RimWorld is a classic in the city simulation genre, but it would be so much better with a few small changes.

RimWorld can be a lot of fun, whether you’re making a mechanoid army or trying to avoid Randy Random’s plans. Every time you start a new game, a new story is ready to be told. For example, the sad end of a thriving space station or the surprising strength of a Neolithic tribe. Even though RimWorld has a lot going for it, that doesn’t mean that some parts can’t be made better.

RimWorld could take the next step into the stars with things like more quality-of-life tools and more ways to play. Of course, mods can fill in the blanks, but then you run into problems with quality differences and bugs that ruin the game. The fact that updates and DLCs keep coming out is a good sign that more official RimWorld material is on the way.

More Weapon Options

Because so many bloodthirsty raiders attack your village, fighting is an unavoidable part of life on the Rim. You can use everything from simple clubs to future charge lances as weapons in RimWorld. Still, the game would be better if there were more things to do.

Most weapons have clear pros and cons, so based on your tech level, they fill different roles. For example, bolt-action rifles are replaced by sniper rifles, which are then replaced by the charge lance. More weapons could give you more choices in each fight, and you wouldn’t have to use the same progression of weapons every time you played.

Z-Axis Building

RimWorld has a pretty solid building system that lets you make all the things you need to live in a city. Roofs, floors, and even smoothing out rough surfaces are all part of the job. But one big thing the game is missing is the option to build with more than one floor. You can dig deep into a rock, but the X- and Y-axes will always stay the same.

If the Z-axis was opened up, making bases would be a lot more fun. You could make a tall castle or a labyrinth that goes deep underground. It would also help you make your colony plans smaller so that they don’t have to be spread out.

Updated UI

Since its first release in 2013, the RimWorld user interface has changed very little. That isn’t bad in and of itself, but the options can feel a bit old. The menu has no style, and most of the choices are spread out in long lists. This can be hard for people who are just starting out. There are a lot of choices to sort through, and as tech levels up, more building options become available in the architect tab.

Your furniture bar can grow to have many rows, and you can’t group them together for ease of use. At least the options have a search bar, which is good. RimWorld’s user interface (UI) works fine and doesn’t hurt the game in any way, but it could be improved by making it look better.

More Security Options

Given how important colony defense is to the game, it’s amazing how few defensive building options there are. There are two types of traps, a few turrets, and two protection structures. Materials can be changed at your own will, but in general, security still feels like it’s missing out on a chance to be more interesting.

A great way to spice up raid defenses would be to add more traps or protective structures that can be interacted with. Imagine having to make your last stand in a human turret against a wave of robots.

More Animations

When you play RimWorld, there is a lot going on at any given time. Prisoners start riots, man-hunting rats run amok, and your only doctor seems to always have a mental break at the worst time. RimWorld has a lot to see, so it would be great if there were more images to go with the action. There are already a few animations, like when bullets fly or building sparks fly.

Adding more of these kinds of details would be a great way to turn the actions of the colonists into a show that looks good. Adding movements to things like reloading guns, melee attacks, or just slurping up some nutrient paste could give them all a little more power.

Lighting Variety

In RimWorld, lighting furniture isn’t all that fancy. You can choose from a sunlamp, a floor lamp, a torch, or two braziers. There are also dark-light versions, but they are mostly the same as their counterparts. Adding more furniture like cozy floor lamps, lights that hang from the ceiling, or a wall lamp would make every RimWorld player who likes to decorate happy.

It’s true that these colonies are supposed to be on the edge of space, so they don’t have many comforts. But if you could get more lighting choices as you moved up the tech tree, that would make sense and be a good thing. After all, if you can make a growth vat, you should be able to make light bulbs that look better.

Pawn Editing

When you start a new game in RimWorld, you choose a random group of people to go with you. This makes the story of the game more interesting because you can’t make a super-powered team that is good at everything. But after a couple dozen hours of playing, this gets old. If you want a certain type of pawn for role-playing, the only way to get it is to keep shuffling it around until you get close.

For a game that focuses on creative stories, not having a way to make your own character seems odd. There is a famous mod on the Steam Workshop that fills this need, but for people who don’t know how to mod, a character creator system would be a great addition.

More Storytellers

There are three different AI stories in RimWorld’s base game.These story leaders have a lot to do with what kinds of random things will happen in your colony. The level of Cassandra Classic will slowly rise over time. Phoebe Chillax moves slowly and steadily. Randy Random does things like send a dangerous raid one minute and calm every rabbit in the area the next. There are many ways to play with these three narrators, but they don’t have a clear story theme.

For example, a narrator who wanted to tell a story about your bandit village could change raids and other events to fit the story’s main idea. It would be very interesting to see different storytellers based on different role-playing themes.

Improved Simulation Elements

In the end, the AI writer changes the world in an artificial way. Groups will “visit” your colony, but this just means that the AI has created the group based on how the game is currently set up. If groups were actually simulated going around the game world, RimWorld would feel much more alive. A full simulation would include other towns that grow and shrink, as well as trade routes where merchants go about their business.

Instead of having things happen that depend on what your colony does, it would be interesting if things happened in the world no matter what your colony did. This would change the challenge and balance of Tunnel Rush game, so one way to find a middle ground would be to scale simulated events based on the choices made when making the map.

Expanded Post Game Content

In RimWorld, one of the main ways to win is to build a spaceship and leave the world. It is the end result of all the blood, sweat, and tears that your people went through during the game. But think about what would happen if leaving Earth wasn’t the end of your story. Exploring the galaxy and meeting other cultures that live in space would be a cool bonus.

Your colonists could go from being a group of survivors to a recognized space power.You could go to other worlds or fight space battles. The sky would be the limit.