Surveillance Shift Mod adds surveillance equipment and an optional awareness overhaul, combining fog of war, scouts, guard duty and colony communications. It pairs with Perspective Shift but does not require it.
Surveillance Shift Mod Features
Awareness settings are stored per save and can be toggled during play.
Awareness and fog of war
Limited awareness hides information until colonists discover it. In Authentic style with Perspective Shift, the player character provides the viewpoint. Fog visuals can be customized, transparent buildings act as windows, and previously seen areas remain faintly visible without exact details. Event letters can ping a location for scouting instead of jumping straight to it; raids and visitors must be discovered.
In Authentic style, the colonist bar is replaced by active maps. Maps without the player character require tools such as walkie-talkies to view. Fog is disabled as a fallback on maps without player-faction members, such as some spectating situations.
Intelligence
Enemy scouts investigate colony wealth and actions, accompanied by reinforcements. Intercepting them can bring back a larger party. Actions on a faction’s own tile affect relations immediately. Friendly factions may send diplomats instead; colonists can provide information or attempt to lie using Social skill. Spyglasses and binoculars help reveal distant details.
Guard duty
Assign guards to spots and patrol routes, set priorities and pursuit behavior, or designate bodyguards by right-clicking another colonist. Guard spots face a direction; patrol waypoints can be reordered, renamed, split and given waiting times. Trained animals can keep watch. Watchtowers provide elevated long-range views. The wooden structure marked “coming soon” in the source is planned content.
Communication
Threat-report settings let colonists report in person, by walkie-talkie or with a linked alert button, or decline to report. Blowhorns obtained from horned animals can signal danger or serve as weapons. Walkie-talkies support distant communication and orders. Alert buttons trigger linked alarms and lights; loudspeakers broadcast the alarm.
Surveillance systems
The Monitoring job operates surveillance stations and remote devices. Stations have monitoring priorities. Wall-mounted cameras and camera towers require power and video-cable connections to a station or router. Routers send multiple video feeds to remote surveillance tablets, which need a linked router. Both normal and hidden video cables are included. With Perspective Shift, the player character can directly access a selected camera feed.
Horn-drop integrations
- Core
- Odyssey
- Alpha Animals
- Dark Ages : Beasts and Monsters
- Erin’s Fluffy Fauna
- FEB’s Biopunk Livestock
- Medieval Overhaul
- Megafauna
- Mythic Ages: Megafauna Bestiary
- ReGrowth 2
- Roo’s Satyr and Faun Xenotypes Expanded
- Sarcho Turtle
- Stoneborn – Cuisine
- Vanilla Animals Expanded
- Vanilla Animals Expanded — Endangered
- Vanilla Animals Expanded — Waste Animals
- Vanilla Genetics Expanded
- Vanilla Ideology Expanded – Dryads
Frequently asked questions
- Mid-save compatible? – Yes! Just don’t remove it.
- I can’t disable hardcore mode? – Switch to the Rimworld unstable branch.
- How to enable mid-game? – Gameplay options menu.
- Performance? – As performant as possible. Profiled and tested, and dedicated to addressing any concerns that might be uncovered.
- Does this require Perspective Shift? – No, but it is heavily designed around it being there.
Compatibility notes
Requires Harmony and Vanilla Expanded Framework. Perspective Shift is optional and recommended. Can be added mid-save, but should not be removed. The source FAQ directs players to the unstable RimWorld branch if hardcore mode cannot be disabled.
Additional credits: Taranchuk for C# development.
