RimWorld or Dwarf fortress for colony sim newbie?

[Misa]

I never played colony sim but it seems like a genre that could potentially be interesting to me, which game would you recommend me between two and why?

I find Rimworld to look prettier but saw that it is inspired by DF and that game is also cheaper.

[Robo]

Rimworld. In my opinion, it's a baby's first step into Colony sims, and it features many systems to cater to each user's needs, mods included. The latter is arguably the reason why RimWorld had managed to become the prince of colony sims as Dwarf Fortress barely featured custom difficulties and more extensive modding support up until the Steam release.

If you like fantasy or especially are unbothered by complexity, then I suggest Dwarf Fortress.

[whatamidoing]

As a former DF player, just get Rimworld. DF is, primarily, a world generator.

[Haidenthal]

Just for the mods alone get Rimworld. It can be anything you want.

[Aven]

I could never get into DF. There just isn’t enough visual feedback, and important information feels buried, at least to my novice eyes.

Rimworld has a learning curve, but it’s better paced and doesn’t feel like you need to seek out guides in order to progress.

[pauloandrade224]

Rimworld for sure.

Although DF steam edition is so fun too

[corisai]

You will start with Rimworld and end with Dwarf Fortress like the most of players.

[whatamidoing]

Originally posted by corisai:

You will start with Rimworld and end with Dwarf Fortress like the most of players.

I went the other way, and Rimworld maintains a higher playerbase.

[corisai]

Originally posted by whatamidoing:

I went the other way, and Rimworld maintains a higher playerbase.

Yes, lack of ability to make elf-skin clothes is a big downside of DF :P

But seriously it depend on scale you want to see. Rimworld is great for small scale - a story about a few dozen of people you will remember for a while. If you want something bigger - sadly Rimworld engine is very poorly optimized (compared with DF) and unable to hold colony population of few hundreds.

UPD. And honestly it all because of mods. IMHO vanila Rimworld even with all DLC <<< Dwarf Fortress.

[Dr. Uncredible]

I´d say Rimworld is the easier one to pick up and a pretty good preparation for DF later down the line, and Hel, you might end up staying, I kinda did, I keep meaning to take up DF, but the time I would spend learning DF is time I could spend manifesting a new, strange themed colony.
I have like three ideas for new colonies I wanna run once I´m done with my current one, which is going to take me ages to complete!

[Astasia]

DF remains a dated niche game, while games like RimWorld took inspiration from it to make something more modern and playable. The attempts to bring DF into a more modern gaming scene were valiant, and it released to a surprising amount of attention, but this was mostly nostalgia fueled and the player numbers have dropped off massively in just a few months. DF is a game that some will enjoy or even prefer, but it's tuned to more specific tastes. RimWorld has much more widespread appeal and better modding support expanding that even further, anyone could probably turn RimWorld into something they enjoy immensely using ingame settings or mods, if they are at all interest in colony sims to begin with.

[Veylox]

Rimworld all the way. It's definitely inspired by DF, but not worse than it. While DF has some features that Rimworld doesn't and vice-versa, some of the improvements from Rimworld are so huge, especially for new players when it comes to QoL, menu navigation, information display, that DF feels antiquated by comparison. You'll have no clue what you're doing or what's happening or where you should even start to do the simplest things in DF, while Rimworld has actual, sufferable menus and you can get going after a few tutorials.

[whatamidoing]

Originally posted by Veylox:

Rimworld all the way. It's definitely inspired by DF, but not worse than it. While DF has some features that Rimworld doesn't and vice-versa, some of the improvements from Rimworld are so huge, especially for new players when it comes to QoL, menu navigation, information display, that DF feels antiquated by comparison. You'll have no clue what you're doing or what's happening or where you should even start to do the simplest things in DF, while Rimworld has actual, sufferable menus and you can get going after a few tutorials.

And once you learn DF's UI, the game is actually painfully easy unless you self-impose some strange restriction. More goes in to keeping people healthy, happy, and not-dead in Rimworld than in DF. DF generates a remarkable amount of information and stats, but the vast majority of it is irrelevant to the actual game and pretty mundane after the first fort or two.

[Robo]

Originally posted by corisai:

Originally posted by whatamidoing:

I went the other way, and Rimworld maintains a higher playerbase.

Yes, lack of ability to make elf-skin clothes is a big downside of DF :P

But seriously it depend on scale you want to see. Rimworld is great for small scale - a story about a few dozen of people you will remember for a while. If you want something bigger - sadly Rimworld engine is very poorly optimized (compared with DF) and unable to hold colony population of few hundreds.

UPD. And honestly it all because of mods. IMHO vanila Rimworld even with all DLC <<< Dwarf Fortress.

Some people here have managed to run colonies of 50+ or more with moderate TPS loss. Not a lot to Dwarf Fortress standards, but still a lot nonetheless. Despite that, RimWorld at its core is a game where like you said, is a story of a few dozen people. It's by nature designed to be more intimate and less complex than its predecessor.

While it's great to see that you enjoy Dwarf Fortress, the reality is that the game will only suit a niche community. It's the same way with Stellaris, many people know about Stellaris but never played or heard of Distant Worlds or the X series due to their complexity. That being said, RimWorld would be an all around better game if it featured history generation and other improvements.

[VoiD]

DF is carried, hard by clout, it's very, very simple, and you'll find that you'll be doing the exact same thing every game, and there aren't a lot of things to worry about, setting up a basic needs (food and drink) is extremely easy, the economy doesn't exist, most things cost a single resource, there's nothing of real value to trade, etc...

If it wasn't for possibly the worst UI in the history of gamming I'd actually recommend it to new players as you could probably learn the whole game less than one hour, but since the UI is what it is, you'll have to dig up a lot of information from outside sources like their wiki. Besides, half the game doesn't work and the other half is bugged.

So I'd also vote for rimworld, do keep in mind the game's rather brutal and the difficulty is off the ceiling compared to DF, you'll never be safe by abusing the fact that walls can't be destroyed, or a single drawbridge can negate any and every challenge in the game like in DF, in fact, even if you try, you'll quickly find out the AI can siege you with artillery, dig through your walls, or even land inside your base from above, if you don't mind losing you'll find out it's a great game.

Not that the vanilla UI is something I'd call good either, but there is no comparisson, at least it works. And I don't think I've ever encountered any major bugs playing RW, at worst I'd get a minor one once in a year, and it's more often a mod issue than an actual game bug.

The world generation in RW is a lot simpler, but at least you can actually interact with it, traveling around, getting attacked by bandits, doing missions outside of your base, attacking encampments, forming trading caravans, etc..

Edit: Not that I think there's a reason for a newbie to not play Rimworld, many people have started with this game and today play on the highest difficulties without much of an issue, knowing pretty much everything about the game, but there are other options out there as well, Stonehearth is pretty cool, a little bugged, and quite simple, going medieval is turning into a pretty nice game with a medieval theme, songs of syx is better for people who prefer a bigger scale with thousands of citizens and races with specific preferences, etc... There are quite a few nice colony builders out there, they may not have the massive ammount of content you'll see in RW (multiply that over tenfold if you add mods) but most of them can keep you entertained for 100+ hours.

[Bouncer]

Originally posted by VoiD:

So I'd also vote for rimworld, do keep in mind the game's rather brutal and the difficulty is off the ceiling compared to DF, you'll never be safe by abusing the fact that walls can't be destroyed, or a single drawbridge can negate any and every challenge in the game like in DF, in fact, even if you try, you'll quickly find out the AI can siege you with artillery, dig through your walls, or even land inside your base from above, if you don't mind losing you'll find out it's a great game.

I agree with your post but this has a bit of misinformation. Rimworld's general difficulty is indeed much higher than DF, but it's also very customisable. Sieges, wall breakers, and drop pods can all be turned off. I don't think you can be 100% safe like in DF, but you can get very close.