mlieThe Bridges Mod expands RimWorld’s construction options with researchable bridges, drawbridges, pontoons, foundations, platforms, and terraforming tools to reshape water and land. Floors and bridges are both terrainDef in RimWorld, which means you cannot place a floor on top of a bridge—only replace one with the other; this is a game limitation, not something the mod can change.
Bridges Mod Features
Research
- Adds 3 research projects: Bridges, Drawbridge, and Terraforming.
- Bridges research (neolithic tech level) unlocks foundation, platform, wood bridges, and pontoon bridges.
- Terraforming research (medieval tech level) unlocks “dig up water,” “place shallow water,” and “place deep water.”
Bridge types and buildables
- Linkable wood bridge: Works as both land and sea bridge; place on normal terrain or on foundation over water. Linkable with pontoon bridges. Cannot support buildings on water tiles.
- Pontoon bridge: Linkable bridge built from 2 “stuff” (wood/metal/stone) plus 1 pontoon. Can only be built on water/mud/marsh, removes water movement penalties, and is fast to construct. Pawns can walk across but not stand on them. Should not be made minifiable by other mods.
- Drawbridge: Now supports double-, triple-, and quad-wide variants; action can be pawn-driven.
- Foundation: Build on mud/marsh or shallow water to support other structures.
- Platform: Place on foundation (25 foundation material) to create solid, heavy-supporting surfaces over water; visually similar to concrete and suitable for buildings. Very work-intensive to construct.
Materials and production
- New materials: Foundation Material and Pontoons.
- Workbenches: Recipes at the Stonecutter and Machining Table, with single and bulk (10) bills; Machining versions are less work-intensive.
- Foundation Material recipe: Converts 3 “stuff” (stone/metal/wood) plus 1 metal into 4 Foundation Material (approx. 1:1 workaround to allow varied inputs).
- Pontoon recipe: 10 metal/wood produces 1 Pontoon. Pontoons can also be traded with exotic-goods style traders to offload surplus.
- Default enabled inputs include wood, steel, and vanilla stone types; other “stuff” are disabled by default.
Terraforming workflow
- To create deep water: Dig up water (creates mud) → place shallow water → place deep water. Deep-water placement is significantly more work (5,000 and 10,000 work for the last steps).
- To convert deep water back to ground: Place shallow water over deep water → build foundation → place platform, then build as on solid ground.
- Remove Floors: All added terrain tiles behave like floors and can be removed to restore original terrain. Exception: original deep water removed this way becomes sand; you can exploit this for faster terraforming (e.g., place shallow water then remove to accelerate).
Latest update
- Added support for moving water (rivers).
- Added double, triple, and quad-wide drawbridges.
- Added an option to make the drawbridge action performed by a pawn instead of being instant.
Design notes and intended use
- Balance/AI impact: The mod enables placement of impassable, indestructible deep water. This can trivialize raids by breaking enemy AI pathing. Use at your own discretion.
- Build strategy: Bridges are the quick, low-work solution for crossing; platforms are permanent, heavy-duty surfaces intended for building and therefore demand more work.
Compatibility notes
- Engine limitation: Floors and bridges share the same type (terrainDef), so you cannot place floors on bridges—only replace one with the other.
- General compatibility: With PatchOperations, it should work fine with most mods.
- Minification: Do not allow other mods to make Pontoon Bridges minifiable; this leads to issues.
- AI caution: Creating long stretches of unpassable terrain (e.g., deep water) can confuse pawn/raider AI and may trivialize threats.
- Maintenance status: No further updates are planned by the author; others may update/upload to Steam.
Additional credits: sulusdacor
