[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)