Slavery

[mumblemumble]

For the bad thoughts, thats an idea, except it would be better to just recruit someone often, for a better deal : and on the other side, would it even be that much different than a colonist? Its a very, VERY fine line between making slaves stupid OP, where you can boss them around with no fear of mental breaks, and making them nuisances, and this is made worse since colonists already kinda act like slaves. Even slaver mods were kinda dumb, where slave runners needed to be paid, and would freak out otherwise.

Being worth the effort has nothing to do with story, im speaking of mechanics : if prisoners shanked any colonist they could at any opportunity for instance when enslaved, it would not be worth the risk : So this is the question, how MECHANICALLY do you make it worth doing so, compared to just recruiting or buying slaves? What are the pros, the cons, the effort involved, the risk... What makes the difference between slave and colonist in behavior? These questions are critical before this is implemented

Actually I would say colonists are pretty much slaves : again, buying a slave makes them act identical to colonists, so they aren't really slaves. So again : what would be the behavioral difference, cost involved, and risks?

[Zombull]

The only real benefit is time. Sure you can recruit normally, but there may not be time. First, you have to have everything in place for recruiting (skilled warden, good prison, plentiful food) and that definitely takes time. Even then, success in recruiting is entirely RNG dependent. Sure you could buy slaves from a slaver ship, but again it's up to RNG to send you a slaver ship.

But I don't think it's accurate to say "being worth the effort has nothing to do with story".

[mumblemumble]

It doesn't have anything to do with the story. Mechanics and story are completely separate in this game in most context, tynan even talked about this, how stories are often based on things that don't REALLY happen in game, that players think are happening due to imagination.

Besides that, "being worth" I was speaking of, was the worth in mechanical balance, not in story. Theres PLENTY of ideas that I know of which would make great stories, but it must be fitting for both mechanics AND story. If either is severely compromised, or broken, people start worrying.

You say for instance you could instantly make a slave, but then the cons? It would be a very delicate balance to make them noticably different, while having a slave wasn't either a GIANT pain in the rear to manage, or superior to colonists, OR just seeming like they are pretty much the same.

[Glass]

The answer to slavery seems to be prison labor, when you can set a prisoner/slave to work but they get a negative mood debuff that stacks like how the party buff stacks now.
So for each item they made or for every idk 6 hour period that they worked they would get a negative debuff that builds and slowly degrades. So while you could have their help it would eventually lead to a negative mood debuff spiral. It could also with more stacks make the slave work slower, or create worse quality items regardless of skill level.

Another debuff that would be interesting is if your prisoners could strike/riot from working, then you get a situation similar to how the game is now.
Currently ive only ever seen prisoners go berserk, no sad wander or anything else, so having them have the chance to riot and start fires/ destroy the jail. Could be another consequence of forced labor.

This also brings up the fact that at least in my games i never have a nice jail or take care of my prisoners. I just have prisoners sleep on the floor in random areas of expansion in the colony. So it would provide some incentive to have a nice jail and actually take decent care of your prisoners, thus doing so could maybe counter the negative work debuff. Basically i just use prisoners as organ farms, remove a leg, and just harvest away over time as the mood debuff goes away. Prison labor would atleast give me areason to treat them decently and not just have someone go out and execute wounded people after a raid.

this would sort of work as slavery since your forcing the person to work for your colony but not actually accepting them and treating them equally.

As already stated though as the game stands colonists/ prisoners are essentially already slaves. The only thing that stops prisoners from slavery and not colonists is that we cant force prisoners to work. While we can pretty much do anything we want to prisoners that 9/10 you wouldnt do to your colonists. 

[Kenneth79]

I like the idea. For balancing in the game perhaps... Once you make someone a slave they lose certain skill sets whilst rising in experience with certain skills such as cleaning and hauling. Who is to say that slaves should have colonist skills perhaps when you make a person a slave they can only be assigned to cleaning and hauling. Which makes the game easier but not OP because cleaning and hauling is insigificant jobs. Also added that the person who is a slave would lose skill sets dramatically making the slave undesirable. Therefore players won't be so inclined on creating lots of slaves added to the fact of negative mood. Basically balancing would involve making the person who is to become a slave less valuable and do insignificant tasks.Perhaps as well as making the slave die faster.

[Jarwy]

Nice. I would love to equip my warden with a whip and then have it escort the prisoners to a "workzone", farm, mine or something. If prisoners have no passion for the task, they would get increasingly unhappy and have an increased chance to try to escape. Balancing all this would be a piece of cake with slower work speed and the increased revolt risk as more prisoners work together. Not to mention the actual slave driver would be wielding a whip instead of a charge rifle.

If someone makes this mod, make sure to have the warden crack the whip occasionally with a proper sound effect.

[Kenneth79]

I love how no one is offended by the idea of slavery. The community is very open-minded and mature. Plus it is a game after all. Love the community <3 (as long as there is no defamation of others than everything is good).

[El Bearsidente]

That would be awesome.

Right now, when I go "shopping" for new colonists (aka look through raiders and their stats), all I can hope for is that my defensive line doesn't kill everyone, especially the ones I want.

What makes it worse is that prisoners are 100% useless. All they do is eat up resources. They eat my food, I have to build them beds, they use my hot water (I run the hygiene mod), they need my medicine. And then, should they try to break out, they damage my doors.

It leads to the point where I sometimes wonder why even take prisoners. The stats of an enemy must be pretty damn good to warrant it.

So why not put prisoners to work under guard? That way taking prisoners would be more interesting. Give them a chance to redeem themselves. Or, if you run a colony like the one I did in a very cold area (the initial crew are all psychopaths) keep them until they keel over.

You could then go out and raid other settlements, if you so choose, and take slaves from there, too.

[Nainara]

I'm not sure how a slavery mechanic would work, but I love the idea of prisoner labor. 99% difficulty to recruit? No problem! You can just roll cigars in that dark cell forever.

[Bozobub]

I'm all for it but this seems more mod territory to me; it's an entire new system, after all, and will also have its own emergent weirdness to police and fix.

[Blastoderm]

Slavery is good for the game.
1. Slaves being OP
Could be fixed by manipulation penalty to represent their reluctance or working in retrains and possibility of escapes and riots.
2. Possibility for new items
Slave outfits, chains, restrains which will limit their speed to make escapes less appealing. Hi-tech explosive collars and other means of escape controls.
3. New options for traits
We have a colony of slavers, slave drivers, medieval lords, bandit thugs and other types who would hardly disapprove having a slave. Yet they do. Also, pawns with slave background could have mood penalty for enslaving others, while medieval lords and others could have positive buffs.
4. Logical roles
A colony of 10 huskies hauling things is IMO less logical to have than a colony with 10 slaves doing hauling and cleaning. Because having 10 slaves doing menial tasks is more logical than 10 dogs, hogs and panthers doing the hauling

[Thirite]

I think slavery is one of those often-argued topics that will never see resolution until someone actually mods it into the game. Pretty much everything that can be said about it has been said before. Any arguing for or against will just be rehearsing the topic for the Nth time.

[Canute]

I don't think you can mod this, these features prolly needed to add by the basic game.
There is a slave mod, but these slaves are "animal" because they are born and grow up as slaves and are "happy" to be a slave (or not).

Thats why they don't need these slavery controls like when you enslave prisoner who was free before.
He allways will try to flee, start to revolte and maybe coop with other prisoner who are a faction enemy of him.

[Thirite]

Literally anything is possible with modding RimWorld. The way the game injects code would allow you to make an entirely different game if you so desired. It's all a matter of modder time + patience + devotion.

[Perq]

Some people say that technically pawns are slaves. Of course they are not. Slaves cannot refuse to haul or clean. Pawns can.
You tell a slave to haul shit - he hauls shit or faces the warden.

Other than that, I'm quite sure there are dozen other differences and ways of implementing it as an interesting element for story telling. Pawn being a slave to your colony, but works a lot with your colonist. They become friends. Interesting? Interesting. You can now even put some more systems on top of it - make it easier to recruit such slave-pawn, make it easier for him to escape (his colonist friend helps him escape).

Dozens of things that can add to the gameplay. Sure, not every single one will work (or will be worth it to add), but I'm quite surprised people say from the very beginning that there are no differences between pawns and potential slaves.