DLCs make the game too complex

[Plutoski]

this may sound weird because we all love DLCs that are feature rich, but honestly... i feel like rimworld's DLC adds too much complexity & too many game mechanics.

despite me playing several playthroughs with royalty & ideology DLC i still can't understand them fully because i think they're too complex & add lot of layers (royalty is a bit more straightforward & easier to understand). now that biotech is out, it is by far the most complex dlc due to how much stuff it adds. lot of stuff to learn & master it's a intimidating, whether it's the understanding of new mechanics, buildings, or pawns & their new traits etc. i avoid that stuff all together. one can read the first words i said & reply "just disable dlcs problem solved" but this is more of rant/honest opinion because the DLC are great i just think they're bloated or maybe lack tutorial.

[Grimwulf]

You make a good point tbh. I've been playing RW since 2017 and all those mods and DLC's were just added layers to the game that I already knew. I can see how intimidating it might appear for someone who just purchased the whole DLC pack and launched the game for the first time.

Maybe a warning upon launching the game for the first time would be in order. When Darkest Dungeon released Crimson Court DLC, you could purchase and install it, but it would be turned off by default. And if you tried to enable it in the game, you'd see a warning telling you that this DLC will add a whole new layer that will make the game more complex, and is *not* recommended for players who are just starting out.

That said, I don't think *too* many people are jumping in RW with no prior knowledge of the game. Maybe they seen some YTber playing it, maybe they played it many years ago, before any DLC was released. They will prob be fine with all those new-ish mechanics.

[The Yeen Queen]

Meanwhile most of us are out here playing with literally hundreds of mods that add WAY more complexity than all the DLC combined. Some mods do that just on their own. XD

[Dyspeptic Icarus]

I have to agree. I used to play rimworld a lot. Now I find myself, struggling to even get a colony started up.

With all the DLC, there's so much I need to account for, to balance for, to setup for future acquisitions.

A lot of the DLC is add-ons; pseudo-mods. They don't mesh well with previous content.

I love all of it, but now it just feels like too much.

[The Yeen Queen]

What about them doesn't "mesh well" with previous content and how? Serious question...

[whatamidoing]

Most mechanics added by the DLC can be taken one at a time, right? The only one I can think of that could present some immediate concern would be ideology.

[failsafe]

When I've purchased Ideology I was all on buying Royalty too... but after playing with Ideology for a while I got a feeling that I dont want this game to be more complex. So I never purchased any other DLC.

On the other hand I always try to underline that I consider devs policy as very honest. Compared to Paradox never ending story of paying and paying again for basic content we get really good and very full game here - all DLCs are more like small mini games. They change quite a lot. I like that I dont need to spend 500 EUR on every available DLC to have very playable game and that I can fully enjoy base game without further investments.

Though... Ideology is cool... some day I will buy Royalty. Biotech... not really, it changes game too much for me, and not in the direction I like.

[XelNigma]

I remember launching ideology the first time. It was a lot to take in.
But with all things, once you know you know and it's not so complex any more.

It is a good reason for new players to start with the base and and slowly move into the dlcs and not jump right into the deep end.

[Astasia]

It just sounds like you jumped into them too quickly. As whatamidoing said, most of the mechanics in the DLCs are optional, you don't have understand all of it at the same time, pick one aspect to play around with at a time to learn and master and then move on. If "overwhelming options" are your issue here, disable one or two of the DLCs at a time and focus on learning things from one of them. The important thing to note though, with all DLCs enabled you can still functionally mimic "vanilla" gameplay, with only a few incursions to the formula like mech clusters (which can even be disabled in the scenerio) and a few xenohuman spawns. It's all so modular that you can disable it in the world settings or ignore it in game if you don't want to interact with it. The DLC has not made vanilla more complex, it has added extra side complexity that you can tune to the degree you want.

I think being able to layer all that optional complexity is great, Royalty bionics and psycasting stacked on Ideology precept/role bonuses stacked on Biotech genes and child rearing, you can do some really fun stuff once you get the hang of it. Overall though, it's still pretty light compared to the heavily modded game many of use play. Take the three DLC, add in 200 mods, now we are talking about delicious complexity.

[hardy_conrad]

I feel like this is expressing something I've wanted to say but didn't know how. I bought the biotech dlc because it added kids, and that's plenty. There's already so much going on just with the one thing, more would surely threaten to be overwhelming. Game is too well made for its own good, heh.

[Veylox]

Disagreed, there's a reason there are daily complaints about DLC pricing, and it's the relative lack of content each DLC brings. I'd say Ideology can make the game VERY complex for a few runs, because there's a lot to wrap your head around, but it's mostly changes to rules rather than "content added"


If you can learn the base game and it's dozens of menus, I don't really see how Biotech can look like an impossible task.

If given the choice, I'd rather have DLCs with either even more mechanics, or more refined ones.

[hardy_conrad]

There comes a point where you think, why not just make a sequel? The idea of a Rimworld 2 is something to really get excited about after all.

[Shira]

literally a skill issue

[Plutoski]

Originally posted by hardy_conrad:

I feel like this is expressing something I've wanted to say but didn't know how. I bought the biotech dlc because it added kids, and that's plenty. There's already so much going on just with the one thing, more would surely threaten to be overwhelming. Game is too well made for its own good, heh.

glad im not alone!

[Dyspeptic Icarus]

Originally posted by Night Foxx:

What about them doesn't "mesh well" with previous content and how? Serious question...

Quite a lot, but it's nuanced. For example, Ideology and its UI for example is very different than standard rimworld interfaces.

Biotech, had a lot, and the moment you turned it on; you had a completely different experience. Akin from swapping from minecraft to a 50 mod-pack minecraft that adds magic, and nuclear reactors.

The first DLC, Royalty, was probably the best one; it meshed extremely well, and even with it enabled you could ignore most of the stuff it added.

The other two, you can't seamlessly transition into the mod. For example mechinators, has base requirements that require a fresh game typically. And if you have it enabled it pops up on every starter map intruding on normal play, and potentially ruining a normal progression if you don't know what that cool-ass ruins, and quest, that's obvious af on the map, does.

[Hykal]

To be fair to OP, it did take me a long while to finally get into the gene modding. Mechanoids and kids came to me rather naturally so it all depends on what people want to get into.