Winter starvation.

[The Blind One]

Winter cold snap caused nearly all my animals to die from starvation. Worst part of it all was that I actually had made a haybarn stocked with hay for them to survive the winter anticipating this very moment but never actually took out the hay to feed them ... cuz I forgot I had it ...

RIP 20 turkeys, 2 boomalopes and 2 alpacas. Your death was entirely unnecessary.

[kevinshow]

hopefully you butchered them for meat so your colonists won't starve.

if you keep your hay and kibble in the pen or in a zone that the animals can access, they'll eat it on their own when they run out of other food that they preferred.

[gimmethegepgun]

Yeah, pen animals prefer eating live plants first, so you can just leave it with them all the time and they'll only eat it when there's no grass/etc.

[Simonates]

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

[Zeromentor]

If you start in a cold biome, or the biome turns cold, find the geothermal vents (springs, holes with steam), build a large room around it, about 100 blocks worth in space, leave about 9 or so tiles without a roof and plant your farm inside under the roofless spot. If you do this right you'll have a pseudo-greenhouse that can grow a little bit of food in just-warm-enough conditions to keep plants alive.

Sorry if I made this far more confusing than it sounds.

[amyoto]

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

lmao

[Steelfleece]

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

It usually doesn't seem so to me. I mean, unless the storyteller decides to go total jackass time and have a solar flare hit during a cold snap, maybe combined with a zzzt just after to discharge all your batteries anyway and set fire to your refrigerated warehouse. Not that that's ever happened.

[martindirt]

Originally posted by Steelfleece:

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

It usually doesn't seem so to me. I mean, unless the storyteller decides to go total jackass time and have a solar flare hit during a cold snap, maybe combined with a zzzt just after to discharge all your batteries anyway and set fire to your refrigerated warehouse. Not that that's ever happened.

For me, the most cruel event combo was:
Cold snap, just before winter. Ok, wake up everybody, prio plant cut, save what we can. Blight. F💕💕💕💕
Last straw: drop pod Mecha raid in the middle of my freezer. Not a big deal, but 2 Fireworms set everything on fire in the "heat" of the fight.
I had to pack up my survivors on camp on a nearby tile, barely survived the winter.

[CloudSeeker]

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

Idk. Have you lived in the artic? Winters can be pretty brutal. More people die from cold every year than heat.

[Steelfleece]

Originally posted by CloudSeeker:

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

Idk. Have you lived in the artic? Winters can be pretty brutal. More people die from cold every year than heat.

Considering how many people in Rim Worlds wind up in the oven, that's a lot.

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

Only in the first year really. By the second, you should have preparations for the next Winter well in place. And even then, only really when you're still new. A seasoned player should have learned what to rush to be ready for that first big cold. If Pete Complete can survive naked brutality ice sheet, you should be able to survive 20 days of Winter in temperate forest. ;)

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Simonates:

yes, winter is too brutal in this game, more than it should be IMO

Given that you can choose your landing zone, based on average temperature, i would say that its entirely up to the player.

And when you play on a map with below freezing temperatures, then i would say this should not only be expected but part of the challenge.

[The Blind One]

Even if you lose all your food, set up a caravan and send it to the nearest settlement to buy food. Build a nutrient sludge machine so you can make optimal use of the food you've bought or are left with. Alternatively, set up temporary hunting camps around your colony and haul the food back.

It's funny I didn't realize this was my own post from months ago. How time has flown.

[martindirt]

Originally posted by The Blind One:

Even if you lose all your food, set up a caravan and send it to the nearest settlement to buy food. Build a nutrient sludge machine so you can make optimal use of the food you've bought or are left with. Alternatively, set up temporary hunting camps around your colony and haul the food back.

It's funny I didn't realize this was my own post from months ago. How time has flown.

And you've learned so much. 👍

[The Blind One]

Originally posted by martindirt:

Originally posted by The Blind One:

Even if you lose all your food, set up a caravan and send it to the nearest settlement to buy food. Build a nutrient sludge machine so you can make optimal use of the food you've bought or are left with. Alternatively, set up temporary hunting camps around your colony and haul the food back.

It's funny I didn't realize this was my own post from months ago. How time has flown.

And you've learned so much. 👍

Well I knew this back then as well but I was just surprised the cold snap (during winter) killed off so many of my animals before I saw it coming. They were all half dead with frostbite all over before I knew it or was able to build them a barn. All my male turkeys died and the last guy didn't have a mouth anymore so couldn't eat and would die from starvation. Interesting bit ... he ended up dying from starvation but not before fertilizing one more turkey egg which would contain the next generation alpha male of the turkeys

[KalkiKrosah]

This is my strategy early on: make a medium sized hayfield, wall it off (but don't roof it) and put the animal pen next to it. When the hay gets harvested I delete the grow zone, roof it, forbid the hay and build an animal flap. When the crops start dying off with the first frost I will unforbid the hay. This way my colonists work smarter, not harder.

Also, your sidebar informs you when animals are starving. You usually have about 3 days to fix the issue before the animals start to die off. But Rimworld is a learning game, you know better for next time.