RimWorld
Unstable version testing and a call for translators
If you are playing with mods but were on the unstable branch from an earlier testing phase, change back to default branch now. The code for this update should be 99% mod-compatible, but the mods won't work until they're recompiled because the binary API for the translation system changed.
The game content is exactly the same as Beta 19. There are some bugfixes, but the most important thing is the new localization system. It'll help translators more accurately translate the game into non-English languages, with issues like grammatical gender (e.g. le/la in French) respected and better automatic handling of grammar for a variety of languages.
Below is a forum post from Piotr Walczak, who implemented the latest improvements, explaining what translators can do to take advantage of the new functionality.
Forum post: New keyed translations format
For anyone interested in helping translate, now would be a great time! The game content is stable, the grammar code is in, and we're on the final push to get things set for the 1.0 release. Potential translators should please take a look the forum post below to learn how to contribute. Thanks in advance.
Forum post: How to contribute to translations
Forum post: Help check the language workers
Early access price and final price
Buying an early access game is risky compared to buying a finished game. Also, RimWorld's value in content (and the time players tend to play it) have gone up a lot since those early days. There's also the matter of simple financial inflation. Because of these factors, the final price will be higher than the early access price.
The early access price will remain the same for the rest of the early access period - this change will only occur when 1.0 is released. And of course, anyone who bought during Early Access will get the final version for no additional cost.
I wanted to let everyone know about this ahead of time so people have time to make an informed purchasing decision without surprises.
As of now there's no announced release date for 1.0 yet - still working on filling in all those final details!
Discussion on the Ludeon forums.
RimWorld Beta 19 – Polish the Cannons released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH5tLLJXbg8
If you want to keep playing Beta 18 on Steam: Right click RimWorld in the Library list -> Properties -> Betas -> Choose beta18 from the drop-down menu.
You can play savegames from Beta 18 (and probably before), though some details will change upon loading.
I did want this build to be 1.0 for a while, but it became apparent the game would benefit from one more refinement round, so we're doing Beta 19 first. I very much want the 1.0 version to be worthy of its version number, which means not rushing it.
You can discuss this post in this forum thread on the Ludeon forums or in comments below.
Below is a list of notable changes. If anything below seems to change game balance, you can bet that related variables were adjusted to maintain roughly the same challenge as before - I just don't write down every single change because otherwise this list would be way too long. This list also does not including a ton of more behind-the-scenes optimization, refactoring, fixing, and adjustments we did.
RimWorld Beta 18 – A World of Story is released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPI2vUqdZFY
To get the update: If you're on Steam, the game will update automatically. If you're DRM-free, you can re-download from the same link you got the game from originally. It always has the latest version.
It's finally in Beta! This is build 0.18.1722 of RimWorld. That last number is the number of days since I first started working on RimWorld in February 2012. 1722 days - almost five years. It's come a very long way since the first public look in September 2013. It's time to start bringing it to a close, which is why version 0.18 is Beta 18 instead of Alpha 18.
The "Beta" designation means that we're on the final stretch before the 1.0 release, and that there won't be major content additions like whole new game systems. Of course we will almost certainly add more content, before the 1.0 release or after. We will also continue seeking feedback so we can fix those little bugs and design problems that only become apparent after tens or hundreds of hours of play. RimWorld has become an exceptionally complex game, and it takes a long time and a huge amount of play to understand how to improve it. So it'll keep evolving for a while.
In any case, enjoy Beta 18. There is a lot of new stuff. See the features list below for details, and watch the video.
Compatibility: Saved games from non-modded Alpha 17 should still be loadable, though some things may change upon loading (e.g. characters may forget their orders; buildings that have changed size might be instantly deconstructed if there's nowhere to fit them, and so on). Complex mods made for A17 won't be usable and will need to be updated. Very simple mods may still load.
Rough features list:
Backstory in game sales will close
I'm closing these sales because the game is maturing and it's coming to the right time to make the content final. In addition, closing these will free up more time for us to work on the game itself.
Thanks everyone for all the great content submitted over the last few years! As any player can tell you, it's really enriched the game.
Alpha17b performance hotfix released.
When we made the targeting AI smarter in Alpha 17, we also made it harder on the CPU. Players in late game were seeing drastically reduced performance. Alpha17b optimizes this and several other things. There are no changes to gameplay - just optimization of what's there already.
This update will work with your existing saved games, XML-only mods and (hopefully) most or all code mods.
If for any reason you want to continue on the older version, you can set your Steam beta branch to 'alpha17a'.
Sorry for any disruption! We’re also hard at work on Alpha 18.
Alpha 17 - On the Road released!
I'm afraid that this build is not compatible with saved games from previous versions, or mods from previous versions. However, you can continue to use the old version until you're ready to update. If you're on Steam, to continue using the old version, go to your Steam Library, right-click on RimWorld, click Properties. Open the Betas tab and use the drop-down menu to select the alpha16 version. Restart Steam to force an update.
If you downloaded the game DRM-free, you can update whenever you like by re-downloading from your existing download link. Your link is always the same and always gives the latest version.
In the old builds, balance problems meant that some exploit-y strategies did work and obviated some of the challenges in the game. Since those problems are now fixed, you may find the game a little bit more difficult. It wouldn't hurt to play at one notch lower difficulty to start with in Alpha 17. You can always increase the difficulty later, even during the game, through the options menu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8eyPE2yuoE
A summary of the changes in this alpha follows:
Roads and rivers
World quests
Other new stuff
Modding
Increasing skill relevance
AI
Misc
New content is in progress for Alpha 17!
"We recently asked whether players would rather have the bugfix-only update released, or if they’d prefer we just kept working and waited until we had new content to release.
The results aligned with my personal thinking, which is that the disruptive effect of a release (breaking various compatibilities) isn’t worth it for a bugfix-only release. So, we’ve been adding new content! Alpha 17 will basically be two updates combined, where one of them was a refinement-and-fix overhaul.
I’m not going to go into detail on exactly what’s coming (that’s what the update videos are for!) But here are some basic notes on things in progress. The update will focus on enriching the content in the world, and create more reasons to use the planet-travel caravan system:
<*>Roads and rivers across the world (multiple categories of each).
<*>Rivers across the world.
<*>Redone enemy base generation.
<*>Enemy AI overhauls. They’ll be harder to cheese in various ways and act more sensibly.
<*>A new class of incidents that initiate quest opportunities on the world map. These are driven by a new combinatorial “site” system that allows us to create destinations to go to out of multiple “pieces”. This creates more variation than we would get if we just had single quest destinations. Now we can take any “site core” from a library, surround it with “site parts” from another library and the system will generate them all together. So, you could have a core that is a stash of gold, and add on “manhunter animals” and “abandoned turret line” around it, and the map generator will combine those. The number of possible combinations can get large quickly. This update will keep it pretty basic, but for future updates I hope to have larger site part libraries, which will create massive variation.
<*>People can tend their own wounds now!
<*>Tons and tons of rebalancing and detailed redesign to make skills matter more, make the economy more coherent and balanced, make animal farming for meat viable, make cannibalism a bit less ho-hum, make surgery not absurd, make room stats matter in a sensible way, make storyteller incidents more varied, and so on.
Based on man-hours, Alpha 17 will probably be the most substantial update yet. RimWorld has become quite a beast in terms of design complexity, so it does take a lot longer now to design and tune things so they integrate into the rest of the game well, don’t overwhelm players with complexity, and don’t create weird exploits or nonsensical outcomes. But, that’s all part of the inherent challenge of designing a tightly-integrated, wholly-procedural colony sim!"
At this exact moment there is no release date and the team is still chipping away at the update. You can join in the discussion here: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=31683.0
In regards to "you guys aren't posting/communicating enough!"
Truth be told the dev team is actually at a point where the majority of their day is dedicated to working on the game itself. Communication is a bit sparse sure but if you ever want to get more info on the game or possibly find out what's going on you're going to have far more luck over at our forums. https://ludeon.com/forums
Greetings and Salutations!
I've been doing a lot of work in stealth lately, trying to keep things clean, running through posts fixing issues or banning those dastardly Tribals out to steal our delicious Yorkshire meat. I probably won't be posting too often as that's mostly up to Tynan but I would like folks to know that there is someone here doing work nine times out of ten and that we do get your complaints.
A bit about me:
I'm a bit of a nerd, love playing RimWorld when I'm not swamped in other games. Favorite feature in RimWorld has to be the intricate medical system. Biggest regret is not being able to install tank treads to my Husky army. I'm big on community and love to help others if possible, I'm sure some of you have seen me on the Ludeon Forums bouncing around and pushing people to behave. https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php (how do you not have an account?)
Games I'm stuck in/chasing at the moment:
RimWorld A17! Wooo gotta sell the product!
Starcraft 2. I'm a casual, I admit it. I'm arcading all day or CO-OP'ing!
XCOM 2, because Long War 2 came out and I hate myself.
Got Wild8, that's a crazy game and feels like Winter RimWorld 24/7
Really excited for two games coming out soon:
Mass Effect Andromeda, because I'm a sucker for stories
SimAirport mostly because I love a good Greenlight and I can get stuck in tycoon games for yeeeeeeears on end. Theme Hospital baby, started it all!
Any who enough of ranting on my end. If anyone needs anything don't hesitate to report problems or PM me on the forums. I'm that Ramsis guy with the red name. Be sure to have fun and enjoy the game everyone, Tynan is one heck of a guy!
Edit: Oh dear lord the friend invites are pouring in! I regret everything! http://i.imgur.com/wlaPSeO.png
At the request of a few I have made my comments section public on my Steam profile... please be gentle!
:awoo:
Progress update on Alpha 17
Alpha 17 is in progress. This update is going to be a refinement build. That means we're focusing entirely on fixing things that are wrong with the game, and are not adding wholly new features.
So far we've fixed hundreds of bugs. I've made a collection of new balance analysis tools and using those, along with community feedback and videos, have rebalanced several gameplay systems. We're also doing a review of how memory is handled, to reduce memory waste that leads to sub-optimal performance or out-of-memory crashes. I've compiled a list of exploit strategies that players use to gain advantage by exploiting tricky gaps in game logic, or bugs, and worked out solutions to most of them. Some exploit fixes are mechanics changes, some are balance changes, and quite a few involve reworking the AI. We've also been adding bits of feedback or micro-features here and there where needed; one example would be the new "mass" column in each character's "gear" tab, so you can tell how heavy each stack is.
It turns out that in a game this complex, there are quite a few places for subtle problems to hide! In fact I'm continually amazed at how many problems can be layered into a game that still manages to entertain so many people.
The current plan is to finish refinements and then release that as Alpha 17. But - there is the possibility we'll not release a "refinements-only" update and just wait until we've finished the refinements, and then some additional features beyond, to push a public release. This is because each release does create some chaos in the community, since it inevitably breaks mod compatibility (though maybe not vanilla save game compatibility, since the mechanics aren't being redesigned drastically). The question of whether we'll release Alpha 17 as a refinements-only build, or wait to add on significant new content remains open.
I invite your thoughts on this in this forum poll and thread.