Difficult decisions

[Songleaves]

I think forcing players to make difficult decisions is one of the most potent techniques for developing a memorable story. I think Rimworld needs more situations to arise that puts players into situations where they have to make decisions with inherent uncertainty and significant consequences. In particular I feel these decisions can help diversify to the late game. Here are some of my ideas, but I'd also like to hear more ideas from others as well.

Medical decisions
To amputate, or not to amputate?
There are many potential reasons to amputate a limb. In addition to player choice, the colonist may have their own preference, they may not want their limb to be amputated, and may even start a fight with the colonist trying to amputate their limb.

* Gangrenous limb: an injured limb has gone gangrenous. You can try and save the limb, but risk your colonist dying, or you can amputate the limb.
* Cancerous tumor in muscle or bone: these can be extremely difficult to try and remove, and if you don't remove all of it then you risk the cancer metastasizing and spreading to the whole body where it is very difficult to treat and may ultimately kill the colonist.
* Crippled/painful limb: due to severe injuries a limb has lost most of its functionality and serves as a chronic source of pain for the colonist.

Euthanasia
If a colonist enters a coma due to direct injury to the brain, or excessive blood loss starving the brain of oxygen, then players have choice of waiting for them to return or putting them down. While a colonist is in a coma other colonists will have thoughts ranging from a negative mood because they wish for them to be put down, or a positive mood because they are happy that we are continually fighting for them. Bedsores could be a problem for colonists who have been bedridden for lengthy periods of time.

Combat decisions
Lure enemies away
During a really serious assault, a box pops up  that says "Colonist X volunteers to try and lure the enemy away... etc etc" and gives the player the option to accept or decline. If you accept then your colonist will make a break for the edge of the map and all enemies will try and follow them. If they die before making it to the edge of map then the decoy failed and they will continue to attack you, if they lived then enemies will chase them off screen and the raid will end and there is a chance that they return on a later day or that they died gallantly.

Suicide bomber
Pop-up box appears of colonist offering to grab artillery shells and charge at the enemy. If you accept then they will haul nearby artillery shells and charge a group of enemies exploding once they get in range. The size of the explosion depends on the number of artillery shells they were hauling.

[CabbageFoot]

I like these ideas to some extent although I would suggest modifications to many of them.

* Gangrenous limb: an injured limb has gone gangrenous. You can try and save the limb, but risk your colonist dying, or you can amputate the limb.
* Cancerous tumor in muscle or bone: these can be extremely difficult to try and remove, and if you don't remove all of it then you risk the cancer metastasizing and spreading to the whole body where it is very difficult to treat and may ultimately kill the colonist.
* Crippled/painful limb: due to severe injuries a limb has lost most of its functionality and serves as a chronic source of pain for the colonist.

Gangreneous limbs dont sound like something that has any chance of realistically happening for the life span of this game's average playthrough, unless I don't understand how this developes, but it sounds like an extremely rare medical condition and we're dealing with extremely small population sizes, so its not realistic to even simulate this.

Cancer... also not realistic, BUT could be a rare event if extreme toxic exposure is present during the new toxic fallout event.

Crippled/painful limb. I mean... this one already kind of happens, shoot off enough toes on a foot and you might as well install a peg-leg due to pain and mobility loss becoming excessive. This is essentially already a feature. personally if i have extra prosthetic or bionic limbs i just replace their entire limb (but i pretend that i'm only giving them a prosthetic finger or something because this game doesn't support partial prosthetics).

Euthanasia
If a colonist enters a coma due to direct injury to the brain, or excessive blood loss starving the brain of oxygen, then players have choice of waiting for them to return or putting them down. While a colonist is in a coma other colonists will have thoughts ranging from a negative mood because they wish for them to be put down, or a positive mood because they are happy that we are continually fighting for them. Bedsores could be a problem for colonists who have been bedridden for lengthy periods of time.

This idea I especially like. Euthanasia shouldn't necessarily have a negative effect on mood especially if there is nothing you can do to help them. If someone has a shattered spine and is paralyzed for life, there should be an event or something that happens at some point (or never depending on the personality) where the colonist gives permission to end their life. Similarly in the case of permanent coma due to brain injury the choice can be made for them by relatives, and if they have none then it can be rationalized why the death was necessary, and not cause mood penalties.

Combat decisions
Lure enemies away
During a really serious assault, a box pops up  that says "Colonist X volunteers to try and lure the enemy away... etc etc" and gives the player the option to accept or decline. If you accept then your colonist will make a break for the edge of the map and all enemies will try and follow them. If they die before making it to the edge of map then the decoy failed and they will continue to attack you, if they lived then enemies will chase them off screen and the raid will end and there is a chance that they return on a later day or that they died gallantly.

Suicide bomber
Pop-up box appears of colonist offering to grab artillery shells and charge at the enemy. If you accept then they will haul nearby artillery shells and charge a group of enemies exploding once they get in range. The size of the explosion depends on the number of artillery shells they were hauling.

No... this is kind of stupid, because you should be able to hold off a raid, especially if you use cheaty turrets which should be removed because they make the game to easy. No situation is EVER hopeless enough for this to become a feature, this isn't that kind of game, and this isn't the kind of choice you should have to make. On the other hand, an event where you get a radio transmission demanding a slave as tribute or else they attack you, that I could get behind. In this case you could give them a captive slave if you have any, otherwise you would have to pick a colonist to give them if you fear the attack adequately to do so.

Suicide bombing I also disagree with. If you want to suicide bomb why not just advance a guy into cover with frag grenades and throw them at the enemy? Frag grenades have a much better chance to do damage then a single suicide bomber does. Also it's more heroic and less reminiscent of religious zealotry.

[Songleaves]

Gangreneous limbs dont sound like something that has any chance of realistically happening...

Wet gangrene is actually extremely common in certain injuries (crushing, gunshots, frostbite) and usually only takes a few days to occur. The reason it's not super common is because these injuries are not super common to begin with and because people with these injuries are typically treated very quickly to prevent them from going gangrenous. Back in the old days though this was a huge concern that people had.

Cancer... also not realistic,

Being rare doesn't make something unrealistic, and the game would benefit from having a diversity of rare events that you might only come across once every few games. Also, we don't know what type of environment these people are living in, cancer rates could be much higher on that planet due to environmental factors.

because you should be able to hold off a raid,

Imo raids should not be able to be comfortably defended against.

[Vaporisor]

Gangrene is in the game in terms of infection.  A pawn can die from a simple toe infection even.  When an infection does occur, you can amputate it without penalty, but are you looking for more depth to it or differentiation?

Same with coma,  just want to be sure reading post right.  It isnt so much about adding medical condition per se, but have more effect with the pawn itself on decisions.  The psychological in addition to pure logic?

[Songleaves]

Gangrene is in the game in terms of infection.  A pawn can die from a simple toe infection even.  When an infection does occur, you can amputate it without penalty, but are you looking for more depth to it or differentiation?

Hmmm, I guess the difference would be that gangrene spreads rapidly through the body, whereas infections in Rimworld stay localized. In Rimworld you could have a toe become gangrenous, then the foot, then the leg, then death. When a part becomes gangrenous a message will pop up similar to the infection warning message, but it will warn that there's a chance the infection will spread and to consider amputation. Perhaps an operation could be added to the operations tab to "Amputate gangrenous part" so you don't have to amputate the whole leg due to a single toe.

Same with coma,  just want to be sure reading post right.  It isnt so much about adding medical condition per se, but have more effect with the pawn itself on decisions.  The psychological in addition to pure logic?

I had actually forgotten that coma's were a thing. In that case yes, I would just be suggesting a psychological component be added.

[Vaporisor]

Thankies for the clarification!  I am quite wanting more of the health and ailment side of things as well.  I would like smaller raids, but less killboxes and to counter that, it would make the choices that much more meaningful if the after effects meant more.

The concept of gangrene and spread vs infection.  The way to differentiate would be infection from lack of cleanliness, but gangrene starts from not seeking treatment as well.

I also would like to see bleed out be more of a deal as well.  This is part of the smaller raids, more priority concept.  A few bad injuries, and bleed-out becomes that much more of a serious thing.  The idea that you have to pick and choose who to triage.

I think you view the game much like me.  For myself, it isnt so much a builder game, but more of a life and death struggle game.  Immersing myself into the characters and being forced to make choices.  On a frozen map, choosing to butcher the bonded cat so we may eat or once even killing and butchering a fellow colonist.  (The darkest moment in my gameplay that was).

The concept of having more in terms of mood and social.  The social side really should reflect more with moods.  If you have that beloved colonist that all others really like get comatosed, it is hard to put them down.  Whereas neutrals or negatives won't.  So once health gets into the picture, more intermediate decisions and having the colonists react to them really would be good.

Amputating that infected leg should give a temporary negative mood modifier.  One thing I have noticed is that colonists will go and cheer up people who are in a poor mood in hospitals.  The concept of colonists working to help other colonists through tough times?  I think it would just be grand.

I am imagining it now.  Your doc gets a wound on the foot during a raid.  You have to keep him running to patch up other people.  Gets foot infection.  Foot infection becomes gangrene and hits leg.  So you have to take leg.  Doc gets a negative mood modifier for the disability, but those positive with him go to chat with them and cheer mood up!

This makes for a new game dynamic.  Maintaining a positive social environment in and of itself becomes a counter to a tough life or situations.  I really thing it would add a lot to the game!  Sorry about the rambling