Tired of useless colonists

[Shurp]

So I thought it would be fun to try the lone explorer start on an ice sheet (with some mountains, not sea ice!), and I was doing pretty well with Cassandra Extreme but had the consistent problem that all the newcomers who wanted to join Engie (yes, Engie popped up at the 10th choice for a starting colonist) were all complete garbage.

So Engie was happily building her base when a polar bear snuck up on her and ate her.  *sigh*

Is there any way to get useful recruits on extreme?  And by "useful" I'm not asking for a lot -- not a drug addict, not a heart attack waiting to happen, not blind or brawler or unable to mine and farm.  Someone who is actually an asset rather than a mouth to feed that attracts pirates.

And if the only way to get decent recruits is to drop the difficulty level to a boring medium... is there any other way to make the game more exciting?  Hmmm, if I build statues with my surplus silver maybe I can attract more numerous / well equipped pirates to give the crew a challenge?

[Keychan]

Well it's just bad RNG on your part.  Difficulty doesn't affect the quality of who you'll encounter, but the quantity.  Every pawn is randomly rolled, not in favor of anything besides equipment in raids.  Your best bet is to build a comm. console and hope that a pirate merchant or slaver has someone of value you can afford or kidnap a promising visitor.  At least that'll increase your pool of pawn choices. 

[cmitc1]

I feel your pain.

I will be sitting at 5 colonist for years because nobody that is actually worth taking would come.

[Limdood]

I'm also irritated by the fact that the last patch made 3 traits that make pawns either useless or an EXTREME liability.

Chemical fascination/interest are death sentences waiting to happen, or at LEAST an extreme cost waiting to happen due to inevitable addiction and organ damage.  True, you could burn all drugs immediately upon receiving them but that could fail (raid hits, drug binge happens before you clean it up) and misses plenty of dropped items that could be useful in later raids.

Pyromaniac is completely intolerable.  Even with a completely stone base with stone beds, the pyro will still seek out stockpiles and stuff and start burning. 

the fact that the game randomly generates traits and 3 of the possible choices will make a pawn useless is a real pain.  I can somewhat see the point of keeping chemical fascination in (though with the permanent damage and overdosing its a huge pain), but pyro is an immediate "no" - i think -  for everyone.

[cmitc1]

I would love to see the pyro trait be reworked. I cant stand the idea of having a pyro in my colony.

[Bozobub]

I *instantly* turn pyromaniacs into snacks and hats.  They're simply not tolerable.

[b0rsuk]

A more subtle problem is that wanderer joins event ruins any chance of running a slave trader colony. Because of storyteller meddling, chance of incapacitating an enemy drop as your base population grows - you know, just in case you will recruit them.

[Euzio]

I'd kinda prefer that we be given the option to accept/reject the wanderer joins event. There are times where I don't really want new pawns joining my colony since I prefer to keep it small. Most times if they are undesirable, I'd stick a melee weapon on them and have them charge raiders when they come by... gives a -mood debuff for a little while when they get wasted but at least I don't have to keep feeding them.

That said, I do think the randomness to traits is and skills is a fun and interesting part of Rimworld. It makes us value the pawns who are really good and thus feel the loss quite well if they get killed. Quite often, I'd keep my favourite pawns in the rear during battles and have the pawns I don't really value in front so they take the brunt of the attacks.

[cultist]

I don't get what's so bad about the Pyro trait. Firestarting is by far the easiest mental break to handle. All you need is a drafted pawn to babysit the pyro. Yes, it requires extreme micro-management but it lasts a couple of minutes at worst. No pyro has ever managed to start a fire that lasted more than a fraction of a second in any of my colonies.

[b0rsuk]

Colony reputation should affect chance of events like wanderer joins. A colony that sells slaves or human leather should be avoided, or draw a very different kind of people.

[Thyme]

Ya, pyro is actually no threat when you have enough pawns with firefighting set to "1". Chemical turns your colony in a strict "no drugs area". Getting valuable colonists is a problem, right now (year 4 or 5) I have six, three of them I took only because I really needed the manpower (jealous, lazy or has a tendency to break). I use the tranq turret mod for one or two seasons now which gave me prisoners to replace my liabilities. The wounds of that turret deal little damage but inflict +15% pain and -25% movement, bypassing the RNG death but still being somewhat lethal. (4-5 hits to down, 6 hits -> painful death). I doubt that my colony would grow beyond the current size without some way to increase the pool. Although, it has below -40°C most of the time meaning that most raids are mechas.

pre post edit: b0rsuk has a point, I'd appreciate a higher chance for certain people if it fits the colonies ideology.

[Shurp]

So attached is another example of what I'm talking about.  At first he looks good.  But what are the three attributes that are critical for survival?

Shooting, Growing, and Mining.

And what skill level in those three does this pawn have?

Oh, sure, he has plenty of *other* skills... that are totally useless on Day 4 when I'm trying to build power supplies and potato farms to keep my ice sheet buddies from starving to death.

[attachment deleted by admin due to age]

[Stormfox]

His stats are actually quite usable. He can haul, is a very good doctor and passable constructor and has a skill that gives him something to do in the lategame (research). The problem is rather that volatile and slowpoke are pretty bad.

Still, as far as bad colonist go, this one is actually pretty servicable. I would not buy him from a slave trader, but he is good enough for free.

[Mehni]

You'll be desperate for a warden with 13 social by the time you finally do find a prisoner that passes your overly strict selection criteria.

[taha]

Not a mod, and a bit cheaty IMO, but if it floats your boat...

Scenario editor -> forced trait -> too smart | 100% | all characters
Scenario editor -> allowed age -> 20-29

Does not get rid of useless pawn, but at least you can be sure you will have a decent trait  / decent health on randoms. You can even put hardworking or industrious (all will have that trait so there will be no social penalty vs lazy).