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Well. Thematically it is a Z Level.
It is in all Likelihood an Instanced Map when Viewed from the Technical Viewpoint.
But this Instanced Map is Supposed to Represent a Z-Level which is Located Below Your Base.
Nobody really knows yet.
The General Assumption. (Which I Share) is that it will likely simply be an Instanced Map.
Which will only be Special in the Sense that You can go There from a Fixed Point on Your Map rather than moving over the World Map.
But as to that being True. Nobody knows yet.
I have not seen any Official Confirmation on how exactly this will Work yet.
And from the Descriptions and Screenshots we cannot tell wether it will be an Different Map Instance or a Part of the Main Map.
Z levels would honestly be ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing.
I'm just not seeing it happening anytime soon tho :(
I don't even want dwarf fortress levels of z levels. I just want 2. One 2nd floor and 1 underground floor. I don't want complex ground and digging mechanics. I don't need pits or actual quarries and fluid mechanics. Just give me an underground floor so I can build an underground base and a 2nd floor so I can build simple guard towers.
Doesn't need to be overcomplicated or super realistic like dwarf fortress attempts.
Which is why I specifically specified ""But this Instanced Map is Supposed to Represent a Z-Level which is Located Below Your Base.""
And No. These Points You mentioned are actually not Z Levels. They are Z-Axis Movements which happen within the only available Level of the Game.
Well. Funny enough I actually think it would not be that Difficult to Add.
Many Mods do actually do already Add Pseudo Z-Levels.
By having Buildings which are Introducing a Second Level which can be Up or Down.
(2nd Floor. Or Open Pit Quarry etc)
The thing is. Right now these are only Pseudo Z-Levels because they are still on the same Existing Level and dont create any additional level. They only make it look like someone is on a different Z-Level.
But overall this would not be so Difficult to Add.
One very Simple Option Would be to Add a Double Map.
Adding a Second Entire Map onto to the South Side of the Main Map.
This Second Map is a 1 to 1 Representation of the Existing Main Map. But Underground.
And upon Creating an Entrance. Both Entrances will be at the Same Position in Both of these Maps.
Then Add an Hotkey which Allows You to Jump up and down between those two Maps while the Game Remembers your Position on your Respective Map and puts you on the same Position in the other Respective Map.
I assume the Reason they dont do this. Is mostly because it would be quite a bit of Work.
And also because it would effectivel Enlarge the Map Tremendously.
Which may cause Performance Issues and also mess up the Tile Economy that Tynan wants to Preserve. Because You could Suddenly have Large Underground Storage Rooms ^^
It is not simply adding a third dimension to the game, it's not how it works. You have to rewrite everything that relies on there only being two dimensions, which is the entirety of the game.
While z-level would be really cool, I don't see it happening, not now or in the future. We will, likely, be able to get approximations of z-level that is to say, the ability to have several layers of a map that you can switch between - that is entirely possible.
This would work for an underground map but not for a 2nd layer map to enable guard towers for example.
I'd still take it tho
Z levels mod kind of already does this but generates it on a whole new colony map instead.
Since most of the underground layer would be empty or just rock and inaccessible, I don't think it would cause much performance problems at all. Pathfinding wouldn't be effected much since the only part of the map that needs calculating is the part that is dug into, which at the start of the game would be practically nothing. Maybe add a few hidden chambers for insect nests or something but even those would be small contained spaces which would require no significant pathfinding.
I mean yes but also no? We already have deep drills and deep scanners that provide infinite resources. Arguably a Z level of finite resources underground is a lot more realistic than the deep drill mechanic and would actually be MORE balanced since you'd actually have to dig and mine for the stuff rather than the stuff appearing magically at the surface once a deep drill is used.
I'd love to use the deep scanner to find actual resources that are hidden in the underground map. Then build a miner tunnel or something and get those resources dug out from the underground layer. Once it's empty, there will be no more resources there. Unlike vanilla currently where the deep scanner can just regenerate resources at the same location (had that happen a few times)
I viscerally hate the vanilla storage mechanics. Pre-shelf rimworld was particularily atrocious to downright insulting requiring half your base being stockpile zones.
It's not. The game is played in a 3D environment with use of a Z-axis and existing height mechanics for buildings and objects. In that sense, it has always had "z-levels" it's just limited to a single visual plane. Adding "z-levels" by itself isn't that hard, modders have done it, the issue is stability and performance. Basically every "layer" added is multiplying the size and performance drain of the map. Try playing with 5 active colonies, that's basically what a single 5 layer map could be like.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2127428910
I doubt it's ever going to happen officially now though, I think this update more or less puts a nail in that one. It wouldn't be worth the effort and they are now designing events around their own instanced mission map system to simulate it without the headaches involved.
Rimworld 2 will be a failure for the simple fact that if they move on to a new engine they will have to start from scratch and the base game will look very very content poor especially when there are no mods available and any mods would require exponentially more work since it is in 4D. WIth the average population unable to even grasp 4D concepts, finding a coder or modder for 4D is impossible. Finally, since most people believe the 4th dimension to be time, they are unable to process the fact that rimworld 4D will never release as it is time locked into infinity.
Z-levels, no.
instance maps, yes.
As I said, this mod does not actually introduce z-level as it does not introduce a third dimension. What it does introduce is layers of a map, but they're still configured on an x and y axis only.
A true Z-level world would have the ability for characters to be represented on all 3 planes, in order for that to happen you would have to completely rewrite the current game from only using two axis to using three axis.
It would also drastically change how the game would look as you can now represent it from any angle be that top down, sideways etc.
This mod does create a great illusion of z-level though and I liked it while it was maintained (because I got a dungeon layer).
Take for example a Helldiver 2. That's a 3D game which means it is represented on all three axis, however Helldiver 1 is not, it's only represented on two axis.