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It seems that of the geeks nerds contributors(!) to this forum have an droid fetish affinity.

I'm not sure where this comes from.  Possibly Star Trek, Star Wars or maybe even Lost in Space (is anyone that old?).

In any case, it is there.

So..... is it really much to land with a droid?  What would/can it do?  What won't/couldn't it do?

Initial thoughts....

- Can be assigned to do one task or task group at a time.  Cook/mine/haul/plant, repair etc (already coded as manual tasking or inversely as 'incapable of')
- Has no offensive capabilities.
- Can not be destroyed but can be put into a state of disrepair requiring rescue/repair (similar mechanic to rescuing incapped colonists).
- Can flee danger (already part of the code for avoiding firing and turrets sensing enemy locations)
- Can be the source of all colony updates that thus far have been coming from .... somewhere else.  When down you lose some warnings/updates
- Can (and should) have a personality type which is the choice of the player (examples Marvin from HGttG, C3P0, Strax from Dr Who)
- Comic relief - Should definitely have some funny things to say  (I love the current in-game "Wow that was a really big explosion!")
- Nameable

Is this stuff easily added?  Seems like much of it is already partially in place.  I know some folks would like to have a colony full of
robots and that that adds many layers of concerns but a sci-fi game without any?   This geek/nerd/gamer would be disappointed.

Comments welcome!!

Apologies if any of this has been covered in detail already.  I did some quick searches and didn't find much.

First off, I've played about 40 hours so far and only with revision 4F so my experience is somewhat limited.

I do want to say that this sim has great potential and already has a great mod community so I have high hopes
for its future and applaud all the work done thus far.

Anyhow, I wanted to take the time to hopefully make some constructive suggestions that may improve upon what has already been done.

Aging

Possibly the idea of 'winning' by building a spaceship has been scrapped at this point.  I am not sure.  Otherwise, some players may
be completely content to brave the dangers of Rimworld indefinitely and have no plans on leaving anytime soon.  For the latter, the
only current way to replace lost colonist really is through slave purchases.   This isn't necessarily bad but I think a reproductive
slash generational mechanic may be more immersive and rewarding.  This begs many questions I realize and rather than just say
'the game should have sex and babies' I'll try to cover the details.  First I guess is, Is it the intent that this be a survival-based sim
or are we really building that escape ship some day?  Assuming it is a survival game, it would be quite unrealistic to live forever
without aging.  So, the boys and girls of Rimworld better dig those Barry White CDs out of the wreckage at some point and get... busy.

Aging creates problems but also opens up possibilities.   The real-world time a current Rimworld day takes is much too long for aging
to be workable or even noticable so that'd need a solution.  Choices are to make day/night cycles faster or probably more workable
would be to have aging on RW happen faster (like dog years) or some combination of the two.  If days happen faster, build times would
need to be extended and fauna growth rates would need to be reduced (but maybe not too much on the food production because people
would be depleting food faster.  Solar energy collection rates may or may not need tweaking as the daily consumption rates may not need
any adjustment.  Please understand that I love the sun moving across the map and don't want that effect lost. 

Another advantage of aging (and death) would be skillset emphasis.  Even with skill deterioration, a long-lived colony could end up with
so many individuals with very high skillsets that difficulty is minimized.  I would rather see waxing and waning of the colony's average
skillset than for the game mechanic to be that everything just gets harder until you die.  Also, I think this is more realistic than skillset
deterioration.  Especially considering the rate at which deterioration seems to happen.  So then with skills based upon experience, your
colonists could become very good at certain tasks but eventually you would lose them naturally, if not sooner.  Now you'd actually have
to consider thinking more carefully about your workforce.

What about babies/children ?  Again, I see this an opportunity to add some meaningful game mechanics/elements.  'Coupling' need not
be mandatory but possibly assignable.   One mechanic may simply be to assign two colonists to the same bed or bedroom and hit the
'Barry White' toggle switch.  Those preferring the slaver/abduction route can play alternately as they wish.  Pregnancy could reduce
productivity.  Day-care areas could be built to free up parents.  Kids require food and put additional strain on foodstores.  Kids would
give happiness bonuses.  Parents could be 'matched' to create offspring with some inherent skill bonuses that reflect those of their
parents.  Children could be educated (by teachers or teaching computers) to gain some skills as they are aging towards being old
enough to actually work.

What about the elderly?  Elders could be teachers/cooks/gardeners/researchers  but would suffer skill penalties to skills that would
seem to naturally deteriorate or become more difficult as humans age.  Also, some skill caps may continue to increase through
advanced age.  Who makes better meatballs than nana?  Elders could also provide some mood bonus maybe by social skill (I guess
representative of story telling or just family company).   And at the end of the day if you just come to decide there's just too damn
many old people sucking up resources around here ... well you could just 'accidentally' lock them outside during the next raid, say,
until you've gotten around to finding your guns.   (A tangent here I realize, but we really need the ability to lock doors)

Death?  Let the unhappiness begin!  Loss of spouses/children/parents ... depending on which could yield mild to severe happiness
penalties.  Children should, of course, never be killed and protected at all costs which I feel is what any real colony would put
the highest priority on but heavy psych penalties could be assessed should it occur.  These could either be reduction in all productivity
or even complete introversion for some period of time.  Natural death I suppose should have an increasing probability of occurrence
with age.  I can picture myself being sad when my life-long colonist died just before his 100th birthday.  Research to increase
longevity (by preventing age-based illnesses) could be optional depending on your view of having the old folks around.  The game
could even have a colony record of all births and deaths and relevant dates and ages.  I know these ideas are a bit disjointed but I want
to show that I've put a little bit of thought into this (alright, just a little).

Seasonal Weather

Similar to games like Banished, seasons should affect strategy.  Surviving winter cold and summer heat should be a
basic concern.   Plant in the spring to maximize yield before your crops die in the winter.  The way things are shaking out in my current
game (on Randy) is I that don't have enough room for all the food and can't sell it fast enough.  How to fix this? Greenhouses?  Premiums
on hydroponics? Larders?  Preservatives?  Food seems to be 'ripe' for an overhaul (Awful I know!)

Seasons could have a separate effect slider for what impact they actually have on the game or maybe even a setting for 'no effect'
for those who are learning or just want to see the weather effects on the map but no more.  Alternatively, weather could be directly
tied in with the default storyteller characteristics.  Weather opens up many possibilities for random events.  Flash floods (living
near the river provides lush soil but danger as well), tornadoes, roof collapses, droughts, blizzards, microbursts..... all that happy
horseshit I get to deal with here in New England and more!  I gotta be honest, eclipses have gotten quite tedious even though I
build lots of batteries and don't get me started on how badly solar flares irritate me when they shut my equipment down.

Anyhow, my two cents on a few things that others may or may not find interesting or worthy of implementing into the final
product.  I know that any and all of these things add work for Ty and others and that there have been so many great ideas that
there simply isn't time to work them all in.   I hope all the real good ones make it through at least eventually as mods if not as
official release features.  Again, my hat is off to Tynan and the modders for all that they have done and continue to do
to make this game better and better.  The enthusiasm I see is great.  Keep it up!!

Sorry for the length of the post ! 

Opie