Visual cues for warm/hot and freezing/cold colonists

[gaf]

Temperature is one of the many interesting mechanics in the game I find it easy to make mistakes in due to simply missing information about what is going on. Colonists may be too warm or cold, or some area might be the wrong temperature and instead of being rewarded or punished for my gameplay choices I get punished without knowing it for something I didn't know was happening.

A change that I think would go a long way to improve this would be to add visual graphical cues to the colonists indicating how warm/cold they currently feel. Either just in the thumbs/overview row a the top or in the map as well.
- A quick and cheap option could be to just add a little icon (like a red/blue thermometer) next to the character thumbs showing if they're hot, or getting heatstorke, or getting cold and hypothermia.
- A better but slightly more work intensive way would be to make the colonists start shaking/shivering and then turn blue when cold, and start sweating and turn red when warm. Maybe with some added red head waves rising or jagged blue freezing quiver waves for extra clarity.

That way you could easily at a glance see if your colonists are warm/cold, and you can track what happens to them when they go out into the blazing heat or into your freezer.

[Lowkey1987]

I think, this could be good.

Sometimes i only realise one colonist is heating up because of an alarm (mostly the pawn is downed because of extreme temperature). Mostly in winter, when its -20°C outside but inside +20°C

But... you have to look at everyone carefully. Better would be an indikator on the pawns symbol on top of the UI. A Sun or a Snowflake.

[OFWG]

+1, good suggestion.

[Toast]

- A quick and cheap option could be to just add a little icon (like a red/blue thermometer) next to the character thumbs showing if they're hot, or getting heatstorke, or getting cold and hypothermia.

I like this idea.

[AngleWyrm]

Maybe have them do a thought bubble emote

[Names are for the Weak]

I second this. Tynan, are you listening?

[Mufflamingo]

Try the mod Moody. It changed my life.

[TheMeInTeam]

Right now you get a visual if pawn is wounded on their portrait.  Hot/cold could use red/blue background on them that takes up increasingly more of the portrait as heat stroke or hypothermia become more severe.

[makkenhoff]

Well, snowflake/sun icons on pawns who are cold/hot this might not cause too much clutter, so I like the idea.

[jamaicancastle]

Well, snowflake/sun icons on pawns who are cold/hot this might not cause too much clutter, so I like the idea.

I think this is the best way. In addition to not having much clutter, you can see it from anywhere (even another map, IIRC) whereas with a thought bubble or a pawn action like shivering, you have to be looking at them.

[gaf]

To expand a little further, I agree that some sort of icon (like the proposed snowflake or sun) could be added to the thumbs up top as the colonists start developing hypothermia or heatstroke to make this clear.

However, the reason why I would also like to have the shivering and skin color change is because this could be used in  both in the thumbs and in the map (and combined with the icons in the thumbs). Shivering/sweating and color change could also be made more gradual and subtle, so it could indicate just feeling warm or cold as well as the negative statuses, giving the game a little more immersion and flavor. It wouldn't take up too much visual attention, while giving you a clue to colonists having the wrong clothes or rooms being the wrong temperature before you get any serious status effects.

[Lowkey1987]

To expand a little further, I agree that some sort of icon (like the proposed snowflake or sun) could be added to the thumbs up top as the colonists start developing hypothermia or heatstroke to make this clear.

However, the reason why I would also like to have the shivering and skin color change is because this could be used in  both in the thumbs and in the map (and combined with the icons in the thumbs). Shivering/sweating and color change could also be made more gradual and subtle, so it could indicate just feeling warm or cold as well as the negative statuses, giving the game a little more immersion and flavor. It wouldn't take up too much visual attention, while giving you a clue to colonists having the wrong clothes or rooms being the wrong temperature before you get any serious status effects.

And when Shivering/sweating is in the game, you could use it for sickness too!