Editable, or automatically changing, "Colony Job" title

[AlleeCat]

I've only ever seen one thread on this topic, and it was almost two years ago. Let me highlight a problem I have strictly from a narrative point of view, using a real example I've found from the game.

Emily "Emmie" Young is listed as a Sex Slave. She was grown in a test tube specifically to be a slave, and she will forever be known as a sex slave. Even if she spends the rest of her life as the colony's cook, and never has sex with anyone for the rest of her (probably short) existence, her tombstone will read, "Emmie, Sex Slave."

Isn't that kind of messed up? If you were Emmie, would you want to be referred to as a sex slave for the rest of your life, despite the fact that you've pretty much started a new life away from your masters? Sure, it's an event that shaped who you are as a person, but it doesn't define you for the rest of your life.

Another problem I have: Mute, Loner, Defector, Shelterkid, Tech-head. These are not job titles. These give one barely an idea of what the person does in a colony barely surviving on the edge of space. Sure these labels may be fine and even helpful when the person is new, and has yet to fill a niche, but if the person has been acting as an animal handler for the past three years, I don't need to be constantly reminded that they were an orphan when they were a kid.

Now I know most colony management games get compared to Dwarf Fortress all the time, but that's a game that does it right, if less in-depth. If someone has been making cheese all their life and comes to your fortress, and then end up making stone chairs for 3 years, they're not going to still call themselves a Cheese Maker. You can look at their stats and see that they still have cheese making as a skill, but they're labelled as a Mason, because that's what they've been doing for the past few years, and that's what they have skill in now.

Here's how I think it should work: Using the backstory title for a little while is fine, just like how your colony and faction don't have a name at first, but maybe after a few months, automatically give the colonist a "Colony Job" or "Colonist" field in addition to the "Childhood" and "Adulthood" fields, the name of which depends on the highest skill they have at the time. You could either have it be editable or have it change if another skill becomes the highest.

It just really bothers me when my farmer who loves farming and has been farming ever since she came to my colony three years ago is still labelled "Engineer" because she just happened to be one before she ended up here.It makes absolutely no sense in or out of universe, and I feel like it would be a fairly easy problem to fix. You could even make it toggleable for diehards who for some reason want their colonists to only be defined by what they did before they came to the colony, and nothing after that.

[schizmo]

I thought that those titles were based primarily around passion? Am I mistaken?

[Thyme]

I would be confused if my pawns were renamed automatically. Oh, my Engie got abducted and replaced with someone who looks like her, but isn't her!

And I think dead people don't mind what their gravestone says.

[AlleeCat]

I thought that those titles were based primarily around passion? Am I mistaken?

They're based on their backgrounds. For instance, I have a Healer named Anna. She is not called a Healer because she has a passion for medicine. In fact, her burning passion is cooking. She's called a Healer because she has the "Wandering healer" backstory.

I would be confused if my pawns were renamed automatically. Oh, my Engie got abducted and replaced with someone who looks like her, but isn't her!

That doesn't make sense. You would get confused if the job title of one of your pawns changed, even though they have the exact same name, nickname, skills, appearance and equipment? Do you get confused when people change clothes, too?

And I think dead people don't mind what their gravestone says.

"Hey, why does Emmie's gravestone say she was a sex slave? Don't you think that's a little inappropriate?"
"Nah, she doesn't care. She's dead!"