Children as a win condition

[thenightgaunt]

Why set 18 as the magical adulthood point? 14 should be more than old enough to handle all colony tasks, even medicine with the caveat that they'll be starting at 0 skill points. I'd go so far as to argue being able to draft them that young.

You already sort of can. Pawns can ALREADY spawn with ages like that, complete with an adult background..."Wait, you have an adult background? You're a kid!".

Hey, the galaxy is a dark and brutal place. Sometimes a kids gotta do terrible things to survive.
...
Ok now I've got a muppetbabies style Chronicles of Riddick parody running though my head. I think I need a drink. 

[Vaperius]

I know the idea of baby making has been suggested before and the counter-argument was usually along the lines that the timescale of Rimworld is measured in days, not months or years (like in DF) so having a kid means you have a waste of space for your playthrough as even long games would probably only last a couple of years due to the scale involved.

HOWEVER just as you can now "win" by constructing the spaceship, what if you could "win" by creating a safe enough colony that supports childbearing.

So the idea is that when you start building royal beds the colonists might start cohabitating (marriage/relationships would be nice but optional). A female colonist of child-bearing years might develop the "illness" of pregnancy.

This would increasingly make that colonist less and less productive, would increase their appetite, and most importantly you would have to manage their stress levels.

Imagine as a win condition that you have to keep a single random colonist happy and healthy for 9 straight months. That would be quite the challenge while also fending off raiders and random events etc.

Sure on easy mode or with a strong enough colony you could create your perfect "maternity ward" full of beauitful sculptures etc. but to avoid cabin fever she would HAVE to go outside and if there is an area available outside then you can drop raiders right on her

But on the flipside if your colony is strong enough that this is no hassle then you've already won the game, just not by pop-up.

So...yeah. If you can keep a random colonist happy and healthy for 9 months then a popup box saying something along the lines of "the colony has proven to be self-sufficient enough to bring forth the next generation of colonists. Everyone is emboldened by this miracle blah blah blah..."

As for the kid itself it doesn't have to be like the sims but it could just be very basic. The kid is an object that the mom carries around until its say 4. From 4 it has a sprite that can walk around and slowly but surely, say every year another job unlocks. In the beginning it can't do anything but eventually it can clean or flip switches or bring meals to patients and other odd jobs. Say full adulthood and "hauling" unlocked at 16 but again who's actually going to make it that far?

Unless you also implement my chornomographier idea...

To be frank I don't get why people are limiting selves to the idea of natural birth; Growth of Human genetic material into Human offspring only requires an organic material that a Zygote can attach and develop off of.

Artificial Organic or even non-organic wombs are completely within the realm of science and could in fact just be a uterus created and manufactured in organ growth laboratories. In-capsuled in a protein and water solution; would allow for the support of fetus to term or in fact even past infancy into early childhood if necessary. Of course...we are dealing with a universe with..glitter worlds...

For intents; with all their medicine it not outside the realm of believing they not only have this technology to allow mother's to avoid having to be pregnant to have a child of their own. But also that they in fact also have it for cloning and even resurrection. Glitterworlds have no been thoroughly explained. In any case; Essentially with this technology you could even manipulate how fast development occurs; allowing you to develop a child at rates unheard of in the natural world for Human offspring anyway.

Conceivably you could accelerate and grow colonists to age 15 within 15 months after a large expense; first would be the relatively massive food to processed organic materials requirements to support such rapid growth. Then the glitter world medicine cost; and you'd have to purchase the associated technology from traders from glitterworlds in order to actually construct such literal Human factories.

So basically tons Food, metals (including uranium and plasteel), energy, proper temperature control, tons of research....and you get this... after you purchase the components....basically it be a multi-step process with three or four chains of actions needed to be completed but essentially let you manufacture people..

[b0rsuk]

Children are known to have big heads relative to their bodies. If a kid's head fits in a hole, you can be sure he can pass through it, much like an octopus can pass through a hole if it's big enough to fit its beak.

Rimworld has a visual style where heads are very big.

Therefore, Rimworld's visual style doesn't support children. You either wouldn't be able to distinguish them (they all have big heads anyway), or their heads would have to be comically large.

[thenightgaunt]

Children are known to have big heads relative to their bodies. If a kid's head fits in a hole, you can be sure he can pass through it, much like an octopus can pass through a hole if it's big enough to fit its beak.

Rimworld has a visual style where heads are very big.

Therefore, Rimworld's visual style doesn't support children. You either wouldn't be able to distinguish them (they all have big heads anyway), or their heads would have to be comically large.

Well, you could split the lifespan into 2 categories, infant and walking. Neither would be based on the actual real time development of humans though for the sake of this classification. As an infant, the pawn is represented by a small object that looks like a swaddled baby, and it can only be carried around like an injured pawn or an item. So really i'll sped all it's time in a bed.

When it gets old enough to become a walking pawn, it's replaced with a generic body and it's skills either start out all low or it's actions are artificially limited to simulate childhood (can't fight, can't craft, etc...).

[Vaperius]

Children are known to have big heads relative to their bodies. If a kid's head fits in a hole, you can be sure he can pass through it, much like an octopus can pass through a hole if it's big enough to fit its beak.

Rimworld has a visual style where heads are very big.

Therefore, Rimworld's visual style doesn't support children. You either wouldn't be able to distinguish them (they all have big heads anyway), or their heads would have to be comically large.

So your logic is that children have to physically come out of an orifice to be born....Yeah that not how the majority of species on this planet or probably any planet produce offspring....

Moreover; Again; Cloning; lots and lots of cloning...