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Wait, like...all mods? Even the multiplayer mod? how the hell does that even work?
If I recall correctly, very little of rimworld actually uses unity functionality. It's just a "seperate" game viewed through unity
That would explain why it's one of the few unity games that does not try to burn a hole into my laptop! Was always wondering how they achieved that. Usually when I see that a game uses unity, I can already guess that it won't run well on my machine
interesting! for me that's always the sign of unreal engine - fans set to max, and get prepare for input lag lol
I don't know what the other user is talking about it being a "separate game." It is heavily data-focused though. It's mostly C# code. As long as that doesn't make calls to Unity functions, it's fine, but also I'm certain they, and other mods, have. However, you can still handle this, similar to how WINE can run Windows applications without running Windows. You have a compatibility layer that routes all the calls that would have gone to Unity to your own systems that behave as close to identically as possible. If you make a call to "UnityEngine.Vector3", for example, you just create your own "UnityEngine.Vector3" that replicates the functionality.
Shocking the article left out the last surprising note on the update blog: Ludeon Studios says Rimworld isn't the only game running on the new, homemade Waylith engine. 😉
Probably because there's no details and it probably won't be out for years.
I was hoping for a new DLC announcement at least.
There are rumors it's based on the engine that Kitten Space Agency's (spiritual successor to Kerbal Space Program) devs develop. So it would be that other game.
Dean confirmed on the KSA discord that they licensed BRUTAL (the framework that KSA's engine is built upon) to Ludeon for Waylith.
Those are two games with extremely different needs...
From what I understand, BRUTAL (the thing that KSA devs made) is not a typical game engine. It's very low level and more of a set of tools and libraries to make a game and its engine with, without completely reinventing the wheel. It doesn't restrict game devs in any way and aims to give them maximum freedom (e.g. it doesn't even have a concept of a "scene" that all engines like Unity or Unreal have). Obviously this also makes it very complicated to use compared to Unity, but makes it possible to custom-tailor it to any game and use case.
This is especially important for a game like KSA that doesn't fit into Unity's model at all, but I guess it also provides some benefits for RimWorld.
Yeah, imo the term "game engine" itself has kinda evolved over the years from "framework that contains common game/renderer code" to "platform to handle the entire process of implementing a game".
It's just code in the end, so even the "full platform" option can be used as if it's just a framework, which it sounds like RimWorld was doing if it could switch engines without breaking mod support (another comment guessed LLMs were involved but IMO this goes way beyond what an LLM would handle well, as it would involve pretty much reimplementing unity's framework). Though I don't have any direct experience with Rimworld mods and how exactly they interact with the game; if they used a data-driven approach, then it could be possible to redo just that interface and keep mods working (though it would also depend on what exactly was running the mod code itself, as that part would also need to remain functional).
Way to show how it is done. If only Notch could have updated MC just fucking once without breaking every mod everytime.
I really cannot comprehend how Minecraft collected such a mod base while also being this unbearable.
So many players just end up playing old versions because mod developers cannot reliably keep up with this nonsense. The last version to have decent mod support is probably 1.21.1, and there are so many mods dead after 1.7.10, 1.6.4, or even earlier.
Some of the mods, like Better than Wolves, have it literally in their name.
It's pretty simple: Notch was never a great coder and the game never had any mod support or APIs. He didn't support the idea of mødding the game at all.
Modders literally have to decompile and reverse engineer most of the game to add mods. Only last year did they remove obfuscation so the community didn't have to make up their own naming for everything.
In 2019, not last year. In 2019 they started releasing deobfuscation mappings so that any modder can get the deobfuscated code if they want by applying the mappings. That was the big change. Last year they stopped obfuscating the code in the first place, but that didn't change anything, just removed a simple step to modding of not having to use their mappings anymore.
Designing stable interfaces is hard, they're just a smol bean $4.5T corporation.
IIRC, many, maybe most, Rimworld updates broke mods too. This one hasn't though. That's because this one seems to essentially just be a compatibility layer or something. What they must have done is routed all calls to Unity things to their own engine's alternative. At least that's my educated guess, because there's no other reasonable way this could work.
This is still amazing. I'm not diminishing that. It isn't changing the way the game functions though. It's just changing how it functions.
What a fantastic indie story RimWorld continues to be!
It seems like a good strategy to improve time-to-market by leveraging an existing engine, and then if you're successful enough then maybe you can afford to create your own.
I passed on rimworld because I didn't want to get the DLCs and I felt like the game would need them.
I've gotten some good mileage out of it with no DLCs, just wish it had layers like Dwarf Fortress, doesn't even have to be as many but it's weird that you can't at least build vertically for a few levels. I believe it's possible to pirate the DLCs as well, but I don't really know enough about pirating software safely to try that. I'm certainly not paying another $60 to get them.
Rimworld is literally one of the easiest games to pirate, especially for how expensive it is.
It's just a directory, and it's only a couple hundred megabytes compressed.
And despite all that, I still bought it in the end. All of it. It's just that good.
And here I am, a living Rimworld commercial. And all because I pirated something.
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure they know levels would have been nice because they added them (with strong limitations). They added bunkers and caves that are below ground and have multiple layers. You can freely build them, or even freely travel through them (it acts like a new map), but they exist. Hopefully the next game they're working on has levels, if it's a colony manager, because it adds a lot more variety to how you can build things.
I pirated the whole kitten kaboodle. After playing an amount of hours that I don't like admitting to, I then bought the whole kitten kaboodle. I've since played an additional amount of hours I don't like admitting to.
I have a gaming PC that could play anything, yet I play a game with duplo block people.
It's just that good. 😗👌
Kit and caboodle
A kit - is set of objects, as in a toolkit, or what a soldier would put in his kit-bag.
A caboodle (or boodle) - is an archaic term meaning group or collection, usually of people.
Oh. Okay. I see.
I'm going to try and save face by saying I was ACTUALLY talking about the drag queen, Kitten Kaboodle.
Yep.
Face saved successfully. You rock
I choose to believe you
After playing an amount of hours that I don’t like admitting to
Fess up you coward! Lemmy wants to see your shame!
And this is only the playtime after I switched to the steam version (much easier mod management) - I'm glad I can't know how many hours I spent in the DRM-free version...
(to save anyone doing the math, that's 8 hours a day for 344 days. Yep.)
It does not need the DLCs. I have them and I play vanilla when I play
I'll echo everyone else in that you don't need them but also go further and say don't get any of them to start. The learning curve is a little steep and a vanilla play to start is a good idea. Then you can pick up some quality of life mods and whatever else floats your boat. The game is disgustingly customizable. You can get nuclear power and missiles, dropships, robots, custom furniture armor and weaponry, genetically engineered catgirls, literally anything. It's infinitely replayable with mods alone.
A lot of people are recommending Ideology specifically here, and while that would also be my own recommendation, I feel like I need to throw in a caveat.
Ideology is an entirely hit-or-miss DLC, because the entire point of most of it is giving your colony various limitations for roleplaying purposes. If you don't care about roleplaying then it's probably one of the last DLC you'd want.
Though it does come with the advantage of being the cheapest DLC.
It really doesn't and it's pretty fun and cheap. There are so many mods, like literally thousands. I personally have about 30-35 installed.
I had the DLC's bought for me but I still just play the original unless I play mp/co-op.
The only "must have" one is ideology. But even then you don't need it and could replace it with about 5 mods.