Things Not To Do if you’re new to the game

[gussmed]

I’m just learning the game, and I recently built my first dedicated prison. I’d heard about jailbreaks, so I decided I’d build an exit corridor with steel traps. That way, if the prisoners tried to escape and made it past any guards I sent it, they’d get perforated.

Turns out traps aren’t 100% safe for your colonists. I had one serious injury, but I figured it was a random event or something. Then I had another trap accident with a guard tending the prisoners, this time fatal.

So. Don’t do that.

[desrtfox071]

You should be able to build the traps in a checkerboard pattern, leaving the alternate spaces free of traps, and your colonists should avoid them.

So like:


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X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X
_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_ X_
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[HunterSilver]

Don't panic about jail breaks. They're relatively easy to manage, just keep them away from wood and weapons. Most of the time it's better to give them easy access to leave your colony than it is to give them access to your storage rooms or to send them down a trap filled corridor. Yeah it sucks if they do manage to escape, but also it's better to let them go than to accidentally murder them or to take serious damage to your colonists.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by gussmed:

I’m just learning the game, and I recently built my first dedicated prison. I’d heard about jailbreaks, so I decided I’d build an exit corridor with steel traps. That way, if the prisoners tried to escape and made it past any guards I sent it, they’d get perforated...

As above - Built traps in a staggered pattern that allows your colonists to path back-and-forth through them. Otherwise, if you force colonists to walk on them, they have a non-zero chance of tripping them. It's a very small chance, but it can still happen. The same goes for visitors, caravans, and those just "passing by" in your map that aren't hostile. Give them room to move.

IF/When a Raid attacks, hits your traps, and then one of the Raiders escapes, they'll know where those traps are. At that point, just move a few of them and you'll be fine.

Prisoner Breaks are not an issue as long as escaping prisoners can't get their hands on a weapon. So, do not store any weapons in the path of a likely breakout attempt. (That's between the Prisoner area and the closest map edge.) It's also a good idea to arm your Warden with a Club/Mace made from good materials. (Jade/Uranium. There could be better blunt weapon bases, now, not sure.) Escaping Prisoners will make a beeline for the map edge and will not try to do anything else. If they get a weapon, they might elect to use it on colonists that get in their way.

Things "to do" - One thing you will be very glad of having done: Buy any Components you can from Traders. If you go on a mission to another tile, like a mission given by a friendly faction, that allows you to attack, be sure to deconstruct any "component bearing" items in that map before you leave. Make sure you bring those back with you when you Re-Form Caravan.

Keep an eye out for two Advanced Components. They are critical. You do not want to miss out on an opportunity to buy some Advanced Components. Don't... Buy them so you can later use them to construct your Fabrication Bench. IOW - You need Advanced Components in order to be able to build the crafting bench that allows you to make Components and Advanced Components. It's the biggest "hurdle" to get over in early/mid game play.

Lastly - Do build a "greenhouse." A Greenhouse with four full growzones and lamps is completely doable in the Early Game and will keep you supplied with food for a very, very, long time. At the very least you need to set it up as soon as you can, even if it's just the grow-zones.

Don't worry about building with wood. Just make sure you use some of the very many components you'll be making for Firefoam Poppers and install those in the most critical areas. You can uninstall/reinstall Firefoam poppers to help you fight fires in a pinch, if needed, and they require no power at all.

Walls - It's better to have a protective wall than to not have a protective wall. Build them as you can when you get enough stone made.

PS - And, as you can see, Traps are very effective. They're basically "free damage" with no risk, so there's no reason not to spam them all over the place as long as you can leave a decent safe path for colonists, visitors, caravans, friendlies and the like. (There will never be a zero chance of them not hurting something that paths on them, though non-hostile animals can't trigger them AFAIK.. ie: You can't "hunt" by using traps.)

[bulbatrs]

lol, you can buy advanced components from like every outpost, there is absolutly no need to freak out abut them, ever.
green houses are only needed in the ice sheets, sea ice, deserts, everywhere else it's just a waste of resources and massive colony wealth burden.

[Rooty Tooty]

I remember my first trap incedent, I tried picking up an item that fell on the traps space and off goes a head.

[KalkiKrosah]

First it's walking on deadfall traps, next it will be mining out a large part of a mountain only to bring the roof crashing down on your poor colonist(s) head, followed by placing batteries in a wooden building and having a colony starve in the winter because you didn't realize until summer was halfway over that you roofed in your garden and that's why the corn didn't grow. All rookie mistakes that each of us have all committed at one point or another.

You learned the hard way and you probably will make more silly mishaps that will ruin a colony. But the knowledge you get from each successive failure will make the next colony last a little longer. But eventually you'll be at a point where you're hunting bears with mortars, collecting raider organs to give to the highest bidder, starting a fashion line using human leather and forcing your female muffalos to binge drink beer just to see if you can make the babies come out alcoholic too. Yup, you got a lot to look forward to but for now you gotta move your traps around to make sure you don't have another friendly fire incident.

[gussmed]

Wait, mining can lead to roof collapse? I wasn’t even clear that there was a roof overhead. I thought I was strip mining surface deposits.

Roof collapses due to insufficient support is very Dwarf Fortress like.

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by gussmed:

Wait, mining can lead to roof collapse? I wasn’t even clear that there was a roof overhead. I thought I was strip mining surface deposits.

Roof collapses due to insufficient support is very Dwarf Fortress like.

Yup. And you can view the level of roofing by toggling roof visibility by clicking on the house button at the bottom right corner of the screen. It's the icon that looks like a house.

There's 2 types of roofing in Rimworld: thin roof and thick roof.

Thin roofing is the type of roofing that your colonists will put up automatically when you wall in an area. When it collapses thin roofing always targets the head and neck when it drops down. It will hit you in the ear or the nose if you're lucky. It could rip your neck clean off if you're especially unlucky. And if you're creative you can weaponize these roof collapses.

Thick roofing is only found under mountain tops and generally deep under said mountain top. In the roof visibility view the thick roofing is the darker green. When thick roofing collapses it comes down with the weight of a boulder. Should your colonist be underneath said boulder well... it's a 100% mortality rate and even if you remove the rock and support the roof accordingly the body will never be found. So if they had any particularly good gear on them, that's gone too. Thick roofing prevents drop pod raids from reaching that part of your base but infestations will occur in their place. So if you don't like bugs pay attention to thick roofing and avoid digging and uncovering that part of the mountain.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by gussmed:

Wait, mining can lead to roof collapse? I wasn’t even clear that there was a roof overhead. I thought I was strip mining surface deposits.

Roof collapses due to insufficient support is very Dwarf Fortress like.

Just to add - You can see the "roof type" of a tile by hovering your mouse over it. (Or clicking, forget which) It's just a quick way to check individual tiles. An overview of highlighted roof tiles of all types that are visible can be had by clicking on the icon as noted, above.

PS - Batteries don't cause fires, just in case that was what was being referred to. But, losing all your batteries to a fire is A Bad Thing ™. "Conduits" cause "Zzzt" events which are the most common cause of "ZOMGZ FIRE!! MY BASE BRUNED DWN IS ALL DEAD ZOMGZ" issues. Each conduit has a small chance of going "Zzzt" and starting a fire/explosion. Batteries are discharged at the location of that event. So... a large number of batteries can significantly increase the results of the Zzzt event. You can interpret this as a danger or as potential entertainment. Or both! (Firepoppers are great when you can afford to build them in vulnerable areas.)

[gussmed]

Oh, well. I’m playing on a flat map tile, so it seems I don’t have to worry about mountains and their thick roofing tiles.

I’ve used the “show roofs” control often enough. It’s covered in the tutorial, and it’s useful to see if a room has a completed roof yet.

[gussmed]

Here’s another thing not to do: cook on a raid. At least, not outdoors.

I followed up on a stash quest with 2 defenders. I killed them easily enough, and afterward I figured I’d hunt some of the animals on the map and cook the meat for food.

Worked fine, except that the next day, 2 of my 4 pawns got food poisoning. Cause: dirty cooking area. This screwed up my plans because I the slow movement rate from food poisoning meant they weren’t going to get to the village in time to fulfill the trade quest.

I guess this might have worked if I’d built my campfire indoors, and re-built the door so it was enclosed and reasonably clean area. I just had this idea that roasting meat over a campfire was safe.

EDIT: I managed to fulfill the trade quest. When I got to the village, the quest said “expires in 1 second.”