About our beloved 3 starting dupes

[Exa]

The randomness of the 3 first dupes and the shuffle mecanic are not good I think. Often, you lose some minuts to stupidly shuffle until you find your +10 learning or +4 creativity or other things you want. This is not fun.

I think we should start with a fixed configuration of skill for dupe or maybe a choice between 3 or 4 special team designed for a new game without complete randomness.

Or maybe the ability to distribute an amount of skill points

[Nicz]

iI dont really mind it, since most skills except Immunity Strength and maybe Medicine can be easily trained anyway.

I noticed that this kind of random - but click to reroll - mechanic is quite popular in games with lots of tuning parameters (fe rimworld, poe crafting).
It all boils down to the choice: "Do i want to waste time and get the perfect results, or do i just give up and roll with what ive got (it will probably work anyway)?"
Maybe its not the most satisfying solution to the problem of microoptimising but it works and its enough for me.

[Exa]

Usually I really want some particular things (no loud sleeper, no flatulant, no binge eater, at least one +10 learning, one +10 digging and one +4 creativity)

and believe me, having a +10 learning at start for fast research and at least one +10 digging is a HUGE boost for the first 20 cycles

[Le0n1des]

I personally cap learning at 5 for everyone. This way they all level in similar pass, and I've go no overshooting requirements

[Lifegrow]

I just wished we had a "undo shuffle" or "previous" button for those times you spam shuffle one time to many, and watch your 12 learning dupe disappear into the void  

Did suggest it some months back in the closed testing section, but it was never taken up  

[Direpug]

Yeah, the current way things are working it's not bad (but as you said, create a unnecessary time waste if the user insists in finding an op dupe), but it looks much more likely it should be in this way if we had selected Custom mode.

For the default option, randomize could be applied to the 3 dupes at the same time, making the initial choice something more static but creating a certain challenge inducing the player to accept certain bad dupe traits in favor of the randomized good stats of all three dupes. 

And maybe the maximum stat values for the first three should be capped too, making the random something more of finding a good balance between the dupes.

This days i was thinking something in the lines of expendables dupe points in this selection, for normal mode there would be a certain number of points to be applied in options fitting the criteria of dupe trait/stats desired, and then generate the dupes after that to get something more personalized and avoid wasting time. (points influencing randomize).

 

 

[Byste]

I don't mind the shuffle mechanic. I think it'd be difficult to implement some other system without revising the dupe traits. I must admit I'm surprised to see how much people like using high attribute dupes since they're stress prone, but then again it does seem in the Oil Update they're lowering base expectations (-35 instead of -25) and if you can get an uncultured on top of that...

[Coolthulhu]

I hate any mechanic that rewards tedious grind. Starting rolls are exactly that kind of mechanic.

[Lifegrow]

36 minutes ago, Byste said:

I don't mind the shuffle mechanic. I think it'd be difficult to implement some other system without revising the dupe traits. I must admit I'm surprised to see how much people like using high attribute dupes since they're stress prone, but then again it does seem in the Oil Update they're lowering base expectations (-35 instead of -25) and if you can get an uncultured on top of that...

Stress is easily mitigated with even trash paintings spammed around your base

I think bad artwork should stress your dupes, or make them anxious or something  

[Byste]

13 minutes ago, Lifegrow said:

Stress is easily mitigated with even trash paintings spammed around your base

I think bad artwork should stress your dupes, or make them anxious or something  

It's only helpful while your dupes are around them though, if you're off exploring they can get very stressed, also other sources of stress like bad food or getting wet...

[Kasuha]

I don't think the mechanic is bad. Everyone can decide on their own if they want to keep rolling until they get their dream team or if they get whatever comes. It still ensures certain level variety of the starting team for most players.

If there was a list of possible teams, people would eventually figure out which is the best team and everyone would start with that team.

If there was manual stat allocation, everyone would again stick to one, the most efficient build.

And in the long run, the starting starts of duplicants don't really matter anyway.

[Coolthulhu]

1 hour ago, Kasuha said:

If there was a list of possible teams, people would eventually figure out which is the best team and everyone would start with that team.

Unless they offered different benefits that fit different playstyles: fast expansionist, low effort low upkeep, balanced, learning vs strength vs immunity.

 

[Moggles]

A long time ago someone suggested being able to shuffle the character separately from the stats. I still think that would be nice quick win to give the player more control over the starting three.

How would people feel about a fallout /  rpg style thing where we allocate a set number of points in to skills?

[Qarnage]

I like the randomness of the shuffle, honestly the first 1-2 min of setting up a new game are incredibly fun partly due to that. I feel like it gives you this special feeling of luck when you find a Diver's or a 7 strength dupe or something like that. I don't think the random button is meant  to be used as a "lottery grind" though, you can be more than fine without your perfect combination of dupes.

I prefer this kind of random/personality driven stats to an rpg system where we allocate stats and such.

[goboking]

1 hour ago, Moggles said:

A long time ago someone suggested being able to shuffle the character separately from the stats.

As in Meep won't always have the same stress response and Mi-Ma won't always draw from the same pool of traits?  This is something I could certainly get behind.