Incapacitate, not kill?

[BugPowderDust]

Hi,

Loving Alpha 9x, it's a brilliant release. Whatever Tynan has done, it's really nice- from sound feedback, UI improvements and just general gameplay, it's really clicking with me. Good job!

Just a couple of questions- I am noticing (and this may just be me?) that I am killing raiders much more often that just incapacitating them. Is this my imagination, or are you finding this too? Is there any way that I can defend against raiders but stand a better chance of incap'ing them? I only have 4 colonists and I'm a long way in. I need more people!

Also- with space refugees that crash and I rescue, they always seem to get up and walk off when healed. Do I need to capture them as a matter of course?

Thanks in advance

[Boboid]

I suspect you only have 4 people because the primary way the game helps level out colonist numbers is by crashed refugees, and you keep releasing them!

Rescue effectively means "Heal up and leave" and would have a positive relationship bonus if they were tied to a faction, as it is you're just fixing them up and then letting them go about their merry way rather than converting them.


Sounds like you're getting a bit unlucky, I don't have a comprehensive understanding of what causes pawn deaths (Many times I've inspected a dead pawn only to discover they have no fatal wounds, and are dead all the same) but in general Blunt melee weapons do a good job of incapping rather than killing as they cause bone wounds in addition to standard hits which pile on the Pain which at a certain point incapacitates pawns.

When you're firing guns it's pretty much pot luck, but in general if you don't release all your free colonists you'll keep your numbers up

[BugPowderDust]

Hi Boboid,thanks for the reply.

So....yeah, looks like I've been patching up and healing crashed colonists ("don't want to capture them, poor sods just need healing and they're bound to join us"), and they just bugger off ("trololol, I'm joining the pirates, pewpew")

Next ones get captured!

Blunt weapons sound like a plan. I've got 2 good melee guys, so I will have to try to use them more. 2 of the 3 hostile factions are tribespeople, and they are all lowtech weapons, no decent clothes and WILL NOT be converted to joining us!

[Boboid]

Remember you can increase relations with the tribes people by capturing and then releasing them once they're healthy enough to get to the edge of the map.
If you get them out of Hostile a lower % of attacks will be from tribespeople.
Just beware of mechanoids

It's also worth noting that Blunt weapons (By design) do less damage overall, so your melee guys will just generally do less dps with them equipped.
Skip clubs, go straight for Maces

[BugPowderDust]

Thanks for the tips. I don't want to be friendly to the tribes just yet, mechs are a PITA to deal with!

[skullywag]

Yeah the wording on those float menus needs to be clearer. Maybe people you save should hang around a bit after and decide if they like your colony enough. Almost like a temporary uncontrollable colonist, they are allowed to eat and drink your stuff amd after a period decide to leave or stay. Wardens can help that decision along as they do with prisoners. Would mean you can remove the capture option and just have rescue. You should also have the option to kick em out.

[BugPowderDust]

Yeah, its a bit immersion breaking.

You save, heal, look after a crashling, and they decide rather than to join your friendly comfortable colony, they're going to go it alone. Really? 

[rakkaus]

So....yeah, looks like I've been patching up and healing crashed colonists ("don't want to capture them, poor sods just need healing and they're bound to join us"), and they just bugger off ("trololol, I'm joining the pirates, pewpew")

LOL 

[Palad1n]

 I give them several chances to convert over before I crank up the heat or lower the temp drastically, which hasn't really helped my cause mind you =P 

I have also captured badly injured from the crashing pods and instead of offering medical treatment, I start my organ harvesting protocols usually starting out with a kidney, then a lung, then the liver or heart, depending on my needs. 

What I would like to see is an option to harvest organs off dead pawns within a reasonable time frame, especially if you put them in cryotubes or in a refrigerated environment.

It is a pain when I have a social of 10-11, yet my chances to recruit are around 25% at best and usually much lower, even though they have plenty of space, are getting fed, have light, a nice bed to sleep in, etc.

I would love to have a mod set up a "rule by fear" in which you can execute a pawn in front of the others and let 1 of the others go free to carry a message back to their clan. Yeah, lots of divergent thoughts on how to play a colony, haha!

[10001110]

There is a tradeoff between playing on easier levels, harder levels and capturing pawns. On easier levels everything seems to move much slower, because there aren't many attacks, not very numerous, and thus less chances of capturing. Starting with 2 melee and one ranged may help on easier levels, as for shooting a target a couple times then beating him up a bit.
Having a full time warden increases the chances by a big deal, since the prisoners will be constantly talked to. I like to start with a cook\warden, and build a prison right next to the kitchen and fridge. I just set the dude to warden, and switch to cook when food is low.

[Vexare]

Yeah the wording on those float menus needs to be clearer. Maybe people you save should hang around a bit after and decide if they like your colony enough. Almost like a temporary uncontrollable colonist, they are allowed to eat and drink your stuff amd after a period decide to leave or stay. Wardens can help that decision along as they do with prisoners. Would mean you can remove the capture option and just have rescue. You should also have the option to kick em out.

I like this a lot. I want the colonists we take in as "guests" to have the freedom to leave but if the colony is nicely run, safe and secure, and has food to eat, they should *want* to stay on or be easily recruited by those with high social skills. Why does imprisonment/warden coercion have to be the only way you can 'convince' someone to join your colony other than the randoms who are sent your way to join out of the blue?

I'm glad Tynan has added the ability to heal up neighboring colonists without angering them and messing up faction - that's a step in the right direction. But the next step needs to be a chance for them to stay around and decide if your colony is a better deal. If not your neighboring allies, at the very least the random strangers who drop from space in pods and those you rescue from cryptosleep caskets should have some sort of AI built in where they decide whether they want to stay or not without you having to 'capture' them to do it. That doesn't feel right RP wise to me.

[tommytom]

I noticed the mostly dying too instead of incapped, but a lot of it is RNG and some it has to do with armor.

The more armor they, the more likely you won't hit them in the heart/brain immediately and instead will either damage their arms/legs with more hits or just blow them clean off.

I rarely ever get the drop pod rescue events. I usually just arrest visitors, deal with the increased tribal attacks (usually easier), and rejoice at less mechanoid events. Albeit, this leads to a very poor colony as you can't sell those early AI cores and only have to face 1-2 mechs.

[erg]

Yeah the wording on those float menus needs to be clearer. Maybe people you save should hang around a bit after and decide if they like your colony enough. Almost like a temporary uncontrollable colonist, they are allowed to eat and drink your stuff amd after a period decide to leave or stay. Wardens can help that decision along as they do with prisoners. Would mean you can remove the capture option and just have rescue. You should also have the option to kick em out.

I like this a lot. I want the colonists we take in as "guests" to have the freedom to leave but if the colony is nicely run, safe and secure, and has food to eat, they should *want* to stay on or be easily recruited by those with high social skills. Why does imprisonment/warden coercion have to be the only way you can 'convince' someone to join your colony other than the randoms who are sent your way to join out of the blue?

I'm glad Tynan has added the ability to heal up neighboring colonists without angering them and messing up faction - that's a step in the right direction. But the next step needs to be a chance for them to stay around and decide if your colony is a better deal. If not your neighboring allies, at the very least the random strangers who drop from space in pods and those you rescue from cryptosleep caskets should have some sort of AI built in where they decide whether they want to stay or not without you having to 'capture' them to do it. That doesn't feel right RP wise to me.

That's a fantastic idea, and it could be tied to your colony itself, like have an average mood check over 7 days and if they're happier than a randomly generated happiness for their home, they decide to move in. They'd be affected just like any other colonist by beauty and socializing so it encourages people to keep things tidy if they want more bodies.

[praguepride]

Because some wounds are more lethal then others while it is more likely that you will kill incoming bandits it's not like the game is specifically making the raiders die instead of incap.

If anything it's less RNG dependent in that it's not just artificial RNG when their health gets low, but now it's more like you have to get a lucky RNG to hit them someplace that incaps them but doesn't insta-kill them.

On the flipside if you're killing off your captives because they're difficult to recruit, don't come to the boards wondering why you can't recruit anyone. Tribal captives can be as low as 5% at max mood but you have to keep trying. I think you normally get 3 chances per day so that's ~15% per day with an expectation that you'd hav a greater then 50% chance of recruiting by the fifth day. Even after 2 weeks at 3 times a day there is still a greater then 1/10 chance that it hasn't happened yet...

I wouldn't give up in frustration until around a month as by that point you're really getting screwed by the RNG. Before 30 days however you're just being unreasonably impatient

[BugPowderDust]

On the flipside if you're killing off your captives because they're difficult to recruit, don't come to the boards wondering why you can't recruit anyone.

Nope, nor did I say that I was. I sat there for a very long time trying to recruit a 1%er, even when my food ran out and I was living off uncooked Scarabs. I ended up releasing him as I couldn't feed him