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I certainly don't see babies and children as being an impediment to an "Escape the planet" endgame, they're just another factor. By the way, why is it we don't just catch a ride on any one of the number of ships we trade with?

Alright, maybe it doesn't but I figured this would be the best place to ask. I've encountered it twice in one game now, a large force of raiders appear (around double my total population) and a solar flare hits at the same time. I'm assuming the AI decides that having one man with an M-16 is more than enough defense to handle 10 raiders due to... something, but I'm not really understanding what.
Also, this is on Basebuilder AI Rough (I think it was, 60% of what sounded like "regular" difficulty).

[you personally]

to: Sartain
I'm not sure I would agree with even more micromanagement. as this would definitely require new skill as well as loads of other things that would detract from the games theme and overall be pointless.

Well since you personally  feel it to be pointless, I'm obviously totally mistaken

to: JanusBifrons
  I see what you are saying but is this a viable option for the in keeping of the game. I'm not convinced, as I said something like this might make a great mod but as for the actual standard game it self I wouldn't feel it in keeping.  Don't get me wrong would be a great idea to be able to grow people, just don't think it fits as standard

to: Sartain
  Is you first point not just adding to my point of wasting pawn time by adding even more jobs that could be better put elsewhere. I can understand it if you landed with a fleet of colonists but not when I takes a full 3/4 hours to build up 5 or 6 colonists if you lucky. I also would want to be pumping things like cloth into nappies when I need to be building paras and plush carpets to make people feel better.
  I get that there could be benefits, but I'm not sure if the benefits would outweigh the other side of the argument..
  The time from of these children is still a problem, it look be 2 hours to advance 6 months in game with it mostly on fast forward. so a child would essentially grow to working age on 10/12 in 40 - 60 game hours. and are most likely to die young in a raid or from the cold. I don't think life on the rim need the complications of children. No matter how many buff you throw at it, it is most likely going to be a long painful boring process that ends in death of babies and mental break of colonists.

I'm always a fan of more resource drains and jobs to prioritize. I want the Survival element to really show and having enough guys and stuff to do everything isn't really as fun. It also makes reaching that point where your colony can manage high-maintenance stuff that much more satisfying.

Alright, so I started near a piece of steel wall and incorporated it into my colony buildings without claiming it. Months later, I decided to pull down the steel for another project. I could only target some of the pieces of the wall for deconstruction but the ones I could target were pulled down and provided raw steel materials, yet still remained as constructed wall as well.

I'll post the same response I posted in the Suggestions forum:

So everyone's all "no, babies are useless because the game doesn't last long enough for them to grow up and be useful, contributing members of society" and I can't help but think that's exactly why they'd be awesome

I imagine it could work something like this:
Babies need to be fed, obviously. I'm thinking Nutrient Paste for the first couple of years and then regular meals like everyone else when they go from "baby" to "child". This would be a job that either of the parents would handle automatically, much like the Warden feeds prisoners. Alternately, a Communal Creche type of area could be available to build/zone and Childcare could be a job certain colonists were assigned to (this might also be the place where you build your Growth Enhancer, which I'd think should be a rather expensive, researchable feature).
Babies would also need a source of textile available for sanitary needs until they become older and magically stop pooping like the other colonists.

Babies and older children would be beneficial in terms of them both giving a rather large mood bonus to all colonists, so long as they're alive and healthy and an even larger bonus to their parents. Because children are the future, bundles of joy, etc etc. Of course, they might also be able to spawn negative mood effects sometimes (tantrums, keeps people up at night, stuff like that).

On the other hand, sick children would give a mood penalty and children who died would give a large mood penalty to the entire colony and a permanent, large mood penalty to the parents. Maybe the mood penalty would be fixable in case stuff like Psychology or mental treatments become part of the game.

Older children might also be able to handle some simple tasks like Hauling and Cleaning and once they reach a certain age (I'd say around 10-12 or so since it's a harsh colonial life where you need to learn to carry your weight ASAP) they'd grow into regular colonist with minimal skills (possibly affected by parents/Childcare colonists) and ready to learn.

I really like the idea of not being able to see traits, skills or injuries on neutrals or hostiles as default. As was already mentioned, some medical examination should take place before you can see the injuries of people and the Friendly Chat Warden option would be a good way to gradually discover traits and skill levels. Of course, as soon as you successfully recruit someone into the colony their character sheet should be shown in full.

I certainly also like the idea of a Fog of War. A fog of war that can be mitigated by structures and research, of course.
Maybe something like being able to build a single Central Radar Tower that removes Fog of War from an area around it (typically in the colony), and being able to research Radar Substations that you can build all over the map to expand your range of detection, but they'd have to be maintained, supplied with power and could be targeted by raiders.

[permanent]

So everyone's all "no, babies are useless because the game doesn't last long enough for them to grow up and be useful, contributing members of society" and I can't help but think that's exactly why they'd be awesome

I imagine it could work something like this:
Babies need to be fed, obviously. I'm thinking Nutrient Paste for the first couple of years and then regular meals like everyone else when they go from "baby" to "child". This would be a job that either of the parents would handle automatically, much like the Warden feeds prisoners. Alternately, a Communal Creche type of area could be available to build/zone and Childcare could be a job certain colonists were assigned to (this might also be the place where you build your Growth Enhancer, which I'd think should be a rather expensive, researchable feature).
Babies would also need a source of textile available for sanitary needs until they become older and magically stop pooping like the other colonists.

Babies and older children would be beneficial in terms of them both giving a rather large mood bonus to all colonists, so long as they're alive and healthy and an even larger bonus to their parents. Because children are the future, bundles of joy, etc etc. Of course, they might also be able to spawn negative mood effects sometimes (tantrums, keeps people up at night, stuff like that).

On the other hand, sick children would give a mood penalty and children who died would give a large mood penalty to the entire colony and a permanent, large mood penalty to the parents. Maybe the mood penalty would be fixable in case stuff like Psychology or mental treatments become part of the game.

Older children might also be able to handle some simple tasks like Hauling and Cleaning and once they reach a certain age (I'd say around 10-12 or so since it's a harsh colonial life where you need to learn to carry your weight ASAP) they'd grow into regular colonist with minimal skills (possibly affected by parents/Childcare colonists) and ready to learn.

Edit: Thinking about it, "homegrown" children should probably be more skillful to make up for the large investment of time and resources in them. Children grown with the Growth Enhancer (double aging speed?) would grow up to be useful faster, but not be as skilled since they haven't had as much time to learn.

Another way to do it would be to have one of the ships you can reach with the Comms console be a mercenary transport. Like other traders, they'll hang around for a limited amount of time but during that time you can call them and pay for a drop of mercenaries to come assist you for a battle almost immediately.

Maybe it could also have a "long-term" contract feature where you hire X number of mercenary guards for X amount of time, which would have the added benefit of the ship being guaranteed to return to pick them up when their contract is over and allowing you to plan for that scheduled arrival.

Of course, long-term mercenary guards could be a whole system of their own. Of course, they'll require food and housing that you need to provide (although they're probably not too picky) and unless they brought a medic your doctors will have to take care of any injuries. If the colony is going to hell or you treat your mercenaries really awful, they might even rebel on you and try to take over the colony, or just get the hell out of dodge.

I just bought the game recently and have only played it for a couple of days (straight more or less, it's awesome!) but I've already encountered this issue so yeah, get rid of the repeating names.

In fact, after trying the game "at a friends" I went ahead and bought the version that allowed me to add a name to the game just to put another name on the list