Ability to have babies

[Jennatalia]

There are probably a lot of suggestions that are around the baby making genre and before you yell at me to look at other baby making suggestions, I have (maybe) extra ideas wrapped around this topic that would be a reason I made my own topic.

First off, In the game your colonists make love randomly and I was thinking a way to control population in an update where you could have babies would be that you have an option to "try for baby" just like you have options to try to recruit prisoners, with the ability to go back to just making love once you have produced as many children as you want. Or there could be a game option to turn on or off the ability to make babies if you don't want it at all in your game.

second, I know that time of colonists are extremely short and it would not be so great for the parents to die while they have a baby or child. That's why I think if (in similar ways as sims) baby stage only last a few days and then they go into the child stage that last around 10-15 days and from the child stage they move straight into adulthood. If the parents of the child does die in that time, then other colonists could adopt the children if they were same sex couples or too old to have children or was a friend/sibling of the parents.

Having children in the game could add new aspects to the game. Such as, in the child stage, a colonist could be a teacher/tutor in a certain area of work (farming, cooking, fighting, etc) and teach specific children to grow into adults with higher stats in that area or have more interest in that area of work. Having a school like system would mean a new tab of work called "education" and colonists that are higher in education are more likely to be better at teaching/tutoring children. Another possibility for children that is going along the line of teaching children would be that the parents can teach their children in work that they are proficient in.

Having children could also create new events. Such as: finding an abandoned baby, babies being in escape pods, raids where children who have moved in adulthood revenge you killing their parents, colic babies keeping up colonists which in turn stresses them out, some babies not making it in birth and lowers the moods of parents or causes them to break, mothers dying during birth causing the husband/wife/lover to break, having a prodigy child that excels in an area of work, etc.

I just think adding the ability to have children to the game could add such a new level of gameplay and make the game even more realistic and enjoyable with the huge amount of possibilities that can come from this.

[schizmo]

It's been discussed to death and I don't believe there are any new ideas here except for children seeking revenge for the death of their parents, which could actually be added into the game as is. I think THAT is a good idea.

As for children in rimworld, many people are against it for good reason, and it basically boils down to controversy and difficulty to inpliment in a meaningful way. The game doesn't last long enough for realistic children growth, but if they aren't kids for very long why bother having kids at all if they're just going to be adults after one season. It's a no-win situation.

[Xannieh]

I know this is a dead horse but I just wanted to point out that Dwarf Fortress had infants and I think Banished could have children be killed, also Sheltered. Pregnancy and child birth should be in the game.
I think since Rimworld doesnt have much going on in terms of graphics it can get away with having children. Also, the old "not enough time in game to raise them cause have to leave on ship" no longer applies.
In a game about storytelling, think about the stories that will be told of Pawns from their birth all the way to their eventual death? Its exciting!

Right now the only way to get people is to either rescue them, convert them or buy them. You might as well just have slave colonies atm.

(Id rather have it part of vanilla instead of mods. )

There might be hope, someone told me about this:

He mentioned human pregnancies before. Look what he said about kids here recently: https://twitter.com/TynanSylvester/status/794003347376377856

https://ludeon.com/blog/2016/01/progress-continues/ -- Here he says he hasnt added kids YET

[Calahan]

@ Xannieh - We do not need yet another thread for this suggestion. Neither pointing out that other games have pregnancy and children, nor Tynan's various comments on this subject (which are not new or news), warrant the need for a new thread. What you wrote could have been posted in pretty much any of the (many) existing suggestion threads on this topic, and as such I have merged your thread with the most recent thread that a quick search turned up.

Please can you use the search function next time to check if a suggestion has already been made before creating a new thread for it. Thank you.

[XeoNovaDan]

Very, very short answer to the age-old discussion of babies: Most likely a big, fat N.O.

[Walkaboutout]

Just curious. I didn't see anything about this. They can't have babies now (I understand that there must be some game play challenges), but are there plans to enable it, or make it possible?

[SzQ]

There is mod for that. Not sure where i have seen that. Probably russian mods site.

[Dargaron]

Only if Ludeon is a Russian mods site: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=28747.0

Children and Pregnancy was updated to B18 some time ago. I've been using it to try and establish a permanent colony on the Rimworld in the face of Lovecraftian Horrors: my victory condition is for a colony-born pawn to reach the age of 16. Also, shooting unspeakable monstrosities in the face(?) with charge rifles.

...That's not to say that you're wrong; there probably are such mods, and they're probably creepy: this IS the internet we're talking about here.

[Bozobub]

Only if Ludeon is a Russian mods site: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=28747.0

Children and Pregnancy was updated to B18 some time ago. I've been using it to try and establish a permanent colony on the Rimworld in the face of Lovecraftian Horrors: the victory condition is for a colony-born pawn to reach the age of 16. Also, shooting unspeakable monstrosities in the face(?) with charge rifles.

...That's not to say that you're wrong; there probably are such mods, and they're probably creepy: this IS the internet we're talking about here.

Curse your ninja powers! *shakes fist*

...Seriously, does no one use Google?  Or even Bing *shudder*?

By the by, this is the 1st time I've actually wanted to mod the vanilla game; thanks for that idea.

[Calahan]

@ Walkaboutout - I've moved your thread to suggestions and merged it with one of the (many) threads about children/pregnancy (because we don't need yet another thread for something that is never going to be added to the vanilla game). Your post was framed as a question rather than a suggestion, but it is a suggestion none-the-less (and so belongs here in suggestions and not GD).

Please can you use the search function next time to check for relevant threads first to find an answer to your question before making a thread to ask it. Because if you had you would likely have found this thread, or certainly one of the other many suggestion threads about children/pregnancy. With most of them being able to provide you with the answer you sought. That being no, it's not happening, and there aren't any plans to.

[Granitecosmos]

Just to make it clear for everyone who wants to see babies in RimWorld.

How would you implement them in a meaningful way?

Young babies and children would literally be a dead weight on the colony because they eat and do nothing else. A domesticated pig would be more valuable at that point. But let's say children get implemented. They'd do nothing, absolutely nothing for you until they're at least 6 years old. Maybe then they could help you sow/harvest or something. Forget hauling, they're too weak. Forget crafting, they're easily distracted. Forget research, they're stupid. Even in Dwarf Fortress children only rarely help with harvesting and they're useless for 12 years! Tell me which colony would survive for 12 years? And by "survive" I also mean not die to FPS death or gets abandoned due to boredom. Hell, in Dwarf Fortress people casually flush down babies off their mothers' hands with an elaborate grate system just to get rid of those damn parasites.

But Dwarf Fortress doesn't have cannibalism (unless modded or mooded) or organ harvesting. There's a reason why children are undying in Fallout 4. Imagine the negative PR by several gaming sites and news sites if they found out players make colonists give birth so they can harvest the babies' organs and butcher them afterwards. Many people lost their shit when they found out female colonists have different algorythms for romance than male ones, imagine the shitstorm after this. Yeah, probably wouldn't do much good, especially considering the next version will be the 1.0 official release.

[Boston]

-facepalm-

Would someone please tell me why children are viewed as useless until they are 12? It -must- be a modern thing, related to the compulsory education that keeps children locked indoors for 8/12 months of thr year until they are adults....

One of the many reasons preindustrial, and even post-industrial familes had many children was so they could help with the work. On a farm, children didn't just sit and drool until they were 16. Even children barely out of toddling years could hold a mop, or put things away, and children 5-6 could (read:would) be given chores like firewood gathering, animal milking, or water drawing. Anything older and stronger than that would basically be a small adult.

In the "Children and Pregnancy" mod by Thirite, children are FAR from useless. Even when they are infants and toddlers, when they can't really do much of anything, the mood bonuses bequeathed from a successful childbirth are often more benefitial than whatever labor they could provide.

[Granitecosmos]

Because child labor would also be great PR for the official release of the game. Yeah.

One of the many reasons preindustrial, and even post-industrial familes had many children was so they could help with the work.

Pre-industrialization, families had tons of children because half of them wouldn't reach adulthood. Even childbirths were exceptionally deadly for both the child and the mother until Semmelweis realized doctors should probably wash their hands with disinfectant in 1847 (which reduced mortality rates to below 1%, yet did not become a widespread method before the germs theory was finally confirmed to be true decades later). Antibiotic treatment didn't exist at all until 1942. Over 35% of children died before reaching the age of 5 worldwide in 1950.

Children could do cleaning and even sowing/harvesting with an appropriate work speed penalty. But they can't tailor, they can't smith, they can't treat wounds, they can't tame animals, they can't haul 25 kg stone chunks, they can't cook, they can't research, they can't shoot a firearm without serious injuries to their underdeveloped muscles and bones, they can't realistically use melee against an adult opponent with any realistic success and they'd be taken advantage of by prisoners if they were on warden duty due to how easily one can manipulate children.

Now tell me, what else remains? Wood cutting? Sure, with a 50% work speed reduction. Mining? Sure, but expect a heavy PR shitstorm related to child mining labor and the very high mortality rates it caused in the industrial era.

Like it or not, 90% of jobs in RimWorld are too complex or hard for children.

[Harry_Dicks]

Who told the forum necromancers that today was beating dead horse day?

[Granitecosmos]

Who told the forum necromancers that today was beating dead horse day?

It was a forum moderator who decided to merge a similar thread with this old one.