Is there much point to playing Tribal?

[corestandeven]

Started my first game as tribal last week and i must admit I do not see the point. You don't get any unique techs (that I can see), no unique objects or items to produce, you have a permanent penalty for future research (unless you mod this), and you are quickly outpaced technologically by opponents. If a poison ship lands and you face mechanoids it is essentially game over.

All in all, the only point I see is for those who like role playing and to make the game both harder and longer. Also the starting techs at tribal make little sense. You can build a sculpting station to make art, but you cant create bricks because you need to research it. You can build sleeping bags, but you cant make a bed until you have researched it. If you can build a table, and you can make a sleeping bag, it is not exactly rocket science to make a bed.

I would have expected some unique techs or advantages to being tribal (e.g. permican take less food to produce, unique produce to grow, better hunting equipment, brewing, devilstrand etc already researched), but it just seems a permanent handicap to gameplay and not much else. If I have missed something I'd appreciate being told, as this game I'm playing is just pretty dull and slow.

[SzQ]

You covered most of it. Most likely it is just for:

those who like role playing and to make the game both harder and longer.

Various people various fun source. Done.

[NiftyAxolotl]

I play tribal and added the Stove Tech mod, so I have to start with a campfire for meals.

[Canute]

Tribal start is that you exchange 2 more starting people against a higher research cost.
All Scenario's are allways the same gameplay, just with other difficults.

[Harry_Dicks]

Maybe some people like the idea of going from neolithic to transcendent tech. Especially with the two main tech advancing mods, it can be a lot of fun if you don't rush through technology, and sort of have "phases" as you progress through the game. Tribal->Medieval->Industrial->Spacer->Beyond

If it simply isn't your flavor, surely you can see how others could enjoy this.

[corestandeven]

Thanks for replies so far. My hope was that there would be a different playstyle for the tribal start, maybe even with different tech available or tribal benefits. Tribal just seems to drag the whole experience out, and Rimworld doesnt really need more of that (especially in late game). Equally just having two extra people at the start is not a great benefit when faced with a permanent tech speed penalty.

My hope is that when the game gets to 1.0 we do get DLC that focuses on tribal factions. A tech tree only available to tribal factions would be cool.  Equally a DLC that focusses on Rich Explorer start ups would be great, e.g. a unique glitterworld tech tree.

[corestandeven]

If it simply isn't your flavor, surely you can see how others could enjoy this.

Of course, and I wouldn't dream of telling someone they are wrong in how they play or enjoy it their game. I was just interested to know how others do enjoy this.

I get the whole playing in tech phases, and that is what drew me to start a new game as tribal, but I don't really much difference in the tribal vs. crash-landed starts in terms of gameplay, tech, or aesthetics. The only main difference is being highly disadvantaged, making the whole game harder as you never advance in tech level, and so having the game slowed right down.

[SzQ]

One more thing from me.
What hit me the most is that it really feels good and fulfill when you get that one tech. In crashlanded it's just "reaserch complete" and i'm like, Well ok.

[Canute]

My hope is that when the game gets to 1.0 we do get DLC that focuses on tribal factions. A tech tree only available to tribal factions would be cool.  Equally a DLC that focusses on Rich Explorer start ups would be great, e.g. a unique glitterworld tech tree.

DLC are nothing different then mods.
There are mod which enhance the tribal/medivial gameplay with weapons/armor und buildings.
With other mods "Faction control" you can forbid mechanoids and other advance factions.

[Harry_Dicks]

My hope is that when the game gets to 1.0 we do get DLC that focuses on tribal factions. A tech tree only available to tribal factions would be cool.  Equally a DLC that focusses on Rich Explorer start ups would be great, e.g. a unique glitterworld tech tree.

See what you are asking for is a sort of "branched tech" where something is available to one colony but not another, based on what tech they start with? Really, why couldn't an industrial or spacer level colony make anything that a local tribe could make, assuming they have access to the same resources?

Honestly, I really don't want to ever see Ludeon make content for RimWorld where any of it is "locked" behind a scenario and only a scenario, like you have suggested. I'm sorry but I think that is a poor idea, especially from a development standpoint. It's like you are going to make content that some of your audience will never even get to experience, because you know not everyone is going to replay this game over and over again with all of the different scenarios.

Nothing personal, but bad idea, in my opinion

[Ser Kitteh]

Tribal playthroughs are more or less designed for you to become regular colonists. While I've kept to the neotlithic playstyle before by not researching electricity, the game very much nudges you to research enough to become non-tribal. This is pretty much the case with combat. You either ditch your bows or spears or else a ship part is gonna murder your tribe.

While I do like mods like tribal essentials that make tribal playthroughs more fun, staying tribal in vanilla in the case of sticking to bows and not researching electricity is basically willingly handicapping yourself. At some point, your tribals will look or feel any different from normal colonies.

Look at the clothes: there's really one and that's tribalwear. War masks and veils help but the fact you can't wear a vest over tribalwear is supremely silly. It ignores how tribals do in fact have armor in the form od chainmail (see the Moros) or sleeveless gambessons (see the Actez).

[Dashthechinchilla]

I don't think you are meant to build your own space ship in tribal. You start with pemmican, so you start with the ability to travel. I think tribal was meant to escape with the friendly AI more easily than the other two starts. You don't even need to reach the end of the research tree to do that.

[RemingtonRyder]

Tribal starts have been lots of fun when I've played them.

It's a different flavour of story. Sometimes that means setting aside the quaint old tribalwear in favour of pants and button-down shirts.

While 'advanced' colonies can get apparel production going at full speed with the electric tailoring bench, tribal villages often have to make do with the non-powered tailoring bench. So they need twice as many crafters assigned to tailoring, all other things being equal.

However, because pemmican needs meat, and meat comes from butchering, and hides are almost always an extra product from butchering, most tribal villages will have an abundance of hides which can be turned into clothing.

Although tribal-era ranged weapons generally have a low rate of fire, they're quite cheap to produce (unless you're in an extreme biome) and they're good at wounding lightly-armoured enemies.

When you start as tribal, you will find it easier to recruit enemy tribals to the colony, while finding it more difficult to recruit pirates. I find that if my village has a skilled warden, it can end up absorbing many captured tribals. Strength in numbers.

[Wanderer_joins]

The only main difference is being highly disadvantaged, making the whole game harder as you never advance in tech level, and so having the game slowed right down.

That's it, a different challenge once you've explored the crashlanded scenario, pair it with different biomes like ice sheet and it's another vanilla experience. It's also a very good scenario for low tech mods like tribal essentials, medieval times, faction control, call of Cthulhu...

A long lasting advantage of playing tribal is that it'll be easier to recruit tribespeople, allowing to be more picky in the colonists you recruit or having a larger pop more easily.

[Grubfist]

no unique objects or items to produce

Only tribals can produce the War Veil and War Mask items.