Obelisks in anomaly are bullsh*t

[Zetro]

Is there a way to disable them completely from spawning. Having them show up back to back when you can’t even get rid of one in time is game breaking.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di HunterSilver:

The mutations are all buffs, with mood and beauty penalties and a little bit of pain. Increased manipulation, tox immunity, etc.. If you're not already fitting colonists with bionics, they're insanely good. Once you have bionics, the bionics are better though.

I can understand not wanting them, but it really doesn't fire off very often. About once per year with frequent suppression, and when it fires off it seems to be as likely to target the warden suppressing it as wild animals and trees on the map.

If you destroy it, it doesn't even mutate anyone, it just summons fleshbeasts.

Yeah, void serums are 2x anomaly study rate, making them Amazing for things like golden cube events. I also got a special joiner who has innate bonuses to anomaly study rate and she stacks with void serums.

Okay, so it's 8 days if you get the rare pawn I would actually bet most people have not even met, let alone rolled one of the harmless varieties if they did - and dose them with serum and stand drafted by the obelisk as the timer runs out to immidiatelly start the study every 47 hours - you can get to deactivation in 8-9 days.
I know this sound argumentative, but you made it sound like "Hell, you can just deactivate it in a week", while it is more of a "Rolling natural 20 three times in a row" situation.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di アゼム:

Just let them hit 100%, the consequence isn't even that bad and you get a free shard

I mean, yes, it's not that hard to deal with anything in the game once we boil it to the mechanics. Get mutated, craft new organd or harvest them, implant, blow up the obelisk. It certainly is an option. Tho the so called "sweaty" Rimworld just doesn't work if you do themed playthroughs. The "poor confused colonist" > "Colony of dozen innvincible bionic psychinc supersoldiers" gameplay is fun for only so long. So how events are completed naturally, rather than nuking the is important too. :P

[GreatPalm]

Messaggio originale di MadArtillery:

I am curious how extra 20% manipulation (if both arms), a rather mysterious melee weapon arm, or a food poisoning immunity stomach makes a colonist useless. The lungs do kinda suck though. Quite a lot of my colony is loaded with these things, even one of my starting colonists had one tentacle and she's kept it all along the journey

two tentacles is -12 to mood, right?

[BingusDingus]

Messaggio originale di MadArtillery:

Seems pretty rare and the stuff is honestly pretty beneficial. Like cloning a colonist then using the mutation obelisk to replace their organs to avoid the decay. Saves a lot of organ harvesting the now much rarer humans.

Cloning the colonists is pretty hilarious, in my current colony is cloned a pair of lovers and now their clones are lovers as well lmao.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di GreatPalm:

Messaggio originale di MadArtillery:

I am curious how extra 20% manipulation (if both arms), a rather mysterious melee weapon arm, or a food poisoning immunity stomach makes a colonist useless. The lungs do kinda suck though. Quite a lot of my colony is loaded with these things, even one of my starting colonists had one tentacle and she's kept it all along the journey

two tentacles is -12 to mood, right?

Most also cause pain. So you might very well end up with -12 mood, -10 mood for pain (it still is permanent -22 mood tho), reduced counciousness due to pain, repulsive colonist and with a bad trait combo, after anyone sneezing, falling into pain shock or mental break. Again, it's a dice roll, I'm starting too feel like I'm a bit doom and gloom here, while in reality, I find the obelists mildly annoying on their second+ drops.

[HunterSilver]

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

Okay, so it's 8 days if you get the rare pawn I would actually bet most people have not even met, let alone rolled one of the harmless varieties if they did - and dose them with serum and stand drafted by the obelisk as the timer runs out to immidiatelly start the study every 47 hours - you can get to deactivation in 8-9 days.
I know this sound argumentative, but you made it sound like "Hell, you can just deactivate it in a week", while it is more of a "Rolling natural 20 three times in a row" situation.

It's honestly not that bad. Void serum lasts for a few days per dose, so just hit your researcher with it regularly while studying. Which is generally just good to do anyway given how cheap it is compared to the benefit. With just the void serum, it's 7~8 sessions.

You also don't need to watch the obelisk. Set them to auto-suppress and auto-study. Just press the check mark on the obelisk and your colonists will handle it for you. Compared to similar jobs, they seem to have a preference for handling anomaly work first. So suppressing an obelisk will happen before they suppress slaves for example.

You also don't need a harmless, or even willing, special joiner to show up. Mine wasn't. If they leave, just arrest them and re-recruit them and you get them permanently. If they turn hostile, capture them and recruit them like a normal prisoner. Betrayers are the most reliable way to get new colonists because their betrayal only fires once and no other negative events are setup to fire after that. Same is true for clones.

[HunterSilver]

Messaggio originale di GreatPalm:

two tentacles is -12 to mood, right?

Yeah, for pawns that aren't inhumanized, the penalty is -6 mood per tentacle. If you're stacking mutations on your colonists, be sure to offset mood penalties with better food, personal rooms, pleasure rituals, etc.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di HunterSilver:

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

Okay, so it's 8 days if you get the rare pawn I would actually bet most people have not even met, let alone rolled one of the harmless varieties if they did - and dose them with serum and stand drafted by the obelisk as the timer runs out to immidiatelly start the study every 47 hours - you can get to deactivation in 8-9 days.
I know this sound argumentative, but you made it sound like "Hell, you can just deactivate it in a week", while it is more of a "Rolling natural 20 three times in a row" situation.

It's honestly not that bad. Void serum lasts for a few days per dose, so just hit your researcher with it regularly while studying. Which is generally just good to do anyway given how cheap it is compared to the benefit. With just the void serum, it's 7~8 sessions.

You also don't need to watch the obelisk. Set them to auto-suppress and auto-study. Just press the check mark on the obelisk and your colonists will handle it for you. Compared to similar jobs, they seem to have a preference for handling anomaly work first. So suppressing an obelisk will happen before they suppress slaves for example.

You also don't need a harmless, or even willing, special joiner to show up. Mine wasn't. If they leave, just arrest them and re-recruit them and you get them permanently. If they turn hostile, capture them and recruit them like a normal prisoner. Betrayers are the most reliable way to get new colonists because their betrayal only fires once and no other negative events are setup to fire after that. Same is true for clones.

Ah, no, you missed my point, to get to 8 days, you literally can't afford more than a second, so a pawn MUST be at the obelisk and manually ordered to start research while paused the second the timer runs out to reach 8 days. While on void serum and void genius (Or what is that one called). This you cannot automate, or you simly can't do it one the time presented, but more like 10-12 days, depending on the timing, raids, event, even with rpiority 1 and yes, the natural preference the pawns seem to have for it. Honestly, I am not sure why am I even arguing this technicality, as 8 and 12 days is not a huge difference in the grand scheme, I just think you are triviliasing it a bit too much, without considering what a less lucky run might look like.

By bugs I meant certain, erm, parasite that can easily take many of your colonists. Which also tends to tear the pawn apart if you try to reject and capture them, even after getting rid of the loyalty. Anyhow, I just meant that the "joiner" with special power event is pretty rare. Then getting a particular pawn you need for this is even more rare. And getting one that is not a secret nuclear bomb is even more rare. In essence, so rare you can't count on it happening. EG. 12 years of my current colony, I have encountered that research trait once, and yes, it was a gal that wanted to spread the "bugs".

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di アゼム:

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

I mean, yes, it's not that hard to deal with anything in the game once we boil it to the mechanics. Get mutated, craft new organd or harvest them, implant, blow up the obelisk. It certainly is an option. Tho the so called "sweaty" Rimworld just doesn't work if you do themed playthroughs. The "poor confused colonist" > "Colony of dozen innvincible bionic psychinc supersoldiers" gameplay is fun for only so long. So how events are completed naturally, rather than nuking the is important too. :P

My entire point is that on the scale of rimworld threats a 100% obelisk is very small. You get a minor raid of minor enemies. It's like getting attacked by tribals

It really depends, if one of your colonists gets mutated and falls into pain shock, second gets yeeted into the labyrinth and the third gets to face the proverbial tribal raid, you sure should hope the man in black gets a good skill roll.

Anyhow, personally, my problem is as I stated, that the obelisks always come again almosts isntantly and you have to research them again as if you never ever seen them before. I'd prolly be okay with -75% research speed or just falling down already researched so you can use or deactivate as you wish. Or hell, on the third appearance at least. You could say the same for the cube - but the cube doesn't appear again every season and the effects ithas are not random at all so it's kind of different.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di アゼム:

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

It really depends, if one of your colonists gets mutated and falls into pain shock, second gets yeeted into the labyrinth and the third gets to face the proverbial tribal raid, you sure should hope the man in black gets a good skill roll.

Anyhow, personally, my problem is as I stated, that the obelisks always come again almosts isntantly and you have to research them again as if you never ever seen them before. I'd prolly be okay with -75% research speed or just falling down already researched so you can use or deactivate as you wish. Or hell, on the third appearance at least. You could say the same for the cube - but the cube doesn't appear again every season and the effects ithas are not random at all so it's kind of different.

That goes for every event in rimworld though. If you have a sequence of unlucky events happen all at once it could be game-ending
It's hardly exclusive to obelisks

There is a difference tho, absolute majority of events you can influence as they happen or even prevent / counter them. Or prepare at least. Obelisks are one of the very few ones that are pure dice roll as to whether they will be super harmless or just nuke you and you can't do anything about it, all the while the game seems to be very intent on you having all three obelisks on the map at all times.

[HunterSilver]

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

Ah, no, you missed my point

I'm afraid we're losing the plot a bit. You were the one that brought up completing it in 8 days to the second, I just said that you can get it down to as few as 4 study sessions with the right combination.

I think mutations are all around 3% pain each? Something around there. They're about as bad as an itchy scar. They won't trigger pain shock on their own unless you're stacking them on a Wimp.

The raid spawned by obelisks is roughly equivalent to a 1x sized raid, so you should be able to comfortably handle it.

As for the metalhorror fear, if you're worried about it just recruit them, jail them, interrogate them a few times, and then you're in the clear.

I'm worried that you're trying to rhetorically make a mountain out of a molehill and you're going to scare a bunch of new players like that. It's honest to goodness not that bad.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di HunterSilver:

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

Ah, no, you missed my point

I'm afraid we're losing the plot a bit. You were the one that brought up completing it in 8 days to the second, I just said that you can get it down to as few as 4 study sessions with the right combination.

I think mutations are all around 3% pain each? Something around there. They're about as bad as an itchy scar. They won't trigger pain shock on their own unless you're stacking them on a Wimp.

The raid spawned by obelisks is roughly equivalent to a 1x sized raid, so you should be able to comfortably handle it.

As for the metalhorror fear, if you're worried about it just recruit them, jail them, interrogate them a few times, and then you're in the clear.

I'm worried that you're trying to rhetorically make a mountain out of a molehill and you're going to scare a bunch of new players like that. It's honest to goodness not that bad.

There is a difference between 8 days and 12-15, just like there is a difference between 3% and 8%, -5 mood and -22 mood + social recluse and oh so many other things. Anyhow yes, you can always nuke the obelisk and kill the raid, but it's not always about effeciency, sometimes it's about themed runs too. Or maybe I'm just an outlier here, I said as much.

And the metal horror is trickier than you make it sound too. They turn hostile, you do any damage, they explode and the horror comes out. Which you can take care off, but it's not that helpful unless you were stocked with ress serum.

Bust as I said, it indeed is not a mountain, it's just very eyerolling for nor reason, much like the non-water-related short circuit event for example, considering the frequency of the obelisk events (which seems to be extremely high unless you already have the obelisk).

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di アゼム:

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

There is a difference tho, absolute majority of events you can influence as they happen or even prevent / counter them. Or prepare at least. Obelisks are one of the very few ones that are pure dice roll as to whether they will be super harmless or just nuke you and you can't do anything about it, all the while the game seems to be very intent on you having all three obelisks on the map at all times.

they're not though? it's literally the opposite

If it's literally the oposite, then there is a menu where I can choose whether anything that touches the obelisk will get teleported/mutated or not upon interaction and I just missed it.

Look, I'm just unhappy, because right before reading this topic, I had an amazing streak where every single interaction with obelisk lead to mutation. Obelisk I already researched and deactivated good 3 times, if not 4. This leads me to the opinion that you shouldn't have to start the research from the start everytime, at least reduce it by 25% everytime you finish research / deactivate the obelisk on the same freaking obelisk type or some such, especially considering the obelisks seem to have higher priority to be on the map than most of Anomaly.

[MadArtillery]

Messaggio originale di GreatPalm:

Messaggio originale di MadArtillery:

I am curious how extra 20% manipulation (if both arms), a rather mysterious melee weapon arm, or a food poisoning immunity stomach makes a colonist useless. The lungs do kinda suck though. Quite a lot of my colony is loaded with these things, even one of my starting colonists had one tentacle and she's kept it all along the journey

two tentacles is -12 to mood, right?

I usually run -10 mood gene in most of my builds, usually starting with them. it's honestly not a noticable penalty, even on leadership positions I find it pretty tame. One of my starter colonists has had -16 the whole run. A good regular 'lovin' can deal with that zero problems. Sure it's extra fun with the tentacle.

I will say having multiple sanguinophage clones spawn with the special end buff from the void as well as death denial stacks can be hell, especially with a rogue diablos running around lol. Definitetly deactivate those before doing anything that pops up with a warning. All the ones that spawned bleeding out or dieing to an infection sure went easy though.

[Elvi]

Messaggio originale di アゼム:

Messaggio originale di Elvi:

If it's literally the oposite, then there is a menu where I can choose whether anything that touches the obelisk will get teleported/mutated or not upon interaction and I just missed it.

Look, I'm just unhappy, because right before reading this topic, I had an amazing streak where every single interaction with obelisk lead to mutation. Obelisk I already researched and deactivated good 3 times, if not 4. This leads me to the opinion that you shouldn't have to start the research from the start everytime, at least reduce it by 25% everytime you finish research / deactivate the obelisk on the same freaking obelisk type or some such, especially considering the obelisks seem to have higher priority to be on the map than most of Anomaly.

That's classic rimworld rng, nothing to do with obelisks. I've gone multiple in-game years with zero mutation or events from multiple obelisks. Like I said, you can get screwed by the game in a million different ways. It just rolled the dice and screwed you in this way

I spent so many thousands of hours in this game and I've never had any event repeat this often. Hell, even if I count "Raid" (any raid from any faction, counting even cultists and manhunters) as an event, I would say mutation from obelisk happens lot more frequently to the point where it is very frustrating, double-underlined because the very first event after deactivating the obelisk is another one dropping in.

But the Anomaly is still young, guess will have to play a lot more to definitely say whether I'm being very unlucky here or you very lucky, but at this point it feels kinda like getting Solar flare 10 times per season - sure you can deal with it, but it's not very fun, haha.