Your Starting Colonists and Priorities

[Ravenwood]

I pick randoms, then wait until landing to decide whether the colony is hopeless.  I guess around 10% (I haven't really measured it) are really too bad to have a chance given that I tend to play in hostile biomes (Ice Sheet, etc), though sometimes I play it through regardless.  In my experience the starting skills of the first 3 become steadily less important as the game progresses since there'll be often be losses and the later additions can make up for deficiencies, as long as you survive.  Adversity is part of the adventure.

Probably the one that was the most laughably awful was 2 young nobles and an aged crone with Bad Back, Frail, Cataracts, and Dementia.

[Thorin]

This is what I prefer :
1. Must be capable of hauling (and cleaning).
2. A passion (burning is even better) for 1 for Mining, 1 for growing and 1 researcher.
3.  having a second and even a third decent skill, even better (like doctor, craft, shooting, cooking, construction).

Art and Handling are not really required, that will come later. I consider these as nice to have.

later on, having 2 cooks and one of them is a night-owl, is rather nice.

[Jamini]

My standards are generally as follows:

1. Good health
-Colonists with bad backs and cataracts are generally pretty worthless at almost anything they do, even with good skills. I avoid them if at all possible. The only exception is if I know I have enough cash to buy them two bionic eyes and at least one bionic leg... AND they have valuable skills AND they have valuable traits.

2. Not Abrasive
-Abrasive colonists have this distressing tendency to make the rest of the colony get spammed with mood debuffs. If I get a wanderer who is abrasive, I generally ensure they have the most dangerous jobs, far away from the colony, and go on the frontlines of comba/are harvested for parts.

3. Mental Break Neutral, or positive.
-Early on mood is generally an issue. Neurotic, Very Neurotic, Too Smart, and Depressive colonists generally need to be counterbalanced by Iron willed, Steadfast, Optimist, or Sanguine. At least they do early on before I can get individual rooms set up.
-Night Owls and Chemical fascinations/fixations are actually very good. The former only need to have their sleep schedules shifted by eight hours, and the latter will almost never berserk once you get any form of glutenous food/beer.

4. Avoid Psychic sensitivity
-While not a high priority, psych sensitive colonists tend to be a major liability with evil ships or psy pulses. I avoid them if I can.

[TLHeart]

Started another colony, without looking or changing the starting colonist.

Teer, a medieval lording, entrepreneur, 51 years old, cataracts and frail, high social and research skills. Can shot and melee.

Jono, hive child, microbiologist, 58 years old, cataracts and bad back, high skills in research, shooting(blind as a bat though), growing, medicine, construction.

and Bennett, a hooligan technician, 38 years old, good shot, good in construction, passion for mining.

Wanderer  matt, a tunneler housemate joins is 47 years old, brawler, good mining, animals.

Offer safety, to a noble, cato, 58 years old, great social and animal skills, with burning passion for shooting, gave him a pistol, and set him to hunting, and training animals.

Got linn, the minstrel from the pursuing faction, another brawler, with high social and animal skills...

looks like I will be training lots of animals in the random starting location of flat arid shrub lands, with year round growing..

[TheGrover]

I go for:

A grower/cleaner (by the time my full crop us sown its time to clean up my first buildings with hauling and mining to fall back on

A Cook/doctor/trader who basically does the infrequent jobs as well

A security/builder to fend off mad animals and early raiders

Build order is a temporary barracks (beds, medical bed, power storage), followed by temporary prison (small room with a bed if they're lucky) , food storage/freezer, kitchen, then on to bedrooms, dining hall, proper prison (medical room/barracks,  and two cells, which can easily be extended) and then workshop, storage area and trading beacon zone


At this stage, the first few real raids will be coming so I put up we tough outer walls with turrets watching the trap-laced passage Into my farmland. Usually have the main bulk of the base dug into a mountain with the living quarters separate, so pawns get to see the sky every morning and evening as they move to and from their rooms

[Draxis]

Well, this thread is going nicely so thanks to everyone for your comment! General consensus is that you need the basic skills: Mining, Growing, Social, Research, and Medicine with Animals, Arts and Crafting being secondary.

What your thoughts on bedrooms now? I start with the bunk house and then move to coffin bedrooms. Do you do the same or move to individual bedrooms?

[Thorin]

whaaat no cooks, oh those poor hungry buggers j/k.

I have 3 phases for this
First: They can bunk on the cozy leaves and grass outside, for that nice "I'm on vacation in the wilderness" feeling.
Second: Sleep where your coffin will be.
Third: Have a nice room (5x6) with stuffs in it, somewhere in that deep mountain, you dwarf!

[koisama]

Health is first priority, though minimal injuries are allowed.
Then, cold tolerance because I love ice sheets and they drop in synthread. Too smart is preferred, nothing else.
All should be able to mine and shoot.
Two out of three should be able to haul, clean, firefight and heal.
And at least one of each skills: construction, research, cooking, farming, crafting.

[cultist]

That is interesting, care to explain why you think getting geo power quickly is important ?

Geo power gives an enormous amount of power compared to other options, never fails except for solar flare and does not take up much space.
Power lets you build more turrets, light rooms, run sun lamps for growing etc. I admit the priority is higher on cold maps, because you might need lots of heaters early on, plus you need the power for growing most of the year.

Recently I have also tried to get at least a few starting colonists with very neurotic/too smart/depressive. Mental breaks are fun, but they can be somewhat rare on standard colonists. I love the mood system and the challenges it presents (clean everything, make nice rooms even if you are pressed for time etc.)

[Jamini]

A strong defense does not need turrets at all. Efficient placement and clever use of cover/lighting is far more important. Plus turrets are stupidly energy-intensive to have on.

Geothermal is actually pretty poor on a steel-to-energy ratio. Two solar panels will match geothermal output, excepting eclipses, and two solar panels and a single wind turbine will far exceed it.

Really the biggest cost for energy should be your indoor farms. Sunlamps take roughly half of the output of a single geothermal generator (or a single solar panel spread throughout the day with a battery. Mind, plants only need to be lit during their active hours!) Hydroponics are also energy-intensive. If security is your biggest powernet draw you are shooting yourself in the foot by vastly increasing raid size with what are ultimately expendable units. Normal lights, autodoors (on your freezer) and temperature control in your dorms and freezer are the lightest draw, but arguably the most important.

[cultist]

Geothermal is actually pretty poor on a steel-to-energy ratio. Two solar panels will match geothermal output, excepting eclipses, and two solar panels and a single wind turbine will far exceed it.

You must be using mods or something. One solar panel can barely run one cooler and a cook stove. Two Geo generators can run an entire medium-sized base plus turrets.

[UnityIron]

So far I've been going for
Med 10>
Grow+Cook 5>
Firearms 8>

All must haul, no depressives and everyone under 40.
Haven't finished a game yet, keep wanting to improve my starting game and keep saying oh I never knew I could do that.

[koisama]

Geothermal is actually pretty poor on a steel-to-energy ratio. Two solar panels will match geothermal output, excepting eclipses, and two solar panels and a single wind turbine will far exceed it.

Geothermal is 3600W forever + free heat. Solar averages at 850W over the year (not counting eclipses), wind is random 0-3000W.
And then there are batteries and their 50% efficiency.

An example base with 3000W consumption only needs one geothermal and no batteries. Just for 250 steel.
Same base on solar power will need 2 solar generators to provide power during the day and like 3 more to charge the batteries for the night (because of 50% battery efficiency). That's 500 steel. And you will need even more solar gens in winter because days will be shorter. Plus the batteries, plus more batteries in case of eclipse.
Same base on wind power will need at least 4 wind turbines (400 steel) and quite a few batteries because wind is completely random.

[Sumbius]

Since I usually play in extremely cold icesheet biomes I usually prefer cannibals and psychopaths.
The consumption of longpig is usually the difference between life and death during the first year and everyone tends to be constantly on a really bad mood due to the difficulties of an icesheet colony. Bad thoughts from eating/cooking/butchering travelers or just seeing the fast amounts of corpses everywhere are really troublesome.

[NuclearStudent]

I always have at least one master scientist in every colony, for roleplay reasons. Unless you have Einstein/Feynman/Oppenheimer with you, how else are you going to build a spaceship out of scrap metal and escape to the stars?