Messages

Few more traits for colonists:
Insomniac - The colonist has trouble sleeping and will never be 100% rested. As such, the colonist will keep irregular hours.
Workaholic - The colonist gains happiness from working and unhappiness from being idle for too long.
Allergic to <animal> - The colonist has a mild allergy that is active when near a specific animal. Happiness will decrease slightly for a time after it occurs.
Pyrophobic - The colonist is afraid of fire and may panic or suffer a mental break when dealing with fire.
Somnambulist - The colonist walks in his or her sleep, and may perform work with no cost to rest. The colonist may be a bit freaked out if he or she wakes up before returning to bed.
High Metabolism - The colonist requires more food than most people.
Low Metabolism - The colonist requires less food than most people.
Glutton - The colonist does not require more food than most people, but will eat more than needed.
Comedian - The colonist has a fantastic sense of humor and will sometimes tell jokes to other colonists nearby to increase their happiness.

Here's a possible late game defense - Anti-Air/Ship turrets. Expensive to make, perhaps requiring rare or expensive ammunition, these would shoot down pods of incoming raiding parties to reduce the number of pirates that manage to land or have them land with some health reduction. An anti-ship version could deter an attack altogether, though wouldn't have a 100% success rate when fired and have a long cool down or would be inordinately expensive to use every time.

• Unusually High Solar Activity - The local star's output has increased for a time. Solar panels generate more energy during the day and outdoor plants grow slightly faster, but fires may start randomly outdoors.
• Unusually Low Solar Activity - The local star's output has decreased for a time. Solar panels generate less energy during the day and outdoor plants grow slightly slower.
• Blockade - You've angered a powerful aristocrat! Perhaps that Pirate King you just executed was a beloved relative, or maybe one of your colonists is a former rival that was tracked down and this is about revenge, or it could be that the jerk is just drunk on power and is doing it because he can. Mercenary ships have been hired to blockade your world, preventing traders from trading with you. Bribe them to leave or wait it out until their contract runs out or they are driven off by another force. At least they may kill any pirates attempting to get through as well, and maybe some intrepid smugglers may risk running the blockade... to sell at exorbitant prices, of course.

Yea and no. As some people suggested before, having too much automation may put the endgame in some kind of boring auto-farm feast, which I personnaly wouldn't like.
On the other end maybe it would be interesting to have some simple task robots, like a metal extractor or a potatoe breeder (yes I know...), that would be balance by some kind of sink (maybe energy?) in order to avoid the robot flood...

Well, I wasn't thinking of the androids as being full automation so much as a different type of race that has its own quirks. As logical beings they'd be more prone to taking logic to extremes, and such they'd have special traits that humans wouldn't get. They'd also be pretty rare I would think, so having one is a high risk high reward type of thing. If not, then perhaps some kind of soft cap could be put on them - robots might share programming on occasion to increase efficiency, but the more you have the more you risk the AIs going rogue and turning on your colonists, kind of like the Geth from Mass Effect.

Alternatively, maybe there could be a "rogue AI" module where you manage a colony of sapient androids, and their needs, threats, and challenges differ from a human colony.

So here's what I'm thinking - in addition to the human colonists, in the mid/late game there could be the possibility of adding androids or robots with advanced AI to your colony. These could be built, bought from one of the more rare traders for a high price, or perhaps be found in the ruins that may later be implemented as a remnant of an ancient advanced civilization.

The AI types would start off as blank slates - they have some degree of knowledge of all or most of the possible jobs, and get better at those jobs as they do them more frequently. Eventually some internal limit would make the android stop learning so they wouldn't be too overpowered, but being able to direct the development of one of your colonists to be a specialist or jack of all trades to your liking would be quite powerful. Perhaps the android could master two jobs before maxing out. Of course, that shouldn't be without risk...

AI is a crapshoot, as the trope goes, and so using an android would come with some risk. As an android learns, it would get character traits related to what it does. Some of these would be positive for your colony, others negative, others harmless quirks, and others being a mix. The possible traits would depend on what you choose to specialize your android in. Here are a few examples:

1. Let's say you make your android fight in combat a lot. Ways this could go...
Omnicidal - This android enjoys killing humans. A lot. If it doesn't kill an enemy for some time, it will go berserk and turn on your colonists.
Cruel - The android has a fascination with inflicting pain. Beatings of prisoners will be more effective, and if left idle it may go out of its way to kill animals on the map on occasion.
Fiercely Protective - The android has fought in numerous battles to protect the colony. It fights with efficiency beyond what it should be physically capable of.
Gloomy - The android is routinely depressed due to having seen and caused much death. Its presence may cause colonists to be less happy, and may decide to go into the wilderness and self-destruct if left idle for too long.

2. Let's say you have an android you relegated to farming duty...
Green Thumb - The android farms with incredible efficiency.
Tree Hugger - The android likes plants more than the colonists, and will sulk and refuse to work if it sees too many plants harvested in succession.
Nurturing - The android's patient work with plants has translated into compassion for living things, and the android will help lift the spirits of depressed colonists.
Calm - The android's patient raising of plants has instilled it with great calm, and it will be significantly less prone to malfunction.

3. Let's say you have an android you had do a bunch of different things, with no specific focus...
Inferiority Complex - The android, failing to have mastered anything, will get depressed at its failures if it does any one task for too long and sulk instead of work.
Helpful - The android will prioritize helping colonists with active tasks over doing tasks it is assigned to do.

4. You have an android who you've made master medical knowledge...
Pacifist - As a healer, the android takes "do no harm" seriously.
Social - The android has had many conversations with its patients, and will spend time every day talking with the colonists.
Mad Tinker - The android has a fascination with biology and will sometimes experiment on colonists or prisoners when healing them. This may results in the colonist being crippled when a failure occurs or enhanced when successful.

Some traits may be shared among possible jobs. For instance "Social" could come about through both being a doctor or being a warden.

The androids could probably have two or three 'revelations' through their development, with a trait gained at each one. If you get a really bad trait early on, perhaps it could be curbed by having the android go along a path that has a contradictory trait. For instance, you could have an android with the "Omnicidal" trait could be urged to farm as a second specialty in the hopes of getting the "Calm" trait, so that it would enjoy battle a lot but not turn on your colonists. On the other hand, this would risk it getting the "Tree Hugger" trait and having it go berserk if it sees your colonists harvesting plants even if it did battle recently.

Thoughts?