Alpha Biomes

Updated: 21/10/22

Adds multiple unique new biomes to Rimworld.

Features

Adds 12 new diverse biomes to your Rimworlds. The mod has been designed with the Alpha Animals mod in mind, although it is not a requirement.

• The Idyllic Meadows: a lush meadow of giant flowers. A super easy biome that provides tons of resources and few predators.

• The Mycotic Jungle: a warm and humid biome filled with HUGE mushrooms. Home to the Wildpod and some weird mushroom varieties of usual creatures. Very little regular wood in this biome.

• The Gelatinous Superorganism: a swampy biome that is actually the upper surface of an extraordinarily large mold-like creature. No rocks to be found, but plenty of food.

• The Tar Pits: an arid biome rich in vegetation, filled with treacherous tar pits that make movement quite difficult. Beware the Bumbledrone hives!

• The Ocular Forest: a weird transdimensional realm intruding upon our Universe. Home to strange new flora and fauna. Very little regular wood in this biome.

• The Gallatross Graveyard: an arid temperate biome, littered with the skeletal remains of ancient beasts.

• The Mechanoid Intrusion: a desolate temperate biome with mechanical ruins. Apparently an ancient mechanoid attempt at turning the planet into a megastructure. Almost no food or cultivation in this biome.

• The Propane Lakes: a frozen wasteland, colder than the most inhospitable Sea Ice, but teeming with aberrant flora and fauna.

• The Forsaken Crags: permanently clouded by a preternatural darkness, light is the most valuable commodity in this desertic landscape. Inspired by (and compatible with) the Forsakens mod.

• The Miasmic Mangrove: a dangerous tropical biome full of debilitating diseases.

• The Feralisk Infested Jungle: a warm, wet biome with incredibly dense vegetation, filled to the brink with extremely dangerous predatory spiders.

• The Pyroclastic Conflagration: a volcanic expanse of unrelenting and brutal nature. Fire and lava are both your worst enemy and your best friend in this biome.

The biomes have been tweaked so they don't take too much space in the world map (if they do, use mod options), and you might have to generate a planet again if some biome is not appearing, since they have different temperature and humidity characteristics.

Odyssey content

All Odyssey content added by the mod is detailed in this design doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X5MoonNnLnJzmQ7ILkUagm4raTXXTYdrTrSZCALSieY/edit?usp=sharing

Issues

Balance is obviously always a concern, although it has been playtested. Feel free to tell me if you think something is too wacky.

FAQ

Q. Can this be added mid-save?

A: Why? You need to generate a planet, so adding the mod mid-save won't do anything useful!

Exception to this: using it with SoS 2, which DOES generate new planets

Q. X biome doesn't have Y resource! Is this intentional?

A: Usually, it is! Mycotic Jungle and Ocular Forest have very little wood, so tribal is hard there. Gelatinous Superorganism has low wood, no rock, but everything is edible. Mechanoid Intrusion has almost no food at all. These biomes are supposed to be different and challenging, and you'll need to develop new strategies to survive. I read in Reddit about someone who had hundreds of hours in this game and had never used a caravan. He couldn't play like that in these biomes.

Q. Where are the buildings added by this mod?

A: Furniture -> Biome buildings

Plans for the future

Maybe more, who knows

Compatibility

Compatible with any other biome mod Compatible natively with these animal mods: Alpha Animals (obviously), Alpha Mythology, Dinosauria, Megafauna, Vanilla Animals Expanded Compatible with Rim of Madness - Bones Compatible with Vanilla Fishing Expanded (adds 19 new fish) Compatible with Fish Industry Compatible with Forsakens Compatible with Camouflage and Stealth Compatible with Fertile Fields Compatible with Empire

Mods that modify the way the world is generated MAY cause some weird results. Use at your own risk.

Incompatibility reports

People have reported incompatibilities with:

• Terra Project

• Configurable Maps

• Extra Stone

• Map Designer With Dub's Bad Hygiene, pawns will try to wash themselves and drink in liquid propane and lava. This is purely visual

• Better Map Sizes:

There is a compatibility patch here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3687500723

Credit

Bone planet: Hyptosis https://opengameart.org/content/bone-planet Some sounds by Mike Koenig at http://soundbible.com Alien planet sound modified from Speedenza: https://freesound.org/people/Speedenza/sounds/198532/

License, or something

I don't like retextures. If you retexture my mods I reserve the right to change the file paths of the image at random intervals, messing up your mod.

Changelog

Full changelogs on GitHub