CDDA and assorted post apocalyptic shenanigans modlist.
The general idea is to create a modlist that focuses on survival in a hostile world. I'll take CDDA as an inspiration but of course this list is by no means comprehensive and you can simply get an inspiration or two. For combat this will assume you use Yayo and other mods that compliment it, link to that will be at the bottom.
Threats: In CDDA, there are 4 major enemy factions: The blob in the form of zombies, the fungus, automated defense systems and lovecraftian horrors. In Rimworld, we have a few options to roughly achieve the same effect.
For the Blob:
Zombieland
A highly configurable mod that adds, well, zombies. The standard settings are kinda bad - zombies won't attack player built structures and will constantly spawn to meet a certain quota of zombies on the map. If enough zombies congregate in the vicinity, they will enrage, moving faster, getting stronger and tearing anything down in their path to reach the player. If you have seen anyone else play with this mod you'll notice that the game becomes a snoozefest really fast. Your only job is to build a wall and cull the zombie population every now and then so they don't enrage. The zombies gathering around your wall will benefit you greatly since they're effectively a first layer of defense against enemy raids. They'll tear apart trade caravans, too leaving you with a pile of stuff for no real effort. To fix that and make them behave more in line with CDDA, you need to heavily tweak the settings. Make them more durable by ticking the 'zombies are hard to kill' option as well as enabling 'double tap'. In CDDA, zombies themselves do not infect others with a zombie virus, so turn infection off. They also don't die from headshots - the blob is what causes zombification and is controlling its host. The only way to destroy zombie in CDDA is to smash or butcher their corpses beyond recognition so that the blob can't regenerate the body anymore. You also should check the options for zombies attacking wildlife and player built structures by default. You should try to configure the mod in a way that zombies aren't an environmental thread anymore to an active threat that actively hunts everything that isn't a zombie.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=928376710
For the fungus:
Rim Flood
This will be our replacement for the invasive, sentient, extradimensional fungus species found in CDDA. You should use cherrypicker to remove the sentinels since they're not what we want. The flood behaves similar to the CDDA fungus so they're the best we can get at the moment. They'll infect corpses and living things to make more flood. Engaging them in melee is a bad choice but not directly lethal like how most media presents zombie infections, instead, a meter needs to fill until a pawn is infected and turns into a flood.
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2348148745
Automated defense systems are a bit tricky, since the vanilla mechanoids already fulfill that role to a certain extent. The newer versions of CDDA removed some more of the high tech, AI controlled weapon systems so instead you now have stationary turrets and turrets on wheels and that's pretty much it. But that isn't fun so we act as if the newer versions of CDDA aren't relevant:
Vanilla Factions Expanded - Mechanoids
Should be known to most people since it's a mod made by Oskar. Hate or love him anyone who ever browsed the workshop knows him by now. You should disable the stupid war mechanic the mod comes with and remove what you don't like with cherrypicker. We want more variety when fighting robots and nothing more - the whole factory thing that's included should've been a different mod.
Reinforced Mechanoids: Tyrikan-Line
More Oskarware, more mechanical enemies to ruin your day. Gives you the option to build some mechs for your own colony. Again comes with a lot of stuff but it's at least more thematically consistent.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2798710610
RimRobots
Adds new robot races and two new factions, one friendly one hostile. Disable the friendly one if you want a light weight option to fight robotic enemies without all the bloat Oskarware usually comes with.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2743171832
[O21] Mechadroids
In theory another light weight addition for more mechanized enemies. But it comes with a catch: It requires [O21] Toolbox which is a slightly less shit version of JecsTools. Both will eat away at your perfomance, one just slightly more so than the other. Not recommended but it's an option:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2209025387
Android Tiers
Was previously known for having shit perfomance but it's supposedly much better now. In theory this is just the mod you're looking for if you want to fight scary robots, but for some reason in their infinite wisdom the modders thought it was a good idea to include remotely controlled androids to the pawn generation when a caravan or raid decides you to pay a visit. Not recommended. If you end up using it there's no reason to not grab the TX Series addon as well.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1386412863
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2010528561
Androids
In theory another good mod that would add humanlike androids to fight but in practice this mod is ancient junk. Will kill your perfomance if active. Not recommended.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1541064015
As you can see, there's a lot of options when it comes to robotic enemies but most of them come with a drawback or two. Pick your poison. Or don't, the vanilla mechanoids are already dangerous enough.
Lovecraftian Horrors are a bit tricky since there's surprisingly little content on the workshop for that. The mods that are there are often mediocre or outdated and on maintenance mode. This isn't much of a problem since the lovecraft theme is a very minor aspect of CDDA.
Cosmic Horrors
One of the earlier mods made when Jecrell was still active. Has a few fun events and an insanity mechanic. Most of the enemies added by this mod just act like your standard raid - you'll get raided by a deep one melee blob or Mi-Gos and a dark young might wander onto your map. This was spectacular when it released but today it's not a special mod by any means. Also, for some reason, the hidden factions added by this mod in my experience often take priority when a raid event occurs.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=765890823
Horrors
Not very lovecraftian and more general alien horror. They act similar to insects with a few neat twists. Very outdated and on maintenance mode.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2036315072
Mooloh's Dnd Menagerie
Adds a few monsters/animals from Dungeons and Dragons. Beholders and Gibbering Mouthers fit the bill, the rest not so much.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2751849453
Rim-Effect: Asari and Reapers
Combines the themes of cosmic horror and dystopian machine overlords. It's Oskarware so of course it comes with a lot of additional content you might not want. Why not release the Asar and Reapers as a seperate mod? Because fuck you, that's why. If you end up using it you probably will have to remove most of the mod via cherrypicker.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2651149728
Darkest Night SK Steam
Adds an event where unlit places become dangerous. Invisible enemies will trash your base and colonists but can only move around where there's no light. As far as gameplay is concerned this is en entirely eventbased and environmental threat but it fits the lovecraftian idea, even more so than the previous mods.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1840579077
Equipment: The FCP mods are a good start if you don't mind a bit of Fallout in your game. Some of the mods are generic enough that you don't really feel the Fallout theme if you don't want it in your game. To give an example, the makeshift weapon series lends itself well to a generic post apocalyptic setting without screaming Fallout.
Makeshift handguns
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2607668154
Makeshift rifles
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2607985525
Makeshift weapon pack
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2533952036
You can find the entire FCP collection here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2518249845
Arsenal of Reaction / Arsenal of Revolution
Adds some very chunky weapons to your game. I personally like the design but the balance is quite off in my opinion. Use at your own risk / if you're willing to edit shit in xmls.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2462617669
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2485424982
These mods also have style options available if you use ideology:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2756675617
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2593236871
Metro Exodus Armory
Adds weapons from the Metro series. For that makeshift look.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2202201795
Vanilla Weapons Expanded - Makeshift
The 'quirk' of this mod is that you have some crude weapons with a random amount of shots they'll fire any time a pawn pulls the trigger. Might shoot 1, might shoot 10 to simulate the weapon jamming or something. Personally I'm not a big fan of adding more layers of RNG on top of everything else so I wouldn't recommend using it. Also >Oskarware
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2419690698
Rust Handmade Weapons
An alternative to VWE - Makeshift. Guns are cheap to make and are categorized under the medieval category as far as technology is concerned, meaning that if you use this mod together with Yayo the interaction with armor will be much worse against anything that is industrial level technology, such as armored vests or simple helmets.
If you use any of the Vanilla Expanded mods like Apparel, Armor, Furniture etc., I recommend using these mods:
Vanilla Expanded Rebalanced
Despite what Oskar the man himself claims, most mods of the Vanilla Expanded series aren't quite like vanilla besides the art style. The stats of many items are seemingly decided with a dice roll with simple tools giving bonuses that rival end game bionic upgrades. This mod fixes some of these issues.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2800993377
Shavius's Vanilla Expanded Patches
Fixes some consistency issues with some Vanilla Expanded mods. Gives the empire access to weapons from Heavy Weapons Expanded and distributes equipment from Accessories Expanded across all factions. Empire is now using plasma based weapons from Insectoids expanded. Also forces some pawns from the raider faction to spawn with the exoskeleton + heavy weapons as well. Fixes some layer rendering issues with Armor expanded, flak goggles won't be rendered above helmets anymore.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2763415519
Cherry Picker
Allows you to remove things from a mod in case you want to de-bloat some of the larger ones. While I don't hate the Vanilla Expanded Series, they do add a lot of stuff that has little to do with the premise. A mod about vikings which adds spacer tech gear isn't really what you'd expect. Same with the insects mod that add plasma weapons that are clearly somewhat inspired by Dead Space for some reason.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633276599
However, there's some VE mods I can recommend:
Heavy Weapons
Adds some heavy weapons which you can only equip with a pawn that wears the exoskeleton from this mod, a power armor or has the tough trait. They pack a punch but slow down the user quite a lot. However, in their infinite wisdom the team decided to use durability as an ammo mechanic, which is quite retarded. Thankfully, there's a patch that fixes this, making them behave like turrets - after their ammo is depleted, you need to refill them with the right resource. The auto cannon uses steel to reload, uranium slug sniper needs uranium, the flamethrower chemfuel and so on.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2329126791
The Patch:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2364527746
Coil Guns
Adds weapons that pierce through pretty much everything except natural rock tiles. Exceptionally powerful but also quite dangerous if your pawns use them - friendly fire has never been more of a threat. However, the balance is obviously quite off since a single pawn can mow down an almost endless amount of enemies if they so happen to be in a straight line.
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2375692535
Frontier Uniforms
Some new apparel for your militia. Comes with various options for different temperature needs as well as helmets and gas masks.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2564748238
Rimsenal - Feral Faction
A good mod that adds a faction of lunatics that mostly use weapons and armor cobbled together from junk. Might be a good replacement for vanilla pirates or just another faction that raids you. Thematically they of course really fit the idea of living after shit hit the fan on a global level.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=736207111
Exiled Dawn
Adds a high tech faction on par with the empire. Very cool looking gear and interesting concept on paper, on reality the mod is utterly broken. Don't let an artist write xmls for balancing because artists brains can't into numbers, you need a code monkey for that. As it happens, there's actually an unofficial version that fixes the most glaring issues and manages to turn the faction into a real alternative to the Empire. It's pretty up there in terms of sci-fi so it might not be what you want but I personally think one or two very advanced but small factions work pretty well in a post apoc setting. CDDA also has very advanced factions, such as The Old Guard or Hub01.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2092014538
The updated version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QquvbNWQ0gEo5W1HuqjvHLv76fzGxAX5/view
Changelog:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rDkARh2PLVds_vK4FICsCCnEyHVMcyoi0N1RLbbdX4A/edit
Keep in mind this is not a patch but an updated version. Don't use both together, it's either or.
Thog's Armor
Simple mod that adds some more armor for your pawns to equip. Adds an entire set of wooden armor and complements simple and flak armor present in the vanilla game with protective face masks and shoulder pads.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2779178713
The Vehicle Framework
Still in beta and will probably have compatibility issues even when it's officially released on the workshop. Definitely a mod to keep an eye on but once it's released it will probably dominate the workshop for months so it's hard to miss either way. Still, might be worth to take a peek looking if it plays nice with your modlist.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2356577528
Furniture and Structures:
Makeshift Cooler
Adds a cooler that doesn't need electricity to run but instead consumes steel and needs to be refueled regularly. Useful if you start with a scenario where you have zero technology researched. 900 research points for an industrial technology when you might as well just research electricity + air conditioning for 2100 instead seems counter intuitive so I'd recommend tweaking one or both of these values.
UN-Colony
Adds a lot of options when it comes to furniture and structures. Perfect for that rugged colony look. Might be considered bloat by some.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2019774245&searchtext=un-colony
Fortifications - Industrial
More security building for you to build, including artillery, stationary machine guns, concrete barriers and bunkers.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561619583
Fortifications - Neolithic/Medieval
Wait, a medieval mod in a post apoc modlist? Well, yes. There's nothing keeping people who have survived whatever apocalypse to fall back to that what worked in the past. Adds walls, embrasures and ditches as well as some barricades.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2385960678
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2501486827
Gloomy Furniture
Adds some nice and cozy looking furniture as well as some utility without needing electricity researched. Has a giant cooking pot that can make nutrient paste. While still being extremely efficient when it comes to nutrition values, you can still get food poisoning from it, which makes it inferior to the industrial version of the base game
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1558635181
There's also an unofficial version that gets rid of some of the layering issues Gloomy Furniture apparently has:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gRSd8Y5HWLcvQ1G--4obHPYNmtFXLP3l/view
Changelog here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uABJty_e_qxhOoKQ1UPrNoeizB3R18LLPXoHkH3Zc-8
The Wonderful Wasteland
Some more Fallout-themed options for you to play around with if you want them. It's a nice option for those that want a shanty town look.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2566586563
More Corpse Display
Does what it says on the tin. Adds some more variations to the Gibbet Cage added with Ideology. Nail corpses on a cross, impale them on sticks or hang them from trees. For that extra touch of wasteland justice.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2560778769
Camping Tents
Adds tents to the game, which work like a bed roll but protect your pawns from the elements somewhat. Has some addons on the workshop, like post apocalyptic or viking themed tents.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2407128339
Ancient Scrap Tents
An addon to the aforementioned Camping Tents mod that deserves an extra mention. Enables you to claim car wrecks and use them as tents.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2589743676
Resources: It wouldn't be a survival themed, post apoc mod list without making resource acquisition more difficult. In vanilla Rimworld, a lot of the basic resources are available to you from the start, components and steel are presented as ores which you can simply mine. As such, we can remove them from the map generation to make it harder for ourselves, making scavenging a necessity.
[KV] Configurable Maps
Allows you to alter map generation. We're mostly interested in disabling 'fake' ores such as plasteel, steel and components.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2003092153
Simple Chains: Steel
Replaces steel with iron, which you need to smelt with coal to create steel. If you use this don't disable steel 'ore' generation on the map.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1702668415
Scrap Collector
Deconstruct ancient junk that's found on the map to get scrap metal which can be refined back into random metals such as gold, steel or plasteel. Also adds some functionality to some of the junk pieces - claim, uninstall und reinstall cargo containers together to store your stuff (only works with a storage mod like Deep Storage).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2789730178
Bill Doors' Useful Junks
Gives some more functionality to junk items such as toilets and sinks (with Bad Hygiene). Can be used together with Scrap Collector.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2691738148
Seeds Please: Lite
Makes farming require seeds. This obviously makes food acquisition harder because you can't just plant a patch of rice as soon as the game starts - unless you start with rice seeds. You will rely a lot more on hunting and gathering at the start.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586052937
Neolithic Scavenging
Gives you the option to forage tiles for some food. Makes the game somewhat easier, of course, but plays nice with the added difficulty. Not that not all biomes are currently supported, check out the thread in the discussion section for that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2544523612
Dub's Bad Hygiene
A great mod which gives some more needs to your pawns, they need to clean themselves, drink water and use toilets. This obviously takes more time out of your pawn's schedule but balances it with some mood buffs. Also makes pawns seem more alive - simulating basic needs does a lot for immersion in that regard. Also gives you more options for temperature control.
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=836308268
Atmospheric Water Collection
Gives you the option to generate some water without needing to rely on wells, such as rain collectors or fog catchers. Only applicable if you use Dub's Hygiene.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2675897702
Caveworld Flora Unleashed
Adds some cool looking mushrooms with interesting effects such as a shroom that acts as a herbal medicine substitute while also emitting a puff of spores around it which lower pain and consciousness.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432710051
Soil Relocation Framework
Allows you to dig up stuff and place it somewhere else. It's basically a more streamlined and up to date version of [RF] Fertile Fields. Also has an addon that causes water to freeze but personally it didn't work for me, caused the game to be unable to generate worlds. YMMW.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2654088143
Water Freezes addon
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2728000958
[RF] Fertile Fields
The OG terraform mod. Farms need to be 'replenished' after a harvest with fertilizer such as plant matter which drops while harvesting plants and cutting grass. Has a composting system, spoiled food and ingredients turn into rotten mush which you can compost in order to create fertile soil. Turn stone chunks into sand and dig up dirt. It's my personal favorite but it adds a lot of stuff which might not be for you.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2012735237
Keep in mind that any terraforming mod is inherently unbalanced when compared to vanilla. But we already make the game much harder by disabling steel, components and plasteel during map gen as well as farming requiring seeds. It's your call.
[RF] Fishing-ReWork
One of the few fishing mods available if you want them. It's an updated and fixed version of the original mod. An alternative to Vanilla Fishing Expanded. I found fishing spots to be more intuitive than fishing zones. Since everybody knows about all the Oskarware that existed, exists and will ever exists I think it's fair to give the spotlight to lesser known mods if applicable.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2383686530
Special mention:
Medieval Overhaul: This is obvioulsy a mod that aims to turn Rimworld into a medieval game but it's quite interesting in itself because it massively changes resource generation. No more minable steel or components. No more useable leather that drops from freshly butchered corpses. Animals drop bones and fat when butchered. Cotton needs to be refined at a spinning wheel. It also adds a lot of low tech solutions to the game. If you don't want to juggle around a plethora of mods for any of these things, it might be worth to give this a shot. You need compatibility patches for most mods that add animals but you can build a sort of neomedieval settlement with it, which is often featured in post apocalyptic settings. YMMV, of course. The mod is in active development so if you don't want your savegame bricked it's a good idea to make a local clone of the mod in case an update breaks your shit. With a lot of individual mods you can sorta achieve the same effect: Simple Chains: Leather requires leather to be tanned before you can use it, Simple Chains: Steel was already mentioned, the VGP mod series requires you to spin cotton and devilstrand into fabric with a spinning wheel, Rim of Madness - Bones adds bones to butchered animals and pawns, with Industrial Age - Object and Furniture you can turn meat into wax which allows you to build and refuel candles and so on. Depending on what kind of post apocalyptic scenario you have in mind, medieval societies make sense or not so disable the faction this mod adds if its the latter.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2553700067
Biomes / Map generation. There isn't much to say here, depending on what type of scenario you want to play. There's a few that obviously come to mind such as Regrowth: Wastelands, some stuff from Alpha Biomes or Real Ruins. However, a few mods deserve special mentioning:
Geological Landforms
The now hot mod that's featured on the workshop frontpage. Generates interesting stuff during map gen on some tiles like actual canyons and dozens of other landscapes.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2773943594
This Rim of Mine
Inspired by a quite boring artsy game, generates Biomes that look like abandoned cities. Also features a special map generation on the player starting map. The actual biomes included in this mod only use the temperate forest as a base but with the map generation you can spawn a destroyed city anywhere, including custom biomes. Only on the map you start with, however. Any other city will be found in temperate regions. You can also loot some stuff from these maps, ancient refrigerators hold some meat or some kind of meal while ATMs can be looted for money. With any of the mods that add some value to junk objects like broken cars visiting a city can be a worthwhile endeavour.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586396923
Pawn improvement such as bionics and mutations. CDDA basically offers two upgrade paths that are not exclusive to one another: Cybernetics and mutations. Thankfully, Rimworld already covers the cybernetic implant stuff pretty but that of course can always be expanded upon. I won't mention the big bionic mods like EPOE, EPOE forked or RBSE.
Cybernetic Organism and Neural Network
Adds a lot of implants/upgrades that are more in line with what CDDA offers instead of simply replacing body parts with more effective versions. Want a flashlight in your ear? Now you can have that.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2045064990
Superb Prosthetics
More implants, has built in weapons like flamethrower and EMP arms.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2714931682
Combat Bionics
Even more weapon platforms as implants.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469409798
Crude Bionics
Adds some bad limb replacements that cause pain and a mood debuff if you want to recreate the broken cyborgs found in CDDA. They're still better in terms of efficiency than basic prosthetics but due to the pain they cause they quickly get worse due to lowered consciousness. You can however install a painblocker in their brain or use them as psycasters since pain increases neural heat recovery.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2559044888
Evolved Organs Redux
Turn your pawns into biological horrors beyond human comprehension. Sadly has no graphics for the additional body parts.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2424381146
Pawnmorpher
Furrybait which works well considering most of the mutations found in CDDA are furrybait as well with only a few exceptions. Turn your sniper into a rabbitmorph for more speed at the cost of HP or your melee tanks into bearmorphs for increased endurance. Turn prisoners into chickens for egg production and into cows for milk. Bombard enemy raids with mutagenic gas shells causing rapid mutation. Mine mutagenic ore that mutates your miners. Fight mutagenic crashed ships that turn your map into a psychedelic wasteland if left alone. Has (for the most part) badly drawn graphics for mutations. Note: This mods has a big impact on perfomance. It's no unusable but the code is heavily unoptimized. Adding another perfomance eating mod like JecsTools, Save our Ship or Androids will probably decrease your FPS/TPS noticeably. Use with caution. Has a few addons as well. The added body part graphics work only for humans - at least for now.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1786466855
If you want some additional depth to Rimworld's rather arcade understanding of human bodies, there's some mods to make the simulation a bit more complex. Dub's Bad Hygiene already goes in that direction - the appeal in survival scenarios, at least for some people, is to take care of whomever the player is responsible for. There's usually a fine line between realism, fun and balance, but some games go out of their way to simulate everything that can go wrong. CDDA nowadays is more heading into the direct of Unreal World, with a complex simulation of the human body. As always, if you don't like it, skip this part.
Communicable diseases
Diseases can now spread through your colony if you're not careful. It makes sense to have at least a few extra rooms in your hospital where you can treat contagious pawns. Infected pawns drop a new filth type to simulate the spread of pathogens. Adds some new clothing that offers extra protection. Only affects vanilla diseases, any other mod that adds diseases needs a patch.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2016577520
Diseases Overhauled
Changes vanilla diseases and adds new ones as well as secondary damage from certain diseases like permanent liver damage from hepatitis. Also adds some new medicine. Supposedly works with Communicable diseases.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2174246491
Diseases+
Similar to Diseases Overhauled but bigger in scope because it also adds side effects from drugs. Luciferium for example will also cause your pawn to develop neurological disorders which it later heals again, making it even more risky to use than usual. There's no reason to use both Diseases+ and Diseases Overhauled since the overlap is too big to ignore. So use one of them or not the other, if you want to use Communicable diseases as well, pick Diseases Overhauled.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2256624398
Extendend Human Body Simulation
Adds a lot of (also harvestable) body parts to human pawns and that's pretty much it. In my opinion, the mod More Injuries is superior in theory but practically broken. See my Yayo modlist for a 'fixed' version of More Injuries.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2174247669
Field Administer
Allows you to give a downed pawn drugs and such without having to awkwardly place down a sleeping spot, turning it into a medical one and then queueing up an 'operation' to administer a drug.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2472006801
There's a few mods that add new medicines as well, but most of them go overboard and add a lot of stuff that is usually covered by the base game. You don't really need morphine if go-juice exists but for anything that's missing from the basegame, I usually go with VGP Garden Medicine since that's one of the mods I always use. However, there are alternatives if you don't use VGP:
Medicine+
Only 4 new plants but 20+ new drugs. However, some of the recipes are pretty nonsensical - Heroine requiring plasteel is pretty far removed from anything sensible.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2558272601
Remedies
One new plant and 8 new drugs. A good supplement for vanilla without going overboard. Most new drugs come with side effects.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2466826996
Research is another topic that's worth thinking about since vanilla is quite boring in that regard and you don't really need anything other than time and resources to build the various research furniture. It's also quite jarring that anybody can research anything from the start, if you start as a tribal there's nothing stopping you from researching electricity, you just need more research points to unlock that technology due to the tech level penalty tribal colonies start with. Depending on the setting you want to play - shortly after the apocalypse or hundreds of years after - it makes sense to restrict researching in a sensible manner. But even if you start right after the the end of the world as we know it, an average person might have a rough conceptual understanding of things like electricity but neither has a background in physics or engineering to actually understand, produce und utilize electricity. It would then, for example, make sense that a lone survivor doesn't know very much and would start at an understanding of what vanilla Rimworld considers 'neolithic'.
Technology Blueprints & Reverse Engineering
Makes it so that enemies sometimes drop tech prints that correlate with that faction's tech level. Tribals will drop neolithic ones, medieval factions medieval ones, outlander and pirates industrial level ones and spacer factions such as the empire and mechanoids will drop spacer tech prints. These tech prints give you a configurable amount of research progress towards a random technology from that tier but they can be configured to complete an entire project as well. Reverse engineering can be used to get a boost for the research project an item belongs to, i.e. reverse engineer a cooler to get a boost to air conditioning. It's a much more active approach to the passive playstyle vanilla enourages and fits well with the survival game theme since those also lock new craftable items behind books or blueprints.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2010527094
Techblock
This restricts available research to your tech level. There's a new research project called '[tech level] understanding' or something along those lines. This scales with the amount of research projects any given tech level has, so if you enable a lot of medieval mods the research that's needed to advance from medieval to industrial scales accordingly. If, for example, you have a total pool of 10000 research points spread across the entire medieval tech tree, you'd need 20000 points to advance to industrial. But every medieval research project you complete will subtract double the value from the final research. So researching a project for 1000 points will leave you with 18000 research points needed to get to industrial - that's so you don't simply skip medieval research entirely. 1 point of normal research is worth 2 of the final one but this can of course be changed in the mod options.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1970774610
Lost Technology World
A pretty radical approach to research. Every project now requires tech prints that are located everywhere around the world map. It's best to pair this with a mod that allows you to modify research speed to almost instant completion. This would make Rimworld a bit more like the game Kenshi where research is locked behind a resource (books and AI cores IIRC) that's found in dungeons while the actual process of researching something is very, very quick. Go out, explore and fight instead of sitting on your butt all day.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2566719273
Random stuff that fits nowhere else:
Kenshi Cuisine
Adds some hardy plants that can grow pretty much everywhere to make hardy food for hardened survivors.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2600344770
[SYR] Individuality
Has some new traits and changes existing ones slightly. Pretty lightweight and doesn't add a bazillion of traits. Mechanoid Expert for example gives your pawn 25% bonus damage against mech and increases yields from scrapping them. Give that pawn a good weapon and start hunting mechs - now fighting them might actually become fun.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1497105115
Survivalist Meme
Allows you to select some powerful precepts that are normally locked behind Pain is Virtue and Tree Connection as well as giving you production specialists without needing to select Human Primacy. Pretty powerful and that's why your research will be slow to very slow.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799400398
Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Memes and Structures
Oskarware that actually does what it says and what you expect from the title? What heresy is this? The world's gone mad, the end times are nigh. We want this mainly for the Scrapper meme which increases yield from deconstructing stuff. Also allows you to increase the maximum amount of allowed maymays that you ideology can have.
Combat:
Please refer to my Yayo modlist. This modlist of course works well with CE but you might drop some of the items on the list since they may not be fully patched to work with CE. For example, most of the FCP mods do have third party patches available for them, the person doing the patches however does shoddy work. When patching weapons with CE your job isn't simply done by copy and pasting the ammo system from another patch, you also need to adjust the range of the weapons accordings since CE dramatically increases the range of most guns.