Thinking about purchasing, have some questions :)

[Gnaxx]

Hi everyone !
I'm thinking about purchasing Rimworld, but I would have some questions before deciding
I looked a bit around and have found partial answers for some of them, but I would prefer clear direct answers for specific points if it's possible... Sorry if some people already asked that before ! [and please forgive my sometimes poor english]
I'll numerate the questions to make answers more convenient

1) If I buy it, it'll be through the main site ( https://rimworldgame.com/ ). I' don't have Steam and won't, is this a major issue ? (I read that mods can be very interesting and can adds a lot, but if they're mostly on steam... well, I really don't want to create a steam account only for that XD)
2) So if I buy it through the main site ( https://rimworldgame.com/ ), it'll be a DRM-free version if I'm correct. I've read the "End user license agreement", and I find this : "you purchase a perpetual license to install and use RimWorld [...] on up to five devices you own." -> I don't plan to install it on more than my two comp' (and my next computers in the future when my current ones will die of course) but I'm a bit confused Is this simply a "recommendation" ?
3) Concerning DRM-free version again... so, how does it works : I have a limited numbers of downloads, but if I run out and need to download it again before the update, I only have to contact support for them "re-enabling" me to download the game again ? I'll always be able to download it in the end ?
4) Totally DRM-free ? (sorry to ask this, but I had an issue with Humble one time with a game needing online activation while pretending being DRM-free, and I was offline on the comp' I wanted to install it :/, now I prefer to always ask before)
5) Can my comp' run it decently ?
Win7 64 bits, Intel Core i5 2300 @ 2.80GHz, 6,00 Go Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz, 1535MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 440.
---
6) I saw that you can establish new colonies ? Can you camp during a journey ?
7) I see oceans... Can you sail them ? Is there really a whole planet to explore ?
8 ) Are really each game that much different ? (if it's really the case, that must be awesome Aren't you bored in the end ?
9) What can be the biggest flaw ? (in few words )(it's simply to know if there could be big "no"). I love Don't Starve, Factorio, and loved the few of Dwarf Fortress I played... but this later would really needs UI improvements, it's the only thing preventing me to coming back to it :S I like Prison Architect too of course (even if not as much as the others)

That's a lot of questions, sorry for that. Thanks in advance for any help

PS : Special thanks to the capcha for helping me reviewing & improving my english XD

[SpaceDorf]

First : Buy from Ludeon directly.
Tynan gets all the Moneys and you get the Steam Key as well.

1.) I got about 250 mods running without ever using Steam. Most Mods are available both on steam and the forum, with a few exceptions that are either forum only or steam only.
Though the chance that someone republishes a Steam Mod on the Forum is higher than the other way around.

2/3.) You get a SendOwl Link where you can download Rimworld 7 Times for each OS. When your DL's are used up, you can request a new SendOwl Link from Ludeon.

4.) YES. Totally Free, Unzip and Play.

5.) Yes
6.) There is a mod for that
7.) Nope You can't sail, but you can traverse all of the dry land.
8.) Yes, and sometimes ..
9.) Same Endgame Flaws as DF .. your Colony might die of FPS Death, Boredom, Chicksplosion, the Ultimate Raid or Mood Spiral.

[Calahan]

1 - You will only need to activate the game on Steam if you want:

a) A mod that is /only/ available in the Steam Workshop (although most mod creators will offer alternative download options for non-Steam users). There's a huge number of mods available on this forum https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?board=15.0 , and maybe elsewhere as well (Nexus?). And while there might well be some mods that are Steam Workshop only (for whatever reason decided by the mod author), the likelihood is that a similar mod will be available elsewhere.

b) To play the unstable releases that have appeared shortly before the official release. (note this has happened for the last few versions released, and while I am personally expecting that pattern to continue, there is no guarantee that it will, nor that the unstable builds will be made available before official release going forward. But as I said I think they will since I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be).

2 - I'm not in a position to definitively state and/or define a condition in the EULA, but my understanding is that that passage is there to cover cases where a user installs the game on dozens if not hundreds of devices. As without such a passage the user could try to claim that they assumed such action was allowed under the license agreement, and specifically because the EULA didn't state otherwise. Hence the EULA has to quantify the limits of the license in some way so as to avoid abuse, and lay the ground for potential prosecution in the events of abuse. (I'm not a lawyer, so don't take that as gospel, and this is just my own personal understanding of it and nothing official, and shouldn't be taken as an official reply/stance).

3) You will be sent your own personal SendOwl link from which you can always download the latest released version of the game. The counter is reset to 7 after every new major release.

If at any point you need the download counter reset, then you just need to send an email to the support team for them to arrange that.

4) Yep totally DRM-free. Doesn't even install itself. Just unzip the archive and play.

5) Easily. Although note that the performance of the game will largely depend on what settings you use. eg. lot of mods, large maps/worlds, playing on speed x3, large bases with dozens of Pawns / hundreds or animals, will all impact performance. And this is true regardless of the specifications of the computer (obviously more powerful computers will cope better than otherwise, but they'll still be affected by the user's choice of settings regardless).

[Bolgfred]

1-4) I am not very sure about the non-steam Versions. But I think Mr. Sylvester is a trustworthy person who doesn't do much finickiness about this, so trust him and buy the game. And I think the non-steam includes the steam aswell, so youre gonna get your game anyway. Buy the game!

5) I am Running smoothly on a 1,3ghz singe core laptop with cpu graphics - don't worry about performance. Buy the game
6) Yes you can establish multiple colonies. AFAIK you cannot rest while traveling per definition, but events can happen while traveling which load a complete map, that can be used like youre resting for 24h or sth. Not very sure about this, but traveling is more thought for transportation than the journey itself.
7) Nope, no water interaction. The important parts of the world, I think, are biomes and factions. Depending on the biomes you settle, ressources, seasons and wildlife change. Depending on surrounding factions, Events and Trade options change. You can visit every Site and there are events you need to travel for, or travel for trading, but the major part is on your map in your colony, or multiple colonies, if you have multiple colonies. Buy the game.

8 ) Yes you might be bored in the end, but thats okay. The day after you got bored, you probably start again.
The games aren't the same. RImworld is very depending on Random events. You cannot predict whats going to attack you next or control what colonists you will get.
Sometime it gets very ugly when Jack's cat died, which causes him to take drugs, get depressed and Shot sherrif Johnson, who actually wasn't a sheriff, but the best cook, what means people eat raw food, get poisoning and die because of flu and damnit, A wild boar is attacking...
...Most of the time it's not the same. The maps are random generated and colonist have quite unique behaviours, so your game tells different stories every time. Buy the game!

9) Blasphemy! Dwarf Fortress needs no UI improvements, sinner! Buy Rimworld!

edit: I don't want to name a specific flaw, as I don't think I have a specific one, but you might read this thread to get a feel for the game. Buy the game!

[Gnaxx]

First : Buy from Ludeon directly.
Tynan gets all the Moneys and you get the Steam Key as well.

1.) I got about 250 mods running without ever using Steam. Most Mods are available both on steam and the forum, with a few exceptions that are either forum only or steam only.
Though the chance that someone republishes a Steam Mod on the Forum is higher than the other way around.

2/3.) You get a SendOwl Link where you can download Rimworld 7 Times for each OS. When your DL's are used up, you can request a new SendOwl Link from Ludeon.

4.) YES. Totally Free, Unzip and Play.

5.) Yes
6.) There is a mod for that
7.) Nope You can't sail, but you can traverse all of the dry land.
8.) Yes, and sometimes ..
9.) Same Endgame Flaws as DF .. your Colony might die of FPS Death, Boredom, Chicksplosion, the Ultimate Raid or Mood Spiral.

That's what I was hoping (in addition that I really don't plan to use steam ). We do agree, it's through this page : https://rimworldgame.com/ ?
1-5) Perfect
6) That's a bit surprising that it's not in the base game ? Does it feels "lacking" without the mod ? (but I don't think it would be deal-breaking )
7) It seems there's already a lot to do Was mostly curious.
8 ) I see...
9) Hum, I guess you can easily spend at least one hundred of hours before you're good enough to arrive at this stage and that this happens :B

1 - You will only need to activate the game on Steam if you want:

a) A mod that is /only/ available in the Steam Workshop (although most mod creators will offer alternative download options for non-Steam users). There's a huge number of mods available on this forum https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?board=15.0 , and maybe elsewhere as well (Nexus?). And while there might well be some mods that are Steam Workshop only (for whatever reason decided by the mod author), the likelihood is that a similar mod will be available elsewhere.

b) To play the unstable releases that have appeared shortly before the official release. (note this has happened for the last few versions released, and while I am personally expecting that pattern to continue, there is no guarantee that it will, nor that the unstable builds will be made available before official release going forward. But as I said I think they will since I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be).

2 - I'm not in a position to definitively state and/or define a condition in the EULA, but my understanding is that that passage is there to cover cases where a user installs the game on dozens if not hundreds of devices. As without such a passage the user could try to claim that they assumed such action was allowed under the license agreement, and specifically because the EULA didn't state otherwise. Hence the EULA has to quantify the limits of the license in some way so as to avoid abuse, and lay the ground for potential prosecution in the events of abuse. (I'm not a lawyer, so don't take that as gospel, and this is just my own personal understanding of it and nothing official, and shouldn't be taken as an official reply/stance).

3) You will be sent your own personal SendOwl link from which you can always download the latest released version of the game. The counter is reset to 7 after every new major release.

If at any point you need the download counter reset, then you just need to send an email to the support team for them to arrange that.

4) Yep totally DRM-free. Doesn't even install itself. Just unzip the archive and play.

5) Easily. Although note that the performance of the game will largely depend on what settings you use. eg. lot of mods, large maps/worlds, playing on speed x3, large bases with dozens of Pawns / hundreds or animals, will all impact performance. And this is true regardless of the specifications of the computer (obviously more powerful computers will cope better than otherwise, but they'll still be affected by the user's choice of settings regardless).

1)b) Unstable release : how long is the waiting time between them and final releases ? If it's short enough, not really a worry
2) That's what I was thinking too, which would be perfectly logical. Since I'm only discovering Ludeon Studios ( & Tynan), I prefer asking questions to know them better Of course you aren't "officially responding" for them, but you know more them than me
3-4) Perfect
5) I'm aware & expecting that kind of things don't worry XD So nothing surprising. Was wondering if requirements were high fast. And I'm not a big mod user

1-4) I am not very sure about the non-steam Versions. But I think Mr. Sylvester is a trustworthy person who doesn't do much finickiness about this, so trust him and buy the game. And I think the non-steam includes the steam aswell, so youre gonna get your game anyway. Buy the game!

5) I am Running smoothly on a 1,3ghz singe core laptop with cpu graphics - don't worry about performance. Buy the game
6) Yes you can establish multiple colonies. AFAIK you cannot rest while traveling per definition, but events can happen while traveling which load a complete map, that can be used like youre resting for 24h or sth. Not very sure about this, but traveling is more thought for transportation than the journey itself.
7) Nope, no water interaction. The important parts of the world, I think, are biomes and factions. Depending on the biomes you settle, ressources, seasons and wildlife change. Depending on surrounding factions, Events and Trade options change. You can visit every Site and there are events you need to travel for, or travel for trading, but the major part is on your map in your colony, or multiple colonies, if you have multiple colonies. Buy the game.

8 ) Yes you might be bored in the end, but thats okay. The day after you got bored, you probably start again.
The games aren't the same. Rimworld is very depending on Random events. You cannot predict whats going to attack you next or control what colonists you will get.
Sometime it gets very ugly when Jack's cat died, which causes him to take drugs, get depressed and Shot sherrif Johnson, who actually wasn't a sheriff, but the best cook, what means people eat raw food, get poisoning and die because of flu and damnit, A wild boar is attacking...
...Most of the time it's not the same. The maps are random generated and colonist have quite unique behaviours, so your game tells different stories every time. Buy the game!

9) Blasphemy! Dwarf Fortress needs no UI improvements, sinner! Buy Rimworld!

edit: I don't want to name a specific flaw, as I don't think I have a specific one, but you might read this thread to get a feel for the game. Buy the game!

1-4) That's nice to hear about the creator Nah, I'm really not interested by Steam
5) Ok !
6) Same question : do you feel it's lacking ?
7-8) Sounds really awesome
9) Dwarf Fortress' UI is... well it can be enough... but its tediousness is THE thing who prevents me to come back to it more often
Ah, your link seems broken.
Hum... I guess this answers too to my silent question : I should buy Rimworld

@All
Thank you very much for the fast & precise answers, who're exactly what I needed & wanted to know. I tried to stay very short in my answers, but I really appreciate all the details you put in yours
Big thanks to you !
I still have to think a bit about it : price is still a bit high for my wallet. I think it's worth it, it's only my wallet who isn't too big
But there are good chances I'll take it some day (I must say I'm very tempted right now!)

Edit : Oh, are there chances that the DRM-free version may be left on profit to steam-only version ? (I'm simply thinking of the worst scenario for me )

[Calahan]

b) To play the unstable releases that have appeared shortly before the official release. (note this has happened for the last few versions released, and while I am personally expecting that pattern to continue, there is no guarantee that it will, nor that the unstable builds will be made available before official release going forward. But as I said I think they will since I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be).

1)b) Unstable release : how long is the waiting time between them and final releases ? If it's short enough, not really a worry

Depends on several variables, but I'd say usually 2-3 weeks.

Tynan doesn't release the unstable build to the masses until it's getting close to a final release, so the only way the wait between unstable and final would be significantly longer than 2-3 weeks is if something really major came up during the unstable testing (and something which somehow got past the internal testing phase that comes before all the above. Making such a scenario somewhat unlikely).

[Gnaxx]

1)b) Unstable release : how long is the waiting time between them and final releases ? If it's short enough, not really a worry

Depends on several variables, but I'd say usually 2-3 weeks.

Tynan doesn't release the unstable build to the masses until it's getting close to a final release, so the only way the wait between unstable and final would be significantly longer than 2-3 weeks is if something really major came up during the unstable testing (and something which somehow got past the internal testing phase that comes before all the above. Making such a scenario somewhat unlikely).

Oh, I was afraid of a lot more time XD This is not an issue so ! Several weeks is very reasonable

[Lemonater47]

I don't understand people not wanting to make steam accounts.

Makes things so much easier these days. I mean in 2005 it was a faff, annoying as hell and something no one wanted. But today I don't really see a reason not to.

[Bozobub]

A good reason to buy directly from Ludeon, THEN link to Steam, is that then Ludeon gets the full sale price.

[Gnaxx]

I don't understand people not wanting to make steam accounts.

Makes things so much easier these days. I mean in 2005 it was a faff, annoying as hell and something no one wanted. But today I don't really see a reason not to.

XD
I don't understand people wanting others make steam accounts, when they especially say they don't want to
Steam's policy, EULA, already have several accounts in other stores who suffice (& are DRM-free), don't want & need a client, etc...
I know some love steam, simply please understand some others don't I'm not saying that aggressively ! I only try to tell you that not everyone thinks the same, that's all. But that's not the center of the topic [and please remember english isn't my first language if you find some phrases badly phrased/a bit rude, I'm really answering peacefully]

A good reason to buy directly from Ludeon, THEN link to Steam, is that then Ludeon gets the full sale price.

Yep And Ludeon is DRM-Free, which is what I'm looking for

[Bolgfred]

I don't understand people wanting others make steam accounts, when they especially say they don't want to

I can explain this one to you, listen please:

We Steam-Users are afraid from those non-Steam-Users, because we feel threatened by their abilitiy to manage their mod-folders by themselves. We Steam-Users just 'like' the mods in our workshops and they magically appear in our games. People who are able to understand this magic are really scary, so we try to make them steam-users aswell.

[Bozobub]

To any given user, Steam can be a convenience and/or a barrier to play, in some way; BOTH can be true at the same time, point of fact.  If anyone sees a different result to that equation, they have the option to choose the method they prefer, that simple.  I cannot see how this confuses anyone at all.

[Gnaxx]

I don't understand people wanting others make steam accounts, when they especially say they don't want to

I can explain this one to you, listen please:

We Steam-Users are afraid from those non-Steam-Users, because we feel threatened by their abilitiy to manage their mod-folders by themselves. We Steam-Users just 'like' the mods in our workshops and they magically appear in our games. People who are able to understand this magic are really scary, so we try to make them steam-users aswell.

I don't want to derail this thread too much so I'll stay short...
This is a very important point : I do agree steam workshop is very handy for steam users. But this is mainly because games often lacks tools for easily managing mods in their games in the user side.
Though, I think we should all have the choice of our store & the way we have access to mods, and steam workshop begin to "lock" some games through "exclusive" mods, and I don't like the future it may bring : games mainly depending of one big shop, with mods depending of its official workshop = of its conditions of agreement (not only worrying for us, players, but for modders & their work too).
I like to have the choice, and I like that others have the choice too, that's all
(and of course I understand perfectly that you can like steam )

To any given user, Steam can be a convenience and/or a barrier to play, in some way; BOTH can be true at the same time, point of fact.  If anyone sees a different result to that equation, they have the option to choose the method they prefer, that simple.  I cannot see how this confuses anyone at all.

As long as there is the choice, that's the most important, I totally agree !

[gipothegip]

A good reason to buy directly from Ludeon, THEN link to Steam, is that then Ludeon gets the full sale price.

I wish I had known that when I first bought the game. You also get the prototype pack, if I'm not mistaken.

I probably should've gotten it straight from Ludeon, but I first saw the game on Steam and didn't know getting it straight from Ludeon was any different than getting it from Steam.