Cortyn is currently sinking into RimWorld, enslaving children, hating men, and subjugating all with mind control. It’s a great game.
If I’m not currently sinking into World of Warcraft or imagining that I will definitely become good at Overwatch 2 one day, I enjoy spending time on pleasant single-player games where you can sink for hours and days. So exactly what’s right to fill the time between the years.
I realize that I’m a bit “late to the party” with RimWorld, as the game has been out for quite a while. Until now, I have avoided such games, but a friend convinced me to give it a chance – and that was a damn good decision.
To summarize: RimWorld is a “colony simulation.” You crash on a strange planet with a few people and have to build a camp from sparse resources, conduct research, and accumulate more possessions to perhaps one day return to the stars – or simply subjugate the whole planet. Explaining all the details would probably be way too extensive.
The Colony of Succubi
Let me tell you about my colony. As usual, I start with three colonists, clicking on “generate randomly” a few times until I have three somewhat different characters – or ones that amusingly fit well together.
May I present? My trio of women who will now make history:
- Cortyn: A woman with high intelligence (humility has always been my forte), a passion for constructing buildings, who also loves to cook but will never do menial labor or nurse someone. Also, she has the trait “Macabre.”
- Bettevere: A young woman called to artistic pursuits and with high social skills. Also, she hates men.
- Carolyn: An older woman with the drawback of being “very ugly,” but she has a great passion for medicine, a good starting skill in mining, and can also handle plants solidly.
RimWorld always starts with the three colonists crashing in a location of my choice. So I choose a somewhat habitable area and let the escape pods crash there.
The first 10 minutes of a RimWorld game are spent on the “boring” settings. I define who will be responsible for which tasks and the priority with which they should be handled. For instance, I set that fires must always be extinguished with the highest priority, closely followed by tending to the injured. After that, I create more precise priorities for the individual colonists.
- So my Cortyn should prioritize construction tasks first, focusing on cooking afterwards.
- Bettevere takes on crafting items, carries necessary materials from A to B, and takes care of cleaning.
- Carolyn should toil in the mines, cultivate the fields, and if necessary, provide medical care.
Many fine adjustments are still made:
- What food should the colonists eat?
- Should drugs be freely consumed?
- Which weapons do the individual characters use?
- What kind of medicine are they carrying?
- At what time do they sleep and when do they work?
It makes sense to set this comprehensively at the beginning, so that afterwards you can have some peace.
After the tasks are distributed, things move quickly. The materials from the crash are gathered while chopping down trees begins, so that the first house can be constructed.
- After a day, the first shelter is completed.
- On day 2, each woman has her own bed, her own room, and even light.
- On day 3, the first potato field is sown. Additionally, my colony decides that Cortyn is a good leader (of course, she is!) and they will now call themselves “Succubi.”
- On day 4, research on electricity begins and a kitchen is built.
This is how my colony slowly but surely grows and thrives. I am not doing this for the first time, so I am a bit quicker. Soon I had researched technology to store solar energy in batteries, create a cold room for food preservation, and install heaters since winter is already approaching.
Obedience through Mind Control
The tasks are well distributed, it’s “going smoothly” until I finally get a quest. I am to keep a prisoner for a nearby empire for a few days. As a reward, I receive honor and thus a title that also brings “Psy Powers. “
A few days fast-forward:
I have accepted many missions for the empire. Guarded slaves, supported important leaders during attacks, or sheltered refugees who have showered me with honor.
This gave my Cortyn various titles and also Psy Powers. This is kind of like magic in RimWorld. The Psy Powers you receive are random, but it couldn’t have gone better. Because instead of receiving some meaningful combat skills, Cortyn got abilities suitable for the leader of the Succubi:
- Word of Love: One colonist falls in love with another, which very likely leads to a relationship.
- Word of Joy: One colonist is very happy for 7 days and therefore willing to work, but during that time loses 20% consciousness.
From now on, Cortyn could simply suppress every bad mood with “magic.” Morale in the camp was kept high, but my little ruler became increasingly arrogant. She herself worked less and less, only wanted the finest food, and preferred to meditate on her throne (yes, she wanted a throne).
Or to put it another way: Cortyn became a dictatorial sole ruler who simply waved away rebellious behavior.
A runaway child was quickly taken in by the camp. Unfortunately, it was a boy and this would lead to problems with Bettevere in the long run because she hates men. So, after considering all relevant voices ( = the women), it was decided to enslave the child for now and assign him to mining and field work. At least the child had low expectations and even a passion for plants. I was almost kind.
By the way, the anti-male sentiment in the colony grew and spread to Cortyn as well. Therefore, the boy was also not given a name. He simply remained “the child” and was now on a steep career path to become the best farmer and miner – at least, if you disregard such insignificant details as “wage,” “leisure,” or “a warm bed.”
A Sudden End – When It Goes Wrong, It Goes Wrong
RimWorld is one of those games where you still learn something after dozens of hours and always discover something new. Mostly because something goes wrong spontaneously and severely. That’s how it went for me with the Succubi.
Because while my Cortyn wallowed all day on the throne in her (magically enforced) undisputed superiority, the shaping of the child happened ever faster. The continuous field work and digging in the mines brought rapid progress, so the child could soon replace adults in their areas. No one could harvest potatoes faster, and no one was better at clearing stones and mining ore.
Yet my ruler’s hunger for power posed other problems. Because with increasing strength, my Cortyn wanted also more exclusivity. A larger, more magnificent throne room that would make others pale with envy.
Good, we can work on that. So I ordered that a small mountain near the camp should be flattened. I needed space for my new throne room, so space had to be created.
The child and Carolyn set to work and kept drilling through the stone. While I was already commissioning several statues to praise Cortyn’s glory from Bettevere, suddenly the alarm sound went off, along with several messages:
- “Colonist needs rescue: Carolyn”
- “Ritual option: Burial of the child”.
What.
A bit incredulous, I paused the game, let the camera pan to the mountain, and tried to comprehend what had actually happened. The mountain that I had the two diligent miners excavating had collapsed on top of them. The child was completely crushed by the rock, and a corpse cannot be recovered. Carolyn survived the incident but is bleeding out – and was the only doctor in the camp.
Apparently, RimWorld forgot to tell me in the last 20 hours that mountains can collapse if you don’t support them enough with pillars and hollow them out from the inside. Well, in retrospect, that is quite logical, but I hadn’t known that.
Another lesson learned, and it only cost a child. Fair trade.
Especially the last DLC brought many more bizarre possibilities to RimWorld:
After a deep breath, I come to terms with the fact that the child is lost and thereby my plans to turn him into a full-fledged work slave later. At least I might save Carolyn. So I send Bettevere to rescue the old woman and tend to her.
But RimWorld wouldn’t be RimWorld if it simply allowed that. Halfway to the rescue action comes the next message: “Raid!”
Of course. Of course, I am now being attacked by 4 raiders with assault rifles and grenades, who also enter the map dangerously close to the collapsed mountain and immediately begin their attack. In my mind, I calculate whether I can still save the situation. With a bit of luck, Bettevere would reach Carolyn in time, and Cortyn would arrive there to call for reinforcements from the empire – they still owed me a favor.
But “luck” is definitely something you can’t rely on in RimWorld. Although Bettevere manages to reach Carolyn and can also pick her up, the attackers are already too close. Bullets from rifles fly around Bettevere’s ears, and she collapses just before Cortyn, instantly dead. Carolyn falls from Bettevere’s arms and bleeds out a second later at the feet of her great ruler.
For a brief moment, I still see Cortyn in a good mood, because her “Macabre” trait comes into play: “I saw a corpse today. That’s so exciting!” This increases her mood by 20 points and makes her very satisfied.
It’s probably better this way, because the next shot from the attacker’s assault rifle is a headshot and ends my little colony’s existence, into which I had poured over 20 hours.
I love this game and I equally hate it so much. A building game with random factors that create such funny, exciting, and brilliant stories, which can, on the other hand, be crushing and frustrating. I believe I will never get enough of it.
And of course, I won’t make such mistakes in my next colony … definitely.
