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The 1.0 release (and any subsequent release patches) will be released via SendOwl when it launches.
It has not launched yet, with the current version being an in-development "candidate" for release, with near-daily fixes, changes, and balancing taking place.

I understand the feeling, as when I first bought RimWorld, I had no internet access at home, and therefore relied on games I bought having DRM-free releases.
That said, Steam as a platform does make it extremely easy to roll out quick changes to a beta branch, as well as receive quick feedback from testers, with no repercussions from Valve.

SendOwl is an okay distribution platform, but it has restrictions in place that make constant updates and redownloads impractical.
From what I understand, the reason that only major non-development versions are released to SendOwl is because of the bandwidth restrictions that SendOwl puts on downloads.

At the time Tynan started releasing RimWorld through SendOwl, it was the "least bad" option for DRM-free distribution.
Tynan (and Ludeon) did not have the infrastructure to do the distribution themselves. (Realistically, they still don't. Distribution is hard, and expensive.)
GameJolt, itch.io, and Humble all take a cut of sales, and have their own upload or release restrictions which precluded a release like RimWorld there at the time.
GOG had/has a strict acceptance system, especially for in-development games, while the upload system at the time had issues with getting the updates to users, updates had to be vetted by GOG staff before being pushed, and GOG took a cut of the sales. (SendOwl only charges for download bandwidth; they do not take a cut of the sales.)
While Steam does take a cut of the sales, there are no bandwidth restrictions or costs there, making it a much better place to push 20-150MB updates.

It's your decision to boycott Steam, but I am personally glad that the SendOwl release is actually available.
The same can not be said for many other games, which only ever released through Steam, alone.

Just something to think about.

Glad that you were able to get it working.
Enjoy the digital suffering!

You are correct.
Apparently, despite reading it several times, I misread it every time.

[only]

https://ludeon.com/blog/faq/

Will I run out of RimWorld downloads?

–  No, they'll reset with each significant update. Even if it looks like they're not resetting, don't worry, they are. SendOwl is just a bit weird with how it handles that. They may not reset on tiny updates. If you're out, you can get them reset from the support page.

If you do run out, contact Ludeon support and they can help reset them.

Pre-release builds will only be released via the Steam beta unstable branch.
This is due to limitations and annoyances in the SendOwl system.

The SendOwl version has been and will always be the most up to date stable build.
The most recent stable build available via SendOwl has always been announced via the Ludeon Studios blog.
https://ludeon.com/blog/
At this time, the SendOwl version is RimWorld Beta 18; Build 1722. (Days.)

[two years ago]

Now, obviously, I am not a Ludeon Studios member.
I can not speak directly for Ludeon Studios, nor would I pretend to.
What Tynan says is, of course, the final word.
That said, I can make an educated guess, from Tynan's past comments and posts.
So, I'll put my best guess forward by using Tynan's own words, typos and all.

In the end, I think that a game is done when promises have been fulfilled, and there aren't holes in the design. And we're reached that point, so RimWorld is done.

That said, just because RimWorld is done doesn't necessarily mean I'm done with it.

Then, after he talked a bit about the break from development he would take after the Steam release...

I might just take the feedback from the Early Access release, integrate it and release RimWorld 1.0 without major new features. Or, I might continue developing the game for years. As I said, I like working on RimWorld, but I've also learned that the future is very uncertain and it's a bad idea to make promises you're not sure you can keep.

Source: https://ludeon.com/blog/2015/07/on-the-upcoming-steam-release/

From that blog post, I would infer that Tynan could have called RimWorld "done" a little under two years ago, on July 1st, 2015.
He didn't stop development then though.
Tynan and the rest of Ludeon Studios have carried on development for another two years four days and counting, releasing an additional 11 alpha branch updates, a beta branch release, and 4 of those were major updates that added large amounts of content, bug fixes, balancing, reworking, and optimizations.
That's in addition to the content release they are currently about to make, bringing the game to version 1.0 "stable" release.

My guess is that this probably means the game is "finished" but not that the game is facing "end-of-life" as it were.

But, I'll reiterate Tynan's words from that blog post again, and leave it there. (Applicable to both game development, and this post I'm currently making.)

I might continue developing the game for years. As I said, I like working on RimWorld, but I've also learned that the future is very uncertain and it's a bad idea to make promises you're not sure you can keep.

Doing a clean install may be necessary for a driver that old.
Completely uninstalling the driver in safe mode should probably be done before installing the new one.

(My driver was extremely out of date. Spent three years with no internet access on the system. My old driver was somewhere around 278.2, IIRC.)

IIRC, Tynan once indicated that he hoped to add (what I remember him calling) sub-human races eventually.
(Dwarf-like, elf-like, et cetera.)
At that time, he also stated that there was no guarantee that other races would ever actually be added, and that if they were added, they would be added extremely late in development, after everything else was more or less complete.

If it is links to the seller's store/page/shop then I'm post them here.
If it is contact information (like an email address) provided by you or provided by the website you are attempting to make the dispute with, then I'd PM it to Calahan.
Don't want that sort of information floating around.

@CrimsonInTheBottle, according to the dispute information on the Selz website, you can supply emails and the like as evidence in your favour.

Sending the RimWorld EULA to Selz may also support you, since the seller you were buying from is (probably) not a distributor authorized by Ludeon.
https://ludeon.com/rimworld/EULA.txt

Providing any information you can about the seller here would make it easier to provide assistance in acquiring a statement supporting your claim.

@Calahan, much as it seems like common sense, I would suggest to you that a suggestion be made to Tynan that he puts up an official statement declaring that RimWorld can only be bought from the RimWorld website or Steam.
(Best place would probably be ludeon.com/support or ludeon/com/faq IMO.)

IIRC, an old version of the EULA mentioned that licenses can only be bought from authorized distributors, though it doesn't seem to be there now, and "authorized distributors" were never actually defined.
(My memory could be failing me. It has been over the last few weeks.)

Yeah, no problem Calahan.
Funny thing is, I came across that information while looking for a (non-Steam) version of mod for Stellaris.
I couldn't find one, so I just ended up coding my own and uploading it to the Nexus. 

Hey, no problem.
Glad you got it fixed.
Enjoy the digital suffering!

Since you reinstalled it, this rules out the Core files.
If all of the required mods are currently available, then I would guess one of two things.
Either the load order of mods changed, and a dependent mod is now loading before the mod it depends on...
Or one of the mods updated, and is now broken as a result of the update.
For the first option, you would need to check the workshop pages for your mods and compare it to the mod load order.
For the second, you would need to contact the mod author, and hopefully get them to release a fixed (or legacy) version of the mod.

I'm not sure what data is being searched for exactly, but it would seem that data is either missing from a mod definition file, or from the saved game itself.

While it is definitely possible to remove (or add) conflicting (or missing) data from (or to) a saved game, there are issues.
Removing one section of the data will probably cause other sections that reference it to fail, resulting in a still-unusable saved game.
Additionally, you would need to search for and remove all of the associated data in the file yourself, after figuring out exactly what data it is.
(There's no easy or automated method to do it AFAIK.)

I apologize that I am unable to provide further assistance.
Best of luck to you.

Since the issue appears to be caused by a mod, a moderator may move this thread to the mod bugs subforum.
If the thread doesn't get moved there, you may wish to ask around in the Mod Bugs subforum anyways.
They may be able to render more assistance in figuring out which mod may be causing the issue, and in how to fix it.

@Moderators; EX: Calahan, I'm not sure if this should be moved to mod bugs.
It looks to be caused by a mod, but I can't be certain.

I wish you the best of luck, though I don't know if Valve will respond with much.
Though I would say that having an "offline mode" feature should definitely allow all functionality (that doesn't directly require internet access) at normal levels.

Usually, the error indicated is the result of a missing/disabled/unusable mod.
"Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

If you have removed or disabled mods the saved game you are attempting to load was using, then you will need to add the applicable mods back to your load order before you can load the game.

Less commonly, issues can be created due to replicated or missing Core files.
In such a case, uninstalling the game, making sure the core game folders are deleted, and then reinstalling the game should rectify the issue.

Side notes:
Some of those translation errors look like they might be caused by duplicated translation files.
It also appears that there is either something wrong with your video drivers and/or hardware, or there are actually missing shaders.

Some space should always be kept free on your OS system drive.
(Most often the C: drive.)
For Vista and newer, I would recommend at least 5GB should always be free.
The OS, graphics drivers, active programs, and background programs all need some HDD space free on the system drive.
This is to store temporary copies of files, and depending on the program and system specifications, things like shader caches.