[2020] Is RimWorld moving in the wrong direction?

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I have more than 2500 hours in this game. I absolutely love and adore it in every way. At least, I used to.

Before, when Tynan said the game would never go on sale out of respect for those who backed the game years ago on Kickstarter and stuff like that. The game was on sale during this years Steam summer sale.

Before, when there was no overpriced DLC, and just clear and transparent communication about the direction of the game closing in on the 1.0 release. A 1.0 release that would be the end of mods breaking and your saves along with them. Yeah, no.

As I’ve found myself disappointed with the general direction of the game lately I have also almost stopped playing. And I’m kind of sad about it, but as I’ve been getting older the way developers and companies act have a bigger impact on me than it used to.

Am I just in the wrong thinking the game have lost its way a bit lately? Thoughts?

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over 4 years ago - /u/TynanSylvester - Direct link

Hey I wrote a post on Steam with some relevant info:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/294100/discussions/0/1750149787512435164/

Specifically, I never said it would 'never' go on sale, this is just a myth that pops up sometimes. I actually said that it would go on sale, and it did.

I also never said 1.0 would be the 'end of mods breaking'. I'd never make such a statement because it would mean we could never do a major update to the game, and that's a door I'd never want to close.

As other have noted we've worked very hard not to break mods since the 1.1 release with a nearly-perfect record. However, compatibility cruft is building up in the codebase so for sustainability reasons there's a high chance of another major version update (which means mods need to be updated too). We created a multi-version mod system to smooth over the transition since I understand that it's disruptive. But at the end of the day, short-term compatibility issues are outweighed by long-term progress that lasts forever; if we stopped breaking mods years ago the game would be very limited in its progress.

I really do take my promises seriously. So I don't make many of them, but when I do I always come through. If you think I broke a promise, it's worth trying to hunt down where I actually made that promise (e.g. an actual quote), because there's a good chance it's not something I actually said. There's a lot of broken telephone going on out there.

over 4 years ago - /u/TynanSylvester - Direct link

Originally posted by Side1iner

Having looked into it a bit I think you’re absolutely right. It’s been mentioned time and time again the game would never go on sale. But as far as I could see now you never wrote any of those comments or posts.

I guess it’s just one of those things being taken as truth within the community at this point, so good on you for having the energy to keep correcting it.

As I wrote in the post and the comments in this thread I love this game. One of my absolute favorites ever (and I’ve been a serious gamer for 30 years now, so that says kind of a lot).

I’m disappointed with the direction of the game of late, though. Royalty is way to... shallow or gimmicky for me, I guess. It doesn’t follow suit to me. I’ve always thought about RimWorld as a pretty gloomy and depressing — although super fun and funny in many ways — game. A pretty unique and to me very wonderful feel. Royalty feels like an expansion for a Borderlands game, not the first major expansion for RimWorld. The shenanigans has always been a big part of RimWorld but Royalty put it right at the center of attention and the self-consciousness of that decision was sort of disappointing. Obviously I’m overthinking stuff here, but I think you get what I mean.

Anyways, that’s all on me. You actually own the IP and whatever direction you choose to take the game in is the right direction!

Thank you for your reply. Won’t contribute to the spreading of misconceptions or un-truths going forward. And a BIG thank you for a couple of thousand hours of pure joy and delight over the years! You’ve created an absolute masterpiece.

Thanks.

And yeah I basically agree about Royalty. The trailer was really the wrong feel. I rewrote some of the ingame text as well to adjust the tone somewhat too. We're working on another update that will shift this a bit more as well. I'm considering that we might make a new trailer for it at some point.

RW always did have a diverse tone to it though. Lategame megacolonies were always quite different from 'one naked guy fighting a wolf with a stick' situations. Anyway, lessons learned, moving forward.

over 4 years ago - /u/TynanSylvester - Direct link

Originally posted by Side1iner

Absolutely. Well, if you keep going and need play testers or such I’d be happy to pour some hours into it. Much better way to actually give you some constructive feedback when it can actually do some good.

New build should be going up today actually. Come help out! https://discord.gg/XgZSxa

Thanks in advance.

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