I love rimworld, I'm happy to buy more or less any reasonable DLC for such a great game, but I'm putting this as negative because at this point in time I'm not happy with the DLC and I'd like people to see what the honest criticisms are. The free update content from 1.1 is excellent however, and I appreciate the work put into both immensely.

First problem is what I mentally refer to as the modder's complex. Rimworld has such good modding support that it's genuinely difficult to work on an idea that modders haven't already done. Whether or not they do it badly, I can see why a dev wouldn't want to put out "copycat" content.

This leads to the second problem: The mod doesn't quite... fit the lore. An interstellar empire zipping to and from the surface in shuttles shakes the lore foundation behind why your people are stuck on the planet. Why do you need to go to incredible lengths to build a ship to escape when minor nobles are zipping around constantly. Surely one disgraced noble would consider starting a taxi service to get out of gambling debt. It also doesn't quite jive with the relatively unexplained phenomenon of ships constantly crashing on the surface because it makes the planet appear significantly safer to travel around. There's a vague attempt to address this with nobles being discriminatory towards your colonists, however...

The third problem: The mod doesn't feel well playtested. The discrimination that's hinted at doesn't hold water when it's so easy to become a noble yourself. My first low tier noble title came from killing a raccoon on day 2 for a quest. My little wooden hut had a minor noble with a psionic ability. In general, the noble quests come too often, and they start way too early. It would make more sense if the quests didn't start until you hit a wealth threshold, of being at least a little worthy of the noble's attention.

Hopefully the balancing will get ironed out in the long run, lore qualms aside it's certainly adding a new dimension to the game. The actual psionic abilities that have been added, as well as the new artifacts, are a lot of fun for sure though.

I love rimworld, I'm happy to buy more or less any reasonable DLC for such a great game, but I'm putting this as negative because at this point in time I'm not happy with the DLC and I'd like people to see what the honest criticisms are. The free update content from 1.1 is excellent however, and I appreciate the work put into both immensely. First problem is what I mentally refer to as the modder's complex. Rimworld has such good modding support that it's genuinely difficult to work on an idea that modders haven't already done. Whether or not they do it badly, I can see why a dev wouldn't want to put out "copycat" content. This leads to the second problem: The mod doesn't quite... fit the lore. An interstellar empire zipping to and from the surface in shuttles shakes the lore foundation behind why your people are stuck on the planet. Why do you need to go to incredible lengths to build a ship to escape when minor nobles are zipping around constantly. Surely one disgraced noble would consider starting a taxi service to get out of gambling debt. It also doesn't quite jive with the relatively unexplained phenomenon of ships constantly crashing on the surface because it makes the planet appear significantly safer to travel around. There's a vague attempt to address this with nobles being discriminatory towards your colonists, however... The third problem: The mod doesn't feel well playtested. The discrimination that's hinted at doesn't hold water when it's so easy to become a noble yourself. My first low tier noble title came from killing a raccoon on day 2 for a quest. My little wooden hut had a minor noble with a psionic ability. In general, the noble quests come too often, and they start way too early. It would make more sense if the quests didn't start until you hit a wealth threshold, of being at least a little worthy of the noble's attention. Hopefully the balancing will get ironed out in the long run, lore qualms aside it's certainly adding a new dimension to the game. The actual psionic abilities that have been added, as well as the new artifacts, are a lot of fun for sure though.