RimWorld Alpha 9

[Taleric]

A ton of immersion additions, I will do another play run for sure. :)

http://ludeon.com/blog/2015/02/rimworld ... -released/

[FlowerChild]

This is one I can't wait to have released on Steam. I've been following its development and while I've become very hesitant about purchasing games directly from the developer like that, I've been tempted on several occasions to make an exception here :)

[Taleric]

Having been burned a few times I should adopt your policy. I got lucky with these guys, Scott Manley initially sold me and they have added more DF elements than I dreamed.

The surgical procedures and climate control alone have been a thrill :)

Haven't heard anything about steam from them unfortunately :(

[FlowerChild]

Haven't heard anything about steam from them unfortunately :(

Last I heard they were planning to release on Steam, but only once the game was done. In other words, they're not doing the early access thing, which given the overall level of toxicity on the Steam forums, and given how early access games tend to go off the rails due to large-scale community pressure (especially if you're trying to make a tough game, which they appear to), I don't blame them for wanting to keep their community small scale while they're in active development so that they receive a smaller amount of more relevant feedback.

[Sarudak]

Oooooooooo.... How have I not seen this before?? It looks like dwarf fortress with more focus on gameplay and UI!

[kregoth]

I mentioned this game back when it was first announced, and it's worth a purchase. I do suggest picking this up for those hesitance, especially if you're a DF lover as its far more approachable, but just as packed with ripe stories to tell. The updates are pretty great, I haven't been disappointed with what's been done so far it just keeps getting better.

My last colony was lost to my extremely well skilled colonist, who just happened to have psychotic fits of rage if he wasn't happy, guess I should have paid attention to his traits :P

[Larmantine]

This game, you guys. 3 of my best melee and shooting colonists were mining far away from the base and just got overwhelmed by a swarm of mad squirrels set off by alien psychic drones. It was awesome and super annoying/frustrating at the same time.

EDIT: I managed to save them all. One almost froze to death while carrying the incapacitated one, and one of the downed colonists had squirrel bites in literary every possible limb, fingers, toes, ears, you name it.

[FlowerChild]

Well...I sat down to play this Friday night and my entire weekend essentially evaporated :)

At various points, forgot to eat, forgot I was a smoker, forgot to go to the bathroom, forgot to turn on the lights when it got dark. Came to periodically sitting in pitch black dizzy from hunger with a bursting bladder and a strong urge to chain smoke.

I really don't remember ever playing a game before that caused me to lose track of time and my surroundings quite as much as this one does. I probably would have written something sooner about it, but didn't want to stop playing to do so.

I could nit pick over details, but I'd honestly feel pretty silly doing so in this case. The game essentially takes the Dwarf Fortress paradigm, distills it down to its gameplay essentials without a lot of what I consider to be the extraneous fluff of that design, puts a very slick interface on it that doesn't get in the way (which has still been an issue with many of the DF clones I've played that only partially address the UI problems) and then devours your life. :)

The closest thing I could compare it to would be Prison Architect, IF that game were actually challenging. I've been playing RimWorld on what I assume to be the default settings (Cassandra on Challenging difficulty which I would assume is the default because all other settings are listed relative to it), and have lost 3 colonies already, with my 4th only having survived some incidents due to some save-scumming on my part (although to my credit I did manage to salvage it from its population dropping from around 10 down to 3 again due to a couple of colonists going on murder sprees due to psychic torture).

Anyways, it's rather pricey at present at a 30$ U.S. price tag so I'd have a hard time recommending it outright given that, but if you have the disposable income to swallow that kind of expenditure, I doubt anyone on these forums would be disappointed with it.

[kjbrona]

Bought this game Dec 2013 and played it quite a bit for a couple months. Got sidetracked by other games and haven't really given it a go for while now. This thread and the latest updates got me excited about the game again so I downloaded the latest and started playing at about 8:30pmlast night. 2:30am this morning I realized that I needed to get some sleep so that I could be a functioning human being at work today.

I have to say I am completely enjoying this game. An early game Male Physic assault caused the lose of my first colony. Poor hunting preparation, a wild boar, and an infection killed off my second colony. My 3rd still only has 3 people but I think I have a more fortified and well stocked base that will hopefully be expanding soon ... which means as soon as I get home from work, hopefully after dinner but maybe not.

[kregoth]

I've been playing RimWorld on what I assume to be the default settings (Cassandra on Challenging difficulty which I would assume is the default because all other settings are listed relative to it)

Yes that is considered the Default difficulty, Cassandra Challenge. It's the mode that will let you experience everything the game has to offer. Or better yet, the cold dark realization that, that no matter how hard you try something horrible is going to happen and it will be FUN, Mode.

Random Randy is the one you want if you truly want to cry though, Like a solar eclipse during a raiders siege, while 3 of your colonist and farms are on fire, because an army of angry Boom rats is also assaulting your colony!

have lost 3 colonies already, with my 4th only having survived some incidents due to some save-scumming on my part (although to my credit I did manage to salvage it from its population dropping from around 10 down to 3 again due to a couple of colonists going on murder sprees due to psychic torture).

It does borrow the "Losing is fun!" aspect from DF. There's a lot of the knee brushing moments. The game doesn't go in for the kill, but it's going to disable you and slow you down. You'll lose a lot at least at first. It's even better with Alpha 9, it's a good balance so far. I am really looking forward to when the dev considers this game Released!

[FlowerChild]

Yes that is considered the Default difficulty, Cassandra Challenge. It's the mode that will let you experience everything the game has to offer. Or better yet, the cold dark realization that, that no matter how hard you try something horrible is going to happen and it will be FUN, Mode.

I find it retains enough of the gameplay specific detail of DF to keep it very interesting too.

I just had a total lol moment of realization that I thought I'd share:

I came under attack from a tribe of natives. Gunned them all down with turrets and in a "yay!" moment realized that amongst the carnage that remained there was a wounded artist of decent skill, and I had been wanting to get decent art production going for a long time since art makes for valuable trade goods.

So, I nursed her back to health, and over what must have been in-game weeks slowly convinced her that despite slaughtering her kin by the dozens, we really were nice folks that she should be making trinkets for in the back room of our souvenir shop. I had previously recruited quite the salesman from an ancient stasis pod I found in a cave, so it was slow work, but eventually she came around.

Imagine my excitement when she was finally converted to our cause. I had her work room all ready to go complete with a nice private bedroom off to the side and easy access to a storeroom with orbital beacon to maximize her productivity.

So imagine my surprise when she finally emerged from her cell only for it to take half a day just to walk to her workbench. Once she got there, she realized she needed some stone and began the half day treck to the stock pile, and I realized that at some point she'd get hungry and probably spend another half day going to the fridge and then the dining room.

After the immediate "wtf?" I checked her stats. Turns out she took a bullet to the brain during that initial attack with her tribe, could barely speak, and her motor skills were completely fubar. Right now I'm trying to decide whether to euthanize the poor thing or put her back in her cell to await the next passing slave trader in case they have need of an organic lamp stand.

So, pro-tip: always check what kind of wounds they've sustained in an attack before attempting to recruit natives to work in your interplanetary gift shop :)

[Sarudak]

Well...I sat down to play this Friday night and my entire weekend essentially evaporated :)

At various points, forgot to eat, forgot I was a smoker, forgot to go to the bathroom, forgot to turn on the lights when it got dark. Came to periodically sitting in pitch black dizzy from hunger with a bursting bladder and a strong urge to chain smoke.

Well that's all the endorsement I need!

[jorgebonafe]

Snip

Wow... That was dark...

[FlowerChild]

Wow... That was dark...

Incredibly. And I didn't even mention the additional option here of harvesting her organs individually and selling her off in bits if the slavers don't want to buy a slightly defective human in her entirety.

If I went full dark side on it I believe I could even butcher the remaining meat, feed it to my other colonists and make clothing out of her skin. I've yet to attempt doing that and would fully expect it to incur sanity penalties for my other colonists if I did, but I've seen bits of human remains converted into various objects scattered here and there that suggests it's a gameplay option.

At some point I really want to try playing this game with a colony of cannibalistic organ pirates to see what happens :)

[kregoth]

Wow... That was dark...

Incredibly. And I didn't even mention the additional option here of harvesting her organs individually and selling her off in bits if the slavers don't want to buy a slightly defective human in her entirety.

If I went full dark side on it I believe I could even butcher the remaining meat, feed it to my other colonists and make clothing out of her skin. I've yet to attempt doing that and would fully expect it to incur sanity penalties for my other colonists if I did, but I've seen bits of human remains converted into various objects scattered here and there that suggests it's a gameplay option.

At some point I really want to try playing this game with a colony of cannibalistic organ pirates to see what happens :)

I've sold a paralyzed man (Caused by a lightning bolt, and some shrapnel) to some sex slaves. Even ran a drug growing operation and traded for everything, was hard not having drug addicts around my colony.

[jorgebonafe]

At some point I really want to try playing this game with a colony of cannibalistic organ pirates to see what happens :)

Omg.... You convinced me, I gotta try this game. As soon as I have some spare money I'll get it.

[FlowerChild]

And in the ongoing story of my brain damaged native trinket maker, the local boars were just driven mad (similar to the squirrel incident previously described) and rushed my compound in such numbers that a good number managed to get past the defensive turrets and busted down the door to my small jail where I had returned her to await the next slave ship.

The boars then proceeded to gore her into unconsciousness and she was on the verge of death when I threw her into the cryosleep chamber I had gotten the salesman from that had convinced her we were such nice young capitalists in the first place.

So, I now have a brain (and otherwise) damaged former tribe member on ice in a cryopod and my large walk in freezer is now filled to capacity (literally) with pork, with a good number of boar corpses rotting in my courtyard for good measure.

Guess we aren't going hungry this winter :)

[hawk]

Well, I'm sold. Heading on over to buy it sight unseen. Thanks for the heads up, guys.

[FlowerChild]

Well, I'm sold. Heading on over to buy it sight unseen. Thanks for the heads up, guys.

Just remember the moral of the poor native girl's harrowing tale:

It's worth building a second butcher's table in your colony. It may seem like a waste of resources, but if you ever have an unexpected surplus of meat laying about, it can really help.

[hawk]

Just remember the moral of the poor native girl's harrowing tale:

It's worth building a second butcher's table in your colony. It may seem like a waste of resources, but if you ever have an unexpected surplus of meat laying about, it can really help.

:) I'll try to work that into my overall strategy... once said strategy evolves beyond going guns (and knife) blazing into a pack of angry wild alien pigs not long into a new world. The result was something less than a resounding success. That and few other self-inflicted calamities spelled the doom of colony #1.

Failure is rarely this fun.

Work is going to be a struggle in the morning. This thing isn't going to let me quit any time soon.

[FlowerChild]

:) I'll try to work that into my overall strategy...

Actually...don't. I built a 2nd table only to have it to serve no real purpose because reprioritizing the tasks on my butcher so that he was slaughtering full time was sufficient to get through all those boars. Of course I was then hit by a heat wave so severe that my walk in freezer couldn't keep the temperature below freezing. I had all my colonists other than the one that died due to heat stroke locked in it and sleeping on the floor for several days with my entire massive stockpile of food rotting around them, so I guess it was all for nothing anyways.

So, I guess the only moral of that story is don't get shot in the head, imprisoned by alien invaders, and trapped in a corner of your cell by a gang of rabid wild pigs :)

Oh, and install a 2nd cooling unit on your walk-in freezer...

once said strategy evolves beyond going guns (and knife) blazing into a pack of angry wild alien pigs not long into a new world. The result was something less than a resounding success. That and few other self-inflicted calamities spelled the doom of colony #1.

I think you'll rapidly learn that the primary secret to success in combat is to avoid it at all costs :)

[Taleric]

Bwahah! Dang that is good, what did you select a desert!

"Of course I was then hit by a heat wave so severe that my walk in freezer couldn't keep the temperature below freezing. I had all my colonists other than the one that died due to heat stroke locked in it and sleeping on the floor for several days with my entire massive stockpile of food rotting around them."

I always go for cooler places and add more clothes if nessisary. At least if they freeze to death they can feel warm at the very end. Hmm now I wonder if there is frost bite, never saw it yet.

[FlowerChild]

Bwahah! Dang that is good, what did you select a desert!

Temperate actually, but the seasonal fluctuations seem to range between -20 in the winter and maybe 50 degrees in summer when heat waves hit. The other ones I've had were survivable, but that one in particular was just nuts.

You may be missing out on some cool gameplay by choosing consistently cold climates, as the heating system is pretty frigging cool. At some point I wound up building an air lock on my walk in freezer as it was getting too hot in there in the summer when the door would open and close and my food was thawing out.

My freezer is probably the part of my base I've put the most effort into :)

[Ulfengaard]

One of the things I enjoy most about DF is that the world builds history as I play through different fortresses. Does this game have that functionality or is it more like one offs? Will I be able to return to a colony to reclaim it? I had pretty much closed up my gaming wallet for a while, but now I am seriously considering getting this one because of all the things that you guys are saying about it.

[Larmantine]

Bwahah! Dang that is good, what did you select a desert!

Temperate actually, but the seasonal fluctuations seem to range between -20 in the winter and maybe 50 degrees in summer when heat waves hit. The other ones I've had were survivable, but that one in particular was just nuts.

You may be missing out on some cool gameplay by choosing consistently cold climates, as the heating system is pretty frigging cool. At some point I wound up building an air lock on my walk in freezer as it was getting too hot in there in the summer when the door would open and close and my food was thawing out.

My freezer is probably the part of my base I've put the most effort into :)

Care to share your designs? :)

I actually had similar experiences. After a shootout one girl survived, badly wounded. I had to replace her lung ( I always keep a few spare organs) and strap on a prosthetic leg. She had some great art/crafting/cooking skills with burning desires. After receiving proper treatment, she was very difficult to recruit - only a few per cent IIRC. After a couple of ingame weeks I checked her health because there were a series of diseases in my base. I noticed how bad her brain was. Almost all of her stats were very poor. I never had felt so sad about a character in game. (That is the level of immersion in this game!) My initial thought was to sell her, but I felt so sad that I released her. Her mood meter was full when she left. She didn't even make through 1/3 of the map before she died of starvation. There was nothing I could do. ;(

I've had heat strokes as well and was just too lazy to install freezers. Fortunately no one died despite my laziness and most of my food was left unspoiled.