[HN Gopher] RimWorld: A sci fi colony SIM driven by an intellige... ___________________________________________________________________ RimWorld: A sci fi colony SIM driven by an intelligent AI storyteller Author : singingwolfboy Score : 120 points Date : 2022-11-22 21:16 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (rimworldgame.com) (TXT) w3m dump (rimworldgame.com) | KaoruAoiShiho wrote: | I found this storyteller thing incredibly difficult to understand | when first i heard about this game. But it turns out it's | basically just a difficulty level and isn't interesting at all. | scotty79 wrote: | Not really ... it's more of an event scheduler that gives you | challenges and positive events and some padding in between so | you can recover after negative events. | andrewxdiamond wrote: | They also have different scales for what types of events come | when. For example, Casandra Classic aims for you to have 5 | colonists. If you have less, you'll get more opportunities to | recruit. If you have more, raids get more violent and your | colonists die easier. | | The story teller is a very advanced and configurable | difficulty scaling system that enables different styles of | play. Mods even add in new story tellers to change the game | focus entirely. | mod wrote: | There's a difficulty slider alongside the storyteller. | | They're not the same. | serf wrote: | one could argue that the storyteller is just a different | facet of the difficulty scaling system. | | different narrators _are_ more difficult than others. | | As far as the whole 'intelligent AI' thing. Eh, not really. | It's a (small) set of conditions that determines the timing | of the next event, the difficulty/magnitude of the event, and | whether or not the event will be positive/negative/neutral; | plenty of games have had such systems without marketing them | as 'intelligent AI storytellers'. | | The game is great though. I've sunk way too many hours into | it. | iamthirsty wrote: | This game has been out for ever. If it hasn't been posted on here | many times before I'd be shocked. | kllrnohj wrote: | The Biotech expansion only recently came out I guess if you | want to be charitable. But this doesn't mention that, either, | it just links the homepage... | OnionBlender wrote: | I get the impression OP saw the Dwarf Fortress post 30 minutes | earlier and thought, "me too". | flatiron wrote: | I was hoping it was on sale! Today is the first day of the autumn | steam sale. I bought enough to wait until the next one. | focusgroup0 wrote: | One of the deepest, most replayable strategy and sim games. So | many subsystems that mesh together for unique emergent behavior. | enraged_camel wrote: | I like it but I never got around to adopting the mindset of | "your colonists are disposable, just roll with it if (when) | something terrible happens to them." I think my issue is I | treat these types of games (X-COM is another example) as RPGs | and get too attached to the characters. | vbezhenar wrote: | That's my issue as well. I spend enormous time playing | something like single colonist on the north pole. It never | ends well. Sometimes some stupid bear one-shots me through | all defenses, sometimes raiders are getting stronger and | stronger until they just overcome me and my pack of huskies. | It was a time spent well, but I don't play anymore because I | like something like WoW when you can't really lose forever. | That's not the case with rimworld (unless you're restoring | old saves which I don't like) and it's even designed to kill | from what I understand. For example I'll spend lot of time | building my perfect castle. Not necessarily with defenses but | with art and stuff like that. That pushes cost of my colony | higher and causes stronger raiders. Playing on peaceful is | not interesting either. | tstrimple wrote: | I play this way too. I have my core colonists who were my | starting crew and folks who enter relationships with them. If | I lose one of my core pawns, I tend abandon the colony and | restart the game unless it's something suitably epic. This | tends to work out fine for me because the beginning to middle | phase of the game is by far my favorite. My playthroughs tend | to be themed and not based on traditional "beat the game" | mechanics. One play through I may be focused on trying to get | my archotech cult all uploaded into computer minds and having | everything in my base automated with bots. Another I may go | tribal of medieval play through where I use mods to remove | the sci-fi elements of the game and just have an old | fashioned war between factions. The possibilities are endless | with this game and the mod ecosystem. | ravi-delia wrote: | That's what makes Rimworld great! It's honestly not | challenging at all if you are willing to be the right amount | of sociopathic. But actually being nice to the little guys | makes it more interesting- obviously harder too, but that's | where the magic comes from. | kortex wrote: | You don't _have_ to play with that mindset, though | "attachment leads to suffering" is a valuable mantra for this | game. I play fairly risk-averse and I'm willing to save-scum | to avoid the death or even grievous injury of a favorite pawn | (pets not cattle, if you will). There's really no wrong way | to play. | | That style works particularly well with the nobility | expansion. | hristov wrote: | Rimword -- if Dwarf fortress is a little too complicated for you. | andrewxdiamond wrote: | "Impersonal" would be a more accurate term. Rimworld tries to | get you emotionally attached to colonies in a way that Drawf | Fortress does not. | smoldesu wrote: | Heavily recommended to any management-sim fans. It takes the best | mechanics from games like The Sims, Factorio and Dwarf Fortress | without watering them down or limiting the modding community. The | price is on the steep side, but the developer is great and works | with the community _plus_ releases native builds for Mac, Linux | and Windows. | kortex wrote: | My partner and I have our own copies of base game and both | expansions. Worth every penny. | | We've both sunk uncountable hours (actually we started way back | in alpha 15 with a pirated copy so steam hours doesn't mean | much) and done many campaigns with many mod loadouts. Yet to | actually "beat" the game (it's not really the kind you "beat" | though, it's very sandboxy). So entertainment/$ is | astronomical. | smoldesu wrote: | My big problem is starting a base, playing it for 10-20 | hours, and then feeling guilty for trying to push my luck any | further. It's very easy to end up in situations that seem too | cruel to continue. | cwkoss wrote: | If you like RimWorld, I recommend checking out Stardeus. | | The feel is very similar to Rimworld, but the setting is that | you're a spaceship's AI system, and you have a bunch of humans in | stasis. The goal is to find a habitable planet for them to | colonize. | | Was released last month and is still in Early Access, but it's | definitely in a playable state. | | The asteroid fields are brutal ;-) | karaterobot wrote: | Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld are currently on the front page. I | don't know why, but I like it. | nostromo wrote: | It's a long weekend in the US -- and a time when a lot of folks | buy games on Steam or other platforms. | blueboo wrote: | Let's get Cogmind and Caves of Qud up here too | intelVISA wrote: | Songs of Syx too. | johnsillings wrote: | Caves of Qud is GOATed | lelandfe wrote: | As someone who has played loads of roguey games (ADOM, | ToME, CDDA, etc), I found Qud to be pretty miserable. I | just don't think it is possible to play it without watching | or reading long tutorials from other people. | | In my opinion that is AKA a poorly-made game. | Natsu wrote: | Yeah, I'm a big roguelike fan, too, but Qud just click | work for me. | | I say that as someone who has ascended multiple times on | Nethack, gotten deep endgame in ADOM, etc. | | I got really bored with Qud and never went back. | udkl wrote: | Other similar Indie games : Clanfolk & Necesse | | Necesse is more similar to Terraria, but it's the game I'm | enjoying most right now. | kupopuffs wrote: | Tech layoffs be feeling it | sdenton4 wrote: | Well, here's a post for ONI to complete the trifecta of colony | sim games... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33712533 | krisroadruck wrote: | I beat you to it by about 3 minutes. Surprised HN didn't | dedupe them | | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33712505 | mdaniel wrote: | the HN dupe detection is either _stunningly_ broken, or | (more likely) has been disabled: | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33709786 and | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33710180 are literally | the same URL within an hour of each other | ketzo wrote: | Lotta games talk today if you include the Diplomacy bot. Guess | everyone's on break this week :D | SeanAnderson wrote: | This game inspired me to get into simulation video game | development as a hobby! :) | | Easily one of my favorite games of all time. Do not let the | graphics and dense UI turn you off. It's worth the effort. | cube2222 wrote: | RimWorld is excellent! | | The only problem I have with this kind of game though is that | time flies by really quickly for me with it. I think it's been 10 | minutes while it's actually been an hour; next time I look at the | clock it's 3am. | | I only have this with games like RimWorld or SimCity (city | builders, simulators) and it's actually the main reason why I | play them so little. They're too "just one more thing". | | So yeah, recommended but with a caveat. | cm2187 wrote: | Time flies when you spend the night rimming. | TobTobXX wrote: | There's a setting to show a real-world clock on the right side. | Just goes to show that it's something common. | hallux wrote: | Agreed. I don't play RimWorld that often anymore (though that's | about to change again as I'm about to get the new Biotech DLC), | but when I do, I go out of my way to clear my whole weekend of | any obligations just so I can immerse myself in the game for a | couple of days. | chanandler_bong wrote: | Rimworld is great. Almost 2,000 hours in and I am still learning | and evolving my gameplay. | | Some people play hardcore/survival mode with hundreds of combat- | related mods, others play it as a version of Stardew Valley. It | is totally up to you how you want your game to be. | drexlspivey wrote: | The graphics seem almost identical to Prison Architect so I | assumed it's the same company but no. What's the story here? | Kinrany wrote: | Tynan explained somewhere that this is due to design | constraints. There aren't many ways to draw top-down, small and | light on detail but clearly visible humanoids. | debesyla wrote: | It's just a coincidence, lack of creativity, and it was an | inspiration, as said by the Rimworld author himself (Tynan) at | https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=23.msg49#msg49 | MrFoof wrote: | The reality is the simple graphics is what allows you to keep | things very easily distinguishable as you zoom out to a great | distance. Additionally, they required less time to create. | | Last, the other point of keeping things as relatively | abstracted icons is that it forces players to tell the story in | their mind and create emotion from there, where the player | fills in the blanks themselves. | yreg wrote: | >I drew some inspiration from Prison Architect. Moreso from its | own inspiration, Dwarf Fortress. | | >We don't share any tools. Chris at IV has his own tech | foundation; I built this one on Unity. | | >But they do look somewhat similar; that's my fault. I'm not a | good enough artist to come up with a really good original look. | There are only so many ways to render characters on a tiny grid | without using animations. | | >I hope the differences between the game will be enough for | people to look past the aesthetic similarities. And if I get | some funding at some point I can get an artist to help develop | a more unique look. | | >I do think the similarities are skin-deep. In gameplay the | game resembles DF much more than PA. | | - Tynan, creator of Rimworld | oneshot-a4yukdk wrote: | Greedy bustards hiked price in regional currencies (28% in my | case) right before I decided to buy a dlc! Even Factorio | (legendary for no sale policy) haven't hiked yet. Great game btw. | | [0] | https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/294100/view/34221999... | atum47 wrote: | I used to watch a YouTuber doing a video series on RimWorld, he | was able to "tell" a really good story that was happening in his | world [1]. | | I want to someday start playing it, right now I'm not because: I | rather play on the console laying on the couch, I'm working to | much to invest in the game. It seems to have a step learning | curve. | | 1 - | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_lgEqY9K6UXUVco5XysDNAeU... | ninth_ant wrote: | The learning curve is not as steep as you might think from | watching youtubers. | | The game adapts to how well you're doing, so as they advance | quickly because of their experience their challenges will | escalate in difficulty as well. As a newcomer you'll advance | slower so won't face as many obstacles as soon as you've seen | them happen. | | I mean, you'll still lose your first colony. And the next 10 | after that. But each time you learn a bit more. | andrewxdiamond wrote: | PeteComplete does a great job of adding narrative depth to his | play throughs. | | Here's a run exploring the games Ideology DLC playing as a | tribal village. | | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_lgEqY9K6UVooXatQRca5Rw-... | kortex wrote: | Ah, Cambiar the Cannibal! 10/10 would absolutely recommend this | playthrough series, especially as chill/background audio. Super | enjoyable and you don't have to be 100% tuned in to keep up. I | often have this on while doing chores. | Kiro wrote: | Another generic post about an extremely well-known colony | simulator, with a title downplaying the significance. Both | RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress are genre-defining cultural | phenomenons. It's like posting Linux and making it sound like | something unknown. What's going on? | debesyla wrote: | The submission guidelines suggest to use original titles | (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). | PointyFluff wrote: | A single threaded heap of hot garbage-collection. | p1necone wrote: | Rimworld is fantastic, but I never manage to play it for more | than a few hours without getting a strong urge to stop and play | Dwarf Fortress instead. | skrowl wrote: | I like to spend 5 hours downloading and updating mods, then | play for 2 hours | mod wrote: | I still play vanilla. I've never beaten it. | kllrnohj wrote: | I've seen I think a single one of the RimWorld endings and | honestly "beating the game" is so not interesting to me at | this point after hundreds of hours played. | | Starting up new colonies and getting established to the | point of "yeah I can handle all the raids thrown at me at | this point" is when I move on to start a new colony with a | new religion/race/theme. Actually going from "solidly | established colony" to "you win!" credits is I think the | weakest part of RimWorld, although I haven't tried being a | nomad yet which has what sounds like a way more interesting | path all the way through to the victory screen. | mod wrote: | What's a nomad? You caravan around and settle new tiles? | | I vaguely know that's possible, but I don't venture out a | lot honestly. | deathanatos wrote: | I wonder if they meant a tribal start. They're a bit | tougher to play. | tstrimple wrote: | One of the self-imposed play styles I've seen in youtube | playthroughs is more of a band of mercenaries or bandits. | They go from one settlement to another raiding the bases | there and only survive on what they can steal. They | basically ignore the colony management and base building | aspects of the game and focus on building a team of | absolute combat monsters all addicted to luciferium. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-11-22 23:00 UTC)