#ship-building

Nicolaas Witsen – Scientist of the Day

Nicolaas Witsen (often Nicolaes), a Dutch ship-builder, collector, map-maker, administrator of the Dutch East India Company (the VOC), and thirteen-times mayor of Amsterdam, was born on May 8, 1641, and lived until 1717.  

RimWorld - Odyssey game expansion launches you into a planet-hopping, ship-building in an evolving world on Steam Deck, Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the ongoing creative talents of developer Ludeon Studios. That you can play now on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store with 95% Overwhelmingly Positive reviews.. Ever dream of ship-building and your own flying base and soaring across the world, landing wherever you want to hunt for treasure, gather weird loot, and maybe kidnap a mutant bird or two? The RimWorld - Odyssey expansion is your ticket to exactly that on Steam Deck and Linux. And yes, it requires the base game. You start with almost nothing—just a barebones grav engine, a couple of rooms, and enough chemfuel to get airborne. But that’s just the beginning. Over time, you’ll turn that scrapheap into a living, breathing floating fortress, packed with research labs, bedrooms, farms, armories, kitchens, and whatever else your crew needs to stay alive and maybe even thrive. The secret to growing your flying base? Gravcores. These rare, high-tech relics let you expand your gravship and fly farther. But don’t expect to find them just lying around. You’ll be diving into derelict orbital stations, toxic caves, and rusted-out nuclear plants wired with traps. And let’s not even start on the bugs. Yeah. You’ll need guts.

New Biomes, New Nightmares

Each biome in RimWorld - Odyssey feels like its own twisted little world. The Glowforest is pitch-black 24/7, glowing with radioactive mushrooms and mind-warping spores. Try growing crops there—ha, good luck. You’ll be living on fungus and paranoia. Then there’s the Scarlands, where war wreckage covers everything. Mechanoids prowl the ruins, acid rain falls like clockwork, and the only animals still breathing are the kind that want to rip your face off. Want something calmer? Head to the Grasslands—a rancher’s paradise, with wide open fields and long growing seasons. But beware the droughts and wildfires. More than one farm has gone up in flames while the cows screamed. On the Glacial Plains, everything’s frozen, including time. Scimitar cats and mammoths roam the icy wastes. You can dig into frozen cliffs or squat in ancient ruins, trying not to freeze your colonists’ fingers off. And then there’s the Lava Fields—constantly shifting, burning, erupting. Lava eats buildings. Ash fills lungs. You’ll need fire barriers, face masks, and nerves of steel to survive here.

RimWorld - Odyssey game expansion trailer

RimWorld - Odyssey Lets You Build Anywhere, Go Everywhere

This isn’t just about surviving the ground—it’s about ship-building and owning the sky. Want to build an underground bunker into a mountain? Done. Prefer a floating fishing village with heavy bridges across island chains? You can do that too. You’ll find old bases to refurbish, ruins to scavenge, and orbital trash to loot. There’s always something worth risking your neck for on Steam Deck and Linux.

Leave the Planet (But Don’t Let Space Kill You)

When your ship is strong enough, launch into orbit. Explore shattered satellites, asteroid mines, and broken space platforms. These places are crawling with rival scavengers, rogue mechanoids, and worse. Bring space suits, airtight doors, heaters, oxygen pumps—hell, even the dog needs life support up there. Survive the vacuum, raid the wreckage, and fly home rich.

Wild Life, Wilder Animals

The RimWorld - Odyssey expansion brings over 40 new creatures — from cute prairie dogs and otters to apex predators like scimitar cats and mutant wolves. You can tame them, train them, eat them, or just cuddle them. Some can even be upgraded with a sentience catalyst to turn them into battle-ready guardians (ever seen a genius crab protect your base? You will). And yes, you can fish now. Tuna. Marlin. And some “fish” you really shouldn’t eat.

Quests with Big Payoffs (and Bigger Risks)

Quests pop up everywhere: hidden maps, visitor rumors, hacked signals. Hunt the mythical Alpha Thrumbo across continents, raid mercenary crypts full of cryo-frozen soldiers, or scrap with hostile scavenger crews in orbit. Space isn’t empty. It’s full of junk, pirates, fugitives, and danger. Whether you're chasing down a gold-plated charge rifle or trying to escape with a cargo of uranium, every mission could be your last.

And the Mech Threat? It's Evolving in RimWorld - Odyssey

A slice of 17th century maritime history

Heading off for shore leave

The Norwegian Sun’s next port of call was Nynashamn in Sweden. It’s the ferry port for Stockholm, which is about 55km from Stockholm. The ship sailed in between islands and anchored offshore. From there we were ferried across to the port in the lifeboats. It’s quite an operation when a couple of thousand or so people have to be moved. This was one time when went along…

Ship-building, Gloucester Harbor; Harper's Weekly, Volume XVII, 11 October 1873

Ship-Building, Gloucester Harbor

(For Harper's Weekly, October 11, 1873, p. 900)