Some weird lore things

[Wade]

I'm thinking about buying this game, but some weird things about its lore I don't like and don't understand. This game is set into year 5000 or so, and yet people still use old rifles from the 20th century? On alien planets there are Earth animal species like deer? What is going on with this game?

[Scooby]

Next to the tutorial button at the main menu is something called "Fiction Primer". My understanding is that its a document by ludeon that explains the lore. I haven't read it myself yet but it may have the answers you are looking for.

[Chris!!]

In the lore there exists so-called "glitter worlds" which you wouldn't get to visit, but they are basically the most technologically advanced civilizations that manage to live in harmony. Other planets, which are not so fortunate are set back by technological recession, and sometimes conflict ends up adopting weapons and tools from the 20th century. You don't explore any of those planets either, they are rather the homeworlds or place of occupation for some of the humans you meet or control.

Regardless, a few of those technologies can be found in the Rimworld, the planet you will find yourself inhabitating from either crash landing or from surviving tribals. Among 20th century tech you will find technological marvels, both from 55th century and from a highly advanced lost civilization, such as cybernetics, augmentations and even a whole spaceship that serves as an optional end-game scenario to get off the planet, possibly into one of those glitter worlds.

[Castlegate]

It's a computer game. The setting is entirely fictional. Nothing about it is realistic. Not a single thing.

[Astasia]

There are no confirmed aliens in the lore, currently. Humans have not discovered FTL travel. People have very slowly spread out from earth in sub-light ships, spending hundreds or thousands of years in cryptosleep (suspension) during the journey. Planets are initially terraformed and populated by earth-like plants and animals, though there are some differences in size and capabilities, and some mutants and genetically engineered creatures in the mix. The "core" worlds have built up into advanced civilizations generally, this game takes place on a rimworld, a planet on the outer rim of where humanity has expanded. Planets out on the rim are very far away from the core so are typically on their own, societies tend to build up from scratch, and often fall. The world the game takes place on once had a civilization with highways and satellites, and some large war happened and left battlefield wreckage and pollution all over the surface. Now it's lawless, full of pirates and people who have reverted to a tribal stage, with a few communities that can mostly only put together weapons like basic pistols and assault rifles. Advanced weapons like charge rifles can still be found in some of the ruins of the old civilization, or you can make your own eventually.

Basically it's Fallout, on a distant human colony. You have the "brotherhood of steel," The Broken Empire, that still retains mostly advanced tech, powersuits, energy weapons, plasma swords, and then you have the common survivors with clubs or homemade pistols just struggling to stay alive.

[Steelfleece]

My take is that the world was terraformed at some point, but has since fallen into a post-apocalyptic situation. There are remains of prior civilization and habitation, and the tribal societies probably descend from the survivors of those. The presence of mechanoids and insectoids hints at their usage in an ancient war that's probably what ravaged the planet.

Depending on world settings which may make the planet a global desert or snowball, the terraforming may not have fully taken, either.

Most of the 'modern' to spacer age societies on the planet are either pirates who have settled down, spaceshipwrecked survivors who have started new societies, or pioneers who left a more advanced planet and spent hundreds to thousands of years in cryosleep on a STL spacecraft. Heck, some may not have known the planet's actual situation before booking their travel.

The reason modern-era weapons are used at first is because they're reliable and don't need super-high-tech factories to produce and maintain. A gunsmith with a decent workshop can assemble some of them in less than an in-game year after crashlanding. Heck, some colonies will find themselves using bows for some of their people early on because you don't even need a good workshop to make those. Benjamin Franklin would approve.

[Chivalrous Guy]

Bro. Star wars was vastly more advanced than we are (Even though it was far in the past) and even they were still using similar weapons. Not everyone had blasters. And against Jedi/Sith , OUR primitive ranged weapons were more dangerous. Simple weapons aren't obsolete just because more advanced things exist.

Earth animals are even easier. Some people brought them because its what we can most easily consume and relate with. We wiped out indigenous animals to a point and our fauna took over.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Wade:

I'm thinking about buying this game, but some weird things about its lore I don't like and don't understand. This game is set into year 5000 or so, and yet people still use old rifles from the 20th century? On alien planets there are Earth animal species like deer? What is going on with this game?

Space travel isn't instantaneous in this universe, it can take hundreds or even thousands of years (people need to go into cryosleep for the travel time). The human empire of old has fallen. Technology has regressed or advanced to varying degrees, some worlds/groups being more isolated then others.

The game takes place on a Rimworld (A world on the rim). The world is not united but is rather made up by different groups, some just try to survive, others are outlaws, we have primitive tribes, etc (all with varying degrees of technology accessible and understood).

Also, since the most standard start is a crash landing (through escape pods) for a small group of survivors. How would a group of castaways easily make modern firearms? The fact that they can even eventually work their way up to their equivalent of more modern stuff (science fiction stuff) is the weird part :P

For animal life, if you are going to colonize other worlds you tend to need to terraform them, using earth fauna and flora to establish a ecosystem (as part of the process) isn't that far fetched. But don't mistake them for perfect representation of earth fauna, just as a example, a Rimworld hamster is WAY bigger then a earth hamster (to the point of being a potential threat to a human).

[SievertChaser]

The head dev has a stated extreme aversion to aliens. All planets are terraformed, hence terrestrial and terrestrial-derived species (e.g. pseudo-neanderthals).

The game has you start with limited machining tech and never catch up fully to the industry of advanced worlds. You manufacture what you're able to scratch together in the bush, Khyber Pass gunsmith-style. Amd although the game doesn't feature ammo, logically, you wouldn't take something that you'd have trouble supplying and maintaining.

Therefore, yeah, the standard survival kit in spacecraft pods includes a plasteel helmet and what was originally, over a decade ago in alpha, directly called a Lee-Enfield and then, for some time, a Survival Rifle.

[Mr. Steel Your Rabbit]

QRD
There are different kinds of planets with different levels of development. Aliens don't exist in RimWorld and neither does Faster Than Light travel. RimWorlds are chaotic, lawless worlds. They are not colonized, they are not civilized, which is why you see varying levels of tech on there. Anyone who is on a RimWorld is on a RimWorld.

[Tinkuwu]

It's almost like gunpowder + metal object + metal tube = reliable way of hunting/defending

[Kaezeribato]

The lore of the game iteself dont understand the lore. If there is a good mod that would make for a good DLC the lore will be changed in the future like it was previously.

The game is a good "colony-sim" with lot of freedom and great mods, the lore is not what make this game good.

[fulf]

the spread of information, technology and people is inherently limited in the absence of FTL travel
you can have colonists that are generated as hundreds or thousands of years old with the implication that they've been in suspended animation e.g on a multi generational spaceship
time is a flat circle

[jodnus]

The 'lore' I think is intentionally vague with only the minimum of a back drop.

I've always felt it sort of has to be this way to allow enough room for players to leave it up to their imaginations. Afterall, one of the planks of the game is telling yourself story from the tension generated by the storyteller.