Less Suicidal Raiders/Desperation Effects

[Didact04]

A lot of us playing rimworld intentionally set up places in the most inhospitable locations for the sake of the challenge. For the most part it's pretty much the same as any other area, but with more extreme environmental factors. Cold in particular is a popular choice because it can get so cold that people can freeze to death before reaching the other side of the map, even when wearing full parka and tuque uniforms.

However, there are bits of the game that don't entirely understand it is so very cold that it will kill them. Visitors, for instance, don't have a problem wandering idly outdoors in -100 degree weather. Raiders will set up sieges whether or not Hell is freezing over around them or if some distant nuclear detonation has been irradiating them for the last 20 minutes. Even if they realize they're outdone in combat and decide to flee, they do so when the conditions outside are bad enough to kill them. Raiders drop in from drop pods, but when they leave they have to walk. Regardless of where they're going, they're going to die before they get there.

Less suicidal pawns would be ideal. Raiders wouldn't want to go out and die in the snow as they pelt a mountainside with mortars. If it's so cold they can't stand it even with the best gear in the game, they should either decide to leave or just not show up. When they start to take environmental damage in particular (hypothermia, heat stroke) is a good time for this to happen. It can either happen en masse or particularly poorly suited raiders will gradually start to desert as their moods plummet and their health starts to suffer. They're just pirates, man; they're in it for the loot and the pay. The tribals would have a different mindset, but hey, who wants to stand in a blizzard for hours? Half your digits will be gone before the battle even starts.

If this realization hits them and they are already in combat, the desperation effect should kick in; this colony they're attacking is their last hope of getting out of the situation alive, which means they MUST kill everyone in it or they're just going to die anyway. A last ditch effort to save themselves, because running simply is not an option.

Picking free corpses up off the edge of the map is fun and all, and there's nothing funnier than watching raiders die slowly and horribly in nuclear fallout, but at some point it really just isn't very sensible for them to throw themselves away like that.

[Loki88]

+1

I've had seigers give up after only firing one mortar shell. If I remember correctly it was -104C outside at the time.

[Wex]

They simply don't know what morale is.
I remember once, a raider got shot by one of my sniper twice, and he lost both arms.
You'll ask what happened afterwards. He charged my sniper (did he want to bite him?).
Luckily, the third shot removed his head.

[RoboticManiac]

There should be a fear system that runs from 'Unnerved' (Let's just get out of here, man), 'Afraid' (We need to leave! Retreat!), Desperate (We need to win, else we're going to die out here!) and Berserk; where they've lost their minds, like a normal mental break.

[LaMizzy]

is there an alpha 12d YT LP series that showcase this extreme cold weather gameplay? I'm never seen it in action, then again...I never played in those conditions yet...

[BangUDie]

My mod... Extreme Temperature Shields has modified personal shields that protect from the insane heat or cold.... they also spawn on raiders...

Not exactly making the derps...I mean pawns smarter but that is unlikely anyway...

[jamesinar]

is there an alpha 12d YT LP series that showcase this extreme cold weather gameplay? I'm never seen it in action, then again...I never played in those conditions yet...

blitzkriegsler did an ice sheet series. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4D232HeetQMrUaXHVh2bwPY6IMjDgtLj

[Didact04]

If anyone wants to see this stuff for themselves in a game, there is a thread I recently updated for a list of seeds with extreme weather conditions to play on. The heat doesn't seem to ever seem to above or below 100 (F), but the cold cap requires some RNG help to find. The one I posted does get low enough to push hypothermia through a parka set. Sieges are particularly amusing to watch in the winter.