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.
