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CYS Colony Simulator Part 8
on 7/18/2025 5:11:13 PM
Welcome back to the CYS Colony- as per the results of the vote, we're getting a tank!
Let's see what the colonists are up to-
And with that, Ace is forbidden from speaking to the hotel guests. They do end up leaving us a few hundred silver to thank us for our hospitality, so maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounds. In *actual* CYS Colony news though, we're going to have to do a bit of research in order to unlock the Tango- it's actually one of the last ones in the research tree, so we're also going to have to research aerial vehicles beforehand... now that's an idea, maybe we can get ourselves our own plane at some point.
Rex and Anthraxus get to work, knowing that they have a lot of sleepless nights ahead of them as they stare down this project.
There are a few productive, yet uneventful days as the duo researches tirelessly. Beans are turned into coffee, new beers are extracted from the fermenting barrels, and some of the last of our crops for the season are harvested. It's only once the research finally comes to an end that we catch wind of something from one of our guests- a prisoner is being held hostage by Wukpow-Pog, a faction of pigskins with a base that's about a day's travel away. This prisoner is a very important person, but Wukpow-Pog seems to know that, and has FIFTEEN guards stationed there. One thing's for certain- if we want to save this prisoner, we're going to need that tank.
Everyone gets to work- this is not going to be a raid like the others we've been through before. We're not just attacking a cruddy little camp with two people in it, nor can we expect to have our enemies gunned down by other factions. No, this is just going to be us against fifteen opponents, and it's not going to be easy.
Preparations are made- Suranna gets to work with constructing the mechanisms for our new vehicle, while Sent goes to his happy place. Sherbet begins to work on a second floor to the apartment building, so that the prisoner will have a room... if we're successful in this trip, of course. My game froze up for about two minutes after he constructed the stairs, which made me extremely nervous, but it all worked out.
Sherbet heads up to begin working on the new housing, and- oh, oh GOD, is that what our rooftops look like??
Well, it'll look better when we're done. Blueprints are laid out for a similar wooden complex to the ground level, four new rooms that should serve our next handful of recruits well.
Ah, but did you really think we would make it through an episode without being raided? You're very silly, if you thought that. Surprisingly though, it isn't the Tox Pack or even Anya's Outlaws that are coming for us this time... it's the Kingdom of Javelin, populated by Velonir people. I've brought them up a few times, but Velonirs have the busted ability to bond with and tame dragons, so being raided by these people is NOT good... thankfully, they haven't brought a dragon with them this time around.
I spy a person of interest- and she seems to be the ringleader among this quartet of Velonir raiders, too.
As I mentioned before, Mystic is apart of the Velonir race, and therefore has the dragon-bond ability. That's not her only superpower though, evidently- level TWENTY animal handling? I'm pretty sure that's enough to tame literally any animal in the game, even the giant spider clutch mothers that appear at the edge of the map sometimes (though that seems unwise). Mystic here is effectively a Disney Princess, but one with level 12 melee and a greatsword who wants to cut our heads off right now, unfortunately.
Our shooters advance, quickly downing one of the enemies and killing another. The battle is already won by this point- there's not much that a pair of melee fighters can do against our squad of gunners, except... hey! Mystic's fleeing! She's getting away! GET HER!
But unfortunately, they do not get her, and Mystic escapes. Well, I'm sure we'll see the dastardly Mystic again in the future, that'd make her our first ever recurring villain!
But for the time being, we can imprison and slowly recruit the other two downed Velonirs, and send them off to work an outpost for us later. They both have good but not Mystic-level animal skills, so they'd be excellent to send off to start a ranch somewhere. Liminal seems to have other priorities at the moment, such as the two entire bottles of vodka that fell out of one of the enemy's pockets.
In brighter news, I guess we have ducks now? I don't know why we're constantly getting new animals wandering into our base pre-tamed. I'm not complaining or anything, but it is funny that we have four different species in our pen yet have only successfully tamed one, that being the stegosauruses. That leaves us with the stegos, donkeys, iron beetles, AND ducks.
More uneventful days go by after that- nobody wants to say it, but uncertainty lingers in the air as Suranna continues to produce more vehicle parts, one by one, until it comes time for Sherbet to assemble the tank. If things go poorly, for some of us- if not ALL of us- this could be the very last adventure. Suranna stays behind, as her presence is necessary to keep wearing down the prisoners. She could potentially be the only survivor, depending on how this goes.
Our colony bids a hopefully temporary goodbye to Little Bingbo and one of our six donkeys, and our home, before setting out.
Oh, and we had to take some goods for the road. Sent is better at things when he's drunk, this is a fact, so it's not irresponsible to let him crush a 6-pack on the way over there! And poor Suranna, to cope with our leaving, drowns her sorrows in iced coffee. :(
Yes, the freezer IS full of giant insectoid corpses, why do you ask?
The vehicles pull up to the prison site, where an uphill battle awaits us even with our duo of giant metal rectangles at our disposal. The uneven dirt path beckons us forward- something truly nightmarish is waiting just up ahead.
The Tango sets off for the main base, in hopes of taking out some of the enemies early- that leaves the Vengabus to be noticed by about half of the pigskins. Efforts to kite the opponents around go swimmingly, for about ten seconds- and then, one of our foes foolishly runs in front of the moving bus, and gets flattened as a result. That part is good- what isn't good is that the fuel tank is damaged in the process, and the Vengabus is effectively out of gas in seconds and must be abandoned if the trio of Sherbet, Ace, and Anthraxus wish to survive the onslaught of bullets and grenades.
That looks like a lot of enemies, right? That's AFTER one of them got splattered by the bus, and it's not including the ones in a shootout with the Tango offscreen.
The situation looks dire, and... well, it is, but we have a few key advantages. The grenades are quite easy to avoid, and our weapons are a bit better than theirs in general. The main concern is getting hit with the fiery explosives they're throwing around, as those seem to burst the moment they hit the ground.
The trio is doing well, but even one hit is enough to put a colonist down in Rimworld if you're unlucky- we cannot afford to be getting shot at by this many foes at once. Ace is quick to provide us with a meat shield, summoning a mighty elephant turtle to battle alongside us! It just looks like a ball with legs from that angle, but I promise it's an elephant turtle.
Just up to the north, the Tango crew has been steadily picking off the pigskins by their camp, a few kills so far, but ammunition for the turret is beginning to run low- it'll be time to go at it on foot soon, as unfortunate as having to dismount the armored tank during a shootout may be.
The sea of fire below begins to overpower even the rain, as the pigs leave nothing but destruction in their path. The elephant turtle, bless his soul, is put down, leaving us without a shield from the many bullets and grenades that are now focused on us. Everyone gets shot at least twice, and Anthraxus is even caught in the point-blank explosion of a fiery grenade- and yet, we continue to fight. Note that this idiot named Thick ate like, 20 bullets in total before going down, he was an absolute menace. Fatty.
Man, this is brutal. I wonder what Suranna is doing right now. Hard at work? Thinking about us, maybe?
Leaving the tank behind, Miz, Liminal, and Rex head down to pick off the remaining enemies. As soon as they round the corner and finish off the injured Piggins, the notification appears that the enemies are now fleeing- we have, officially, won. Now it's time for medical attention so we do not bleed out, hooray!
The aftermath is certainly a sight to behold.
I was looking around at all of the pigs to see if any would make good outpost fodder for our colony, but they all had pretty abysmal skills or were going to die before we could patch their wounds anyway. However, if you look very closely, there IS one person wedged underneath the broken-down Vengabus who has an okay animals skill- she wasn't there before, so I have to assume the elephant turtle stuffed her underneath it at some point, lol.
Now, of course, we didn't come here just for the sake of fighting, did we? No, we came here because we caught wind of a VIP (very important prisoner), and now that the pigs are gone, it's time to meet our newest recruit.
With a lot of good to great stats, the ability to summon nightlings, the petrifying gaze ability, and his villain status, End Master will be a very valuable addition to our colony, I'm sure the fact that he's literally classified as 'mad surgeon' has no bad implications for our medical health. I would say that this was definitely worth the trip!
Our colonists sadly have to stay at the prison for a day or so, since the Vengabus has to be repaired before it can make the trip back. That's fine though, some of our colonists need to rest and recover from the battle anyway and OH MY GOD MIZAL IS FEEDING BEDRIDDEN ACE AN ENTIRE BADGER
Finally, we're able to head back once the bus is in functioning condition. Everyone is actually quite eager to fall back into their routines, and End wanders off to claim himself a bedroom... the second floor isn't finished yet though, oops. Temporary housing in the hotel is by no means bad, but hopefully the new rooms are done soon. Get to work, Rimworld Sherbet!
If you recall those two Velonir prisoners we took, well, they have turned out to be pretty resistant to Suranna's recruitment efforts in our absence. Adding in that pigskin that we took from the prison, and for a moment it looked like we were definitely going to have a prison break on our hands. But then, a miracle- they were all ready to join us that next day! I wonder what made them change their tune?
The colonists all celebrate their victory with beers and food, which I'm sure will be a tradition in this colony going forward. As we wrap up another success story (barring the escape of the DASTARDLY MYSTIC), it's time to head into our votes for the episode. Oh, and also, if anyone has ideas for what we could name the Tango, by all means.
Ranch Vote
As we prepare to send this trio off to create us a ranch outpost, we have to decide which of our animals they're going to take with them! Can't have a ranch without animals, right? I've decided to omit the stegosauruses from this vote, leaving three options- I believe the way this works is they'll send us goods associated with the chosen animal every quadrum. In theory, ducks will give us eggs, beetles will give us steel, and donkeys will give us... I don't know, donkey leather?
Option A: Send them off with the ducks
Option B: Send them off with the iron beetles
Option C: Send them off with the donkeys
Progression Vote
Already, winter is approaching once again, and we're going to need to choose what to focus on going into the cropless season. The obvious choices would be to either hunker down and rework our defenses since raids are getting gradually stronger, or to continue carrying out raids of our own to stockpile more resources and wealth for the winter.
However, there is a third option... it would be a three-day trip, but something amazing could be waiting for us there.
Option A: We've been going on a lot of raids, and taking a lot of risks- it's time to keep to ourselves for a little while and make some much-needed upgrades to our base and our colonists.
Option B: The tank wasn't cheap to make, and we're going to need to replenish our resources going into the winter season, we have to do more raids.
Option C: We have to journey to the ancient construction site, the promise of materials and energy research are too grand to pass up!
CYS Colony Simulator Part 7
on 7/18/2025 2:57:23 PM
Don't judge, we had to take SOMETHING from Nagglfar to balance out the trade, they're the real furries!
CYS Colony Simulator Part 7
on 7/14/2025 9:12:04 PM
Rimworld dropped a new DLC recently, titled Odyssey- it has a big emphasis on customizable interiors in spaceships and planetary exploration, which sounds amazing... even though I don't have the DLC, it does give me an idea for our next vehicle.
Onto the episode, though- today, we need to put a big focus on making three things- coffee, beer, and clothes. Our vote was also won by the option to form a caravan and travel out to the neighboring settlements for trade, so we'll be doing that as well. But seriously, we need to get that beer going, people are starting to freak out.
However, there is one final step before we can finally begin creating our beer- we're going to need fermenting barrels. It's no big deal, we'll just add a fermenting room onto the food area like so.
Such an add-on is a bit more inconvenient than I would have liked, since it's going to be very wood-intensive and our best tree-cutting colonists have their attention on other things at the moment, such as harvesting the coffee beans, and in Sent's case, cooking up simple meals.
And in Suranna's case, the thing that she's busy with at the moment would be, finally, making clothes! Putting her high-level Crafting to work, it's time to make all of our miserable rag-wearing Cystians happy once again. What you see on the roadmap is only about half of what's queued, in Rimworld my rule of thumb when doing a clothes overhaul is to make more than you think is necessary- yet I always seem to end up with not enough...
Production on clothes and the fermenting room begins, and things are looking promising. Sadly everyone is quite busy with their primary jobs and the cleaning gets neglected- research, farming, building, plant cutting... and one colonist in particular is acting so very strangely...
She quickly gets Liminal and Anthraxus to tag along with her in the Vengabus, and speeds away from the colony and in the direction of some random hunting camp allegedly filled with pemmican. As Mizal pulls up to the place, the enemies make themselves known.
But Mizal does not simply get out of the Vengabus and start shooting- no, this is about something more. She pulls the vehicle around the side of the building and gives chase- and then, as if spurred on by a hazy wish from a distant universe...
Poor guy, what a choice for your final words. In any case, that's those enemies taken care of. This is a very based tactic, but unfortunately it does cause some damage to the bus itself. Anthraxus stays behind to repair it for the trip back home, while Mizal and Liminal spread out across the tile to steal all the loot (there isn't much, this was really more about hitting people with the bus than anything)
There IS a room full of rhino corpses, but the bus can only haul one of them back home, sad.
Back home, not much has changed, really- the new room is being built, new clothes are being made, Cavus is researching mushrooms... but a few hours of usual colonist activities later, some interesting critters appear at the edge of the map, already pre-tamed and ready to join us. I've never seen these before, but they're allegedly a source of steel, so... no complaints! But we're beginning to look a little weird, name one civilization in history that ranched donkeys, stegosauruses, and ironhusk beetles. They all seem to get along fine at least, so we don't have to worry about making separate pens.
Honestly, it's not a bad selection of creatures at all. Donkeys reproduce pretty quickly and are a good source of meat, and they make good pack animals for caravans. The stegosauruses can basically carry as much as our bus, and their offspring will be very valuable if we can find a good buyer- the beetles of course have yet to prove themselves, it'll depend on how much steel they actually produce I suppose.
Anyway, look, our beer room is done! With Liminal taking over cooking duties for the time being, all that's left is for Sent to make a whole bunch of wort out of our many thousands of hops and fill those fermenting barrels, and we'll have ourselves a whole bunch of beer within the week!
Wonderful! Nothing could possibly ruin this.
Ah, uh oh. This is another one of those pincer-styled attacks, with our raiders approaching from both the east and the southwest. Our only saving grace is that the eastern assault is WAY less stacked than the southwestern one- only a single enemy, though she does carry a sniper rifle. Liminal and Ace are initially sent to handle her, but as it turns out, the visitors we're hosting at the moment in our new hotel are more than happy to throw down in defense of us.
Unfortunately, we aren't so lucky with the other group- the Tox Pack has gotten stronger since the last time we saw them, and all of them are armed with either sniper rifles or 'bone breakers.' The bone breakers, as I understand them, are sniper-like weapons that take a very long time to shoot, but they're capable of putting an opponent down from a very long range with a single shot. So that's not good.
The initial idea for our colony was to bait these enemies over to the food area, where we could hide around the corner and allow the turret located there to do some of the work- unfortunately, the range and power of their weapons quickly makes it clear that they would pick us all off if we dare to turn our backs and run- the only option is to stand our ground. We spray them with bullets, taking one life, but those weapons they're using are no joke- one shot puts Sherbet down, and another threatens to do the same to Suranna, their wounds threatening to bleed them dead within the half-day.
Sent is heavily disadvantaged in this battle, literally bringing a knife to a gun fight. He could probably use some real armor and a better weapon- he does swoop in and put Tos down before he has a chance to snipe any of our remaining colonists, but after that he's put on getting-Sherbet-and-Suranna-to-the-hospital duty.
Our reinforcements arrive, and the remaining three enemies go down to our superior numbers- but not before getting a shot in on Ace, Mizal, Liminal, AND Rex, leaving Anthraxus and Sent as our only two healthy colonists following this clash.
A room of the hotel is quickly converted into a temp-hospital, and Mizal, despite being injured herself, gets everyone patched up before seeking treatment of her own. With all our injuries and bleeding... yep, it's gonna be a rough couple of days... hopefully our guest next door doesn't mind the sound of us all gushing blood all over the floor and crying.
Once it's confirmed that nobody is going to die, though, Sent notices that all of our enemies from the battle are not dead, simply unable to stand up. Seeing what the Tox Pack has done to his fellow colonists, he decides that he'll go back and make one more contribution to the combat... let's just say, by the time he's done, all of those fancy snipers and whatnot belong to us.
But as you may recall, there WAS one other raider involved with that attack, the one we ourselves didn't end up needing to bother with. I scroll over to check on her, and wouldn't you know it, she still has a whole eight hours before she bleeds out! On top of that, a level 16 shooting skill... now, I know what you're thinking- "Sherbet, she's not even based on a real Cystian, that'd be a lame recruitment!" But trust me on this, I have an idea.
Anyway, it was quite the distraction, but ultimately that raid doesn't force our beer production to grind to a halt. With Sent being one of the few uninjured, he can get right back to work in the morning, and with that, the only thing standing between us and a pile of cold beers to beat the summer heat with, is time. Just a few days, and we'll truly enter our golden age!
Small little aside, but with more emphasis on production and less emphasis on cleaning, it quickly became evident how gross it was that our colonists kept tracking filth and trash into the kitchen every single day, every single time they wanted to get some food from the freezer- Ace got food poisoning, and with that, it was clear something had to change. The construction colonists install a quick fix, putting the kitchen BEHIND the freezer so no non-cooking colonists ever have a reason to enter, and busting down the wall and turning the original kitchen into a dining room expansion, coffee machine and all!
With about a hundred meals stockpiled, Liminal can comfortably shift from cooking duty over to coffee-making duty, and it's much faster than I thought it would be. Mizal and Suranna haul over thousands of coffee beans from the farmland to the north, and within the day we have well over two hundred coffees at our disposal.
Once our new recruit finally comes around on joining the colony, it is time to set in motion the Sherbet Plan- this involves finally traveling to the neighboring friendly settlements and trading some of our goods for money, as per the results of the previous vote. Step one of the plan is to form our caravan out of our top negotiator, Suranna, and our new recruit, Luxemburg. The latter will act as a bodyguard for this trip, and then, you'll see what we REALLY recruited her for.
Our first stop is the city called Brim Defence, a huge settlement of the Nerath Kingdom. The city is so huge and populated that Suranna and her bodyguard wander around in amazement for a few minutes, before collapsing and sleeping in the streets, EMBARRASSING us as a colony.
But hey, we didn't come here to take naps, we came here to take money! A trade is initiated, and it seems that they're interested in buying the 3000 cabbages that we stuffed into the Vengabus for this trip (don't worry we have more)! With each one going for nearly a dollar, that's 2500 silver in our pockets from the first stop alone! Our early vote for growing a massive surplus of food is paying off now.
The deal is struck, our relationship with the Nerath Kingdom improves, and we drive away 2500 silver richer. The second stop is at Nagglfar, property of the dark-elven colony known as the Reavers. Between our coffee and just about a quarter of our Luciferium, we stand to make about 4000 silver- but those of you who speak Rimworld trade table may note that Nagglfar is a bit less wealthy than the city of Brim Defence. To balance it out, we buy some high-quality items from them as well and lower the amount we sell to them. We do still sell them some Luciferium, because I enjoyed Mystic's grim suggestion of letting them get addicted to it, which forces them to buy more in the future, so we'll see if the selling price goes up in the future.
I must say, 3500 silver is a VERY good amount for our first trip, we're doing a very good job of amassing wealth. With heavy pockets, our caravan makes the trip home.
But as you'll notice, Suranna came back alone- what gives? Well, this is step two of the Sherbet Plan- of course I was never going to allow a non-Cystian to become a permanent fixture of the colony, but we CAN still put that amazing shooting skill to work. Luxemburg will be managing our very first outpost, a hunting outpost to be exact- this outpost will send our main base meat and leather every quadrum without us having to do anything. Outposts are an amazing way to expand the colony's reach without having to actually micromanage multiple bases, and it is of course a good usage of any recruits that we don't actually want to have around us.
There are all kinds of outposts we can set up- hunting camps, mining camps, prisons, restaurants, farms, embassies, schools, banks, trade outposts, factories, towns... very exciting! But for now, we really only have the means for the hunting one, thanks to Luxemburg's massive shooting skill.
Upon Suranna's return, it seems our first batch of beer is ready- note the twenty five bottles sitting in the freezer next to the heaps of raw meat. All of the colonists gather in the dining room, ready for the first drink- I don't know why Suranna is wearing that, but it's copyright infringement and she is only getting away with it because she made us very rich this episode.
Everyone grabs a beer, and...
It's good! Hopefully the introduction of this new social lubricant will serve to improve our colonists' moods in the long run. Coffee in the morning, beer at night- and of course, we'll rack up a pretty penny by producing both, too.
Our colonists did NOT suddenly want to perform surgery on each other or immediately start doing drunk shooting practice after that last picture was taken.
Anyway, our first episode without any major recruitments- but don't worry, I have a feeling our next colonist is going to be a good one.
Onto our vote for the episode!
Second Vehicle Vote
With our colony now focusing strongly on travel- carrying out raids, making trading trips, and hopefully adventuring even further out in the near future, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get ourselves another vehicle, especially since we can no longer all fit into the Vengabus. That being said, which vehicle do we want?
Option A: The RV. It comes with a 21x13 pocket-dimension-like interior space- basically an apartment on wheels, making it a REALLY cool option, especially for long-term trips and adventures. Fantastic cargo and customization capacity.
Option B: The Tango, an armored unit with six seats and a tough layer of armor, as well as a built-in turret. It's not as fast nor does it hold as much as the RV, but its offensive and defensive capabilities are far greater.
2025 Summer Reading Competition | Tracking Thread
on 7/14/2025 2:03:21 AM
I suspect it's because the challenge was for featured stories, not commended ones, if I'm reading the post correctly.
CYS Monthly Gazette - 9 July 2025
on 7/13/2025 9:54:18 PM
What happened to Ford and 3J?
on 7/13/2025 9:29:51 PM
I took a look and according to Avery's YouTube, she was starting a new job around the time of her last login. So chances are she's alive and just busy.
CYS Monthly Gazette - 9 July 2025
on 7/12/2025 6:37:48 AM
Another great edition of the gazette, maybe even the best ever (totally unbiased.) I am a grown adult and have just failed a word search. I blame the fact that I'm deep into the AMs over here, I should go to bed.
That being said, you'll be hearing from my lawyer about including that crack-smoking slander!
CYS Colony Simulator Part 6
on 7/12/2025 6:00:27 AM
It's that time again!
As per the results of the poll, this episode will focus heavily on the construction of a dedicated shop for tailoring new clothes, as well as a hotel so that we can host and bond with the neighbors that AREN'T trying to kill us. Additionally, we're going to have to learn how to brew, because we're growing hops and coffee beans this season! We'll be drunk and caffeinated.
Growing more stuff in addition to our food means we've got to clear some land, uprooting trees and bushes and cutting grass to make room for our plants. Thankfully, this is not a burden that Sent and Suranna will have to shoulder alone this year, as we've recruited a number of very capable colonists since those cold, rainy, starvation-filled nights that plagued us in the past.
With the planting group focused on that, it's largely Anthraxus, Cavus Rex, and Sherbet who tend to the blueprints of our two upcoming buildings. The stony piece of land just north of the apartment building seems perfect for a tailor, but there's just the problem of that giant heap of rock in the way. No worries, Anthraxus begins to work on digging through that rock right away, completely free of complaints.
But as he wraps his mining up, a realization is made- the colony is very low on steel, once again. You may think it's a bit soon for that to be a problem once again, and you'd be right- but steel goes into practically everything that makes our lives comfortable enough to be worth living! Every heater, every AC unit, every wind turbine, every vent, every piece of wiring and every light, they're all just the result of Sherbet jamming about thirty or so hunks of steel together and crossing his fingers. And all of those things really add up, especially when we're about to begin constructing two new buildings. That's why, fortunately, there is a solution right under our noses...
Those, right there, just across the river- that's two mining camps, hosted by small factions that consist of only a few people. We can pillage them without much consequence as far as I understand it, it won't have any bearing on our relationship with the larger groups... and, there's a good five hundred or so steel in it for us, between the two camps.
It's a bit hard to begin building without the steel, and we're pretty low on wood as well. For this reason, it's the construction crew of Sherbet, Anthraxus, and Cavus that load up in the Vengabus to steal the steel from these independents. That should give the planting crew a pretty good chunk of time to uproot more trees for us, so we can officially begin construction.
Don't ask me how the bus crossed the river, because I would not be able to tell you. Either way, it takes about half a day for us to reach the first mining camp- it's hosted on a cavernous tropical rainforest tile, so there's all kinds of rock formations, fruit trees (yippee!) and monkeys wandering around. It is a shame Sent didn't come along, or we could've had a chance to tame some of those gorillas you see if you zoom in around the bottom left and reeeally try to ignore how few pixels there are.
At the sound of our bus approaching their little wooden huts, the two people hosting this mining site come out with their tribal-level weapons, ready to defend it.
If you recall, Sherbet, Rex, and Anthraxus all have guns at this point. The thing about melee combatants in Rimworld is that you'll usually need some seriously good armor to make up for the fact that you can't deal any damage without closing the distance between yourself and an opponent- and even then, one solid hit can severely hinder your movement. And when you're a melee fighter AND outnumbered by gunners, especially with how naked these people are... yeah, ok, all this is a very lengthy to say we won the ensuing fight.
The loot was exactly what we expected it to be- a little over two-hundred pieces of steel. However, there was also a cruddy wooden computer sitting around one of the caverns. It's pretty beat up and, y'know, made of wood, but it'll be some good recreation for our colonists when we take it home and fix it up a little!
Speaking of the colony, a look back at our home base reveals that things are going very well in the planting process. All the trees and large bits of shrubbery have been successfully cleared, and they're finally starting to plant the coffee beans, all four of them. I bet Sentinel Penguin is crying tears of joy, no longer having to break his spine in two by jamming 700+ crops into the ground. Now he just has to do, like... 250 of them, or so.
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows back home, though. While the construction crew sets out for the second mining camp, an unfortunate alert appears regarding the home base- a boomalope has gone mad with rabies just next to the research office! If you're unaware, a boomalope is an herbivorous animal covered in yellow sacs. They were designed to produce fuel and chemicals, and unfortunately, they explode on death. Fortunately, we do have a turret active in its exact location. Unfortunately, it's right next to the office when the turret kills it.
The four on-site colonists rush over to put out the flames, but they're far to the north in the planting sector. By the time they arrive, the flames have spread significantly, spilling into the office space and eating at anything wooden they can find. Mizal and Liminal bravely rush in to try and save the research tables, but the temperature in the building has already skyrocketed to dangerous levels, putting both at risk of heat stroke. Sent is able to save them from this fate by ripping a chunk of the wall out to regulate the temperature inside.
Between the four of them, the fire was put out before it had a chance to spread too far- thank goodness, considering the entire building and almost everything in it was made out of wood. The aftermath isn't pretty, but we ought to consider ourselves lucky that it only got ONE of our research tables. We can just replace it with a brand new one, I'm sure Rex and Anthraxus won't even notice!
Speaking of Rex and Anthraxus, it's time to revisit the adventure of the construction crew- the second mining camp on our list seems to be a bit more advanced than the last, constructed out of brick, and there does seem to be at least an ATTEMPT at an electrical system. Our enemies this time are also more threatening, a pair of elves wielding bows. They don't seem to notice us at first, so we begin shooting down doors to look for the precious steel we're after.
When one of them does come over, Anthraxus is quick to put him in the dirt with just a few shots. This prompts the second one to flee the premises, but said second one was clearly a much better shooter than his friend, because he downs Anthraxus as revenge AND puts two arrows in Sherbet on his way out, causing green acidic blood to spew everywhere.
Just a small little bump in the road though! Rex makes it out of the encounter unscathed, and while he's no Doctor Mizal, he's able to close up the others' wounds and continue exploring, locating the nearly 300 pieces of steel that the elves had stashed away. A pair of (mostly) successful raids! The group limps back into the Vengabus and returns home, where a good amount of wood has been amassed and the fields are being filled with more and more young crops every day. The crew is in no shape to construct right away, though- it's nighttime anyway, so the colony gets their much-needed rest before the long day of work in the morning. Mostly.
The morning is gloomy and rainy, but the injured colonists feel well enough to walk around and engage in conversation, a fairly good sign going into the beginning of two construction projects.
By the time the work day begins, the blueprints for the two new buildings are laid out. The smaller building being the tailor, replacing that ugly heap of rock that Anthraxus cleared away before going on the road trip... it's close to the rest of the colony buildings, and will host several wardrobes, dressers, as well as just a huge stockpiling zone so our tailors can just throw what they make on the ground for the colonists to sort through. The much larger building is the hotel- I'm unsure of how big the groups visiting us can get, but I figure it better safe than sorry. Twenty-eight total beds, I suspect they'll rarely and maybe never all be in use, but we can tape off sections of it to use as hospital or temporary colonist bedrooms at our leisure anyway. It'll be nice enough that our neighbors will visit and totally want to be our friends, and leave us only the best of presents, I'm absolutely certain of it. Make sure you stick around until the end to see if I was right! (I wasn't)
I made the mistake of thinking that the first day of these new projects was going to go smoothly though, so the Rimworld gods decided to throw this wrench at us. No cabbages this year, I suppose- but fear not, we still have thousands of them stockpiled, and we're also planting rice and garlic this year as well, so we're not going to starve. I won't go back.
Sadly, getting rid of all those blighted plants eats up the rest of our colonists' work hours. They head back to enjoy some games before bed. If I had to guess, Liminal is probably winning, you can't teach that kind of poker face.
Night comes and goes, and another day begins. Progress on the tailor shop is going smoothly, for now it seems to be the construction workers' main priority over the hotel. There is the issue of it being packed with old rocks from the mining escapades of Anthraxus, but those can be cleared out later, it's fine.
After Liminal wins the trauma contest against Suranna, it's back to work. The day is productive- nearly all the season's crops have been planted, meaning the planting group is about to have a bit more time on their hands. And, what timing- one of our more friendly neighbors, the Reavers, have informed us of
pristine ruins near our base!
Pristine ruins are, at this point of the game, by far the best loot we're going to be able to get our hands on. While there isn't anyone technically defending the ruins from us, looting them is quite competitive- many of the surrounding factions will be sending in teams to pillage whatever remains of this site. Tox Pack and Anya's Outlaws will certainly be there, among other friends and foes. It's a dangerous trip, but the wealth we acquire from it could be huge... our bus also diminishes some of the danger.
This time, it's Sent, Suranna, Mizal, and Liminal's turn to load up in the Vengabus and go on a road trip while the rest of our colony stays behind to work. It's only fair.
The moment the bus arrives at the ruins after a short trip out, the carnage has already begun. The other factions are tearing each other apart for the opportunity to claim the ruins' prizes, and groups are already fleeing after losing too many people. The number of corpses is unlike anything our colonists have witnessed up to this point. They feel incredibly grateful that they aren't on foot, and can drive around in the Vengabus as the other crews destroy one another.
Wait a second... who is that right there, underneath that blood-gushing elven corpse??
As an undergrounder and master of household appliances, we have on our hands a turtle man with considerable construction and crafting skills. A member of Anya's Outlaws, he is our enemy, but this may be the first time we didn't actually beat the life out of a potential recruit ourselves, someone else did it for us before we arrived! So really, it's more like we'd be rescuing him than anything. He has some unique abilities, too, such as acid spit and the power to summon an elephant turtle, whatever that is.
While our colonists WERE outnumbered by just about every one of the ten or so groups that came to take whatever these ruins had to offer, there really isn't anyone who can stand up to us by the time the Vengabus finally stops moving. Most have already fled, are dead, or are too wounded to continue fighting. Mizal tends to Ace's many wounds, before the quartet picks off whoever is left in their path- then, it's looting time! Like I said, pristine ruins are REALLY good, so brace yourself for what you're about to see.
Suranna is the first to make a discovery. The meat sitting on the dirty ground, yes, but what's more profitable here is the forty-five Luciferium. A very powerful and interesting drug, but also one I usually avoid ever touching- the healing properties of it are amazing, but once it's in your system, you have to continue taking one of these red pills every week or so, and running out of them is a death sentence. Still, even if WE don't use them, it should be obvious why taking these pills with us could be wildly profitable... and if we keep a few for ourselves, we could punish our unsavory prisoners by forcing them to take Luciferium, waiting four days or so, and then releasing them into the wild.
That'd be funny.
Soon after, more discoveries are made. Sent discovers a room packed full of textiles, fuel, medicine, leathers, and even some giant heaps of raw jade. Liminal finds a concrete structure that contains over a hundred more Luciferium, more leather and textiles, and an abundance of stone bricks. Components, too!
Between all that leather and fabric, we'll have plenty of material for new clothing at the new tailor shop.
After quickly loading up the Vengabus as much as we can, it's time to make a hasty exit. It's best not to linger in places like this- we may have been the last group standing at the ruins, but that wouldn't have lasted very long, as massive raider groups were likely already on the way.
But to be honest, that was by FAR the best Cystian looting that the colony has had up to this point, we should be extremely proud of ourselves. If only we had some beer and coffee to celebrate with... soon, soon.
Ah, would you look at that- the tailor shop is all done by the time the group returns, it seems the construction colonists have been hard at work. It's a bit small, but it should fit plenty of clothing, more than we need for the time being. That's actually not the only good news, either, because the morning after her return, Suranna goes right to the fields and begins harvesting hops plants. The beer is just on the horizon, Cystians...
She also crosses paths with a jade dragon, briefly, during her harvests. It thankfully doesn't seem hostile- befriending such a beast would be extremely valuable to us, but alas, only the Velonir race is really capable of bonding with these majestic creatures.
As for Ace, well... Suranna has a pretty long day of harvesting ahead of her, so instead of her usual recruitment process, she just sort of sticks Ace in a room with eighty bulbs of smelly garlic and leaves him to contemplate. To her credit, he comes around pretty quickly to get out of that room (which now becomes his bedroom, the world is cruel).
Now that he's recruited, he finally puts some clothes on, too.
Now, with the tailor finished, the hotel becomes the colony's sole construction project. It's looking... not too bad. It's a very large building that contains a lot of wiring and furniture, so it's expected to take longer, of course. At least, this WOULD be fine if the project didn't drive Sherbet to SMOKE. Yeah, he found the stash of 19 smokeleaf joints that we took from the ruins (with the intent to sell them) and has officially ensured that I will never beat the crack-doing allegations, thanks Rimworld Sherbet.
Even though the hotel is far from finished, it doesn't stop our first guests from arriving. It's a father and son duo, and they seem quite happy with their room, even though there's not even a crumb of light or temperature control. Sent makes the ridiculous decision to play poker with the one who is LITERALLY named Lucky, he probably lost like ten whole bulbs of garlic on this little stunt.
But what's really important is that our guests have a good time- and they do! At least, they claim that they did. As a token of their appreciation for the free room and the poker game and whatnot, they leave... three uranium crystals on the bed? That's a bit of a hazard for the next guest, but I suppose it's not the worst thing they could have left.
But ultimately, this proves that the hotel is going to be a big hit. If guests can enjoy themselves in an unfinished, pitch dark hotel, they'll certainly enjoy themselves in one with working lights even more. And with just a few more days of work, that's exactly what we achieve (after building an extra windmill, these lights don't power themselves you know!)
Ignore Suranna recovering in the leftmost room, she got bitten by a bear or something, she'll walk it off.
With that, we have the hotel finished, the tailor finished, a few thousand hops harvested, and coffee beans on the way. We can comfortably start on clothes making and brewing, I'm certain our colonists are excited to change out of their hole-riddled apparel.
As for the vote...
Trade Vote
Our colony hasn't been visited by too many trade caravans, and the ones that have come by, well, they aren't willing to buy most of our goods. We could always wait for more, but if we really want to make money, we'll have to take action... or, we could just upgrade our systems and hope that brings in more traders. As our vault of valuables grows and grows, and with a stockpile of clothes, beer, coffee, and other goods on the way, we ought to start turning more of it into silver.
Option A: We should travel to neighboring settlements and cities to sell our stuff- we can view what they'll buy ahead of time and stock our caravans accordingly, and we won't have to rely on traders coming to us in order to turn a profit on our goods.
Option B: We should set up an orbital trade beacon and communications console so we can contact orbital traders, whenever they may come by the planet. We'll still have to wait for them to come to us, but these traders tend to have deep pockets.
CYS Colony Simulator Part 5
on 7/8/2025 5:31:07 PM
I'll close the vote here as I start to collect pictures for Part 6, thanks for the participation and look forward to the next installment :)
CYS Colony Simulator Part 5
on 7/7/2025 5:23:26 PM
Ogre would be so proud!
