Tired of useless colonists

[b0rsuk]

That dude is also a potentially great melee warrior with prostophile.

[eadras]

I agree the "wanderer joins" event could use some tweaking.  As for "useless" colonists, I find truly useless ones to be few and far between.  In my a16 colony, a staggeringly ugly pyromaniac has been my workhorse miner and hunter/soldier.  She's fine as long as I keep her out of the base and alone as much as possible.  I have a character with a chemical interest, who has had a few addictions I've had to work through.  She's a 20 constructor, 15 doctor, and 13 social, so we tolerate her excesses (she's also married to one guy, but sleeping with another guy right across the hall.  Quite a character).  Managing a Rimworld colony is sort of similar to being a sports coach - your job is to provide guidance and get the most out of the players you are given.

[Trylobyte]

Wouldn't call 'Too Smart' a desirable trait, really, especially not early on where mood fluctuates a lot more.  If they come with anything else that impacts their mental break threshold they're going to break down more than an autodoor.

Generally, I find 'time bomb' characters (pyros, chems, characters who break super-easy) to be liabilities and unless they're exceptionally good (Eadras has some examples) I'm not going to put up with them.  Sure I could put up with them, but I'd rather not take the chance that my pyro will go on a firestarting spree in the farms/stockpiles when nobody's around to stop him or having to redesign my entire base so the resident chem doesn't overdose on the beer/flake/yayo I'm selling (causing a huge mood penalty when he dies) or snort that luciferium we pulled out of an ancient danger five minutes ago.

[Bozobub]

I don't get what's so bad about the Pyro trait. Firestarting is by far the easiest mental break to handle. All you need is a drafted pawn to babysit the pyro. Yes, it requires extreme micro-management but it lasts a couple of minutes at worst. No pyro has ever managed to start a fire that lasted more than a fraction of a second in any of my colonies.

Excuse me?  That doesn't work so well if your pyro decides to torch your base while you're under attack, as an easy example.  ALL of my pawns are always set to "1" for firefighting, in a compact base mostly built of stone, and it's been a serious problem more than once.

[TheMeInTeam]

1.  Animal hunting colonist lacking notification is inconsistent with the game mechanics as a whole.  I recommend ruthlessly savescumming that until it gets fixed.  There is no self-consistent logic to not-notify on predator hunting colonist that would wind up avoiding support for not-notifying on sieges, raids, infestations, or mech ships.  The reason we get notifications for raids is the same reason the predator hunting colonist notification needs a look.

2. Don't be too selective with pawns.  If they can't do a few things, they are still valuable as long as they're doing something generating value/not idling.  There ARE useless pawns, ones with no passion and can't do dumb or skilled labor + can't fight or some such.  These are very rare.

Brawler is a fine trait btw.  Too many people underestimate melee even on high difficulties.  It's not viable vs mechs or boom manhunters (not that boom manhunters is hard to deal with otherwise) but can trash most other encounters.

[GarettZriwin]

Someone counted worthless pawns made by players and like half of them was like that, so its not that rare. 

[b0rsuk]

Some colonists, while not technically useless, are damn near close to that. What can Bee do in my flat Ice Sheet colony ??

- she can't fight. She can spray with an awful heavy smg, that's it.
- social, animals, medicine, cooking, art, crafting. You only want your most skilled colonist to perform one of these. In ice sheet, I can't even give her cotton or leather to practice, and I have one good artist so I can't afford to waste stone on a flat map.
- I already have 2 good constructors, and a bunch of backup crappy ones like her.
- I have 2 growers with skill 7, plus two or so around 4 and a passion.
- I have two better miners with passion, and it's a flat map.
- I have an unemployed bartender with 11ish Cooking skill.
+ okay, she's my second best researcher ! Yay ! The other one is 9 + passion.

I have around 3 colonists like these, except she has no niche to fill. Soo... a third dedicated hauler/cleaner ? It will be a looong time before I research mortars, it's the only other thing she can do. And I caught some bullets to save her ! Now she's going to be a decoy wearing personal shield.

[GarettZriwin]

Even without passion she will get to 10 and its pretty decent, above that she will lose xp but 11 shooting can still be enough.

[TheMeInTeam]

^

Put Bee on night shift.  Set clean/haul to 2, and research 2.  Give her a personal shield and a spear for raids.  Even gutter trash hits pretty hard with lowish cooldowns on those.

Once you get a better night shift researcher:

Low skills like cooking level up pretty fast if set dedicated to it, early levels are cheap.  So if your bartender with 11 can do something else effectively, consider swapping.

Alternatively, make her spam cutting stones in between her cleaning/hauling.  Put her decently high priority crafting, then put a 10+ skill requirement on your forge, tailoring bench etc but set stone cutting to no skill requirement or only allow crappy crafters there.  Stone cutting is always at least kind of useful.

I don't jump in excitement seeing such a colonist but calling her useless is a big reach.  She even has an excellent trait for a melee fodder dedicated cleaner/hauler (fast walker).

[imapotato]

Shurp

As someone who plays on somewhat challenging Randy, believe me the useless colonists do not get better, seems it's just random

[eadras]

Kind trait also gives periodic mood buffs to other colonists.  "Kind words +5" or something like that.  She isn't good, but not entirely useless, as she can clean, haul, and cook (with some training).  I notice teenage characters are often very bad like this, with virtually no passion for professions and very low stats, since the adulthood background stories were removed from them.  It makes perfect sense for them to not have an adult background story... but maybe they should gain one at some point?  Or have a chance to develop a passion for a trade?

[Limdood]

Kind trait also gives periodic mood buffs to other colonists.  "Kind words +5" or something like that.  She isn't good, but not entirely useless, as she can clean, haul, and cook (with some training).  I notice teenage characters are often very bad like this, with virtually no passion for professions and very low stats, since the adulthood background stories were removed from them.  It makes perfect sense for them to not have an adult background story... but maybe they should gain one at some point?  Or have a chance to develop a passion for a trade?

yeah, kids with low skills, fine, makes sense.

kids with no/few/weak passions?  and no in-game way to get passions?  that makes young colonists just feel bad, instead of "unskilled with potential"

[b0rsuk]

Helloo !! We're talking about flat ice sheet ! I don't have enough stone to spare for a crappy artist when I already have to supply a skill 11 one. And my research bench is in a bedroom to save space - early on it was hard to find room. I could make more room now, but it would cost some stone and possibly another heater. It's currently winter, a bit under -70*C.

As for hauling/cleaning, I already have 2-3 colonists "wandering" without a job except in emergencies. She contributes very little.

kids with no/few/weak passions?  and no in-game way to get passions?  that makes young colonists just feel bad, instead of "unskilled with potential"

Yes, that's odd. I think old people should get more skill, young people less skill but more passion. And there should be a LAW that if a colonist has only LOW skill levels, at least some of these should be with passions. Not just because it lets you train them, but to make neurotrainers more useful.

[TheMeInTeam]

Helloo !! We're talking about flat ice sheet ! I don't have enough stone to spare for a crappy artist when I already have to supply a skill 11 one. And my research bench is in a bedroom to save space - early on it was hard to find room. I could make more room now, but it would cost some stone and possibly another heater. It's currently winter, a bit under -70*C.

As for hauling/cleaning, I already have 2-3 colonists "wandering" without a job except in emergencies. She contributes very little.

kids with no/few/weak passions?  and no in-game way to get passions?  that makes young colonists just feel bad, instead of "unskilled with potential"

Yes, that's odd. I think old people should get more skill, young people less skill but more passion. And there should be a LAW that if a colonist has only LOW skill levels, at least some of these should be with passions. Not just because it lets you train them, but to make neurotrainers more useful.

I told you, use the pawn to CUT chunks INTO stone.  Don't use that pawn for art or any crafting other than making stone blocks.

However since you said this pawn is technically your 2nd best researcher, I see no reason you shouldn't put this pawn on whichever of day/night shift your proper research pawn isn't on and have her prioritize research.

[XeoNovaDan]

can't do dumb or skilled labor + can't fight or some such.

Sheriffs that were Convent Children