RimWorld's extensive Wanderlust update adds spherical planetary exploration

Whether it be herding clans of cannibals, getting blind drunk and setting colonies on fire, or sampling its vast array of user-made mods—RimWorld is brimming with weird and whacky story opportunities. Its latest update has now arrived—Alpha 16 Wanderlust—which adds a spherical world and the option to travel with "multiple caravans."

Which means the game's world map has been remodelled with newly generated mountain ranges, hill clusters and continents. The time of day is now tied to the planet view and time zones are modelled out of necessity. Factions are now able to occupy multiple bases across multiple simultaneous maps—"for example, you can have your colony running as well, as a group of soldiers attacking an enemy base, at the same time". 

Wanderlust is a pretty exhaustive update, with which Ludeon Studios' Tynan Sylvester goes into detail below. 

The Wanderlust's extensive list of changes, tweaks and adjustments—including a slew of bug fixes—can be viewed here, however one other particular highlight is RimWorld's new 'Travel' victory ending. "A friendly person offers a ship, but it is distant, across the world map," explains a Steam update post. "If you travel there, you can escape the planet and complete the game. But, travelling there will take a long time and you'll need to stop at various points to build up supplies or solve problems."

While your game should update automatically, Ludeon notes the Alpha 16 update will break game saves as a result of its huge structural changes. If you wish to continue an old save you'll want to change the 'alpha 15' beta branch on Steam by selecting the Betas tab in the Properties menu. You can switch back to the default branch from there at will.