Anomaly preview #1: Fleshbeasts, fleshmass heart, pit gate and dreadmeld
[h3]đ¨ SPOILER WARNING: Reading these blogs will reveal some of the surprises in the expansion! Read at your own risk![/h3]
Hi everyone! Tia here with the first of our Anomaly feature blogs where we go over the expansionâs content in detail. Weâll be posting these blogs leading up to release - which is in 3 weeks!
If you missed RimWorld - Anomalyâs announcement, read it here! And please wishlist Anomaly!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380740/RimWorld__Anomaly/
In the narrative framework of Anomaly, there are many threats. Some are mysterious and attractive, like the delightful golden cube. Others are insidious and progressive, like the metalhorror infestations. Finally, some threats are direct and aggressive. Todayâs feature blog covers the latter - a family of new fleshy threats in the expansion: the squealing flesh beasts, their disgusting momma, and the all-consuming fleshmass heart.
[h2]THE FLESH BEASTS[/h2]
You intercept a distress signal from a nearby camp. The frantic voice begs you to save them from something horrible and offers everything at their camp in return, including shards of dark archotechnology.
As the voice tries to explain whatâs happening, the signal goes dead.
If you choose to help this poor soul, assemble your caravan and come well-armed.
You arrive - and itâs a massacre. Bodies everywhere, fleshy creatures roam freely, and throbbing tissues cake the walls of the encampment. Giant burrows dot the groundâs surface, connecting to tunnels deep in the earth.
These cancerous enemies are an amalgamation of many tissues and parts. When you destroy a bigger one, it explodes into several smaller creatures. This means one flesh creature can become many and easily overwhelm your soldiers and defenses.
Embedded in the organic mass are fleshbulbs, organs that store and refine nutrients. This chemical process generates a soft bioluminescent glow, allowing you to see the full extent of the horror, day or night.
If youâre fortunate when investigating an area blighted by the fleshmass, you might stumble across a swollen lump with something inside. These are fleshsacks - stationary fleshbeasts that act as digestive organs, supplying the surrounding fleshmass with nutrients. Note that fleshsacks are unable to break down non-organic matter, meaning that valuable items can occasionally be found within - if you want to go rummaging in there!
There are many approaches to clearing out a flesh infestation: you can focus on systematically slaughtering the remaining flesh beasts with guns, or bring out the incinerator to properly cleanse the area (with the risk of destroying flammable loot), or work on filling in their burrows first to prevent further reinforcements.
[h2]THE FLESHMASS HEART[/h2]
If youâre unfortunate enough to encounter the fleshmass heart, it starts with a small circle of terrain that shifts and cracks apart, pulsating rhythmically as something digs upwards. Eventually, the fleshmass heart will emerge. It is a cancer-like creature that grows flesh across (and under) the surface.
From the heart, grows the fleshmass. This is an enormous assimilating creature that spreads across the landscape, consuming and covering the whole map with a quivering mass of meat. It defends itself with beasts and acid. You must fight it to acquire samples of its nervous system, then study them until you can venture to its heart and kill it for good.
The resulting fleshmass is a solid wall of twisted flesh, which throbs and shivers with horrible life. As it grows from the heart, it puts arterial roots into the ground in its quest for nutrients.
For any nearby colonists, the choices are simple - flee the colony or discover how to destroy the fleshmass. Whilst the heart itself is invulnerable due to rapid regeneration, the mass is susceptible to attacks. However, that doesnât mean that itâs without weapons...
Embedded in the mass are spitters, defensive organs that filter toxins from the surrounding biomass, concentrate them into potent acid, and then spit it long distances. You donât want your colonists to get hit by those.
The second line of defense is fleshbeasts, which normally emerge from temporary pit burrows that connect to a cave network deep below. These can be roughly categorized, depending on their mass. Toughspikes are man-sized lumps of roiling flesh with 2 spiked âlimbsâ and a keratin-armored carapace. Trispikes are smaller three-pronged entities, which break down into the singular fingerspikes when killed. All of the âspikeâ entities also throw hardened keratin or bone spikes.
Once your colonists have defeated the fleshbeasts and killed enough fleshmass nerve bundles, they will have gathered several neural lumps. Research these and youâll discover the secret to defeating the heart, allowing you to capture and study itâŚ
âŚ
âŚ
âŚoh, what? You thought that was the end? Thatâs just one way it could go.
[h2]THE PIT GATE [/h2]
Another time, the ground might shake with a different result. Now a larger piece of terrain has begun sinking into the depths, forming a deepening hole, much wider than before. Inhuman shrieks rise from the depths. It'd be wise to move your colonists, buildings and items away from the emergence point.
Within a day, the pitâs floor will vanish from sight, falling into the depths where the fleshmass heart came from. A pit gate has formed and will remain open until you collapse it, occasionally releasing foes. To celebrate, a horde of fleshbeasts emerges, along with a noxious stench of rotâŚ
To close the gate, the colonists must descend into it. Under the ground all is flesh, having infested a massive cave system. The tunnels are so crammed with biomass that itâs supporting the ceiling and walls, making it thoroughly unstable. Defeat the motive force of the fleshmass and the tunnels should collapse.
That motive force is housed in a dreadmeld - a mammoth leader creature made up of dozens of smaller fleshbeasts and buried inside the stinking fleshmass.
Its psychic connection to the fleshmass filling the cavern is strong. So strong that killing the dreadmeld will destabilize the whole organism! If you manage to take down the flesh momma, grab what you can (particularly the strange archotech shards it drops) and flee before it collapses and buries you all!
[h2]MORE TO COME![/h2]
So thatâs the fleshmass, an amorphous, expanding cancerous blob from the dark-beyond. Whether it arrives as a distress call, bursts from the ground as a fleshmass heart, or lurks beneath in the twisted form of a dreadmeld, it just wishes to be loved - or rather, consume all life and turn it into more of itself. Who canât empathize with that?
We hope you enjoyed our darling flesh-things. Please wishlist Anomaly on Steam and join the Reddit discussion for todayâs preview blog!
Gaze into this twisted, dark space for more information (not too closely, lest it gaze back into you.)
- Tia
Hi everyone! Tia here with the first of our Anomaly feature blogs where we go over the expansionâs content in detail. Weâll be posting these blogs leading up to release - which is in 3 weeks!
If you missed RimWorld - Anomalyâs announcement, read it here! And please wishlist Anomaly!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2380740/RimWorld__Anomaly/
In the narrative framework of Anomaly, there are many threats. Some are mysterious and attractive, like the delightful golden cube. Others are insidious and progressive, like the metalhorror infestations. Finally, some threats are direct and aggressive. Todayâs feature blog covers the latter - a family of new fleshy threats in the expansion: the squealing flesh beasts, their disgusting momma, and the all-consuming fleshmass heart.
[h2]THE FLESH BEASTS[/h2]
You intercept a distress signal from a nearby camp. The frantic voice begs you to save them from something horrible and offers everything at their camp in return, including shards of dark archotechnology.
As the voice tries to explain whatâs happening, the signal goes dead.
If you choose to help this poor soul, assemble your caravan and come well-armed.
You arrive - and itâs a massacre. Bodies everywhere, fleshy creatures roam freely, and throbbing tissues cake the walls of the encampment. Giant burrows dot the groundâs surface, connecting to tunnels deep in the earth.
These cancerous enemies are an amalgamation of many tissues and parts. When you destroy a bigger one, it explodes into several smaller creatures. This means one flesh creature can become many and easily overwhelm your soldiers and defenses.
Embedded in the organic mass are fleshbulbs, organs that store and refine nutrients. This chemical process generates a soft bioluminescent glow, allowing you to see the full extent of the horror, day or night.
If youâre fortunate when investigating an area blighted by the fleshmass, you might stumble across a swollen lump with something inside. These are fleshsacks - stationary fleshbeasts that act as digestive organs, supplying the surrounding fleshmass with nutrients. Note that fleshsacks are unable to break down non-organic matter, meaning that valuable items can occasionally be found within - if you want to go rummaging in there!
There are many approaches to clearing out a flesh infestation: you can focus on systematically slaughtering the remaining flesh beasts with guns, or bring out the incinerator to properly cleanse the area (with the risk of destroying flammable loot), or work on filling in their burrows first to prevent further reinforcements.
[h2]THE FLESHMASS HEART[/h2]
If youâre unfortunate enough to encounter the fleshmass heart, it starts with a small circle of terrain that shifts and cracks apart, pulsating rhythmically as something digs upwards. Eventually, the fleshmass heart will emerge. It is a cancer-like creature that grows flesh across (and under) the surface.
From the heart, grows the fleshmass. This is an enormous assimilating creature that spreads across the landscape, consuming and covering the whole map with a quivering mass of meat. It defends itself with beasts and acid. You must fight it to acquire samples of its nervous system, then study them until you can venture to its heart and kill it for good.
The resulting fleshmass is a solid wall of twisted flesh, which throbs and shivers with horrible life. As it grows from the heart, it puts arterial roots into the ground in its quest for nutrients.
For any nearby colonists, the choices are simple - flee the colony or discover how to destroy the fleshmass. Whilst the heart itself is invulnerable due to rapid regeneration, the mass is susceptible to attacks. However, that doesnât mean that itâs without weapons...
Embedded in the mass are spitters, defensive organs that filter toxins from the surrounding biomass, concentrate them into potent acid, and then spit it long distances. You donât want your colonists to get hit by those.
The second line of defense is fleshbeasts, which normally emerge from temporary pit burrows that connect to a cave network deep below. These can be roughly categorized, depending on their mass. Toughspikes are man-sized lumps of roiling flesh with 2 spiked âlimbsâ and a keratin-armored carapace. Trispikes are smaller three-pronged entities, which break down into the singular fingerspikes when killed. All of the âspikeâ entities also throw hardened keratin or bone spikes.
Once your colonists have defeated the fleshbeasts and killed enough fleshmass nerve bundles, they will have gathered several neural lumps. Research these and youâll discover the secret to defeating the heart, allowing you to capture and study itâŚ
âŚ
âŚ
âŚoh, what? You thought that was the end? Thatâs just one way it could go.
[h2]THE PIT GATE [/h2]
Another time, the ground might shake with a different result. Now a larger piece of terrain has begun sinking into the depths, forming a deepening hole, much wider than before. Inhuman shrieks rise from the depths. It'd be wise to move your colonists, buildings and items away from the emergence point.
Within a day, the pitâs floor will vanish from sight, falling into the depths where the fleshmass heart came from. A pit gate has formed and will remain open until you collapse it, occasionally releasing foes. To celebrate, a horde of fleshbeasts emerges, along with a noxious stench of rotâŚ
To close the gate, the colonists must descend into it. Under the ground all is flesh, having infested a massive cave system. The tunnels are so crammed with biomass that itâs supporting the ceiling and walls, making it thoroughly unstable. Defeat the motive force of the fleshmass and the tunnels should collapse.
That motive force is housed in a dreadmeld - a mammoth leader creature made up of dozens of smaller fleshbeasts and buried inside the stinking fleshmass.
Its psychic connection to the fleshmass filling the cavern is strong. So strong that killing the dreadmeld will destabilize the whole organism! If you manage to take down the flesh momma, grab what you can (particularly the strange archotech shards it drops) and flee before it collapses and buries you all!
[h2]MORE TO COME![/h2]
So thatâs the fleshmass, an amorphous, expanding cancerous blob from the dark-beyond. Whether it arrives as a distress call, bursts from the ground as a fleshmass heart, or lurks beneath in the twisted form of a dreadmeld, it just wishes to be loved - or rather, consume all life and turn it into more of itself. Who canât empathize with that?
We hope you enjoyed our darling flesh-things. Please wishlist Anomaly on Steam and join the Reddit discussion for todayâs preview blog!
Gaze into this twisted, dark space for more information (not too closely, lest it gaze back into you.)
- Anomaly expansion and update 1.5 announced!
- [HERE] Anomaly preview #1: Fleshbeasts, fleshmass heart, pit gate and dreadmeld
- Anomaly preview #2: Containment facilities, creatures, and release date
- Anomaly preview #3: Cultists, hate chanters and rituals
- Anomaly preview #4: Cubes, spheres, obelisks, soundtrack and languages
- Anomaly bonus preview: Ghouls, ghouls, ghouls
- Tia
Wall lamp, flood lights, and hidden conduits: Yes, you can now put lights on your walls and hide your conduits! Wall lamps and wall torches can be placed directly on walls. They function like a floor lamp or torch would, but with a little less light. Flood lights are very powerful (and expensive) outdoor lights that cover large areas, which saves you from building several small lamps. Hidden conduits are useful for two reasons: theyâre harder to damage from explosions or fire, and theyâre invisible to the player unless youâve got the power/building UI turned on. 
Performance improvements: We've continued to work on optimizing RimWorld's performance. Pawns (characters and animals) are now drawn in parallel on a separate thread, the pawn render system was rewritten to allow for easy addition/removal of visuals, and lots of optimizations were done on alerts, beauty calculations, and pen animal food-searching behavior.
Possessions from traits: When choosing your starting colonists, thereâs now a chance for them to spawn with possessions related to their traits. For example, a psychopath might carry a human heart, or a pyromaniac comes armed with molotovs, or someone whoâs greedy could have pockets full of gold. 
Mechanoid water emergence and slag chunks: Did you think the water was safe? Mechanoids can now surface from bodies of water, which requires adapting to oceans and lakes when building your baseâs defenses. Also, certain large mechanoids have a chance to drop a âmechanoid slag chunkâ when theyâre broken down - these act like steel slag chunks and can be smelted for steel. 
Bionic jaws and organ decay: Sometimes colonists lose their jaws in a terrible accident, but they can now be replaced with the new bionic prosthetic. Keep an eye on your colonistsâ organs too - thereâs a chance they may develop a very rare organ decay disease.
Clean room: Selecting a colonist and right-clicking a room thatâs dirty now gives you the option to clean the room. This is far more convenient than manually clicking dirt on the floor and queueing up cleaning actions.
New wanderers after a âgame overâ: When all of your colonists are dead or gone, thereâs a new option as part of the game over letter to âcreate new wanderersâ, if you want a second chance with your colony. This allows you to create 1-6 new colonists to inhabit the remains of your colony instead of ending the game. This is entirely optional and you donât have to use it if you prefer a more hardcore experience.