World pawns are seemingly frozen in time.
If a refugee crashes in an escape pod and ultimately leaves the map, they do not join a faction, their injuries are exactly how they were when they left the map, and their needs are unaltered.
Obviously, it would possibly lead to reduced performance if they were continuously simulated in the background, but what about a rough approximation of that when they return, based on how long they've been gone?
That sounds like a great idea!
So basically when the game spawns in a world pawn from a previous time, it finds how long ago the pawn previously appeared, and then applies random health effects (with different weightings so that luciferium addiction or carcinoma doesn't happen as often as a scratch scar) with higher chances the longer the pawn has been gone for.
You know that they'll just go find a bandit group and come back and attack you. And now they know your base weaknesses....it was all a plot!
Yeah, they could:
- Have their wounds healed,
- Have their skills increased
- Have a weapon
- Have new clothes