I.. wha-.. D:

[Darth Fool]

I think it should be a function of the colonists' passions.  A skill that a colonist is double passionate about should not degrade at all, whereas a skill that they don't care about at all could degrade with time.  One where they are mildly passionate about should degrade only very slowly or perhaps only degrade the experience, not the level.

[Cimanyd]

I agree it's annoying, but I don't think it's a big problem, as it is now. From my experience, you don't really need super high skill levels, and I doubt you're intended to.

Look at the starting skill levels of people. Even with a childhood that helps with a certain skill, and an adulthood completely focused on that skill, the level won't be much higher than 10. (There are exceptions, for example, the Brawler trait combined with melee-improving backstories can push melee skill ridiculously high.) It already doesn't seem realistic, based on the starting levels and the level names (basic familiarity, expert, planet-class master, etc.), that colonists would be able to get the skill levels that they already can with a passion for growing or construction and a colony that requires a lot of it. It would be even worse without the decaying.

I think that might be better with some other system for preventing ridiculously high skills than what's there, but if there's one change I'd want now, it's for skill levels not to decay below the original levels of that person (the starting levels, from the backstory and traits). If they start with 14 social, they should stay at/above 14 social.
This would solve problems like this:

it makes any specialized pawns - like the assassin - completely worthless (can't do many other jobs and, after a few days, is a mediocre shot as well).

Neurotrainers... neurotrainers could add a trait, with the added skill level, maybe? That would fit into that, would keep the neurotrainer skill addition from decaying away. Not sure if neurotrainers work with XP or levels now, though; if it's XP that wouldn't work. I don't think changing it to levels would be a problem, though. Say a medicine neurotrainer gives a trait with +5 medical skill. Give it to someone who's a practitioner (6) from backstory and you get a permanent strong expert (11). Give it to someone who's a backstory strong expert, and you get a permanent level 16 (planet-class master, or system-class, or something). That's very high, of course, but the neurotrainer is a rare, expensive, exotic item.

I think it should be a function of the colonists' passions.  A skill that a colonist is double passionate about should not degrade at all, whereas a skill that they don't care about at all could degrade with time.  One where they are mildly passionate about should degrade only very slowly or perhaps only degrade the experience, not the level.

In my experience, the only skills that get high enough for degradation to be a problem are the ones that colonists are passionate about and improve to high levels. That suggestion wouldn't be much different from removing the degradation entirely. (except for the change to "Interested")

[Matthiasagreen]

Not sure if neurotrainers work with XP or levels now, though; if it's XP that wouldn't work. I don't think changing it to levels would be a problem, though.

I am pretty sure they either work on XP or have different level amounts. I did some testing on them and they vary on how many levels they would go up. Usually the lower levels would go up faster, so I lean towards the XP idea.

[spleendamage]

I think it should be a function of the colonists' passions.  A skill that a colonist is double passionate about should not degrade at all, whereas a skill that they don't care about at all could degrade with time.  One where they are mildly passionate about should degrade only very slowly or perhaps only degrade the experience, not the level.

I like this idea, degrade slow, slower and slowest depending on passion level

[Tynan]

Just considering how the games last longer now than they did when I originally balanced this, and the feedback in this thread, I think I will slow down the degradation in the next version.

[Wex]

I started storing my assassin in cryopods. They aren't a threath as long as I dont make them emerge, so I usually end up pincering the attackers from 2 directions (2 assassin, full power armor passing from a firefight to another, they are as good as the rest of the colony togheter).