Here’s your interesting tidbit for today for you to puzzle on and consider; the development studio of the beloved RimWorld has taken to Twitter seeking developers that want to work with the company. Ludeon Studios is seeking both generalist developers and ‘multiplayer-focused’ developers to bring into the fold. This is interesting news in light of Zetrith’s Multiplayer mod team generally throwing their hands up in light of the recent 1.1 patch and RimWorld Royalty DLC, despite a growing swell of players looking for a way to play RimWorld with their friends.
It’s worth noting that Zetrith’s Multiplayer currently has a considerable slew of bounties that they are actively paying out to anyone with the chops to pull off certain feats; there’s a little over $1,000 that can be claimed by jumping into the GitHub fray and tackling bounties. Zetrith himself, who started the mod, disappeared on a vacation over a year ago. The community has kept his mod afloat by adding mechanics and compatibility with new patches as Ludeon has rolled them out, but it seems simply too monumental of a task with their current team.
Yet RimWorld fans have been asking for various ways to play online, and Zetrith’s Multiplayer is only one solution that users have found. Online City is a mod created by Steam Workshop user ‘Aantt’ which has had similar difficulties updating to 1.1. Online City varies from Zetrith; in Zetrith users share pawns and colonies; Online City allows you to trade and see other player-owned settlements on your planet.
The longest-running multiplayer-themed mod would be Phi that has had similar difficulties updating past version 1.0. Phi gave users a text box that they could use to chat with other players on their connected server, facilitating trade between them as well.
No one is currently entirely sure what’s up Ludeon Studio’s sleeve; it could be a component similar to these three mods which have serviced the community well enough in the past, or an entirely new mechanic that brings people together in the colony simulator.
It could also have absolutely nothing to do with RimWorld, opting instead to focus on a new IP all together that Ludeon has in their pocket. With the recent success of the surprise DLC for RimWorld, however, it seems unlikely that the studio would suddenly drop supporting the title which finally has a strong structure together to build additional content upon.
Right now, we know what seems the most plausible, but neither Ludeon nor Tynan himself are necessarily eager to speak about it just yet. Fans will just need to wait and see what comes of it.
