Favorite Biome Start?

[Meteorific]

What's your favorite biome to start a new game at?

Arid Shrubland is my personal choice, not too difficult, most challenging part is the lack of growing room. I like trying to force myself to build on sand as much as possible for more room for plants. It also has my favorite tameable animal the Dromedary that anyone can tame even with 0 animal skill.

[Veylox]

Temperate forest

Rimworld doesn't offer much in the way of biome variety, it mostly boils down to "less fertility than temperate forest", which isn't exactly exciting

Boreal forest would be a close second, I like the winter aesthetic

[MadArtillery]

I play all the biomes pretty equally except Ice Sheet and Temperate Forest. Even some more unusual combinations like frozen desert. I don't think I've ever played the same biome twice in a row since my beginner days. I like how much harder the basic survival aspects of the game can be without soil, or short growing seasons, or both. Potentially with few if any animals, really can bust your balls to keep a colony alive especially since I often add in things like Meat Only or Plant Only genes from mods. One of these days I'll get around to Ice Sheet too, can't imagine anything more boring then temperate and usually stop playing those colonies early hence me avoiding it now.

Can't say I have a particular favorite Biome though I do lean towards colder rather then warmer preference wise. Maybe it just feels homier having snow.

[Jaggid Edje]

I don't really have a favorite. I just like to mix it up so that the visual aesthetics aren't the same on every playthrough. I like variety.

[Chuck]

usually temperate forest because its easy, but boreal forests are nice to look at. I tell myself i want to do other biomes but i always end up settling for temperate forests, the locations are always nicer anyway.

biome choice matters to me a lot less than features. I always settle near a major road or ancient highway, and generally large hills for most colonies, mountain for mechanitor colonies. If i can get lucky ill have useful lakes that can be used as defensive points (deep water is basically a wall you can shoot over, great point for uranium slug cannons and autocannons), but that cant necessarily be relied upon. That being said, i have a lot of different colonies i want to run, i think my next one is going to be a slaver colony in a boreal forest, but currently im a tribe near the ocean, which is definitely new for me. I guess i just dont need to defend my southern flank now because i dont think things are spawning in the water down there.

[Vermillion Cardinal]

Mostly the colder biomes. I'm very partial towards harsh and snowy subzero landscapes, having to prepare for winters during short growth periods, and (at the start, at least) surviving on little. I started with boreal forests, moved on to tundras, glacial shields, and since Anomaly I've started on high rainfall ice sheets where I've intentionally rolled for the coldest spots on the planet; it trivializes a good handful of raids when cultists and the like freeze to death doing their stuff, but it also makes it hard to rescue or send off rescuees without preparing strategically-located shelters, and the few caravans just take a look and turn tail because literally nothing can protect them against a -121c winter.

I'm unlikely to start with sea ice purely because I'm not masochistic enough for that kind of survival challenge and would rather have base building in a reasonable amount of time instead of cannibalizing whoever comes over.

I'd take temperate forests or jungles if I'm avoiding the cold.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Veylox:

Temperate forest

Seconding temperate forest.

I don't know if I just play the game differently than most people, but space is a big concern for me when it comes to base building. I play on the largest map size and am still usually encroaching on the sides of the map. I can imagine version of rimworld where building restrictions are fun to play around, but it's not what currently exists. Mud and marsh getting in the way would be forgivable if I knew I could just keep panning left, but I can't.

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by Chuck:

usually temperate forest because its easy, but boreal forests are nice to look at. I tell myself i want to do other biomes but i always end up settling for temperate forests, the locations are always nicer anyway.

biome choice matters to me a lot less than features. I always settle near a major road or ancient highway, and generally large hills for most colonies, mountain for mechanitor colonies. If i can get lucky ill have useful lakes that can be used as defensive points (deep water is basically a wall you can shoot over, great point for uranium slug cannons and autocannons), but that cant necessarily be relied upon. That being said, i have a lot of different colonies i want to run, i think my next one is going to be a slaver colony in a boreal forest, but currently im a tribe near the ocean, which is definitely new for me. I guess i just dont need to defend my southern flank now because i dont think things are spawning in the water down there.

Major features are a good point, I always settle near a road, preferably a good one to make caravaning less annoying. You are wrong about things spawning in the water though as of 1.5

[Chuck]

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

Major features are a good point, I always settle near a road, preferably a good one to make caravaning less annoying. You are wrong about things spawning in the water though as of 1.5

how does that work? Can all threats spawn in the deep water or only certain kinds? Will it just spawn on the coast that people can walk on? I started building stuff right against the beach because i thought if i cant walk on deep water neither can anything else.

[MadArtillery]

Originally posted by Chuck:

Originally posted by MadArtillery:

Major features are a good point, I always settle near a road, preferably a good one to make caravaning less annoying. You are wrong about things spawning in the water though as of 1.5

how does that work? Can all threats spawn in the deep water or only certain kinds? Will it just spawn on the coast that people can walk on? I started building stuff right against the beach because i thought if i cant walk on deep water neither can anything else.

Aquatic Mechanoids

[Chuck]

looks like ill be playing a different colony now. So much for my druid tribe.

[Kittenpox]

I'm very much fond of the Boreal Forest, but for starting out I prefer Temperate Forest.
Like, I've done enough early-game that I'm not looking for the challenge there anymore; and starting in a desert only slows down my ability to get to the part of the game I enjoy.

So more often than not, I start in the easy biome then later find an excuse to migrate to a new location. I do it the same way as I do my fluid Ideoligion - whenever it would make sense in my colony's story for something to happen, then I will do the gameplay steps to reflect that.

[HidesHisFace]

I've been playing on several and I must say... Most of them do not differ that much in the end - it is mostly the initial abundance of resources that changes, before you become self-sufficient.

Tundra is fun and challenging in a way that you need to gather enough food or make a greenhouse before the short growing period ends.
But after that... it is not much different than anything else.

Desert is the same thing, except your issue is heat instead of cold, and crop space instead of growing period.

Temperate forest and Arid Shrubland are honestly the most optimal for the most part. Decent amount of resources, not too frustrating.

I have also found tropical rainforest to be hilariously fun IF you are sustaining yourself mostly from hunting, foraging and woodwork.
If you limit yourself to wooden structures only, every wildfire becomes... fairly exciting out there, especially when most of your colony is also struck with malaria.

[BoxingBud]

I try to go for lots of mountain year-round growing, I just love caves for free building shelter. Once you're ready for any nasty surprises it's still worth it. Also fire proof and I like making my planets stormy/rainy.

[Steelfleece]

I'm fond of deserts. Not so much extreme deserts because they lack even more when it comes to animals and cacti, but still doable. I'll also sometimes do tundra/boreal forest. Tend to rely a bit more on scavenging in that case. For some reason, I did these in older times as a minor challenge and got so used to such environs I just no longer like more temperate and tropical climates.

Either way, I do like a mountainous area. Usually use map designer to set up for a canyon and then pick a hex with a road running through it, tilting said canyon to match the road. Then I cross my fingers and hope for a box canyon off to one side or maybe a nice, undefended ruin to fix up temporarily.

[SkeL]

I like Boreal Forests. The trees are nice, the winter... the cold not so much.