Brain damage should affect colonists' skills

Started by AlexJM, March 04, 2015, 04:10:28 PM

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AlexJM

A young man, age 22, raided my colony. He was shot in the head and is currently seriously impaired (-7 or 3/10) from the old gunshot. We fixed up him and recruited him, now he has very poor: consciousness, sight, hearing, moving, talking, etc.

Yet he's my best researcher. Well, he's the same level as one of my uninjured colonists (13), but since he can barely walk at all the only job he's good for is research.

My humble suggestion is someone who has a bullet bouncing around in their brain shouldn't be fit for academic tasks like researching hydroponics. If it were up to me, brain damage would impair movement less and intellectual skills more; that way, someone with brain damage might be useful for hauling materials or cutting plants, but not researching nutrient re-synthesis or performing surgery.  ;D

Vexare

I like this change but disagree that brain damage wouldn't impair movement at all. As anyone who has a loved one who has suffered a stroke knows, it can really cause movement and mobility issues a great deal. However, it doesn't have to be that black or white... it could be either or (randomly) or even both if your poor colonist is really unlucky and suffered damage to critical parts of the brain.

I like your idea that a brain damaged person could still be useful for hauling, cleaning and other menial tasks but shouldn't be able to do high end research.


Halinder

Suddenly the medical system is overhauled to include each individual part of the brain. That'd be pretty neat, though getting shot in the hypothalamus and dying while incontinent would have to suck.

kingtyris


tommytom

Brain damage can do all sorts of things, including making you "smarter".

Someone with brain damage or a mental defect from birth can be super intelligent and great with numbers, but can't do every day things like feed themselves, speak, or have constant seizures.

The likelihood of someone becoming "rainman" from bullets to the head is highly unlikely, but it also doesn't mean they are instantly bad at anything that involves thought.

I agree to the extent that having brain damage should be "I can do everything the same but walk/talk/manipulate", but I don't agree to the extent the game would have to be modified to make this a variable rather than a hard can/can't do intellectual stuff (part of brain damaged, etc).