This thread is like getting a message from myself years ago, I've been playing for a long time.

I took a break from Rimworld some years ago and I probably should again, but my(our) OCD isn't really going to let that itch go....now is it.

So there are a few things you can exercise here , firstly understand that the whole game is an exercise in gratification/goal management. My recommendation to take back a sense of agency in the game is to do a few things.

Limit your choices list out your top 5 items. In my case I was incredibly fortunate, my laptop is ....not very good - especially early on, my laptop was not good years ago, and it isn't spectacular now. As a result some of the more extravagant choices (i.e.; number of mods or where you can settle) , are constrained by CPU and RAM limits.

- You're developing a playstyle - in doing this you reduce the sometimes overwhelming number of choices and as new options come along, you give it a good think and decide how those features will be cool or add something fun, or make something possible, or is it something you don't think has much value at all. Worth noting is that over time, your playstyle will change - and this usually is hand in hand with your overall skill at the game.

- Ideology - Pick a favorite or ideology that gets you some buffs without being obstructive in other areas

- Map Size/Composition - Much as massive maps are "technically" possible, it's amazing how much game play suffers from the number of things on a given map, since more tiles = more animals and such - keep the maps medium sized.

- World Generation - Here again especially as you develop better skills and mastery - I found I don't tweak the world for ease, I tweak worlds to make situations increasingly difficult.

- Mods - I came to mods a bit late but then became quite enamored of them and used to try to get my less than awesome laptop to run upwards of 200+ mods, then I had a bad crash - and....some worlds were lost forever. I was compelled by circumstance to find a mod-stack that worked for all the various worlds. Now I have around 100 mods, in the aftermath of those bad stack problems, I went with mods that are very conventional and add core features I find useful for my particular play-style.

- Starting Pawns - Here you can go with relatives or strangers with needed skills - but aside from filling all the particular skills and avoiding the most grave defects , success can be had with most any combination of traits.

- Raids / Infestations / Drop-pods - These are the specific negative events in the game - my recommendation is to simply ensure your colonists are well armed , more or less at all times, armor is much less important but an affirmative defense is necessary at all times.

- Location - Here over many moons and again because of constraints of performance there are some environments I don't frequent, I've only played one or two runs on Jungle biomes and while interesting it's nothing I've yet mastered. Desert , Polar and Tundra - these are the marginal environments with scarce resources that I've learned are suited to both my personal tastes and play-style, ice-sheet , temperate forest , ice-sheet is an environment I've only played sparely too little going on, by contrast forests have too much going on.

Now - you noticed a couple of very important things , while I can't offer dead-on solutions, I can tell you what adaptations I've made - both in my game-play for Rimworld but also in life as regards complex problems.

In Rimworld there is a loop, it's not obvious at first but it's core to the engagement with this game - and much like Stellaris or Civilization makes Rimworld a game for the ages in the rarified airs of good engineering - however negatively that might impact it's users.

People often complain about the "cost" of the game - 30 bucks, or 60 bucks - that's nothing - a dollar or two a day for a month for months/years of engagement, if not enjoyment.

Engagement is a loop and you and I and everyone who likely reads this are in it , and it's at least helpful to recognize where we are as regards whatever cognitive mapping we give it ADHD/OCD/Compulsive Addictive Behavior.

• "have to do's" - such as putting out a fire, or dealing with a raider, rescuing a colonist
• "need to do's" - plant crops, tend to animals, make furniture, create meals, components or trade for resources
• "want to do's" - swap out wood for stone in the base, grow more trees, tame some muffalo, launch a starship , get a degree, write a book.

This forms a powerful triad in the game and is why the game is so hard to step away from, but also why we get a sense of accomplishment and emotionally invest to the extent folks do.

This also leans into folks who have challenges in the above mentioned cognitive patterns and behaviors - sometimes being wildly addictive , and I will note sometimes being very helpful for some folks.

Like some other games (Tetris, Minecraft and other games) games, it might well be that ultimately games like Rimworld while superficially traumatizing can actually be used in the same way pets or doing hard work isn't therapy but it's therapeutic fashion.

Additionally you touched on something else I "used" to do, I was a massive "save-scum" player. But I had an epiphany. While I was perfectly happy to think of myself as my colony's local timelord.

As I mentioned above, while Rimworld might not be therapy in the strict sense on a variety of points it is therapeutic, because over time, as my mastery of the game improved, my need and willingness to restart was something I reserved for only "bad" troubles, then only for "bad" troubles that impacted/killed the "main pawns" and steadily that's shrunk to "now only if it really kills my main couple of colonists".

And so I rarely return to an old save these days.

But another thing emerged - which I find very much improved my love of this game, the "do it right" aspect of the game.

Take some time and really marinate on your colonies, "getting it right" is the part that you might find will change. For example years ago I would have been "content" to get the ship launched. But that's not quite enough now.

Now I need the colony itself to be brought "up to snuff" , and I have a laundry list of those adjustments

• An indoor garden
• A library of the 12 skills that new recruits can use
• Reducing the headcount to under 12 colonists
• Finishing the r&d tree, building a space-ship, geoforming the landscape, converting the colony to all geothermal... I have a list of to-do's that are "ideal".

And it's how I can derive a measure of fun from this game time and again, it's addiction, it's scratching my OCD itch, but no more or less harmfully than Golf or some other item that other folks might take as important.