What makes Rimworld stand out to you?

[Vaporisor]

I have always been a strategy/management player.  I love Dwarf Fortress still.  But what is it that has me so into rimworld that I have even started doing fiction of my playthru where the writeups take longer than the play for it?

For me?  The pawns. 

The game is big enough to take a good bit of time to reach that point of satisfaction or victory, but small and diverse nature of the game with their names running around brings a connection and interest to each pawn.  Sometimes to where I start playing them a way as though they have a personality.  Dwarf fortress is very fun from the management and design standpoint, but it was extremely rare some dwarf seemed to stand out enough to connect me to the colony.  In fact after so many years of fortress, the only real memorable character was a cat.

Rimworld though, every time I play there is always that one pawn in which has those mix of traits and RNG fortune to stick in your head and become the mascot of the playthrough.

The social side just increases that even more.  I cannot wait to see what more personability to the pawns we get in the future!

[keylocke]

there are many DF-like games, like towns and gnomoria.

but the biggest draw to rimworld for me is the RTS battle system. (although this system is probably what's limiting the inclusion of z-level in rimworld, since it's more like a top-down RTS game with base building mechanics rather than the other way around)

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anyways.

timber&stone, stonehearth, castlestory etc. : also got RTS battle system, but there are no cover mechanics plus the actions and movement are too slow mo. i keep hoping people move around the same speed as troops move in warcraft or battlerealms or whatever.

clockwork empires is kinda laggy for me, and i haven't tried folktales (it looks interesting though).

and then there's black&white2 with it's awesome gigantic creatures and armies you can draft from the population (too bad b&w2 didn't have a sandbox multiplayer like the first one did, coz i hate the campaign and it's juvenile sidequests).

etc..

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other games like banished and planetbase, don't have combat so it gets kinda meh once you get through the learning curve.

etc..

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so yea, for me it's mostly the battle system that i like the most. though the system still doesn't seem "up there" yet.

i keep thinking about the game having more advanced raider AI with more tactical variety and can keep switching tactics or combine different tactics based on the situation. (ie : if they still have enough numbers and they still have enough supplies, instead of fleeing away, raiders can regroup at the edge of the map and begin hit and run tactics to hunt down colonists that are not inside the home zone, so they can actually turn the tide on colonists trying to pursue them off the map.. or if colonists didn't take the bait, the raiders can attack traders to kidnap them and/or steal their items while causing a faction relationship drop for attacked faction, etc.. i think there's still plenty of enemy AI behaviors that can be added to make raids more interesting.)

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i also keep thinking about what it would be like to have secondary weapon and ammo. like shooting with your gun and being able to lob a limited stack of grenades (instead of infinite grenades) in your inventory to force enemies out of cover or setup crafted IED traps from your inventory on the path of pursuing enemies, etc.

limited ammo also means players will not just "park" their colonists and let them shoot randomly until they hit something. ie : like snipe camping against the mechs defending evil/poison ships.

etc..

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so tl;dr : i like the battle system. and i keep coming back checking if tynan adds some more nifty updates.

ie : like the new button that let's multiple people attack the same target in one click.

it's a simple yet totally awesome addition. 

[b0rsuk]

It's EASY. Among DF clones, Rimworld stands out because it's sci-fi (or rather space opera, Tynan doesn't take science seriously unlike Simon Roth with Maia). Rimworld is largely about ranged combat, you have direct direct control in combat, and building often takes place in the open, above ground. The decision to go SF naturally lends itself to distinct mechanics (no huge variety of unique magical creatures; power lines; turrets...). Also I hear DF has no animal husbandry.

If Tynan ever adds Z-levels he should give priority to levels ABOVE ground. Digging below has been done. Above ground hasn't been explored properly in DF-likes.

[Too-DAMN-Much]

it's the minecraft of simulation management games for modding, i do agree with what people have posted so far too though.

personally i have a recurring group of colonists that i nearly always use and make small adjustments to each time, iterating over the same colony design endlessly, that's also why i always name the colony the same thing each time, the characters seem to have a good bit of personality i agree, heck i've even been doing the same hairstyle for my beautiful nudist cannibal whom i name "Chef" lately.

[cultist]

I think a lot of people latched onto the Firefly vibe of the setting. Not a lot of people have tried to do something similar, and Firefly remains a cult show to this day.

I think it also helps that Rimworld is very intuitive, streamlined and most of the important info is contained in the game (no need to wiki all the time like many other simulation/sandbox games). That and the focus on a small group of people which allows you to get to know your colonists and care about them.

[MisterVertigo]

I think a lot of people latched onto the Firefly vibe of the setting. Not a lot of people have tried to do something similar, and Firefly remains a cult show to this day.

Bingo. This is what made me originally even look at the game. The graphics and art style weren't really what I was into, but Firefly! After looking into it a bit, I was intrigued. I'm still addicted to this day, and I love the art style now!

[Gennadios]

It's definitely the pawns. Most sandbox games out there either have generic pawns, or have a promotion based pawn system where the player just sets pawns class.

This is the only game I know of where your best warriors can also end up necessary in other aspects of running the base, creating a unique pawn management dynamic.

[Vaporisor]

It's definitely the pawns. Most sandbox games out there either have generic pawns, or have a promotion based pawn system where the player just sets pawns class.

This is the only game I know of where your best warriors can also end up necessary in other aspects of running the base, creating a unique pawn management dynamic.

That probably sums it up for me better than I explained it!  My doctor currently is also a psychopath.  Lost a thumb in a fight.  Now my lvl 20 doctor runs around with a minigun and powerclaw!  If that isn't dynamic then???

[stefanstr]

+1 for Firefly - it was what made me watch the original Kickstarter pitch to the end.

For me, three main things that stand out are:

1) the game is relatively short - after a few hours, some disaster usually destroys my colony - this is a plus in my mind because I am impatient and I tend to abandon games that make it impossible to finish a playthrough in one or two sessions.
2) the storytelling-based design - every feature is designed in such a way as to be memorable. I love roleplaying and RimWorld is one of the best games for that.
3) the updates - I tend to come back to RimWorld with renewed interest after every update - and the fact that Tynan is so attuned to our feedback ensures that every new update deals with some gripe I had with the previous version. So the game keeps getting better and better.

[Zombra]

This game has a combination of elements that is perfect for me.

1) Characterization.  I love that not only every colonist, but every pirate and random passerby all use the same stat system.  But it's among my colonists that the little differences really shine.  So many skills, all essential in one way or another to the running of a colony, never with quite enough expertise to go around.  (I'm still a new player, so I haven't managed a big colony yet where there are specialists for everything.)  Also, nice little graphic touches like different colored cowboy hats and body types and so on make even these "iconic style" characters very personal and recognizable.

2) An easy to use, hard to master AI assignment system.  This is huge, as I derive great satisfaction from programming AI, but I don't know anything about real programming, so this is exactly what I like.  Why is that guy smelting slag when there's so much blood to clean up?  Better tune his AI a little better.  How come no one is cooking even though they're all hungry?  Guess I better turn down the priority on mining and construction.  And so forth.

3) A resource zoning system that, again, is simple to use and understand, but requires thoughtful planning to implement in the most pleasing or efficient way.  It's just cool to build a vault for precious metal, a barn for alpaca farming, a deep freeze for keeping meat in, and so on.  I want to keep medicine over here because it's near the hospital.  Mining waste will be out of the way over there.  Enemy corpses can be dumped in the swamp, but fallen colonists should be buried over here.  Oh but wait, if I put the farm there then my cooks will have to cut through the prison yard, so should I move the prison or the kitchen?  I set the permissions and my people haul stuff where it goes accordingly.  Again, very satisfying.

It's the combination of these elements that makes this so addictive for me.  One colonist is my best gunman, but he's also my best doctor, so should I put him at risk in combat?  My best miner is also the only decent cook; I need food and materials so how do I prioritize her work day?  And what about this supermodel who landed in one of the escape pods, but refuses to do any work at all?  Can I find some way to make her useful?

I've got a random small group of people, with random strengths and weaknesses, in an area with randomly placed resources - how do I fit it all together?  How do I want to fit it together?  What will be most fun based on the characters?  What makes sense based on the terrain?  Should I dig into the mountainside for security, or build freestanding houses because it's quicker?  Is a space-efficient block of tiny, cramped barracks a good idea for this area?  What if the nobleman wants a huge house of his own that the other colonists have to clean?  What if the psychopath wants to leave dead bodies lying everywhere as a warning to would-be attackers?  Do I want to keep the abrasive guy separated from everybody else, isolated in his research lab?  How does this colony feel about taking prisoners?  Is it fun to do something inefficiently if it seems appropriate for the characters?  How much of that can I get away with before my colony really suffers for it?  I'm asking myself questions like these all the time, while at the same time I'm struggling to survive and periodically dealing with outside antagonists and occasional disasters.

I guess the bottom line is that it's a game that engages me on several levels at once, and I like all the levels. 

[Mossy piglet]

The fact that it once generated a colonist named poopy and one named screwball.

[linkfanpc]

I'm not sure how, but the game makes me extremely attached to my colonists. Once i noticed i had Chris literally doing nothing but cooking for weeks at a time, and i felt really bad and had him go pick some patatos.

Also, whenever one of my guy's (ESPECIALLY Hayhouse my main fighter.) are wounded in a fight, i immediatly yell at one of my melee/shielded dudes "NUUUU! GO GET DAT DUDE! NOW! NOW! NOW! GO! GO! GO! Oh, woof, okay, everything's *someone else gets shot down* NUUUUU!"