Colony Culture based on player decisions

[DNK]

The basic idea here is that a player's decisions will alter a "colony culture" variable that in turn has impacts on how pawns feel about certain events, each other, and could have a variety of minor nerfs/buffs to things like weapon usage, negotiation, recruitment, etc (all within the realm of 5-15% at most).

This is a form of dynamic feedback for actions a player takes.

For instance, executing or harvesting captured prisoners would shift the culture towards "sociopaths", along the sociopath-empath spectrum. On the sociopath end, all colonists would have a slight decrease in pro-social attitudes towards each other (more insults, more drama) and a much harder time recruiting the few prisoners they didn't want to eat.

A colony that routinely does "catch and release" after a nice chat and a cup of tea for prisoners would see buffs to socializing, recruitment, and so on.

Another cultural spectrum could be war-peace. The more a colony trains for battle (mod currently, but I hope this makes the final game), and the higher %age of attackers killed, the more a colony kills fallen attackers (rather than just leaving them or rescuing them), the farther on the war side it is. This would give bonuses to combat stats and speed up leveling, while a more peaceful colony would see increased traders coming by and a small mood buff "peaceful colony +5" or some such.

You could have a few major spectra, each shifting based on player choices. This doesn't create a "best" way to play, just tradeoffs and specializations.

It's sort of like how the new Dishonored has the world subtly shift based on the player's approach. I enjoy that sort of feedback, but it doesn't need to be anything major, just little things, subtleties to player strategies.

[AngleWyrm]

The psych profiles from linq's Psychology mod has many attitude modifiers. Might make a good source, or even a possibility for integration/add-on.

[DNK]

A few more ideas, to flesh the idea out a bit.

A "warrior" culture would:

• no "observed corpse -5" penalty
• a "killed an enemy in battle +5" mood bonus
• a "haven't killed anyone in weeks -3" penalty
• 25% more prone to violence between colonists
• violence between colonists 25% more likely to result in fatalities (continues longer)
• 25% fewer enemy raids (they fear you)
• 25% fewer traders (same)
• traders charge 25% more (to offset their risk)
• x115% to melee DPS
• x115% to shooting accuracy
• no "executed a prisoner" penalty

A "peaceful" colony... first, I think there should be non-lethal ways to handle raiders, like stun weapons, concussion grenades, glue guns, whatever. Anyway:

• +25% more traders
• -15% cost for traders
• +5 colony-wide mood boost "peaceful colony"
• double "saw a corpse" penalty
• "killed someone -5" penalty
• "saw someone killed -3" penalty
• -25% as many violent intra-colony attacks
• -50% fatalities from colonist-colonist fights
• global +10% work speed

A "sociopath" colony:

• no "executed a prisoner", etc, penalties
• reduced "loved one/fried died" penalties
• -25% positive social interactions
• +10% negative social interactions
• -20% recruit chance
• no "ate human meat" penalties
• no "slavery" penalties
• +10% prices on sold slaves, -10% on bought slaves
• gore/blood is neutral beauty

An "empathetic" colony:

• +25% positive social interactions
• -25% effect of negative social interactions
• x2 "saw corpse" penalty
• x4 "executed a prisoner" penalty (and harvest, etc)
• no slave traders
• +25% "wanderer joins" events
• +35% to recruit chance
• -25% melee DPS
• "killed someone" penalty
• "saw someone killed" penalty

So obviously, if you start killing lots of people, the colony culture will shift away from empathy/peace, but the penalties will remain for their standard resolution time, while new penalties would be based on the newer culture score.

All these bonuses/penalties could be modified by where you are on the spectrum. So if you're right in the middle it's just vanilla, but as you drift one way or the other you slowly build up to the full effect. So it might just be a -1 modifier at first, then -2, then so on to -5 for "saw a corpse" or whatever.

[Dragoon]

A few more ideas, to flesh the idea out a bit.

A "warrior" culture would:

• no "observed corpse -5" penalty
• a "killed an enemy in battle +5" mood bonus
• a "haven't killed anyone in weeks -3" penalty
• 25% more prone to violence between colonists
• violence between colonists 25% more likely to result in fatalities (continues longer)
• 25% fewer enemy raids (they fear you)
• 25% fewer traders (same)
• traders charge 25% more (to offset their risk)
• x115% to melee DPS
• x115% to shooting accuracy
• no "executed a prisoner" penalty

I feel like if you were warrior and traders knew you could handle an enemy they would be more willing to trade with you. Look at the legion from Fallout: NV they are dangerous bloodthirsty, However, they cover their own. For traders, I feel they would be like "These guys can defend themselves and if were allies they will defend us too if we play it right." I feel like they would offer discount and maybe even arrive more often. So that they can stay in your good graces.

Also, the reduced raids seem counter productive. I feel like it would lead to more breaks. Plus hey hate and revenge is often a leading factor I'm sure a boss or king pirate would not be kind if you killed his son you know what I mean?

[Perq]

Honestly, it would make more sense for raiders to attack you more frequently if you were peaceful. Why would someone pass a chance for good loot, when your enemies are weak?
If your culture is war oriented, I doubt anyone would like to attack you. Nobody in their right mind would attack a country full of bloodthirsty soldiers. If anything, that country of bloodthirsty soldiers would want to attack some weak country.
So I think that it is reversed at this point.

[JimmyAgnt007]

Honestly, it would make more sense for raiders to attack you more frequently if you were peaceful. Why would someone pass a chance for good loot, when your enemies are weak?
If your culture is war oriented, I doubt anyone would like to attack you. Nobody in their right mind would attack a country full of bloodthirsty soldiers. If anything, that country of bloodthirsty soldiers would want to attack some weak country.
So I think that it is reversed at this point.

I largely agree but two exceptions come to mind, first is mechanoids since they dont care, then also revenge if you attack someone, they might not care.

[SpaceDorf]

Third exception : The other country is also full of blood thirsty soldiers.
Why attack some weak enemies if there is much more glory to be gained.

[b0rsuk]

I don't really like it, I think more importance should be placed on pawn culture and less on player decisions. There should be several culture types, like:
- urbworld
- tribal
- glitterworld
- frontier
- pirate

and people from the same culture should like each other more, hang around, have better social relations. If you take many pirates they might form a faction within your colony and maybe even overthrow you. Pirates would be less sensitive to violence, slavery etc.

Tribal culture could care less about eating with tables, and dislike spending much time indoors. Trees, wild plants would grant more beauty.

Urbworld culture colonists would care less about crowds, disturbed sleep, and privacy in general. In fact they could require a company of several people to be happy.

Glitterworld could have aversion to dirt farming, physical work, dirt, animals.

And naturally you would have clash of several cultures within your colony. That way the sort of people you take would matter more. Currently it only matters BEFORE you recruit them, then they become your servants.

[Sirportalez]

That's a nice idea. While reading my first thought was on the policies of civ 5. It would in some ways support your playstyle.

[minimurgle]

I think this needs to be less colony based and more pawn based. I'd still like it either way.

[Dragoon]

If you take many pirates they might form a faction within your colony and maybe even overthrow you.

No matter what gets implemented, please Gods and Goddesses don't let it be this. That would be the single most unfair thing ever.

[SpaceDorf]

I like both directions of Ideas the thread offers so far.

For one the cultural Background on pawn basis.
As is allready offered by where you recruit the pawn from and also the backstory.
This one is mostly an Internal affair of your colony how your pawns interact with each other.
But as also noted before, the background of the pawn should be considered when Trading. Space Traders prefer to talk to a fellow spacer, while Tribals don't like it.

The second one is the external view of your Faction. It expands on the goodwill system and has an effect on how the other factions treat you. Every Faction has its own set of Traits they apply on you.
The Traits should be flexible and change with your behavior against this faction.

The Industrials think you are a trustworthy trade partner, but also an imbecile who sells firearms to tribals.

The Tribals like you because you sell them weapons, but still charge you double prices because you also sell them tons of yayo.

The Pirates think you are worth than anyone else because the people you send back are crippled for live.

[Icarus]

All settlements should have behavior archetypes, NPCs included, violent archetypes should raid more often/blame you for their members' deaths.