Newcomer, interested in rimworld...some questions

[Xerberus86]

hey guys, knew about rimworld since alpha one but never really gotten the time to research about it and decide wether i wanna jump in to it.

currently watching mathas alpha 6 rimworld lets play and the game looks great. i am currently primarily playing dwarf fortress 2014 (got new feature update ) and my survival simulation genre-itch (or how you wanna call it) got bigger. i am a HUGE fan of the firefly movie and series (both i have watched at least 3 times).

i will most likely join the moldly alpha-bunch and i am curious when the dev has planned to release the game. now don't read this as "i want it to be released soon.", i completely understand that good things take time and an answer mich leads to a longer planned developement period is more satisfying for me than saying  "we'll hit beta next month".

rimworld has already some great game mechanics implemented and i hope that future features / mechanics will build on synergies between those already existing mechanics (colonist mentality, body parts and health system, deep item statistics, etc.).

from the current videos i could find thus far it seems that the most common threads are:
- raiders (both small groups trying to raid and more like siegers)
- environmental hasards like storms and lightning strikes
- cyberkinetic aliens
- local wildlife going BOOM

...are there other plans for more kinds of dangers? i think with enough gameplay mechanics implemented, adding some new kinds would be quite easy and / or modding some in could be easy enough (no modder myself sadly). but what about the inner dangers? right now it seems if you have a pretty "secure" colony then the only real danger are some random artillery shots and some environmental hasards. maybe having some violence and some traicherous colonists might be a nice idea, or some colonists just go crazy or get possessed by an alien artifact. having some kind of zombies (personal opinion / idea) might be interesting....maybe less like walking dead but more like dead space zombies? an obelisk which appears and might reanimate the fallen colonists & raiders?

dwarf fortress is a great game and i will play it an & off for the near and distant future but games like rimworld have the potential to add their own flavor, drawing inspiration from the "800 pound gorilla" and might even improve on things. my biggest complaint / trouble / problem with those kind of games is that lategame they get too easy, nothing is really happening and "FUN" is only happening if you let it happening. in dwarf fortress that means you can build your fort up to a point where it can be selfsustaining without your input and where is no real danger left. now vampires for example and "crimes" can and will be FUN and give some challenge but they can be dealt with easily and lategame you can close-off your fort and nobody can go in. (cage traps for example are completely OP, you can catch a dragon with a wooden cage without any failure-state...100% gurantee that he will go in the cage-trap).

in rimworld i think adding artillery is a nice incentive, if i remember correctly, in the beginning i saw some dynamite being in the game where the enemy could destroy your walls and attack you....is this still possible? i think adding lategame danger like sieges with artillery, some mind-bending drones and some cyberkinetic aliens might be interesting and i hope that things will get added which also might pose a constant danger lategame. some of the most fun moments i had / have in dwarf fortress is when in the cave below a forgotten beast awakes. my last fort got destroyed by one consisting of precious opal, he had already his arms and one leg missing and yet murdered my whole fortress by deadly headbanging them^^. are there some kinds of monsters / aliens or lategame super-threads planned?  i read something about ancient ruins on the kickstarter page, i think adding some exploration to such games might be a huge point differentiation them from the mass.

sorry for the wall of text, can't wait to join the moldly crew .

ps: i read in one thread about alpha 7 something about clothemaking and stuff....does that mean that besides visual appearences we could have some clothing / armor system which would actually matter? i also read that getting / providing food is pretty easy, why not give each colonist a different food consumption rate based on their body volume (aka fat people eat more than thin ones) and / or people with hard jobs like mining need more food and growing food / harvesting food could be scaled based on a herbalist skill (bad herbalist harvest less plants than good ones...aka harvesting 10 berry bushes with a newby herbalist might only give you 3 berries while with a good herbalist might give you 6-7 berries).

edit: i also read somthing about more Z levels, is this still planned or a discarded idea?

thanks for ya patience

[Neurotoxin]

I'll try to address this as best I can.

Z levels. No. Long story short is that it's too much work for too little payoff because it'd require changing almost everything from AI pathing, to the UI etc..

Release date. The hard release date is When it's ready. That's honestly the best you'll get and I understand why that is. I've seen devs give release dates and it turns into a firestorm when uh-oh we had a major setback.

As for threats, I'm sure there'll be more along the way and better AI etc, not that there's anything inherently wrong with it as it is. Yes they can blow holes in your walls, beat down doors and cause massive amounts off destruction BUT they typically try to find the easiest way in. Beating down a door is a lot faster than going through a wall for instance.

Unless I actually build a ship to escape, there is always an end to my colony at some point. Too many raiders, coupled with a blight that causes colonists to starve right after a mechanoid ship crashes and starts to slowly drive everyone crazy. I've lost colonies to squirrels.

A7 will bring prosthetic limbs and improve on the new health system and the clothing thing you've been reading about is a new system Tynan is working on to allow things to be made out of stuff. For example walls made of metal, stone or silver, clothing made from leather, cloth, metal, etc.. and I'm certain, if not in A7 we'll likely see those arbitrary stuffs modify damage resistance and/or skills (I think modifying skill has already been in the changelog?).

Welcome to the forum btw and I hope you really enjoy the game. I know I have.

[Xerberus86]

thanks neurotoxin for answering most of my questions, in fact i just bought the game. after paying via paypal the initial ludeon.com page referred me to a download page. am i right in the assumption that i better save this link because it seems there isn't any account area to download the game :/.

regarding zombies there seems to be already a mod . also it seems modding is heavily supported and already quite active in this community which is always a good sign .

i saw in the alpha 5 video that rimworld collects data if you allow it to do it and i think this time i will make an exception and will let him collect all the data, which in a case of this game should be quite important balance-wise .

[UrbanBourbon]

Any sort of final release is at least several months away. If you look at the RimWorld Kickstarter page, there's a development roadmap. Many of the steps have been completed, and a few remain. There's another thread in which Tynan listed time it has taken between each alpha so far, and so far they've come out every 30-50 days. My gut says we'll see at least 3 more alphas and after that it's anyone's guess how long Tynan will keep perfecting the game.

This is the thread btw...
http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5771.0

[Neurotoxin]

thanks neurotoxin for answering most of my questions, in fact i just bought the game. after paying via paypal the initial ludeon.com page referred me to a download page. am i right in the assumption that i better save this link because it seems there isn't any account area to download the game :/.

regarding zombies there seems to be already a mod . also it seems modding is heavily supported and already quite active in this community which is always a good sign .

i saw in the alpha 5 video that rimworld collects data if you allow it to do it and i think this time i will make an exception and will let him collect all the data, which in a case of this game should be quite important balance-wise .

Yeah hang on to that link. Although with every release you should get an email with the link, it's your link and won't change. Save it just in case you don't get the email right away for w/e reason. Although if anything happens like that Tynan has a history of being really quick to address people with those and similar issues. Shoot him an email if you have an issue with your link or not getting emails and he'll help out.

[Xerberus86]

@neurotoxin: thanks, i am an old distant worlds player (best 4x spacegame if you don't know it) from the matrix store time, so saving a download link in a txt-file is a known practice of mine .

@urbanbourbon: glad to hear buddy, better having an open release date than a forced one with missing features and broken gameplay. it seems rimworld alpha sells quite well, i was checking in to the updates thus far in the last 1-2 month and the sales seem to increase steadily. is a good time that the game is on the right way and is financially viable for the dev to take his time which is always best for the endresult .

[Raufgar]

Welcome fellow DF player Always glad to see another "my dwarf likes Tower Cap Thrones" maniac here

Currently, Rimworld has :

1) Destructible environments - You can blow up or burn up things till they break, everything has hitpoints.

2) Colonists with moods - They can go crazy from a large variety of factors, from hunger, to seeing dead people, to psychic malevolent AIs.

3) Wounds system - Shoot a man's leg, foot, finger, arm, hand, spleen, lung, heart, brain off. Or just maim him and watch him live out his days lying in a hospital bed.

4) Interactive enemies - You are not alone on this planet, either make friends with some of the local natives (where they will send every increasing bands to your colony for free food) or kidnap anyone that ventures near your colony. Pirates on roving ships can pod drop near your location, set up defensive positions and artillery to pound your base from afar, forcing you to take them out first.

5) Diverse fauna and flora - Make meat a part of your diet, by cooking or making nutrient paste. Kill the wrong fauna and it will blow up in your face.

And Much More (tm)!

[milon]

I'm sure aware of this, Xerberus86, but we've been seeing a fresh Alpha roughly monthly.  And each has introduced some awesome things.  Alpha 7 will introduce clothes-making which does indeed mean varying degrees of armor.  It will also introduce the Stuff system which means buildings can be made of any raw material, and building properties will be derived from the properties of the raw materials.  (Note: Foods etc are not considered Raw Material and cannot be built with.)

[Untrustedlife]

I'll try to address this as best I can.

Z levels. No. Long story short is that it's too much work for too little payoff because it'd require changing almost everything from AI pathing, to the UI etc..

Release date. The hard release date is When it's ready. That's honestly the best you'll get and I understand why that is. I've seen devs give release dates and it turns into a firestorm when uh-oh we had a major setback.

As for threats, I'm sure there'll be more along the way and better AI etc, not that there's anything inherently wrong with it as it is. Yes they can blow holes in your walls, beat down doors and cause massive amounts off destruction BUT they typically try to find the easiest way in. Beating down a door is a lot faster than going through a wall for instance.

Unless I actually build a ship to escape, there is always an end to my colony at some point. Too many raiders, coupled with a blight that causes colonists to starve right after a mechanoid ship crashes and starts to slowly drive everyone crazy. I've lost colonies to squirrels.

A7 will bring prosthetic limbs and improve on the new health system and the clothing thing you've been reading about is a new system Tynan is working on to allow things to be made out of stuff. For example walls made of metal, stone or silver, clothing made from leather, cloth, metal, etc.. and I'm certain, if not in A7 we'll likely see those arbitrary stuffs modify damage resistance and/or skills (I think modifying skill has already been in the changelog?).

Welcome to the forum btw and I hope you really enjoy the game. I know I have.

Well written if i must say so myself.


Rimworld is essentially dwarf fortress in space. With some major differences , but it has much of the fun , you can butcher anything (even people). and we will be able to make things out of various materials, (like bones) and human leather for example. later in development.

[Xerberus86]

it looks indeed promising and there seems to be some awesome mods which already add a bunch of additional great content. i'll first try to finish  a vanilla run but afterwards i'll try the TTM mod....it says that it will "annihilate" me, which sounds like "FUN" :3.

i bought rimworld after my last fort (DF) died, 2 years without any trouble....thought that it might be bugged but before the 2nd year ended, over 100 undead elves came to visit......first thing which died was my framerate :/. rimworld has some huge potential with its setting and tactical combat (the AI needs some love in regards of standing in the line of fire and retreating to some better shooting positions, which it currently only seem to do when near death).

i am glad that the dev works constantly on new game mechanics and builds of synergies with already existing features. it sounds kinda a given but there are so many games out there which are more like a bunch of losely knit features than a whole cohesive package.

Edit: i just watched the official alpha 4 video and he was hinting at more advanced ancient (alien) technology from ruins. can't wait to see some more lategame stuff implemented in the game. ancient ruins sound like a great way of introducing some exploration elements and giving you an incentive to go out of your colony turtle-shell.