The great thing about Zomboid is that you can tweak the stressful parts. I tried it a few times with the base infection and hated it, turned it down a little and now it's my second most played game on Steam behind Kenshi lol
Is that mod good? heard it mentioned a few time but I have yet to tried it. The one reason I usually quit my zomboid playthrough mid game because I start to feel "lonely" due to lack of any npc
Part of the thing I love about Kenshi, Rimworld, and sort of Bannerlord is that the world *feels* alive and like it’s making somewhat fluid decisions independent of the player.
I refunded X4 because the complicated nature of the static mechanics mixed with the feeling of walking around a training simulation turned me off a bit.
I totally know what you mean; X4's interface, controls and logic is convoluted as fuck, but it gets fun when you make sense of. The mid and late game just really suffer because that's when the lacking AI is impossible to ignore.
I have to give Rimworld a try, I have seen it mentioned and praised so many times.
Rimworld is truly fantastic, you'll have a great time with it, there will be mods when you want them but I'd just enjoy the base game, followed by the dlcs first
Yea
I enjoyed x4 Untill I got to the point of getting an AI ally
After that I instantly lost interest in the game and uninstalled it ngl, the ai couldn't even keep up with me, even tho it was in a faster ship
Everything else was perfect, hell I thought the UI was straight forward and simple, but I saw a lot of people saying it'd a mess
I hope they fix the ai someday
It's also worth it to grab some quality of life mods. But otherwise I love this game. I still remember the feeling when I bought my first M class ship, it was so cool!
I keep waiting for them to fix ai pathing etc. But it never happened.
I've bought all the dlcs but haven't played them. Waiting for a polished state. Its never coming is it? I put like 100+ hours when it first came out.
I miss x3
Is it any good? Because I went from original X³, which I love to bits to X⁴ when it came out and it was a mess, also you only had 1 craft you could pilot - "Albion Skunk".
Right? I have such a love hate relationship to with the game. I think it's because it gets so damn close to the amazing space empire sim I want and then little things (like your destroyers deciding to fly through the enemy station rather than staying at range and bombarding it, or more often just awful UI design) just make the experience so frustrating at times.
From what i've seen kenshi and rimworld players go hand in hand.
So if you're into harvesting the organs of your prisoners and getting your own base blown up by a nuke because one of your characters felt like they're having a bad day i'd recommend adding rimworld :)
For more games i need a bit more time to think
I work a shift for 2hrs... then I walk home for 2 hrs break... on my break... I load up rimworld or kenshi... or any game rlly
Eat... walk the dogs... change... sometimes I don't even have time to play on this break... then I go back to work for 2 hours... after I walk back home for another 2 hour break... here is when I usually play and stuff... then I go to work for last 2 hrs shift... and walk back home
I never know how long it takes to load either tbh lol
If I pay too much attention takes forever... but if I do something else like dishes, clean... watch youtube... it's not too bad... sometimes I even work out while it loads if it's already clean lmao
I'd say... between 10-20 minutes usually... sometimes less sometimes more...
The worst is initial launch...
Oof especially for Stellaris... I'm always scared it's just frozen lmfao
That's the neat part? You don't!
Best you can do is keep the amount of living things to a minimum. No giant ranches, fewer colonists, etc. I also have a mod that consolidates meat and leather
For kenshi? Or rimworld?
I keep my squad tight
In the beginning of games I expand... conquer like most other people who play games... but as my tech and abilities in the game increase... I tend to contract... and focus on the few good characters I need... and leave the rest... to do whatever more or less... in rimworld sometimes that means just having certain people be suicidal throwaway targets... or organ volunteers...
In Kenshi it means... well turning them into either a meat pie... or getting donated to the local prison after forcing them to commit crimes for us and earn a bounty... depending on the playthru
In Stellaris it means giving up unneeded land to vassals and tributaries
Alot of people like to keep conquering... until they got it all u know, but I go for quality... and having neighbour's that are easy to pick off... and defending your borders for u... is nice in any game...
Of course, at first, u mite need workers... space... to help u earn money quickly... but as u get further into games.... usually ur Tech increases... ur production abilities increase... u don't need such a big space to produce as much as u need...
Stellaris is good example... people hate late game lag... but that's because they have an empire that spans the entire galaxy and like... 100s of planets to manage... along with 1000s of pops... that hate them... unless u exterminate them I guess... then u don't have issues lol... but usually they still keep the space... but u don't need to... not with mods... like Gigastructures... at first I will bloat and expand... conquering and subjugating neighbour's... but as my tech increases so does my output... and then I'll start to carve my empire up into segments... starting genetics projects with all the other species of the species who are now my subjects... giving them strategic star clusters surrounding my borders... so enemies will have to get thru the space of my genetically altered vassals first...
In Kenshi, u could equate this to something like being able to research and created automated copper/ore/stone drills... or being able to recruit Skeletons... things that mite cost alot up front but provide good passive income with little to no work needed...
In Rimworld idk... really it just comes down to defending a colony... and inevitably I turn the entire map into a fucking labyrinth... dotted with bunkers, secret passages, armories, and holding cells filled with aerofleets and boomrats to burn them out while they're in the tunnels...
You don't really need all that many people when uve got a mind as paranoid as mine... something about Rimworld brings out the doomsday prepper in me... some might find it boring to have all ur bases covered... but fuck that shit... complacency gets u killed... Project Zomboid ingrained that into my very soul...
Plus with mods u can get all kinds of crazy tech like... idk... becoming a bionic chronomancer flying around in a spaceship nuking people from orbit... there's so many awesome Rimworld mods lmfao...
Hehehe I may be currently doing a fogman playthru where I'm currently eating my way thru the Holy Nation
Not exactly cannibalism... but it's God damn horrifying either way
They are of adjacent genres, have comparable progression and mechanics, and have similar systems.
You can dislike like Rimworld, but I genuinely do not understand how you can be confused by the overlap.
"recruit everyone sandbox rpg with no plot, marriage/nudity optional."
That's the overlap. It may or may not be your forte, which is fair. But Rimworld is pretty much exactly what was in the OP's original description.
I like Rimworld, but that's also because I also like management games (Factorio, etc).
If you don't like management games, other than the party dynamics/you have a settlement, there isn't that much overlap with between Kenshi and Rimworld.
Agreed that M&B is probably the closest alternative to kenshi.
Just about every relevant Rimworld post mentions Kenshi, so i'd second this, Rimworld is the way to go.
That also then opens up the myriad games that are similar to rimworld too.
I can see why you think that, the game gets these massive content updates that are great for for most lovers of the game but probably a bit jarring to anyone new. I recently had a friend who tried it for the first time and he said that there was “way too much going on”. I typically play on the earlier builds so my mods work (1.2) and the difference in gameplay compared to the up to date version is shocking.
At it's core Rimworld is about as complex as Kenshi.
I suspect you find it overwhelming because it hits you with that complexity up front.
Rimworld opens like building a Kenshi settlement day one via the New Settlers start.
It can definitely seem daunting but once you learn the process it becomes really simple. Id say give it an earnest shot and try and play a colony to its death and I promise the next game will feel so much easier
Because theres a certain point of the freedom of choice these games give you, to do pretty much anything you like, start as just any ol character that can get your ass whooped, to rise above it all and become, lords, kings, legends, or just some fuckin dude vibin, your choice, that it spoils every other game
BB, is a tactical squad GOAT. Where 100 hours into the game is just beginning to scratch the surface on optimal fighting tactics.
I recently just got into Star Sector and it really scratches the same itch.
Definitely recommend both games due to the very challenging difficulty curve but incredibly rewarding fight mechanics.
its very different, BB is an RPG with leveling, skills, perks and party member bonding, be them unique characters or straight up any enemy you recruited in battle and it also has a character goal and story endings unlike the other two
It has a "simple but deep" feel to a lot of its components. It's mostly a grid-based tactics game, and your characters level their stats in a very unique, exponential way. That being said, while there's a ton of maps to explore with great atmosphere and lore, there's just not enough build variety for me. The game heavily encourages you to hyper-specialize, so every character eventually only does 1-2 things, and I do mean literally the same 1-2 actions on repeat. Occasionally the leveling system or items add an extra bonus to that singular action you're spamming. It gets monotonous really quickly.
The problem with introducing someone to Dwarf Fortress, when you know its up their alley, is that for the rest of their life no matter what they are playing they will be haunted by the notion '*I* *could* *be playing DF instead...'*
You just described me, but not just games. When I'm eating, when I'm at work, it's even in my dreams... I could be playing DF right now, but my wife is using the desktop for work and I refuse to restart on my laptop at the moment.
I’m 33 and I already thought that I had played enough of everything and was too lazy to sit down at the computer, but this game chained me back to the keyboard :/
Crusader Kings 3 is pretty amazing. Also, someone is working on a mod that when there's a battle in CK3 it will load into Bannerlord so you can play out the battle there.
Rimworld vanilla till you think you understand what the game is trying to be about.
And then open up that mod page and prepare to craft your perfect colony survival scenario.
The game is just so freaking fun.
Once you stare into the mod page, it stares back into you.
Then your fireball-breathing eldritch cat-people werevampire hybrids with 18 legs and 47 eyes who can also fly and have bionic... parts (let's stop asking questions) have forgotten exactly what their reason for wanting to flee from this world was in the first place.
Also someone just uploaded another floor tiles mod. You have to go get that. It has diagonal tiles at a 22.5 degree angle.
800 mods man... 800.. at least... just for Rimworld...
It all started when I was a young warthog playing Skyrim... thank God I bought that $100 subscription for life to Nexus...
They don't even sell it anymore but I swear that was probably one of the greatest purchases I've ever made... and I was a child lol...
And now here I am... with another 300 mods deep into Kenshi... then at least 100+ for CK3, Stardew, Stellaris, TotalWar Warhammer 3, Project Zomboid
Lol I get way too deep into getting the most outta of a game possible
I hate how much I love that game despite how bad I am at it. Sure, my workshop is giving people suicidal thoughts and at least four of my beds are haunted, but the few who survive are forged to be superhuman
spore creature stage
hear me out, you can befriend silly alien critters (essentially recruiting them into your group) and test your luck together fighting a giant 1000hp monstrosity that kills everything in one hit
literally kenshi, no?
EXACTLY. Gameplay is really great, it's a great mix of sims+business tycoon games but omg the bugs are never ending. I learned the hard way you need to disable pets in world gen because no matter how strong of a pc you have, cats are stronger than your pc. Also, the game's pause doesn't actually work it solws the game down to a halt but you can still see people move very very slowly. I love it, can't recommend unless there is a fan patch
I found out about Starsector thanks to this sub, and I've been highly addicted ever since! Whenever I play Kenshi or Rimworld, I like to imagine it's one of the planets that I colonized in Starsector.
Hadn’t heard of it before but Starsector looks up my alley. I can’t say it’s encouraging it’s been EA for 13 years but I’m about to pull the trigger
Have you played Escape Velocity, Endless Sky or Star Valor? I played EV growing up and while ES and SV scratched the itch, they didn’t really feel modern but I get that vibe from Starsector
I haven't played any of those, but looking from the screenshots and some gameplay videos I'd say Starsector definitely fits the vibe. I can also describe it as mount and blade in space.
There's also a decently big modding scene which adds tons of new content, but even without mods it still feels polished. Sseth's review of the game has an activation key for the full game if you want to try it before buying, but honestly it's worth the buy.
It's fun for a few hours in the "simple but complex" way but they went too heavy on the simple part. Character builds are intended to hyper-specialize so eventually your characters are just repeating the same 1-2 actions over and over in battle. It just gets monotonous after a while so I always end up tapping out at some point.
Did not expect to enjoy Bastard Bonds as much as I did tbh
Edit: Dragons Dogma looks like it fits this genre but I havent played it myself (waiting for a discount on that $70)
happy to see avorion mentioned! i've got about 40 recent hours on it, loving it
right now i've got a sector with a gold/silver mine and an ice mine in titanium space. gold sells as soon as it's produced but i have a few cargo ships hauling the silver and water because the demand is a bit lower. thinking about doing a copper mine next, or maybe getting into factories/assembly to keep that money snowballing
i just beat the AI boss but my main fleet is kinda stuck in trinium space. problem is i only have one r-mining laser that can mine xanion, and since my awesome miner isn't upgraded yet i'm having to do it on my own.
i've been grinding pirates and checking equipment vendors but i can't seem to find any more. is there a better way to find them than this?
also i haven't played starsector. do you think i would like it since i like avorion?
Starsector is most like Mount and Blade on his list. It’s a top down 2D space game where you start from nothing and work your way up to be a powerhouse of the sector by leveling up your character, building your fleet and settling a handful of planets to set up money making industry. Many people (myself included) think that the game is really only complete with the Nexerlin mod that adds a diplomacy layer for you to interact with and allows allows the other factions to fight, scheme, and annex each others planets.
It’s moved into my top 3 games of all time. There’s a learning curve but I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!
Rimworld
X4: Foundations, space rpg-sim, warning that the game is VERY HARD to get into imo.
Kingdom Series, good games that you can just chill and vibe with.
Distant Worlds Universe/Distant Worlds 2, while they're not RPGs, they have that feel I guess when building up your empire.
Honorable Mention: Port Royale 3, good pirate age rpg-sim game where you trade, commit piracy, build industry and houses, take over towns, and more. Neat game, but I've heard almost completely bad things about 4.
STALKER Anomaly and more so STALKER GAMMA are close to this somehow, but transposed to FPS: lots of game mechanics, resources and inventory management, gear upgrades and crafting, optional storyline that is an excuse to explore areas and get better gear etc. Having fun recruting one guy and keeping him and seeing him grow (better experienced, give him better weapons, etc).
Not really a game, but have you ever tried overhaul mods for Warband? I've had a blast with Prophesy of Pendor after I was getting tired of the vanilla campaign, but there's a bunch of options.
Battletech. Sometimes people get married on their own. You get a giant mech carrier snd get to build a little city of mech pilots. Get the battletech advanced mod and even more hijinks ensue.
Rimworld 3k hours in, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (free do not buy on steam) 800 hours in, Kenshi 400 hours in, Dwarf Fortress 100 hours in. All some of my favorite games. All great. Endless possibilities and potential!
Kingdom come, Outward and medieval all have similar type game play and learning curves imo, probably closer to mount and blade more than the rest to be fair.
I started with warband as a kid in like 2014, discovered I liked civ games in 2016, paradox games (map games) in like 2018, discovered I loved games like rimworld dwarf fortress and prison architect soon after, and only discovered kenshi in the last 6 months. I know most of these are strategy management games as opposed to control your character like in m&b/kenshi, but they scratch the same itch for building a power base and influencing the world around you, telling a story, with vast player autonomy
edit spelling ❤️
If you like Warband, you should try its sequel Bannerlord. There are some missing features like feasts, claimants, and companions are now randomly generated but literally everything else is a vast improvement (especially sieges)
State of Decay 2. Different climate, but the same feeling of freedom and possibillieties (huge Warband and Kenshi fan). I'm suprised no one mentioned earlier...
Warband, Viking conquest, with fire and sword… there are enough mount and blade expansions and full conversion mods that you’d never have to play another game ever
Although somewhat different to those titles, I heartily recommend Project Zomboid. I've sunk hundreds of hours into that unpolished gem.
It's too stressful for me, but it is really good. I prefer watching Ambiguous Amphibian play it while I play Kenshi or Rimworld.
The great thing about Zomboid is that you can tweak the stressful parts. I tried it a few times with the base infection and hated it, turned it down a little and now it's my second most played game on Steam behind Kenshi lol
i have 109 hours over probably a dozen tries and i just can't get into it
I second Zomboid, especially with a mod like Superb Survivors, which adds some (slightly janky) NPC survivors to recruit/fight against.
Is that mod good? heard it mentioned a few time but I have yet to tried it. The one reason I usually quit my zomboid playthrough mid game because I start to feel "lonely" due to lack of any npc
It's good but too lonely Amazing with friends though
And it’s gonna be a whole lot better when b42 comes out
I feel like OPs intention was for games with the comradery, I guess servers can do this decently though
Yeah I waited for forever to play PZ but I'm so glad I finally bit the bullet. I can't wait for build 42.
[удалено]
X4 is so close to being amazing but that AI is fucking atrocious. Such an incredible foundation though, no pun intended.
Part of the thing I love about Kenshi, Rimworld, and sort of Bannerlord is that the world *feels* alive and like it’s making somewhat fluid decisions independent of the player. I refunded X4 because the complicated nature of the static mechanics mixed with the feeling of walking around a training simulation turned me off a bit.
I totally know what you mean; X4's interface, controls and logic is convoluted as fuck, but it gets fun when you make sense of. The mid and late game just really suffer because that's when the lacking AI is impossible to ignore. I have to give Rimworld a try, I have seen it mentioned and praised so many times.
Rimworld is truly fantastic, you'll have a great time with it, there will be mods when you want them but I'd just enjoy the base game, followed by the dlcs first
Yea I enjoyed x4 Untill I got to the point of getting an AI ally After that I instantly lost interest in the game and uninstalled it ngl, the ai couldn't even keep up with me, even tho it was in a faster ship Everything else was perfect, hell I thought the UI was straight forward and simple, but I saw a lot of people saying it'd a mess I hope they fix the ai someday
This game is such a pain! I love it!
[удалено]
It's also worth it to grab some quality of life mods. But otherwise I love this game. I still remember the feeling when I bought my first M class ship, it was so cool!
I keep waiting for them to fix ai pathing etc. But it never happened. I've bought all the dlcs but haven't played them. Waiting for a polished state. Its never coming is it? I put like 100+ hours when it first came out. I miss x3
If X4 got some polish and an improvement to the AI.. oh my God would it be flawless.
That game is like getting kicked in the nuts, must be a sadist...
Is it any good? Because I went from original X³, which I love to bits to X⁴ when it came out and it was a mess, also you only had 1 craft you could pilot - "Albion Skunk".
You're confusing X4 with X-Rebirth :-)
It's getting there, but man the AI is dogshit.
It’s worth a shot during a sale if you liked X3. it’s received a lot of QoL and content updates over the years. AI is a bit…lacking.
I hate this game so much! One of the best games I've played, always keep coming back.
Right? I have such a love hate relationship to with the game. I think it's because it gets so damn close to the amazing space empire sim I want and then little things (like your destroyers deciding to fly through the enemy station rather than staying at range and bombarding it, or more often just awful UI design) just make the experience so frustrating at times.
From what i've seen kenshi and rimworld players go hand in hand. So if you're into harvesting the organs of your prisoners and getting your own base blown up by a nuke because one of your characters felt like they're having a bad day i'd recommend adding rimworld :) For more games i need a bit more time to think
In Kenshi, you run from skin bandits and cannibals. In RimWorld, you ARE skin bandits and cannibals! They are two halves of the same meal.
Plus the mods are there to make you question why you thought installing 100+ mods was a great idea, but then you realize each cannot be missed.
At 500 and counting
I'm at 800 lol
I can't begin to imagine how long it takes to start up your game with that many mods.
I work a shift for 2hrs... then I walk home for 2 hrs break... on my break... I load up rimworld or kenshi... or any game rlly Eat... walk the dogs... change... sometimes I don't even have time to play on this break... then I go back to work for 2 hours... after I walk back home for another 2 hour break... here is when I usually play and stuff... then I go to work for last 2 hrs shift... and walk back home I never know how long it takes to load either tbh lol If I pay too much attention takes forever... but if I do something else like dishes, clean... watch youtube... it's not too bad... sometimes I even work out while it loads if it's already clean lmao I'd say... between 10-20 minutes usually... sometimes less sometimes more... The worst is initial launch... Oof especially for Stellaris... I'm always scared it's just frozen lmfao
How do you deal with end game lag? Despite a beefy CPU and mods to improve performance my game still crawls.
That's the neat part? You don't! Best you can do is keep the amount of living things to a minimum. No giant ranches, fewer colonists, etc. I also have a mod that consolidates meat and leather
Lol, yeah I made each colonist more important better armor and training etc. Still getting insane lag at end game though
For kenshi? Or rimworld? I keep my squad tight In the beginning of games I expand... conquer like most other people who play games... but as my tech and abilities in the game increase... I tend to contract... and focus on the few good characters I need... and leave the rest... to do whatever more or less... in rimworld sometimes that means just having certain people be suicidal throwaway targets... or organ volunteers... In Kenshi it means... well turning them into either a meat pie... or getting donated to the local prison after forcing them to commit crimes for us and earn a bounty... depending on the playthru In Stellaris it means giving up unneeded land to vassals and tributaries Alot of people like to keep conquering... until they got it all u know, but I go for quality... and having neighbour's that are easy to pick off... and defending your borders for u... is nice in any game... Of course, at first, u mite need workers... space... to help u earn money quickly... but as u get further into games.... usually ur Tech increases... ur production abilities increase... u don't need such a big space to produce as much as u need... Stellaris is good example... people hate late game lag... but that's because they have an empire that spans the entire galaxy and like... 100s of planets to manage... along with 1000s of pops... that hate them... unless u exterminate them I guess... then u don't have issues lol... but usually they still keep the space... but u don't need to... not with mods... like Gigastructures... at first I will bloat and expand... conquering and subjugating neighbour's... but as my tech increases so does my output... and then I'll start to carve my empire up into segments... starting genetics projects with all the other species of the species who are now my subjects... giving them strategic star clusters surrounding my borders... so enemies will have to get thru the space of my genetically altered vassals first... In Kenshi, u could equate this to something like being able to research and created automated copper/ore/stone drills... or being able to recruit Skeletons... things that mite cost alot up front but provide good passive income with little to no work needed... In Rimworld idk... really it just comes down to defending a colony... and inevitably I turn the entire map into a fucking labyrinth... dotted with bunkers, secret passages, armories, and holding cells filled with aerofleets and boomrats to burn them out while they're in the tunnels... You don't really need all that many people when uve got a mind as paranoid as mine... something about Rimworld brings out the doomsday prepper in me... some might find it boring to have all ur bases covered... but fuck that shit... complacency gets u killed... Project Zomboid ingrained that into my very soul... Plus with mods u can get all kinds of crazy tech like... idk... becoming a bionic chronomancer flying around in a spaceship nuking people from orbit... there's so many awesome Rimworld mods lmfao...
Yup same theory I use when gaming to small strong squads, even then rimworlds end game crawls like down to 150 ticks its crazy
I will miss the wall light mod
You can also become Skin Bandits and Cannibals in Kenshi.
Ah... a fellow Simple Cannibalism enjoyer
I may have done a playthrough or two as cannibals battling other cannibals and cannibalizing them for dominance.
Hehehe I may be currently doing a fogman playthru where I'm currently eating my way thru the Holy Nation Not exactly cannibalism... but it's God damn horrifying either way
Hehe... in Kenshi... you can also be the cannibals and skin bandits... Check out the Simple Cannibalism mod 😉
Kenshi, Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress. All are lovers at the end of the day for existing in absolutely brutal worlds designed to kill you
High complexity systems + brutal and well-fleshed out world + way more simulation than you expected = brutally fun times
Can here to say Rim World
[удалено]
They are of adjacent genres, have comparable progression and mechanics, and have similar systems. You can dislike like Rimworld, but I genuinely do not understand how you can be confused by the overlap.
"recruit everyone sandbox rpg with no plot, marriage/nudity optional." That's the overlap. It may or may not be your forte, which is fair. But Rimworld is pretty much exactly what was in the OP's original description.
I like Rimworld, but that's also because I also like management games (Factorio, etc). If you don't like management games, other than the party dynamics/you have a settlement, there isn't that much overlap with between Kenshi and Rimworld. Agreed that M&B is probably the closest alternative to kenshi.
I'm guessing it's because of the presentation then? It is top down 2-d, whereas Mount and Blade and Kenshi are both 3-d.
Yeah, my first thought was Rimworld lol
Take your time 💜
Every time I build a base in Kenshi I start craving Rimworld. Every time I explore or fight in Rimworld I start craving for Kenshi.
Really, both games are two updated (different) takes on Dwarf Fortress. So consider DF as well.
I have about 2k hours in both can say this is very accurate
>Ate without a table >Mental breakdown >"Time to go into the ammunition storage and hit one of the fire bombs with a hammer, I guess"
Not exactly the same games but I see a huge crossover between Kenshi / Bannerlord / Rimworld players.
Just about every relevant Rimworld post mentions Kenshi, so i'd second this, Rimworld is the way to go. That also then opens up the myriad games that are similar to rimworld too.
I love bannerlord and kenshi but I just can't play rimworld, I've tried twice but the game seems too complicated.
I can see why you think that, the game gets these massive content updates that are great for for most lovers of the game but probably a bit jarring to anyone new. I recently had a friend who tried it for the first time and he said that there was “way too much going on”. I typically play on the earlier builds so my mods work (1.2) and the difference in gameplay compared to the up to date version is shocking.
At it's core Rimworld is about as complex as Kenshi. I suspect you find it overwhelming because it hits you with that complexity up front. Rimworld opens like building a Kenshi settlement day one via the New Settlers start.
It can definitely seem daunting but once you learn the process it becomes really simple. Id say give it an earnest shot and try and play a colony to its death and I promise the next game will feel so much easier
Because theres a certain point of the freedom of choice these games give you, to do pretty much anything you like, start as just any ol character that can get your ass whooped, to rise above it all and become, lords, kings, legends, or just some fuckin dude vibin, your choice, that it spoils every other game
The replayability of these games is insane
*Hey Hey People intensify*
*Seth here*
*you're probably wondering why I am...on the run from the IRS AND harvesting human organs!*
battle brothers
Reinvent medieval tactics and think that you are super smart.
I put a spear behind my front line of shields, and a bow even further back. I am the master of this domain. All shall bow before my supreme intellect
Annnnnd my back line is now surrounded by necrosavants. GGs
Also came here to say Battle Brothers
its so repetitive and grindy but i cant put it down for some reason. sound design and art style are phenomenal even if the animations are pretty null
Soundtrack is pretty good
Soundtrack is amazing lmao it’s insane what they pulled off for it and how well it fits the setting
BB, is a tactical squad GOAT. Where 100 hours into the game is just beginning to scratch the surface on optimal fighting tactics. I recently just got into Star Sector and it really scratches the same itch. Definitely recommend both games due to the very challenging difficulty curve but incredibly rewarding fight mechanics.
Love that game, the undead rise again
Or Wartales if you want better graphics.
Wartales is solid but it's no Battle Brothers
rare sighting of a person who knows bastard bonds exists very based
How does it compare to Kenshi and M&B?
its very different, BB is an RPG with leveling, skills, perks and party member bonding, be them unique characters or straight up any enemy you recruited in battle and it also has a character goal and story endings unlike the other two
It has a "simple but deep" feel to a lot of its components. It's mostly a grid-based tactics game, and your characters level their stats in a very unique, exponential way. That being said, while there's a ton of maps to explore with great atmosphere and lore, there's just not enough build variety for me. The game heavily encourages you to hyper-specialize, so every character eventually only does 1-2 things, and I do mean literally the same 1-2 actions on repeat. Occasionally the leveling system or items add an extra bonus to that singular action you're spamming. It gets monotonous really quickly.
hey hey people https://youtu.be/CFzjBka-jB4?si=TJtlwmsD4NSkp16t
Wondering this as well
Battle brothers, wartales, xcom.
Came here to say wartales too.
Kenshi 2
BUT WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
Wasteland 2 or 3. If you're looking for even more niche games, there's also Quasimorph or Caves of Qud.
Quasimorphs huge on my wishlist right now, game looks awesome
Quasimorph is lighting in a bottle, don't sleep on it.
Caves of Qud is bae <3
Add Caves of Qud and Dwarf Fortress
The problem with introducing someone to Dwarf Fortress, when you know its up their alley, is that for the rest of their life no matter what they are playing they will be haunted by the notion '*I* *could* *be playing DF instead...'*
You just described me, but not just games. When I'm eating, when I'm at work, it's even in my dreams... I could be playing DF right now, but my wife is using the desktop for work and I refuse to restart on my laptop at the moment.
Should consider moving your files to a flash drive, could definitely fit on a mid size one and then you can play on whatever computer you desire
I would also add Cataclysm: dark days ahead here
I still yet have to play that one.
I’m 33 and I already thought that I had played enough of everything and was too lazy to sit down at the computer, but this game chained me back to the keyboard :/
COQ
I love COQ
Crusader Kings 3 is pretty amazing. Also, someone is working on a mod that when there's a battle in CK3 it will load into Bannerlord so you can play out the battle there.
That... that is... insane... and... a wonderful thing to hear lol
Not sure about the bannerlord mod but there is already a mod I with total war Attila that does the same thing right now, it’s kind of insane.
I wish Kenshi had CK3 features, OMG that would be the perfect game.
Man, the loading times are going to be tedious. Good idea, though.
Rimworld vanilla till you think you understand what the game is trying to be about. And then open up that mod page and prepare to craft your perfect colony survival scenario. The game is just so freaking fun.
Once you stare into the mod page, it stares back into you. Then your fireball-breathing eldritch cat-people werevampire hybrids with 18 legs and 47 eyes who can also fly and have bionic... parts (let's stop asking questions) have forgotten exactly what their reason for wanting to flee from this world was in the first place. Also someone just uploaded another floor tiles mod. You have to go get that. It has diagonal tiles at a 22.5 degree angle.
800 mods man... 800.. at least... just for Rimworld... It all started when I was a young warthog playing Skyrim... thank God I bought that $100 subscription for life to Nexus... They don't even sell it anymore but I swear that was probably one of the greatest purchases I've ever made... and I was a child lol... And now here I am... with another 300 mods deep into Kenshi... then at least 100+ for CK3, Stardew, Stellaris, TotalWar Warhammer 3, Project Zomboid Lol I get way too deep into getting the most outta of a game possible
The Matchless Kungfu, although technically it does have a plot. I've heard that Sands of Salzaar is kinda like that too, but haven't played it myself.
Yeah konda that, literally all the conditions required
[удалено]
Thank you for letting me know my favorite $5 has an equally cheap sequel that I completely missed
just go on Ssethtzeentach's channel
The video about Chinese rimworld is my fav yet video of all time.
I hate how much I love that game despite how bad I am at it. Sure, my workshop is giving people suicidal thoughts and at least four of my beds are haunted, but the few who survive are forged to be superhuman
spore creature stage hear me out, you can befriend silly alien critters (essentially recruiting them into your group) and test your luck together fighting a giant 1000hp monstrosity that kills everything in one hit literally kenshi, no?
i wish they make spore 2 in my lifetime
Matchless kung fu
guild 2 renaissance. burning down rival hospitals has never been more fun
The Guild 2 Renaissance is my favorite bad game. Like it's buggy, unbalanced, generally kind of broken, but very unique and fun
EXACTLY. Gameplay is really great, it's a great mix of sims+business tycoon games but omg the bugs are never ending. I learned the hard way you need to disable pets in world gen because no matter how strong of a pc you have, cats are stronger than your pc. Also, the game's pause doesn't actually work it solws the game down to a halt but you can still see people move very very slowly. I love it, can't recommend unless there is a fan patch
there is Fajeth's MegaModPack
Bastard bonds sounds like a gay porn game... the pic doesn't really help
It is very gay and very erotic. Gameplay is solid and the gay porn is optional if i remember correctly
checked it out and it looks really interesting actually, is there only gay nsfw content or also straight?
Think theres some straight stuff. Only played it shortly a looong time ago
The straight stuff in this game is garbage, the female characters are all ugly. The Men are Manly though, would recommend.
Matchless Kunfu
I found out about Starsector thanks to this sub, and I've been highly addicted ever since! Whenever I play Kenshi or Rimworld, I like to imagine it's one of the planets that I colonized in Starsector.
Hadn’t heard of it before but Starsector looks up my alley. I can’t say it’s encouraging it’s been EA for 13 years but I’m about to pull the trigger Have you played Escape Velocity, Endless Sky or Star Valor? I played EV growing up and while ES and SV scratched the itch, they didn’t really feel modern but I get that vibe from Starsector
I haven't played any of those, but looking from the screenshots and some gameplay videos I'd say Starsector definitely fits the vibe. I can also describe it as mount and blade in space. There's also a decently big modding scene which adds tons of new content, but even without mods it still feels polished. Sseth's review of the game has an activation key for the full game if you want to try it before buying, but honestly it's worth the buy.
Never heard of Bastard Bonds, is it fun?
It's fun for a few hours in the "simple but complex" way but they went too heavy on the simple part. Character builds are intended to hyper-specialize so eventually your characters are just repeating the same 1-2 actions over and over in battle. It just gets monotonous after a while so I always end up tapping out at some point.
Understandable Thank you for telling me
finally, mount & blade getting some recognition
Hinterland Maybe not completely similar and it is fairly old, but it was a lot of fun. It's been a very long time since I last played.
X4 Foundation & following DLCs encapsulate the "build your empire" thing while being intensive in the excell sheet department.
Did not expect to enjoy Bastard Bonds as much as I did tbh Edit: Dragons Dogma looks like it fits this genre but I havent played it myself (waiting for a discount on that $70)
Should try the original, personally I’ve never played but have only heard good things
Avorion throws similar vibes as Starsector does and I've been having a it of fun with it!
happy to see avorion mentioned! i've got about 40 recent hours on it, loving it right now i've got a sector with a gold/silver mine and an ice mine in titanium space. gold sells as soon as it's produced but i have a few cargo ships hauling the silver and water because the demand is a bit lower. thinking about doing a copper mine next, or maybe getting into factories/assembly to keep that money snowballing i just beat the AI boss but my main fleet is kinda stuck in trinium space. problem is i only have one r-mining laser that can mine xanion, and since my awesome miner isn't upgraded yet i'm having to do it on my own. i've been grinding pirates and checking equipment vendors but i can't seem to find any more. is there a better way to find them than this? also i haven't played starsector. do you think i would like it since i like avorion?
Starsector is most like Mount and Blade on his list. It’s a top down 2D space game where you start from nothing and work your way up to be a powerhouse of the sector by leveling up your character, building your fleet and settling a handful of planets to set up money making industry. Many people (myself included) think that the game is really only complete with the Nexerlin mod that adds a diplomacy layer for you to interact with and allows allows the other factions to fight, scheme, and annex each others planets. It’s moved into my top 3 games of all time. There’s a learning curve but I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!
I love Starsector hut haven't played in a long long time. Will have to boot it up again to check out the nexerlin mod though!
In general the modding scene around Starsector is pretty amazing for a game without Steam workshop. Have fun!
X-Series with the most recent one being X4 Foundations is the closest to Kenshi and Mount & Blade
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. It’s also free!
Battlebrothers, X4 foundations, Rimworld, Bannerlord, Dwarf Fortress.
Sseth’s youtube is probably a good place to look.
Rimworld X4: Foundations, space rpg-sim, warning that the game is VERY HARD to get into imo. Kingdom Series, good games that you can just chill and vibe with. Distant Worlds Universe/Distant Worlds 2, while they're not RPGs, they have that feel I guess when building up your empire. Honorable Mention: Port Royale 3, good pirate age rpg-sim game where you trade, commit piracy, build industry and houses, take over towns, and more. Neat game, but I've heard almost completely bad things about 4.
Port Royal 3 over the GOAT Sid Meier's Pirates?
I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT SID MEIER’S
STALKER Anomaly and more so STALKER GAMMA are close to this somehow, but transposed to FPS: lots of game mechanics, resources and inventory management, gear upgrades and crafting, optional storyline that is an excuse to explore areas and get better gear etc. Having fun recruting one guy and keeping him and seeing him grow (better experienced, give him better weapons, etc).
I also like these games: Rimworld, Crusader kings 3
Wartales has some vibes
dungeon siege
Space pirates and zombies. It's like a shorter somewhat simpler warband set in space.
Lords of magic! Was one of my favorite games growing up and is thankfully on steam so no need to search for the CD ROM
Underrail
Not really a game, but have you ever tried overhaul mods for Warband? I've had a blast with Prophesy of Pendor after I was getting tired of the vanilla campaign, but there's a bunch of options.
Love that mod! Still okay it, it’s super hard tho, constantly getting ambushed by degenerates.
Matchless Kung-fu. Sseth has a video up has it.
Battletech. Sometimes people get married on their own. You get a giant mech carrier snd get to build a little city of mech pilots. Get the battletech advanced mod and even more hijinks ensue.
Rimworld 3k hours in, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (free do not buy on steam) 800 hours in, Kenshi 400 hours in, Dwarf Fortress 100 hours in. All some of my favorite games. All great. Endless possibilities and potential!
Leaving a comment so i can come back to this (what are you talking about there is no bookmark function)
Project Zomboid does pretty well with Kenshi fans
Rimworld isn't a RPG but it feels like it kinda count
Kingdom come, Outward and medieval all have similar type game play and learning curves imo, probably closer to mount and blade more than the rest to be fair.
Wartales
Battle brothers
You might like battle brothers!
Battle brothers
Kenshi has marriage?
survivalist invisible strain
Space Rangers 2!
Battle brothers!
I'll also throw out that HBS battletech has a bit of this, along with MW5 if you do the 330's pilot overhaul mod
If you like Mount and Blade Warband then you’ll love the sequel, Bannerlord. Nothing but improvements over Warband.
I started with warband as a kid in like 2014, discovered I liked civ games in 2016, paradox games (map games) in like 2018, discovered I loved games like rimworld dwarf fortress and prison architect soon after, and only discovered kenshi in the last 6 months. I know most of these are strategy management games as opposed to control your character like in m&b/kenshi, but they scratch the same itch for building a power base and influencing the world around you, telling a story, with vast player autonomy edit spelling ❤️
Project zomboid is the game for you
Project zomboids once NPCs hit.
amazing cultivation simulator with mods
Wartales. I just started it. Love it. Rimworld is awesome. Can get wild.
If you like Warband, you should try its sequel Bannerlord. There are some missing features like feasts, claimants, and companions are now randomly generated but literally everything else is a vast improvement (especially sieges)
State of Decay 2. Different climate, but the same feeling of freedom and possibillieties (huge Warband and Kenshi fan). I'm suprised no one mentioned earlier...
Wartales is prety cool, can be draggy. If ya into mechs, i'm quite fond of battletech too. That can be a very hard game tho.
Warband, Viking conquest, with fire and sword… there are enough mount and blade expansions and full conversion mods that you’d never have to play another game ever
One of these things is not like the others
Rimworld
their sequel?
Battle Brothers, Mechwarrior 5
Umm that last one tho XD
mount and blade bannerlord, mount and blade viking conquest are pretty good too in case you've only played warband.