[DEVBLOG#177] Vanilla Storytellers Expanded - Wave Survival? (Patreon)

What's up guys and welcome to another development blog.

I have some absolutely great news for ya!

Kikohi and I were working on a brand new wave survival storyteller, and I couldn't have been happier with the result! It's not like any other storyteller before - this storyteller totally feels like a brand new gamemode. I tried it. I failed. I wonder if you can beat my score though!

Winston Waves changes the usual RimWorld gameplay into wave survival, and I mean, a proper one, not one of those 'you will be raided once every day', but a custom logic, mechanics, reward system, modifier system, countdown system, scoring system etc!

Push back the enemies to receive rewards. Expand your base using regular RimWorld mechanics, but be prepared that your actual game flow will be tested by constant raids that can only get harder!

Winston is a battle-hardened combat expert, and he believes that through combat, one can find themselves for who they really are. Every day you will be attacked by enemy waves increasing in size, but you will be rewarded for each victory.

GOALS

1. Create a hard survival gamemode that becomes progressively more difficult.
2. Provide the player with unique rewards and a custom, informative UI where player can select those.
3. Create a clearly defined UI that shows the player what the current wave is, and when it’s defeated.
4. Make the raids appear not based on colony wealth, but strictly on what wave it is, scheduled, guaranteed, and different every time! Raids can have unique modifiers that make them harder.
5. Introduce boss waves - be it powerful sieges, huge manhunter packs, breachers etc.

TECHNICALS

With this storyteller, the game is faster and more fierce. As such, certain mechanics need to be overridden, because players won’t have the time to spend 30 days waiting for corn to grow, as 30 days is 30 waves, and rarely anyone will survive that long.

As such, the following stats should be changed if Winston Waves storyteller is selected:

Plant growing speed - 1.75x the speed
Global workspeed - 1.5x the speed
Research speed - 1.5x the speed
Natural healing factor - 2x the speed

Other than that, it's a normal rimworld. Events can appear, caravans can come, quests happen etc. We only replace the Raid system with our wave system, but everything else should essentially play like normal Rimworld.

Players can also select their scenario and can attempt to survive as literally any scenario in the workshop.

There is a bit of custom UI to make the gameplay look a lot more like Wave Survival and a lot less like 'just a storyteller tossing waves at ya'.

It is incredibly fun to play, to see how long you survive.

NORMAL WAVES

Normal waves essentially use the point system, where at the beginning, the first raid is worth 100 points, and then it scales up.

The ratio at which it scales up should depend on the difficulty. For testing purposes, I recommend:

Previous raid size in points * 1.2

This would mean that by the wave 26 player will be facing against roughly 10k raid size.

The points themselves are capped (so you won't get 100k raids with your PC slowing to a crawl) and instead, you get more and more modifiers on enemy raids as the game goes on.

MODIFIERS LIST

Double trouble

Raid size in points is doubled

Bullet sponges

Health of the enemies is doubled

Sprinters

Movement speed of all the enemies is doubled

Veterans

All stats of the enemies (Manipulation, sight etc) is multiplied by x1.5

Boom!

All enemies explode when killed.

Reinforcements

Enemies receive reinforcements from the same faction, worth 50% of the initial wave size, after about 20% of the raid size is defeated.

Orbital bombardment

During the wave, orbital bombardment falls on the entire map

Flashstorm

During the wave, flashstorm is present on the map and rain won’t trigger to extinguish the flames.

Ninjas

All enemies are invisible for the first 30 seconds.

Bulletproof

All enemies have their natural armor increased by 50%.

No Pain No Gain

All enemies don’t feel pain.

No retreat!

Enemies will not retreat.

Acidifiers for everyone!

All enemies have death acidifiers.

Body modders

All enemies use bionics part. Wave raid point is divided by two.

Snipers for everyone!

All enemies get a sniper

Melee only!

All pawns get a melee weapon and a shield belt

Charge weapons for everyone!

All enemies have a charge weapon.

Big bosses

All enemies are mercenaries. Wave raid point is divided by two.

Strategic approach

Enemies use a combination of : grenades, rocket launcher and sniper. Wave raid point is multiplied by 0.7.

Meteor storm

During the wave, meteors fall on the map.

Mystery

A random modifier has been applied. You will discover it soon enough.

Don't worry however. Winning each wave grants you a choice between three rewards (potentially four if you called the last wave early!). I won't go in details about all the rewards we have added, but you can see an example below.

I can 100% confirm this storyteller will test your might. I made it to wave 19. After that I realized I did not prepare enough defenses. My 11 soldiers could not cope, and the fact noone was a capable construction-person only made everything worse.

So, are you looking forward to it? Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask away!

See you lot soon!