Reason to Release Pirate Captives?

[DanielCoffey]

Apart from Role Playing reasons, is there any benefit to Releasing an undesirable Captive belonging to a Pirate faction once you have stripped and healed them?

I know the wiki says that Pirate faction pawns do not give relationship bonuses when successfully released and you still have to feed and at least Doctor treat them until then. Do you avoid some "had to bury a dead dude" debuff? Is the map space for graves too valuable?

[Barazen]

Well it makes them story pawns, more likely to show up later. I had one dude come back six times after i released him trying to raid me and everytime he was the only one to get away, then he got caught between my town and a tribal raid to hilariously lethal results.

Might be nice if released pirate prisoners had a chance to come back and join later or something but if thats the case ive never seen it happen.

[milon]

@DanielCoffey, you actually don't have to feed & treat them.  It's a good idea to treat them with at least Doctor's Skill to train your doctor, but you certainly don't have to do even that.

@Barazen, that's interesting.  I didn't realize that capture/release would make them a World Pawn.  Good to know.

[cmitc1]

you get rid of them with no debuff.

that is a reason to I guess?

[Barazen]

@milon, i dont know with 100% certainty if it does, it may have been something else set it as a world pawn, but thats the only thing i can attribute it woth. I'm almost certain that any major interaction is enough to set as world pawn from capture to wounds.

[Goldenpotatoes]

As of right now, no. You used to be able to increase relations with pirates in earlier builds by doing this and it ended with people gaming the relations system to make every faction friendly to the colony, forcing only mechanoids to spawn as a raid option.

It'd be interesting if the player was able to call for ransom, similar to how NPC factions already do with captured colonists. Base it off current level of hostility and the negotiator's social skill.

Could also just add a jailbreak raid where the associated faction comes to try and bust out any prison part of faction/allied to them. That would probably be a good reason not to keep hostile faction members locked up for too long.

[stu89pid]

Why not? If you aren't trying to recruit them or using them for doctor practice, they are just taking up time and food.

Selling and killing them give debuffs so releasing is a better approach even if no faction is gained.

[Limdood]

as others have said, releasing means they go away with no mood hit.

Alternatively, you can try to game the system a bit...giving a pirate luciferium and releasing should do one of 2 things:
1) cause that pirate to reappear later with a raid and go nuts from withdrawal
or
2) cause that pirate to show up later with a luciferium addiction and 3-4 luciferium, making the initial dose an investment.
i suppose there is a chance of 1b) the pawn will show up addicted to luci, with no luci in inventory, but not low enough need to go nuts...

as a general rule, I always carefully check downed pirates....both character and health tabs...if they aren't worth feeding til they join, then they get beaten to death or allowed to bleed out.

One last possible use is to INSTALL peg legs and dentures and remove them repeatedly to train medical skill....can get costly with medicines, but surgery yields very high skill gains.  there is no mood hit from installing peg legs and dentures (even over healthy body parts) OR removing artificial parts (which means capturing a bionic eye pirate, removing the eye, and releasing will get you a bionic eye and no mood hit)

[hwfanatic]

What about reasons to capture pirates in the first place? They are just bad news waiting to happen. Much better to just strip them and shoot them on the spot. Kind of merciful as well.

[TheMeInTeam]

What about reasons to capture pirates in the first place? They are just bad news waiting to happen. Much better to just strip them and shoot them on the spot. Kind of merciful as well.

The bionic parts mentioned above or medical skill training are the primary reasons.  You strip them first regardless, after that it's a matter of whether a delay in human leather exports yields decent benefits.

[Seeker89]

I like to strip them then take all their organs, hook them luciferium, then release them....
Question.... Does hooking them on luciferium help get through the bleeding to death part?

[Hans Lemurson]

Administering Luciferium doesn't seem to close bleeding wounds, nor does it regrow lost thumbs.

I just installed two peg-legs, dentures, and harvested a lung and a kidney before I sent a naked pirate-prisoner out the door.  He made it to the edge oft he map no problem.  My main regret is not taking his Liver.  Stealing organs doesn't seem to upset my colonists much worse than killing a prisoner, so I think I'd go "all or nothing".

[Seeker89]

Why peg legs?

[OFWG]

So that if they raid you again they're impaired.

[Limdood]

So that if they raid you again they're impaired.

if you're hooking them on Luciferium, and are expecting them to show up next time with Luci in their inventory, then peg legs are a liability, as the raid will probably break and flee before stumpy gets into firing range.  You want him near the front if you're looking for a luciferium investment return.