Any tips for increasing social so they don't kill each other?

[nuschler22]

This is the first colony that everyone is at odds with each other.   Just had one colonist  kill another. 

[Klitri]

If you can't get them to behave then try to separate them as much as possible, they'll eventually even their feelings out AFAIK

[Astasia]

Before this update I would just set everyone to do anything all day long, as it didn't really matter when they ate or slept. With this update, I find it's very important to control schedules and make sure people are doing certain things at certain times. Like everyone getting up in the morning at the same time and all heading to the dining room to eat together and chat, and taking breaks at the same time during the day to interact with each other in the gaming room. Those build social relations and keep them strong so they are less likely to get angry at each other.

With a larger population and a few night owls it might be required to split them into shifts, but then you tend to get some friction between the day shift and the night shift as they pass each other in the halls.

[mumblemumble]

Having everyone participate in raids helps,  the "killed serious enemy"  buff helps substantially. Also,  avoid shaddy activities like slavery,  organ selling,  ect,  as those effect relationships too.  Or,  have a "disposable"  colonist do all the nasty work like butchering and selling prisoners,  so once they die,  people get a mood buff from it. Also,  high quality rec room is a huge help,  as is a good dining hall.  These foster chats and deep conversations,  which if you bring people together enough,  even natural enemies can (usually)  be friends.. Not always,  but a rec room where EVERYONE goes is a substantial help,  i have a chess board,  beer,  tv,  and eventually will have a billiard board, and have everyone go there at the same time for 2 hours a day,  and haven't seen fights since

Also, defensive measures are even more important now,  since disfigurement is such a problem. Cover,  walls,  removing enemy cover,  and using light / dark make it less likely to be taking rounds to the face.

By the way,  does anyone miss the social chat mood buff? Just me?

[Chibiabos]

Be wary of traits.  I realize some fights are seemingly random ... but I just had a "Chemical Interest" guy kill a "Teetotaller" due to that specific conflict :/  Also look out for "Abrasive" and "Ugly" and maybe give them their joy times separately.

Also ... never underestimate the importance of Cowboy Hats.

[mumblemumble]

Be wary of traits.  I realize some fights are seemingly random ... but I just had a "Chemical Interest" guy kill a "Teetotaller" due to that specific conflict :/  Also look out for "Abrasive" and "Ugly" and maybe give them their joy times separately.

Also ... never underestimate the importance of Cowboy Hats.

i hope you executed the damn junkie for murder.

Also why the heck can't we arrest people mid social fight?

[b0rsuk]

Valentin was my first serious shooter in the colony, and I had to recruit a pirate for that. He can't do skilled labor, intellectual labor, dumb labor, and almost everything else except animals (4), art (8, no passion) and something forgettable. Oh, and he is "-" at Social.

He started getting into fights with random people. Having them mix with the rest was just asking for trouble. I ordered him to make those poor sculptures in his hovel, not for decoration or profit, but to keep him away. It works fine. He only goes out to kill, to eat, to parties, and to dining room.

If you don't find that immersion breaking, you can just place a single horseshoe pin and a decent dining room and completely forget about Joy. My dining rooms are so valuable they get as much protection as hospitals, high end workshops, food storage etc. Because of the effort they are hard to replace, but totally worth it. You get:
- joy (social)
- lots of comfort (dining chairs, later armchairs)
- satisfy colonists' beauty needs for a while (sculptures)

If you pour a lot of resources into dining room, you also get 3-10 mood boost.

[nuschler22]

Thanks for all the tips.

[cultist]

Some traits are just plain bad news. Ugly colonists tend to get into fights a lot because people insult them. Abrasive colonists are more damaging than ever, probably one of the worst traits now. It always caused a colony-wide mood loss (unless you micro the hell out of everyone), but now these mood penalties can spiral into social fights and other issues that the abrasive colonist didn't cause directly. Be very cautious letting one of those guys into the colony.

Teetotaler/Chemical interest and Hard worker/Lazy are less of an issue. They don't exactly like each other, but the penalty is not as bad and it only affects interaction between specific colonists, not everyone.

[RazorHed]

I've been lucky so far as to not have too many colonists so at odds that they would kill one another.  I'm thinking though if I do I should make separate areas for them where their paths won't cross and they can still manage to do a job or two.

[Ashiver]

By the way,  does anyone miss the social chat mood buff? Just me?

I miss it, I feel like having someone with high social skill now is a lot less rewarding especially considering how tough it is to develop.  It actually just got harder to develop this patch because of prison breaks and their increased likelihood if there are a lot of prisoners and is now it is less rewarding because ground traders aren't as good as orbitals but seem to take up some of the trader traffic we got before.  We have more a lot of inferior opportunities to trade, buying actual medicine seems a lot harder to do now.  It's also less rewarding because as mentioned it doesn't give mood boosts.  On top of that having good friends doesn't seem to make you happier (which is dumb), just upset if they die.

When you take into account the prison break system and the fact that all skills now decay out of 20 after reaching 20 (previously they froze), you can't just max social with a bunch of prisoners and then never worry about it again.  Plus underground prisons might get infestations where all the prisoners get immediately murdered.