RIMWORLD MODDING Updated August 8, 2026 # HOW I GOT HERE RimWorld modding is actually an important part of why I am programming again. I had taken an extended break from programming, due at least partly to a years-long depressive period. Eventually I started getting ideas for RimWorld mods. Those ideas gave me something interesting enough to start writing code again. One experiment led to another, I started digging into the RimWorld internals, Harmony patches, performance problems, mod compatibility, and eventually much larger refactoring projects. Somewhere along the way I was just programming again. That eventually led into many of the other projects you can find around this gopherhole. # CURRENT STATUS For now, I have mostly stepped away from RimWorld modding. I did not stop because I ran out of ideas. I stopped because other things became more interesting. Old Internet protocols, networking, backend services, self-hosting, Gopher, Gemini, and other experiments are currently getting most of my attention. I may return to RimWorld modding later. The code and ideas are not necessarily dead. They are just no longer where my brain wants to be right now. # REPLACE STUFF: PERFORMANCE EDITION Replace Stuff: Performance Edition is my performance-focused continuation and modernization of the Replace Stuff mod. Replace Stuff allows buildings to be upgraded in place instead of requiring colonists to completely tear down the original structure first. My version became a fairly deep refactoring project focused on things such as: * Runtime performance * Cleaner architecture * Building state preservation * Storage settings and priorities * Cooler temperature settings * Compatibility with other mods * Reducing building-specific patches * More generic replacement behavior The project taught me quite a bit about working inside someone else's large codebase, profiling game code, Harmony patching, and dealing with the wonderful consequences of multiple mods changing the same systems in incompatible ways. The rewrite and core replacement pipeline are complete. Project status: DEBUGGING HELL The remaining work is largely finding and fixing the endless collection of edge cases, regressions, and mod interactions that appeared after the rewrite. It remains unfinished and is not currently something I would recommend using in a real save. Source code: https://github.com/JoyfulReaper/RimWorld-ReplaceStuff # THE GODS ARE REAL The Gods Are Real is one of my more ambitious RimWorld mod ideas. The basic premise is simple: What if the gods in RimWorld's Ideology system were actually real? Instead of religion existing mostly as beliefs, rituals, and mood effects, pawns would have an actual relationship with their deity. The core mechanic is Favor. Each pawn has a Favor value ranging from: -100 Divine Wrath to: +100 Divine Grace Favor changes based on how the pawn behaves and interacts with their religion. Current ideas and implemented experiments include: * Favor gained through successful rituals * Penalties for failed rituals * Prayer at religious structures * Small gains from everyday religious devotion * Favor gradually decaying toward neutral * Penalties for neglecting worship * Favor resetting after religious conversion * Divine Grace and Divine Wrath effects * A Divine Touch health condition tied to Favor * Debugging tools for manipulating and inspecting Favor during development The goal was to make religion feel like an active system rather than something that exists entirely inside the pawn's ideology and mood calculations. A devoted pawn might genuinely receive benefits from their god. A pawn who angers or neglects their god might discover that divine wrath is considerably less metaphorical than they expected. # STATUS PRE-ALPHA / CURRENTLY PAUSED There is working experimentation around the core Favor system, but the project is nowhere near a finished or playable release. Like my other RimWorld work, development is currently paused while I chase other projects and rabbit holes that interest me more. I still really like the idea, so this is probably the RimWorld project I would be most interested in returning to someday. Source code: https://github.com/JoyfulReaper/TheGodsAreReal License: BSD 2-Clause # DIVINE INTERVENTION Divine Intervention started as an experimental framework for building RimWorld mods with less direct coupling between systems. Experiments included: * Structured mod logging * Strongly typed message passing * Cross-assembly communication * Reusable mod infrastructure * Lower-allocation utility code * Cleaner separation between systems It was also intended to become infrastructure for some of my more ambitious RimWorld mod ideas. The framework remains unstable and pre-release. Source code: https://github.com/JoyfulReaper/DivineIntervention # WHAT CAME OUT OF IT None of these projects reached the point I originally imagined. That does not make the time spent on them wasted. RimWorld gave me a complicated existing system to poke at, break, profile, refactor, and try to understand. More importantly, it gave me a reason to start writing software again after I had largely stopped. From there my interests expanded back into .NET, backend software, networking, old protocols, self-hosting, and all the other nonsense I am working on now. So even if I never return to these projects, they already did something fairly important. # MAYBE SOMEDAY There are still RimWorld ideas sitting around. I may eventually come back to Replace Stuff, Divine Intervention, or some of the original mod ideas that started this whole thing. Or I may not. For now, I am following the rabbit holes that are more interesting. Copyright 2026 Kyle Givler .