"Rimworld" will soon be getting its third major expansion, Biotech, which introduces three new features to the already pretty awesome space colony simulator: controllable mechanoids, genetic modification, and good old human reproduction.

Biotech is introducing three new features to its already pretty great space colony simulator: controllable mechanoids, genetic modification, and good old fashioned human reproduction.

Colonists (and adventurous outsiders) can now conceive and give birth. How about this as a classic patch note (open in new tab): "Pregnancy can be initiated naturally or by technical means and can be controlled in a variety of ways."

Babies almost always make settlers happy, but also mean extra work. Players must create a nice, safe nursery for them, with plenty of food and constant care. Babies grow up quickly and will soon need classrooms and lesson plans, and they will be working with adults to learn important skills in the Rimworld.

In essence, there is a moral choice. We don't need to give babies a good life, rich in creative pursuits and emotionally rewarding. They may just want a drone as a worker. 'Every few years, we choose what traits and passions our children will develop. The better educated and more carefully nurtured a child is, the more choices he or she has, and the more likely he or she is to become a happy and talented adult." Some colonies sacrifice everything to give their children the best education, while others use growth tanks to send out cheap workers and soldiers.

The mechanoid side would probably alleviate the need for such tactics, but is itself quite dystopian. These mechanoids are semi-living machines, which previously appeared as an endgame challenge in Rimworld, but can now be operated by players with specific brain implants, essentially automating many tasks, including manufacturing, colonist care, building and repair, farming, and combat. Of course, the mechanoid's secret is that, unlike human colonists, they are not angry, sad or depressed.

Cue the mechanoid army. Wait and see. Mechanoids produce toxic waste during their work, and if not cryogenically preserved, they cause environmental contamination. The pollution can poison settlers and animals, create environmental smog, and trigger the awakening of hibernating insects (I don't think these insects are nice). Players have a variety of options to deal with it, but using large numbers of mechanoids would essentially require a climate change policy as well.

As if we haven't already entered the future hell of science fiction, Biotech has also added genetic modification. From subtle personality traits and eye color to huge fur-covered bodies, glands for fire breathing, rapid regeneration, and even immortality," modifications can turn humans into xenomorphs. At least fans of Sonic the Hedgehog will be pleased.

The interesting thing about all of this and Rimworld as a whole is that these new options don't just apply to you. The hostile world you build will now have its own babies, mechanoids, and xenomorph types, and apparently there will be a "concubine bound by spiritual bonds" faction among them.

Tynan Sylvester, creator and developer of Rimworld, has written at some length about the game's design goals and what Biotech is trying to add. Rimworld is one of those games that people describe as a 'story generator. Because the fun is in the story of how your colony grows, adapts, deals with disaster, and ultimately how it ends up. You can see why it makes sense to add a baby and the familial relationships associated with it to that dynamic.

"Family-related drama feeds the story, regardless of the old medium," says Sylvester. From the most classic high culture novels to the most vulgar barroom tales, questions of family duty, sacrifice, life and death, and relationships are at the heart of our most compelling narratives. From 'No, I am your father' to 'I will find you and kill you' to 'You are my father,' family relationships are at the heart of the story. This is also true of the Western stories that RimWorld is inspired by.

"Extending that to RimWorld obviously makes sense and is something we've always been interested in. But it took us a long time to get here because it is such a complex subject. I knew that reproduction, childbirth, baby care, and parenting all have a lot of fine details and a lot of content, so it would take a lot of effort to get it right. I wanted to make sure that the game had enough development power to cause such powerful family-friendly emotions without cutting corners or overplaying tricks"

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The update is marked as 1.4 and is currently running on the unstable branch of the game (you can opt-in by right-clicking on the game in Steam, selecting "Properties" and selecting the unstable branch option on the "Beta" tab).

As with Biotech, there are some notable improvements: the developers have spent considerable time optimizing the game's startup and load times, which are now "roughly 37% faster." Paint and color customization has been added, colonies can now be made to look more like a colony, previously tiny shelves are now "actually usable" storage units, new turret types have been added, colonists have new starting possessions, and the way corpses are decomposed has been refined ...... Yes, this is that kind of game.

Most impressively, a mod manager UI has been added, which, while Rimworld has a large number of mods, separates mods into active and inactive lists and allows you to save and load settings for specific mods.

Biotech seems to be the biggest and most impressive of Rimworld's expansions. There is so much going on that the developers apparently considered splitting it in two, but "decided to combine everything together as one extra juicy expansion. You can play it now or wait for the official release "in a few weeks."