feature request Natural Disasters

[iCaughtFireOnce]

Last one tonight, I swear. People tell me not to bottle things up, now look what happened D:

Not that entropy isn't interesting, in fact, I think it's one of the coolest mechanics I've seen in a long time. So far, I haven't found that the game NEEDS more challenge later on. I'm usually running out of fuel or algae and frantically scrambling to not have the O2 shut off spontaneously. That said, down I have some cool ideas for "natural disasters" that could make the game more dynamic later on after I've played as many hours of this as I have of Don't Starve...

EARTHQUAKE: The ground shakes for half a cycle or so, breaking tiles and ladders, and causing some blocks to sporadically be effected by gravity. Buildings entombed by a falling non-sand material would be damaged or destroyed, and dupes would be badly injured. If a falling block hits a tile, it breaks through, destroying the tile, but deals significantly less damage to anything it hits after that, and won't break through a second tile. 

SOLAR FLARE / ELECTROMAGNETIC STORM: random power spikes would strike tiles. If there's wire there, the wire will generate spontaneous current (possibly causing the circuit to overload). If a power-spike strikes a dupe, nothing happens, unless they're carrying metal, then they are electrocuted, causing injury and causing them to drop the metal. If a block made from metal is struck, it electrocutes all adjacent metal blocks, injuring any creature touching the chunk of metal. I'm not sure if water should conduct power surges. I think only poluted water should conduct power surges because first, polluted water should be bad to swim it, and second, pure water does not actually conduct electricity unless something is dissolved in it.

DUST STORM: This doesn't make sense, I have no idea where the dust would come from, but it would be an unbreathable gas that would be a gaseous form of dirt. Alternatively, dust is breathable, but can inflict a disease on dupes that breath it in that causes sneezing and a -5 to athletics. Also, dust could be a side effect of eathquakes. Instead of causing dirt to fall, it would shake up dirt blocks that WOULD have fallen, creating dust. This might also wreck farms.

MASS PSYCHOGENIC ILLNESS: Basically, one of the dupes smells something funny, or thinks he/she does, and starts feeling sick from the thing they think they smelt. Other dupes start thinking they smell the same thing, and they start feeling sick too. Eventually, everyone starts feeling sick, but there was never any disease. All the dupes would suffer a temporary penalty to immune of -5 to -15% per cycle for a cycle or two for no reason. If they reach 0 immunity, they'd get sick with something that look like food poisoning (without any germs). The same maybe this is triggered by natural gas leaks? (mass psychogenic illness is a real thing, i didn't make this up --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness). Placebo pills will completely negate the immune loss from the Psychogenic illness.

QUARREL: The dupes all had some big disagreement, and now they're all fighting. +5 to +15% stress per cycle for a few cycles.

HOLIDAY: Every so often the dupes will throw a party. The party would trigger shortly before the end of the day, and all dupes would go to the mess hall (if you have one) and eat at the same time. Plus side is all the dupes that participate have -30% stress during the party, but and dupes that can't make it (or if there isn't enough food for them) get +30% stress b/c no one likes being left out. I can just imagine how awesome it would be to have dupe throwing a little dance party.

HEAT WAVE / COLD SNAP: the ambient temperature would go up or down significantly for a few cycles. Not that interesting, but could be very dangerous.

VERMIN: Okay, this isn't a natural disaster really, but it would be cool to have vermin that can spawn which will steal food (even if it's in the fridge), and crawl through/hide in air ducts, and maybe pipes. Maybe they would even chew through tiles and power cables. They could also carry a unique type of germs. Unlike other creatures, they can move through pneumatic doors, and even mesh/airflow tiles. They also can enter gas pipes through gas vents, and are invisible while inside gas pipes. They can also leave droppings lying around which produce germs and polluted oxygen.

(maybe in this case, a disaster would just spawn one vermin somewhere in your colony. 

I figure, natural disasters might make the game too hard with things as is, so they'd have to be optional. You could customize which natural disasters could happen, and the chance of one occurring. Naturally, the chance of a disaster should increase slightly each cycle. I would have a flat increase on the chances each cycle, but also an increase each cycle if no disaster has occurred, but that component would reset when a disaster triggers. Once a disaster starts, no new disaster can start until the end of the current disaster (unless you have a setting that enable overlapping disasters.)

[Botaxalim]

Look like rimworld random event, but i dont think it will fit for oni, since everything in oni is about planning and prevention. If random event happen it will need recovery. We dont have enough tool for recovery. Example; instant heatwave, farms is died, no food, dupe starved to died. There not enough time for building cooler or saving the plants from died, dupe is not that smart when you assigne job.

So you notice everything in oni need time and preparation, instant event like that will make most player rage , we dont want problem not from our own.

[Lynette]

Suggestions for natural disasters are good suggestions.
However, those who want to play games reliably may not want to.
So if you add a natural disaster, I suggest that you make a choice whether to use a natural disaster in the game options settings.

 

[Kiarla]

I really like this idea, but I agree with Lyntte. It would be good to be able to turn it on/off... but why not? That was the case with world gen in don't starve. 

 

As for the mention of prevention, this could be LATE GAME things. When you're supposed to have food stored for days and a good water supply. Then needing to repair a few farm tiles, or having your farm cycle restart shouldn't be a big deal. It *IS* prevention.... in the sense of mitigation the need to react to the disaster. Could is completely mess you up? Of course. Might it need a few extra tools to help? Probably. Maybe there's a meteorological radar that will tell you what cycle the next disaster occurs in, and what type. Or say, a seismic sensor that warns you a few cycles in advance about an earthquake so you can have the right tools ready. 

[Andreasgamming]

I like the Quarrel idea makes sense Being trapped in a colony for a while, also add a new stress response "Violent out rage" instead of destroying things like the Destructive does it causes to dupe to snap and attack other dupes increasing the stress and causing injury.

Also the Heat wave/ Cold snap is a good idea as well. They're on an asteroid around an unknown star it is not known how far away they are from said star but this could be a seed dependent thing, certain seeds gives a different sudden spike in temperature OR certain comets could pass such as a ice comet or even a shooting star could pass by and cause not only the sudden spike but the Earth quakes as well.

And the thing about being given the disasters an option to be toggled on or off, instead give the player the option of ON(All Disasters are on) CUSTOM (You customize what disasters you want to appear during your game) and OFF(All disasters off) much like the world customization in Don't starve.

I would Also like to see different Species of Dupes, instead of just human dupes, Like Reptilian or some kind of alien Dupe.

Then more diseases, there is slime lung and food poisoning, and I love the Idea of the Mass Psychogenic Illness, I went to the link and Read the Wiki on it makes sense for the game setting. I would like to see Parasites, being on an asteroid with life and various different biomes there ought to be parasitic organisms, they could effect certain foods such as raw meat and raw meal lice in polluted or non-refrigerated environments. They also could be in polluted water as well. Placebo pills would work for curing the dupes of the parasite OR a new medicine could be researched for the parasites. 

Now the radar stuff I can see happening, but it'll be mid-late game, requiring A LOT of power and resources to use.

[Cawub]

That sounds AWESOME! I would love that and even if it (somehow) doesn't get implemented, it would be an awesome MOD!