RimWorld

RimWorld

Biotech Mech Stuff Elongated - Mechanoid Upgrades V2
MrKociak  [developer] 4 Feb, 2023 @ 6:44am
Balance suggestions and stuff
Currently some upgrades might be too underpowered, overpowered, too cheap or too expensive etc.

So, here’s a spot for suggestions and reports of things being unbalanced, it makes them easier to keep track of :]
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Showing 1-15 of 36 comments
Meo 8 Feb, 2023 @ 7:36am 
An upgrade for medium and up mechanoids that reduce bandwith cost by one. (Only a single level), however at the cost of decreased energy efficiency due to the added on-board processing.

(Dunno if its even possible tbh, could also just restrict it to mechanoids with bandwiths 3+)
MrKociak  [developer] 8 Feb, 2023 @ 7:57am 
@Meo it is possible, tho so far I haven't made any upgrades that effect bandwith as I haven't yet tested out how they would affect the resurrection process [they lose all health conditions].
But if it doesn't end up causing bugs or inconveniences I can add it
Rock Paper Pyro 9 Feb, 2023 @ 4:13pm 
I enjoyed playing with this mod for my mechinator playthrough. My thoughts are that it takes too long to upgrade units, and the resources to do so are too common. My bots were always on downtime being upgraded a lot of them saw little use until my victory condition. If I were to suggest anything perhaps gating the upgrades by requiring mechanoid chips, lowering the stacking limit and making each one more substantially powerful might feel more impactful. It'd give a better risk for reward structure and feel like less of a grind to perfect the robots.
MrKociak  [developer] 10 Feb, 2023 @ 6:49am 
@Rock Paper Pyro
Oh yeah I've noticed it too.
I've been thinking of maybe adding the chip[s] as a building cost instead in order to prevent people from having *all* of their mechanoids in pods 24/7.
Currently I can't mess around with the (amount of) different stages/levels of the health conditions without messing up people's saves/progress, but if I keep them as is then the chip cost would be too much for most of the upgrade types.

Also slightly unrelated but I've also almost finished a few options that would allow the pods to function automatically with little to no player input (if the player wants that), it decreases the need to micromanage.
Dinnin 19 Feb, 2023 @ 5:18pm 
Would a carrying capacity upgrade be easy to add? Maybe integrated into move speed since the utility mechs dont get the same tactical advantage from speed as battle bots
MrKociak  [developer] 19 Feb, 2023 @ 5:20pm 
@Dinnin it doable and planned, though I don't wanna end up adding too many upgrades too quickly
MrKociak  [developer] 20 Feb, 2023 @ 7:35am 
Wanted to do a little update on what I’ve been working on for a little while.
Changes:
  • The upgraders now cost chips [not a lot, but done to prevent the player from immediately building like 20 of them and having their mechs spend 90% of their existence in them] and require more power.
  • Nerfed the armor upgrades [reduced the boost to a maximum of 120% with a 0.5 c/s reduction to speed on max level]. It might end up still being a bit powerful, I’m open to suggestions on this one.
Additions:
  • Auto-prime – a toggleable button that causes the upgrader to automatically start another upgrade cycle and accept resources after completing a previous one.
  • Auto-select: single - a toggleable button that causes the upgrader to select the previous mechanoid occupant for another upgrade cycle of the same type [until the upgrade has reached max level]
  • Auto-select: random - a toggleable button that causes the upgrader to select a random viable mechanoid for the cycle while attempting to prioritize ones with weaker upgrades [has an additional option to set up extra filters, like disallowing mechs of certain mech classes, disallowing worker mechs or disallowing melee or ranged combat mechs]
Planned/worked on features:
  • Maintenance mode – applies a cheap and temporary boost, also reduces “biological” age of the mechanoid, giving ancient ones a clean look [the second part has no real gameplay benefits, it’s just a bonus]
  • Skill mode – increases a mechanoid’s skill level [doable, thinking of the most efficient way of applying it ... and whether or not to ultimately do it]
  • carry capacity boost– increases a mech’s carrying capacity, looking into how useful it is for other mechs, I’d like to avoid making upgrades that only work for a few.
  • Weapon quality upgrade – scrapped, would give too much of a boost to certain mechs, also combat upgrades already exist. Will implement something similar in a different mod.
[C]riminal-X- 21 Feb, 2023 @ 10:30pm 
Would suggest perhaps the generation of wastepacks as a balancing feature, after all almost everything mechanoid related so far generates wastepacks, upgrades should also do the same imo
MrKociak  [developer] 22 Feb, 2023 @ 4:46am 
@[C]riminal-X- they do generate wastepacks once an upgrade finishes, though I wouldn't be surprised if people didn't even notice because the amount is pretty small (like 1-4 per cycle).

I think it's a good idea to look into it more tho, perhaps up the amount or make it dependant on the mech's stats.
Teridax 22 Feb, 2023 @ 3:09pm 
Finally reached the state where i could fully take advantage of the mechanoids in my first Biotech save (And yet i run like +5 mechanoid related mods too lol) and i really like this mod

And looks like pretty much all my concerns are already addressed, especially the armour thing because in my current save i have 200% sharp armour zealots from reinforced mechanoids 2 running around

"Maintenance mode – applies a cheap and temporary boost, also reduces “biological” age of the mechanoid, giving ancient ones a clean look [the second part has no real gameplay benefits, it’s just a bonus]"

Also really liking this part since one mod i use allows to revive dead enemy mechs, including a tweaked Apocriton, but right now it would stick out badly being the only green corroded ancient mech while everything else is a polished white

Also as someone who mass upgraded their mechs, i definitely do notice the waste which originates from upgrades so personally i am fine with the current values
MrKociak  [developer] 22 Feb, 2023 @ 3:37pm 
@Teridax I've been experimenting with the waste production, making it scale with bandwidth seems to work well. I'm gonna try and keep the overall amount roughly the same while also making it a bit more "expensive" to upgrade more powerful mechs.

As for the maintenance mode...honestly the white polished looks is the main reason I've made the mode lol, I really hate having those old and green-looking mechs around when everything else looks nice and clean. Also would you happen to know/remember which mod lets you revive enemy mechs? I know that Reinforced Mechanoid 2 lets you hack them, but I think it's only for living ones. It sounds interesting.
Rhiver 22 Feb, 2023 @ 5:37pm 
The mod "Resurrect Enemy Mechanoids" is the one that's being spoken about! Or at least it's the one I use at least in case there's others that do that
Potato.tech 25 Feb, 2023 @ 8:19am 
just noticed an exploit. once you are upgrading a mechanoid, at any point you can cancel the upgrade, and even though you canceled, that mechanoid will still come out upgraded
MrKociak  [developer] 25 Feb, 2023 @ 9:05am 
@Germanpotato344 oh that's a good find
MrKociak  [developer] 25 Feb, 2023 @ 10:40am 
@Germanpotato344 a fix has been made, it should be out soon-ish.
It now also properly refunds the ingredients so that's neat
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