What's your favourite colony sim on PC?

I feel like I should recommend Dwarf Fortress but I also feel like I should NOT recommend Dwarf Fortress.

Look, I'll just leave Dwarf Fortress here in the corner, peering into the room and the rest of us can try to ignore it. But it's there.

Dwarf Fortress isn't a colony sim game, though

It's a tavern corpse clean up sim.
- Pffft! Look at this dude who assigned a tavern keeper to the inn while still allowing non dwarves entrance to it. Everybody knows that those knife-ears and humies can't handle nutritious dwarven wine. They get drunk and break shit. Best just to not have them in the fortress at all.
The Steam edition feels a lot more recommendable, though.
I second the recommendation of the steam/itch release of dwarf fortress. Definitely more accessible
I like the idea of DF, but I'm leaning more towards Songs of Syx instead. It's not on sale so I'm in no hurry but it's on my shortlist

Dwarf Fortress is great once you get past the steep learning curve.

Dwarf fortress

All the other slim shadys are just imitating.

Against the Storm, just recently started playing this and it's fun. Currently $19.49 on the steam sale.

Endzone - A World Apart, has a very post apocalyptic feel. Currently $7.49 on the steam sale.

Also want to second Against the Storm, with the caveat that if you enjoy seeing your colony go self-sufficient, this isn't really the game. The instant your colony goes self-sufficient here, the game is basically over, and the gameplay loop consists entirely of the struggle in getting there based on a randomised set of variables.

... which makes it my favourite colony sim by a mile. I think I have over two hundred hours in it, and it's still getting improved by the active devs.
Against the storm is one of my favorite entries to the sub genre in a long time. I play loads of city/colony sims and this title stood out as something unique without getting away from the core elements of a colony sim. It also takes the best parts of rogue likes without making the game feel impossibly hard (but you can ramp up the difficulty in a variety of ways including in the middle of playing)

But like others have stated it's not going to scratch the same itch as massive city builders like Cities, or factory games.

Still it felt fresh and I dumped a couple hundred hours into it already.
It's my most played game this year and I was just doing the Beaver Utopia achievement a while ago today.

But it's not really a colony management game in the same sense. It's more of a roguelite-ish city builder.

I’ll second Timberborn, it seems like a simple game but it gets complicated towards the end.

If factory games are your jam then I can’t recommend Captian Of Industry and Dyson Sphere Program enough, both are S tier factory games for me. The Riftbreaker is another interesting combo of colony building and tower defense as well.

Satisfactory is another worth including in the factory games list.
- Oh absolutely, I’m ashamed I didn’t mention it, I guess my brain was stuck on top down style hah. Satisfactory is incredible, they keep adding awesome stuff to it.
  
  Captain Of Industry is a little daunting because it uses as close to real world processes as possible but Nilaus on YT has excellent videos on it (and many of the others mentioned). This is his playlist for the recent huge Update 1 for the game.
  
  I also forgot to mention how good Cities: Skylines has become and how incredible Cities: Skylines 2 looks. I have learned so much about real cities from playing that and watching City Planner Plays play it and relate it to his real world job as a city planner.
How can you even mention factory games without pointing out Factorio.
- Oh that’s definitely on the list, I thought I saw someone else mention it facepalm

I'm gonna go old school and say Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Had a blast playing that one on my college days.

Rimworld with mods can basically turn in whatever game you want. There is no limit

Dwarf Fortress, obviously? You should check out "Odd Realm" and "Songs of Syx" as well.
Odd Realm is probably the closest to a Dwarf Fortress with proper graphical UI & graphics + animations, but of course not with its age long development & depth behind it. Songs of Syx is a bit of a hybrid going empire builder, that also aims to have big ass battles with potentially thousands of people.

Dwarf fortress, cliff empire

I actually really like They Are Billions. Bit different but it’s survival against zombies. Very difficult in my opinion but I keep going back

I feel like I'll either love that game or hate it - haven't justified the time or money yet
- Lol that’s fair. Also hey NZ here as well!

Timberborn for sure! I've also enjoyed Settlement Survival, although the last time I played was during early access so it may have changed now that it's been officially released.

SimAnt!!! Although a different kind of colony :p

Does Factorio count?

Probably! I've played that a lot to but never reached launching the rocket.
- Same, I like playing railworlds but I always get stuck when I start expanding my railway network because there aren't enough resources for the expansion to pay for itself.

Planetbase and Dawn of Man weren't bad - get a bit frustrating though

Really wish we could get an updated Planetbase and some more maps. I love that game
- I feel like it could use some good mods - rather than just different starting conditions, scenarios and gamepay settings.
  
  Temperature management, new classes, different buildings and objects... like a fucking travelator.
  
  Also wonder how well it would go if you could multistory buildings or go underground.
I didn't get into dawn of man all that much but planet base is an awesome game. It definitely has some quirks but once you figure out of some of those quirks work it's great. I would love for that developer to make a second one.

It's all about that Rimworld! I always wanted to get in to Dwarf Fortress but I can never make it stick.

Did you know that it has a Steam version now which is so much more accessible?
- Haven't had a chance to check that one out yet, one of these days, I had heard it was more accessible though.

Surviving Mars and Per Aspera

Unknown Horizons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Horizons Its free, and has a fun gameplay cycle and UI. The game engine the old version used is outdated and it's undergoing a slow Godot rewrite to modernize it. I've spent at least a hundred hours playing it, it's a lot of fun and keeps things simple but strategic.

It probably doesn't strictly count, but..... Kenshi.

Kenshin is so weird, I found it pretty late (like last year). If the sequel ever comes out I want to try it again

Dwarf Fortress.

Rimworld is also great, but I like building in 3D.

There are Z-level mods out there for Rimworld, if that one missing dimension is the only thing keeping you away.
- @mrsgreenpotato
  
  It's not keeping me away, I play both games. I just enjoy the building and world generation a lot more in Dwarf Fortress, and Rimworld for in-game pawn shenanigans

I've been playing the early release Furthest Frontier which has been good. Not buggy for me, though it is lacking a decent endgame IMO.

Age of Empires is a pretty standard one, though more war focused than exploration/growth.

I've played They are Billions and it's pretty good, though general online consensus is that the campaign is entirely unforgiving if you use your upgrade points in an unoptimized way, but is otherwise good. The one offs are fun and overall a well designed game.

On a smaller scale, This War of Mine is a really good game, though not quite a full colony sim it hits the same itch for me and has a lot of stark and rough choices.

Farthest Frontier has a nice juicy update coming soon too!

Pretty obvious, but Sid Meier's Colonisation

Rimworld, especially once you get the mods going. I have literal hundreds of mods

My favorites are Oxygen Not Included and Dwarf Fortress. Surviving Mars for somewhat lighter experience.

Not sure if you would consider it a colony sim but factorio is really good

Can I semi-hijack this post to ask you all: What is the best colony sim you’ve played (including the ones OP already has listed)? Looking to try one for the first time. Bonus points if it plays well on Steam deck.

Rimworld with mods is literally an endless experience. I've played 800 hours and come back to play another 50 every few months.
- How is it on the deck? Playable with the touch pad?
I loved Banished; very independent and trying to keep everything going without having to worry about armies invading, as you're just trying to survive.

Farthest Frontier

It's still early access and is a little rough around the edges, but very playable and fun. Plus the devs are very responsive to feedback via their discord and have been making really good updates over the last year.

I don't play sims typically, but my wife loves them. I might be way off base here, but she really likes a game called Sheltered.

Also semi-hijacking this thread: which colony sim has decent multiplayer? Ideally co-op.

My partner and I tried a multiplayer mod in Rimworld a year or two ago and I don't think her PC can keep up with it on higher speeds, and it doesn't seem to sync. So my game advances, and hers lags behind and needs to take some time to catch up.

Currently Farthest Frontier, the best Banished-alike I’ve played so far.

Oxygen Not Included :)

Obligatory Dwarf Fortress (I'm a DF simp). But also:

Against The Storm

Clanfolk

Foundation

Going Medieval

KeeperRL (This is a weird one)

Does “satisfactory” count? It’s still in early access but I fucking love that game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113120/IXION/

Ixion comes to mind. You are in charge of managing a space station as you try to navigate the last of humanity to a new planet. Its more directed than most Sims, with a campaign split in to multiple acts but I found it quite challenging and engaging.

You know... I was enjoying playing this until an unfortunate turn of events led to my people going hungry. They then chose to go on strike, but only in the places that produced food... (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
- Yeah I was in the same boat. Things can go bad very quickly. I think the game expects you to hang out in each chapter for a long time and really optimize your station. It's HARD.

Anno 1800 is amazing if you don't like the survival aspect of the other games.

If you liked Frostpunk, have a look at Ixion.

You're on a space station, basically the same thing. Except it's one large campaign, not like Frostpunk's limited format. Honestly I think Frostpunk is the superior game, but Ixion is pretty good.

Tropico 4 tbh lol, super fun

Rimworld & Dwarf Fortress