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Another idea would be to have relatives in raids always be downed instead of killed, if possible. That way you can have the cool story moment of reuniting the family members when your colonist hauls them off to jail! And eventually the family member will come around and join their relatives in the colony.

Well, as a real person with something you could called "chemical fascination" I have to admit that the current system is painfully close to reality. Binging on ANYTHING at home during a mental breakdown is just the way it goes. Therefore YOU need to micromanage and ban those "dangerous drugs" from your colony. There is a "burn drugs" bill in campfire, crematory etc.

That makes sense, and I thought that's what the current system was designed to emulate. If you have a pawn who craves new chemical experiences like an alphabeaver craves trees, they will not be satisfied with a beer every two days. The current system isn't frustrating to me because it makes sense, though I imagine others might not share my view.

Firefoam poppers are amazing and I get them online as soon as is practical. They shut down fires in an astonishingly wide area with no colonist involvement.

I don't have a lot of experience with the new content so far, but it seems af though the berserk powers are particularly strong. They not only turn one enemy against their friends (multiple in the case of berserk pulse), but also cause their friends to fight back and hurt more raiders instead of your colonists.

I had two colonists get into a social fight the other day. One of them punched the other guy a couple times, then the second one dove at the first guy's foot and bit his big toe clean off! What kind of savage fights like that!? Not a salty post, it was very funny and ultimately low impact.

The two most recent hotfixes seem to address a lot of these concerns. Mech mortars were nerfed and reclassified as a "problem causer" instead of a combat threat, so only one can spawn per cluster. And mech clusters were made a separate event type instead of a raid strategy, so they should pop up less frequently. Overall the mech buildings have gotten a lot weaker since release.

I think there have been some changes now

It can be nice to have your best doctor on regular doses of penoxycyline to ensure they are standing when a sickness hits.

I typically will build open bases, but I have at least one section that can be used as an emergency manhunter shelter. Essentially, make sure you have an enclosed building where pawns can access food without going outside. You can set up temporary sleeping spots indoors until the manhunters fall asleep and you can return to outdoors safely.

1. Are animals useful in combat? Do you use them? If so, why?  If not, why not?

I have found that animals are helpful in close-quarters combat. If my base is protected by bunkers and gun turrets with large cleared kill corridors then I find animals will often just get in the way, though they can help if used to intercept charging melee troops. However, they are great for fighting indoors or surprising raiders who have no chance to properly shoot at the animals. The best example occurred when I parked a couple bears and a megasloth by the opening point of a sapper's tunnel. When the raiders broke through the wall, they were torn to pieces in moments.

Animals are also helpful as a reserve defense force when things are going badly for my colony. They have been quite useful on occasions where I do not have good permanent defenses or when several colonists are recovering from injuries. In cases like this, it helps to be able to send a pack of muffalo to smash up the raiders and help keep my remaining colonists alive.

2. Are there annoying/weird points about animals in combat?

Animals tend to wander out of cover and get shot unnecessarily. They don't have the ability to hide behind cover like a colonist, so if they are waiting among the gun line they will just eat bullets over and over again.


3. How are you using animals in combat?

I have found the most success with either pack animals that reproduce quickly (boars, wolves, and similar) and large beefy animals that can take a dozen rifle shots and stay standing (rhinos, elephants, bears). The former lets me keep a large enough stock of animals that a few losses will not be crippling, while the latter allows animals to survive combat with only rare permanent injuries.

I just want to say how much I love this new weapon. It's the perfect remedy for charging tribal warriors or manhunting animals. With clever use of intervening terrain can be used to devastating effect against raiders with long tamed weaponry. My caravans never leave home without one

I had the exact same thing happen to one of my pawns -- she had a gunshot wound and an infection in her torso, and she died at about 89% infection level. Thanks for clearing this up!

Wow, I didn't realize it could heal brain damage! Can it get rid of conditions like bad back or cataracts as well?

I think you should keep the wolves, you should be able to find a use for them in either hauling or combat. I believe wolves have advanced trainable intelligence, which means you can train them to haul things for you. Their high speed makes them quite effective at grabbing faraway items and bringing them to your stockpiles.

I find that having a couple "tank" animals is very helpful during raids, and a constantly replenishing pool of wolves will serve that finding quite nicely. They are especially helpful as caravan guards, where a few loyal meatshields can make all the difference during a manhunter animal ambush. Sending trade caravans loaded with drugs, clothes and art to other settlements is an excellent way to make money, and the wolves will make those journeys much safer.

As a side note, boars are my favorite guard animals because they are omnivorous. During warm months they will happily graze on any wild plants, saving you a great deal of kibble.

I checked on one of the colony Yorkshire Terriers one day and found that he had Alcohol Tolerance (massive). Then a few days later it and three other Yorkies were simultaneously killed in a massive "Zzzzt" explosion.