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Returning briefly to the original topic...

What limits the available firearms tech in this game isn't so much science but logistics. You're playing from the point of view of a tiny, isolated settlement that's totally dependent on what they can find locally or buy off the odd caravan. What do you think is easier to get hold of, glitterworld-Clarketech batteries to power a charge rifle, or a few hundredweight of sulphur to make gunpowder with? Or even fulminate of mercury for primers, come to that.

Same goes for the weapon itself; any half-decent metalwork shop can turn out some rough-and-ready but perfectly functional Kalashnikovs or Sten guns, but fancy glittertech kit requires the kind of tolerances you can only get with computer-guided tooling and probably a laser cutter.

Some of you might've seen a discussion post about this on the Rimworld subreddit a while ago, started by me, and one of the things that came up in the comments was that being able to watch TV at all was stretching credibility.

Well, you'd be surprised. I'm currently studying for my amateur radio operator's license, and one of the most surprising things I've learned so far is just how powerful this stuff can be. The most powerful transmitter an amateur is allowed to use here in the UK is one hundred watts, which doesn't sound like a lot but is more than enough for a legible two-way voice link with someone on the other side of the Atlantic. And it's entirely possible to build one of these out of salvaged parts with only basic tools; in fact, compared to stuff your colonists can whip up like the multi-analyser and the vitals monitor it's kind of tame.

Now, while that might be okay for radio, a TV picture is much harder to transmit a useful distance even when unburdened by legal restrictions on frequency and power. That's where repeater networks come in. They're pretty much what they sound like: You link up with them, send your message and they retransmit it. Some of them just have a bigger and better antenna than most hams can set up at home, while more sophisticated ones actually use the Internet to link you directly to another repeater in range of the callsign you're trying to reach. You probably wouldn't be able to do the latter on a rimworld, although it's not inconceivable that parts of a planetary telecoms network set up by the first colonists would still be in working order; there might even be a few working communications satellites in orbit.

But would these relay networks exist in a hardscrabble, everyone-for-themselves rimworld? Well, frankly they're far too useful not to exist: Being able to disseminate warnings about forest fires and severe weather benefits everyone, and being the settlement that's responsible for letting your neighbours keep up with their favourite soap opera probably comes with some significant fringe benefits. It also wouldn't actually cost that much apart from the up-front investment in setting it up.

So, that covers how your colonists could be getting a TV signal. But who's sending it?

Well, anyone with a working video camera and a computer with basic video-editing software could create content, even if it was just recording a performance by the settlement's amateur dramatic society or some such. There's also probably a decent number of new arrivals making landfall with stuff saved on their personal electronic devices, and maybe the odd enterprising youngster making animated movies on their laptop. But that probably won't be enough for a proper TV station. However, it's reasonable to assume at least one or two settlements per continent are large and prosperous enough that they could sustain a commercial studio of sorts, even if its content was nearly all reruns and the exceptions had production values on a par with Rutland Weekend Television except not played for laughs.

And all the above assumes technology roughly equivalent to contemporary Earth, or what the lore primer would call a "midworld". The odd cache of still-functional glitterworld tech would probably make it even easier.

Sculptures, booze, drugs and clothing, in that approximate order.

Hi there. I'm Jake. I'm 30, English and started playing Rimworld because Dwarf Fortress just wasn't challenging enough anymore.