[DEVBLOG#207] Vanilla Factions Expanded - Empire breakdown (Patreon)

Hey folks and welcome to a rather big new devblog, this time around focused fully on Vanilla Factions Expanded - Empire.

You probably remember the Patreon notion survey where you guys had a chance to vote what notions should make it into the mod. I reviewed it all and I was happy to see that my interests mostly aligned with yours! After careful evaluation (cost basis etc) I have began drafting up the development doc.

This was, of course, quite a few weeks back, and since then we have actually coded in a solid chunk of the mod. The art is all done as well, so we're very much on track for a quick and steady release.

I'd like to use this post to go over everything we have planned for this mod.

NEW FACTION

This mod comes with a new hidden faction called Deserters. This faction is ONLY used in specific deserter quests. You can’t trade with them, they don’t have their own bases or nothing like that.

DESERTERS

An organised group of imperial deserters who decided to actively disrupt the organisation of the Empire.

It’s a hidden faction, similar to Ancients. They should have imperial backstories.

PawnKindDefs:

Deserter (180 Combat Power)
Equipped with Deserter armor and Deserter helmet. Can have the same amount of type of implants as stellic guards. Allowed weapons are: Charge rifle, Sniper rifle, Assault rifle, Charge thumper.

Deserter pawns always have death acidifiers and biocoded weapons.

If Vanilla Psycasts Expanded is installed:

Deserter pawns have a between 1 and 10 points distributed in random psycasting paths.

If Vanilla Weapons Expanded is installed:

Deserter pawns can spawn with charge LMG, charge sniper rifle and charge shotgun as well.

If Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Coilguns is installed:

Deserter pawns can also spawn with coilgun weapons.

NEW ABILITIES

Several new abilities can appear on specific pawns when this mod is installed - many of them tied to the new noble titles.

All of Bestow abilities should initiate a bestowing ceremony, same way a bestower bestows the rank upon the player - except in this instance, the bestowing pawn acts as a bestower.

This ceremony does not grant psylink to pawns.

BESTOW: FREEHOLDER

Bestows the Freeholder title on a selected pawn. That pawn receives 1 Honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Freeholder or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

BESTOW: YEOMAN

Bestows the Yeoman title on a selected pawn. That pawn now has 7 honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Yeoman or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

This ability replaces Bestow: Freeholder.

BESTOW: ACOLYTE

Bestows the Acolyte title on a selected pawn. That pawn now has 13 honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Acolyte or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

This ability replaces Bestow: Yeoman.

BESTOW: KNIGHT/DAME

Bestows the Knight/Dame title on a selected pawn. That pawn now has 21 honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Knight/Dame or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

This ability replaces Bestow: Acolyte.

BESTOW: PRAETOR

Bestows the Praetor title on a selected pawn. That pawn now has 31 honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Praetor or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

This ability replaces Bestow: Knight/Dame.

BESTOW: BARON/BARONESS

Bestows the Baron/Baroness title on a selected pawn. That pawn now has 45 honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Baron/Baroness or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

This ability replaces Bestow: Praetor.

BESTOW: COUNT/COUNTESS

Bestows the Count/Countess title on a selected pawn. That pawn now has 45 honor. Can’t be cast on a pawn that’s already a Count/Countess or higher. Has a 3 day cooldown.

This ability replaces Bestow: Baron/Baroness.

NEW RESEARCH PROJECTS

These are the new research projects in this mod. They should be placed within the main RimWorld research tab.

NOBLE DECORATIONS

Build noble decorations like royal rugs, mirrors, grand chairs, imperial slabs, candelabras, and more.

Research Project required: Complex Furniture
Tech level: Medieval

PIPE ORGANS

Craft the pipe organs, an incredibly advanced and intricate stationary musical instrument.

Research Project required: Piano
Tech level: Industrial

STELLIC THRONE

Construct the most grand, most beautiful stellic throne for your high ranking nobility.

Research Project required: Noble Decorations
Tech level: Industrial

JANISSARY GEAR

Craft janissary armor, light powered armor that’s commonly used by imperial recon troops. Note that these also require advanced components.

Research Project required: Recon Armor
Tech level: Spacer

NEW RITUAL

A new ritual related to the noble ways of living is added in this mod.

ROYAL ADDRESS

Duration: 5000 ticks
Letter title: Royal address from the throne
Letter text: {ORGANIZER_labelShort} is giving a royal address from the throne. \nIf all goes well, every titled participant will gain a small amount of honor, and {ORGANIZER_labelShort} will gain honor for each titled participant. If it goes poorly, the speech will do social damage and {ORGANIZER_labelShort} will lose honor for each titled participant. The outcome depends on {ORGANIZER_labelShort}'s social abilities. Imperial nobility currently residing in the area will join the speech and count as titled participants.

Very similar to a normal speech, except instead of inspiring the citizens, this type of speech can give 1 honor to each participating titled individual, and 1 honor for each participating individual to the organiser.

This means that if a royal address has 4 different royals other than the organiser taking part in it, all of them will get 1 honor and the organiser will get 4 honor.

If speech goes badly, organiser loses 1 honor for each participant. Participants do not lose honor.

Participant is a noble pawns - as in, a pawn with a noble title. However, any pawn can still spectate the Royal Address, they just don’t count towards the gaining/losing honor mechanic.

NPC pawns with any Imperial title always join the speech if they are on the map. They count as titled participants.

NOBLE COURT

Noble court is a brand new noble requirement that activates for pawns of Archduke title or higher. It’s similar to throne room requirements, clothing requirements, food requirements and bedroom requirements.

Noble court requirement makes the pawn unhappy if they don’t have other nobility in the colony.

LACKING NOBLE COURT

This is a new thought Def for when a noble person has unsatisfying noble court.

Label: lacking noble court

Description: My noble court is lacking. My title’s formal requirements should always be respected. I demand to be surrounded by: \n\n{0}

Base Mood effect: -10 Mood

NEW STRUCTURES

A variety of new structures makes an appearance in this mod.

SMALL STELE

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (3x3)
Research required: Complex Furniture
Built from Misc architect menu
Resources to make: 75 Stony
Work to make: 4000 ticks
Beauty: 10

Essentially a weaker variant of Large Stele, but can be built under roofs.

GRAND TABLE

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Size (Drawsize): 3x6 (5x8)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Furniture architect menu
Resources to make: 200 Wood/Metal/Stone, 100 Gold
Work to make: 50000 ticks
Beauty: 100

A very large golden table that can be eaten off of. It can have artistic inscription if quality is high enough.

IMPERIAL SLAB

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Size (Drawsize): 3x3 (3x3)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Floor architect menu
Resources to make: 100 Stony
Work to make: 1000 ticks
Beauty: 20

Essentially like Ideology Slabs, except Empire themed.

ROYAL MIRROR

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (3x3)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Furniture architect menu
Resources to make: 60 Metallic/Wooden
Work to make: 5000 ticks
Beauty: 25

A bedroom accessory. Should be able to connect to any beds in Vanilla or Vanilla Expanded, adding +0.05 comfort. It can have artistic inscription if quality is high enough.

GRAND CHAIR

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (3x3)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Furniture architect menu
Resources to make: 100 Metallic/Wooden/Stony
Work to make: 10000 ticks
Beauty: 80
Comfort: 0.7

Very similar to Meditation throne, except can’t be used for meditating. It’s a fancy chair to sit on.

ORGANS

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Size (Drawsize): 3x5 (4x6)
Research required: Pipe Organs
Crafted at Smithy and Fueled Smithy, Crafting Required 8
Resources to make: 140 Steel, 120 Gold, 460 Wood
Work to make: 100000 ticks
Beauty: 26

A musical instrument. Can’t be walked through, but doesn’t serve as a roof. 100% Music Recreation. Nobles can put on concerts with the organs, similar to a party, giving a mood bonus to the noble and attendees. Anyone listening to or playing the piano receives a +6 thought for as long as it is being played. It can be heard within a radius of 20 tile

LARGE ROYAL RUG

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Size (Drawsize): 3x3 (3x3)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Floor architect menu
Resources to make: 100 Textile/Leathery
Work to make: 2000 ticks
Beauty: 18

A rug, similar to Ideology rugs. Stuff can be built on top of it.

GRAND ROYAL RUG

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Size (Drawsize): 4x4 (4x4)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Floor architect menu
Resources to make: 150 Textile/Leathery
Work to make: 4000 ticks
Beauty: 40

A rug, similar to Ideology rugs. Stuff can be built on top of it.

IMPERIAL BANNER

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (2x2)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Misc architect menu
Resources to make: 75 Textile/Leathery, 25 Wood
Work to make: 1000 ticks
Beauty: 5

Essentially a 1x1 Drape.

SMALL IMPERIAL SCULPTURE

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More or less a normal Small sculpture, but with an Imperial theme. Recipe to make it on an Art bench should be unlocked with Noble Decorations, and the rest of the things should just be copied from normal small sculpture.

LARGE IMPERIAL SCULPTURE

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More or less a normal Large sculpture, but with an Imperial theme. Recipe to make it on an Art bench should be unlocked with Noble Decorations, and the rest of the things should just be copied from normal large sculpture.

GRAND IMPERIAL SCULPTURE

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More or less a normal Grand sculpture, but with an Imperial theme. Recipe to make it on an Art bench should be unlocked with Noble Decorations, and the rest of the things should just be copied from normal grand sculpture.

CANDELABRA

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (1x1)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Furniture architect menu
Resources to make: 30 Metallic/Woody, 20 Steel
Work to make: 1000 ticks
Beauty: 5
Power: -40W

Very similar to a normal standing lamp, except with high beauty and stuffable. Light radius should be 7.9.

ROYAL STOOL

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (1x1)
Research required: Noble Decorations
Built from Furniture architect menu
Resources to make: 30 Leathery/Textile, 20 Gold.
Work to make: 550 ticks
Beauty: 3
Comfort: 0.7

A noble stool, more or less. Can be stuffed.

STELLIC MEDITATION THRONE

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Size (Drawsize): 3x5 (5x7)
Research required: Stellic Throne
Built from Furniture architect menu, Construction skill required: 8
Resources to make: 600 Stony/Woody/Metallic, 180 Gold.
Work to make: 80000 ticks
Beauty: 24
Comfort: 0.9

The biggest meditation throne. Meditation bonus should be double of the Grand Meditation Throne.

STRIKER TURRET

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Size (Drawsize): 1x1 (2x2)
Research required: N/A
Appears only if the Striker turret drop permit is used. Arrives via drop pod skyfaller.
Power: None needed
HP: 300

Non deconstructable. When it reaches very low HP, it explodes just like any other turret. It leaves 2 metal slags when destroyed.

Non-reloadable, has capacity to fire 80 shots (20 bursts).

After 2 minutes it explodes as if it was destroyed.
Upon running out of ammo it explodes as if it was destroyed.

Striker Turret Top

A powerful turret mounted on the striker drop pod.

It should fire bursts of 4 shots. It should have a 60 tick warmup time and 180 ticks cooldown time. It should fire standard mini-turret rounds.

NEW SHUTTLE

The armed shuttle makes an appearance, used by Imperial raids as well as new permits.

ARMORED SHUTTLE

A spacer-tech imperial gunship designed for transit between surface and orbit, or between moons of a planetary system. Equipped with a twin-linked autocannon for ground support, these armored shuttles often land in the middle of the battlefield to extract stranded troops.

Size (Drawsize): 5x3 (7x5)
Research required: N/A
Appears only via a permit.
Power: None needed
HP: 10000

Non deconstructable. You can copy and tweak base game shuttle as it’s essentially the same thing, but armored and with a gun.

It should have double the Killed Leavings of a normal shuttle.

It acts as a turret base when landed, for a turret described below.

Imperial Armored Shuttle Turret

A powerful, twin-linked autocannon.

More or less a double autocannon from VFE-Security.

VANILLA SHUTTLE RETEXTURE

We want to retexture vanilla shuttle from Royalty DLC, as well as the crashed Shuttle for the shuttle crashing quests. We also want to increase the drawsize of it to be 7x5 (not the crashed one, just intact one).

NEW APPAREL

New noble apparel is added in this mod. In many cases it’s used by, well, nobility. As such, we should make sure it satisfied certain noble requirements.

STELLIC ROBE

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• Mass: 0.85 kg
• Insulation Factor - Cold: 0.85x
• Insulation Factor - Heat: 0.28x
• Armor Factor - Sharp: 0.2
• Armor Factor - Blunt: 0.2
• Armor Factor - Heat: 0.2
• Coverage: Torso, Neck, Left Shoulder, Left Arm, Right Shoulder, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg
• Layer: Outer
• Resources to make: 120 Fabric/Leathery, 20 gold (2 as gold is 10x resource)
• Work to make: 25.000 ticks
• Required research: Royal apparel

TECHFRIAR CROWN

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A large facemask resembling a techprint. Not only it boosts the research speed by 100%, it also regenerates joy and rest when a pawn is researching.

• Mass: 1.0 kg
• Insulation - Cold: 4
• Insulation - Heat: 2
• Armor Factor - Sharp: 0.4
• Armor Factor - Blunt: 0.4
• Armor Factor - Heat: 0.4
• Coverage: Head, Left Eye, Right Eye, Left Ear, Right Ear, Nose, Jaw
• Layer: Headgear
• Stuff to make: Metallic
• Uncraftable, unsellable, unbuyable
• Increases research speed by 100%
• Researching generates joy and rest - a pawn that is researching with this crown is essentially both sleeping and taking part in recreation at the same time.

ABSOLVER HELMET

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A special helmet for the master assassin.

• Mass: 2.0 kg
• Insulation - Cold: 4 °C (7.2 °F)
• Insulation - Heat: 2 °C (3.6 °F)
• Armor - Sharp: 106%
• Armor - Blunt: 45%
• Armor - Heat: 54%
• Coverage: Head, Left Eye, Right Eye, Left Ear, Right Ear, Nose, Jaw
• Layer: Headgear
• 100% Hunter stealth stat
• Increases wearer shooting accuracy by +6 (double the effect of gunlink)
• Uncraftable, unsellable, unbuyable
• Color of the helmet changes based on the biome it’s in, so it’s a camouflage.

ABSOLVER ARMOR

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A special armor for the master assassin.

• Mass: 12.0 kg
• Insulation - Cold: 32 °C (57.6 °F)
• Insulation - Heat: 9 °C (16.2 °F)
• Armor - Sharp: 106%
• Armor - Blunt: 45%
• Armor - Heat: 54%
• Coverage: Torso, Neck, Left Shoulder, Left Arm, Right Shoulder, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg
• Layer: OnSkin, Middle
• 100% Hunter stealth stat
• +10% Movement speed increase
• Uncraftable, unsellable, unbuyable
• Color of the armor changes based on the biome it’s in, so it’s a camouflage.

DESERTER ARMOR

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A special armor of imperial deserters - a more light-weight version of the prestige cataphract armor, providing better bonuses to psychic sensitivity at the cost of armor. Cannot be crafted, but can be obtained from quests given by deserters.

• Market Value: 4130 Silver
• Mass: 15 kg
• HP: 400
• Insulation - Cold: 42 °C (64.8 °F)
• Insulation - Heat: 14 °C (21.6 °F)
• Armor - Sharp: 108%
• Armor - Blunt: 50%
• Armor - Heat: 60%
• Coverage: Torso, Neck, Left Shoulder, Left Arm, Right Shoulder, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg
• Layer: Middle, Outer
• Psychic Sensitivity: +18%
• Neural Heat Limit: +16
• Base Neural Heat Recovery Rate: +0.066/s
• Uncraftable
• Can be purchased from weapon traders etc
• Can be a quest reward

DESERTER HELMET

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A modified cataphract helmet that doesn’t cover the face, but has a built in gunlink and recon antenna.

• Market Value: 760 Silver
• Mass: 1.5 kg
• HP: 180
• Insulation - Cold: 4 °C (7.2 °F)
• Insulation - Heat: 2 °C (3.6 °F)
• Armor - Sharp: 102%
• Armor - Blunt: 40%
• Armor - Heat: 46%
• Coverage: Head, Left Ear, Right Ear, Jaw
• Layer: Headgear
• Increases wearer shooting accuracy by +3 (Same as gunlink)
• Uncraftable
• Can be purchased from weapon traders etc
• Can be a quest reward

JANISSARY HELMET

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A special variant of recon helmet with full elemental protection, often equipped by Janissary squads.

• Market Value: 645 Silver
• Mass: 1.2 kg
• HP: 130
• Insulation - Cold: 4 °C (7.2 °F)
• Insulation - Heat: 2 °C (3.6 °F)
• Armor - Sharp: 92%
• Armor - Blunt: 40%
• Armor - Heat: 46%
• Coverage: Head, Left Eye, Right Eye, Left Ear, Right Ear, Nose, Jaw
• Layer: Headgear
• Full toxic protection
• Required Research: Janissary Gear
• Skill Required: Crafting 6
• Work To Make: 16,750 ticks
• Resources to make: Plasteel 40 + Advanced component 1

JANISSARY CUIRASS

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A special outer layer shoulder armor that’s as strong as a powered armor and as light as a duster. Only covers the shoulders and torso. Can be worn on top of any Middle and Skin layer gear/apparel.

• Market Value: 1540 Silver
• Mass: 9 kg
• HP: 280
• Insulation - Cold: 18 °C (57.6 °F)
• Insulation - Heat: 6 °C (16.2 °F)
• Armor - Sharp: 92%
• Armor - Blunt: 40%
• Armor - Heat: 46%
• Coverage: Torso, Neck, Left Shoulder, Right Shoulder
• Layer: Outer
• Required Research: Janissary Gear
• Skill Required: Crafting 6
• Work To Make: 32,000 ticks
• Resources to make: Plasteel 45 + Advanced component 2

NEW WEAPONS

FLETCHER

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Research required: N/A
Class: Ultratech
Market value: 2750
Mass: 12 kg

Mode: Single-shot
Damage: 6 dmg (Sharp) + Acidifier hediff*
Armor penetration: 100%
Warm-Up: 300 ticks (5 secs)
Cooldown: 120 ticks (2 secs)
Range: Infinite*
Accuracy: 50% - 70% - 86% - 88%
Velocity: 90 (m/s)
Stopping power: 1.5
Crafted at: N/A
Resources to make: N/A
Work to make: N/A

This weapon should slow the user down by 1 c/s.

Large sniper rifle that fires death acidifier darts with extreme precision. Does not do anything for Mechanoids and other not-organic enemies, but organic enemies hit immediately start dissolving as if they were hit by death acidifier. Fletchers are biocoded to absolver pawns and only spawn on them. They destroy upon dropping and cannot be removed from one’s inventory.

Fletcher should have an infinite range. If we need a value, lets make it extremely high.

When a Fletcher projectile hits an enemy, a puff of acidifier smoke should appear.

A non-mechanoid enemy hit by a Fletcher dart should receive a following Hediff:

Acidifier

Acidifier mixture injected into veins through a fletcher dart. Causes extreme pain and nearly instant death through internal acid burns.

This hediff lasts about 10 seconds and causes between 5 and 10 acid burn damage to random body parts every second. This means that over 10 seconds time, this dart will deal between 50 and 100 damage spread through various body parts and organs, in most cases resulting in death.

TOXBLADE

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Research required: N/A
Class: Ultra
Market value: 2000
Can be equipped with shields: Yes
Melee Attack 1: Handle - 10 dmg (Blunt) - 2.0 second cooldown - 18% armor penetration
Melee Attack 2: Point - 16 dmg (Stab) - 2.0 second cooldown - 32% armor penetration
Melee Attack 2: Edge - 18 dmg (Cut) - 2.2 second cooldown - 32% armor penetration

A new type of persona weapon. Upon hitting a target, it sprays the target with acid, generating acid burns and toxic buildup.

Toxblades cannot be crafted. They can instead be purchased from combat suppliers, war merchants, or at Empire settlements, obtained as a quest reward, or found on Empire champions and nobles of Yeoman rank or above.

Toxblades perform largely the same as any other melee weapon, with one primary difference. When performing the Cut and Stab attacks, a successful strike has a 50% chance to spawn an acidifier mote and inflict the Acidifier hediff (same as on Fletcher) on the enemy. This hediff, if applied through toxblade, only lasts 3 seconds.

CHARGE THUMPER

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Research required: Pulse charged munitions
Class: Spacer
Market value: 1000
Mass: 4.4 kg

Mode: Burst
Damage: 12 dmg (Thump)
Armor penetration: 35%
Warm-Up: 60 ticks (1 sec)
Cooldown: 120 ticks (2 secs)
Range: 19.9 tile(s)
Accuracy: 55% - 64% - 55% - 45%
Velocity: 62 (m/s)
Burst Count: 2 (per burst)
Burst Ticks: 20 ticks (0.2 secs)
Stopping power: 1.5
Crafted at: Fabrication bench (Skill required: 8)
Resources to make: 50 Plasteel, 2 Advanced Components.
Work to make: 45000 ticks

A brand new charge weapon, similar to a charge rifle, except with shorter range. Charge thumper fires large projectiles that deal high blunt damage on impact. Fires bursts of two shots. Should make a satisfying ‘thump’ sound, borrowed from the Mechanoid Thump cannon. We can experiment with DamageType Thump and see how it works against humans.

NEW EXPECTATIONS

There is a new level of expectations added in this mod.

STELLAR EXPECTATIONS

Label: stellar expectations

Description: Absolutely impossible. How can this happen. I should not allow myself any discomfort. Not now, not ever.
Base Mood effect: -16

This is a new expectation def with following parameters:

Thought stage: 8
Joy kinds needed: 6
Joy Tolerance drop per day: 0.06

ROYALTY MENU BUTTON

A new menu tab becomes available IF the player has any noble ranked person in their colony. This menu allows the player to access all important royalty-oriented aspects of this mod, including:

• The Great Hierarchy - a place to see all the noble people in the Empire and interact with them. It also allows the player to see noble and rank requirements for the next levels, as well as list out all colony nobility.
• Vassalage - a place to see available bases to vassalize, as well as individual vassalage points for each colony nobility. This screen also allows the players to adjust when the Tithe should arrive.
• Permits - a place for the player to see and unlock permits on each individual nobility.
• Honors - a place for the player to assign honors to pawns.

This button is NOT present if the player doesn’t have any noble people.

THE GREAT HIERARCHY

This is a brand new mechanic for players that decide to join ranks with the Empire.

PURPOSE OF THE GREAT HIERARCHY

The Great Hierarchy is there to create a sort of score board for the player. It allows the player to see all the noble people in the hierarchy, as well as what rank they hold. It also allows players to contact these noble people and potentially invite them as visitors, similar to how you can invite people you know over to your house in The Sims.

The Great Hierarchy allows the player to see what rank their nobility holds in comparison to the rest of the empire, as well as what honor is needed to reach the next rank, what requirements the next rank has and what perks it unlocks.

GREAT HIERARCHY UI

Great Hierarchy is the starting page that opens when the player clicks the Royalty menu button. The UI looks as follows:

INVITING VISITORS

Player can now invite other royals as visitors. It should use the normal ‘visitor’ code, where the noble pawn just enters the map and hangs around for a bit. This is particularly useful if the player wants to gain some honor through Royal Gossip or Royal Address.

This action however costs honor - and as such, we need to be able to choose a pawn that will pay that honor - similar to how you can accept quests as individual pawns, so that they receive honor as reward.

The Honor cost of inviting pawns scales with the rank of inviting pawn:

• Inviting a pawn of same or lower rank costs 1 Honor
• Inviting a pawn of higher rank costs 1 Honor + 2 Honor * rank difference.

This means that a Yeoman inviting a Baron will have to spend 1 + 2*4 = 9 Honor for a brief visit.

A Duke inviting a Stellarch would have to spend 1 + 2*5 = 11 Honor for a brief visit.

Emperor and High Stellarchs cannot be invited.

Arrival and departure

Visitors arrive in a shuttle. The shuttle hangs around, and after a while, visitors depart on that shuttle. If shuttle is destroyed or something happened, visitor will leave through the edge of the map.

NEW ROYAL TITLES

This mod builds on royal titles added in base game ideology, adding more of them and allowing players to advance all the way to the Emperor, effectively winning the game.

We will cover all the royal titles in a separate post since there is quite a lot of them, and they have many different requirements and perks.

PERMITS

Royalty DLC has a number of permits, but they are in a hidden UI, and the permits themselves are rather bland.

This mod places an access button in a much more convenient place.

ACCESS PERMITS

Permits can be accessed using the old way, but there is also a new button located in the Bio tab of the pawn.

PERMIT UI

Permit UI is accessed from the Royalty screen, by pressing the Royalty menu button.

The new Permit UI displays the bigger permit tree that can also be accessed from the pawn tab, like in base game Royalty DLC.

Upon hovering over a permit it should display what rank it requires and what prerequisites need to be met, so that the player is still informed what they need to do to get access to the permit.

NEW PERMITS

This section outlines new permits added by this mod.

Gold drop

Description: Call for a drop of 50 gold.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Plasteel drop

Description: Call for a drop of 55 plasteel.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Jade drop

Description: Call for a drop of 100 jade.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Uranium drop

Description: Call for a drop of 80 uranium.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Wood drop

Description: Call for a drop of 400 wood.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Stone drop

Description: Call for a drop of 500 random stone bricks.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Cloth drop

Description: Call for a drop of 330 cloth.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Synthread drop

Description: Call for a drop of 125 synthread.

Minimum title: Acolyte
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Devilstrand drop

Description: Call for a drop of 90 devilstrand.

Minimum title: Knight/Dame
Prerequisite: Synthread drop
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 6
Cooldown (days): 60

Hyperweave drop

Description: Call for a drop of 55 hyperweave.

Minimum title: Praetor
Prerequisite: Devilstrand drop
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 60

Herbal med drop

Description: Call for a drop of 40 herbal medicine.

Minimum title: Knight/Dame
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 4
Cooldown (days): 45

Medicine drop

Description: Call for a drop of 25 medicine.

Minimum title: Praetor
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 6
Cooldown (days): 45

Chemfuel drop

Description: Call for a drop of 220 chemfuel.

Minimum title: Knight/Dame
Prerequisite: Wood drop
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 6
Cooldown (days): 60

Component drop

Description: Call for a drop of 15 components.

Minimum title: Praetor
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 6
Cooldown (days): 60

Advanced component drop

Description: Call for a drop of 3 advanced components.

Minimum title: Baron
Prerequisite: Component drop
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 60

Shells drop

Description: Call for a drop of 10 high-explosive shells.

Minimum title: Praetor
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 60

Noble food drop

Description: Call for a drop of 15 lavish meals.

Minimum title: Praetor
Prerequisite: Food drop
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 60

Striker drop

Description: Call for a drop of three striker turrets to aid you in battle. After they fire all their ammo, striker turrets self-detonate.

Minimum title: Praetor
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 45

Burnout shield drop

Description: Call for a drop of a burnout low shield to aid you in battle. It activates where it lands and will last 30 seconds before deactivating.

Minimum title: Praetor
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 45

Call evac shuttle

Description: Call an armed shuttle for your own use. It will transport colonists, items, and animals anywhere you like within 40 world tiles. It will stay in the area only for a brief moment.

Minimum title: Baron
Prerequisite: Call transport shuttle
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 30

Call trooper platoon

Description: Call a group of 8 light troopers to aid you in battle.

Minimum title: Archcount/Archcountess
Prerequisite: Call cataphract squad
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 8
Cooldown (days): 60

Call janissary platoon

Description: Call a group of 8 professional janissaries to aid you in battle.

Minimum title: Marquess/Marchioness
Prerequisite: Call trooper platoon
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 10
Cooldown (days): 70

Call cataphract platoon

Description: Call a group of 8 heavy cataphracts to aid you in battle.

Minimum title: Duke/Duchess
Prerequisite: Call janissary platoon
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 12
Cooldown (days): 80

Call stellic guards

Description: Call a group of 6 stellic guards, ranged and melee, to aid you in battle.

Minimum title: Consul
Prerequisite: Call cataphract platoon
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 14
Cooldown (days): 90

Call orbital slicing beam

Description: Call an orbital slicing beam from an imperial flagship in orbit. This beam will travel in a direction specified by you, burning everything it touches.

Minimum title: Count/Countess
Prerequisite: Call aerodrone salvo
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 12
Cooldown (days): 65

Call techfriar

Description: Call a techfriar to assist you for 4 days. This guildmember can only do research-related tasks. You can control him as though he is your own colonists. You are required to keep him safe.

Minimum title: Duke
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 14
Cooldown (days): 60

Call absolver

Description: Call an absolver to assist you for 4 days. This guildmember is a master assassin and will not perform any tasks other than killing. You can control him as though he is your own colonists. If an absolver dies, a new one will replace them immediately, inheriting the remaining contract time.

Minimum title: Duke
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 14
Cooldown (days): 60

Call laborer union

Description: Call a group of 12 laborers to assist you for 4 days. These workers can only do general labor tasks. You can control them as though they were your own colonists. You are required to keep them safe.

Minimum title: Duke
Prerequisite: Call laborer gang
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 14
Cooldown (days): 60

Call imperial regiment

Description: Call a group of 10 janissaries and 6 heavy cataphracts that will arrive in an armed shuttle, to aid you in battle. You cannot control them, but they will help you eliminate any threats in the area. They will leave after all threats are eliminated.

Minimum title: Magister
Prerequisite: Call stellic guards
Permit point cost: 1
Honor cost: 20
Cooldown (days): 90

VASSALAGE

Vassalage is a new system that allows high ranking nobility to become ‘owners’, so to say, of some imperial bases in the world. These bases are still technically owned by the Empire, but player lays their claim on them.

Each imperial base comes with a unique tithe. Once you vassalize a base, a tithe will be collected by it and will be automatically transported via a caravan to your settlement.

• If the base stops existing, the tithe will no longer be delivered and the base should disappear from vassalage UI.
• If the Royal who has vassalized this base dies, the base should become unvasallized again. Tithe will no longer be delivered.

VASSALIZING NEARBY BASES

Player can only vassalize bases in a 100 cell distance from the main player colony or any already vassalized bases. This means that a ny base that is outside of the distance will not be able to be vassalized.

VASSALIZATION UI

Vassalization UI allows the player to get all the necessary information about their vassals and potential vassal subjects.

On the left, player can easily navigate to other tabs, as well as select the noble they want to view the vassals of. By clicking Change character, player can select from a list of nobles under player control.

Unused Vassalage points shows the player how many vassalage points they have to spend. These points are gained with royal ranks.

Clicking Release all vassals resets the vassalage - player should receive a pop up that informs them that any currently obtained resources stored at the current vassals will be gone. After player confirms, the settlements of this particular character become unvassalized and player can unlock other vassals as they see fit. This button is similar to the ‘Return all permits’ button in the permits tab.

In the middle, player can see currently vassalized settlements of that particular pawn.

Information displayed contains the resource per day production as well as how much of that resource is currently in the stockpile. Player can also click Jump to location to view that settlement on the map.

Player can select when to receive tithe. Options are as follows:

• Every 7 days
• Every 15 days
• Once a year
• Never (Pause)

A progress bar shows how far are we from the currently designated date - this means that if you set the tithe to be sent once a year, the progress bar will move very slowly. If you set it to every 7 days, it will move much faster.

On the right, player can see available bases to be vassalized - those are the same for every character in the colony. Some of them are shown in red - this means they are too far away, as they need to be 100 tiles or less from your nearest colony or vassal.

TITHES

The UI will list out all imperial bases on the planet. In a way, it works similar to the Permits system - with certain ranks you get enough points, and you allocate them to specific bases which then become vassalized. Once you vassalize the base, the tithe will be delivered.

Each settlement gets a random allocated tithe type which does not change. It should be saved somewhere so the tithe type is never re-randomized.

Each settlement also gets a random ‘Tithe collection speed modifier’. Some settlements could be better, some could be worse. It’s important to carefully check before vassalizing.

Tithes are balanced to provide 50 silver-worth of value every day by default.

Tithe types are as follows:

Slavery (If Ideology DLC is installed)

Description: This settlement captures slaves for their overlord.

Effect: 1 random slave captured every 10 days.

Farming

Description: This settlement produces survival meals for their overlord.

Effect: 2 survival meals created every day.

Steel mining

Description: This settlement mines steel for their overlord.

Effect: 25 steel created every day.

Wood cutting

Description: This settlement chops wood for their overlord.

Effect: 40 wood created every day.

Gold tax

Description: This settlement pays gold to their overlord.

Effect: 5 gold created every day.

Silver tax

Description: This settlement pays silver to their overlord.

Effect: 50 silver created every day.

Honor tax

Description: This settlement provides honor to their overlord.

Effect: 1 Honor created every 5 days.

TITHE COLLECTION SPEED

Tithe collection speed has a random modifier for each settlement. Following modifiers are possible (as well as their commonality):

• 50% Tithe Collection Speed (60 Commonality)
• 100% Tithe Collection Speed (100 Commonality)
• 150% Tithe Collection Speed (20 Commonality)
• 200% Tithe Collection Speed (5 Commonality)
• 250% Tithe Collection Speed (1 Commonality)

This means that a settlement with gold tax tithe will generate 5 gold every day on 100% Tithe Collection Speed, but 10 gold on 200% Tithe Collection Speed.

This is not actually visible to the player, but it’s reflected on the Tithe UI in the effect tab. This means that a settlement that would normally produce 40 Wood every day, would have that ‘40’ number altered by the predefined tithe collection speed.

NEW ROOM TYPES

There are two new room types. They are connected to the various roles in the nobility. They don’t affect mood of normal colonists, but they do need to meet certain requirements to satisfy nobility.

BALLROOM

Requirements: Either of: Harp, Piano, Organs; No throne. No Beds. No Workbenches.

Related stats: Beauty, Cleanliness, Wealth, Space, Impressiveness

This room is required for the Grand Ball quest given by the Empire faction. Furthermore, higher ranking nobility might require ballrooms of specific size.

No ballroom

This is a new thought Def for when a noble person has no ballroom, but should have one.

Label: no ballroom

Description: What is a royal without a ballroom?

Base Mood effect: -8 Mood

Undignified ballroom

This is a new thought Def for when a noble person has unsatisfying ballroom for their rank.

Label: undignified ballroom

Description: I am {TITLE_indefinite} and I should have these items in my ballroom:\n\n{0}

Base Mood effect: -8 Mood

GALLERY

Requirements: 4 sculptures minimum. No Beds. No Workbenches.

Related stats: Impressiveness

This room is required for the Art Exhibition quest given by the Empire faction. Furthermore, higher ranking nobility might require galleries of specific beauty.

No gallery

This is a new thought Def for when a noble person has no gallery, but should have one.

Label: no gallery

Description: What is a royal without a royal gallery?

Base Mood effect: -8 Mood

Undignified gallery

This is a new thought Def for when a noble person has unsatisfying gallery for their rank.

Label: undignified gallery

Description: I am {TITLE_indefinite} and I should have these items in my gallery:\n\n{0}

Base Mood effect: -8 Mood

NEW INTERACTION

A new interaction is present in this mod.

ROYAL GOSSIP

Label: royal gossip
initiatorXPGainSkill: Social
initiatorXPGainAmount: 10

Rules strings should be mostly copied from Chitchat, with slight changes:

r_logentry->[INITIATOR_nameDef] and [RECIPIENT_nameDef] [talkedabout] [THIRDPARTY_nameDef].
r_logentry->[INITIATOR_nameDef] [talkedabout] [THIRDPARTY_nameDef] with [RECIPIENT_nameDef].

Where THIRDPARTY_nameDef is a random, pregenerated noble person from the grand hierarchy.

This interaction can only happen between two people with any rank in the Empire. Pawns without a rank in the Empire can never be an Initiator or a Recipient of Royal Gossip.

This interaction generates honor or takes away honor, depending on the opinion between the two nobles talking.

• If pawns have average opinion of each other higher than 0, both pawns gain 1 honor.
• If pawns have average opinion of each other lower than 0 or equal 0, both pawns lose 1 honor.

Royal Gossip has a cooldown of 6 ingame hours for the Initiator. There is no cooldown for recipients.

NEW QUESTS - ROYALTY

Quests below are given by the Empire to the player if the player has any noble pawns. This quest category encompasses any quests that take part in the player colony.

NOBLE VISIT

Quest name: <AskerName>’s visit

Quest description: <AskerName>, a <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName> would like to perform a customary visit. Invite him, satisfy his royal needs for [shuttleDelayTicks_duration], and you will gain a large amount of honor.

During their visit, you must keep their mood above [lodgersMoodThreshold_percent]. This means providing royal perquisites like a lavish bedroom.

\nThe <AskerName> will bring two of his personal guards and place them under your command. You must house these guards, but the <Rank> will not complain if they are killed or unhappy.

\nYou must keep the visitors at [map_definite] and not send them anywhere else. If you fail this quest or migrate, your relations with <AskerName> will degrade and you will lose honor.

This quest in many ways is very similar to Royal Ascent, except it doesn’t end the game - instead, it’s a simple visit from some lower ranking nobility.

The nobleman and his two guards arrive via a shuttle, and leave via a shuttle. You have full control over them when they are under your wing.

The quest fails if:

• Noble person visiting you dies.
• Their mood drops below certain threshold - 25% - (same as with Royal ascent)
• Noble person visiting is arrested.
• Shuttle is destroyed.
• Noble person leaves the map.
• Essentially any other end condition of the Royal Ascent quest.

Upon failing the quest, colonist that accepted the quest loses the honor they’d gain if the quest succeeded.

Upon failing the quest, Asker nobleman will get a -100 opinion towards the pawn that accepted the quest, labelled as ‘Unfortunate visit’.

This quest should grant between 2 and 24 honor depending on difficulty. The time you need to keep the nobleman around should scale between 2 days and 10 days, depending on difficulty.

The nobleman invited is always of equal or lower rank to the highest ranking noble in your faction.

ART EXHIBITION

Quest name: Art exhibition at <ColonyName>

Quest description: <AskerName>, a <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName> would like to come over with a few other noble people and gaze upon the works of art in your gallery. This is a great opportunity for noble gossip and to build relations with other members of the imperial nobility.

You are required to have a gallery present in your colony. If at any point the gallery is destroyed, the art exhibition will be called off.

<AskerName> has forwarded you a list of nobility that was invited to the exhibition and will arrive in the shuttles:

<NameOfGuest>, <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName>,
<NameOfGuest>, <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName>,
<NameOfGuest>, <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName>. (As many guests as needed, probably scaling with quest difficulty).

You will need to make sure the guests are safe and comfortable during the exhibition. If anything happens to any of the guests, the art exhibition will be cancelled.

Deserters might use this opportunity to launch an assassination attempt.

In many ways this quest is similar to the Grand Ball explained below, so perhaps we can reuse some of the code.

This quest brings quite a few of the pre-generated noble people from the Grand Hierarchy to the colony. One of them has a gizmo to start the art exhibition. When it starts, all nobility, including your own, will head to the gallery and walk from sculpture to sculpture, viewing art and taking in the sights.

A spotlight mote should appear over the artwork that’s currently being viewed.

Pawns during the exhibition will constantly engage in social conversations, greatly boosting opinion of each other. Noble pawns will also conduct Royal gossip - a new interaction type explained in the specific section.

When the exhibition ends, guests will board the shuttle and leave.

Exhibition should last around 10 ingame hours. Viewers move from sculpture to sculpture approximately every 1 ingame hour. The shuttle is constantly present during that time.

If the gallery is destroyed, or any of the guests is wounded/damaged, or the shuttle is destroyed, the quest is failed.

Deserter Raid

There is a small chance that deserters will launch a raid midway through the ball. The chance is calculated using the following formula:

(Amount of Noble guests * 10) + Total honor of all your colonists / 1000 = Percentage chance of deserter raid

Deserter raid spawned this way should just be a standard raid from the hidden deserters faction.

GRAND BALL

Quest name: Grand ball at <ColonyName>

Quest description: <AskerName>, a <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName> would like you to organise a grand ball. This is a great opportunity for noble gossip and to build relations with other members of the imperial nobility.

You are required to have a ballroom present in your colony. If at any point the ballroom is destroyed or the instruments in it become unusable, the grand ball will be called off.

<AskerName> has forwarded you a list of nobility that was invited to the ball and will arrive in the shuttles:

<NameOfGuest>, <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName>,
<NameOfGuest>, <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName>,
<NameOfGuest>, <Rank> of the <EmpireFactionName>. (As many guests as needed, probably scaling with quest difficulty).

You will need to make sure the guests are safe and comfortable during the ball. If anything happens to any of the guests, the grand ball will be cancelled.

Deserters might use this opportunity to launch an assassination attempt.

This quest brings quite a few of the pre-generated noble people from the Grand Hierarchy to the colony. One of them has a gizmo to start the grand ball. When grand ball starts, all instruments in the ballroom will be played simultaneously by non-noble colony pawns. Other pawns, including all nobility, should go and linger in the ballroom. (Please note - you can draft any pawns under your control and have them leave the ball - for example, if deserters attack).

During the Grand Ball, the pawns will dance a classical dance. Some light effects would be appreciated to make the atmosphere nice and all.

Pawns during the ball will constantly engage in social conversations, greatly boosting opinion of each other. Noble pawns will also conduct Royal gossip - a new interaction type explained in the specific section.

When the ball ends, guests will board the shuttle and leave.

Ball should last around 8 ingame hours. The shuttle is constantly present during that time.

If the ballroom is destroyed, or any of the guests is wounded/damaged, or the shuttle is destroyed, the quest is failed.

Deserter Raid

There is a small chance that deserters will launch a raid midway through the ball. The chance is calculated using the following formula:

(Amount of Noble guests * 10) + Total honor of all your colonists / 1000 = Percentage chance of deserter raid

Deserter raid spawned this way should just be a standard raid from the hidden deserters faction.

NEW STARTING SCENARIO

This mod features a new starting scenario that may require a little bit of C# magic.

NEW FAMILY

Summary: An imperial family in dire need of help. A classic VFE - Empire experience.

Description: It was a long and quiet night when your entire life turned on its head. You are not sure if it was a deliberate sabotage by one of the family servants, a simple system malfunction or a well executed deserter strategy, but the mansion defense systems turned off as the clock struck midnight. When the gates swung wide, there was no time to call for aid - best you could do was hide.

You heard the screams of your family and mansion workers as they were being slaughtered by the deserter strike team. You vowed to have your revenge, but until you make it of this particular situation alive, your vows are all for nothing. You can either wait the raid out, use permits to call for reinforcements, or try running for the hills - the choice is yours.

Note: Since you start during a raid in progress, this is a difficult scenario.

Player starts standing in the middle of the map.

Following items are scattered around the map:

• 24 Survival Meals
• 6 Glitterworld medicine
• 12 Medicine
• 1 Assault rifle
• 1 Monosword
• 400x Steel
• 400x Wood
• 30x Component
• 20x Advanced component
• 1200x Silver
• 200x Gold
• 1x Charge Thumper
• 1x Tox Blade

You pick 1 person from 6, everyone is a Baron/Baroness PawnKindDef, belonging to the New Family player faction. They should spawn with enough royal honor it takes to reach that rank.

The map is a medium-sized royal mansion with any rooms necessary for a Duke. The mansion is however badly destroyed due to raid. The mansion will be generated using KCSG.

The mansion needs to include following rooms:

• Throne room fitting for Duke
• Bedroom fitting for Duke
• Ballroom fitting for Duke
• Gallery fitting for Duke
• 2x Bedroom fitting for Baron
• 2x Standard bedroom
• Kitchen
• Fridge/Freezer
• Hall
• Rec Room
• Perimeter fence broken in several places

Following pawns should spawn around the mansion in random places as dead bodies:

• Randomly generated father of the starting pawn (Duke pawnKindDef)
• Randomly generated mother of the starting pawn (Duchess pawnKindDef)
• Randomly generated brother of the starting pawn (Baron pawnKindDef)
• 3x Cataphract guards

They should each have big wounds from gunfire.

Ongoing raid

There is an ongoing raid as the player starts the game. There is 10 Deserter pawnKindDef enemies scattered around the mansion. As soon as the game starts, they are ‘Stealing what they can and leaving’.

This means that if they don’t see the player, they will not attack the player.

TERRORISM

Terrorism is a new group of sub-events that can happen if specific conditions are met. Before we proceed, however, there is a big required change:

Patch Vanilla PawnGroupMakers

We need to add Deserter PawnKindDef to some vanilla pawnGroupMakers. They should be as follows:

• Outlander Peaceful: <Deserter>1</Deserter>
• Outlander Trader Guards: <Deserter>1</Deserter>
• Outlander Combat: <Deserter>1</Deserter>
• Pirate Combat: <Deserter>2</Deserter>

This means that Deserters now have a small chance of appearing other factions. This is crucial for the terrorism aspect of the game.

BOMB ATTACK

Conditions that need to be met:

• Outlander caravan arrived at the players colony.
• Player has an Imperial noble person in the colony.
• Caravan has a Deserter pawn.

This is an act of terrorism - as such, it’s a quiet event. There is no message that the bomb has been placed. Player needs to be on the lookout.

• Deserter pawn will place a bomb somewhere in the home area as soon as the caravan is designated to leave.
• If player attacks a deserter pawn then, there is no goodwill loss with the faction the deserter came with. If the player attacks a deserter BEFORE he places the bomb, there is goodwill loss.

Bomb

A small, makeshift bomb. Can be easily defused if found on time.

A 1x1 structure that can’t be built by the player and only ever appears if placed by the Deserter during a bomb attack. Emits a red flashing light and a *beep* sound, which gets faster the closer it is to detonation.

After placing, it takes 12 ingame hours to detonate.

It detonates with a radius of 10.

Player can right-click it with any colonist and select ‘defuse bomb’, which is an action that takes 1200 ticks and upon completion, deconstructs the bomb into an antigrain shell and 1 component.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Conditions that need to be met:

• Outlander caravan arrived at the players colony.
• Player has an Imperial noble person in the colony.
• Caravan has a Deserter pawn.

This is an act of terrorism - as such, it’s a quiet event. There is no message that the deserters went after the noble. Player needs to be on the lookout.

• Deserter pawn (or Pawns if there is more than 1) will separate from the caravan and go to your highest ranking noble.
• Once they are close to that noble pawn, they turn hostile (and are no longer part of Outlander caravan, thus can be killed easily without penalties - they join the Deserter faction).

POISONING ATTEMPT

Conditions that need to be met:

• Outlander caravan arrived at the players colony.
• Player has an Imperial noble person in the colony.
• Player has at least one stack of any kind of meals.
• Caravan has a Deserter pawn.

This is an act of terrorism - as such, it’s a quiet event. There is no message that the deserter went to poison a meal stack. Player needs to be on the lookout.

• Deserter pawn (or Pawns if there is more than 1) will separate from the caravan and go to the closest meal stockpile.
• They will perform a quick, 5 second action on a single meal stack - if there is more deserters, each will reserve a different meal stack. They are injecting poison into it.
• Poison becomes an ingredient in those meals. It’s visible when you inspect a meal.
• Anyone who eats the meal with poison as an ingredient will instantly develop an infection in the stomach.
• Player can kill deserters AFTER they DECIDE TO  inject meals with poison without goodwill penalty. This means that the moment you see deserters going for your food supply, you can kill them without angering the caravan.
• Player can select a pawn, right-click the meal stack with a poison ingredient and select a brand new option called ‘discard’. This will make the pawn discard the meal stack, essentially deleting it.

ROYAL HONORS

Honors are a new concept added in this mod. They can be gained via quest rewards and provide unique bonuses to the pawn you equip them on. You can view and assign your honors in the Royal Honors Great Hierarchy tab.

NPC pawns don’t have honors. This feature is only for player characters.

DISPLAY

Royal Honors can be browsed in the Great Hierarchy honors window, as per the mock up below.

Player can then assign the honors to nobility in the colony, granting them special bonuses. Only noble pawns can receive honors.

Honors should also display on the bio tab, as per the mock up below. They should provide information about the effects upon hovering.

Honors are also appended in any place the pawn name would normally appear - for example in quests, event letters etc.

BESTOWING AN HONOR

Once you select which pawn should get which honor, nothing happens until the ‘Bestow an Honor’ gizmo is clicked on that pawn. This initiates a copy of bestowing ceremony, similar to how we’ve done it for New Abilities, where your highest ranking noble bestows the honor on the selected pawn.

TYPES OF HONORS

Each honor has a specific type, and each type has a randomized (or not) label. Each honor also has a value, as it’s needed for calculating the value of quest rewards. Each honor has a specific benefit it provides.

First of his/her Name

Label: First of [Pawn_pronoun] Name
Effect: Every noble person has +5 opinion of this pawn.
Value: 250 Silver

Lord of a Location

Label: [Rank] of [ColonyName]
Effect: +1 Honor every 5 days when this pawn is in the location.
Value: 250 Silver

Ruler of Vassals

Label: Ruler of [VassalizedTown]
Effect: Tithe collection speed of that location is doubled.
Required condition: Have a vassalized town.
Value: 250 Silver

Wielder of a Weapon

Label: Wielder of the [BondedPersonaWeapon]
Effect: 50% chance of +1 Honor for every kill with that weapon.
Required condition: Has a bonded persona weapon.
Value: 250 Silver

Son/Daughter of

Label: [Son/Daughter] of [FatherName]
Effect: Opinion about the father is locked at 100. Opinion of father about this pawn is locked at 100.
Value: 250 Silver

Chosen of

Label: Chosen of [FactionName]
Effect: +10 Opinion from every pawn of that faction. +10 Opinion about every pawn of that faction.
Value: 250 Silver

The Great

Label: The Great
Effect: +5 mood - Great honor - ‘I am the recipient of the Great honor’.
Value: 250 Silver

Destroyer

Label: Destroyer of [FactionName]
Effect: +10% Trade Price Improvement with Enemies of [Faction]
Value: 300 Silver

Patron of Arts

Label: Patron of Arts
Effect: +3 Honor after successful art exhibition
Required condition: Colony gallery has at least 200 Impressiveness
Value: 300 Silver

The Marksman

Label: The Marksman
Effect: Shooting skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Warrior

Label: The Warrior
Effect: Melee skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Builder

Label: The Builder
Effect: Construction skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Miner

Label: The Miner
Effect: Mining skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Cook

Label: The Cook
Effect: Cooking skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Gardener

Label: The Gardener
Effect: Plants skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Rancher

Label: The Rancher
Effect: Animals skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Craftsman

Label: The Craftsman
Effect: Crafting skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Artist

Label: The Artist
Effect: Artistic skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Healer

Label: The Healer
Effect: Medical skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Negotiator

Label: The Negiotator
Effect: Social skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

The Intellectual

Label: The Intellectual
Effect: Intellectual skill never decays.
Value: 250 Silver

That's it for this devblog. It's super long, so I hope you will enjoy reading it, or shall I say, enjoyed reading it already. I will catch you soon with more exciting news!