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[Shurp]

Just one other suggestion to kick this stone rolling again:

Advanced growth hormones

Why wait 15 years for baby colonist to grow up if you can give him pills to grow up in a year?  Sure, you might not want to give that temper-tantrum prone 1 yr old a gun, but you can put him to work hauling and brewing beer.

Speaking of beer, given the amount of beer these colonists are consuming and the absence of prophylactics, accidental babies are nearly guaranteed!

[Sergeant Cynical]

Shurps idea is a good one.

[TenSaidYes]

Let 'em grow up naturally, and it'll take them longer to reach maturity... but they might be able to develop some skills during that time. Pump 'em full of drugs, or grow them in a vat, and you end up with quick labor with virtually no skill.

I like the idea of that.

[Chaotic Skies]

Alternatively with the vats idea, we already know there are vat-grown soldiers; it's an in-game profession for a reason. Why not just fill the kid's brains with what knowledge you want them to have, and make it impossible for them to do anything besides what they were programmed for?

[JuliaEllie]

[Chaotic Skies]

Thanks, I've been looking for that one *saves* 

[Vaperius]

So I happened across the Romance mod by Lord Fap, in my search for a mod that makes it easier to get more colonists.. I found it lacked the only thing I'd need from a romance mod, is the extra colonists

Well there are two ways for this to be a functionally interesting thing. First is as a straight forward "challenge"; children will be a burden to your colony; an unfortunate incident that adds further drama and tragedy to the story of your doomed colony or...option two is creating growth acceleration chamber and rapidly developing them into a functioning near-adult age human. It would cost resources, be balanced by requiring power at all times while the procedure is running, giving them sickness getting out of it, taking weeks of treatment to get to a point of usefulness, not to mention the research and material cost of the pod itself, and of course, there is the risk of random developmental malformation from acceleration of the human growth cycle.

[Wolfen Waffle]

Make the mod for role playing

[willpill35]

Having children is a great way to get more drama in the colony but sadly it will never happen.  The amount of Flak Tynan would get would end the game for letting children die in a video game.  That said there is a way around that if he just modifies the pawn code in a way that lets modders easily put it in then we can get it that way.  Think of all the other games out there with children in them but you cant kill them its for the same reason we cant have children in the colony but on most of those games modders have found a way to let you kill children and the main company does not take the fall for that. 

Personally I hope we get it because i think it would make a great story to have your colony almost dead but the last of the adults fall back to the nursury to protect the children.

[Master Bucketsmith]

[robotguy4]

Well, might as well comment on it while it's been necro'd.

I've done some experimentation. Turns out: hediff_pregnancy does work on humans. The problem is that the children are born looking like adults with backstories. Graphical body scaling doesn't work with humanlikes like it does with regular animals. It does slow them down, though.

Here's what needs to be added for the most basic colonist breeding:

• A way to give Hediff_pregnancy to colonists.
• A way to assign backstories in a sensible way.
• Smaller baby colonists.
• Make babies not able to do anything.

Due to this, it might be easier just to redefine hediff_pregnancy for humanlikes and change the spawn class to spawn the humanlike babies which turn into regular humanlike pawns at a certain age. This would limit the number of detours needed to either 1 or 0.

As for artificially aging up colonists: I've already got that covered. I made a hediff that will increase aging by any integer amount. I just need to tweak the settings on it and add it to surgery options.

Actually, if someone could suggest how fast this artificial aging should be and for how long it should last, that would be helpful.

[Lennbolt7]

Actually, if someone could suggest how fast this artificial aging should be and for how long it should last, that would be helpful.

I think it should be 1 year. Not so fast that it's absolutely ridiculous, but not so slow that most people would lose interest and start a new colony before they age up. I imagine by the second season they'd be old enough to work, but not at full efficiency, and gradually get better as they gain more skills and get older throughout the year.

[Master Bucketsmith]

Just make colonists spawn from eggs!

[GiantSpaceHamster]

I think it's interesting that so many of the arguments against it revolve around how long it would take for children to become old enough to be useful. Are all the events in Rimworld beneficial? That's clearly a rhetoric question but my point is that just because children might have a net negative effect on a colony doesn't mean it's a bad idea. Here are some thoughts offhand:

- Children age normally, so they probably won't be able to perform jobs for a long time after birth.
- They would require food and, below a certain age, someone would have to feed them (similar to resting patients and prisoners).
- Parents receive a morale bonus similar to other relationships. This is one way children could provide a benefit, but of course it comes with the risk of a morale penalty if the child dies.
- Children above a certain age can move around but cannot perform jobs. Or, maybe they CAN perform jobs, but certain jobs provide a morale penalty to adults for child labor (similar to penalties for slavery etc).
- You could sell children as slaves for a quick buck. I'm not judging...just presenting an option that aligns with already existing features.
- Children's birthday parties are sure to make everyone happy for a short while. Except Carl. Carl can't have kids so he gets pissed every time a children's birthday party occurs.
- New operation type! C-Section for birth complications. Why only add risk for food costs after a child's birth when you can also risk the mother and child dying during labor!
- It provides a great incentive to add dingoes to the list of animals.

Overall it seems like, in a game where the soft-goal is to make a ship and escape the planet, children would be a net penalty towards that end goal. But this game is more about the story and I think they would provide a lot of opportunities to make the stories more compelling and personable even if they make things harder overall.

[Lennbolt7]

I think it's interesting that so many of the arguments against it revolve around how long it would take for children to become old enough to be useful.

I think that's because a single colony doesn't hold many people's interest longer that five or six in game years. If children were implemented, the late game would have to be made a lot more interesting. Or the children could be made to age rapidly. Either way I feel that a fast aging option in the form of an expensive surgery or something should be available to people who don't want to wait that long.