Favorite biome (with the new ones in mind too)

[Walkaboutout]

So I'm curious as to what your favorite biomes are, and why?

I've been playing again after taking a break, and my first game was temperate forest. I liked it well enough (I started on it primarily to try collecting Boomalopes for their chemfuel), but for various reasons, I've started a second game.

This time I started in my old favorite, boreal forest, and I'd forgotten how much I liked that setting. I love the atmosphere, the dangers that winters can represent, and the animal diversity. I miss the wild Boomalopes, but my thought is to buy a couple or to catch a lucky herd migration event or something. The Elk and Caribou herds are awesome for meat, and the mix of arctic and timber wolves are enjoyable (if occasionally dangerous). Plus the occasional Warg is neat, though they're a bit harder to maintain if you tame them. Need to make sure there's meat around or stuff on the map for them to hunt, etc.

At any rate, I would love to hear your thoughts! I've never done arid shrubland, but I think I'd like to try it, just for the wandering Elephants alone.

[TheMeInTeam]

If I had to pick just one, extreme desert with tribal.  The BS predators that force pixel hunts/mods so common to tundra are rare here and weaker.  It's a challenging start but can grow into a solid colony fast.  Growing locations are unorthodox but there's surprisingly plenty of arable land for food + industry.

I so want to make tribal ice sheet on extreme difficulty w/o cannibalism work, but the tools aren't there without some major abuses.

[Call me Arty]

 Temperate aren't interesting or challenging enough.
Deserts are nice, but I've played too damn many games that take place in deserts (I'm looking at you New Vegas), I can't stand orange or brown any more.
I don't want to have to prioritize moisture pumps over defense and medicine, swamps are out.
Mountainous Tundras though? THAT is my jam. I love having to combat all of the threats: The cold, insects losing their hives when the first cold hits, predator takeovers after they went through your fresh meat supply, hydroponics becoming a major priority, etc. Mods can make it feel great, too. Vampire mod? You're playing 30 Days of Night. Get some Lovecraft mods? You're playing Mountains of Madness. Got enough turret mods ad Rimsenal's Federation mods? It's Star Wars: Episode V.

[xrumblingcdsx]

Ice Sheet on a very cold map. It's more challenging and thus more fun than the other maps.

Before Icesheet I'd always find the coldest mountainous map possible with a tribal start. Almost always had ro resort to cannibalism.

[Dashthechinchilla]

I like arid and desert because that is my real life biome. I will play in, but I really don't like snow.

[grrizo]

Temperate forest is like the vainilla one. Simple and balanced whatsoever, but boring after a few games.
I also like Boreal forest, and I found Arid Shrubland very interesting too. Lacks of wood, but the huge meatballs creatures are a pro.

So... I'm between those two.

[glob]

I prefer boreal forest, with real winter and balanced winter/summer temperature. -20/+20 is the ideal. The only thing I don't like is the winter penalty on movement of caravans. Also it is impossible to grow devilstrand till the endgame, it would be much better to have them at 70-75% on 5th septober. The rainier the better, at least 1000mm, but >1500 is better.

[gipothegip]

I enjoy the boreal forest myself. Deserts are fun to play on as well.

I don't like the new swamp biomes much, at least the one I played on. I think I did a temeperate swamp. There were too many trees to do anything, I felt all I was doing was cutting trees.

[Foefaller]

I think arctic/high altitude biomes are my favorite overall. Cold is much harder to deal with than heat in Rimworld for a variety of reasons, so having to deal with cold snaps and snow and short growing seasons (especially for tribal) is much more interesting. Haven't tried a high latitude desert yet though, might be the next for me.

I'm also starting to think Large hills is my preferred topography as well, enough natural stone to incorporate into defense, but not so much that having enough vegetation on the map for wildlife and forestry is an issue. If it's a coastal tile, I can still get the advantage of blocking off all raids from at least one cardinal direction as well.

[Foefaller]

Temperate forest is like the vainilla one. Simple and balanced whatsoever, but boring after a few games.
I also like Boreal forest, and I found Arid Shrubland very interesting too. Lacks of wood, but the huge meatballs creatures are a pro.

So... I'm between those two.

Arid Shrubrand was actually the original biome, as fitting for a Space Western ascetic.

I like it too, but it's year-round growing season + it can still get rich soil (unlike deserts) means that food is rarely ever an issue without ever having to touch hydroponics, even if you'll have to grow a tree farm to make up for the lack of vegetation.

[grrizo]

Arid Shrubrand was actually the original biome, as fitting for a Space Western ascetic.

I like it too, but it's year-round growing season + it can still get rich soil (unlike deserts) means that food is rarely ever an issue without ever having to touch hydroponics, even if you'll have to grow a tree farm to make up for the lack of vegetation.

Exactly. And the soundtrack sounds 120% cooler in that biome 

[Kirby23590]

In the past in A14 and some of the new Tropical-ly new trees and plants in the biome in B18.

I'll say the Tropical Rainforest. Because it's permanent summer there means that you can still grow in winter. With the plants and trees, the teak trees grown naturally there because teak trees give you more wood than other trees ( 60 wood vs 50 oak tree wood. ) though arguably tropical swamps or other swamps have more trees but they may not be fully grown yet. which is good for colonies ( especially tribals. ) at the start.

Because it's permanent summer means you have to focus building air conditioning for the colony and the freezer. But have heaters just in case that if randy decides to throw in a Cold Snap. Though luckily it means that you can save parkas in storage and keeping dusters to keep off the heat. Though heat waves are deadlier in biomes with permanent summer i think.

But the sleeping sickness and the increased malaria in the rainforest and the tropical swamp makes it hard to settle there and the movement speed in the world map is slow as a snail unless you don't care about quests. Sleeping sickness takes for days unlike malaria which takes for a few days but can easily kill an old or poorly treated colonist.

Unless you're stockpiled with Penoxycyline which will turn it annoying at best. This is why i said a favorite in the past. It may not be worth it unless you want a challenge or for the risk rewards because of the terrain or because of the animals there when tamed.

I prefer Temperate forests or Arid shrublands but building in the jungle can be nice and a challenge if difficult to build a colony there that can last for years.

[Albion]

For an easy time I look for a temperate forest map with a very long growing period (preferably the whole year) and small to large hills.
The hills provide you with stone blocks and other resources for strong walls and smooth floors which give the best beauty bonus, can't burn down and level up your constructor when he's smoothing the floors.
You also end up with lots of wildlife and some rich soils for food production.

That being said my actual favourite biome is ice sheet. It's challenging, especially in the beginning but once you got a decent colony running it's very rewarding to know that you wrestled it to the ground.
There are also some surprising benefits:
Very little diseases. They almost never happen.
The thick snow that'll quickly cover the map slows down raiders to a crawl. You'll have lots of time to set up your defense and get into position before they show up.
You never have to worry about your (human) meat spoiling. Just put it outside under a roof. It's cold enough.

There are some downsides though:
You're 100% reliant on hydroponics. A solar flare will therefore kill your entire harvest.
It's occasionally that cold that you can't request caravans because the temperatures are unsafe.
Your colonists have to walk around with a parka all the time which gives a small penalty to work speed.

Ice sheet is a harsh mistress. She is cold and inhospitable but if you manage to warm up her heart it's a rewarding feeling and a great companion.

[sick puppy]

oh, easily arid shrubland
you can really see that it was the original biome
the devs had lots and lots of time to perfect it in every single regard, except for lacking a proper bog. i like a few nice little swampy areas. but not the whole damn map...