Is this game still being developed?

[granada777]

I love Rimworld. Bought it a couple of years ago and it instantly joined my all-time top 5.

Throughout those 2 years, there were frequent updates. Now, no updates in months. Definitely a record. Even the development Discord server stopped posting daily/weekly release notes.

I consider Rimworld to be an acceptably finished game and I more than got my money's worth out of it, I'm just making an observation.

[brian_va]

Big updates spread out by months, the early access period with constant updates are over. Speculation is another dlc is in dev, nothing confirmed.

[Hoki]

big updates are happening in relation to DLCs at this point. we got 3 major updates for royalty and this dlc is pretty much completed.

just assumption but the radio silence does very likely mean they are mainly working on the next DLC and changes to vanilla that work towards the dlc as well.

[granada777]

Originally posted by Hoki:

big updates are happening in relation to DLCs at this point. we got 3 major updates for royalty and this dlc is pretty much completed.

just assumption but the radio silence does very likely mean they are mainly working on the next DLC and changes to vanilla that work towards the dlc as well.

I'm kinda weary of getting a new DLC. It will almost certainly be about a new orthogonal set of mechanics, like Royalty's psi spells. And it'll inevitably make the player OP, as spells did.

Eventually these new mechanics over many DLCs will be Too Much. It might be better to improve the core game mechanics, improve engine performance, etc, but it's hard to sell that as a DLC.

[adobo]

Locking improved stuff behind DLC is a sure way to piss people off. I rather have fun DLC you don't need than DLC that is required.

You can have plenty of fun without the DLC. You don't need the psi powers or the royalty mechanics but those sure make the game different enough.

[brian_va]

New or improved engine behind a paywall is a surefire way for tynan to piss off his loyal fan base; he surely is smarter than that

[granada777]

No one loves Rimworld for any of the Royalty content. They love it for the base game experience, and Royalty only adds some variety to that.

Psi powers remind me of those Mass Effect DLCs that ruin game balance by giving you all the best weapons automatically without earning them. You have to discipline yourself not to use them. Maybe it's different after the last patches, but a single talented caster could wreck any human raid by using Invisibility to sneak up to waiting or sieging raiders, cast one or two of that AOE spell that makes them turn them against allies (Berserk Field?), and by the time it wears off and they attack, they're easy pickings.

[Cormac]

Originally posted by majikero:

Locking improved stuff behind DLC is a sure way to piss people off. I rather have fun DLC you don't need than DLC that is required.

You can have plenty of fun without the DLC. You don't need the psi powers or the royalty mechanics but those sure make the game different enough.

well, given the options:
a) get payed DLc and another year of free updates (as well as an free update beside the dlc)
b) no payed DLC but end of long term big updates with only a few bugfixes

i would choose a every time (except maybe if you ask me to get rimworld 2 or something like that)
but than, ppl cry (not pointing at you, but there will be) that they have to pay for the new game and they lose all the money spend on this game...

Originally posted by granada777:

Eventually these new mechanics over many DLCs will be Too Much. It might be better to improve the core game mechanics, improve engine performance, etc, but it's hard to sell that as a DLC.

well, if you look at the huge amount of things added by mods (WC/showers, nukes, psi was in the starwars jedi mod first anyway, androids and so on), and seeing on how extremly big some ppls mod lists get, i don't see a problem with that.
another option would be to expand the "rebel" path against the empire where you are locked out of using psi at all but have access to new mechanics through them... but who knows what they plan

[...]

Rimworld is a difficult beast to keep monetizing. What could a DLC offer that doesn't already exist as a mod? Royalty feels somewhat desperate.

I don't mind paying for more DLCs, but just as a way of giving back to the developer for creating such a great mod platform, not for the content.

Imho it's time for them to move on to a new project. Modders define Rimworld now.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by granada777:

...
I consider Rimworld to be an acceptably finished game and I more than got my money's worth out of it, I'm just making an observation.

Rimworld is not being developed in the sense that development of additional content and game mechanics are intended. IMO, any development would be related to DLC or general stewardship for engine/operating system needs.

But, yes, it's still be "developed" in the sense that it recently (relatively so) got its first DLC and that has had patches and development ongoing. That "counts." :)

Rimworld doesn't need anything, itself, other than the general good stewardship that Ludeon is providing for it.

The DLC is what it is. It has some new things, a few new mechanics and the like, and some people may find it entertaining and worth their while. (I don't want it, but some players might.)

Modders aren't going to leave Rimworld alone for quite awhile, yet. They're going to be poking sticks at it for years, yet... I imagine Tynan will do something else for Rimworld, sometime, somewhere down the line. How does one just discard that which built an empire? So, he'll probably fidgit with it in five years or so, "just 'cause" if there's no more additional DLC provided for it.

I'd like to see Ludeon move to something else, though. A cool roguelite, management, adventure kind of game with some persistent base-building would be cool. :)

I'd LOVE to see someone, anyone, do a decent "Medieval Fantasy Adventure Tavern Manager" with adventurers you could sell stuff to, hire, send out on excursions, have some combat with goblins, get treasure, feed quarrelsome dwarves, appease snobbish elves, deal with demon infestations in the basement... <This is called a "hint" and involves making an offhand suggestion in hopes someone will fulfill it. :) >

[MortVent]

There is a good bit of trickle down from the DLC support. With the base game getting new content and updates as well.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by granada777:

Throughout those 2 years, there were frequent updates. Now, no updates in months. Definitely a record.

Oh? A record?
What was the longest period between updates prior to this then?
Let's take a look... it has been just 3 months since the last update in September:
September 2020
August 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
May 2019
January 2019
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
January 2018
November 2017
October 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
February 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
January 2016
November 2015
October 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
February 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
April 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013

The longest period was in fact between Jan 2018 and August 2018. There's a long time to go before that 'record' is broken ;)

As to your question about ongoing development, I don't think there will be much since the game was pretty much the finished article when v1.0 was released in October 2018. Everything since then has been optimisation and implementation of the Royalty DLC.
But, according to Tynan, there will be further updates to the game at some point...

Originally posted by Tynan Sylvester:

We will be updating the game further after the content add-on. While the content add-on will stay on version 1.1 and generally not break mods, there will a version 1.2 some day, nd it will have more breaking changes. We’re going to try hard to avoid unnecessary code breakages and keep documents about changes for all future updates, and without such a big Unity update I hope mods in general will be easier or trivially easy to update than the 1.0 -> 1.1 shift. However, things will still inevitably need updating.

https://ludeon.com/blog/page/2/

[Astasia]

Originally posted by granada777:

I'm kinda weary of getting a new DLC. It will almost certainly be about a new orthogonal set of mechanics, like Royalty's psi spells. And it'll inevitably make the player OP, as spells did.

Eventually these new mechanics over many DLCs will be Too Much. It might be better to improve the core game mechanics, improve engine performance, etc, but it's hard to sell that as a DLC.

Luckily he's doing things in exactly the way you sound like you want him to. The DLC adds big optional mechanics which may not be for everyone or every game and is easily turned on and off without breaking mods. The base game however gets the core game improvements and that benefits everyone for free.

If at some point you feel multiple of these DLC is "too much" or don't go well together, or just contrast with your preferred mods, you can disable those DLC mechanics but keep core content and system updates.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by granada777:

Throughout those 2 years, there were frequent updates. Now, no updates in months. Definitely a record.

Oh? A record?
What was the longest period between updates prior to this then?
Let's take a look... it has been just 3 months since the last update in September:
September 2020
August 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
May 2019
January 2019
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
January 2018
November 2017
October 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
February 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
January 2016
November 2015
October 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
February 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
April 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013

The longest period was in fact between Jan 2018 and August 2018. There's a long time to go before that 'record' is broken ;)

Isn't the longest span in there from May 2019 - Feb 2020?

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

As to your question about ongoing development, I don't think there will be much since the game was pretty much the finished article when v1.0 was released in October 2018. Everything since then has been optimisation and implementation of the Royalty DLC.
But, according to Tynan, there will be further updates to the game at some point...

Originally posted by Tynan Sylvester:

We will be updating the game further after the content add-on. While the content add-on will stay on version 1.1 and generally not break mods, there will a version 1.2 some day, nd it will have more breaking changes. We’re going to try hard to avoid unnecessary code breakages and keep documents about changes for all future updates, and without such a big Unity update I hope mods in general will be easier or trivially easy to update than the 1.0 -> 1.1 shift. However, things will still inevitably need updating.

https://ludeon.com/blog/page/2/

Believe we are already at 1.2 now. That came as part of the DLC and free updates during that same time. I think the 1.2 change was mostly due to the restructuring of the way the mod system, and the way it is now more friendly to older mod versions.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by BlackSmokeDMax:

Isn't the longest span in there from May 2019 - Feb 2020?

Could be... that would work too, but who cares lol ;)