Colony Reproduction

[AstronauticalFerret]

Interesting suggestion. Though I will note that the last thing people will want to do is reproduce when facing insurmountable odds. It makes more sense to have a female who is not pregnant and can help fight in a combat situation. In these scenario's also due to other tribes and the ability to buy goods from ships in orbit, including "Slaves" one wouldn't need to have natural reproduction. An Idea however instead of sacrificing on of your females from the front lines or from any kind of work would be to have the ability to research and install a growing vat. Yes, clones.  It's completely possible and could be balances very well.  Even with Phobe, reproduction would be irrational and could cause more problems for the colonists being down one hand because one person has to be the prego who could be vital to something in the colony, until end game of course. Which leads to a primary force building option and then at end game you can finally have normal reproduction.

MidGame- Vat Grown Productions
If you're a highly combative player as I am who tends to get into a lot of heavy firefights with raiders then having a growing vat would be a neat idea. Granted all the "new born" colonists would all have the Vat Grown issue along with having all skills set to zero since you know, they are literally noobs.


End Game-
Now I could see natural reproduction being more of an end game "Winning" form of content. Once you've gotten a sizable base, perfected your power setup, have a large combat force, have your food stores stacked and producing to equal out, have eliminated the major enemy threat, and of course have a working medical bay then natural reproduction would be on everyone's mind.

Of course a new enemy threat could always pop up at random with a new invasion force and a base nearby that you must destroy before anyone gets in the mood again.


Jhon: "Hey Harriet? Since we don't have to worry about raiders anymore, would you like to reproduce and raise offspring with me?"

Harriet:"Oh Jhon, I've been wanting that plasma cannon in me fo a while boy. Come here"

[StorymasterQ]

...
MidGame- Vat Grown Productions
...Granted all the "new born" colonists would all have the Vat Grown issue along with having all skills set to zero since you know, they are literally noobs.

Agree with the first one, but have to disagree on the second. Surely with the ability to grow people from vats, comes the ability to artificially enhance them is certain aspects? If one can be a vat-grown soldier with jacked up shooting and melee skills, we van have vat-grown farmers and vat-grown builders and var-grown vat-grower.

...
Jhon: "Hey Harriet? Since we don't have to worry about raiders anymore, would you like to reproduce and raise offspring with me?"

Harriet:"Oh Jhon, I've been wanting that plasma cannon in me fo a while boy. Come here"

Ew.

[AstronauticalFerret]

Hm. Maybe. What if vat grown people couldn't be programmed in skills, instead all skill start at 3 and they have to work at them instead of just being born as a super shooter or super grower. These are just normal people with normal  people DNA after all, not Wolfenstein Nazi super soldiers lol.  Just a limitation for balance?

[StorymasterQ]

Hm. Maybe. What if vat grown people couldn't be programmed in skills, instead all skill start at 3 and they have to work at them instead of just being born as a super shooter or super grower. These are just normal people with normal  people DNA after all, not Wolfenstein Nazi super soldiers lol.  Just a limitation for balance?

Yep, maybe just one or two skills at 6 and maybe one at 9, but the rest are 3. Also, perhaps one skill on Passionate and one on Interested, but maybe randomized. We could get a great builder whose passion is actually gardening

[BetaSpectre]

It'd take years for a natural human to grow up to do anything useful. In game I doubt most people make it pass 4 years.

I don't dislike the idea but it won't be something I want to see in game either because its silly (one year old badass merc) or its a burden (sorta)

[AstronauticalFerret]

That's why it would have to be an endgame ordeal.  You'd have to get to a fully stable point to where basically no one is a threat at all to you anymore before it would be feasible to reproduce. Then all you'd have to do is just speed up time and watch the colony grow. Granted, this would be boring as hell unless there was an end game end game with the population cap that would make it worth waiting for 25+ in game years -_-. Right now my colony don't even need me anymore T.T, they all are set up to the point of "win". I kind of want an asteroid to smash the base and force me to start over right now lol.

[absentminded]

 it'd be feasible to happen any time.
It's not like you have to plan it. People of different genders, cramp conditions, alot of stress and it looking like tomorrow wont come? It'd happen, thats how people do.

If time wasn't sped up, them you'd be getting baby colonists, who do nothing, eat food, need special expensive beds, keep their parents from working as often as you'd like, and then take up a whole cyro chamber on escape.

Especially adding in the possibility that pregnant colonists could work slowly and be basically rubbish.

It'd be a 'realistic' way of making the game hard again.

Why would reproduction mean free colonists, it'd mean free burdens, free drains on time and resources, free useless wastes of space who have to be locked after unless you want the whole colony upset and the parents insane.

Rimworld isn't a game of free stuff, it isn't a game of easy sped up lifecycles where individual colonists mean nothing are just interchangeable names as the generations roll on.

it's surviving everything the planet throws at you, why not have pregnancy and children thrown at you.
Potentially deadly (medicine on rimworld aint so shiny) and employment impeding pregnancy followed by a timebomb who eats and makes mess and has the potential if killed destroy all the hard work you put into building up morale.

And by the late-game i.e. 9ish months, minimum time to get a kid, you already have things set up so you always have more food than you need. Little burdens that contribute nothing but eat would be a great, and story-plausible way of keeping the wolves howling at the door.

That'd be brilliant, and far more fun than getting free colonists.
What's more Rimworld, a new way to make things easier, or a new way for the game to grind you down?

[AstronauticalFerret]

Well maybe not feasible, but more of an irrational possibility out of desperation based on critical stress. The first thing anyone with a brain understand that before you have kids you need a stable income(Money, food), a valid and clean shelter, a means of defense, and a specific courtship.  Maybe the tribal people up to the urbworld people mate like lunatics even if they can't support a kid, but a bunch of colonists who are in constant combat and dealing with less than healthy conditions would not reproduce, nor would anyone want to have sex.

Maybe it's a possible trait that could be added on to the character background sheets?

Ie- John is sexually inexperienced, Jhon has an intimate interaction with Jen who is sexually experienced, John f*cks up and inseminates inside of her, Jen will either A.If possible, attempt an abortion in order to keep the group sustainable and not be a burdon. or B.Attempt to carry the child to full term, she will avoid all combat, will only work for three to five in game months and then will require medical help from a doctor near end term.

Going full term in itself should be a challenge. If two people happen to mess up without access to equipment to abort the unwanted member then the female host will need to stay out of combat, out of high stress, need low fear, require more food, require more rest time, require medical resources, and go by this little chart.

%ChnAbort- The more medical supplies the higher the chance of abortion.

%ChnEarlyTermMissC- The more care and less stress the better chances the child will not be misscarried.

Same goes for mid term, and full term, all the way to labor.

With labor I'm thinking that with one doctor with a skill of 10 in medical has a 45% chance to save the mother during her labor. More than one doctor and shes good to go long as there are medical supplies to patch her up.  The baby also needs a %chance of  pre after birth survival to avoid being a stillborn or dying too soon outside the womb due to medical issues.

If the birthing is a success and both the mother and child are alive then YAY! you have a new member of the colony, now you get to take care of it for 16 in game years, hope you're not playing on Cleopatra.

[StorymasterQ]

Guys, guys, I agree that a 'natural' human would take too long to be useful. That's why I'm suggesting vat-grown humans. If we can manufacture them, why can't we manufacture them at a productive age right off the vat?

[Gabriel_Braun]

Right off the vat?

I see what you did there!
Maybe a balancing method would be to add a 33% chance to produce a frightened child or oaf etc but a 5% chance to create a prodigy?  Use the art and crafting skill levels or whatever but it'd also be easy to exploit if incubation isn't long enough?

Maybe even add a 'Played dice with god and lost' type of mood -50 modifier on failure that's guaranteed to send all but the newly vatgrown spawn into a mental breakdown by giving newborn vatgrown a positive though that directly negates it along with mad scientists, gene therapists and other vatgrown? 
Dystopian lulz 101 in the making

[AstronauticalFerret]

That's what I've stated before to be a good alternative. Though I think it should be research and even trait locked. a Person who is a geneticist with a medical of 20 would have to be the only person able to work a Vat and to take reproductive samples from the adults and do all the other nasty and boring things it would take to get a fetus to start forming in the tank to grow at an accelerated rate. They should have no skills however, at least a three in everything with random passions.

[BetaSpectre]

They should have the Vat Grown Trait if well bat grown IMO. With such high requirements it'd be something you get long after you could have used/needed it.

[perci2112]

I agree with the idea to have the ability for reproduction and population growth (of course limited by raider attacks and random illnesses and deaths etc.) but the AIs for the children should be that during a siege, they run and hide in a building, or in their rooms, or generally run away from the threat, and have the children unable to shoot or melee, but able to do some colony jobs, like hauling, cleaning or growing plants (or animal husbandry if that is added.) and possibly have lost children from a faction wandering through your map.

[ElversEden]

Whenever I see a post about pregnancy in Rimworld I'm always reminded of that guy who had a Pregnant male colonist. Good times.

Hey hey hey, what if a pregnant man meant alien pregnancy? I mean, I know that occurence was undoubtedly caused by a glitch in underdeveloped and practically unimplemented code, but still, who's to say we won't have a lovely pale worm popping out of some guy's chest?

[AstronauticalFerret]

Male pregnancy? An xenomorph face-hugger was involved in that situation. Alien series, where intergalactic rape is all about equality victimization. Also, no one can hear you scream on the Nostromo, nor did anyone hear it blow up when Ripley pulled a bitch fit.