How complete/playable is this game?

[Rokdog]

As per the topic, just looking for an honest answer here.

I was very happy with Dwarf Fortress, Gnomoria, Terraria, Craft the World, Banished, etc., and recently Factorio. I think all of those except Terraria are still in pre-release stages, but all are very playable and I've put ~100 hours or more into each.

I like much of what I've seen and explored of this game, but with the "Early Release" gaming culture it's very hit and miss. Factorio for example, claims to still be in Alpha, but is very "complete" to me. You get the full game experience, a robust tech tree and it took me ~70 hours just to complete my first playthrough. My second game was another 30 hrs and I'm considering doing a third.

I'm having a hard time finding recent Let's Plays that give me an impression of how much content there is so far. The $30 asking price seems a bit steep, but I don't mind paying it if I'm going to get another 70+ hours of satisfying gameplay. I tend to the be the guy in my circle of friends that finds these little indie games or start-up projects that I get everyone else hooked on. I don't want to have a bad impression of the game by coming into it too early for the purchase price and then not recommending it.

If anyone could provide an honest opinion or a quick breakdown of how much there is to do in the game, that'd be great.

TL,DR: How done is this game? Should I invest now or come back in another couple of months? How much playtime have you put into it?

[superpirson]

for starters, you are asking a biased crowd. Anyone willing to respond to you has probably already invested in the game, and is already interested. myself included.

With that said, yes, this game is totally playable, and despite it's incomplete nature, I personally have probably put in excess of 70 hours into this game myself, and I wound up loving it so much that I am now modding it.

frankly ty (the dev) could probably call this a full "release" right now, given how the game is (in my experience) quite stable and whole looking. the only complaints he would get would be about lack of content, and those can easily be resolved with mods right now if you feel like there is inadequate variety.

If I were you, I would invest now.

[Mattaru]

I watched ZeroEmpires LP of Alpha 3 - the game has moved on and improved since then. I find there's lots of content - I'd happily buy the game as it is now actually, really enjoying what I'm playing so far. I've started about 5 colonies over the course of 2 alpha stages with about 8-15 hour investment in each one.

Give it a try!

[Rokdog]

Yeah I asked here because I didn't mind biased opinions. I'm fairly patient and forgiving of games in any sort of pre-release stage and just wanted to know if there was enough content to hit a 50+ playtime mark. I've spent the last hour or so poking around the forum and watching more videos, pretty sure I'm going to buy.

Correct me if I'm wrong: You survive, tech up, setup farms, rooms and zones, and expand and upgrade your base as the AI Storyteller throws curveballs at you. Decent summary? If so, how much tech is there? Three tiers, five tiers, etc?

And thank you, Mattaru for your reply. That's exactly what I was looking for. 5 colonies at 8-15 hours each is 40-75 hours, right in the range I'm looking for!

I've also noticed the developer is active on the forum, big plus there. I still don't get why other developers haven't figured out that interacting with your fans and player-base is a great buy-in for the player base.

[Rokdog]

Quick update: While exploring this game I've been on Skype telling a friend about it. While rambling about how promising it looks, I noticed he had become rather quiet minus his mouse clicks. When I asked him what he was doing? "I broke down and bought it." lol XD

So I'm going to do the same, so we can learn and fail and laugh at each other together. Thanks again!

[ITypedThis]

Honestly, RimWorld was a $30 game in Alpha 2.

Tynan, the developer is, in my opinion, the image of what consumers want when it comes to developers. He does a great job with his game, has put tons of planning into it already, actively interacts with the players on this forum, actively keeps people informed about the work he is doing, fixes most/all of the bugs presented and found in previous versions for future releases, et cetera. Best of all, he doesn't just slack off reaping in money generated from all the hype that some games get. *Cough Cough* Call of Duty *Cough Cough*

Some developers probably don't even know so much as that they have a forum for their own game.

Also, Terraria is awesome!

[db48x]

I'd say it's worth it provided you go in knowing that there's no end-game content yet, the tech "tree" is clearly just a sketch, and the storytellers aren't.

Go into it expecting to play a fort or two each time a new release is out (once every couple of months).

[Mattaru]

Quick update: While exploring this game I've been on Skype telling a friend about it. While rambling about how promising it looks, I noticed he had become rather quiet minus his mouse clicks. When I asked him what he was doing? "I broke down and bought it." lol XD

So I'm going to do the same, so we can learn and fail and laugh at each other together. Thanks again!

Tell us how you both get on in your first colonies!

[UrbanBourbon]

To me, these are the worst problems with RimWorld currently:

- Unimplemented skills and traits. Medicine skill has been there for a long time, and it still does nothing. Only 2 traits are functional that I know of. The rest of the traits (which there are dozens, hundreds) do nothing. They're just constant teasers in the character sheet, tormenting the player at every turn.

- Unimplemented items. Uranium, missiles, shells (and medkits). Been there for a long time. Good only for trading.

- No underground or above-ground levels. You're restricted to ground level. I don't expect this to change but christ-almighty it'd be awesome. I remember this being my first disappointment.

- Rudimentary targeting AI. Colonists always, ALWAYS, target the closest enemy. That makes big fights a pain in the ass when 20+ colonists consistently target the same raider. You can't order groups of colonists to target someone. You have to manually order them one by one.

- Research tree is small and gets completed far too quickly, IMO. It also lacks something bigger, but I can't quite put a finger on it.

- No 'battle stations'. When a raider attack starts, you have to manually order your colonists into positions. At 20+ colonists, it becomes an unpleasant chore.

- Lacking firefighting AI. Fires are a constant threat. You can designate a home zone which the colonists will try to keep fire-free but it's the edges of that zone that cause inconveniences. Fire gets put out, it spreads right back, while the firefighter thinks his job is done and goes to have lunch. If asleep, firefighters do not wake up to put out fires. Not even if their own room is on fire.

- The game has a tendency of assigning too many colonists to do a job if you happen to have all your colonists available for the said job. At certain times 2 guys can get a job done faster than 10 guys. Player has all the control over which colonists are allowed to do which jobs but it sort of becomes a nightmare to manage it... This is especially tedious for firefighting. Too many firefighters are almost incapable of putting out small fires. Too few firefighters, and you'll risk too many of them are sleeping or at lunch, and then you get to order them around manually.

- Task assignment blows at times. A colonist wakes up, goes to build a part of a wall, and then walks back to have lunch. Colonists do not eat at proper times, and they have no consideration over how much they can get done if they go to do some work. Colonists cannot be manually ordered to eat or rest.

- Lacking melee combat. All creatures do the same melee damage. 1-2 squirrels can shred a solitary colonist.

- Severe penalties to shooting accuracy under fog and rain weather conditions.



THE POSITIVE:
- Substantial modding potential. Mods can give you the thing that you're looking for. Modding potential is the equivalent of freedom.



Still, Tynan & co have done exceedingly great job. They've come a long way but they still have a long way to go. Of course, anyone new to the game will get a lot more out of it than I do at the moment. I enjoyed RimWorld a lot like 6 months ago. I can only assume that anyone trying the game now will get even more out of it. $30 IS a steep price for RimWorld but not entirely unjustified. If it was $20, I'd scream to anyone to just buy it.

[zipszip]

To me, these are the worst problems with RimWorld currently:

- Unimplemented skills and traits. Medicine skill has been there for a long time, and it still does nothing. Only 2 traits are functional that I know of. The rest of the traits (which there are dozens, hundreds) do nothing. They're just constant teasers in the character sheet, tormenting the player at every turn.

- Unimplemented items. Uranium, missiles, shells (and medkits). Been there for a long time. Good only for trading.

- No underground or above-ground levels. You're restricted to ground level. I don't expect this to change but christ-almighty it'd be awesome. I remember this being my first disappointment.

- Rudimentary targeting AI. Colonists always, ALWAYS, target the closest enemy. That makes big fights a pain in the ass when 20+ colonists consistently target the same raider. You can't order groups of colonists to target someone. You have to manually order them one by one.

- Research tree is small and gets completed far too quickly, IMO. It also lacks something bigger, but I can't quite put a finger on it.

- No 'battle stations'. When a raider attack starts, you have to manually order your colonists into positions. At 20+ colonists, it becomes an unpleasant chore.

- Lacking firefighting AI. Fires are a constant threat. You can designate a home zone which the colonists will try to keep fire-free but it's the edges of that zone that cause inconveniences. Fire gets put out, it spreads right back, while the firefighter thinks his job is done and goes to have lunch. If asleep, firefighters do not wake up to put out fires. Not even if their own room is on fire.

- The game has a tendency of assigning too many colonists to do a job if you happen to have all your colonists available for the said job. At certain times 2 guys can get a job done faster than 10 guys. Player has all the control over which colonists are allowed to do which jobs but it sort of becomes a nightmare to manage it... This is especially tedious for firefighting. Too many firefighters are almost incapable of putting out small fires. Too few firefighters, and you'll risk too many of them are sleeping or at lunch, and then you get to order them around manually.

- Task assignment blows at times. A colonist wakes up, goes to build a part of a wall, and then walks back to have lunch. Colonists do not eat at proper times, and they have no consideration over how much they can get done if they go to do some work. Colonists cannot be manually ordered to eat or rest.

- Lacking melee combat. All creatures do the same melee damage. 1-2 squirrels can shred a solitary colonist.

- Severe penalties to shooting accuracy under fog and rain weather conditions.



THE POSITIVE:
- Substantial modding potential. Mods can give you the thing that you're looking for. Modding potential is the equivalent of freedom.



Still, Tynan & co have done exceedingly great job. They've come a long way but they still have a long way to go. Of course, anyone new to the game will get a lot more out of it than I do at the moment. I enjoyed RimWorld a lot like 6 months ago. I can only assume that anyone trying the game now will get even more out of it. $30 IS a steep price for RimWorld but not entirely unjustified. If it was $20, I'd scream to anyone to just buy it.

I Agree.

I find that the longer I play it, the less I enjoy it. The less fresh it feels and the more of a chore it becomes. Mods are a god-send for this game and it goes to show that RimWorld has - appropriately enough - a world of potential. You just have to find it and get it.

[Rokdog]

Thanks to UrbanBourbon and zipszip as well. Nice to see the other side of the coin. A similar story can be told for other early release games to varying degrees and details.

Tell us how you both get on in your first colonies!

So far so good, but he progressed much faster than I did. I spent a lot of time early on worrying about the most efficient design and layout, but didn't know enough about the game yet to make informed decisions (I do this often with this genre.) For example, I laid out what I thought was the "perfect" base, then discovered a geo-thermal vent and metal vein in inconvenient places so had to adjust and build around them. I also didn't anticipate how large the food paste dispenser would be or the extra space needed for its hoppers.

Very early on, I made the mistake of killing a boomrat near my starting supplies without being equipped with the knowledge that Home Zone = firefighting zone. So I watched 80% of my meals and resources burn while I prayed for rain and scrambled to haul it away to safety. Needless to say this slowed down my early game start considerably. My buddy was already at about 5 colonists and I was still struggling to setup basic infrastructure. We both survived pirate attacks without too much trouble, but when my friend got to 7 colonists he got hit by a psychic wave that sent a squirrel swarm at him that cost him 2 colonists, one of them being his best gunner. ><

I also had a bunch of socially awkward colonists who all made terrible diplomatic wardens. I was up to my 3rd prisoner before I finally managed to convert one. Thankfully the ex-con had a much higher Social skill and the other two converted quickly. That's about where I left off before I had to get to bed. I did also have one cave-in, but got lucky and no colonists or objects got crushed. Speaking of which, what size rooms start causing cave-ins? I'm assuming 5x5 is safe because my prison of that size hasn't had issues. I'm thinking it's in the 7x7 or 9x9 range, but need to test.

Overall we both did pretty well, but he advanced much quicker and further than I did. He didn't burn the majority of his supplies and he was able to quickly convert prisoners, so also got further in tech.

I can already see what some others are saying and the game is lacking depth in some areas. I've already started having ideas about ways I can mod the Research list just to have more techs and maybe put in some pre-reqs. I think that's one of the major flaws in it, is that it's just a list and not a true "tree" with tiered pre-reqs. To answer my own question above about how many tiers of tech the game has? Just one. One really big one, but just one.

Oh well, I do like the replay value and think I'll sink at least 50+ hours in before the novelty wears off, and I've supported something awesome that has a lot of potential!

[KIDD]

As per the topic, just looking for an honest answer here.

I was very happy with Dwarf Fortress, Gnomoria, Terraria, Craft the World, Banished, etc., and recently Factorio. I think all of those except Terraria are still in pre-release stages, but all are very playable and I've put ~100 hours or more into each.

I like much of what I've seen and explored of this game, but with the "Early Release" gaming culture it's very hit and miss. Factorio for example, claims to still be in Alpha, but is very "complete" to me. You get the full game experience, a robust tech tree and it took me ~70 hours just to complete my first playthrough. My second game was another 30 hrs and I'm considering doing a third.

I'm having a hard time finding recent Let's Plays that give me an impression of how much content there is so far. The $30 asking price seems a bit steep, but I don't mind paying it if I'm going to get another 70+ hours of satisfying gameplay. I tend to the be the guy in my circle of friends that finds these little indie games or start-up projects that I get everyone else hooked on. I don't want to have a bad impression of the game by coming into it too early for the purchase price and then not recommending it.

If anyone could provide an honest opinion or a quick breakdown of how much there is to do in the game, that'd be great.

TL,DR: How done is this game? Should I invest now or come back in another couple of months? How much playtime have you put into it?

30-40 procent
its more or less a preview copy rather then an copy which you can enjoy
its tons of fun for a few moments then it gets boring rather fast
mods help it stay alive for longer
but you come across alot of things you say to yourself
"damn i cant wait for the full release so this major bug, or this major thing gets added which really is needed"

[KIDD]

I'd say it's worth it provided you go in knowing that there's no end-game content yet, the tech "tree" is clearly just a sketch, and the storytellers aren't.

Go into it expecting to play a fort or two each time a new release is out (once every couple of months).

this its a neat little game
but so far it is just
a "neat little game" of course that is intended to change but with current alpha it is not changed yet