Suicide

[Lozza]

When colonists have mental breaks, it's odd that they never just try to end it all. This would be a suicide mental break where they go into their room and OD on medicine, or hang themselves, etc. There could also be a suicidal trait, so they are far more likely to attempt suicide than others, in comparison to other breaks.

Obviously, this is a really bad thing. It would generate a mood colony debuff, higher than the euthanasia one but lower than killed by something. It would also remove a (possibly) valuable colonist, and if they OD use some medicines.

There would be a popup when a colonist is trying to kill themselves, so that you could go get a medic/other colonist to stop them, or take them to the infirmary.

Just saying, it seemed strange that a game such as Rimworld is light enough to not let people kill themselves.

[b0rsuk]

Yes, I think it can add some new stuff to the game. It would be an opportunity to make high Social skill more useful. Colonists with high Social would be able to influence the suicidal one better. The chance of suicide would be reduced by having friends and bonded animals, so players might suddenly start caring about social relations of a colonist.

[Kegereneku]

Nothing against that if it don't happen too often (we usually have only ~15 colonists after all).
Though I can already imagine players trying to game the system to provoke suicide on purpose.

[A Friend]

Make it as rare as those "Bob decided to leave the colony" mental break. Also I like the idea of Social being more influential to events like these.

Though I can already imagine players trying to game the system to provoke suicide on purpose.

We already have that. It's called punching a Boomalope.

[Vaporisor]

Or snapping right beside the level 20 bioniced plasteel wielding brawler who is set to agressive stance ^.^

[rexx1888]

i mean... it kinda has the potential to trigger folks. like statistically, in reality there is a correlation between a single suicide in a social group and then a bunch more suicides occurring... this is because a bunch of people were sad but didnt think about it, an then their friend killed themselves an they think "oh hey, thats a thing" etc etc.

my point is, i personally like this as an idea, but i personally would also hate hate hate hate the idea of someone hurting themselves because of a pawn they liked killing themselves.. an while that sounds like a joke and is obscene, its also not a terrible thing to be cognizant of the fact that that could, very very exceptionally rarely maybe happen.. in exceptional circumstances...

but i really like the idea of it happening in RW because it could ALSO teach people about exactly that phenomena an maybe make folks actually be more cognizant of their friends mental health an stuff(which is also absurd i agree but we went down this rabbit hole). like, one pawn hurts themselves, an then as a natural result a bunch of other sad pawns get more sad an break an hurt themselves an you have a hellish chain reaction O.o.

very conflicted about this... is there a way we could get the behaviour into the game without specifically having terrible side effects? like, maybe a variation on berserk or daze(which are both nonsense behaviours in the context of reality, which is why i think they work)... like, can a berserk character maybe have a subset of their behaviour be that they take themselves away an lock themselves in a room an then damage themselves... in fact, if you think about it, this kind of already happens.. like, when a pawn is dazed they wander outside an lose all their clothes(so if its a cold snap they freeze to death) or they get murdered by mad animals.... id feel much better about the whole thing if the behaviour was present but not specifically called out as a suicide attempt... but is that just because that feels less on the nose or is it because it would help to mitigate that risk of triggering behaviour?

[Idlemind79]

Ok so suicide is realistic but would it be fun in the game? Mental breaks are already bad enough.

A suicide triggering more suicides would be game ending..

Reminds me of the Cree community in Canada.. even this year the suicide rate is so high the government is sending in support.

[b0rsuk]

but i really like the idea of it happening in RW because it could ALSO teach people about exactly that phenomena an maybe make folks actually be more cognizant of their friends mental health an stuff(which is also absurd i agree but we went down this rabbit hole). like, one pawn hurts themselves, an then as a natural result a bunch of other sad pawns get more sad an break an hurt themselves an you have a hellish chain reaction O.o.

And that's a good reason to have suicide in the game. From what I read it really works like this - knowing a person who commited a suicide makes people more likely to suicide themselves.

So people provoking their colonist to suicide would soon discover that it affects more than one person. Hard mental breaks would become more dangerous for the whole colony.

And if you think suicide is something too drastic for this game, there can be self mutilation, equivalent of a botched surgery.

[Zombra]

Very dark, but ... seems like it would fit at least as well as going berserk and trying to punch all your friends' eyes out.  Do make it very rare though - if I see this happen all the time the game will be too depressing to play.

And real life statistics aside, I don't think a "suicide spiral" where one incident ends up wiping out the colony would be good gameplay at all.  A heavy Mood hit would be quite sufficient.

[blub01]

Very dark, but ... seems like it would fit at least as well as going berserk and trying to punch all your friends' eyes out.  Do make it very rare though - if I see this happen all the time the game will be too depressing to play.

And real life statistics aside, I don't think a "suicide spiral" where one incident ends up wiping out the colony would be good gameplay at all.  A heavy Mood hit would be quite sufficient.

It would only be a chance of more suicides occurring for a while, and you can talk people out of killing themselves.

[rexx1888]

And real life statistics aside, I don't think a "suicide spiral" where one incident ends up wiping out the colony would be good gameplay at all.  A heavy Mood hit would be quite sufficient.

exactly that, if it was a thing, since a heavy mood hit would essentially have the potential to cause that cycle.... its still a pretty full on thing though... like, how devastating would it be to watch a colony end like this O.o

[mumblemumble]

I think the idea works so long as its not "bam, mental break, suicide, colonist dead" sort of thing. In real life, very little suicide is just out of nowhere. The phrase "its a plea for help" is often true...Almost nobody commits suicide because they flat out don't want to live, they feel helpless and want out, suicide seems a means of doing that. They would ALWAYS much rather fix the situation, if possible. Because of this, perhaps suicide could instead have a colonist maybe getting drunk and grabbing a gun, sitting on the edge of a lake, and hanging around for a while before either blowing its brains out, or jumping into the lake, or whatever. This way you can arrest them, and save them, but it still demands IMMEDIATE attention.

[cultist]

I very much like it.
I would like to see suicide (or similar self-inflicted injury) as an alternative to the berserk mental break. I.e. suicides can only happen below the hard mental break line.

It's a bit problematic in terms of balance though. If you can stop the suicide attempt using the social skill or by arresting the pawn, it becomes a lot easier to deal with than a berserk mental break. If you can't stop it in any way, I fear it may start crossing over in the territory of themes people might not be comfortable with in the game. It also becomes a very harsh punishment in game terms - no other event (besides old people having heart attacks) directly strips you of a pawn without giving you a chance to save them.

[SuperCaffeineDude]

It might make the arrest function useful. I like the idea of increasing pawn tolerance, and adding more effects like suicidal. The berserk attack doesn't really feel like it correlates to anything ("I'm so upset I'm going to beat up my friends!"), with suicide we can broadly interpret that they're just not happy with their life in general.

More events, like leaving the colony, being volatile to insults which escalate into direct fights, mental-disorders, and maybe even premeditated murderous intent.

[Goldenpotatoes]

Theres a reason the 'colonist is leaving the colony' mental break was removed.

All mental breaks as of currently can end in damage to a colonist, but it never outright removes them from your colony. Berserk will leave them bruised but capable of work. Dazed and binging takes them out of your control for some time but they always come back.

A RNG roll on mental breaks shouldn't have a chance to outright remove a colonist from your control permanently. Thats just not fun. The game may have a progression that isn't necessarily meant to winnable but at no point does the game ever put you in a scenario that you can't control somehow.