Fave biomes?

[MayoCulpa]

There was a thread pretty recently where folks were talking about what storyteller and difficulty they prefer to play with, and another one on the various advantages and disadvantages of roads, rivers, and coasts. I'd love to get some similar perspectives on biomes.

I've been playing almost exclusively boreal forest and I'm thinking of branching out. (Get it? Branch, becau - nvm I'll see myself out.) Just as an experiment I've tried a couple naked brutality beginnings in arid shrubland, which is very different but fun so far. I have one early-midgame save where the colony packed up and moved to a temperate forest so I've at least been introduced to it. Going from "lots of wood and a very long cold winter" to "very little wood, a dangerously hot summer and a really mild winter" changes the game enormously. I also like to scroll around the world map until I find a tile that's right next to a road and within a couple days travel of a civil outlander or gentle tribe settlement, preferably both, with a river or creek on it if possible.

Do you have a favorite biome and/or map location? If so, what makes it the most fun? Do you try to switch it up and play different ones? Or do you like to like, hit the rando button and try to work with wherever the RNG plops you?

[Monoxide]

Personally I prefer the desert. Less malaria, year round growing (if you can get the dirt), unlikely to get a cold snap, animals year round.

My only real drawback is wood. I get trees growing ASAP, and once I get a few harvests, its not bad. I also have the VGP mod, so I can substitude bamboo for wood. Weaker, but grows fast and fits the early job until I can get stonecutting going (I usually do tribal).

[Preechr]

You know you can add mods that only add new biomes? I know you are all "No not mods!" but adding or adding to biomes couldn't hurt anything, right?

I wish Terra Project was finished... Really love the Spike Mountains and various Cave biomes he added. The Volcanic wasteland from Nature is Pretty Sweet is pretty awesome as well.

Realistic Planets is also a great mod that adds a couple of biomes that feel very vanilla but also gives you a lot more options in biome generation while modifying vanilla biome generation so it makes more sense.

[martindirt]

Desert, arid, tundra. And climate cycle is always a perma event. So sometimes unexpected things happens. :D
I dont liek the extreme ones.

[MayoCulpa]

Hmmmm it's sounding like arid is a really good choice to try next.

Monoxide: The lack of wood is my biggest concern, because also tribal. But since it comes with a lack of cold it might be doable. The prospect of "heat waves slow down your crops" instead of "winter kills your crops until you can build greenhouses" is very alluring, I gotta say.

Preechr: It's not so much "No! Not mods!" and more "ehh, not mods yet." Like I did eventually start using mods on FO4 but only once I felt like I really had a good feel for the vanilla game after playing it for a few years. (The parts I like to play anyway. I don't usually finish out the main quest line cause I'm not interested enough in it to spare the time from town building.) Extra biomes, maybe LOTS of extra biomes, quality of life stuff like colony manager and work tab, more variety and more complexity in faction relations, those all seem like good options for the future. But heck, I've never even kept a game going long enough to research drop pods. I'd feel like I was missing out on the vanilla experience I want if I didn't explore it in more depth before changing it.

martindirt: Yeah from the guides and playthroughs I've been checking out, it seems like sea ice you can really only survive with like intentional cannibalism supplemented by hydroponics. Which does not sound like my idea of a good time. I think there's a tribal extreme desert guide in the wiki that recommends cracking the ancient danger in the first quadrum just hoping it'll be bugs so you can eat them and get jelly and a good sized ruin to live in. Which *could* be fun but also frustrating if it's mechs instead or you end up not being able to kill the bugs successfully.

[The Knowledge Seeker]

I like the forest, berrys 100% and growing season year round. I also pick the spots that have Granite and Marble. I haven't even considered another biom yet lol. I like the 10c - 20c temp zone.

[MayoCulpa]

I've gotten fond of marble and limestone, not sure why. Granite is wonderful, I had a map with that awhile back. Slate looks cool cause having like matte black structural walls around everything makes for a nice goth aesthetic, but it's less durable which is a bummer.

[Neosuduno]

Oddly enough, tropical jungles. Constant treating of diseases actually helps build medical skills, and it gets exponentially easier as you drain marshes and the like. Having long growing seasons helps too, and food is never in short supply. I actually find myself anticipating disease, mostly due to how easily it raises medical skill. As long as you can maintain coolers A hospital is not hard to make and maintian in this biome.

[Monoxide]

Originally posted by MayoCulpa:

"ehh, not mods yet."

I am typically 100% opposed to mods. However, RimWorld really lends itself to small piece meal mods. It really makes the game shine as you can change what YOU specifically want on a small scale.

There are also several mods that just make certain functions easier (the allow tool mod lets you select a LOT of things at once opposed to individual clicks). Another thing I like is the Manager mod that lets you create a new job type (Manager) who then designates trees to be cut, food to be foraged, or animals to be hunted based on your colony's stockpiles. You arent making the game easier, you are just setting thresholds for your pawns to follow.

Point being, you can maintain the vanilla feel while making the game work better for you. I highly recommend at least poking around the workshop. There are a lot of quality of life mods that maintain the difficulty, while making certain pieces less tedious.

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by Monoxide:

Personally I prefer the desert. Less malaria, year round growing (if you can get the dirt), unlikely to get a cold snap, animals year round.

My only real drawback is wood. I get trees growing ASAP, and once I get a few harvests, its not bad. I also have the VGP mod, so I can substitude bamboo for wood. Weaker, but grows fast and fits the early job until I can get stonecutting going (I usually do tribal).

Deserts are unique in that they can be both hot and cold. Next time try finding a desert tile where its cold. See how that experience goes for you ;)

[MayoCulpa]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

Deserts are unique in that they can be both hot and cold. Next time try finding a desert tile where its cold. See how that experience goes for you ;)

(Pre) industrial quantities of fun*, I imagine. A cold arid shrubland could be a good fit.

I remember laughing out loud at the "need warm clothes" popup in my current test run going "the temperature is going to reach -5C." Might kill a few crops I spose.

Lots more under-mountain building to conserve wood and temperature plus walled growing zones with skilled growers who can get trees going early seem like the way to go.

[Serina]

Most of my hours have been spent playing NB Tribe on Tundra, usually at temps around -45C during winter. Played a few Ice Sheet games as well but it felt too empty for me.

Tried out a few Tropical Rainforest games but I prefer colder winters and snow on the ground.

Currently playing on Boreal Forest with 20 growing days. Two out of the four naked tribals, came down with the flu on the 15th day, highest lvl medical between all of them was 5. It was fun scouring the whole map for a few Herbal Medicines. I feel like I found more herbal medicines on Tundra maps. lol. Jasper, one of the infected, barely survived with 2% immunity ahead of the disease. So far my pawns have experienced a heat wave that brought temps up to 45C during the summer and a cold snap + volcanic winter at the same time that brought the temp down to around -30C during Fall.

Using the Random Site button doesn't work for me because I'm very specific about what I want for my map. I prefer the stone types granite, marble and slate. I enjoy the change of scenery, so I prefer to have actual seasons over permanent winter or permanent summer. Being relatively close to other factions for caravans is a nice bonus.

[Preechr]

Originally posted by MayoCulpa:

...intentional cannibalism...

...not the accidental kind.... that can't be helped

[Ghaladh]

No love for the savanna? It's my favorite because I love elephants, I like the color yellow and I hate mud and cold. The decent presence of wood makes for a easier start, but it's not thick enough to annoy my builders too much. As soon as I feel comfortable enough I almost completely abandon the use of wood in favor of stone and steel.
Usually, I choose a small hill configuration with marble for beauty, granite for resistance and slate or sandstone for the exterior floors, just to have some color variety.
Since I tend to build vast colonies surrounded by walls I avoid rivers but I like coasts, although I usually choose the position primarily looking for many hostile camps and towns around it, wherever it might be. I like attacking other factions, especially the baddies.

Like many players, I started with the temperate forest, but I wanted a little more challenge without going to the extremes like ice sheet or desert.

[KalkiKrosah]

I play Boreal Forest the most, but my most successful colonies are almost always on Tundra or Arid Shrubland biomes. Cold is easier to deal with than heat, and arid shrubland can get hot but its manageable.

Tropical Rainforest and Temperate Forest I play occasionally. I have to be in the mood for it.

Desert, Extreme Desert, Ice Sheet and Sea Ice are too empty for me. Too much sitting around and waiting.

The Swamp and Bog biomes my least favorite biomes. Too much shrubbery and marshy soil makes expanding slow and tedious. And the frequency of diseases is rather annoying as well.

[Rosario]

I actually really love mountains. My best game (still haven't technically 'won') I had a base built into a mountain in the tundra. Yes infestations happened every few seasons, but honestly it wasn't that big of an issue, though I'll admit the infestations were all pretty small early on and the larger ones didn't start up until after my 15+ colonists were all armed with assault rifles, gatling guns, and sniper rifles (I gave careful shooters snipers, trigger happy people gatling, and the rest assault, brawlers got steel swords), steel simple helmets and flak vests with a few in marine armor. So my pawns were kitted out, never really any major damage. Outside threats I found more dangerous, but they could only realistically come from one direction, and that area was fortified, if they tried to tunnel they'd have to mine for a long time, more than enough time to push them against a wall. After a while I also set up bunkers outside the mountain with turrets around and medical beds inside for emergencies, so the map was basically covered.

TLDR, mountains are really freaking defensive, not to mention temperature seemed really easy to maintain.

I miss that save, accidently deleted it right before I was getting ready to build a ship.