it might be fun to create a Languish Scenario.  At least until the next Total Warhammer 2 DLC drops.  I created a bunch of pawns (In Rim World people are called pawns because they resemble chess pieces and their lives are meaningless) and named them after members of Languish.  I created 100, and set them lose with only a tiny amount of resources to see how they do. 

This is NOT how the game is meant to be played and I had to download quite a few mods to get it work. Unmodded the game typically starts you out with 3 pawns and the most you can start off with is 10.  A typical colony has about 10-15 pawns.  I'm starting at 100.  This normally breaks the game in a bunch of weird ways.  For instance, the game gives a buff to pawns in a poor colony for low expectations.  If everyone is living a log cabin eating rats off the dirt floor they don't get overly angry about the lack of art.  It's a survival situation and they figure eating rats is about the best they can expect.  As the Colony gets richer they expect more.  The problem is that colonists themselves have a dollar value, and are added into the value of the colony.  The more Colonists the richer the colony is and the higher the expectations.  So a hundred colonists together increases the value and creates "sky high expectations" which gives no mood buff.  3 guys living in a cave will make do but a 100 guys living in a cave will expect carpet and fine meals.  When mood goes down, pawns can go crazy, lighting fires or binging on drugs.

Another problem is that the game uses value to determine events such as raids.  The higher the value of the colony the deadlier the events.  So having 100 pawns will result in raids of 700 bandits or army of kill bots attacking the first season.  The solution is to start the game on the lowest difficulty level and raise the difficulty level 1 every year.  Otherwise it's a face full of robot Caterpillars.

The game is heavily modded, some to make things easier (like increases the amount of goods that can be in stacK), some makes things harder (such as including a hygiene and sewage mechanic), and some things just make it more interesting (such as adding more alien creatures). One mod makes the game pretty close to unwinnable.  Every year the planet will get 5 degrees colder.  Eventually it will become too cold to farm.  I can mitigate this somewhat by moving under ground and using hydroponics but the most likely outcome is the colony of Languish will get over run or starve.  Add that to the yearly increase in difficult and this becomes a last stand scenario.

Well, last stand if I'm lucky.  The most likely scenario is that game crashes and I can't proceed any further.  As I said, this is NOT how Rim World is meant to be played, the game really chugs if I run it like this and probably create cause some fatal error or the game will end with an unsatisfactory wave of giant spiders.  There is also the possibility that I will just get bored and start playing Total Warhammer again.  Eh, you know how it is.

First off here is a list of the members of the colonists.  I tried to get mostly people that still visit Languish, but there weren't quite a enough people for that.  So some older posts are included to CountdeMoney.  It was a little depressing to see that so many people I've liked over the years no longer post.  We also have a few lurkers, God know why, but there a few people who have posted only a few times yet still come back.  Anyway, here's the list:


Cristoph "Razgovory" Torrence 38M Mental Patient
Philip "Garbon" Mellar 23M Herper
Caitlin Valmy Stirr F22 Assassin
Lincoln "Yi" Anderson M29 Herbalist
Octave "Eddie Teach"  M22 Teacher
Kia "Barrister Boy" F23 Veterinarian
Georgette "Syt" Montes F26 Geologist
Christopher "Brain" Bryan M21 Assembler
Darcy "Derspeiss" Haas M24 Officer
Merrie "Caliga" Keith F28 Surgeon
Cindy "Jimmy Olsen" F24 Policewoman
Ernest "Crazy Canuck" Andrews F26 Botanist
Chat "Dguller" Walcenville M25 Fighter
Gert "Malthus" Sandoval F20 Rebel
Poppy "Grumbler" Pierce F27 Evangelist
Sean "Tamas" Pendersen M26 Activist
Noemi "Tyr" Johnson F29 Housewife
Horaxius "Grey Fox" Octavian M28 Artist
Pilar "Berkut" Savage F26 Sheriff
Simon "Sheilbh" Leslo F20 Bureaucrat
Ryoko "Monger" Minese F22 Merchant
Shintaro "Katmai" M26 Farmer
Josephine "Mono" Wood F38 Scientist
Michael "Viper37" Jennings M38 Housemate
Mai "Alfred Russel" Adams F30 Artist
Rowan "Minsky" Garner M34 Rancher
Erin "Merithyn" Sidarin F31 Mailwoman
Iosif "Mad Man Immortal" Reyes M37 Farmer
Esme "11B4V" Randolph F39 Counselor
Daniel "Celedhring" Stone M34 Engineer
Nyx "Habbaku" Silva F36 Janitor
Albert "HVC" Robinson M32 Grunt
Jason "Tonitrus" Roland M32 Agent
Jenniferium "Leip" Chenni F32 Surgeon
Aimi "Larch" Little F32 marine
Sev "Josephus" Shadow F33 Marine
Vera "Zanza" Keyes F39 Chef
Nate "Sbr" Chen 35M minstrel
Emila "PDH" F32 Drone
Tycho "Don't Say Banana" Byrd M34 Con Artist
Steve "Richard Haklyut"  Rahja M37 Programmer
Kyle "Savonarola" Palmer M15 Writer
Aidan "kronn" Collins M17 Coma Child
Memo "Duque de Braganca" Sparkfield M19 Writer
Connor "Solmyr" Moorhous M17 Explorer
Juan Manuel "Faeelin" Hueso M18 Brat
Atticus "Ulmont" Chang M19 Organ Farm
Lexi "Iormland" Escobar F16 Urchin
Darcey "Maximilian" Novak F19 Shelterkid
Kirk "Citizen K" Graves M19 Urchin
Xandarian "Baron von Schtinkenbutt" Stalzer M56 Mercenary (Kidnapped)
Sana "Oexmelin" Minatozaki F51 Botanist
Adalia "Maladict" Kalili F52 Herbalist
Mingham "Frunk" Wang M59 Settler
Harvey "Crazy Ivan1980" Krueger M51 Taxonomist
Scipio "Otto Von Bismarck" Compton M55 Blaster
Lauren "Saskgenesh" Mullins F51 Drone
Aoi "Legbiter" Wang    F56 Herbalist
Kumiko "Bendict Arnold" Newman M56 Minstrel (shot in the heart with an arrow)
Hiroto "His Majesty Bob" Valencia M52 Drone
Carter "Agelastus" Reilly M61 Teacher
Esme "Zoupa" Garret F64 Mathematician
Jason "BuddhaRhubarb" Jaeger M69 Collector
Gilma "Darth Wagtos" Harding F39 Recuriter
Jerry "Drakken" Welch M69 Spy
Rissa "PRC" Gransier F61 Builder
Jolene "Gups" Engo F66 Assembler
Fred "Pedrito" Munro M61 Farmer
Nadine "Camerus" Green F60 Settler
Larusa "Fate" Rynyk f60 Assassin
Jacqueline "Kleves" Richter F22 Professor
Miriam "Grinning Colossus" Everett F15 Scared
Patty "Hamilcar" Blackwell F33 Actor
Teddy "Hansmeister" Watson M27 Sailor
Tom "Threveil" Riley M28 Farmer
Ulyanna "Lucidor" Holloway F38 Courtesan
Everett "St. Jabba" Ekmark m27 Sailor
Ryan "Ocatavian" Jung M36 Chef
Satsuki "PJL" Kiryuin F34 Noble (Starvation)
Hilda "Ancient Demon" Pugh F32 Janitor
Ludmilla "Cerr" Fisher F32 therapist
Nico "Bogh" Storch M21 marine
Ryan "Malicious Intent" Michael M18 Researcher
Martin "Rex Francorum" Vetter M22 Rancher
Akemi "Arvoreen" Levine F39 Escapee
Heifer "Schaksen" Dewie F32 Collector
Mindy "Pishtaco" Hendricks F29 Botanist
Erie "Gaius" Riggs F23 Mercenary
Sjoerd "daverache" Lukas F35 Pilot
Narcli "Viking" Oros F23 Surgeon
Brin "Mad Burger Maker" Blackrose F36 Sailor
Aoife "Brazen" O'Donovan F33 Castaway
Jonathan "Rasputin" Grahl M35 Policeman
Arseny "CCR" Malone M22 Janitor
Karl "Chipwich" Hayden M26 Artist
Blas "CountDeMoney" M20 Bureaucrat
Iguchi "Ideologue" Mai F20 Barkeep
Caverlorn "Neil" Hunter M24 General
Shouta "Jacob" Holt M39 Sailor
Amelia "Martinas" Flais F33 Engineer.

The name in quotes is what the game typically calls someone, and that's what I replaced with a Languish name.  The next is sex and age followed by occupation.  I didn't mess with people's age*, sex or occupation with the exception of myself since this is rare game where my occupation is listed.  Also: I don't know what you all do and for the most part don't care.  I assume that occupations are accurate and that Ulmost really is a professional organ farm.  One other thing about occupations is that it gives a different name on the "bio" screen than it does on some tabs.  The occupations on those tabs are typically shorter and sometimes more funny.  For "herpetologist" is shortened to "Herper".  I opted for the shorter, funnier names so Grinning Colossus job is titled "Scared" rather than "Scared Child".  Characters also have a background which is typically not listed unless they are under 20 in which case they have no occupation and the background is listed instead.  I've probably gotten some people's names wrong, so feel free to point it out if I did.

Remember when I said that characters have dollar value?  Well, it might interest you to know which member of Languish is most valuable and which is least (I honestly don't know how that is calculated).  The most valuable member is... Crazy Canuck



The least least is... Tyr


Probably the most accurate is Valmy.  "Intimate Assassin" is probably the best description of his job, at least as understood by me.



I've covered most of the stuff, I haven't included a Mod List but I thought this post was getting long so I'm going to stop here (I don't want to lose everything I wrote because I clicked on wrong thing before posting).

*I created the characters in batches and each batch had an age range.  Otherwise a person has the same chance as staring as a 15 year old kid as they do an 90 year old geriatric and I didn't want too many annoying teenagers or crippled old people.

[The Brain]

Sweet.

And nice that Tyr will make someone happy for the rest of their life.

[Syt]

Nice. Looking forward to seeing how this plays.

[garbon]

I'm down to be a 23 year old who studies lizards.

A bit terrified of Cal the female surgeon.

[The Brain]

I'm down to be a 23 year old who studies lizards.

:dolljoints:

[Razgovory]

I'm already running into problems.  For some reason all my crops are poisoned and I have no idea why.  I think it might be a mod.

[The Brain]

I'm already running into problems.  For some reason all my crops are poisoned and I have no idea why.  I think it might be a mod.

Brawndo's got electrolytes.

[Habbaku]

It's got what plants crave.

[PDH]

Hell, I see Languish colonists as dying before landing due to arguments about totally unimportant things.  Poisoning all the crops on the opening turn is outdoing expectations.

[Sophie Scholl]

I hope I have as long and successful of a life and career as another old man minstrel: Keith Richards. Haha. Looking forward to seeing this go down.

[Razgovory]

I figured out why I was getting my crops poisoned.  Drought.  For some reason the warning for a plant dying from drought is the same as a plant dying from poison.  Before I go any further I'm going to list the enormous number of mods running

List of Mods

Harmony- this does something that allows mods to work.  Beyond that I don't know.

HugsLib- Ditto

Increased Stack- Let's you stack more objects on a tile.  Handy quality of life mod

Jecstools – Again, something that allows other mods to work

Numbers- adds an additional tab to give a better view of Pawns skills and stuff. 

Vanilla Weapons Expanded- All the "Vanilla Expanded" mods are good.  This one adds weapons

Vanilla Apperal expanded- adds more clothing

Go Explore- adds quests

Snap Out- Adds a mechanic were a pawn can use their social skill to prevent another Pawn from going Crazy

Vanilla Furniture expanded Production- Adds more furniture, in this case stuff that allows you to build and research

Vanilla Furniture expanded Medical- Adds some medical stuff like IVs

Disasters 2020- Allows you to select catastrophic permanent events.  In my case I picked Rogue Planet which slowly freezes the world.

Vanilla hair expanded- Adds beards and new hairstyles

Giddy-up Core- Base mod that allows you to ride horses and other animals.

Giddy-up Core Ride and Roll- Mod allows Pawns to ride animals on the map

Giddy-up Core Battle mounts- Can ride animals in battle

Vanilla armor expanded- Adds Armor

Vanilla Furniture expanded- Lets you build monuments.

Vanilla Factions Core- Base Mod for adding factions

Vanilla Factions medieval- adds medieval tech factions

Vanilla Weapons Lasers- Adds lasers!

Psychology- does a bunch of things with character personality making Pawns act more realistically

Relations Tab- Lets you see how well Pawns like other Pawns

Vanilla Events expanded – adds events

Dynamic Pops- Lets you increase number of pawns changes what the game considers too few or too many Pawns

Blueprints-  lets you save building plans

expectations modifier.  Changes the mood bonus thresholds for wealth

EdB Prepare carefully- lets you edit starting pawns and how many pawns you can start with

Alpha Animals- bunch of really cool animals added in.

Vanilla Fishing expanded- adds fishing mechanics

Guard for me- Lets you assign body guards and sentries

Wall Light- lets you attach a lamp to a wall.  Removes clutter

Rimfeller- adds petroleum mechanics.  Drill for oil, make plastic, that sort of thing

Real Ruins.  Adds ruins from other player's games.  Really Neat

Vanilla furniture expanded – adds some more generic furniture.

Giddy-up Caravan- more stuff with mounts.

Rimatomics- adds nuclear power!  Overly complex but fun.

RimHud. Improves the UI which really sucks in the vanilla game

RimFridge- adds refrigerators.

Dubs Bad Hygene- Adds mechanics for sewage and cleanliness

RPG style Interface- Improves UI which sucks in vanilla

Vanilla furniture security – adds some more defenses.

Vanilla factions expanded – adds a wild west faction

Long Distance- I forgot what this one did.

Alpha Biomes.  Adds new types of maps.  Goes with Alpha Animals

Custom Death Randomness.  Makes it so raiders don't drop dead so often

Genetic Rim- Adds allows you to play God in a God game.

Genetic Rim alpha animals patch- lets you make more monstrosities

[Razgovory]

It all started on a leisure cruise on the SS Languish.  We were orbiting the planet Tureis when we learned of the terrible news.  The ship's system ran on COBL and we didn't take into consideration Y5K+500 problem and all our calendars went haywire.  Only 100 of us made it to the escape pods before the entire ship exploded, littering the planet with valuable space junk.  The calendar problem was worse than we thought, because we landed on the 11th of Decembary.  Still we have resolved to survive.  To build a colony, and.. I don't know, construct a space ship to escape maybe?  We really didn't expect to get this far.  We kinda thought that the escape pods would kill us.

We don't have much, we have the standard issue survival food, medicine and revolver. Along with all the spare lumber we could find on the space ship.  In retrospect, chartering a space ship that required spare lumber may have been a mistake.

We landed in mountainy region known as the Mano Cliffs.  "Mano" has one of these curvy lines over the "n" so we expect to meet Mexicans. To the South is some badlands that I can't pronounce and a mechanical nightmare land.  There's also some assholes who built a fucking castle and some guys living tepees whose land I might have encroached on a little bit.  Well, this is game inspired by the Wild West (or rather the TV show firefly), so I suppose that's to be expected.



We found a good spot by a river that looks easily defensibly, near the ruins of a kitchen.  There's also some horses and donkey's which we were able to tame, and we found a bunch of old potatoes that we were able feed to the horses.



Our plan is to build a starting base by the river while digging out some space in the side of the mountain.  Mountains are easier to defend but take a long time to tunnel through.  We did find some basic weapons, a hand full of Zulu ikwa (a stumpy spear) and Dguller found a Plasteel long sword on the bottom of a river.  There was also hand cannon that went to a guy named Gaius, who I think is a lurker.  Anyway, our small band of armed yahoos wandered around killing hostile animals and potential predators.  Fate was set on fire by an electro-snail, but she's fine (I realized that I don't know what Fate's gender is so I'm just going to use the gender for the character, a Granny assassin who is the best melee fighter we have).



We did get a drought on the first few days, but the game gave me an unhelpful message.  I thought there was a machine that was killing my plants through poison.  We had discovered two "Ancient Dangers", rooms that have useful treasure, Cryo-sleep caskets (self-power suspended animation thingies), and typically horrible monsters.  I thought that maybe there was some sort mechanoid (evil space robots) poison machine in one of these tombs, so I set my action squad (the people with the few weapons I have) to open them up.  They both had treasures, like a magic psychic doohicky that drives people crazy and a bunch of the cryosleep containers but no doomsday machines or machines.  The drought went away on its own, so whatever.



And the other one




Otherwise the not much else has happened.  Since I'm starting the game on very low difficulty level I don't expect much interesting is going to happen for a while.

END COMMUNICATION

[The Brain]

Lovely.

[Syt]

Very much enjoying this, Raz.

[katmai]

A fucking Farmer? Did you confuse me with teh Brain?