Rimworld or Oxygen Not Included? Which will suit my needs better?

[aks2161989]

I want a game where you can set up a SELF-SUSTAINING colony after a point. Where the colony can survive with minimal interference. Like the system's work automatically to reduce waste and produce resources without the player doing anything. Which game fulfills this condition better? Rimworld or Oxygen Not Included?

[Dr.Acula]

The question is what you consider self sustaining.

I can't really tell you anything about ONI. In Rimworld however you can:
1. sustain your own colony with the food you're growing (events may disrupt that - depends on difficulty). This can be expanded upon through mods.
2. You can scan and drill for resources on your own map without going around in the world. This can be expanded upon through mods
3. You can build your own equipment for the most part as well as defenses against outsiders using your own resources. Again mods will expand that.

Some high tech research plans will require interaction with the outside world. Other than that you could survive without trading or raiding.

[Wantoomany]

If you want an ant farm you can just set up and watch, ONI is better. Rimworld has storytellers that are made to do everything they can to knock over your ant farm. So, unless you are playing on the most peaceful settings, Rimworld is a game that will require you to actively defend yourself.

[Veylox]

Definitely Oxygen. Well, I doubt a lot of people actually get to a self-sustaining point in Oxygen because there's bound to be entropy somewhere with some liquid or gaz leaking more than it should be, but it's definitely more hands-off than Rimworld where a lot of the stuff will be automated, but the manual, RTS-style play will also play a major role, especially in combat where it's mandatory. Your pawns are NOT surviving battle encounters if you don't tell them how to prepare and take cover to take their fights at the right spot.

Rimworld is half automation, half hands-on strategy, and any game that focuses solely on one or the other will be a better fit for someone who's looking exclusively for one of the two.

Outside of combat and events though Rimworld can be played on x3 speed and doing nothing and nothing will go astray provided you automated your base well, events are just a big part of the game, and they're non-existent in oxygen, where what you see on the map is what you get and all you ever have to take into account

[Narrowmind]

Oni is your only option. It is actually possible in that game, but here, the colony is unable to defend itself without your input.

[[SWOT] DroningCardinal]

also give planetbase a try if you are already on it

[Bishop]

RimWorld is highly interactive. There are mods to make it more automated (colony manager).

[Philtre]

I think if you want a fully hands-off game, neither RW nor ONI may be entirely right for you, but RW, with the right settings, may be closer.

ONI is designed to push you to constantly improve your technology and build better systems, because almost all resources are either limited, need to be actively refreshed/recycled in some way, or produce waste products that need active intervention to deal with (most notably, heat). Building a fully-stable colony that needs no further player intervention is only possible either in extreme late game, or by deliberately staying with a small, carefully-designed, and relatively low-tech colony.

RimWorld on the other hand, drives a lot of its player engagement through combat and other crises, but does have pretty extensive customization options. If you set up a custom game with no enemy attacks of any kind and no unexpected emergencies (sickness, mad animals, extreme weather, etc), then once you've got food and clothing production running smoothly and sufficiently comfortable housing set up, you can pretty safely let it run by itself for a while.

[🍣]

I love both games and play both a lot.
The game you're describing is most precisely represented by ONI.

Maximizing a self-sustaining system is the entire premise of Oxygen Not Included.
The game itself is maximized for this experience.

You can get the same fun in Rimworld, and I'd still recommend Rimworld, but Rimworld has a much greater narrative and randomness component to it, which is literally designed to disrupt any stability you achieve.
ONI has that element too, but it's always a physically modelled crisis which was measured and displayed to the player the whole time, it's a very scientific game.

Stability in ONI is much more complex and variable according to your asteroid's resources and environment, but ultimately predetermined entirely by those conditions.

Rimworld has simpler economics, with a lot of variability layered over top for fun, with a lot more nuance given toward pawn's personalities and interactions, and then random events kicking you in the teeth to literally prevent you from ever becoming too stable.

Both games are very fun though.

You might also enjoy Anno 1800 and Satisfactory, which are two others I like with a similar kind of catharsis to them.

[whatamidoing]

Don't know about ONI, but definitely not Rimworld. For another pick, Dwarf Fortress requires minimal interaction once you're set up.

[obieoverhulse]

ONI is substantially more difficult. You will get many more hours of enjoyment out of Rimworld, especially once you tap into the mods. You don't even need to buy anything beyond the base game, because there's still countless free mods available. While ONI is fun, it is also more of a game for engineers/ serious problem solvers. Rimworld is far more relaxed, though it can be dialed up however you like. You can cap the technology and play a medieval, fantasy, or tribal style game. You can start as modern people with access to electricity and guns, eventually building up to lasers and ♥♥♥♥. You can do a game where you start with one naked pawn, no food, no possessions, and try to survive long enough to recruit more help. You can make a game where everyone is a cannibal, complete with tailoring clothing from "human leather". Or you can build a peaceful hippy community that smokes grass and lazes around all day, occasionally selling excess doobage to passing merchants. Several different mods add magic, with "Rimworld of magic" adding a whole bunch of fleshed-out classes for your colonists.

Yeah, go Rimworld

[brown29knight]

To me, the litmus test is if you could go AFK for 12 hours and still have something to come back to. In ONI you can, but even in rimworld peaceful, disease, zzzttt!/lightning, or even a mad boomalope could be a disaster to your colony if you are not there. Just think of what could happen if a fire cuts power to the fridges/heat/AC, then plant blights/coldsnaps hit... food gone, people starving, freezing, etc. You could easily come back to a dead colony.

ONI does not have random events, so the only problems that will arise are ones you failed to control, or you made in controlling the others. (and the game is quite good at letting you make your own problems)

Originally posted by Philtre:

ONI is designed to push you to constantly improve your technology and build better systems, because almost all resources are either limited, need to be actively refreshed/recycled in some way, or produce waste products that need active intervention to deal with (most notably, heat). Building a fully-stable colony that needs no further player intervention is only possible either in extreme late game, or by deliberately staying with a small, carefully-designed, and relatively low-tech colony.

While I mostly agree with your comment, I somewhat disagree with this part. You can have a colony that is stable enough to self-play for hundreds, perhaps thousands of cycles without any player intervention, without too much trouble (on the easier asteroids). Heat can be deleted with a proper steam/aquatuner setup, oxygen from geyser water, and food from 0-sum ranching.

Without using infinite storage exploits, you'll eventually have to vent excess gases or liquids to space, but again, that can be automated rather easily. (and becomes another way to deal with excess heat)

All without getting into the space materials, just steel. (and even sooner if you take the time to learn all the tricks)

ONI is my vote for antfarm watching. it can be quite fun, but not expanding or trying new things does get boring in its everyday sameness.

Rimword is for the drama. The new things will come at you, even if you don't want them too.

[budisourdog]

Rimworld needs constant monitoring and intervention. EVERYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG WILL GO WRONG. Deaths in social fights, your base exploding, 60 raiders with nothing but triple rocket launchers drop podding into the center of your base, squirrels murdering your power armor clad minigun toting super soldiers, a singe raider with a revolver getting 3 instakill shots to your colonists heads / livers, you do a surgery to install a peg leg and your doctor manages to decapitate the patient, you just exist and suddenly 30 of your 40 colonists have the plauge including all of your doctors and they will absolutely die if they do not spend every single moment laying in bed but theres a raid of 250 tribals banging on the gates and the solar flare has disabled your minigun turret defenses...

[Narrowmind]

Yeah, I'm not sure how anyone can look at Rimworld as anything capable of running itself. It's like they didn't read the Op.

[ь]

[Philtre]

Originally posted by brown29knight:

[re ONI] While I mostly agree with your comment, I somewhat disagree with this part. You can have a colony that is stable enough to self-play for hundreds, perhaps thousands of cycles without any player intervention, without too much trouble (on the easier asteroids). Heat can be deleted with a proper steam/aquatuner setup, oxygen from geyser water, and food from 0-sum ranching.

Yes, but it takes hours of play for a modestly-experienced player to get to that point. You have to research all the equipment, locate the geysers, mine the materials, build the pipes, etc. I'm assuming that if the OP wants a hands-off experience, they also want to be able to set that up relativity quickly, not something they need to put significant gameplay time into first. (Not to mention the time it takes for a new player to learn how to build things like aquatuner loops in the first place.)

Rimworld has customization options that lets you disable *almost everything* that can cause unexpected problems, and you can set up a colony to meet all your people's basic needs very quickly and with little effort, even if you are relatively new to the game. I still don't think it's ideal for the OP's preferences, but IMO it's closer than ONI.