[DEVBLOG#314] Vanilla Events Expanded Remake

Hey folks! Hello everyone!

Some time ago, I have announced that we're working on a little remake project of a popular mod, but I didn't want to say what, in case things fell through. Well, I can now proudly announce that we are indeed trying to bring Vanilla Events Expanded quality higher, to match our other releases.

It's a very popular mod, used by hundreds of thousands of players. In fact, many people assume that events from this mod are in fact base game events, until they find out they are from our mod.

This tells me one thing: Vanilla Events Expanded at it's core is one of the few 'perfect' Vanilla Expanded mods - to the point where it feels absolutely like Vanilla game.

That, however, doesn't mean it can't be better. With Vanilla Weapons Expanded remake I hope I have proven that I can take an 'old-but-perfect' mod and improve it further.

This is the plan for Vanilla Events Expanded as well. The update will be perfectly save-game compatible, as we're keeping all of the events that are already in the mod. In fact, we're not even adding too many new events. We just want to polish everything and bring it a bit higher in standard.

I will list out some notable changes:

Drought event needs some minor changes. Primarily, it will slow down plant growth outside, and will prevent any rain from happening, so even a small fire can quickly become an uncontrollable inferno. In fact, to make it seem like everything is very dry, fire will spread 2x as fast as normal.

Wild crop sprout will now create bigger sprouts, so if you happen to get a wild crop sprout of potatoes, corn or rice, that's great. It will eventually grow to deliver plentiful of food.

Shuttle crash will be a bit more controlled now - the chances to get many live pawns will be much lower, but one is guaranteed to be alive. At maximum it will drop 3 pawns, so no more silly shuttles carrying 50 potential colonists. Additionally, shuttles will spawn random cargo when deconstructed, so you can get some cool reward for handling the fire that it inevitably causes.

It will now use random art as well!

Earthquake is undergoing major redesign. It will now have a Magnitude scale which determines how long the shakes will last. Each second the earthquake is happening, random cells are targetted to take damage around a focal point (epicenter). The higher the magnitude, the bigger the radius too. Higher magnitude earthquakes will be rare, but they will make the world shake for 8-10 seconds!

Caravan animals wander in will have their cargo wealth capped to prevent explosions of wealth. I witnessed it first hand and it didn't end well.

Hunting party is getting a full remake as it's a bit buggy as it is right now. It will work primarily the same - a group of friendly pawns will come in to hunt your local wildlife.

Space battle is getting redesigned into an orbital ship crash - different chunks of an orbital ship will crash on your map now. Some will explode on impact, others will contain valuable trade ship cargo. It's a dangerous event, with a lot of mayhem. You may even get some colonists from it too!

I've prepared a few different ship chunk types:

Cargo chunks will have some random items from an orbital trader inventory.

Volatile chunks will cause large explosions when they land.

Standard chunks can be deconstructed for resources.

In addition to that, we're changing how Purple events work completely. They will now progress through varying stages, so you can see roughly how long until the event ends - and how long you need to persevere for. Each event will have between 4 and 5 stages, each can last a random amount of time within some minimum and maximum we have pre-set.

Let's take a look at Whiteout (formerly Ice Age):

Stage 1: The Frost

Duration: 10~15 days.

Effects:

Global temperature slowly drops by an offset of -30°C over the duration. We essentially want the temperature to be 30°C lower when Stage 1 ends and Stage 2 begins.

Weather heavily weights towards "Snow" or "Fog". Increase commonality of snow and fog, decrease commonality of others.

Stage 1 Letter (The Frost):

Letter label: the frost

Letter text: Atmospheric temperatures are steadily dropping across the planet.\n\nThis is not a standard cold snap. You predict a catastrophic deep freeze is approaching, eventually leading to a complete whiteout. You have a short window to stockpile fuel, harvest your remaining crops, and build heaters before the true cold sets in.

Letter def: PurpleEvent

Stage 2: The Deep Freeze

Duration: 10~20 days.

Effects:

Global temperature offset increases to -55°C over the duration. We essentially want the temperature to be 55°C lower when Stage 2 ends and Stage 3 begins. 

New wild animals cease spawning entirely. Any existing wild animals that cannot survive the temperature will attempt to flee the map (similar to standard extreme temperature behavior).

All standard weather incidents (like Flashstorms or standard rain) are disabled. The weather is forcefully locked to "Hard Snow" or "Clear".

Stage 2 Letter (The Deep Freeze):

Letter label: the deep freeze

Letter text: The cold has deepened drastically.\n\nWildlife is fleeing the region, and the flora is dying off. Ensure your colony stays indoors and that your power grid can handle the immense strain of constant heating. The worst is still yet to come.

Letter def: PurpleEvent

Stage 3: The Whiteout

Duration: 15~30 days.

Effects:

Global temperature offset increases to -100°C over 5 days and then remains at that offset.

All human faction raids, caravans, and visitors are completely disabled.

Only Mechanoids (which do not suffer from temperature extremes) can raid the colony during this phase.

The weather is locked to a special new Whiteout snow weather, which slows down movement greatly and reduces accuracy immensely.

During this peak, there is a high chance to fire a custom "Desperate Refugees" event, where freezing humans beg for shelter. The commonality of the event turns from 0 to 0.6.

During whiteout phase, deep snow generates periodically around any structures (walls etc) that have at least 90% cover. This means that over time, buildings, mountains etc will be encased in deep snow which needs to be dug out. Every long tick, 4~6 deep snow walls should appear on the map. It should only appear on tiles that are outside (not under roof). It should only appear adjacent to structures with at least 90% cover (primarily, we want to target walls and mountains really).

Stage 3 Letter (The Whiteout):

Letter label: the whiteout

Letter text: The whiteout has arrived. \n\nTemperatures have plummeted to unsurvivable levels. Human travel across the planet is now entirely unadvised; you will receive no trade caravans or human raids. However, the bitter cold does not bother mechanoids.\n\nIf you persevere, the freeze will eventually break.

Letter def: PurpleEvent

Stage 4: The Thaw

Duration: 10~15 days.

Effects:

The -100°C temperature offset slowly winds back down to 0°C over the duration.

Human raids and trading caravans slowly resume, but with commonality 50% lower.

Wild animals begin spawning on the map edge again.

Stage 4 Letter (The Thaw):

Letter label: the thaw

Letter text: The skies are finally clearing and the bitter cold is beginning to recede. \n\nThe whiteout is ending. Temperatures will slowly return to normal over the next quadrum, and life will eventually return.

Letter def: PositiveEvent (Giving the player a sense of relief).

Let me know what you think about our plan! I think once we're done, Vanilla Events Expanded will be the kind of mod that will be kept in everyone's mod list.

If you also have any suggestions or feedback regarding the mod as it is right now on Steam, be sure to let us know in the comments below!