Good games like Rimworld?

[Dimwit Donald (very high IQ)]

Rimworld has its quirks, but I think it's an excellent game overall, mostly because it combines so many different elements. But even Rimworld gets boring eventually and, after 300 hours, I'm looking for something fresh yet similar. I like building, resource management, character development, crafting stuff, random events, tactical combat and even the sims-like elements to some extent. I'm always looking for games that don't easily fit into one particular genre but offer rich and diverse gameplay elements. One-sided, repetitive games get boring so quickly... But I just can't seem to find something good :(
It doesn't have to be a colony sim type of game.

[76561198356019466]

When I'm not playing Rimworld I play Terraria, BUT they are very very very different.
Still, the crafting, exploring and building are there. The one thing I really love about Terraria is that you can be much more creative. Just go online and look at some of the things people build. It's an art form unto itself.

[Jigain]

Dwarf Fortress, obviously.
Banished, mostly about resource and population management, no combat.
Frostpunk, pretty much Banished with higher quality production and unique setting.
Surviving Mars OR Planetbase, both pretty much the same game.
Oxygen Not Included, not one of my personal favorites but well received nonetheless.
Towns, if you don't mind the jankiness of a game that never got fully finished.

[Dimwit Donald (very high IQ)]

Originally posted by Gemma:

When I'm not playing Rimworld I play Terraria, BUT they are very very very different.
Still, the crafting, exploring and building are there. The one thing I really love about Terraria is that you can be much more creative. Just go online and look at some of the things people build. It's an art form unto itself.

Yeah, I played Terraria. It's a great game, too. The stuff I build wouldn't win any creativity prizes, but it's fun anyway. Maybe I'm gonna play again with the new update out now.

[Dimwit Donald (very high IQ)]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Dwarf Fortress, obviously.
Banished, mostly about resource and population management, no combat.
Frostpunk, pretty much Banished with higher quality production and unique setting.
Surviving Mars OR Planetbase, both pretty much the same game.
Oxygen Not Included, not one of my personal favorites but well received nonetheless.
Towns, if you don't mind the jankiness of a game that never got fully finished.

I actually have Banished in my library. Never really played, because I didn't find it so appealing at first. Maybe I'll give it another try. As for the others, I have probably looked at their store pages a hundred times, but wasn't really convinced. Oxygen not included looks "weird" somehow...

Has anyone played Colony Survival? Seems interesting.

[EvilNecroid]

Gnomoria?
or maybe Anno games?

[Dimwit Donald (very high IQ)]

Originally posted by EvilNecroid:

Gnomoria?
or maybe Anno games?

Gnomoria doesn't look bad, but the rating isn't so hot...

The only Anno game I played was the original 1604(?) iirc. It's basically city building / RTS without a lot of depth - not really what I'm looking for, unless other Anno games are very different.

[Terripan]

Not a Steam game, and not super related to RimWorld, but Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is very good open source game that seems to have a large amount of player overlap with RimWorld. There is a lot of exploring to be done in the game, and the crafting lists are the most extensive I've seen in any game, ever. My only real criticism of it is that some of the tilesets can be a little cartoonish(cartoonish isn't always necessarily bad, I suppose it just usually isn't to my liking), and that the devs can sometimes be annoying with taking away "unrealistic" parts of the game that work in favor while not removing the unrealistic parts that hurt you.

Sseth Tzeentach did a review of it a while ago, but from my understanding the amount of items in the game has quadrupled since then, and the amount of content in general has increased considerably. Link to the video

[The Knowledge Seeker]

I think you should take a look at Kenshi. I played it while it was still being developed and really enjoyed it back then.

[Kittenpox]

One of the reasons Rimworld did so well is that there aren't a lot of games like it. (Yes, Dwarf Fortress exists. But again, minimal competition in its own niche.)

I'm inclined to second the suggestion of Oxygen Not Included, if you don't mind the lack of combat. In ONI the two main threats are the environment, and the player's own planning. :-)

Edit - I know this doesn't fit in with what you're asking about, but how are you with FPS games? Because if you're looking at things that are slightly outside of the box, then 'Prey' (2017) *might* be something you'd appreciate.
Tip: Avoid spoilers.

[76561198356019466]

I'm seeing the "new" Dwarf Fortress as coming soon.
Are all of you talking about the original with the ASCII graphics?

[fwoosh waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Games that felt similiar to me were; lobotomy corporation, stellaris, stardew valley, mount & blade, stonehearth, dwarf fortress, faster than light, sims medieval, prison architect, oxygen not included, star traders: frontier, and crusader kings 2. Some are a lot closer to rimworld than others, and some of them have features that reminded me a lot of rimworld in them.

I haven't played any of these personally but I've seen let's plays of them that also seem similiar-ish to rimworld; factorio, banished, gnomoria, and space haven.

[Dimwit Donald (very high IQ)]

Originally posted by ⌛➡☕:

I think you should take a look at Kenshi. I played it while it was still being developed and really enjoyed it back then.

I played Kenshi, too. It's pretty nice except there isn't really much to do later in the game.

Originally posted by Kittenpox:

Edit - I know this doesn't fit in with what you're asking about, but how are you with FPS games? Because if you're looking at things that are slightly outside of the box, then 'Prey' (2017) *might* be something you'd appreciate.
Tip: Avoid spoilers.

Why Prey of all FPSs though? I very much like games like Deus Ex or System Shock 2. There's simply more to them than your average FPS.

Originally posted by fwoosh waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa:

Games that felt similiar to me were; lobotomy corporation, stellaris, stardew valley, mount & blade, stonehearth, dwarf fortress, faster than light, sims medieval, prison architect, oxygen not included, star traders: frontier, and crusader kings 2. Some are a lot closer to rimworld than others, and some of them have features that reminded me a lot of rimworld in them.

I haven't played any of these personally but I've seen let's plays of them that also seem similiar-ish to rimworld; factorio, banished, gnomoria, and space haven.

I played many of those. Good games, especially warband, FTL and CK2. Gonna look at some of the others.


Right now, I think Colony Survival or They Are Billions may also be worth a look.

[Jigain]

Colony Survival might be a bit hit-or-miss. Easiest way to describe it would be to imagine Minecraft but you're trying to just pass time by not doing anything yourself and instead having NPCs do all the work. Me, I find it fun in short, spread-out sessions, but I don't think I've ever played more than ten hours per month of it.

[Bozobub]

Dwarf Fortress is the granddaddy of all colony sim games. Opaque, weird, and wonderful; it's quite an experience. Notably, there's a paid Steam version coming Real Soon Now™ with a "real" UI, among other changes.

[Dimwit Donald (very high IQ)]

Originally posted by Bozobub:

Dwarf Fortress is the granddaddy of all colony sim games. Opaque, weird, and wonderful; it's quite an experience. Notably, there's a paid Steam version coming Real Soon Now™ with a "real" UI, among other changes.

I would like to finally see what the fuss is all about, actually. Soon™