Ideas for changing how starting Pawns are selected

[Polder]

I end up wasting way too much time rerolling colonists because so many colonists are just bad. The advantage gained from rerolling until one gets good starting colonists is just too large to ignore. I don't get excited about colonists wanting to join either because often they're just bad. And a colonist with sanguine, hard worker, careful shooter, plus good skills with the right passions make things too easy! The problem here is that the usefulness of colonists varies too much.

I think what should be done is something like this:

1. Disabled skills are gone. There are now 4 levels of passion that determine the maximum skill level and experience gain. They are: "Dislike" caps skill at 5, learns at half speed. "None" caps skill at 10, learns normal speed. "Interested" caps skill at 15, learns at double speed. "Burning" caps skill at 20, learns at triple speed.

This should mean fewer terrible colonists but also fewer excellent ones.

2. Traits can also make or break a colonist which I dislike. I think that there are two possibilities here: either give colonists with a negative trait some positive trait, or make all traits have both good and bad effects. The intent is the same: prevent colonists from being too bad or too good.

An alternative might be some normal distribution inspired system that doesn't eliminate extremes but makes them far less common. That might be ideal but is also more complex to implement (in a nutshell: create a points based character creation system, then make sure the amount of points to spend is normally distributed).

Moderator's edit (Calahan) - I have moved these posts out of the A17 feedback thread and split them into a new suggestion thread. As Tynan has repeatedly asked, please keep the A17 feedback thread for feedback on the unstable A17 builds only. If what you are posting is any sort of suggesting for changes aspects of the game then please post it in the suggestion forum instead. And please don't respond to other peoples suggestions either as that just makes things worse. Thank you.

[giltirn]

I end up wasting way too much time rerolling colonists because so many colonists are just bad. The advantage gained from rerolling until one gets good starting colonists is just too large to ignore. I don't get excited about colonists wanting to join either because often they're just bad. And a colonist with sanguine, hard worker, careful shooter, plus good skills with the right passions make things too easy! The problem here is that the usefulness of colonists varies too much.

I think what should be done is something like this:

1. Disabled skills are gone. There are now 4 levels of passion that determine the maximum skill level and experience gain. They are: "Dislike" caps skill at 5, learns at half speed. "None" caps skill at 10, learns normal speed. "Interested" caps skill at 15, learns at double speed. "Burning" caps skill at 20, learns at triple speed.

This should mean fewer terrible colonists but also fewer excellent ones.

2. Traits can also make or break a colonist which I dislike. I think that there are two possibilities here: either give colonists with a negative trait some positive trait, or make all traits have both good and bad effects. The intent is the same: prevent colonists from being too bad or too good.

An alternative might be some normal distribution inspired system that doesn't eliminate extremes but makes them far less common. That might be ideal but is also more complex to implement (in a nutshell: create a points based character creation system, then make sure the amount of points to spend is normally distributed).

I agree, especially about the useless guys who refuse to haul. I mentioned this before but I really think that colonists should just get a mood debuff if forced to do things they don't like. Ultimately you'll end up putting them in roles they are happy with but you're not going to lose a colony because your only hauler gets sick.

Some traits are gameplay breaking also. For example, get a guy with a chemical fascination and you may as well just give up producing drugs because he's going to get addicted then become a huge drain on resources as well as a liability.

Moderator's edit (Calahan) - I have moved these posts out of the A17 feedback thread and split them into a new suggestion thread. As Tynan has repeatedly asked, please keep the A17 feedback thread for feedback on the unstable A17 builds only. If what you are posting is any sort of suggesting for changes aspects of the game then please post it in the suggestion forum instead. And please don't respond to other peoples suggestions either as that just makes things worse. Thank you.

[kenmtraveller]

As a counterpoint, I think it's both accurate and interesting that some colonists are much better than others.  It also leads to better stories.  Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island, for example, Does Not Haul.

I do like the idea of a point system for the initial 3 colonists, but I would argue that even this be optional.  For colonists that arrive later, I think the current system is great as is.  In one of my recent games I set myself the challenge of refusing no one who wasn't a cannibal, and getting them all off planet via the hidden ship.  It led to a lot of interesting decisions -- for example, one of my most useless pawns married my best pawn.  Do I send them both when I establish a new colony?

Moderator's edit (Calahan) - I have moved these posts out of the A17 feedback thread and split them into a new suggestion thread. As Tynan has repeatedly asked, please keep the A17 feedback thread for feedback on the unstable A17 builds only. If what you are posting is any sort of suggesting for changes aspects of the game then please post it in the suggestion forum instead. And please don't respond to other peoples suggestions either as that just makes things worse. Thank you.

[Rimrue]

I don't know if it's changed or not, but I agree with the others that I do seem to need to reroll a lot to get colonists that don't have a ton of incapabilities or a bunch of negative traits. Even for tribals who usually are the most capable pawns.

I tend to agree with the suggestion that instead of them being incapable they should take a negative mood hit like brawlers do instead. -30 or even -50 should be enough that players would only want to force them to do things when absolutely necessary. Add a -5 skill level and they'd be pretty much as useless as before--just players would have a chance to save their colonies when useless is the last man standing. Lol

Would make for some interesting stories too. "After back to back raids and a dry thunderstorm only Bob, who was emotionally scarred as a youth and refuses to firefight or doctor, is left standing. After overcoming his fears and beating out the encroaching fire, he sets to work bandaging his friends. Despite nearly passing out at the sight of blood several time he overcomes all odds and the colony is saved . . . Or he snaps, goes berzerk, and the colony perishes anyway." Lol

I'll crosspost to the suggestions forum. I believe there is a thread there on this subject already.

Moderator's edit (Calahan) - I have moved these posts out of the A17 feedback thread and split them into a new suggestion thread. As Tynan has repeatedly asked, please keep the A17 feedback thread for feedback on the unstable A17 builds only. If what you are posting is any sort of suggesting for changes aspects of the game then please post it in the suggestion forum instead. And please don't respond to other peoples suggestions either as that just makes things worse. Thank you.

[ArguedPiano]

That is certainly a good idea! A major mood de buff instead of straight up refusal to do work.

As for the pawn selection I don't mind it so much. I used to be the one who rerolled pawn after pawn to get the perfect ones. Then if I got a map I didn't like I would do it all over again. I found this made the game way too easy.

I started playing with mostly random pawns (minimal rerolling) and not being so picky on the map. It's made it more challenging. Sometimes you get bad RNG and some games are unbeatable but it makes your successful runs all that much better.