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I would assume that the plants are genetically engineered to have a faster growth rate and a shorter lifespan, they are something like 2,500 years into the future after all.

........

The main issue I have with reproducing colonists is that a natural pregnancy doesn't fit within the time frame of a normal game.........

Hang on one cotton pickin' second...

If you accept that the plants have been genetically modified to gestate and grow faster, why is it difficult for you to image that the humans could also have been similarly modified?

The game is desperately in need of a re-balance in terms of the colonists priorities. Having just fought off a pirate attack, with three colonists in medical beds, and two running around playing doctor, the couple of idiots did just about every other thing they could think of if it meant not eating the cooked meals that were just casually sat there.

Honestly, they must have fed their patients to bursting point, built some nice new floors, ran outside to fix the walls, and even harvested a few crops. But no, no they wouldn't eat. So instead they went mental, ran away, and the critical patients then died

/game

You can image how much this made me want to play again!

That doesn't sound right. Doctors will feed patients before eating (as said above, you can get around that by unchecking "doctor" just long enough for them to go eat) but that doesn't happen with constructing or repairing. It sounds more like your doctors fed the last of the available food to the patients, and then had no food to eat. What cooked meals are you talking about? If the dead attackers dropped meals, they'll be forbidden (have a little red x on them) and colonists won't touch forbidden things at all, you should select them all and unforbid them. Did the colonists try to eat the crops they harvested?

They fed the meals that were left (in my base) to the patients, then when they harvested the crops, they fed them those too.

They started doing other tasks like constructing etc once they'd ran out of food. But my issue there is that they should have been more inclined to harvest the crops to eat (you'd think).

The ones dropped by pirates we're also fed to patients once I'd 'F'd them

Just seems like a very important no brainer to me, that you'd prioritise keeping yourself alive if your long term goal was to save a patient

The game is desperately in need of a re-balance in terms of the colonists priorities. Having just fought off a pirate attack, with three colonists in medical beds, and two running around playing doctor, the couple of idiots did just about every other thing they could think of if it meant not eating the cooked meals that were just casually sat there.

Honestly, they must have fed their patients to bursting point, built some nice new floors, ran outside to fix the walls, and even harvested a few crops. But no, no they wouldn't eat. So instead they went mental, ran away, and the critical patients then died

/game

You can image how much this made me want to play again!

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=6694.0

See my relevant thread here which I believe makes a strong proposal, and both identifies and resolves the potential issues raised by the poster above

Games typically last 50-100 days (try Cassandra at Challenging and keep the first colonists that are rolled for you), which is too short for any meaningful impact. Pregnancies take 270+ days. Adding a system for children would probably be a waste.

Thunder1, not trying to be funny but you read the key bit about the aging VAT didn't you?

Or is your concern more focused on the length of the pregnancy?

If so, I do not believe one game light and dark cycle equates to one actual day. I could be wrong, but if I am, we need to find out what the species of potato and berries they grow in game are - they could solve world hunger in a week!

Jokes aside, I believe that the pregnancy period would not equate to 270 cycles of light and dark in the game, probably closer to 10.

You'd have to add a -40 mood Malus that last for years to the partner if they die in childbirth

Also if you do go the vat route you can have same sex couples having children. 

Hey Geo, the flow diagram has a bit in it for negative and positive mood modifiers as a result of a birth/still birth.

Although the Vat I had in mind was for rapid aging rather than creation of children. I dunno, but it seems a bit cheap to me (in game) to just push a button and build a child, I'd much rather go through the process of earning one.

C-Sectio. Just get the baby out of the mother with an operation. This will need a skilled doctor. And a natural birth doesn't have to be only succesfull with a doctor.

C-Sectio: Experienced doctor to perform save operation.
Natural Birth: Will be saver with doctor, but NOT needed. Bigger chance the mother or child will die.

Like the idea of C sections as an alternative to natural birth, could work well as a method of birth with a greater chance of mother surviving, but requires a highly skilled doctor.

I have often wanted the same thing.

You could resolve the issue mentioned above:

"That only works if you play the game in a specific way, where one has set up a single possible base entrance."

By having battle stations A, B C and D for attacks from different predicted routes accordingly.

[Potential Issues and my response:]

Howdy,

(First Post!)

I've posted a much simplified version of this over on reddit to mixed response.

Essentially, its a workable way of bringing children and procreation into the game without breaking it.

Check out the flow chart at the bottom of the post:

Potential Issues and my response:

I) Whats the point? (Game enrichment perspective)
R) Adds a new layer of RPG to it, also adds new challenges, and alternative means to the same ends (population growth). Also adds the prospect of family trees, which I think would be cool.

I) Children would take to long to grow up, would make it pointless
R) I think at the start of the game you'd try to avoid having them, until you'd researched the maturity vat to speed up their growth

I) Children would upset the balance of the game, too many colonists breaks it
R) Whether a colonist gets pregnant of not is dependent on a number of conditions, not least that the Story Teller thinks it would work (same logic for deciding when a slave trader swings by). Also pregnancies can fail (sad times)

I) Children (potentially) dying is unethical
R) And genocide, harvesting organs, slavery isn't?

I) Pregnancy takes 270+ days, by time a baby was born, the game would be over
R) 270 days IRL sure, but in real life potatoes and berries don't grow in a few days either - the game day/night cycle is out of sink with the passage of time. I believe that in game pregnancy would be closer to 10-15 days

Tell me what you think