u/HQQ1

For what it's worth, I used to be a Rimworld veteran who exclusively plays a start with 1 colonist with 0 skill, 0 eyes, -1 leg and -1 arm, so I sorta have experience in dealing with constant crises and pressure in an unfair situation. But I feel like I need to have a clear plan before attempting to push through and since it's only my 4th game, I'm not so sure what to do yet:

- For my 3 previous games, I played Settler -> Pioneer -> x2 Veteran games. I heard that difficulties before Prestige are like tutorials so I thought it would be fine to advance to Viceroy for a game without any World Modifier, in the Marshland which I've gone through before. After 3 games I also feel like I'd gotten a closer understanding of the basics and what synergizes with what, and how to build efficient production chains that feed into goods to sell and Resolve to win. So I THOUGHT it'd be okay.

- The starting area's got no Stone. The map has no Clay. There is an abundant of those Algae pools.

- Seeing as there's no way to advance to higher tiers of resources without Brick, and therefore no concrete way to solve Dangerous Glade, I opted to open a Small Glade and found a coal mine with 30% Stone, but the mine needs Brick still.

- I have a Kiln and Weaver which I got to try to appease the single Harpy from leaving. I don't remember the exact Forest Mystery, but during Storms it seems I lose as much as 5-7 Resolve on Hostility 1, so I needed a way to patch her up, and the I picked the Kiln thinking Coal + Jerky would help with fuel + complex food for now, while the Weaver helps the Harpy and it would make sense to start a Fabric industries with how much Algae are littered around in this map.

- It didn't occurred to me that I SHOULD have relied on Traders for the early Bricks, so I opened a Dangerous Glade right before Year 2, and there's no Stone still, but a whole Forsaken Crypt annd some large nodes for Algae I have yet to have the gathering building for. The solve for the Dangerous Glade also seems like a lot more compared to Veteran. I'm unsure if I could solve it in time, even. 16 Fabric seemed like the way to go, but the Crude Workshop is slow, and I only get the Algae back AFTER fishing is finished. The failling cons doesn't seem that bad but failing is annoying for sure.

Looking back at it, it seemed the lack of easily accessible Stones caught me off guard and spooked me into making sub-par decisions. I should have develop a proper Fabric trade and buy Brick and prepare more before rushing the Dangerous Glade, which I've seen people tell to do on beginner tips. I also made the mistake of foregoing the Stone embarkment choice for extra villagers, greeding for extra push power not knowing this could happen. I thought the dxtra Stone were mostly good for breaking crates, which I thought I could always do later.

But what I'm also wondering is: How do veterans usually deal with lacking 1 basic resource? I haven't seen it mentioned on the tips yet, and very vaguely answered on similar threads. What should I have done from YOUR perspective?

I've never commissioned arts before, and I don't know the pricing, so I'd like to ask:

My favorite artist has a Patreon that I am a member of that provides all $5-tier members with around 4 artworks of single (or rarely groups of 3) characters with completely different actions, and poses, in front of simple background.

I was thinking of requesting them to draw artworks similar to what they provides, with only different characters from someone else, and this is what I see when I explored their Pixiv Request page:

[The basic fee (one character + simple background, full color) is 4,500 yen, and for differences, please add a fee based on the 500 yen standard, and when including Lyona or R-18 elements, please add +1,500 yen (hard R-18G elements will not be accepted).]

And it also listed them currently doing many such commissions ranging from 6000 - 25.000 JPY.

They're my favorite artist, I'm glad to see they're doing well and I have been a paying member for a few years. But the astronomical differences between the monthly Patreon membership and Request Commission fee caught me a little off guard. It costs 10 times more, maybe even more. Like, 8000 JPY is about 1/5 my monthly salary, even, and that amount could buy 30 big meals in my country.

So, while I think I'd support them anyway, I'd like to ask first: Is this a normal rates for artists?