Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
RimWorld
Alpha 17 - On the Road released!
Alpha 17 - On the Road has been released! This version brings roads and rivers to the world, new world quests, new tools for modders, new combat tools, smarter AI, and rebalancings and adjustments across the whole design.
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!
Some official words from Tynan posted here:
"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!
Howdy everyone, my name is Ramsis and I'll be rooting around this fine Steam HUB as the admin/community management guy... thing.. Muffalo..
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
This is just a quick update on what we're working on now, since it's been some time since Alpha 16 came out and I don't want anyone thinking I died or became a Venezuelan monk or something.
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.
RimWorld Alpha 16 - Wanderlust is released! This update adds a spherical world and the ability to travel across it with multiple caravans, having simultaneous encounters on the way and settling new colonies.
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
Just a quick PSA:
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
Currently bugfixing and tuning Alpha 16. Here's a new teaser!
Quick teaser: The Ice Planet
It's cold down there.
Quick teaser: The Caravan
Another quick teaser for you all!
Quick teaser: The Planet
Hey all, just a quick teaser update for you. Behold, 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.
