Discussion: Prepare Carefully users - Overpowered?

[mr.j.j.borreli]

Hoping to hear what other people who use the mod that allows you to change your starting pawns stats, traits, etc. Obviously you can go crazy and make insanely powerful or unique scenarios with the mod but what do you guys do to try and "limit" how much control you have?

I know there's the point limit built in but sometimes that still feels too overpowered to min/max what I want the pawn to be used for.

Do you guy use any other self inflicted "rules" to keep it more fair in your mind?

Hoping to get ideas for myself to still keep things tough but unique and fun. Thanks!

[whatamidoing]

Oh yeah, I pretty much always start with one naked tribal pawn (and cheat when Randy tosses me a game-ender in the first few days) so having a spread of passions on that one pawn is more important. I usally set it up to roll until it gets a pawn with passions in shooting (for defense), cooking (because food poisoning sucks), crafting (most urgently for a recurve bow, but useful well into the future), social (for converting+recruiting and trade and, in the future, the leader role), medical (for obvious reasons), and intellectual (speed up early research). That combo can take a while to get, though.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

I think it's not about what you could do in the base game but what the base game usually provides you with without really rerolling too much. You can get super high stats and good traits in the base game too given enough (annoying) time, but what the game gives you without even 1 reroll (or just a few) is maybe closer to the power comparison here.

For the most part I don't think it matters. 1 in every skill or 10 in every skill or 4-8 in a few skills, they all get to the same point pretty quickly and in the end only focus on doing 1-3 tasks. Leveling a skill to 10 is pretty trivial, being able to plant healroot on day one is perhaps a small advantage compared to being able to plant it on like week 2, but the early game doesn't throw a lot of risk at you so you have time to nurture skills.

All it really comes down to is getting colonists without bad traits or health conditions who have a mix of passions that allow you to do all the things eventually. I think there's really two types of players here, those who reroll and those who don't. You either don't reroll anything and accept the pyromaniac with a chemical fascination that is incapable of dumb labor that comes up as the first option, or you reroll until you get something that isn't terrible. If you reroll to get something that isn't terrible, then using Character Editor or Prepare Carefully to make the characters you want isn't going to give you any real advantage unless you do something obviously out of normal game balance like start installing bionics and increasing equipment quality.

Originally posted by mr.j.j.borreli:

You can do this in base game? Wheres the option for that? It sounds interesting

It's part of the scenario system, one of the parts you can add to your scenario.

[Markus Reese]

I dont use it, but I dont think is OP. There is a value assigned to a pawn based on the traits given. So if you follow the recommended point values, They are ideal rng pawns, but not OP.

Plus, this is rimworld. Those starting pawns can be dead in six months. Also do not have control over every other pawn that joins. So it makes the start easier, and maybe more thematic. Its OP though is entitely on the user.

[Sally smithson]

i find it a lot of fun to have 2 recurring characters in my game, they recruit others to help them reach the stars.
currently they are the 2 gods of an ebodied thiest religion, aquiring immortality through archotechnology and celestial siphoning(a personal mod). And each time i have to restart the game due to mods messing up. i save them into character editor, nerf them a bit so the start isn't too overpowered. And kablam i have a new start with the young gods.
I havent gotten bored of them in almost 1.5 years

TLDR: i save my two main characters and put them in my next game.

[GreatPalm]

i mostly start as op 'main character'

[Destroi]

I use it in many ways, just have fun with it

[Tam]

I've rolled 3 pawns i like via random generator, saved em and using em to save my rolling time, i don't want to start with useless pawns, instead have some decent ones and do not count as OP or cheating, gonna roll good ones anyway, so just a time saver.

[mr.j.j.borreli]

Originally posted by Tamm:

I've rolled 3 pawns i like via random generator, saved em and using em to save my rolling time, i don't want to start with useless pawns, instead have some decent ones and do not count as OP or cheating, gonna roll good ones anyway, so just a time saver.

I like this idea a lot actually thank you haha! Don't know why I didn't think of it!

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by mr.j.j.borreli:

Originally posted by Tamm:

I've rolled 3 pawns i like via random generator, saved em and using em to save my rolling time, i don't want to start with useless pawns, instead have some decent ones and do not count as OP or cheating, gonna roll good ones anyway, so just a time saver.

I like this idea a lot actually thank you haha! Don't know why I didn't think of it!

Because you asked how to make things unique? : P

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by mr.j.j.borreli:

...
Do you guy use any other self inflicted "rules" to keep it more fair in your mind?...

I generally only use it to remove bad Traits from good colonist choices. That's it. I don't usually alter their stats or use it for any other purpose.

I have used it to alter stats to get a game going after repeatedly re-rolling over and over. If I do that, it's generally only a few points for Construction, Cooking, or Growing, so that I am not terribly hampered by being unable to do skill-level-restricted things. (Constructing a Wind generator, planting, getting cooking above a 4 to try to mitigate food poisoning, etc.)

If I'd suggest a self-imposed "Rule" it would be using it only to remove really bad Traits at the start.

The setup for starting the game can be very involved and take a lot of time if one is trying to min/max or at least trying to assert a certain degree of control. There's no reason to go through all of that when there's mods that can help speed up the process and get you playing the game in short order.

I also use "Prepare Landing: -

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1095331978

It doesn't actually "prepare" the landing. It allows you to Filter potential landing sites that have already been generated during map generation so that you can find the type of starting location you'd like to play with. It can dramatically speed up the set-up process, yet does not involving artificially manipulating the actual map spawn/generation. If a world doesn't have the location you're looking for, you have to regenerate it and filter again.

Note: Last time I played, a few weeks ago, this mod didn't seem to be working with the latest patch at that time. It may be working now, though. I only use a very limited selection of mods designed to NOT bork up or interfere with each other... But, map generation is one of those steps that is notorious for having issues with associated mods. /shrug

[MerlinCross]

I use it for repeating characters that have earned theri keep during a colony's run. like my favorites.

Past that I use it for challenge runs, meme teams, and to not just... die day 1 on naked runs. I mean I could just make super pawns from the word go but where's the fun in doing that?

....Lemme put it a different way, where's the fun in doing that all the time? 5 full marine geared augmented super soldiers that take over another faction base, that could be a fun start but all the time?

[Jaggid Edje]

The game itself already comes with the ability to set custom difficulty and custom scenerios where you could set it to literally NEVER give you any threatening events, add only factions that are friendly, and start with a crap ton of resources.

The mod is no more OP than what the game already offers, it just expands on that offering.

It's up to players to decide what level of challenge they want and how much cheese to spread on the game when they start a new game. It is as simple as that.

I do use the mod, but my self-imposed limit is that I don't edit pawns. I just use it to set starting relationships and to give myself just a bit more control over the starting items then what the game offers.
That's just for me, because one of the things I enjoy most in the game is figuring out how to work with what pawns I get and how to get around their flaws.

[ichifish]

I used prepare carefully for 4-5 runs: once a 25 tribal start with all pawns being specialized in one area, and twice for “middle class explorer” starts to create a specific main character, and a couple of times for tribal starts. I set limits like “two double passions, one single, 25 skill points max, max of two good traits.”

I haven’t used it in the last several runs because I’ve come to the conclusion that random characters are just more interesting. Basically rerolling = randomness = good rp.

I don’t mind rerolling and dithering over which pawn to choose for 30 minutes. It’s a looong game anyway and the process helps me figure out their backstory. I like being forced to choose the best of a bad lot. Here are my staring five in my current run. They’re pretty good pawns but definitely not what I would have designed.

1. Mockingbird -Shaman
Double passion shooting/social, single passion intellectual
56yo, pessimist, too smart, scarred eye (now archotech), scarred torso, no dumb labor, no caring
The perfect cult leader! I’ve really enjoyed playing with him and having to keep him on an even keel.
2. Ant -Builder
Double passion construction, single in plants, melee, and mining
Chem interest, psy. Sensitive, bloodlust (which I wanted for corpse removal not realizing my ideology wouldn’t have a debuff for corpses)
She’s a workhorse but needs her multiple addictions fed. Occasionally vents frustrations on others. Has been in three relations in five years, two of which she ended, one ended by a lancer.
3. Salamander -handler/cook
Double passions in animals, cooking, single passions in construction, shooting, melee
Pyro, fast learner
Great pawn when she’s not setting fires.
4. Spider -crafter
Double passion crafting, single passion intellectual and medicine
Fast learner, sanguine, wimp
He’s a lover, not a fighter.
5. Bull -warrior
45yo Double passions in plants/melee, single passion in medicine
Hypersensitive, sickly, tough, started with a medium pain leg scar, got sick SIX times in the first year. Now the resident space wizard.

When I used prepare carefully I never ended up with interesting characters like these, I always ended up with capable pawns without problems. I think if you really have a strong idea for their backstories prepare carefully is a great tool, though. It’s also good for choosing cool starting animals and supplies, especially for a “middle class explorer” start (duster, bolt action, pemmican, etc.).

I use character editor in game to change how pawns look and rename them. I like being able to match their colors to their personalities and whatnot.

Side note: I’m trying to build a 50 pawn colony this run and it seems like the 1.3 changes to skill points on pawn creation (something like “older pawns don’t have more passions”?) have resulted in somewhat worse pawns in general. I’m at 32 pawns now and I haven’t yet gotten a single outstanding pawn even though I used a sauna and opening a lot of ancient dangers. I’ve got a lot of pawns with only 1-2 skills they’re passionate in. I’ve had about ten pawns join through rituals and NONE of them are pawns I would have captured if they were downed raiders.

[Cat®]

I have a stable of characters I use that used to be colonists in previous games that I recreated, then use for new games. That way whenever I start a new game it's like these 5 jerks have to rebuild civilisation, again. However, since they were worth immortalising they are cream of the crop and as a result top tier pawns.

I solve the balance problem by being bad at the game, personally.

[hotmailcompany52]

There's tonnes of overpowered mods out there on the workshop. At least with Character Editor and Prepare Carefully you can choose how overpowered it is. I mostly use it so I can play the game like the sims and put myself and my friends in the game lol