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[this thread is really feedback and discussion-focused]

Based on the blog post, this thread is for feedback and discussion on Alpha 17!

However, this thread is really feedback and discussion-focused. Other specific kinds of comments should go in the appropriate forums:

Suggestions should go in the Suggestions forum.
Bug reports should go in the Bugs forum.
Support requests should go in the Support forum.

Thanks all!

[Bug reports]

If you wish, you can now play Alpha 17's test version on the 'unstable' Steam beta branch.

Bear in mind that this is an unstable version, so there will be bugs, and the build will be updated without warning, possibly breaking your saved games. Please only participate if you're okay with that.

For those who do want to be public testers - the purpose of this is for us to get your feedback! The most useful things you can give are:

• Bug reports: If you find a bug, please report it in the Bugs forum according to the very simple Bug reporting guideline. One bug per report thread please, and don't report bugs in any other forum than that please.
• Play stories: Stories about something that happened that seem cool or wrong. These can go in this thread or on another General thread.
• Balance feedback: Thoughts on the current balance and mechanics, ideally with a play story. These can go in this thread or on another General thread.

I'm only announcing this here because I don't want this going too far and wide in terms of news. To that end I'm also not going to lay out a whiz-bang feature upgrade list. I want to keep up some hype for the actual final release of the stable version.

I'm also requesting that video makers not use unstable versions (though I won't do anything about it if they do).

Also note that language translation and player creative content data is a few weeks out of date. It will be updated before final release.

Thank you all public testers for participating!

This thread is for discussing the blog post:

Official: New content in progress for Alpha 17

It's just a quick update, but I thought y'all might have something to say

Pursuant to the blog post, do you think we should release Alpha 17 as a refinements-only build? Or, should we complete our refinements, then add a new batch of content, then release?

The advantages of releasing refinements only is that you get all those refinements faster.
The disadvantage is that it'll break mod compatibility, and the release itself will consume some developer time, slowing long-term progress slightly.

The advantage of waiting is that we break compatibility less, and avoid the chaos/time consumption that an update brings.
The disadvantage is that the bugs/imbalances of A16 stay public for longer.

I don't consider this a binding poll or anything, I just want to get the community's general thoughts.

Thanks all.

I'm interested in thoughts on mortars.

They are designed to be usable for defense as well as offense - but are people using them that way? What about offense? How are you using mortars and how do you feel they're balanced for player use?

Thanks all.

I'm trying to figure out the balance on this. Please vote!

Animals born in a caravan can get duplicate numeric names.

[Please do not report bugs here. If you find a bug, please report it in the Bugs forum!]

As announced here: https://ludeon.com/blog/2016/12/alpha-16-on-public-unstable-branch/

Please do not report bugs here. If you find a bug, please report it in the Bugs forum!

In this thread, I'd love to get:

• Play stories
• Balance thoughts
• Clarity and interface feedback
• Other design feedback

(This thread is for meaningful, useful feedback, to help us design the game. Low-effort or off-topic posts, including random suggestions unrelated to A16 updates, will be removed.)

Thanks greatly!

Please give all feedback about Alpha15c. See ludeon.com for full info.

Especially if you find it broken somehow!

This thread is for all feedback about the Alpha 15 unstable branch test!

I could also really use some savegames for recording the release video on! I'm really just looking for natural colonies - not some weird fancy artwork. Ideally, with a drug production operation. If you've got a savegame like this, please zip it, put it on Dropbox or another file hosting service, and drop the link here.

Thanks all.

Trying to do some balancing - let me know about your experiences with AI stealing!

In the latest public version of RimWorld, Toxic Fallout and Volcanic Winter are supposed to be disabled on Free Play difficulty.

Can any players out there who play on this difficulty tell me if this is working right? I've heard some reports there may be a bug. Thanks in advance.

Mac users, in what folder (under Library) is your save data for RimWorld stored?

I'm trying to figure out where Unity is putting the data and getting inconsistent results.

Ideally, someone would be able to delete any existing data folder and restart the game, then see where the fresh data is. Apparently Unity does some weird back-compatibility thing with old paths.

Thanks!

I'd like to make the game easier to mod, but it's hard to tell, from my perspective, what would be the most useful changes to make to make this happen.

So I'm soliciting requests.

Just try to think of the most important things you'd want that would make modding easier for you. I'll aggregate the suggestions and try to implement the most cost-effective and popular ones.

Thanks all!

-----------

Edit: The difficulty here seems to be that there are a ton of requests - everyone has their own little thing they want changed. Unfortunately we can't cover all these; I really want to make the changes that will have a big impact on a lot of modders. Bang for your buck, so to speak.

So it would be really great if modders could discuss and come up with a top-3 list of things that would help a lot of people at once. Consider this an invitation to discuss with each other what would help you all together.

Usually, as a developer, you want to avoid launching a game really close to the launch of another major game that attracts the same audience.

For example, it would have been bad to launch RimWorld very close to Factorio.

I'm looking at games that are going to launch in July and trying to see if there's any I should avoid. Maybe you know of one?

Do any of y'all know about a game with a similar audience as RimWorld (the game doesn't have to be similar) coming out around then? I'm doing my own research but I don't want to miss something.

Thanks in advance.

We had a poll on Cass - now I want to hear about Randy!

Please only vote if you've played a reasonably long game.

[Cassandra Classic]

Hey, how's the pacing on Cassandra Classic in the vanilla game of Alpha 13?

Thanks.

[In posting your colony here, you give Ludeon permission to use your colony any way Ludeon likes, forever. You can't demand compensation later or something because the company profited by the use of your colony. Be sure you're okay with that before you post anything! Also, in your post please put a sentence stating you give Ludeon permission to use your colony commercially. Thanks.]

Hey all, I'm shooting some trailer footage now. I could use some nice unmodded Alpha 13 colonies to shoot in!

If you like your colony and you're okay to have it shown in a future trailer, please post it in this thread! You just need to zip the RWS file in the save folder and post it here.

Unfortunately I do have to clarify some boring legal stuff. In posting your colony here, you give Ludeon permission to use your colony any way Ludeon likes, forever. You can't demand compensation later or something because the company profited by the use of your colony. Be sure you're okay with that before you post anything! Also, in your post please put a sentence stating you give Ludeon permission to use your colony commercially. Thanks.

Now, with the legal stuff out of the way, I'm looking for all sorts of colonies:
1. Big thriving colonies are good.
2. Small, just-starting colonies are good.
3. Really weird, artistic colonies are okay, but it's not a competition for biggest and weirdest. I'm trying to show natural gameplay situations or mega-bases. Even tiny colonies have their place.

To all who post a colony, thank you!

You can hit a special button to make a turret force-fire at a given target. I want to understand how this feature is used. Can you tell me how you've used this control in the past? Thank you all.

I just figured out how to kill the infestation bugs without a real fight. Just dig a long tunnel and shoot them from a distance with the survival rifle. Easy. I'm pretty sure some of you figured this out before me too!

So let me just request that if you find an exploit strategy, please report it. These kinds of things are basically bugs, and they break the game (even if people sort of "like" them, they harm the overall experience). So please report them!

I'd love to hear about any exploits you know of in this thread. Are there other no-risk ways to defeat infestations or sieges? The ones I know of are:

- Shoot infestation bugs from long range
- Open the roof and let infestation bugs freeze
- Shoot siegers with sniper rifles (until they attack)