The "Ideology" expansion for Rimworld came out not too long ago and it has added slavery, plus some other things we kinda wanted. Now you are able to use ideologies to craft the exact colony with the exact beliefs you wish, instead of having to recruit only psychopaths for your organ harvesting operation.
Starting with the world itself, you can now choose what type and how many of each type of NPC factions there should be in your new world. In addition, the amount of total AI factions you can have has increased and there are some new ones as well, such as the Cannibal Pirate Gangs or the Nudist Tribes. We also have the option to add or remove the Shattered Empire, Mechanoid Hives or Insect Geneline, of which only one faction can exist.
Once you have selected a spot in the world for your new colony, this is where the main expansion sets in, as you are prompted to choose one of a few premade ideologies, or generate a custom one, of course, you should generate a custom one. Creating a custom Ideology has you choose a base for your religion, after which you also get to choose your memes (not the joke kind).
The different memes can change your game a lot or not that much, you can choose your faction to be a Supremacist for example, meaning that you wish to dominate over other factions, or its counterpart is the Guilty, believing that you have generations of guilt which you then have to pay for by helping other above yourselves. You can turn your faction into a raider gang, as well as cannibals. The Transhumanist meme will make your people want to be less flesh and more machine as time passes. And there are many more and interesting memes to choose from.
some of the memes available
So, let's talk about my first and current faction as a way of explaining the differences this expansion brings. My people are Supremacists and believe in humanity over nature. They get sad if we do not have human skulls on spikes everywhere and they get depressed if we lack any slaves. Having slaves in the colony actually provides a mood boost and it is a cheap way of having your cocaine plants harvested, and yes we also run a drug operation.
Before the expansion, enslaving other people was not possible, which was a bummer considering these "people" usually come from other factions attacking us and doing some damage, which they now have to repay by working for us in "acceptable for slaves' conditions" for the rest of their life or until i sell them to a slaver.
Another change which is great for my faction is the fact that we can use prisoners, which are not fit to be slaves, as organ "donors", without my own people being unhappy that we are abusing other humans this way. My own religion accepts organ harvesting and my people do not care when it happens.
Before the expansion, you either had to recruit only psychopaths who did not get a bad mood from this harvesting, or endure your colonists going insane because of it. Now the entire faction itself is one big psychopath, and that is very profitable.
Of course we can also have different celebrations which can raise the mood of the colonists, depending on the quality of the celebration. Such an event may be done periodically, or only at a specific day of the year, which your colonists will expect.
Our celebrations include the "Human Fiesta" where the colonists celebrate how good and humane the colony is. To show how humane we are, we allow slaves to attend as well, of course we hold the fiesta during the slave sleeping hours so they don't lose productivity, passing out the next day due to exhaustion which will lead to punishment. We also have a "Party of Faith'' which celebrates the success and great human progress which our ideology has brought to this world.
In conclusion, I know there are still some things I didn't mention, like Relics or animal husbandry and livestock pens. However, I am yet to find a relic, and my Human primacy meme does not allow bonding with animals. As such, I cannot comment on those points, however they are extra content for a game which never gets old. I believe Rimworld's Ideology expansion is already my personal game of the year for 2021
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