Smarter raids

[canshow]

Right now I notice that raiders just move to the map and set fire/destroy as much of your stuff as they can. Then they retreat, loot you, or kidnap a colonist (after encountering various degrees of resistance) and leave.

Can we give raiders some missions and objectives? Instead of "mindlessly" just destroying things, how about specifically hunting colonists (or hunting specific colonists? *ahem* bounty hunters & bounty systems *ahem ahem*)? Or going on a saboteur mission to destroy specific stockpile(s)/buildings? Hell, even give raids multiple stages where the first group is a scouting/saboteur group that comes in advance of the main group.

And what about some NOIR/sneaky stuff?
For instance these events.... - "A group of travelers from ... is passing by" - ... Maybe rng it so that it's actually a group from a hostile faction trying to get as close to you as possible before blowing their cover? Perhaps even visitors to your colony can be spies and/or assassins? It would add another dimension... and maybe make the colony manager (YOU) pay more attention to what's going on in the map instead of solely focusing on his/her own pawns.

And this leads into a broader discussion of what information the colony manager should be privy to, such as the lack of fog of war, knowing exactly what faction every pawn on the map is from and their abilities, and etc.. Perhaps one way to challenge the player is to deprive them of information, and the sneaky stuff could be one of the first steps towards doing that.

[Anomaly]

I'm all for suggestions that add depth to colonist behavior though this one would be a big addition. To make the intrigue work, colonists would need to notice strange behavior and call it out (social?). It would then be for the player to see what other colonists think and follow the suspect to confirm or deny suspicions. It could just be someone with a grudge against an innocent colonist.   

Raiders should have an identity as a group that is more than just random hordes that show up from time to time. Its  odd to see raids continue to come after the third time in a row I ambushed their attack with a doomsday and left no more than two bloodied survivors.

[SaintD]

I think the easiest and most immersive way to do this is for a whole raid to have a singular 'mission' which you're told when they arrive, just like with sieges.

Raiders can be there 'to steal your valuables', and then they'll do what they can to dash in and make off with the highest value stuff you've got. Or they can be there to 'collect slaves', and they'll try to incapacitate colonists and make off with them. In both these cases raiders should have a risk averse AI. If a colonist is on their own, they'll mob him/her, but if they meet large numbers of heavily armed colonists, they retreat across the map but don't leave, and try another attack elsewhere (or digging). You'd have to keep going after these a-holes until they decide things are too hot and not worth trying, or they'll just stay on the map until they get what they want.

Then you could have a 'punitive raid', a heavily armed attack in later stages of your colony that's just there because they want to hurt you (you are likely to have been, after all, quite a costly thorn in the side). They'll burn and destroy what they can, and try to kill everyone. The raid we generally have now. It's just war.