Pawn specific research

[5thHorseman]

Okay I don't seriously think this would make it into the game. Even if the devs LOVE the idea (which they probably won't) it would be a ton of work first implementing and then balancing it. However, it seems like such a cool idea I just had to share.

I always thought it was weird that the "colony" somehow knew or didn't know research tree nodes. If you have a 1-person colony and unlock half the tree, and then die and someone wanders in and joins, how do they know everything that was researched? Likewise if you capture someone from a faction with LMGs, why does that pawn never ever know how to make them?

What if - instead of research being tied to the COLONY, it was tied to the PAWNS? What if a pawn came into the colony knowing a tech tree node, and they could teach it to others? What if pawns could only learn a certain total number of nodes, and/or needed to be a certain skill level in the appropriate skills to know the research? What if WHO did the research mattered, because not only would they research faster or slower but THEY would be the one who learned the node?

So someone could join who knows how to make a star ship engine, but can't make a component. Or they can make bionic eyes but don't know hydroponics. If you have the parts and the right bench, they could get right on eyes on day 1, but if they wanted to grow food indoors they'd have to build a research bench and spend a ton of time trying to figure out this whole plant thing that has always escaped them because their skill is like 2 or something.

A big side effect of this would be that you literally could not win the game (without going for Carl's ship) with a small colony, unless you were really really picky and only took star ship engineers so they came with the knowledge already. You'd need people with not just the skill but knowledge to progress further. Your 1-2 person colony could simply not learn everything necessary to succeed.

Like I said, this was all just a random thought but I sat on it for a day before posting to make sure it didn't start to feel dumb and it still feels like a really cool idea.

[Kangoshi]

How do they know you ask? Well, you can pass your knowledge throughout the books, for example. You might not know HOW it works, but you can sure as hell MAKE something by looking at the plan.
Anyway, this leads to another suggestion - a library. But does it really needs to be in vanilla? I'm not sure.Like, really not sure.

[vzoxz0]

This would be super cumbersome to play with. A society of up to 30 people would have to be geniuses to retain and use this kind of knowledge if it wasn't "common" to them. It's a pretty far stretch to let the natives of RimWorld learn advanced technology at all in the short span of time they're there for.