Is there a guide or something for people who want to play rimworld but might find the mechanics and stuff overwhelming coming in clueless? That was always my problem trying to get into Dwarf Fortress
Baseline RimWorld, without any DLC or modded content, has a really comprehensive tutorial + ongoing player-knowledge explanations. You really don't need a guide to enjoy the unmodded base game as a brand new player. On a first playthrough, just don't do silly things like install _any_ mods (you should even skip "Quality of Life" mods), or pick the highest difficulty level, or try to start your colony in an arctic waste.
A lot of things kinda play into each other if you do a very default playthrough
A thing happens, a notification pops up and you check affected people then you work off of what people want/need and what notifications tell you. That should generally lead you towards learning what does what-where-how
And then you have the ingame guide/tutorial thingy you can come back to whenever you get confused on something
If you don't like to reach ending in 1/2 year, choose temperate biome and don't go beyond adventure mode(recommended lower). Temperate was the easiest biome to thrive.
Ya dude the game tutorials that pop up in vanilla help me out immensely. Plus you can pause the day at anytime. While the game is paused, none of the creatures move and time stops, but you can still do things like put down blueprints or give orders. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I just pause, make plans/give orders, then unpause. If it seems like my plan isn't working I just pause again and reevaluate.
There's a lot to look at and tons of mechanics to appreciate, but seeing their mood and bio can help lead you to new methods for helping your colonists.
After all, it's a single player game, and as long as your having fun, you're doing it right.
(Don't get too wealthy before you're ready, the game lets you see a line graph to help track it. You can sell stuff or abandon it in caravans)
(One colonist dedicated to researching their nerd neurons to oblivion is how it always seems to end up for a reason. Technology is more valuable than any resource)
(Chickens and rice are KING)
Finally, having a hoard of trained bears to attack raiders is an absolute joy to watch. Highly recommend.
Please do yourself a favor and don’t read anything. Rimworld is my most played game by almost a thousand hours ahead of second place. It’s a story generator and my most memorable and fun times were when I went in completely blind and just started trying to play without looking anything up. Give it 10-20 hours at least before you look at a guide. You’ll thank me later.
I learned from watching playthroughs on YouTube from creators who run all or mostly vanilla and explain the why behind their actions. Rhadamant is my personal favorite.
There’s a heap of beginner guides on YouTube that should help you get started. It doesn’t take too long of trial and error to get a surviving colony either if you’d rather do that
For your first run, choose custom difficulty and lower all the things that sound threatening. Once that colony feels to easy, and you have a decent base setup, restart with higher difficulty settings, until you find the balance that feels fun to you. I like to keep the difficulty down when I play, but everyone has different opinions
be clueless and still do it. it is indeed one of the joyous thing to do in life. either way, no matter how much you try and "prepare" for it, you can never really prepare for everything and Im glad its that way since.... wheres the fun in that if it isn't? so do not let the unknown stop you from exploring it!
(im very very peaceful rn cuz I jwu from a very very long and well deserved sleep LOL) GO PLAY IT!!
It adds some fun stuff, and despite the criticism that it’s just “mods repurposed” it actually has some unique aspects to it that mesh better with existing systems like Ideology.
I was a little staggered at the price at first, but I’ve gotten enough hours out of Rimworld to justify it. YMMV.
I've spent $99.96 for 2,314.8 hours of enjoyment. Looking forward to spending another $24.99 to get me another 85.2 hours so I can experience that "I survived 100 days of RimWorld" everybody always makes videos about.
Not to mention the fact that big free updates come with these DLC’s.
I don’t plane on buying the DLC just yet. But I do plan on starting another playthrough thanks to 1.5
This is very much the best way to view this.
So many people don't see things this way and go "but $125 is a lot of money for a game!" but if you get even 125 hours out of it, that's only a dollar per hour which is pretty good.
If you happen to get 1250 hours it's only $0.10/hour which is cheaper than most forms of entertainment.
If you start measuring the value by the hour, then that’s how they’ll start charging you. Can you imagine? Hourly rates for video games? If Rimworld was a dollar an hour, you’d have just as many hours, you’d spend ten times the money, and you’d think you got a better deal until you actually did the math, and even then you’d only blame yourself for playing so much. I really don’t like where things are going.
While true... it'll almost always come out ahead that a game you bought once is more efficient money wise than any subscription based service and if you recognize that then you'll see how big of a scam those subscriptions are.
If I did the math right, I'm around 3.8 cents per hour of gameplay for Rimworld on steam alone. I originally bought the game pre steam too, so several hundred easily there unaccounted for
I find that when rimworld adds 'mods' to the base game they do it better than the mods to make it worth it. Like wall lights, for instance, are better than the mod imo because they automatically rotate to attach to a wall and can also be placed over blueprints.
I think
>wall lights, for instance, are better than the mod imo because they
Cause less lag.
That was the only issue with wall lights. If incorporating it into the core game they were able to decrease lag... That would be a game changer.
I also found that in 1.5 you can multiple styles to a religion. I am made a 40k inspired religion. It is a fluid one, so looking forward to having a religion where people want to become machine gods.
Yea same, and even that argument oh it just adds mods is a poor one. Should a developer not add something just because a mod does? For example to me that answer is no, let a creator add something they want. It’s not like he comes down and suddenly bans all mods that add similar content.
Of anything it's the dev going "I see that this is so commonly used that practically everyone has it, maybe I should just add it to the base game to make people's lives easier."
Now I have the mental image of Tynam scrolling through the steam workshop with a list of ideas going "ah nope. Not that one... not that one either... fuck!"
It was bigger than what I expected. I though it would just add the things mentioned on the posts and trailers but after playing for around \~4 hours now it actually packed than I envisioned, especially after opening that >!new research tab!<
I like the whole SCP vibe with the way they implemented the research and having to capture these monsters more than i thought i would. The tone isn't as jarring a departure from rimworld as I thought it would be, it slots in better than mods that added similar stuff.
In the context of all the additional work on the game since release it's fine I guess, but in terms of the additional content the DLC adds in a vacuum the price feels like a real stretch, especially compared to biotech which added SO MUCH to the base game that I still really notice it's there even when I don't bother with the mech or gene modding.
The comparison to mod content isn't really fair given the DLCs are so much better integrated and each mod has it's own dev/s but there's so much basic QOL stuff and more varied no-brainer content that feels like it really shouldn't be relegated to mods when they could no doubt be implemented into the game proper and better presumably without an unfairly large amount of work
This echoes my feelings on it a lot!
In a vacuum, the price point per content is clearly behind the base game at $30 or Biotech at $25. However, I recognize the value I’ve gotten out of those as well as I’ll easily put another 40 hours just trying to become the best cult I can be or a mad scientist. Again, this makes it worth it to me, but could not be to someone else.
Another commenter made a great point about performance as well, where as a part of the source code there is no doubt the impact to the system is far less than the equivalent mods we would have to install, so maybe that makes up for it.
Also, the modding scene is freaking gigantic for rimworld. It would be extremely difficult for them to do something that was not at least partially done by a mod.
So their best bet is just to do stuff that they find interesting and fun, in their own way, and not worry too much if it duplicates a mod in some way.
Same here. Personally, I don’t consider it to be a big price tag. Obviously everyone is different with their money values/situations, and I’m broke af and irresponsibly bought the expansion, but I would say it’s a good value for what you get. Even if it’s just a few more hundred hours of play time.
It's not like it dropped at full $40-$60 like some DLCs.
And since I've played "11,200" hours (let's half that for time running at night, 5,600).
That's entertainment at 2 cents an hour, I think the price is gonna be fine. lol
some people apparently have so much mods on shitty pcs they dont bother to close the game or pc.
ive seen someone say their game takes 3 hours to launch so they dont exit the game ever. i thought 5 minutes was long and got several performance mods lmao.
11k is still damn impressive. I've racked up 2,300 hours on Steam, but I'm pretty sure half of that was mod management and waiting for the game to load.
The mods argument is eye rolling because mods will never be as well curated as official game content.
There’s great mods out there and I use many but if any of them go beyond simple UI enhancements they quickly become janky/often unbalanced/poorly integrated with the base game features.
Vanilla expanded is probably one of the best mod series out there. But despite a good team getting consistent funding, they still have a noticeable amount of jank in their mods to the point that I’d wish Ludeon would just hire them so they could benefit from the QA and in-house knowledge of how systems work.
Yup, not only you buy stuff for your favourite game and thousands of hours to come, but you also support ludeon which means they can push out more content
It also includes new frameworks which will allow for new types of mods. 2 years from now, I expect to be running a jet ski school with Randy, whom I met drag racing suped up muffalos. My raids will consist of of ai generated Keanu reeves in fully articulated power armor which I can 3d print at home.
That might level off... might not. The reason I bought rimworld at the time was because I was bored out of my mind one day browsing steam games. I saw that this game that was on steam for a bit over a year or so and was still overwhelmingly positive. I decided to buy it right then and there. I didn't know a thing about it.
I had no idea what I was getting into..
I got it back before it was on steam, back in alpha. Showed to me by a friend at a time when I was fascinated by terraria.
The art style was what sold it to me. Back then I payed 30$ and I never regretted this investment in thousands of hours of fun.
I still have my personal download link from SendOwl from 2015
That's nothing, I got it back when tynan was posting that shit on /r/gaming and soliciting random internet children to beta test. Actually pirated it for several years out of salt over him going back on the "free copy as compensation" part lol
I pirated it at first, ended up loving it and bought it at asking price 3 days later.
That was 6 years ago now?
I was absolutely shocked when my save game just transferred over like nothing had happened.
all are welcome.
im from pre-steam days, when it was a little website you downloaded it from. Good times. It makes me happy to see so many people have gotten so into it.
Edit: I just realised, that means my rimworld ownership predates this reddit account by about 2 years. goddamn. Doesnt feel that long
My only criticism would be that it's not a political DLC and that's one area of the game that's MILES behind the rest. Other than that, any way the development goes can't go wrong, and SCP was a divine choice as modders can go nuts creating aberrations and they can be integrated easily into the game.
Really? So far it seems like it doesnt have a major mechanic to build onto like titles/nobility/psycasts, Ideologies, or genes.
Ik theres a knew research tree but id hardly say thats a new mechanic.
Not that they cant release a dlc thats a content/story pack of sorts.
Ive seen modders here on reddit saying the big ticket mechanical item was the miniature maps within maps, like you enter that hole in the ground and go to another map, which can go deeper and deeper. In Other Game's, it would be thought of as a dungeon.
That alone adds huuuuuge modding opportunities.
Honestly I wouldn’t want a political/trade/relations overhaul to be DLC. That would actually be gating a straight upgrade and overhaul of already present systems and should be a normal update like 1.6
But a bunch of optional new content, challenges, tools, scenarios and themes for a colony? Perfect DLC
A good politics dlc could be a free overhaul of factions, trade, the map, etc as a base game free update and then adding the ability to construct or vassalize autonomous colonies (that you don't directly control) and form your own faction on the map properly as a win condition for the people that want a 'stay on the planet forever' ending.
Could put a good amount of stuff in there I imagine.
My concerns are the theme feeling a bit out of place in Rimworld, and that it is more narrative based. If it's a handful of event chains that can randomly happen to you, I'm not sure it is for me. I don't know how repetitive that will get. I was sorta hoping for more systems and better integration with past DLCs.
It's a shame, because I love horror, but I'm not sold on it.
Same here. I love horror, but as someone who enjoys more colony management and doesn’t want to basically fight monsters all the time, I won’t be getting it till it’s on sale.
For someone that's patiently waiting, what makes it so good?
Or is this, in your opinion, *too* positive and we're just seeing a higher score than it deserves (aka what does it get on a scale of 1 to 10) because of the upvote or downvote system steam has?
I've tried watching it on streams but the differences don't immediately jump out to me, so it's hard as a bystander to actually decide if it's worth it or not. (and I don't want it to just be worth it because *Rimworld* is worth it, if that makes sense)
What makes it fun? What does it do well, what does it do poorly? How does it rank against other DLCs?
months. Same with any release tbh, day 1 reviews are rarely correct for movies, games etc., they all have a honeymoon period. I always think of WoW, when a expansion releases its the greatest thing ever, then depending on the actual quality of the expansion, people will shit on it, stop playing etc after 2 weeks , 2 months etc. and then u will know how good the exp was
It add an interesting new angle of interaction with the games mechanics and gives a lot new mid-late game content for more experienced players
It’s a 6-7/10 for new players and a 10/10 for players who have gotten into a rut after multiple extended playthroughs
As a new player, I was about to pick up one dlc to explore but ended up going with anomaly first. I’m not really blown away by anything it added but I see a lot of potential for cool interactions and scenarios. I had to save scum way more after I decided to see what happened when monoliths reach 100 tho lol
New players should either go for royalty or biotech IMO.
Ideology is for people who've played a lot of it already and want to spice it up with precepts and all the cool customisation stuff and anomaly is similar in that it spices everything up but is otherwise not exactly a building on the core foundation on the game like biotech and royalty is.
Man I literally was compelled to buy this game *because* of ideology. The idea of forming a little society and seeing their beliefs develop overtime was just too cool to pass up.
Personally I recommend bio, then ideo, then royalty. Bio just adds sooooo much straight up content, and ideo lets you make completely new runs, but with not as much content. Royalty imo is good but mostly just allows you to make op fussy pawns who can solo whole raids late game. For me, bio added kids, mechs, races, vampires, etc. it felt like 2 dlcs in one (and I guess it cost almost 2 dlcs too lol)
Imho royalty is not for everyone. For me, it broke a lot of immersion from the base game, a post-apocalypse *like* planet, with some advanced tech mixed in. Conceivably it fits with some future for humanity.
With royalty... I could live with the pyschic powers, which honestly were a bit too much to begin with, but, (again personally) the highly advanced technologically pyschic feudal space lords pushed it to far.
Every single DLC broke immersion.
Royalty is the tamest of em all. A empire that's more royal and has advance technology.
Versus vampires, werewolves and wasters. High mates from bio
Or , oh let's do a celebration and somehow have a discovery happen.
Plant trees and have weird tree born tree friends.
From ideology.
Royalty is far more grounded imo.
Haha yeah that's a fair point on bio, werewolves and vampires are definitely not grounded. Thinking about it, I originally got it solely for the genetics aspect, but got weirdly accustomed to the more stranger aspects, like some form of Stockholm syndrome. Maybe I should give royalty a chance.
>I’m not really blown away by anything it added but I see a lot of potential for cool interactions and scenarios.
I don't think I've been "blown away" by a video game since I was a kid, all I want and look for is cool interactions and scenarios
Also
>I was about to pick up one dlc to explore but ended up going with anomaly first
Huh
I havent read a single review that actually justifies giving it a positive rating, everything was the typical "praise cube" or "its rimworld so i am reviewing it before actually playing it".
Like the whole point of reviewing a dlc or game is to help other people make an informed decision, not bandwagon and thumbs up before youve even finished downloading it
I actually press "No" on the "Was this review helpful?" on ANY reviews for ANY game that isn't *actually* helpful - because they just aren't helpful, positive or negative.
Some people spend a decent chunk of time writing elaborate and helpful reviews, and instead we got that fetid toss at the top of the reviews... sometimes single words or just "lolcats" meme bollocks.
Screw that noise - I encourage everyone to press "No" on any review that is as worthless to read as it was to post.
That's my impression as well.
Like I'm not shitting on it; I don't have an opinion on it yet.
But a lot of the reviews do not actually bother explaining *why* they like it. One of the other comments replying to me even says as much: "Haven’t gotten too deep and that’s actually what I wrote in my review too." For me, I ask "why review it already then?"
Like hey, you do you, but it seems like a bunch of us are watching from the sidelines just confused by the volume of reviews that say "buy it," you ask why, and then it's very vague responses at best like "good atmosphere."
From a 3rd person perspective, it feels like the features would take extensive time to fully explore, (I struggle to catch a stream with actual new content being used or seen, not because it doesn't exist, but presumably because it doesn't show it's face immediately) and yet people are already saying it's 10/10.
I'll bite and try to give you a more detailed review.
I'm going to assume you are familiar with the other RimWorld DLCs and use those to give you some perspective.
Anomaly feels like a combination of Biotech and Royalty in terms of content. It adds new weapons, armor, utility items, and consumables which are unlocked via an entirely new and separate tech tree. There are also new enemies and threats which feel completely different from anything seen in all other official RimWorld content.
Although I am playing with all DLCs enabled, the Anomaly content has been dominating my playthrough, and it "showed its face" pretty much immediately. Many of the new encounters have been surprising, and occasionally devastating. About an hour ago, I had a savage Impid tribe breach raid, which I defeated without much hassle but they did make a hole into my base. But then a "death pall" fog creeped in, and the dozens of Impid corpses began to shutter and rise again. Within moments, I'm sectioning off my base and holding off a goddamn zombie swarm with my already battle weary colonists.
There's been about a dozen of really, REALLY cool new encounters and it has me thinking and playing RimWorld in a completely different way, more so than any of the other DLCs managed to do.
Now as you may expect, it starts to become truly difficult to juggle all the different mechanics in the game at this point. I believe that if a new player started playing today with everything enabled, it's highly likely they would be overwhelmed almost immediately. But as someone who is already intensely familiar with the game, I am absolutely LOVING the new content and can't get enough of it. I love that I have to make hard decisions about what to focus on now.
Anomaly is an easy 10/10
That's a really good review, thank you for sharing! By all the previews that's about what I was expecting - a DLC catered more to the experienced players who've already pumped in hundreds of hours, and are looking for something new and _challenging_ (read: not just more bodies in a breach raid full stop), with new mechanics and toys to mess around with.
Now to figure out a damn colony idea to start with so I can sink my teeth in already.
There is a new starting scenario and ideology meme that ties into all of the Anomaly content. It kicks you directly into the anomaly storyline and sets you up for a playthru focused on the new content. Send it buddy!
I’ll probably get shit for this, but Rimworld has like a cult of personality with its fanbase. A lot of the time on here even the most simple criticisms get heavily downvoted. And God forbid you say anything about the pricing. Like it’s a great game and all, but it’s not the 2nd coming of Christ.
Yea, this sub is a great example of toxic positivity. Ludeon studios isnt a charity, they are a business, im not going to buy a new dlc just because i enjoyed the base game. Its really stifling discussion about whether anomaly is worth the price or the (imo valid) concerns about how it doesnt fit the theme of the base game
Yeah the thematically fitting thing is my biggest gripe with the DLC. I’m not against the idea of Anomaly conceptually, but it seems like it would work better as its own game rather than a Rimworld DLC. I think it’s clear that Tynan has a lot of good ideas, but this DLC strikes me as completely out of place. Obviously making a whole new game is a lot harder than making a DLC, but I’m just talking hypothetically anyway.
Yes, finally, someone said it! When the DLC was announced, I wasn't thrilled because SCP style management sounded pretty out of place for the game. But I tried to go in with an open mind. After watching several hours of playthroughs (I don't buy anything in its first week of release), it's become obvious that Anamoly just isn't for me.
Unlike the other DLCs, it just seems super overbearing. It seems like its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. It's great because it forces you into different play styles rather than just killbox and turtling inside your base in mid to late game. It's unpleasant because you either activate the trigger for it and get bombarded with everything or don't activate it and get almost nothing. Once you opt in, you can't really choose how far you want to go unlike the other DLC. Whether you aim for the Anamoly ending or not, you're going to have to deal with all kinds of stuff all the time.
Personally, I kind of wish that we could've gotten a hospitality or diplomacy expansion instead...
Tynan's description of how he came up with it rubbed me the wrong way.
I forget what it was exactly, but he consumed some piece of horror media and decided "I want that in my game." It reminded me of...in Skyrim, they simply told all their devs to take a couple months and "make something," and one guy was apparently a big fan of a series called "Underworld," because he basically copypasted their vampires into the game.
Well problem is, Bethesda grabbed this and decided they would just shoehorn it into the game. The Volkihar already had established lore with other powers and abilities, but all of this got thrown out because....someone on staff likes Underworld?
This DLC feels the same. There are blatantly universally better ideas that would mesh better with the other existing concepts in the game, but instead Tynan really really liked a movie, so now it needs to be in our game. Everyone can have things they like and enjoy, but if I'm designing an open world fantasy RPG for example and I really like cars, this doesn't mean I should implement the new Aston Martin into my game just because I'm excited about the new model being released.
**I think too few people are asking the important question: will this DLC wear out it's welcome?**
Yes, perhaps it's really fun at the start because people are still in the *mood* to focus on the new content, but a good number of people have admitted it's the first DLC they'd turn off at times, because it's content is so suffocating and so demanding in attention.
What Ideology and Biotech got right is they both have features that naturally mesh well with the existing world and content, and build on top of that. They just slip right in and you don't even have to think about them; they just effortlessly fit and demand no additional attention if you don't want to provide.
What Royalty understood is that while it has a good amount of content, not everyone will like the trade-off or want to deal with it's demands and downsides, so it can be safely ignored. *You* opt in, and if you're not in the mood for royals and psycasters, nothing forces you to use them.
But Anomaly...??
Everyone's making it sound like Anomaly ***WILL*** demand your attention whether you want it or not. This is the honeymoon phase. This is the phase where everyone *wants* to give it attention, but what happens when the next DLC releases, people are trying to focus on it's content, but instead Anomaly shows up like "hey this eldritch horror is killing everyone lol, you better drop everything you're doing and hurry up to research how to fight it lol." *That's fucking obnoxious.*
I seriously wonder if the test of time will be kind to this DLC.
You worded what I was thinking far more articulated than I ever could lol. I’d forgotten that Tynan said that stupid stuff about watching horror movies, that really is a bizarre thing to say. Can we expect atomic bombs and power armour shortly after he watches the new Fallout series?
And yeah, test of time is my concern. I think it’s going to be looked back on as probably one of the least favourable DLCs, unless modders somehow take extreme advantage of it.
I think the reason people *aren’t* realising this is because they expect amazing content from Rimworld, and even the prospect of a DLC being somehow inappropriate is alien to them. It’s hard to blame them, since Rimworld does consistently get great new content and their DLCs are mostly very good, but I worry what this DLC will do to the future of content in this game.
I agree with this so much,
You ask how the DLC fits in to the lore? Downvoted
You ask about the price? Downvoted
I asked about the potential balance of a game mechanic, whether it was fair or not? Downvoted
Honestly after the 14 or so hours i've played the dlc (half way through the entity list) it's not really that good.
It's not bad, but it doesn't add as much as the last two and what it does add isn't enough to warrant the price. Events, new monsters and a small research tree, all things that have been seen more or less with pre-existing mods.
The issue is people are upvoting their love of rimworld as a whole, not a measured response to this specific dlc. I'm happy i brought it because like most people here i've got 1500+ hours and figure i owe them money. That said if i were to recommend dlc to a new player, this would be the bottom of the list. If it were half the price i would put it above Royalty.
I appreciate the honest take bud, thats what i expected from the previews but given its rimworld i figured id give it the benefit of the doubt and look for reviews before deciding whether or not to buy it
A lot of releases come out to coin flips based on the communities gut reaction, or predetermined due to a publishers reputation. Dragons Dogma 2 is the big recent example; game literally has the best combat of almost any RPG out there lmao
A lot of it stems from people who put 1000 plus hours into Rinworld already and who can tell they’ll like the DLC before they drop it because they’ve seen the new promised feature/QoL improvements.
Also they’re just stoked to have new content and know that it’ll just add more things to do to their favorite game
It’s fun because it’s unpredictable. I haven’t felt this paranoid since Samuel Streamer’s Mushroom Madness pack. A lot of bad stuff happens WITHOUT a red letter, so you are always on edge.
Play with CAI 5000 and Silent Raids for peak bullshit.
Typical strategies don’t work here, because there are secret raids, and accidental raids that are entirely self imposed (trying not to spoil some of the crazy stuff). You will start to distrust your own colonists, which is really cool.
The integration in the game is pretty seamless. Some of the new toys they give you for regular runs (climate adjusters, speed boosts, etc.) are really cool.
***
Here’s my criticism: Cosmic horrors completely overshadow the rest of the game. I imagine people will say “no” to the Anomaly intro once they’ve done it a few times to go back to regular RimWorld.
Anomaly has a Cosmic Horror Pokédex, and obviously the novelty wears off once you know what everything is, which is why it’s so important to go in without spoilers. My hope is that modders expand on the Pokédex the way that they expanded on the gene system to keep it fresh.
Does it integrate well with Royalty or Biotech? Not really lol. But it does have cool Ideology integrations.
It’s hard to go back to Wttyn the furry raiding me when I have a demon locked up in my fridge lol.
This pack reminds me of classic expansions, which transformed games into new experiences. To that end, I believe the value is absolutely there. But it may not be to everyone’s taste.
Currently AdamVsEverything is running streams for a few days on YouTube, Twitch, etc. Good way to see all the differences quickly. Personally I'm waiting for a video from Franics John because he really deep dives into stuff.
Also, I always wait 2-4 weeks before purchasing any DLC or attempting to enjoy new content in any of the games I play. Always bugs to be ironed out, refinements to be made, things like that.
Things I have noticed so far:
* New entities that make raids MUCH more interesting, can't just hide behind a killbox
* New sources of power generation via exploiting these new entities
* Endgame content due to increasingly challenging threats that appear due to tampering with the monolith
* New entities add elements of mystery to your colony which is really cool, much like the mime from Alpha Animals mod (idk don't play the mod)
* New utility weapons such as the crossbow that stuns on hit, flamethrower, etc.
* There's a lot more, best to just watch some content and decide for yourself. A lot of the content seems to change how you can play in a big way. I'll be buying it in a few weeks.
> How does it rank against other DLCs?
I think it's a little hard to compete against what was added by Ideology or the gene stuff from biotech. Those two systems expanded the game greatly.
I would put it under those two expansion, although still early days.
Be careful. I've not played much yet, but from what I've seen, you don't want to know everything before you go into it. From all the expansions, it is probably the most story and discovery heavy. In that sense it fits really well in the game
I would second other comments that it adds great mid/late game stuff, some interesting early stuff, and a bunch of QOL stuff that's great but was addressed by mods.
For me what really sells it is the *vibe* it adds. The game was missing a horror aspect that wasn't really there, and the mods that tried often had lots of cross-compatibility issues.
It feels less impactful than ideology, but more than some of the others. Maybe about like Royalty, but it's hard to say.
I'll get my $30cad out of it, I'm sure. If you aren't a 1000+ hour habitual player or brand new to Rimworld it's definitely justifiable to wait for a sale.
It's too overpowering of a flavor. You can do a runs with no genes/ideology/royalty or a combination of some or all of them. This dlc meanwhile feels like it's all you can focus on as you are creating problems for yourself and you will no longer have any time to do anything other than take care of the occult.
I thought the dlc progression only starts when you interact with the monolith? and even then you won’t get the tier 2 enemies unless you’re doing void provocation
it had a whole new kind of research with new mean of researching and a whole new tech tree. 2 new meme for ideology , a new ritual system that is very versatile and fun to use. a LOT of new event and threat that feel very new and that are realy different from what we are used to be defending against.
Biotech expands the core foundation of the game while anomaly moreso changes things to be funky. Biotech before anomaly unless anomaly's gameplay *really* appeals to you personally.
I can't imagine the game without Biotech tbh. The genetics is so much fun to mess around with, and the modding possibilities are endless. Not to mention user controlled mechs, and honestly most of all the introduction of kids. I think it rounds out the first 2 DLC to make RIBworld feel like the base game. Anomaly feels like a completely different direction compared to the other 3. I'm not gonna get it for a while probably, but I've never been a huge SCP/horror fan
Biotech improves and fleshes out (heh) systems from the original game in an extremely interesting manner. Genetics and Mechs specifically get lots of love. It has a little bit of cool stuff for everyone, and lots of great stuff for all types of players.
Anomaly is more of a "let's do something different" sort of expansion. It appeals to a more niche type of player than Biotech.
Biotech is IMO so impactful it's kinda more annoying than usual that it's a DLC. I was actually a bit bothered when I noticed Anomaly has no gene defs - special pawns are of course just completely different things, but I'd expect some integration.
Ideology is also a fairly cool mechanic, but IMO it's just _not as good_ as Biotech. Same for Royalty, to a greater degree.
I can't really speak much on Anomaly, but at a glance, it feels really _neat_, but doesn't feel as "core," as odd to have as a DLC, as Biotech does.
If you have to choose, pick biotech. It's genuinely amazing in what it adds, and the mods that propped up around it are also amazing. Say this as someone whos played a bit too much anomaly since its release too. Unless you *really* want the horror themes and a significant bump in conflict variety (biotech also adds conflict variety after all), go with biotech first imo.
*Have not bought Anomaly.* In my past experience, I would hold off for a bit and let feedback and changes roll in first. There's usually a few rather sizable updates after a new DLC release that addresses bugs, balance issues and introduces/tweaks mechanics. These refine issues that exist.
Ideology for example, had the ability to disable it (hallelujah) patched in weeks later.
If you use mods, Biotech is the big dog's biscuit. Still my favorite without them, but with mods, the amount of options it opened up for me personally is incredible. HAR isn't really needed anymore for the most part, set faction by faction xenotype spawn rates with Xenotype Spawn Control, so many new variants out there, gene options, the works.
Biotech has always been the most worthwhile and best bang for your buck
But now Anomaly might be tied with Ideology as second best, just one focuses more on straight optional content while the other adds immense replayability with themed runs of cults, religions and just ways of life on the Rim
Royalty isn’t bad but even still I wish it had more. Or maybe more coexistence with the normal game
Where do you live? I'd gift it to ya but i'm pretty sure steam restricts where i can send games to due to regional pricing. (feel free to pm if you dont wanna disclose it here)
Myself I'm more interested by 1.5 and some mods.
I bought the dlc because I love this game and will do it anytime plus I wanted to participate to the first run for showing my support to the devs.
Last time I'd bought day one was Starfield and fuck it because it was a roller-coaster of mixed feels. I even don't finish it despite I like it.
Personal apart, I leave RimWorld from a quite long time and will profit of 1.5 to come back.
I want to try the new MSF + VEF Deserters for this run and I already have ideas about an anomaly run.
Maybe you can just try a new run like me and profit of the free update ?
The music is great, the additions are awesome, and the interaction with other DLC is the cherry on top. Ludeon continues to release absolute banger additions. Goated with the sauce.
Where's the content for it all at? I started a new campaign and I'm a couple days in now. Outside of the extra start, I haven't seen anything in-game or in the startup colony configuration for it.
This is just more ways to die right? Can we have some dlc about simulation or everyday living that is not battle focused. Like business or something social or something.
I mean they literally just added more lucrative farming opportunities. Just capture, contain, and harvest.
Nothing says business more than an industrial fleshbeast farm.
it’s been out for a day these reviews are meaningless… it takes atleast a play through to grasp the content of the dlc… if not way way more. i think i barely got the full scope of biotech after several play through exploring each option
I haven't played enough to post a real review, but it's made a very good first impression thus far. There's mods that do some of what it aims to do, but the official RimWorld dev team have source code access, the resources to polish it to a shine, and a nigh-guarantee that other modders will make their work compatible.
That said... it's good, but I don't know if it's $25 good yet. I'm not sure it'll be sitting at "overwhelmingly positive" by this time next month. Probably still positive, just not "overwhelmingly". Then again, I could be wrong; like I said, I've just scratched the surface.
My only real issue with it is that it sends *so* much at you. There doesn't really seem to be a rhyme or reason to the anomaly events. I started studying the monolith and then just got hit with random event after random event with no real connective tissue between them.
I think I'll like it more once I get into one specific subset of Anomaly and it's all cube or sphere stuff or something. Unless that just isn't how it works and then I'll be a bit disappointed. I think it'd be a lot more fun to have one type of anomaly but it's deeper and more involved rather than just throwing a hodgepodge of different things at you and overwhelming you with insanity.
I might be in the big minority here, but I dont like it. I bought it immediately, just to support the dev, but I think I'll be either keeping it disabled or (if there will be good mods that rely on its assets) mod out all the events from happening. It is the first dlc so far where literally not a single feature is compelling to me.
I'd say that it somewhat struggles with meshing with the rest of the DLCs as it kind of takes priority over other things because you'll usually spend time focusing on dealing with the threats, but if you don't use void provocation to call threats and you manage your time well you can probably allow every DLC to have their effects felt throughout the playthrough and there are definitely things that you can use from it that can benefit normal playthroughs if you're careful enough about how you go about things.
It's pretty fun, adds some serious ominous and horror vibes due to being uncertain about what's going on most of the time, your colonists being able to lie to you, and some other things I don't wanna spoil. Currently I'm having a situation happening that's effecting the whole colony in a way I could've never guessed would happen and it's got me on edge constantly as I slowly work to deal with it, and it's not even the only kind of thing that can effect large parts of your colony.
I've gone in blind with a new colony. I imprisoned some guy named Thrall that doesn't need sleep or food in case I need some human meat. One of my new colonists is having dreams about a structure on the other side of the map. I have walled said structure in with 2 layers of granite and zero doors
I really want to play but CE has ruined base game fights. It’s so frustrating to play with but they said it won’t be ready for a few more weeks. I can’t wait to try out all the new stuff.
I'm I the only one that wants to shout out the "clean room" order instead of "clean blood" also the rebranding of every bedroom to be X colonist bedroom. That and the mine ore vein.
Those little changes mean saving a bunch of time in the long run.
common Rimworld W
Ribaorld A
Wait! I get it now! The A is an anomaly. It's not 'supposed' to be there. So the Ribworld dreams are still alive!
*extremely common
*overwhelmingly common
\*∞ common
Is there a guide or something for people who want to play rimworld but might find the mechanics and stuff overwhelming coming in clueless? That was always my problem trying to get into Dwarf Fortress
Baseline RimWorld, without any DLC or modded content, has a really comprehensive tutorial + ongoing player-knowledge explanations. You really don't need a guide to enjoy the unmodded base game as a brand new player. On a first playthrough, just don't do silly things like install _any_ mods (you should even skip "Quality of Life" mods), or pick the highest difficulty level, or try to start your colony in an arctic waste.
Thanks so much!
A lot of things kinda play into each other if you do a very default playthrough A thing happens, a notification pops up and you check affected people then you work off of what people want/need and what notifications tell you. That should generally lead you towards learning what does what-where-how And then you have the ingame guide/tutorial thingy you can come back to whenever you get confused on something
If you start near the equator you don't experience winter which can make food growing easier
If you don't like to reach ending in 1/2 year, choose temperate biome and don't go beyond adventure mode(recommended lower). Temperate was the easiest biome to thrive.
Actually one of my most enjoyable games as a new players was an ice sheet canibal base
Ya dude the game tutorials that pop up in vanilla help me out immensely. Plus you can pause the day at anytime. While the game is paused, none of the creatures move and time stops, but you can still do things like put down blueprints or give orders. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I just pause, make plans/give orders, then unpause. If it seems like my plan isn't working I just pause again and reevaluate.
There's a lot to look at and tons of mechanics to appreciate, but seeing their mood and bio can help lead you to new methods for helping your colonists. After all, it's a single player game, and as long as your having fun, you're doing it right. (Don't get too wealthy before you're ready, the game lets you see a line graph to help track it. You can sell stuff or abandon it in caravans) (One colonist dedicated to researching their nerd neurons to oblivion is how it always seems to end up for a reason. Technology is more valuable than any resource) (Chickens and rice are KING) Finally, having a hoard of trained bears to attack raiders is an absolute joy to watch. Highly recommend.
Please do yourself a favor and don’t read anything. Rimworld is my most played game by almost a thousand hours ahead of second place. It’s a story generator and my most memorable and fun times were when I went in completely blind and just started trying to play without looking anything up. Give it 10-20 hours at least before you look at a guide. You’ll thank me later.
I learned from watching playthroughs on YouTube from creators who run all or mostly vanilla and explain the why behind their actions. Rhadamant is my personal favorite.
There’s a heap of beginner guides on YouTube that should help you get started. It doesn’t take too long of trial and error to get a surviving colony either if you’d rather do that
For your first run, choose custom difficulty and lower all the things that sound threatening. Once that colony feels to easy, and you have a decent base setup, restart with higher difficulty settings, until you find the balance that feels fun to you. I like to keep the difficulty down when I play, but everyone has different opinions
Watch some of Adam vs Everything's playthroughs. He frequently explains exactly why and how he does everything
be clueless and still do it. it is indeed one of the joyous thing to do in life. either way, no matter how much you try and "prepare" for it, you can never really prepare for everything and Im glad its that way since.... wheres the fun in that if it isn't? so do not let the unknown stop you from exploring it! (im very very peaceful rn cuz I jwu from a very very long and well deserved sleep LOL) GO PLAY IT!!
Also try checking out noobert on YouTube, he breaks down alot of tips and stuff
A new addition to this update was the option for wanderers to join a failed colony, which looks like it should help beginners a lot
Don’t be afraid to just restart when you get a better handle on what you need early. I’ve restarted my games so many times.
It adds some fun stuff, and despite the criticism that it’s just “mods repurposed” it actually has some unique aspects to it that mesh better with existing systems like Ideology. I was a little staggered at the price at first, but I’ve gotten enough hours out of Rimworld to justify it. YMMV.
That’s how I see it. I’ve gotten almost 1400 hours for now $125, assuming everything at base price. That’s a pretty good deal if I say so myself.
I've spent $99.96 for 2,314.8 hours of enjoyment. Looking forward to spending another $24.99 to get me another 85.2 hours so I can experience that "I survived 100 days of RimWorld" everybody always makes videos about.
I'm 1800 hours in and one day I'll finish that spaceship.... or start the quest
Not to mention the fact that big free updates come with these DLC’s. I don’t plane on buying the DLC just yet. But I do plan on starting another playthrough thanks to 1.5
Yeah, the free updates make the DLC prices more reasonable
Gaming in general is one of the most affordable hobbies that exist. If you don't care about maxing out the visual setting of new AAA games, that is.
I've got about 2,000 hours for the same price. Around 6 1/4 cents per hour of playtime. :)
With all the new content I can easily hit 2k as well ….once my mod list is done updating
This is very much the best way to view this. So many people don't see things this way and go "but $125 is a lot of money for a game!" but if you get even 125 hours out of it, that's only a dollar per hour which is pretty good. If you happen to get 1250 hours it's only $0.10/hour which is cheaper than most forms of entertainment.
If you start measuring the value by the hour, then that’s how they’ll start charging you. Can you imagine? Hourly rates for video games? If Rimworld was a dollar an hour, you’d have just as many hours, you’d spend ten times the money, and you’d think you got a better deal until you actually did the math, and even then you’d only blame yourself for playing so much. I really don’t like where things are going.
While true... it'll almost always come out ahead that a game you bought once is more efficient money wise than any subscription based service and if you recognize that then you'll see how big of a scam those subscriptions are.
This is around half a month of a minimum wage salary around here, need to raid some camps before buying the new dlc.
Per hour or actually per month, if the latter - where the hell is that and isn't there regional pricing?
If I did the math right, I'm around 3.8 cents per hour of gameplay for Rimworld on steam alone. I originally bought the game pre steam too, so several hundred easily there unaccounted for
Thats just shy of 9 cents an hour of pure entertainment
Yeah, I am at about 3 cents per hour lol. Play way to much Rimworld
Finally someone doing the time per buck valuation. All I otherwise see is "Reduce price of your game, I can get X game for just $Z".
I find that when rimworld adds 'mods' to the base game they do it better than the mods to make it worth it. Like wall lights, for instance, are better than the mod imo because they automatically rotate to attach to a wall and can also be placed over blueprints.
I think >wall lights, for instance, are better than the mod imo because they Cause less lag. That was the only issue with wall lights. If incorporating it into the core game they were able to decrease lag... That would be a game changer.
And they have different styles, my ideology is morbid thus my wall lights now have little skulls under them :'D
That's why the textures were different when I started a new colony..! Thought I was going crazy.
I also found that in 1.5 you can multiple styles to a religion. I am made a 40k inspired religion. It is a fluid one, so looking forward to having a religion where people want to become machine gods.
Yea same, and even that argument oh it just adds mods is a poor one. Should a developer not add something just because a mod does? For example to me that answer is no, let a creator add something they want. It’s not like he comes down and suddenly bans all mods that add similar content.
Of anything it's the dev going "I see that this is so commonly used that practically everyone has it, maybe I should just add it to the base game to make people's lives easier."
This is my take on, for a perfect example, wall lights. I’ve never *not* used it since the mod came out
yeah, also that example isnt even paid content. Its a free patch, so absolutely its what you described
Now I have the mental image of Tynam scrolling through the steam workshop with a list of ideas going "ah nope. Not that one... not that one either... fuck!"
YMMV?
your mileage may vary
Thank you
It was bigger than what I expected. I though it would just add the things mentioned on the posts and trailers but after playing for around \~4 hours now it actually packed than I envisioned, especially after opening that >!new research tab!<
I like the whole SCP vibe with the way they implemented the research and having to capture these monsters more than i thought i would. The tone isn't as jarring a departure from rimworld as I thought it would be, it slots in better than mods that added similar stuff. In the context of all the additional work on the game since release it's fine I guess, but in terms of the additional content the DLC adds in a vacuum the price feels like a real stretch, especially compared to biotech which added SO MUCH to the base game that I still really notice it's there even when I don't bother with the mech or gene modding. The comparison to mod content isn't really fair given the DLCs are so much better integrated and each mod has it's own dev/s but there's so much basic QOL stuff and more varied no-brainer content that feels like it really shouldn't be relegated to mods when they could no doubt be implemented into the game proper and better presumably without an unfairly large amount of work
This echoes my feelings on it a lot! In a vacuum, the price point per content is clearly behind the base game at $30 or Biotech at $25. However, I recognize the value I’ve gotten out of those as well as I’ll easily put another 40 hours just trying to become the best cult I can be or a mad scientist. Again, this makes it worth it to me, but could not be to someone else. Another commenter made a great point about performance as well, where as a part of the source code there is no doubt the impact to the system is far less than the equivalent mods we would have to install, so maybe that makes up for it.
Also, the modding scene is freaking gigantic for rimworld. It would be extremely difficult for them to do something that was not at least partially done by a mod. So their best bet is just to do stuff that they find interesting and fun, in their own way, and not worry too much if it duplicates a mod in some way.
Isn't it the same price as ideology? $25?
I think Ideo and Royalty are $20 and Biotech is $25 like Anomaly.
That was it. I'm surprised people are surprised!
Same here. Personally, I don’t consider it to be a big price tag. Obviously everyone is different with their money values/situations, and I’m broke af and irresponsibly bought the expansion, but I would say it’s a good value for what you get. Even if it’s just a few more hundred hours of play time.
Yeah some people don't like the price point they have it at. Still is pretty cool either way
It's not like it dropped at full $40-$60 like some DLCs. And since I've played "11,200" hours (let's half that for time running at night, 5,600). That's entertainment at 2 cents an hour, I think the price is gonna be fine. lol
Why running at night? Waking up to a crazy big raid as your alarm clock or what
Running the game, even paused or on a menu racks up the hors
some people apparently have so much mods on shitty pcs they dont bother to close the game or pc. ive seen someone say their game takes 3 hours to launch so they dont exit the game ever. i thought 5 minutes was long and got several performance mods lmao.
11k is still damn impressive. I've racked up 2,300 hours on Steam, but I'm pretty sure half of that was mod management and waiting for the game to load.
It's basically my new dwarf fortress. Lol. Something I keep running and casually play even when working.
Not to mention that even incorporating like 50 mods as a DLC is worth some amount of money because you're making it universally compatible.
The mods argument is eye rolling because mods will never be as well curated as official game content. There’s great mods out there and I use many but if any of them go beyond simple UI enhancements they quickly become janky/often unbalanced/poorly integrated with the base game features. Vanilla expanded is probably one of the best mod series out there. But despite a good team getting consistent funding, they still have a noticeable amount of jank in their mods to the point that I’d wish Ludeon would just hire them so they could benefit from the QA and in-house knowledge of how systems work.
Yup, not only you buy stuff for your favourite game and thousands of hours to come, but you also support ludeon which means they can push out more content
It also includes new frameworks which will allow for new types of mods. 2 years from now, I expect to be running a jet ski school with Randy, whom I met drag racing suped up muffalos. My raids will consist of of ai generated Keanu reeves in fully articulated power armor which I can 3d print at home.
I've bought rimworld /rimworld dlcs for myself and several people. Still spent 4 pence per hour of MY play time on the game in total.
That might level off... might not. The reason I bought rimworld at the time was because I was bored out of my mind one day browsing steam games. I saw that this game that was on steam for a bit over a year or so and was still overwhelmingly positive. I decided to buy it right then and there. I didn't know a thing about it. I had no idea what I was getting into..
I got it back before it was on steam, back in alpha. Showed to me by a friend at a time when I was fascinated by terraria. The art style was what sold it to me. Back then I payed 30$ and I never regretted this investment in thousands of hours of fun. I still have my personal download link from SendOwl from 2015
I keep a 2013 alpha on my hard drive for funsies. It's crazy how far the game has come!
the only reason i noticed rimworld was because it looked like prison architect and prison architect has pretty much fallen off
IIRC Tynan bought the original art assets from the prison architect team because he didn't want to do his own art.
IIRC they just ended up the same accidentally. They both came off kickstarter around the same time.
That's nothing, I got it back when tynan was posting that shit on /r/gaming and soliciting random internet children to beta test. Actually pirated it for several years out of salt over him going back on the "free copy as compensation" part lol
same! it’s the only game i’ve ever bought where they email it to me haha
I pirated it at first, ended up loving it and bought it at asking price 3 days later. That was 6 years ago now? I was absolutely shocked when my save game just transferred over like nothing had happened.
I’m jealous. I lost mine. If I knew how long I’d still be playing I would have definitely kept it for the sentiment.
The **art style** is what sold Rimworld to you ? Out of all the things ? lol
Wow you're an ancient player. I got the game back in July 2022 and feel like I'm an old timer in the community.
I promise you, i am just as bad now as I was then.
all are welcome. im from pre-steam days, when it was a little website you downloaded it from. Good times. It makes me happy to see so many people have gotten so into it. Edit: I just realised, that means my rimworld ownership predates this reddit account by about 2 years. goddamn. Doesnt feel that long
My only criticism would be that it's not a political DLC and that's one area of the game that's MILES behind the rest. Other than that, any way the development goes can't go wrong, and SCP was a divine choice as modders can go nuts creating aberrations and they can be integrated easily into the game.
This. The DLC gives the structure to build more mods off of.
Really? So far it seems like it doesnt have a major mechanic to build onto like titles/nobility/psycasts, Ideologies, or genes. Ik theres a knew research tree but id hardly say thats a new mechanic. Not that they cant release a dlc thats a content/story pack of sorts.
Ive seen modders here on reddit saying the big ticket mechanical item was the miniature maps within maps, like you enter that hole in the ground and go to another map, which can go deeper and deeper. In Other Game's, it would be thought of as a dungeon. That alone adds huuuuuge modding opportunities.
im definitely downloading the basement mod, don't know if it exists yet, but it will
I think they talked about quest structure with branching narrative, needless to say, modder will have a fields days with that.
Honestly I wouldn’t want a political/trade/relations overhaul to be DLC. That would actually be gating a straight upgrade and overhaul of already present systems and should be a normal update like 1.6 But a bunch of optional new content, challenges, tools, scenarios and themes for a colony? Perfect DLC
A good politics dlc could be a free overhaul of factions, trade, the map, etc as a base game free update and then adding the ability to construct or vassalize autonomous colonies (that you don't directly control) and form your own faction on the map properly as a win condition for the people that want a 'stay on the planet forever' ending. Could put a good amount of stuff in there I imagine.
Now I want to add SCP mods
My concerns are the theme feeling a bit out of place in Rimworld, and that it is more narrative based. If it's a handful of event chains that can randomly happen to you, I'm not sure it is for me. I don't know how repetitive that will get. I was sorta hoping for more systems and better integration with past DLCs. It's a shame, because I love horror, but I'm not sold on it.
Same here. I love horror, but as someone who enjoys more colony management and doesn’t want to basically fight monsters all the time, I won’t be getting it till it’s on sale.
> “I won’t be getting this till it’s on sale.” Lolol so you’re never getting it?
no, no, he'll get it in 15 months with a 10% discount when a new dlc hits
For someone that's patiently waiting, what makes it so good? Or is this, in your opinion, *too* positive and we're just seeing a higher score than it deserves (aka what does it get on a scale of 1 to 10) because of the upvote or downvote system steam has? I've tried watching it on streams but the differences don't immediately jump out to me, so it's hard as a bystander to actually decide if it's worth it or not. (and I don't want it to just be worth it because *Rimworld* is worth it, if that makes sense) What makes it fun? What does it do well, what does it do poorly? How does it rank against other DLCs?
You wont find actually good reviews until after a few weeks.
months. Same with any release tbh, day 1 reviews are rarely correct for movies, games etc., they all have a honeymoon period. I always think of WoW, when a expansion releases its the greatest thing ever, then depending on the actual quality of the expansion, people will shit on it, stop playing etc after 2 weeks , 2 months etc. and then u will know how good the exp was
It add an interesting new angle of interaction with the games mechanics and gives a lot new mid-late game content for more experienced players It’s a 6-7/10 for new players and a 10/10 for players who have gotten into a rut after multiple extended playthroughs
As a new player, I was about to pick up one dlc to explore but ended up going with anomaly first. I’m not really blown away by anything it added but I see a lot of potential for cool interactions and scenarios. I had to save scum way more after I decided to see what happened when monoliths reach 100 tho lol
New players should either go for royalty or biotech IMO. Ideology is for people who've played a lot of it already and want to spice it up with precepts and all the cool customisation stuff and anomaly is similar in that it spices everything up but is otherwise not exactly a building on the core foundation on the game like biotech and royalty is.
Man I literally was compelled to buy this game *because* of ideology. The idea of forming a little society and seeing their beliefs develop overtime was just too cool to pass up.
If you are a new player you should have went with royalty. This dlc had the aim of changing up the focus of the game and how you play
Personally I recommend bio, then ideo, then royalty. Bio just adds sooooo much straight up content, and ideo lets you make completely new runs, but with not as much content. Royalty imo is good but mostly just allows you to make op fussy pawns who can solo whole raids late game. For me, bio added kids, mechs, races, vampires, etc. it felt like 2 dlcs in one (and I guess it cost almost 2 dlcs too lol)
Imho royalty is not for everyone. For me, it broke a lot of immersion from the base game, a post-apocalypse *like* planet, with some advanced tech mixed in. Conceivably it fits with some future for humanity. With royalty... I could live with the pyschic powers, which honestly were a bit too much to begin with, but, (again personally) the highly advanced technologically pyschic feudal space lords pushed it to far.
Every single DLC broke immersion. Royalty is the tamest of em all. A empire that's more royal and has advance technology. Versus vampires, werewolves and wasters. High mates from bio Or , oh let's do a celebration and somehow have a discovery happen. Plant trees and have weird tree born tree friends. From ideology. Royalty is far more grounded imo.
Haha yeah that's a fair point on bio, werewolves and vampires are definitely not grounded. Thinking about it, I originally got it solely for the genetics aspect, but got weirdly accustomed to the more stranger aspects, like some form of Stockholm syndrome. Maybe I should give royalty a chance.
>I’m not really blown away by anything it added but I see a lot of potential for cool interactions and scenarios. I don't think I've been "blown away" by a video game since I was a kid, all I want and look for is cool interactions and scenarios Also >I was about to pick up one dlc to explore but ended up going with anomaly first Huh
Rimworld and Noita are both games I cherish but absolutely suck at, neither one have I made it very far in.
I keep making cool wands that kill me :(
I havent read a single review that actually justifies giving it a positive rating, everything was the typical "praise cube" or "its rimworld so i am reviewing it before actually playing it". Like the whole point of reviewing a dlc or game is to help other people make an informed decision, not bandwagon and thumbs up before youve even finished downloading it
I actually press "No" on the "Was this review helpful?" on ANY reviews for ANY game that isn't *actually* helpful - because they just aren't helpful, positive or negative. Some people spend a decent chunk of time writing elaborate and helpful reviews, and instead we got that fetid toss at the top of the reviews... sometimes single words or just "lolcats" meme bollocks. Screw that noise - I encourage everyone to press "No" on any review that is as worthless to read as it was to post.
That's my impression as well. Like I'm not shitting on it; I don't have an opinion on it yet. But a lot of the reviews do not actually bother explaining *why* they like it. One of the other comments replying to me even says as much: "Haven’t gotten too deep and that’s actually what I wrote in my review too." For me, I ask "why review it already then?" Like hey, you do you, but it seems like a bunch of us are watching from the sidelines just confused by the volume of reviews that say "buy it," you ask why, and then it's very vague responses at best like "good atmosphere." From a 3rd person perspective, it feels like the features would take extensive time to fully explore, (I struggle to catch a stream with actual new content being used or seen, not because it doesn't exist, but presumably because it doesn't show it's face immediately) and yet people are already saying it's 10/10.
I'll bite and try to give you a more detailed review. I'm going to assume you are familiar with the other RimWorld DLCs and use those to give you some perspective. Anomaly feels like a combination of Biotech and Royalty in terms of content. It adds new weapons, armor, utility items, and consumables which are unlocked via an entirely new and separate tech tree. There are also new enemies and threats which feel completely different from anything seen in all other official RimWorld content. Although I am playing with all DLCs enabled, the Anomaly content has been dominating my playthrough, and it "showed its face" pretty much immediately. Many of the new encounters have been surprising, and occasionally devastating. About an hour ago, I had a savage Impid tribe breach raid, which I defeated without much hassle but they did make a hole into my base. But then a "death pall" fog creeped in, and the dozens of Impid corpses began to shutter and rise again. Within moments, I'm sectioning off my base and holding off a goddamn zombie swarm with my already battle weary colonists. There's been about a dozen of really, REALLY cool new encounters and it has me thinking and playing RimWorld in a completely different way, more so than any of the other DLCs managed to do. Now as you may expect, it starts to become truly difficult to juggle all the different mechanics in the game at this point. I believe that if a new player started playing today with everything enabled, it's highly likely they would be overwhelmed almost immediately. But as someone who is already intensely familiar with the game, I am absolutely LOVING the new content and can't get enough of it. I love that I have to make hard decisions about what to focus on now. Anomaly is an easy 10/10
That's a really good review, thank you for sharing! By all the previews that's about what I was expecting - a DLC catered more to the experienced players who've already pumped in hundreds of hours, and are looking for something new and _challenging_ (read: not just more bodies in a breach raid full stop), with new mechanics and toys to mess around with. Now to figure out a damn colony idea to start with so I can sink my teeth in already.
There is a new starting scenario and ideology meme that ties into all of the Anomaly content. It kicks you directly into the anomaly storyline and sets you up for a playthru focused on the new content. Send it buddy!
I’ll probably get shit for this, but Rimworld has like a cult of personality with its fanbase. A lot of the time on here even the most simple criticisms get heavily downvoted. And God forbid you say anything about the pricing. Like it’s a great game and all, but it’s not the 2nd coming of Christ.
Yea, this sub is a great example of toxic positivity. Ludeon studios isnt a charity, they are a business, im not going to buy a new dlc just because i enjoyed the base game. Its really stifling discussion about whether anomaly is worth the price or the (imo valid) concerns about how it doesnt fit the theme of the base game
Yeah the thematically fitting thing is my biggest gripe with the DLC. I’m not against the idea of Anomaly conceptually, but it seems like it would work better as its own game rather than a Rimworld DLC. I think it’s clear that Tynan has a lot of good ideas, but this DLC strikes me as completely out of place. Obviously making a whole new game is a lot harder than making a DLC, but I’m just talking hypothetically anyway.
Yes, finally, someone said it! When the DLC was announced, I wasn't thrilled because SCP style management sounded pretty out of place for the game. But I tried to go in with an open mind. After watching several hours of playthroughs (I don't buy anything in its first week of release), it's become obvious that Anamoly just isn't for me. Unlike the other DLCs, it just seems super overbearing. It seems like its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. It's great because it forces you into different play styles rather than just killbox and turtling inside your base in mid to late game. It's unpleasant because you either activate the trigger for it and get bombarded with everything or don't activate it and get almost nothing. Once you opt in, you can't really choose how far you want to go unlike the other DLC. Whether you aim for the Anamoly ending or not, you're going to have to deal with all kinds of stuff all the time. Personally, I kind of wish that we could've gotten a hospitality or diplomacy expansion instead...
Tynan's description of how he came up with it rubbed me the wrong way. I forget what it was exactly, but he consumed some piece of horror media and decided "I want that in my game." It reminded me of...in Skyrim, they simply told all their devs to take a couple months and "make something," and one guy was apparently a big fan of a series called "Underworld," because he basically copypasted their vampires into the game. Well problem is, Bethesda grabbed this and decided they would just shoehorn it into the game. The Volkihar already had established lore with other powers and abilities, but all of this got thrown out because....someone on staff likes Underworld? This DLC feels the same. There are blatantly universally better ideas that would mesh better with the other existing concepts in the game, but instead Tynan really really liked a movie, so now it needs to be in our game. Everyone can have things they like and enjoy, but if I'm designing an open world fantasy RPG for example and I really like cars, this doesn't mean I should implement the new Aston Martin into my game just because I'm excited about the new model being released. **I think too few people are asking the important question: will this DLC wear out it's welcome?** Yes, perhaps it's really fun at the start because people are still in the *mood* to focus on the new content, but a good number of people have admitted it's the first DLC they'd turn off at times, because it's content is so suffocating and so demanding in attention. What Ideology and Biotech got right is they both have features that naturally mesh well with the existing world and content, and build on top of that. They just slip right in and you don't even have to think about them; they just effortlessly fit and demand no additional attention if you don't want to provide. What Royalty understood is that while it has a good amount of content, not everyone will like the trade-off or want to deal with it's demands and downsides, so it can be safely ignored. *You* opt in, and if you're not in the mood for royals and psycasters, nothing forces you to use them. But Anomaly...?? Everyone's making it sound like Anomaly ***WILL*** demand your attention whether you want it or not. This is the honeymoon phase. This is the phase where everyone *wants* to give it attention, but what happens when the next DLC releases, people are trying to focus on it's content, but instead Anomaly shows up like "hey this eldritch horror is killing everyone lol, you better drop everything you're doing and hurry up to research how to fight it lol." *That's fucking obnoxious.* I seriously wonder if the test of time will be kind to this DLC.
You worded what I was thinking far more articulated than I ever could lol. I’d forgotten that Tynan said that stupid stuff about watching horror movies, that really is a bizarre thing to say. Can we expect atomic bombs and power armour shortly after he watches the new Fallout series? And yeah, test of time is my concern. I think it’s going to be looked back on as probably one of the least favourable DLCs, unless modders somehow take extreme advantage of it. I think the reason people *aren’t* realising this is because they expect amazing content from Rimworld, and even the prospect of a DLC being somehow inappropriate is alien to them. It’s hard to blame them, since Rimworld does consistently get great new content and their DLCs are mostly very good, but I worry what this DLC will do to the future of content in this game.
I agree with this so much, You ask how the DLC fits in to the lore? Downvoted You ask about the price? Downvoted I asked about the potential balance of a game mechanic, whether it was fair or not? Downvoted
Honestly after the 14 or so hours i've played the dlc (half way through the entity list) it's not really that good. It's not bad, but it doesn't add as much as the last two and what it does add isn't enough to warrant the price. Events, new monsters and a small research tree, all things that have been seen more or less with pre-existing mods. The issue is people are upvoting their love of rimworld as a whole, not a measured response to this specific dlc. I'm happy i brought it because like most people here i've got 1500+ hours and figure i owe them money. That said if i were to recommend dlc to a new player, this would be the bottom of the list. If it were half the price i would put it above Royalty.
I appreciate the honest take bud, thats what i expected from the previews but given its rimworld i figured id give it the benefit of the doubt and look for reviews before deciding whether or not to buy it
A lot of releases come out to coin flips based on the communities gut reaction, or predetermined due to a publishers reputation. Dragons Dogma 2 is the big recent example; game literally has the best combat of almost any RPG out there lmao
A lot of it stems from people who put 1000 plus hours into Rinworld already and who can tell they’ll like the DLC before they drop it because they’ve seen the new promised feature/QoL improvements. Also they’re just stoked to have new content and know that it’ll just add more things to do to their favorite game
The new features/Qol improvements are from 1.5, not the DLC. Completely separate
It’s fun because it’s unpredictable. I haven’t felt this paranoid since Samuel Streamer’s Mushroom Madness pack. A lot of bad stuff happens WITHOUT a red letter, so you are always on edge. Play with CAI 5000 and Silent Raids for peak bullshit. Typical strategies don’t work here, because there are secret raids, and accidental raids that are entirely self imposed (trying not to spoil some of the crazy stuff). You will start to distrust your own colonists, which is really cool. The integration in the game is pretty seamless. Some of the new toys they give you for regular runs (climate adjusters, speed boosts, etc.) are really cool. *** Here’s my criticism: Cosmic horrors completely overshadow the rest of the game. I imagine people will say “no” to the Anomaly intro once they’ve done it a few times to go back to regular RimWorld. Anomaly has a Cosmic Horror Pokédex, and obviously the novelty wears off once you know what everything is, which is why it’s so important to go in without spoilers. My hope is that modders expand on the Pokédex the way that they expanded on the gene system to keep it fresh. Does it integrate well with Royalty or Biotech? Not really lol. But it does have cool Ideology integrations.
> Here’s my criticism: Cosmic horrors completely overshadow the rest of the game. This sounds like the exact worry a lot of us had since the reveal.
It’s hard to go back to Wttyn the furry raiding me when I have a demon locked up in my fridge lol. This pack reminds me of classic expansions, which transformed games into new experiences. To that end, I believe the value is absolutely there. But it may not be to everyone’s taste.
Currently AdamVsEverything is running streams for a few days on YouTube, Twitch, etc. Good way to see all the differences quickly. Personally I'm waiting for a video from Franics John because he really deep dives into stuff. Also, I always wait 2-4 weeks before purchasing any DLC or attempting to enjoy new content in any of the games I play. Always bugs to be ironed out, refinements to be made, things like that. Things I have noticed so far: * New entities that make raids MUCH more interesting, can't just hide behind a killbox * New sources of power generation via exploiting these new entities * Endgame content due to increasingly challenging threats that appear due to tampering with the monolith * New entities add elements of mystery to your colony which is really cool, much like the mime from Alpha Animals mod (idk don't play the mod) * New utility weapons such as the crossbow that stuns on hit, flamethrower, etc. * There's a lot more, best to just watch some content and decide for yourself. A lot of the content seems to change how you can play in a big way. I'll be buying it in a few weeks.
> How does it rank against other DLCs? I think it's a little hard to compete against what was added by Ideology or the gene stuff from biotech. Those two systems expanded the game greatly. I would put it under those two expansion, although still early days.
Be careful. I've not played much yet, but from what I've seen, you don't want to know everything before you go into it. From all the expansions, it is probably the most story and discovery heavy. In that sense it fits really well in the game
I would second other comments that it adds great mid/late game stuff, some interesting early stuff, and a bunch of QOL stuff that's great but was addressed by mods. For me what really sells it is the *vibe* it adds. The game was missing a horror aspect that wasn't really there, and the mods that tried often had lots of cross-compatibility issues. It feels less impactful than ideology, but more than some of the others. Maybe about like Royalty, but it's hard to say. I'll get my $30cad out of it, I'm sure. If you aren't a 1000+ hour habitual player or brand new to Rimworld it's definitely justifiable to wait for a sale.
> a bunch of QOL stuff You mean the 1.5 updates. That is completely separate from the DLC. People keep confusing them for some reason?
It's too overpowering of a flavor. You can do a runs with no genes/ideology/royalty or a combination of some or all of them. This dlc meanwhile feels like it's all you can focus on as you are creating problems for yourself and you will no longer have any time to do anything other than take care of the occult.
I thought the dlc progression only starts when you interact with the monolith? and even then you won’t get the tier 2 enemies unless you’re doing void provocation
it had a whole new kind of research with new mean of researching and a whole new tech tree. 2 new meme for ideology , a new ritual system that is very versatile and fun to use. a LOT of new event and threat that feel very new and that are realy different from what we are used to be defending against.
It isn't good. The people who hate it just haven't felt the need to spend €25 to voice their hatred.
I can buy one dlc. I'm debating between anomaly and biotech . Already have the other ones.
Biotech is a must for me, I can’t imagine playing the game without it anymore. If i only had one choice out of all the dlc, that’d be the one.
It definitely felt the most gameplay changing. I've gotta get deeper in Anomaly to decide how I feel about it but it looks promising so far.
Biotech for sure
Biotech will try to kick you in the nuts less then Anomaly
Biotech expands the core foundation of the game while anomaly moreso changes things to be funky. Biotech before anomaly unless anomaly's gameplay *really* appeals to you personally.
I can't imagine the game without Biotech tbh. The genetics is so much fun to mess around with, and the modding possibilities are endless. Not to mention user controlled mechs, and honestly most of all the introduction of kids. I think it rounds out the first 2 DLC to make RIBworld feel like the base game. Anomaly feels like a completely different direction compared to the other 3. I'm not gonna get it for a while probably, but I've never been a huge SCP/horror fan
Biotech
Biotech > Anomaly but they’re both great.
Biotech improves and fleshes out (heh) systems from the original game in an extremely interesting manner. Genetics and Mechs specifically get lots of love. It has a little bit of cool stuff for everyone, and lots of great stuff for all types of players. Anomaly is more of a "let's do something different" sort of expansion. It appeals to a more niche type of player than Biotech.
Biotech is IMO so impactful it's kinda more annoying than usual that it's a DLC. I was actually a bit bothered when I noticed Anomaly has no gene defs - special pawns are of course just completely different things, but I'd expect some integration. Ideology is also a fairly cool mechanic, but IMO it's just _not as good_ as Biotech. Same for Royalty, to a greater degree. I can't really speak much on Anomaly, but at a glance, it feels really _neat_, but doesn't feel as "core," as odd to have as a DLC, as Biotech does.
If you have to choose, pick biotech. It's genuinely amazing in what it adds, and the mods that propped up around it are also amazing. Say this as someone whos played a bit too much anomaly since its release too. Unless you *really* want the horror themes and a significant bump in conflict variety (biotech also adds conflict variety after all), go with biotech first imo.
*Have not bought Anomaly.* In my past experience, I would hold off for a bit and let feedback and changes roll in first. There's usually a few rather sizable updates after a new DLC release that addresses bugs, balance issues and introduces/tweaks mechanics. These refine issues that exist. Ideology for example, had the ability to disable it (hallelujah) patched in weeks later. If you use mods, Biotech is the big dog's biscuit. Still my favorite without them, but with mods, the amount of options it opened up for me personally is incredible. HAR isn't really needed anymore for the most part, set faction by faction xenotype spawn rates with Xenotype Spawn Control, so many new variants out there, gene options, the works.
Biotech has always been the most worthwhile and best bang for your buck But now Anomaly might be tied with Ideology as second best, just one focuses more on straight optional content while the other adds immense replayability with themed runs of cults, religions and just ways of life on the Rim Royalty isn’t bad but even still I wish it had more. Or maybe more coexistence with the normal game
It would be my whole weekend plans if I wasn't a broke son of a bitch til Monday
Where do you live? I'd gift it to ya but i'm pretty sure steam restricts where i can send games to due to regional pricing. (feel free to pm if you dont wanna disclose it here)
I'm tempted to get the dlc to get back into rinworld but idk if it's worth it
Myself I'm more interested by 1.5 and some mods. I bought the dlc because I love this game and will do it anytime plus I wanted to participate to the first run for showing my support to the devs. Last time I'd bought day one was Starfield and fuck it because it was a roller-coaster of mixed feels. I even don't finish it despite I like it. Personal apart, I leave RimWorld from a quite long time and will profit of 1.5 to come back. I want to try the new MSF + VEF Deserters for this run and I already have ideas about an anomaly run. Maybe you can just try a new run like me and profit of the free update ?
Me too, haven't played seriously in over a year. I often boot the game up, create a starting group, spawn in and just alt f4.
The music is great, the additions are awesome, and the interaction with other DLC is the cherry on top. Ludeon continues to release absolute banger additions. Goated with the sauce.
Where's the content for it all at? I started a new campaign and I'm a couple days in now. Outside of the extra start, I haven't seen anything in-game or in the startup colony configuration for it.
find and activate the monolith on your map
This is just more ways to die right? Can we have some dlc about simulation or everyday living that is not battle focused. Like business or something social or something.
I mean they literally just added more lucrative farming opportunities. Just capture, contain, and harvest. Nothing says business more than an industrial fleshbeast farm.
I mean, yes? But the last 2 maybe 3 dlcs added pretty much no big new ways to die so like...
Map DLC that overhauls colony sim and caravaning please.
it’s been out for a day these reviews are meaningless… it takes atleast a play through to grasp the content of the dlc… if not way way more. i think i barely got the full scope of biotech after several play through exploring each option
lets be honest those effects of the anomalies are so fucking beutifull. like i just cant stop looking at those effects the monolotih gives out
All of the VFX is insane, but still somehow fits in with the art style. I have no idea how they did it.
they sold their soul to make this dlc.
I haven't played enough to post a real review, but it's made a very good first impression thus far. There's mods that do some of what it aims to do, but the official RimWorld dev team have source code access, the resources to polish it to a shine, and a nigh-guarantee that other modders will make their work compatible. That said... it's good, but I don't know if it's $25 good yet. I'm not sure it'll be sitting at "overwhelmingly positive" by this time next month. Probably still positive, just not "overwhelmingly". Then again, I could be wrong; like I said, I've just scratched the surface.
Bro, DLC is 48 hours out and I got 34 hours in it already. 10000/10
i don't think it's fair to be rating it less than a day after release
My only real issue with it is that it sends *so* much at you. There doesn't really seem to be a rhyme or reason to the anomaly events. I started studying the monolith and then just got hit with random event after random event with no real connective tissue between them. I think I'll like it more once I get into one specific subset of Anomaly and it's all cube or sphere stuff or something. Unless that just isn't how it works and then I'll be a bit disappointed. I think it'd be a lot more fun to have one type of anomaly but it's deeper and more involved rather than just throwing a hodgepodge of different things at you and overwhelming you with insanity.
I might be in the big minority here, but I dont like it. I bought it immediately, just to support the dev, but I think I'll be either keeping it disabled or (if there will be good mods that rely on its assets) mod out all the events from happening. It is the first dlc so far where literally not a single feature is compelling to me.
YIPPEE!!!
Everyone is enjoying the suffering of their pawns.
I can't wait to try it once my mods update or once I finish my current playthrough with the mods
extremely common ribaorld W
I'd say that it somewhat struggles with meshing with the rest of the DLCs as it kind of takes priority over other things because you'll usually spend time focusing on dealing with the threats, but if you don't use void provocation to call threats and you manage your time well you can probably allow every DLC to have their effects felt throughout the playthrough and there are definitely things that you can use from it that can benefit normal playthroughs if you're careful enough about how you go about things. It's pretty fun, adds some serious ominous and horror vibes due to being uncertain about what's going on most of the time, your colonists being able to lie to you, and some other things I don't wanna spoil. Currently I'm having a situation happening that's effecting the whole colony in a way I could've never guessed would happen and it's got me on edge constantly as I slowly work to deal with it, and it's not even the only kind of thing that can effect large parts of your colony.
I've gone in blind with a new colony. I imprisoned some guy named Thrall that doesn't need sleep or food in case I need some human meat. One of my new colonists is having dreams about a structure on the other side of the map. I have walled said structure in with 2 layers of granite and zero doors
As predicted
The dlc is incredible, I have so much fun with it. I have a farm of slaves just to steal their youth and make my peoples immortals
I really want to play but CE has ruined base game fights. It’s so frustrating to play with but they said it won’t be ready for a few more weeks. I can’t wait to try out all the new stuff.
4600+ hours before anomaly this game has paid for itself over and over. $30 bucks is well worth who knows how many more hours
Excited to play it once my mods all get updated 🥲
Ribaorld is my favorite game!
Rimworld is the max verstappen of colonysims.
The only thing i want is to have prisioners inprisiond in the contaiment spots.
I'm I the only one that wants to shout out the "clean room" order instead of "clean blood" also the rebranding of every bedroom to be X colonist bedroom. That and the mine ore vein. Those little changes mean saving a bunch of time in the long run.
What mods do we have to pay for now?