It’s a whole new world! Here’s Alpha 6, the update with world generation, biomes, a medical system that tracks every wound and body part, and personality traits. You can follow our day-to-day work on the changelog.
If you own the game, you should get an update email from us. You can also get Alpha 6 by re-downloading from the link you used before (it is a permanent link and always has the newest version). Anyone still having trouble should start at this thread.
Also note that this build will not load old savegames, so keep your old install separate if you want to finish an Alpha 5 colony.
A quick recap of improvements in Alpha 6:
- World generation added. You can now generate a world from a seed value and choose where to land your escape pods.
- Biomes added. There are six biomes on the world map, but only three of them are implemented so far – desert, arid shrubland (the only choice, previously), and temperate forest.
- Obviously, biomes have distinct animal and plant life which present unique challenges and opportunities.
- Coastlines added. If you land on a seashore, your map will have a coastline in it (though it doesn’t do much, it’s fun to play on the beach.)
- Medical system added. Instead of simply having hit points, characters, animals, and mechanoids have a body health tracker that records every wound and every body part and how they interact. Wounds will affect specific abilities, so someone with eyes burned out can’t shoot or do surgery well, and someone with leg wounds will move slow. Wounds can also become permanent if left untreated, or kill someone due to bleeding.
- Pain level is tracked. A character in too much pain will become incapacitated.
- Doctors and medicine now have a purpose! Your doctor will attempt to heal wounded colonists and prisoner (if the prisoner is marked to receive care). If there is medicine available, he will use it to increase the chance of giving quality care. Wounds treated with quality care are much less likely to become permanent.
- Delicate body parts like brains or eyes usually end up with permanent damage when harmed.
- Characters now have personality traits which affect gameplay! Enjoy playing with colonists who are lazy or hardworking, neurotic, psychically sensitive or deaf, bloodlusty, or nudist.
- EMP weapons added. Useful for fighting mechanoids, and for enemies attacking your turrets.
- Spacey new menu music from Alistair Lindsay. More in-game music and sound effects from Al added as well.
- More translations added and existing translations updated.
- Lots of other small improvements and dozens of bug fixes, as well as new bugs to discover!
August 13th, 2014 - 3:16 pm
Wow!!! That’s a GREAT Update!!!! Keep up the good work guys!!!!
Woohoo! ^))
August 13th, 2014 - 3:28 pm
Looks really good, sounds like a great update with lots of stuff.
Thanks for all the good work.
August 13th, 2014 - 3:42 pm
So let us get this out of the way…
I used to be a colonist like you but then I took an arrow to the knee…
August 13th, 2014 - 3:43 pm
Nils,
You win the thread.
Ty
August 13th, 2014 - 3:44 pm
Jeez all new biomes and world generation?! You are the MOST productive indie developer I’ve ever seen, just awesome. I’m so glad I bought into this early access, every update is just better and better.
August 13th, 2014 - 3:47 pm
Excellent stuff, the game is becoming so flushed out! Really great work thanks!
August 13th, 2014 - 3:48 pm
Hmmm.. I wonder if there are hidden “seed” string combos like minecraft had.
August 13th, 2014 - 4:00 pm
This update looks great, can’t wait to play it.
When do we get a hotfix?
August 13th, 2014 - 4:07 pm
Awesome!!! Maybe next fishing at the coasts?
August 13th, 2014 - 4:55 pm
That’s one small step for Tynan, one giant leap for gamers! 😉
Great update! ^^d
August 13th, 2014 - 5:11 pm
Small bug, If you have a character that is starving and medical beds, they will lie in bed and starve to death rather than go get some food
August 13th, 2014 - 5:21 pm
AFK – Doctor is really supposed to feed them.
It’s a hard situation. If they were bleeding, they could end up bleeding to death while eating and preventing doctor from treating them, which would also look stupid.
August 13th, 2014 - 6:51 pm
I must agree with Carlo. I have been following a lot of different games and I am part of many Alpha’s/Beta’s and you are among the most active, productive, and creative developers (not just indie!) I have ever come across. I get giddy just reading the changelog daily (that might have sounded weird lol). Best $$’s I’ve ever spent.
Please keep it up Tynan, you and the rest of the team are amazing and your drive to create a vast and varied experience is more than evident! Now I’m itching to get off work and try out the new features 🙂
August 13th, 2014 - 7:02 pm
Oh dear god Tynan, I thought you had died, but you were just saving up a huge-azz update to revolutionize the game… Tynan… I love you…
August 13th, 2014 - 9:21 pm
RimWorld Multiplayer….COMING SOON!!!
August 14th, 2014 - 3:42 am
I just wanted to echo the sentiment of others: I’ve been impressed and pleased with every new release of RimWorld. As a professional software developer and avid indie game player, I fully appreciate the work and care you put into this game. Keep it up!
August 14th, 2014 - 5:48 am
RimWorld kept getting better and better and now it’s epic!
August 14th, 2014 - 7:39 am
GREAT UPDATE! Really good job Tynan, it was long time from alpha 5 but this alpha 6 is great gift from you! Thank you, every minute in this game is great! Loosing is fun 😀
August 14th, 2014 - 12:13 pm
Why can’t every games developement studio consist of Tynan Sylvesters. Our games would be that much better…
August 14th, 2014 - 10:31 pm
Amazing work when will new ways to improve colonists moods be added as well as its quite difficult to maintain it with social and large spaces
August 15th, 2014 - 3:17 am
Hey Tyan, I got the email, but having trouble updating. It would not open. I extact the file first and try to run it next, it woul;d NOT work. Please send me another link that work. I have Window PC. Thanks
August 15th, 2014 - 7:31 am
best wish
from Chinese Player
August 15th, 2014 - 5:10 pm
I love everything about this update. The best part besides the obvious move towards more complexity, biomes and such is the notification that I am being attacked is very visible. This is awesome! The one complaint I do have is that I can no longer put a stockpiles on a table. I hope this is unintentional because I really liked that you were able to do that.
Other than that keep up the great work this game gets more and more amazing with every update!
August 15th, 2014 - 9:30 pm
Oh my god, this update.
wow.
like
wow.
Also this is starting to look much much more like dwarf fortress >.>
LOVE IT.
August 15th, 2014 - 10:12 pm
This update is amazing, but there seems to be a problem…
Tynan has abandoned tradition and forgotten to release a hotfix!
August 17th, 2014 - 1:06 am
I love the health revamp. It’s frickin’ awesome. It gives you an incentive to recruit fresh blood because after suffering many injuries, some colonists just can’t do jobs very well.
The only niggles I have are that doctors don’t always use medicine to treat colonists, even when they have access to it. Is there a certain level needed to use kits, maybe?
Also, with meals now stacking, colonists sometimes insist on having raw food because a meal is reserved by someone else, even though there’s more in the stack.
August 17th, 2014 - 6:14 am
Tynan love the new updata but if i may ask a for something if your not already planing it.A love systeam like colonist will for in love in one other you know friends,girl friend,wifes,etc can you please tell me if you where planing this or if you like the idea or if any modders see this id love the mod for the game
August 17th, 2014 - 4:29 pm
Hey Tynan, Really love what you’re doing with the game! The consistent updates have been great at keeping things fresh and make it easy to spend hours on the game.
Just a few observations:
The storyteller seems to be stubborn after you’ve reloaded a saved game and I’ve had to change the challenge mode in the options screen before new events will occur.
Don’t know if it’s just me but crematoria do not work. Colonist just seem to ignore them as a task completely (probably user error). I’ve tried with fresh, rotten, and desecrated corpses.
Lastly, on more of a suggestive note: having the arms blown off my best worker or the legs blown off my lv16 warden is kind of a downer. I love the intricacy of the health system, but in this futuristic setting, I think prosthetic limbs would be a viable option to maintain colonist usefulness and add a lot of character to the individuals (as if a one legged, one eyed, kidney-less warden didn’t have enough character).
Again, fantastic work! Can’t wait to see what else you can do with this unique idea.
August 18th, 2014 - 11:02 am
hey I changed my email on paypal but I haven’t recived update sine alpha 3.048.plse send me the new update
August 18th, 2014 - 1:12 pm
Anyone not receiving their updates should email me at [email protected] please.
August 19th, 2014 - 8:21 pm
One week out and still no Hotfix. You’re getting better 😉
August 19th, 2014 - 8:23 pm
Hells yeah. Of course, this build was content-locked in internal testing for 3 weeks so it sure as hell better be critical-bug-free!
August 20th, 2014 - 2:24 pm
Finally! i have beaten the game and escaped with my 5 colonists, there were 7 but some died du to a huge tribe attack and an ally town becomming an enemy…but then a ship part fell from the sky with 6 mechanoids…so i hurried and build the last parts of the the escape ship… *THE END* *all worth it*
August 21st, 2014 - 4:02 pm
If I might make a suggestion Ty (sorry if this is the wrong spot for suggestions), I think the AI on colonists could be tweaked a little. If I have two fire spots next to each other and Character A is finising putting one out and Character B has reserved putting the second spot out, but is far away, Character A will leave the fire, causing it to spread before Character B gets there. I would rather characters override reservations if they are closer and available. This would make characters more efficient. Let me know what you think.
August 23rd, 2014 - 5:45 am
plain t shirts
Ludeon Studios
August 23rd, 2014 - 3:04 pm
All this has done is make me impatient for Alpha 7. You guys are awesome! Keep up the great work.
*Kickstarter Backer*
August 24th, 2014 - 6:19 pm
NEEEEEDDDD MOREEEE UPDATES!!!!!!!!!!!!@@@@@@@@
August 25th, 2014 - 6:51 am
Thx for a cool update.
Have a problem with my colonist, who lost his leg in furious battle. The doc took him to the hospital and take off his pain, but guy wasn’t able to walk and was just laying in the bed. I saw despair in his eyes, but just cant help him.
So, Tynan, we need an AUTOPSY!
Thanks again and keep a good work!
August 25th, 2014 - 7:03 am
damn, i mean “euthanasia” not “autopsy” ((
August 26th, 2014 - 6:57 pm
I love this game so much, I think I spend most of my time hitting the randomize button at the beginning though, trying to get unique and fun characters to start with. I rarely recruit for some reason, I prefer the challenge of surviving with 3-4 people that I hand picked for specific skills.
Will there ever be character creation? Perhaps giving us a choice of gender/body/clothing, and then a certain amount of skillpoints and passion points we can spend? I’d really enjoy making characters of my own, but I guess it’s fun randomizing it too.
Also, I want to try the snow biomes so bad!!!
August 27th, 2014 - 3:19 am
So I just started a game on a new world and colony, and a escape pod crash landed inside my base. I looked at the name and it was someone I had seen while picking my colonists, coincidence? Just thought that was a cool thing to happen. Thank you for an amazing game Tynan.
And what Shep said about character creation^ Just curious of your views/thoughts about it and if its possible or if you are thinking of adding it.
August 28th, 2014 - 12:53 pm
Hey, it’s an awesome game but there’s one problem. And that is my colonists constantly getting their f***ing legs blown off so they can’t walk and become a useless bedlaying medicin-and-food-waster. Please add prostetic limbs please
August 29th, 2014 - 8:19 am
For now you can force your colonist with bloodlust perk to kill those poor guys from time to time (killing another when all other has forgotten their “colonist was killed” debuff status), but prostetic limbs will be much more better.
August 29th, 2014 - 9:34 pm
I didn’t get an email for the download?
August 30th, 2014 - 3:05 am
could you possibly decrease the damage done to friendly people my hunters keep killing each other in one shot
September 10th, 2014 - 1:06 am
How do I update the game I am on alpha five and I don’t know how
September 19th, 2014 - 10:03 am
@Alex Smith: You just download it again where you downloaded it the first time.
September 19th, 2014 - 9:37 pm
When can we expect alpha 7? I can’t wait! 😀
September 20th, 2014 - 1:27 pm
Yes, I’m dying with anticipation!
September 21st, 2014 - 9:42 pm
Seriously the most prolific indie team I’ve seen. It is not unusual to wait a month for a minor sound tweak and an ‘improved’ color pallet with most Alpha titles, but not with Ludeon. I’ve been genuinely surprised.
It says a lot that I anticipate the final release of this more than the AAA ‘Beyond Earth’ space colony Sim. I am tired of AAA companies publishing games that are still in early Beta, and calling them finished products. I prefer the honesty of early access. At least you know what you’re getting into.
I like to pick up early access games every now and again… voting with my dollars, yanno? I should just mail this group my wallet. If I were a rich man, I would create a company just so that I could acquire theirs.
PS: Here’s another vote for character creation.
September 26th, 2014 - 1:39 pm
With all the bug fixes lately I was expecting Alpha 7… now the dev blog has more ‘stuffs’added.
September 30th, 2014 - 5:38 pm
Hey Ty
Where’s the new update?
It’s literally been 1.5 months now…
Alpha 7 should be out!
If it’s going to be big- fine.
But I guess most of us would prefer small but frequent updates?
Hurry up!Has there been any progress, seriously?
Alex
September 30th, 2014 - 7:33 pm
Patience, Alex B, he’s probably just testing for game breaking bugs before he releases. It wont be long now.
September 30th, 2014 - 7:39 pm
Zenke – You are wise 🙂
October 1st, 2014 - 9:22 am
maybe you could make a little announce? 😉
October 2nd, 2014 - 8:46 pm
i need help i don’t know how to update my game plz help me out