Simulation games

I feel like CA has added so many good quality of life features since the game came out so I am surprised that he hasn’t changed fence decay up a bit. Waiting for the golden clock takes so long; by the time you get it, you are already done with the game.

I like decorating and find it so so tedious to keep repairing the million fence posts I have on my farm while also gunning for perfection.

Yesterday, I was on a train ride and sat next to a young man playing FM24. I asked him how it’s going and he said “Not very well”. He sat in 15th place as Chelsea. I wished him good luck. From the corner of my eye I continued to see him first lose 4:2 at home to Everton (after having drawn at half time). Afterwards he had to explain himself in a board meeting. Next game he goes up 2:0 against West Ham… and gets trashed 3:4 by full time.

At this point I was considering offering him to show me his tactics to maybe help him improve, but it was too late. He was in another meeting. I then saw him very slowly closing his laptop, his head hanging downwards in shame. Poor lad ended up getting sacked in front of my sneaky eyes. I felt sorry for him, but I couldn’t hide a chuckle.

If the young train manager reads this: Keep going, you’ll get the hang of things eventually! I hope this little report doesn’t bore you, but it was quite an amusing and unexpected observation for me.

• I thought that the Full Shipment achievement was shipping at least one item in each category in one day. (The screen at the end of the day that tallies your shipment)

• I only put trash in the shipping box because I thought it was a trash can, and just took full inventories to the shops

• I didn’t know that you could buy a training rod from Willy to make fishing easier, so I just ignored fishing and struggled when I had to fish

• I forgot which trees were fruit in winter and cut down several on accident

• I didn’t know that you could hatch the Dino egg so I gave it to Gunther and didn’t get another until the volcano

• I thought the stone ammo for the basic slingshot was something I had to buy or make, and couldn’t find it anywhere; it’s just rocks.

• I sold so many museum items early on and didn’t realize that they wouldn’t go to the museum. So. Many. Items.

So specifically raiding enemy colonies is awful for four main reasons, settle down because this is a long read that even I don’t care about.

• Enemy colonies do not play by the same rules as yours would during a raid.

• It’s not very rewarding.

• Only brute force.

• Colonies aren’t that big of a deal.

So by not “playing by the same rules” I mean that every enemy colonist is a fighter, not a farmer, not a builder, not an unarmed man in sight. Everyone is armed and this would not be the case with your own colony, where most players would have the odd unarmed pawn. Alongside everyone being a fighter, they have no sense of preservation for their colony, meaning if you set fire to a few buildings, none will peel away to extinguish the flames, unlike how you would be forced to do if you were raided.

Secondly, after their raid is finished, you’re only left to lavish in a few piles of pemmican and whatever you can pick off the corpses. Corpses seem to be just about the only thing left after a raid, which is a shame because a few prisoners to enslave and steal the organs of (morbid etc) would be nice. I’ve always felt enemy pawns die much easier than your own, denying you prisoners very often.

Thirdly, there’s little room for tactics, at most you can drop in close with transport pods or mixup weapons. It would be cool if the enemies weren’t automatically aware of our arrival within a few hours, often earlier, so we could attempt a stealth raid, not focused on base annihilation but more kidnapping and such. Or if we could build an effective defence to besiege them from. However it always ends up with the enemy homing in on us in a chaotic banzai charge at whatever we do, it would be interesting to see them react differently, either tactically or realistically.

And finally (thanks if you made it this far), being next door to an enemy colony poses absolutely no threat, really. Oh no, my relations with that enemy faction I’ll never ally with are worsening because I’m too close? Oh well. Also, on the world map you can waltz caravans not just around, but straight through their colony with no threat of attack at all. Proximity will also make no difference to the frequency of the faction’s raids or their intensity as well.

Maybe I’m overcomplicating Rimworld, but lemme know what you guys think :)