[DEVBLOG#165] Developing of Rim-Effect: Turians and Gangs pt. 3 (Patreon)

Hey there kind people!

Let me begin by saying Happy Thanksgiving to our beautiful Americans. May you have the bestest time with your loved ones!

I promised last time we will talk about the main adversary of the Turian Hierarchy. A new faction that's coming to RimWorld... the Gangs!

Much stronger and more organised than normal pirates, gangs utilise various new raiding tactics and unique weapons to give them an edge over the player.

Gangs is a new faction that encompasses various, smaller gangs in itself. Whenever player gets raided by Gangs, game selects one of the raiding groups, and each raiding group has different gang members in it. There won’t be a situation where Eclipse and Blood Pack, for example, belong in the same raiding group. Essentially, each raid group is a different gang.

Gangs can be traded with using a special interface, where a player can pay to receive help from various organisations in situations that might require it. If you’re facing a tough raid, you can just pay the Blood pack for them to show up and clean up the mess.

Gangs have their own Terminus Terminal which can be purchased from Turian Black Market trader. Terminus Terminal can be used to research the Terminus Armory technology that unlocks many of the most popular weapons of the Gangs.

There are various gangs that the Gang faction covers. Available gangs are explained below.

Blood Pack is a gang consisting of Vorchas (and with Salarians and Krogans, with Krogans too). They utilise hit and run tactics with close range weapons and flame throwers. They believe in strength in numbers, which means their pawnKinds are of low Combat Power, resulting in large numbers.

Blue Suns is a gang consisting of batarians, humans and turians. They are the most expensive gang available. They are known for employing technology to fight for their cause and make their jobs easier - players should expect combat LOKIs and YMIRs with Blue Sun colors.

Eclipse is a gang consisting of humans (and Asari adepts with Asari and the Reapers, and Salarians with Salarians and Krogans). They favor stealth and smarts instead of brute force, and often utilise cutting edge technology, which includes LOKIs and YMIR mechs with Eclipse paintjob. They are known for widely using biotic powers too.

Gangs don’t have permanent bases on the world map. Instead, their bases appear in the form of quests that disappear after some time has passed.

Gangs PawnKindDefs

Gangs faction comes with many new PawnKindDefs. They come separated into three unique gangs, and the Gang pawnGroupMakers never use more than one gang type in them. This means you will never be raided by Blood Pack and Eclipse at the same time (unless they come as two separate raids).

Peaceful pawnKindDefs:

None, Gangs don’t have peaceful caravans or the likes, as you cannot befriend them.

Blood Pack Combat pawnkindDefs:

Varren

Combat points: 40

Varren animal.

Vorcha Slasher

Combat points: 50

Vorcha pawn without weapons, fighting in melee. No clothing.

Vorcha Gunner

Combat points: 75

Vorcha pawn. Wears Vorcha Gunner Garb. Uses AllianceGun Weapon tag.

Vorcha Warrior

Combat points: 85

Vorcha pawn. Wears Vorcha Combat Garb. Uses MercenaryLight weapon tag (Mercenary hand cannon or Mercenary SMG)

Vorcha Heavy Gunner

Combat points: 120

Vorcha pawn. Wears Vorcha Armored Garb. Uses MercenaryHeavy weapon tag (Mercenary Shotgun)

Vorcha Flamer

Combat points: 200

Vorcha pawn. Wears Vorcha Gunner Garb. Uses MercenaryFlamer weapon tag (Mercenary Flamethrower)

Blue Suns Combat pawnkindDefs:

Blue Suns Trooper

Combat points: 170

Human pawn wearing Blue Suns Armor and Blue Suns Helmet. Uses AllianceGun Weapon tag.

Blue Suns Heavy Trooper

Combat points: 220

Human pawn wearing Blue Suns Armor and no helmet. Uses MercenaryBreacher Weapon tag (Breaching Grenade Launcher). Is used as a breacher unit in breacher raids.

Blue Suns Legionnaire

Combat points: 275

Batarian pawn wearing Heavy Alliance Armor and no helmet, colored in the Blue Suns colors. Uses AllianceGunHeavy Weapon tag.

Blue Suns Centurion

Combat points: 300

Turian pawn wearing Heavy Turian Armor and no helmet, colored in the Blue Suns colors. Uses AllianceGunHeavy Weapon tag. They have a level 1 omni-tool and can use basic tech powers.

Blue Suns LOKI

Combat points: 150

A LOKI mech. Unlike the player-built ones, this one should not use the same system and does not require recharging. I think the best way to make it painlessly is to just make it work like Lancers etc. This LOKI is blue and uses Alliance SMG.

Blue Suns YMIR

Combat points: 950

An YMIR mech. Unlike the player-built ones, this one should not use the same system and does not require recharging. I think the best way to make it painlessly is to just make it work like Lancers etc. This YMIR uses a Heavy mass accelerator and has an overshield, just like the normal player built one.

Eclipse Combat pawnkindDefs:

Eclipse Trooper

Combat points: 120

Human pawn wearing Eclipse Armor and Eclipse Helmet. Uses AllianceGun Weapon tag.

Eclipse Engineer

Combat points: 200

Human pawn wearing Light Alliance Armor and no helmet. Equipped with MercenaryLight weapon tag, they have an omni-tool and have access to basic tech abilities.

Eclipse Heavy

Combat points: 280

Human pawn wearing Eclipse Armor and Eclipse Helmet. Colored in the Eclipse colors. Uses AllianceGunHeavy Weapon tag.

Eclipse LOKI

Combat points: 150

A LOKI mech. Unlike the player-built ones, this one should not use the same system and does not require recharging. I think the best way to make it painlessly is to just make it work like Lancers etc. This LOKI is yellow and uses Alliance SMG.

Eclipse YMIR (Breacher)

Combat points: 950

An YMIR mech. Unlike the player-built ones, this one should not use the same system and does not require recharging. I think the best way to make it painlessly is to just make it work like Lancers etc. This YMIR uses a new weapon called Heavy Grenade Launcher and has an overshield, just like the normal player built one. It is used as a breacher unit for Eclipse raids.

Eclipse Vanguard (If Asari and the Reapers module is installed)

Combat points: 315

Asari pawn wearing Eclipse Armor and no helmet. Colored in the Eclipse colors. Uses AllianceGunLight Weapon tag. They have biotic amps and can cast a wide range of biotic abilities.

New gang apparel will also be available but I will cover that at a later date. Lets take a look at new races!

New Race - Vorcha

The Turians and Gangs module comes with a few unique races. Second race added by this module is the Vorcha. Known for their unique biology and aggressive behavior, the vorcha of Heshtok are a primitive race that live among the galaxy's darker and more dangerous locations, such as Omega. Many vorcha are trained by the krogan Blood Pack as mercenaries due to their savage nature and adaptability to different environments. The rest of galactic civilization regards them as pests and scavengers, and their presence is generally seen as a blight.

Vorcha lives for a very brief period of time - they reach maturity at the age of 3, and normally would die of old age around the age of 20, but they rarely live that long due to their occupancy.

They have clusters of non-differentiated cells, similar to those found on the planarian worm of Earth. These cells allow the vorcha limited regenerative abilities. As such, Vorcha have natural rapid wound regeneration - any wounds they suffer will heal themselves even during combat.

Vorcha develops immunity to any diseases at rapid speed - if an infection sets in, immunity to it will be developed within hours at most. This is actually made into a new trait, that appears on every Vorcha pawn:
Vorcha Immunity
NAME has an unmatched immunological system. HE will gain immunity nearly instantly, and can survive illnesses that would kill others. - Immunity Gain Speed +200%

Vorcha society is built around combat. They come from an overcrowded planet, stripped off all resources by the brutal, constantly fighting species. As such, Vorcha are mostly incapable of everything except violence. This should be reflected through Vorcha backstories.

They don’t have doctors, as they have no need for them. They don’t have scientists and mostly rely on the technology of others. Vorcha is not easy to be recruited in a normal way - They have a very low recruitment chance - instead, they often volunteer to join if beaten into submission. This brings us to the unique way of recruiting Vorcha. Player needs to manually order a pawn to beat up a Vorcha prisoner. A prisoner beaten up this way, if it doesn’t die, will instantly join the player.

The only social interactions Vorcha are capable of are Slight and Insult.

Vorcha have their own set of white-listed traits. The list is as follows: Bloodlust, Psychopath, Cannibal, Abrasive, Brawler, Nimble, Masochist, Body modder, Greedy, Jealous, Tough, Annoying Voice, Creepy Breathing, Pyromaniac, Wimp, Undergrounder, Chemical Fascination, Fast Walker, Jogger, Volatile, Nervous, Steadfast, Iron-willed, Trigger-happy, Ugly, Staggeringly Ugly.

Vorcha have male and female genders, but there is no visible sexual dimorphism - they all look the same.

Vorcha cannot equip any apparel except for the apparel made specifically for Vorchas. They can, however, equip any weapons.

The Vorcha head is in a slightly different location in relation to their body than normal pawns. Vorchas should look more ‘hunched over’. Furthermore, on the north view, Vorcha’s head is rendered under the body, not over it.

New Race - Batarian

A race of four-eyed bipeds native to the world of Khar'shan, the batarians are a disreputable species that chose to isolate itself from the rest of the galaxy. The Terminus Systems are infested with batarian pirate gangs and slaving rings, fueling the stereotype of the batarian thug. It should be noted that these criminals do not represent average citizens, who are forbidden to leave batarian space by their ubiquitous and paranoid government.

Batarians should require a new bodyDef, as they do indeed have four eyes. Other than that, they are essentially baseline humans.

They hate humans, for reasons deeply embedded in their nature. As such, every single Batarian gets a -10 opinion modifier of any human pawn, and +10 opinion modifier of any Batarian pawn.

Batarians can utilise all body types, the same way normal humans do. They have 6 unique head graphics - three male and three female. They can equip any armors and any helmets normal humans can.

That's it for this devblog. Next up I will talk you through the Mercenaries mechanic and how you can use the gangs to help you with security detail, personnel protection and much, much more!