For me, it's a vatgrown con artist. Gets bonuses to shooting, hand-to-hand, and social, but can't use any of those skills. Other skills are mostly crap.
At least nobles/assassins with lousy skills (in shooting/hand-to-hand) can be drafted and used for riskier tactics. If they die, no big loss. If they survive, well, eventually their fighting skills improve to the point of being useful. But the vatgrown con artist? Urgh. You can't even arrange a convenient 'accident' for him.
(Arrest-> Execute does not count as an 'accident'.)
Gets more infuriating if you got him as an incapacitated raider. He was shooting weapons perfectly fine at you some time ago, and now he refuses to fight at all. What.
Actually, Con Artist raiders refuse to fight. Which makes it odd that they will attack in raids.
It's hard to tell in the heat of a pitched battle, but on my last map, my first raider was a female con artist. My three teenaged girls went out and beat her dead without her lifting a finger to fight back. Which was a shame, since I was trying to capture her.
But yeah, getting people with contradictions in their character generation is stupid. Midworld Nerds should never be incapable of research, even if they somehow wound up becoming an oaf later in life.
What I do with those useless fuckers is to arrest them and sell them off to a slave trader. Make 'em somebody else's problem.
when enemy's attacking and i'm short of manpower, i put drafted con artists at the back row to rescue any incapacitated colonists. But yeah, generally they are useless fuckers, even they have very high social skills and it's weird to see con artists raiders carrying M-24 wandering around....
One con artist isn't so annoying. I use him for my wardening and as the person to get on the blower and swindle those dumb motherlovers in space out of all their stuff in exchange for tons upon tons of freeze-dried nutrient paste raw material and yeah, as back rank rescuer/capturer in combat.
More than one is annoying, though, in that they're basically a less-useful Oaf to throw on farming detail.
Another gem: Vat grown soldier / courtesan (must look like arnie with lipstick on). Basically refuses to do any work... But hey, I instantly re-rolled her into something nicer - but if you get something like that: dont capture. Shoot to kill...
Yeah, it's very annoying to get someone with a childhood/adulthood that gives them massive skill buffs in a skill they refuse to perform...
I mean, what the eff, right?
Vatgrown con artists, for sure. I get one per game, at least. I usually keep these guys in reserve once the raiders come and send them out to grab wounded raiders/colonists. No loss if they get sniped.
I think vatgrown lords are pretty bad in addition to vatgrown con artists. A slave assassin, too, probably.
Quote from: ShadowDragon8685 on November 11, 2013, 09:59:18 AM
Actually, Con Artist raiders refuse to fight. Which makes it odd that they will attack in raids.
...
The way I see it they're the guys who are like "Yeah lets go raid those colonists yeah yeah!" and then hide in the back.
If they (the raiders win) they get to reap the spoils of war. If the raiders lose they get to run away alive while the suckers they conned into attacking lie in a pool of blood.
Quote from: ShadowDragon8685 on November 11, 2013, 09:59:18 AM
What I do with those useless f**kers is to arrest them and sell them off to a slave trader. Make 'em somebody else's problem.
Oh yeh.. I forgot about the slave trader.
I had a starter character that was useless for everything except research.. once everything was researched all they ever did was idle.. I'll have to remember to sell them off next game I get a useless one :)
They make good scouts, too. Got a band of raiders you want to have storm your deathtrap of a colony? Send the mooches.
The most useless colonist is that one guy with no arms or legs.
Oh, wait...that's all of them. :P
Personally, I find that assassins are one of the more useless ones to have. All of my colonists are working, and they're just wandering around. During battles, I usually draw most of my troops back into a defensive position and cap the crap out of raiders en masse. Individual shooting skill isn't as important when you're unloading that many rounds downrange. Unless you're trying to send in elite stealth units to take out enemy grenadiers, having one guy out of a dozen being able to shoot better isn't going to make much of a difference.
Quote from: ShadowDragon8685 on November 11, 2013, 02:59:53 PM
Yeah, it's very annoying to get someone with a childhood/adulthood that gives them massive skill buffs in a skill they refuse to perform...
I mean, what the eff, right?
Well, it makes sense for an adulthood to nullify a childhood. E.g you were born a noble lordling and learned social skills, then were forced into slavery and developed emotional issues that prevented you from using them.
The reverse makes no sense, though. A vatgrown soldier couldn't become a con artist because he was a vatgrown soldier first.
So yes, there are some real contradictions in the character gen system, it's true :P
Quote from: Tynan on November 20, 2013, 01:26:20 AM
So yes, there are some real contradictions in the character gen system, it's true :P
one man's contradiction is another man's chance at "extreme RP"... :D
I totally agree with steve.
I have seen fun things. And almost always i could fit it within the story i was playing.