RimWorld
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.
RimWorld Alpha 16 – Wanderlust released!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hYecyqAE90
Your game will update automatically. Because of huge structural changes to the game, this update will break save games. If you want to continue an old save just change to the "alpha15" beta branch on Steam. To do so, go to Steam library, right-click RimWorld, click Properties, click the Betas tab, and use the drop-down to select the branch you want. You can, of course, switch back to the "default" branch whenever you want.
Partial change list:
Spherical planet
Multiple simultaneous maps
Caravans
Travel victory
Transport pods
Usability improvements
Drugs and health
Misc
How to not lose Alpha 15 saves upon Alpha 16 release
Alpha 16 release is upcoming (though no date is announced and we don't know when it'll be final). If you are in the middle of a game, please use the Steam betas feature to set your game to the “alpha15” branch. This will prevent it from automatically-updating to A16 upon release and breaking your save games.
You will be able to, of course, set your branch back to 'default' whenever you wish.
(To change your beta branch, right-click RimWorld in the Steam library, open Properties, go to the Betas tab, select the branch you want.)
Quick teaser: Transport Pods
Quick teaser: The Ice Planet
Quick teaser: The Caravan
Quick teaser: The Planet
I'll be releasing more information about this soon-ish. I just wanted to give you all an image so you know we are still working at full steam, on many different features.
A16 will probably be the biggest update ever in terms of the amount of work we've done adding and refining things, so it's taking a while.
Creative content rewards available separately from main game
Creative content rewards are things like Name in Game or Pirate King that allow you to put your own character content into the game through our automated Creative Rewards System. Previously these could only be purchased in packs with the main game. Now, you can purchase them separately, on Steam. They are:
Name in Game Access
Backstory in Game Access
Pirate King Access
Hope you like them!
Alpha 15c is live
The details for this update can be found on the unstable testing announcement post.
Many thanks to all the testers who made this possible!