Has anyone seen the "Stranger in Black" yet?

[Zombull]

I got the stranger in black to come when my only pawn collapsed due to food poisoning. He got back up before the stranger even made it to the base. I don't know about the rest of you but the pawn I got from this event is great!! Good skills, good traits, etc. Seems to trigger a little too easily though.

See above. Mine was a non-violent with a heart condition. She can cook though.

[5thHorseman]

Good skills, good traits, etc. Seems to trigger a little too easily though.

Tynan explained this (in general, not specifically about the Stranger). He likes to try things all one way and then all the other way to find a middle ground where they work. Also, he wants data on how much the Stranger helps and if it's too much/too little/etc. So, it's probably set right now to happen every time you'd need it to. In a later update, it'll trigger less, or maybe even not at all if it doesn't work well with the game.

[spidermonk]

My NB guy got downed because of food poisoning/go-juice need withdrawal kick-in combo and the stranger requests to join even though my guy is gonna be ok after the food poisoning wears off. I rejected her, because I expect challenge from a merciless NB run, and I don't want to be rewarded for mistakes.

[Kleine]

I think a good solution for debuffing the event would be to 1. Have the stranger leave when the colony is back on its feet and 2. Not allow the stranger in black to drop his gear (By direct command or outfit policy, or imprisoning and stripping him, but that wouldn't be easily explainable).

[Goldenpotatoes]

I like the idea of the stranger being some long-time nomad who just wanders the rim helping struggling survivors get on their feet and then leaves after they've helped stabilize the situation.

Making them a temporary colonist who disbands after some set conditions and cant have their gear taken off would be a better way of implementing it.

[mndfreeze]

Personally, I love this addition.  Something rimworld really lacked was positive events having the same 'oomf' feeling that the negative ones do.  It probably shouldn't trigger on situations that are not closer to colony ending, i.e. just food poisioning downing a pawn, but it SHOULD trigger if its your ONLY pawn (or all pawns ) and something else is/can cause that pawns death. 

IMO, the gear isn't even that special and can be attained pretty early on.  I don't think it needs to be made that you can't drop it or anything. 

I'd be fine if the stranger left after a while.  Like if there is a condition thats met where the danger is passed enough and you can be fine without him.  I.e.  pawn dying of food poisoning and heat stroke while downed outside.  Stranger shows up and joins, you use them to rescue and doctor, build a new passive cooler or A/C, etc then a week later the stranger leaves.   Or even, all pawns downed, kidnappers about to take everyone.  Stranger shows up, you kill a few and save 1 or 2 people from being kidnapped, stranger helps patch them up, and leaves.   In cases where the stranger leaving would just be a game over, the stranger should IMO stay.

But really, if this is just a normal pawn with slightly better gear then I don't see it being super over powered.  There should be a limit to how many times it can happen though.  Like once per game or once per year or something.   You don't want it to be come a crutch, you want it to be an epic save that prevented a rage quit due to death spiral/new start unfair RNG.

[RemingtonRyder]

It isn't a crutch. It's a way of continuing the story. It might be that the man in black can't save anyone despite his best efforts, so instead he has to grab what he can in the way of supplies and continue on his way (you start a caravan with him as the only guy and find a new spot to settle).

[mndfreeze]

Yeah, I don't think it is, I just basically it needs to be balanced in a way that it doesn't BECOME one.

Also, it should be noted for people who seem to forget things like this, but when you wipe your colony, if you keep continuing the story eventually you get a new colonist, so really, its not that much different then how the game already is.  This just gives you a chance to do it in a way that prevents complete loss first.

[mndfreeze]

So I've had 3 games in the last few days that ended really early on.  NB on rough.  One switched to tribal and 2 standard.  I have not once seen this event and all games ended by the pawn being downed by a raider or sickness.  So it definitely isn't happening every time, or there are specific conditions that need to be met like food poisoning. 

It would be nice if someone who knows how to dig through the xml can figure out what the conditions are for this event and post em.

[Greep]

I think it got changed so you need 10 relation.  I mentioned that earlier, but it's possible even earlier that was not the case.

[RawCode]

it appear like "tuxedo mask" when situation is beyond hopeless and just down with your colony.

[Teleblaster18]

Last night, I had him appear twice.  I wanted to test the integrity of my base, as well as how much will actually fully burn, so I triggered an Animal Pulser, and then had two of my guys put in some work with incendiary launchers, and simulataneously raze the entire thing to the ground.  You know...for science.  I actually learned quite a bit from it.

It's a pretty cool event.  The Man In Black didn't make it a 1/4 of the way to my base to help out, since he got mauled by wildlife, but it was cool to see it trigger.

[5thHorseman]

My colony of 7 went down (in toto, all 7 downed) to raiders and he showed up. They ran off with 2 people and he carried 4 of the other 5 back to the bedrooms of the taken new medbays and patched them up. The 5th one died before he could get them back and patch them up.

About a year later - engaged to one of the colonists that had been taken and that we had won back - the man in black suddenly disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived. No, not really. He died from an easily-treatable infection that I dind't see because the warning is off right now. Oh well, c'est la vie.

[haanuman]

I still have yet to encounter the stranger in black  Now I can be well prepared though.

[spidermonk]

I think it's a great event, and very nice for the sake of continuing the story, but on NB it defeats the point and challenge of the run for me. It feels like a huge undeserved revard rather than a chance to continue in a desperate situation. I would rather not have that before second colonist have joined the colony. When the colony has two colonists I consider the main challenge of naked single person start addressed.