Dear heavens, I am overwhelmed. I'm never overwhelmed...

[JSJ]

Hello everyone!

I'm honestly not sure if I've ever posted on the official forums before, but I really wanted to get to the deep RW community here.

I haven't played a game of RW since shortly after 1.0 release, but I am a long-time player.  I didn't have much time to play after that, and the time I did, I spent in other games.  THEN, all my time evaporated period.

Well... we're kind of under martial law here in Michigan, for all intents and purposes, due to the virus.  I have time now as even though I am disabled, I work from home as a writer and my clients do not need work with closed businesses.  

I wanted to play a GREAT game, and not spend my first few days of gaming bliss in quarantine looking at new games to see what is good and really don't have money to spend on new things with my funds in flux, I'm going with something I know is amazing, so... here I am.

I'M OVERWHELMED.  I don't know what mods are updated to the newest patch, and I haven't bought Royalty (it is kind of a tough time with what has happened with my work as mentioned above, so even though I know it is amazing, I can't justify it to my wife right now.) 

So, I don't know what mods are going to work, when I first logged in, obviously almost all of the mods I used are busted... and with not having played in a while, I do not know what changes have been made that render them obsolete? 

For instance, I used RBSE over EPOE and while I can see on the Workshop (I usually just installed most of my mods from here, but seemed easier to find updates there) that it is still a working mod, I won't know what is still necessary, and the same with other mods...

Should I really just start with the base game and adjust from what I see AGAIN?  I made a great list in the past, but if I do that, all I am going to do is try to find mods for the next few days and I was looking to avoid that...

I was going to post this in the modding forums but none of them seemed appropriate, so I came here.  Has anyone made a modlist that covers most of the QoL and "most important" mods like your RBSE or EPOE for instance, the "major" stuff I guess you would say?

I'm never overwhelmed by games or systems, but right now, there's literally thousands of what appear to be good mods, but I'm not sure what works and is necessary anymore, and I'd been apart from any of the communities.  That's on me, but is there any "base" guidance for playing with mods right now with the new update but not having the DLC? 

Honestly, when I think about loading RimWorld in Steam right now, I know it will be "work" to get it playable like I had it, essentially... I'd like to avoid that and just get a base and add to it, can any of you help?

Thanks, I know I'm asking a lot.

[JSJ]

For the record, I am thinking of just starting a game with the new "stock" RimWorld after the updates, and only play with RBSE or EPOE added... and just go through with a notebook as I play and go "hmm, this would work here" and see if there's a mod for it for the next playthrough. 

I love this freaking game and always have, so please don't mistake my lack of activity on these forums for a lack of love... I think it is definitely Top 5 games ever made, which is why I want to play it... and I've got a terabyte of games on my machine I could choose from without ever having to visit the Steam Store. 

I mean, is that my best option now?  I've looked at a few of the most recent posts, and I do see people claiming there are gaps in the game for the type of content they desire... and I think maybe enough might have been changed that I might need to just see the base content on its own again?

What do you guys think?  Most importantly, do you still consider a medical mod like EPOE or RBSE necessary? (I've always used RBSE, I want a harder game.  I've played enough that I've survived several years as a soloist on an ice sheet in RIDICULOUSLY cold temps and did some cool things.) 

It kind of seems to me from looking at this General Discussion forum that I might want to see what the stock RimWorld experience is, barring that I've always used one of those two medical mods. (If they are still necessary after the updates -- I do not know, again I have not kept up other than seeing "Damn, RimWorld got a paid DLC, that's probably kickass but I can't justify it currently as I hadn't played.") 

I don't get rid of games -- I was always coming back... like I said, though, I'm just overwhelmed and thinking a completely fresh look might be my best choice.

What do you think?

[RicRider]

I'm in your situation too. My suggestion to you is to not treat RimWorld like the way you are; I mean if you want to avoid the stress of hours of setting up and debugging mods, just play a Vanilla game at the hardest difficulty level possible. When it kicks your ass, add a few mods and try again. Go for quick games like that, adding a few mods at a time that look interesting to you and save yourself the headache of trying to work out a massive mod list.

Also here's 5 quality of life mods people really like:
- Allow Tool
- Pick up and Haul
- Small shelf
- Wall light
- Camera+

Here are my favourite mods that add content when you get bored of the Vanilla content:
- Glitter Tech
- Sparkling Worlds
- The Vanilla Expanded Series
- Megafauna
- Dinosauria
- Rimatomics
- Vegetable Garden
- Expanded Woodworking
- Seeds Please

There's obviously way more but I don't want to overwhelm you when you're already overwhelmed.

[JSJ]

I'm in your situation too. My suggestion to you is to not treat RimWorld like the way you are; I mean if you want to avoid the stress of hours of setting up and debugging mods, just play a Vanilla game at the hardest difficulty level possible. When it kicks your ass, add a few mods and try again. Go for quick games like that, adding a few mods at a time that look interesting to you and save yourself the headache of trying to work out a massive mod list.

Also here's 5 quality of life mods people really like:
- Allow Tool
- Pick up and Haul
- Small shelf
- Wall light
- Camera+

Here are my favourite mods that add content when you get bored of the Vanilla content:
- Glitter Tech
- Sparkling Worlds
- The Vanilla Expanded Series
- Megafauna
- Dinosauria
- Rimatomics
- Vegetable Garden
- Expanded Woodworking
- Seeds Please

There's obviously way more but I don't want to overwhelm you when you're already overwhelmed.

Honestly, it is more just that I haven't seen a list that people know work and haven't been able to find one that I can confirm for non-Royalty -- but I went on the Discord and one of the admins there gave me their modlist (so I am quite sure it works so that's great) plus now I have those ideas from you.

I more just saw how much of my modlist was broken -- and when I started looking through there were quite a few that did NOT update.  I didn't want to spend the hours setting up and debugging, like you said. 

Having QoL that *I know works for the newest non-Royalty version* is GREAT. 

I've been sitting looking at RimWorld for two weeks or so (whenever Royalty dropped and I went "Oh, very nice") since I opened it and looked at that initial list, and thinking "It'll be too much work to get it playable again right now." 

Knowing those mods work for the new version is GREAT and I thank you for that.

[LWM]

Enhancements CommonSense Better Workbench Management Also super awesome and very small: Wall Light Auto-cut blight Opened Doors Don't Block Light (Simple, but so satisfying) Altho I have been playing without any mods (for that vanilla experience)....until I finally said "wtf, I can't rename bills?  Time to add Improved Workbenches!" And I quickly realized that even without the need to update my storage mod to 1.1 (Deep Storage), I really missed having it, so I would have added it back quickly too. All of these can be added to a game in progress   I have really enjoyed playing vanilla and adding a little thing here (dreadlock hairstyles), a little thing there (Uranium is Green) as I go along.

[TrashMan]

It's not that difficult.
Mod info usually has all requirements and load order listed.
You have threads and wikis with mod info and general mod installing/troubleshooting.

As for good mods - check the "mods that should be part of vanilla" thread.