Need some exact figures for a point-based character creation system.

[Bozobub]

Absolutely not.  There's already a "Random" button, as it is.  Trading cool world seeds/starting areas is fun.

[Limdood]

I feel variety is the spice of life. 

Choosing start location, random start location, and random blind start location (cover your screen except the random and accept button!) already exist....removing one of those just HINDERS gameplay.

Similarly, EdB's prepare carefully in the base game would add the same thing.  I'm only against a partial, arbitrarily restrictive and subjective version of EdB as a core feature.

Removing a way to play the game....JUST removing it, not changing or replacing it, is almost never a good design decision, since you're telling the people that prefer that playstyle "oh well, adapt or quit!" You have SOME justification for this in a multiplayer-focused game, but in a pure single-player game, and a story-driven one at that, player options really become the be-all, end-all of design.

[AngleWyrm]

Now that the globe has so many more features (villages, roads, rivers, etc)  the start location has way more influence on the difficulty of the game.  What if one could only select starting biome? How many worlds did you have to roll before starting your last game? I suggest that the quality of Rimworlds can be measured by the density of sites you want to land in.

An improvement would be to go from rolling multiple worlds before finding just one site to examining a single world full of sites you'd like to use and having to choose between them.

[Sola]

You could also roleplay it, and not make superpawns, but only useful realistic ones. You have the power.

Not what I asked.

I don't see this being very plausible.  Obviously you'd need progressive costs per skill, with higher levels costing more.  Even then though, hyperspecialization or skill weighting and subjective value will throw any attempt at quantifying skill worth out the window.

{Disfigured, Abrasive, Prosthophobe Cook. - Doctor Sniper with zero in art and crafting}

I'm fully aware of this, and I know how it could be taken advantage of.  This wouldn't be "The Prepare Carefully mod for twinks";  It'd be for purposes of role playing or generating interesting pawns for scenarios.  If the formula I came up with worked and was well received, (And let's face it, it won't be, for subjective valuing of skills alone.), I'd be interested in posting a topic here to see what people came up with for their pawns.  People might even be interested in using these man-made pawns to create their own story.

Sneak peek, if you're interested.
-Skills have a small exponential cost increase as you go up in levels.
-Passions are weighted based on the level of the skill.  Lower skill level, lower cost.  In this way, you can choose between a pawn that starts with a high skill, or one that will grow into their skill faster for the same cost.
-Traits are going to be weighted based on their related skills.  Psychopath will cost more on units with high cooking.
-Traits will reduce in price for higher unrelated skills.  Jogger's cost will decrease as long-term  skills go up (Art, Intelligence), as well as having "Incapable of Hauling".  Industrious's cost will decrease as movement-related skills go up (Growing, Mining, Social), as well as "Incapable of Crafting".
-Incapable of (skill) will generate more points based on how likely it is to interfere with the pawn's ability to operate.  "Incapable of crafting" will generate very little on its own.  "Incapable of plant work" will generate more points on a unit with high construction, due to the possibility they may (slowly) chop down a tree that's in the way of their building.  "Incapable of firefighting/doctoring/hauling" will always generate more points, due to the fact that they're pervasive abilities.  Four people incapable of doctoring will be a problem if the wrong raid downs most of your colony.

I work overnights at a residential facility for special needs kids.  I have a lot of time to think about this. :p