Rimesis

Rimesis turns otherwise anonymous enemy raiders into recurring characters with a personal history against the colony. They remember defeats, killers, weapons, wounds, captivity, escape, betrayal, and settlements destroyed by the player. When they return, they are still the same pawn, but stronger, better equipped, and more dangerous.

They remember who killed them, which weapon was used, where they were wounded, which body parts they lost, whether they escaped or were extracted, time spent in captivity, betrayal, successful raids, and settlements destroyed by the player. When they return, they are still the same pawn but stronger, better equipped, and more dangerous.

How the system works:

The spark: A Rimesis will swear to destroy you when they watch their friends, families, and countrymen die before you. Whether it being from a raid on your colony, a temporary camp you destroy, or a settlement you raid. (The first adult(13+) raider to safely reach the map edge receives the identity. Only one can emerge from each raid.

When a Rimesis is declared, they receive a "Combat focus" and a "Tactical style" that determines how they grow and what they will act like when you see them in raid. They will gather forces and return to your colony to enact their revenge! (Rimesis pawns are injected into main raids, they do not create new raids on the colony, so they are completely controllable by the pacing of your storyteller)

They can control raids, retaliations for settlements being destroyed, and they can appear in ambushes on your caravans. A raid can have up to 3 Rimesis in the raid, changing how the raid can play out. Multiple Rimesis may mean a few combat styles together or multi-pronged attacks on your settlement. Each Rimesis over 1 in a raid increases raid points by 10% each.

Defaults raid chances are 15% for no Rimesis, 50% for one, 28% for two, and 7% for three.

Rimesis however have received an undying power from the Dark... Archotech! (or Lord, if you prefer in the configs).
This power lets them cheat death, 100% chance the first time, 95% the second, and later deaths lose two percentage points each to a permanent 25% minimum.

On successful cheat death, the Dark Archotech removes the corpse, repairs missing parts, and the Rimesis grows in strength. A failed return is permanent: the body and equipment remain, while the full history stays in the Chronicle.

Each progress level increases the power of the Rimesis via weapons, apparel, combat style growing in strength, genes (with Biotech), combat skills, sharp and blunt armor from being battle hardened, bionics, a mount, better followers if permissible (such as mechanitor).

You can't escape their vendetta or buy off their trust, if you make peace with their faction, they will join another eligible enemy faction while keeping their identity, history, and equipment.

Combat focuses

Eligible focuses are drawn evenly from what the faction's technology, equipment, and
loaded integrations can support.

- Destroyer: Blunt melee
- Berserker: Sharp melee
- Sniper: Long-range, high-damage fire with extra spacing from close threats.
- Psycho: Short-range weapons with rapid sustained fire.
- Mechanitor: Ranged support behind a personal, independently budgeted mech force.
- Beastmaster: Ranged support behind one to four animals.
- Survivor: A heavily armored melee tank built around durability and mobility.
- Engineer: Optional Vehicle Raid Framework specialist using vehicles and
faction-appropriate deployable utility packs.
- Brute: Optional VFE Pirates melee Warcasket specialist.
- Gunner: Optional VFE Pirates ranged Warcasket specialist.

Tactical styles

Tactics control raid composition and approach separate from personal combat focus.

- Elite Vanguard: Better trained assault force
- Horde Assault: More raiders. (Points x 1.15)
- Siege Architect: Leads a valid faction-appropriate siege before the assault.
- Breach Specialist: Leads a vanilla breach attack
- Commander: Stays at range and provides a progression-scaled map-wide combat buff while alive and not downed.
- Captain: Leads a small, faster strike force along a separate attack vector.

Compatible tactics can cooperate during multi-Rimesis raids. Sieges may transition into separate breach and Captain attack groups, while riders and mounts, Mechanitors and mechs, and Beastmasters and their packs remain together.

Cheating death or surviving a later encounter increases progression. Tribal and medieval enemies remain low-tech; industrial and spacer enemies advance through appropriate equipment.

Weapons, special traits, animal kind, mount kind, Warcasket identity, vehicles, genes, and other signature features are retained when possible so the character remains recognizable. Optional DLC and modded equipment, genes, mechs, mounts, and utilities are used only when their content is loaded and valid.

Default limits are five Rimesis per faction and 25 globally.

Raids and retaliation:

Vanilla continues to own pathing, combat jobs, fleeing, kidnapping, stealing, and map exit. Rimesis changes only a few encounter-level decisions:

- Rimesis sieges assault after 20% violent losses; other waiting attacks react after 10% instead of vanilla's 30%.
- A capable Commander raises the shared retreat threshold to 90%. Other Rimesis-led raids use 70%. If every Rimesis is disabled or killed, it falls to 50%.
- Destroying a faction settlement marks that faction's next raid as retaliation. An established Rimesis will lead it, and its threat multiplier defaults to 1.5×.

Chronicle:

The Chronicle preserves current and permanently dead Rimesis characters. It records known events such as kills, wounds, destroyed and repaired body parts, escape, extraction, capture, recruitment, betrayal, raid outcomes, kidnapping, theft, and permanent death.

Mood hediffs against Rimesis raids:
Losing a raid, losing colonists, them escaping, defeating one in combat, permanently killing one.

The Bright Archotech

After a single Rimesis reaches level 3 progression, a one-time guarded site quest reveals the Bright Archotech. Its bearer can attempt to force a downed or imprisoned Rimesis to SUBMIT (with voice lines).

Submission begins at a 50% success chance. Failure shifts the target toward weakness or resistance and triggers the normal Rimesis death lifecycle. Success recruits the same character while preserving personal training, equipment, implants, genes, Warcaskets, and surviving focus-owned companions such as mechs, animals, mounts, or an Engineer's vehicle.

Requirements

- RimWorld 1.6
- Harmony

No DLC is required.

Royalty, Biotech, Anomaly, and Odyssey add appropriate equipment, genes, implants, mechs, utilities, and special weapons only when installed.

Compatibility patches for:
Trauma and Integrity (Replaces "unwaveringly loyal" and gives the player a chance to recruit the Rimesis, albeit with low integrity 20-50%)
Fantasy Biotech (Mechanitor Rimesis become Artificers)
Giddy-Up 2 (Raiders own mounts)
Vehicle Raid Framework (Engineer Class)
Vanilla Factions Expanded - Pirates (Warcasket classes)
are optional and activate only when available.

Other modded faction equipment, weapons, apparel, genes, animals, and combat mechs are used dynamically when their definitions provide enough information.

Preview art by Immortalus!
Gizmo and page art by Lycan9034!

Warcasket assets are owned by the Vanilla Expanded team and are no way related to or owned by this mod

I am always looking for feedback.