Understanding how Ideology works

[Reck]

Can someone explain how setting up a fixed ideoligion works?

We have structure,memes, precepts & culture and i'm trying to understand what they all mean and how they work together so i'm hoping those who've played with Ideology can explain some of this to me.

Structure - “This only affects symbols – it does not affect gameplay”

In Rimworld what are symbols and how does it affect them?

So it says structure doesn’t affect gameplay but it seems certain gameplay features are locked behind certain origins. For instance if you want to have smokeleaf circle ritual you can only have that with some of the origins, if you pick one of the other structures it says you can’t have this ritual in the game.

Was this changed after release and the text never updated as it does lock/unlock certain things depending on what you pick so does affect gameplay.

Meme’s / Precepts

Using the collectivist meme as an example

Required precepts
• work drive – tripled
Chance to have precept
• visage mask – relexed
Unlocked Rituals
• symbol burning
Prevented precept
• marriage – keep name

So first question is when I select the meme it then shows me a screen full of precepts. If I hover over the meme (collectivist) it highlights some of the precepts. In my case it highlights, drug use, execution, organ use & work drive.

I understand why work drive is highlighted as it’s a required precept for the collectivist meme but why are the other ones highlighted as they aren’t listed as required under the memes description and in the case of drug use I can even go in and completely remove it? So what is the highlight telling me?

What do the yellow icons indicate on the precepts. For instance male clothing – "pants and shirts" is white icon but if I change it to "totally covered" the icon is yellow, change it to "pants" and the icon is white while changing to "pants at most" the icon is yellow.

Are the 21 precepts shown locked and can’t be changed? I clicked the randomized button a few times but all the precepts stayed the same with only the levels of the precepts changing, e.g. slavery changing from abhorrent to horrible. So at least for me it doesn’t seem to change the precepts on offer. The only one I can remove completely is drug use, why that one but no others?

I can see I can add extra ones on top of the initial 21 using the add precept button.

Finally it says in the collectivist description, Chance to have precept - visage mask – relaxed. What does it mean by chance to have the precept and where do I see if I ended up getting it or not? There's an option for preferred apparel but preferred apparel is different from a precept.


Culture

How does this affect gameplay? If I change from Astropolitan to Sophian for instance I didn’t any difference other than the flavour text. Is there more to it than that?

Thanks for any help understanding all this.

[Reck]

So anyone got any idea how all this ideology stuff works?

[BLAME! 40K]

yep , your question is just a pain in the a , and im not in the mood to write you a 1000 word essay .


for starters structures-symbols , are ritual structures ( burning flag as example ) which is needed to start the ritual "symbol burning" , if your ideology allows it .


what your asking is a huge wall of text to answer that in a meaningfull way . maybe start smaller :)

[UltimateTobi]

Not sure what's not to understand. When you create an ideoligion, be it fixed or fluid, you're being taken in step by step. All tooltips are self-explanatory.

Perhaps more specific questions would be helpful.

[boytype]

Structure (not affecting gameplay); It does not have a direct impact on gameplay. It is for flavor. To increase uniqueness and be thematic, many of the structures have unique names and animations for the Rituals related to them.

Memes and Precepts: Memes have an "impact" tier. Each tier is related to how many or how extreme the precepts related to it are. In your example;

Required precepts
• work drive – tripled
Chance to have precept
• visage mask – relexed
Unlocked Rituals
• symbol burning
Prevented precept
• marriage – keep name

- Required Precepts/Prevented Precepts: Different Memes require or disallow different Precepts, depending on concept and scope. So, in your example it is saying you HAVE to have the work drive - tripled precept, without a choice. You are free to add or edit all other precepts that do not directly contradict your memes specific rules as you see fit to craft the Ideology that you are envisioning. When you start stacking Memes through revising Fluid Ideologies, it gets to be a more complicated list of interconnecting Required and Prevented precepts.

- Chance to have Precept; There is a chance that the visage mask - relaxed precept will randomly generate on an ideology with this, but it can be changed if you like. It is just giving thematic suggestions about things that might fit well with your selected Memes.

- Unlocked Rituals: This tells what non-standard rituals are being added to the list of allowed rituals because of your selected Memes. These can have different reward opportunities and animations, but all basically give you a chance to get a multiple-day long buff depending on the outcome quality of the ritual.

The Culture is mostly a background/story element that will not have a noticeable direct impact on your game.

One thing that you did not mention is Style.
Style will determine the unique art style of certain pieces of clothing, furniture, and weapons crafted by members of your Ideology. It is just an aesthetic thing, but it can do a lot to set one playthrough apart from another. Also, colonists will get a small buff when surrounded by objects that match the style of their Ideology.

Basically, it is a lot less rigid of a system than you are thinking , that allows for a maximum amount of storytelling potential and freedom to do what you would like to do. "Its more like guidelines than actual rules"

It is literally impossible to mess up, because the game will not let you do anything you are not supposed to do, and will not let you take (or not take) any Precept or Meme that creates errors with the other ones selected.

Good Luck!

[BLAME! 40K]

there is your hero

[Reck]

Thanks boytype.

Originally posted by boytype:

Memes and Precepts: Memes have an "impact" tier. Each tier is related to how many or how extreme the precepts related to it are. In your example;

Required precepts
• work drive – tripled
Chance to have precept
• visage mask – relexed
Unlocked Rituals
• symbol burning
Prevented precept
• marriage – keep name

Any idea what the highlighted precepts are when you hover over the meme? In my case for collectivist it highlights, drug use, execution, organ use & work drive. How do the first 3 fit into this? What does the highlight mean?

Also do you know what the yellow icon mean on some of the precept levels? Does this just indicate that they have more of an impact?

I wish it explained stuff like this in the game.

Originally posted by boytype:

Basically, it is a lot less rigid of a system than you are thinking , that allows for a maximum amount of storytelling potential and freedom to do what you would like to do. "Its more like guidelines than actual rules"

I'm probably making it more complicated than it needs to be but I just like to understand how things work.

Anyone I appreciate your detailed answer, thanks

[Yxklyx]

The highlighted ones should be the ones required by that meme. 90% sure :)