[Update #2]: RimWorld is getting the massive free Update 1.3 and Ideology expansion in July 2021.
[Update]: RimWorld devs have announced their plans for future content updates, as well as additions to the Royalty DLC itself.
After a long period of silence, RimWorld's Update 1.1 went into beta testing last week. It brought with it a variety of new animals to tame, new weapons and armor to toy around with, a couple of new traits to spice up your playthrough, as well as a new long-ranged mechanoid to give your colony no end of trouble.
Since the beta had very few issues, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that Update 1.1 has already gone live. What might come as a bit of a shock, however, is that it has been released alongside a brand new expansion - Royalty!
As the name would suggest, Royalty will give you colonists a chance to gain royal titles bestowed by the mighty Empire. Those that rise up through the ranks will slowly become more and more demanding, eventually even requiring luxurious bedrooms, gilded throne rooms and personal guards. Needless to say, it'll be quite hard to keep the newfound royalty nice and happy!
With that much fancy stuff, expect to see quite a few raids drop by!
However, while taking care of them is a bit of a pain, royals do have some big advantages. First and foremost, they have access to the Imperial psychic amplifier, which essentially gives them the ability to use their mind to both manipulate and defeat enemies. Depending on the user's prowess, these psycasters will be able to do everything from teleporting to making an entire group of enemies go into a berserker rage.
Besides raw power, the presence of a royal will also unlock a whole assortment of new quests. Much like everything else in RimWorld, these quests will be randomly generated, but should still provide interesting story-telling opportunities, as well as potentially massive rewards. That is, if you manage to survive any of it!
You can learn more about RimWorld's Royalty expansion, as well as potentially grab it yourself, over at Steam. Have fun, and I'll leave you with the trailer: