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Planning to have the first get-together on Tomorrow, June 1st at 11AM CDST to do the four episodes of Rimworld: Gymbro
Before I gave an overview about what an rimworld is and what kind of flora and fauna you could expect to see, but what about potential allies and enemies? After all, rimworlds are sparsely populated, but your crashlanded colonists are never alone where they end up. So let's get into the factions that a planet can generate with in Rimworld.
(We! Are!) Ordinary People
Most factions in Rimworld break into tribes, outlander unions, and pirates. Tribes are at a low tech-level, and might be able to trace their ancestry back to people who originally came to the planet centuries ago. Outlander unions are more recent arrivals, and tend to have technology at around an industrial level, as they've been working to try to preserve what tech they can that they arrived with. Pirates are... well... pirates. They have technology that they've scavenged and raided for.
Tribes and outlander unions can range from relatively peaceful, more rough and hostile but able to be won over, and permanently hostile. Pirates are always permanently hostile. The Ideology DLC and Biotech DLC throw in some additional variants that will change the faction's belief system or provide a version with a specific kind of gene-altered "xenohuman," but they still fit into one of the previous diplomatic categories.
Factions of these types are primarily there for trading and raiding. Neutral or allied factions will occasionally send caravans to your colony to trade various resources. Hostile ones will send raids periodically to try to steal your valuables or kidnap your colonists. Quests you get may also be tied to a given faction.
The Shattered Empire
Part of the Royalty DLC, the Empire are a remnant of a multi-planet feudal... well... empire. They may not have complete control of the planet, but they'll sure act like they're in charge. They're a shadow of their former selves, but they still have plenty of working hypertech that they're quick to flaunt.
Do quests for them and you can acquire noble titles for your colonists, which comes with the privilege of being granted psychic powers as part of the deal. Ascend the ladder of nobility high enough and build a resplendent enough colony to entertain very important and high-ranking guests, and you can even potentially score a way off the planet just by impressing a noble enough to decide you're cool enough to hang out on the Imperial flotilla.
Of course, you may decide that you don't like the Empire. Working with defectors to get your psychic power tech "illegally" is also a viable path, though getting raided by Imperial Cataphracts is no joke if you decide to make an enemy of the highest-tech faction on the whole planet.
The Mechanoid Hive
Mechanoids are not AI per se, or at least not the fully sapient AI that you find on starships. What they are, however, is autonomous war machines that can self-maintain for thousands of years, and a hive of them can be scattered across the your rimworld's surface, either found when you crack open ancient ruins or sometimes raiding your colony directly. Because whatever civilization and purpose they may have served in the past, one thing right now is clear: This mech hive is hostile to any humans they come across, and will try to crush, slice, light aflame, or otherwise exterminate them.
That said, not all mechanoids are of the hive. If you have the Biotech DLC, you can create helpful mechanoids under your colony's control that can help with tasks around the colony, or in combat. Just be careful to keep the tech required to control them up to snuff, or else the local hive may "adopt" them and turn them against you. Not that your glorified roomba is going to be much of a threat, but if you lose control of a bunch of siege-breaker bots... ouch.
The Insectoids
"There was an old lady who swallowed a fly..." One day, some brilliant individuals came across the insectoid creatures of the planet Sorne, and they decided to capture, gene-mod, and vat-grow the things as a bioweapon to use to fight mechanoid incursions. It went about as well as could be expected. And now there's potentially a population of them on your planet.
Insectoid infestations are a nasty business, the critters digging up from below ground and establishing hives that spawn more insectoids. And that origin point could be over in the set of ruins you weren't doing anything with, but they could also appear in the mine you've been digging out. Or the middle of your rec room. Or prison. Or hospital.
While most insectoids are hostile, however, they're still ultimately animals, and so technically able to be tamed. Megascarabs (far left image), can sometimes be found in desert habits, outside of infestations, and aren't hostile. Others are a bit more of a dicey prospect to tame, as you'll need to hope that trying to patch up a member of an infestation that's been injured won't be followed by it instantly trying to eat your face instead of being grateful. Still, they're hardy critters that can handle toxic environments, so there's some appeal in trying to get on their good side.
At least one part did work. If you've got mechanoids and an insectoid infestation on the same map, they're as hostile to each other as you. Some players can get one problem to solve the other.
The Ancients
There's ruins all over rimworlds, from civilizations that have fallen. You can find wrecked vehicles, old structures and furniture, and every once and a while, you can find something more intact. Crack open these "ancient dangers" and fight any lingering mechanoids (or insectoids who have decided to make their home there) and you might find resources or technology that was hidden away there.
You might also find people. People put themselves into stasis all the time for one reason or another, and so you might find high-tech caskets that you can crack open to find people who've been sitting there for ages, waiting for their time to come out. They may have advanced equipment from times past, or even cybernetic implants.
Some aren't too happy about the rude awakening and will attack you, but others are more neutral, not about to act out and instead just disoriented. Or sometimes something went wrong in the stasis pod over the ages, and you open it to find a corpse. It's always a roll of the dice.
The Unaffiliated
Some people you encounter aren't tied to any faction. They may be refugees who come looking to you for aid, wandering strangers who come to your aid, merchant ships who fly close enough to the planet for you to call out to them and trade a few goods, or people who, much your starting colonists, suddenly crash down by your colony and you can chose to rescue and tend to.
You might even meet someone who's basically gone feral and started living with the local animals (or one of your colonists might have had enough and decided to take their chances with the wildlife), or, if you have the Anomaly DLC, encounter cultists who've allied themselves with the interdimensional horrors and torment your colony on said horrors' behalf.
Never a dull moment!
See you tomorrow everyone. Right before we dive into Gymbro, I'll release one one blog, taking a look at the stars of the show, your colonists, or as they're often called in-game, your pawns.
