[chobobro]

I find that games that have that amazing intricacy are often passion projects by one developer or a very small team and have been in development for a long time, often decades. Besides NetHack and Dwarf Fortress, I would highly recommend Factorio to anyone with an interest in any kind of engineering and Aurora 4x to anyone who played Stellaris or other space 4x but wants an insane amount of complexity

[cwingrav]

Love those games too. Rimworld is the latest in my opinion. All the fun of Factorio and Dwarf Fortress plus a fairly good UI and space faring feel. Wasted/played too many hours. Make sure to use mods too. On steam.

[earenndil]

Personally, I could never get into rimworld because I didn't know what to do. Never /really/ got into DF either, but despite the awful UI it seemed much more like something that could really suck you in, that was really engrossing and fun to play.

[WalterGR]

> Make sure to use mods too.

Which?

[cwingrav]

Just search "rimworld mods" and you'll find lots of people talking about which to use. Most are quality of life improvements.

[nineteen999]

I'm going to mention "Oxygen not included" which I believe is by the same people as "Don't Starve". Power, gas and liquid flow has to be regulated across your entire base and it always eventually gets out of hand a bit like Dwarf Fortress. Either you run out of oxygen or are drowning in CO2 or Natural Gas, or your power sources are consumed before you can harness another one and everything grinds to a halt.

[logicprog]

I would classify Stellaris itself as having an insane amount of complexity, but compared to DF, NetHack and especially Aurora 4x, it is nothing!

[dmos62]

Thanks! This thread is a treasure trove of recommendations.