Guard Posts (made simple)

[Medio]

It is very likely that in any survival scenario Guard Duty or "Fire watch" would be a big priority, especially while you are getting established.

Create a "Guard" order for the colonists (like mine, except it doesn't wear off).

Create a Guard task in the overview (i'd say place it just before hauling in the priorities list).

Then you would just click the Guard order on a tile to turn it into a Guard Post.

If a colonist has the Guard task turned on, he/she will take up that selected post until another task of higher priority presents itself. Any colonist that is guarding will automatically shoot hostiles within their range, or if melee set a base melee engage range (and have them return to their post after the threat is gone).

To go even further and make it more complicated, you could have characters with Warden task turned on actually bring food out to characters that are guarding. Guards that fall asleep could fall victim to kidnapping. Guards that spend too much time Gaurding get moody or turn homicidal.

[JimmyAgnt007]

except that time spent guarding is wasted if nothing bad is going on.  time between raids can be better spent doing pretty much anything else.  prisoners dont do anything bad if they have good enough conditions.  when hostiles are on the map, just draft them.

when you are first starting out, having one person stand around doing nothing just hurts you in the long run.   want a gun ready to fire at something that just pops up?  build a turret.  eventually the game might change to the point where a guard post is viable, in that case your warden idea to feed them would make sense. 

[Medio]

Which is why you put it low on the priorities list. If there is nothing else to do, then they could at least guard.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Then whats the point?  If they only do it while idle, then what makes it important enough to implement in the first place.  Now, a return fire behavior might be doable.  Say they are working or whatever, raiders drop in/prisoners escape, they auto draft and grab some cover if they can to shoot back. 

Also, say you have drafted people waiting for the enemy to begin their assault.  Non drafted people could bring them food while they wait. 

[Kegereneku]

I don't think it is necessary or fit with Rimworld's gameplay.
Rimworld isn't shaped for "army" or large settlement where you can afford to have people doing nothing, and I wouldn't want stealth event where raider attack/kidnap by surprise. It would only be a recipe for rage-powered save reloading.

In short I don't want the implied feature that would require me to have a guard full-time.

But at worse it doesn't need to be a task or and order.
Ask for a variation of the "Drafted" toggle where a guard only move from the position you put him in to eat or sleep.
I imagine that going a lot smoother with the game mechanic than a 'task' or an 'order'.

[Monkfish]

I get that guards would be a thing out in the wild with actual people in potentially hostile territory, but within the domain of Rimworld and its half-a-screen-flashy-alerts system, a guard would be entirely redundant (except perhaps to protect against psychotic animals, but then I just deal with them as and when anyway). It would make more sense if there were no alerts, but then it would be more of a RTS than... whatever Rimworld is.

[JimmyAgnt007]

even then turrets are a better option.  but an auto draft reaction to being attacked or seeing a hostile would make sense in either.

[Johnny Masters]

I love the concept of guard posts and patrolling. Alas, as others pointed out, the way RW currently works make it a waste and an efficiency disaster. Only way i could see it working is (re)introducing fog of war and removing omniscient alerta, which is something i would LOVE to see, but is/would be controversial to say the least.

P.s.: Guard duty would be perfect for those combat types incapable of most labor. If anything, they could provide a "feel secure" mood bonus to other colonists.

[Medio]

I guess this suggestion is mostly to make the game feel more deep rather than just strictly utilitarian game features.

HOWEVER one function of the Guard could be to set boundaries for your people. In other words, he/she doesn't just guard what is trying to get in, he could guard them from going out. For instance if someone was drunk and wandering off, the guard would stop them to socialize and then "arrest" them so they don't wander off drunk. This could be the same for broken colonists. If you don't have a guard setup then you can still micromanage events like that, but having the guard could be a realistic and USEFUL feature.

In this way you could go more of an evil colony where the people aren't happy but sadistic guards don't mind keeping them in check. It's martial law time!

[Medio]

If in Alpha10 there is a "Fun" bar then this kind of job would have to only be for the steadfast and strongwilled. Being that they could handle Guarding without going crazy, maybe unless they are psychos are massos. This is true in real life (8 years infantry, guard sucks and you will go crazy sometimes), and will make you have to choose carefully about who does the guard duty and forces you to make challenging decisions: "Well this guy is my best miner, but he is also the least likely to go crazy on guard duty." Which in turn adds depth to the game.

[BetaSpectre]

The only use of patrols/guarding is if a noble did it since they can't do anything else.

The practical applications are low against melee units, but there is use if the armies are gun users then it buys time for defenses.

Then all of this is rendered moot by cheap turrets.

[Kegereneku]

Let's remember that for Guard to have a point you would need reasons to have them and myself I'm not interested at all by fog of war or stealth-event that require you to keep guard. I do not see Rimworld as this sort of game.

However...
Once you know enemy/neutral(supposing they can get hostile) are coming and you want a 'Drafted' that can still go eat/sleep, then maybe a toggle similar to the 'Draft' but allowing those could be interesting, but for now...

[daft73]

The only way I see this working in Rimworld, albeit a stretch. Possibly building a barracks of sorts, away from the base. The reason to put it far from the base is to hopefully draw attacks to it as opposed to attacking your main base, but you can already do that in the vanilla game.

There you would have the bulk of your fighters/some crafting and such to keep them busy. Shooting range, beds, and rations to keep them alive/training. Most likely a supply train from the main base to support it.

Thing is this is more viable mid/late game when you have an excess of colonists.

While this is not a 'Guard Post', it acts in a similar way, and deals with the Rimworldism's making a guard post not viable.

[Mathenaut]

It's awkward seeing complaints of efficiency being the primary argument against this.

[Darth Fool]

I don't see this as useful without fog of war.  If fog of war was implemented, guard duty would make sense, at least until technological solutions like cameras and drones were researched.  Personally, I am in favor of fog of war, but I can understand why some players prefer omniscience, and why trying to program it as an option would be problematic.