Rimworld Odyssey is overhauling map generation to ensure your travels feel fresh

The new Rimworld Odyssey DLC is about to transform how maps look and feel in the iconic base-building colony sim. The expansion introduces the ability to build your own gravship, opening up the ability to traverse to new lands, or even to poke up beyond the atmosphere and explore nearby satellites and asteroids. It also adds five more biomes, along with all manner of animals to be tamed, traded, or turned into snacks. In a new developer blog, Ludeon Studios explains how it's overhauling map generation to ensure that every trip looks completely different from the last.

The new Rimworld DLC promises to breathe fresh life into a long-time stalwart among our best management games. For excursions to feel worthwhile, each zone needs to offer something that feels distinct from what you've seen before. To achieve this, Ludeon has cooked up over 85 dynamic map features to spruce up proceedings, with the ability for several of them to appear on a single creation. Some among these are restricted to certain areas around the world, while others can appear anywhere at random.

The simplest example is rivers; these now come in a wider variety of shapes and sizes, and this is impacted by their position on the greater world map. Expect to run into confluences, ocean deltas, and river splits that surround islands. To further increase the possibilities, Odyssey is capable of fusing multiple biomes into one map, combining the terrain, plants, and animals of both.

This includes the new Odyssey biomes, and we get a closer look at each. Glowforests are locations where sulfur fills the skies, blocking out all sun. That means no normal crops, but you will find some rather stunning bioluminescent fungi in their place. Lava Fields are, naturally, a rather dangerous place to set up shop; the land is unstable and there's the ever-present risk of errant volcanic debris crashing down on your base. Manage to survive, however, and you'll benefit from rare ores and mineral-rich soil perfect for crop cultivation.

The Scarlands are ruins of a once-thriving city, brought low by weapons of mass destruction. "The water is poison, the rain is toxic, and scaria runs rampant among the wild animals," Ludeon writes. I'd probably steer clear, but if you're prepared to brave the old defense systems you might find valuable loot among the debris.

Similarly hostile are the Glacial Plains, where food is scarce and the cold bites with relentless fervor. This ice-age zone features prehistoric beasts such as mastodons and scimitar cats, but its greatest treasure is the frozen ruin of a lost world, home to mysterious cryptosleep caskets that seem to be pulsing with life. If that's too spooky, the Grasslands offer endless, fertile fields of gold. Sounds too good to be true? You will have to watch out for droughts, or fast-spreading wildfires, but keep those controlled and you could have a real winner on your hands.

Further enriching your adventures are dynamic weather and terrain. Shifting temperatures can see ice form over bodies of water. Torrential rains will flood nearby land, destroying crops and making life unpleasant for your colonists. That's just the start; expect sandstorms, toxic rain, strong winds, blizzards, and vision-limiting fog to cause plenty of problems. But isn't overcoming nature the true heart of Rimworld after all?

There's no word yet on the Rimworld Odyssey release date, but Ludeon promises more in-depth looks as launch closes in, with details about the gravship and space exploration next on the cards.

For now, take a look through our picks of the best city-building games and the best strategy games on PC right now if you're eager for something to keep you busy in the meantime.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.