Observed corpse is too OP

[ocelot113]

Currently in the game I built up a pretty nice starter village. I had people cleaning, that's how well off the group was. lol The problem is the first major skirmish they got into, I went to face a mortar team I ended up winning the fight. I lost about 2 people and killed about 10+. On the way back to the town though, everyone either starved (I'm plying on the biggest map), gave up, or went crazy because they saw too many corpses. I ended up losing everyone that I had left just on the journey back to camp. I get that some people would freak out if they saw a bunch of dead people but the amount that it effects every single settler is unrealistic and frankly game breaking. You have to kill people in this game... have too. So there is no reason that the challenge of fighting off raiders is met with an even more impossible task of not having dead bodies around, the mechanics are counter intuitive. Maybe add a decomposition time to bodies. So your guys don't just up and leave when they see a body after a fight, but if you haven't taken care of bodies after they have started decomposing it starts effecting morale. Dead bad guys should be a good thing, rotting bad guys.. not so much.

I am not advocating that you get rid of the observe corpse debuff, cause I sure as hell wouldn't want to go to bed with a dead person in my room, but make it less damaging to the mental stability of the group as a whole, or progressive, not immediate, or maybe add a victory buff, like +30 to morale or something when all the bad guys are dead because that is more realistic, not being dead makes you happy not sad. Maybe just the fearful trait would be an immediate reaction to dead people, therefore they could have an immediate mental breakdown when seeing 3 or more bodies. The game now has large fights and noone can observe 15+ corpses and make it back to town. They all give up or go nuts.

[JazzyMcNazz]

I actually had the exact same problem on a large map. The range of the mortars is so long that by the time my colonists had arrived they were starving, due to the battle they had observed friends die, were wounded and tired. It was even worse as the colonists were carrying back wounded so were walking very slowly.

[Avis]

I can see where your coming from, but on smaller maps it seems balanced. Perhaps change it depending on map size?

[johnakers]

This is the suggestion forum so here it is.

Supply wagons.  They can be used to journey to fight off a siege attack and provide food/shelter/sleep for your colonist.

As far as colonist freaking out over bodies, perhaps the effects should lower each time it occurs?  Like the first dead body seem is a huge negative but the 2nd time it isn't as bad, and so forth...  that way by the time you do slaughter 10 people it'll have the effect of 1 on a seasoned fighter as opposed to a new colonist.

[ocelot113]

...  that way by the time you do slaughter 10 people it'll have the effect of 1 on a seasoned fighter as opposed to a new colonist.

I do like that. I was thinking that myself. Shouldn't people become more and more desensitized the more and more they see it. I mean that's what the news says. lol but yeah that should be a mechanic.

[Rennegade]

Or, an easier way to fix this is to give you the option to incapacitate them rather than kill them, since capturing has no peanalty.

[Avis]

Or, an easier way to fix this is to give you the option to incapacitate them rather than kill them, since capturing has no peanalty.

If i gave you a inaccurate pistol and told you to incapacitate someone 20 feet away with it vs kill them, do you think you would have a real choice? Maybe there could be "Try to incapacitate" option you could check on and off (just like drafting them), when its on the incapacitate chance is higher but damage is reduced.

[johnakers]

Or, an easier way to fix this is to give you the option to incapacitate them rather than kill them, since capturing has no peanalty.

If stun guns are added that would work.  You have to get extremely close though and probably eat a few bullets...

[Avis]

Or, an easier way to fix this is to give you the option to incapacitate them rather than kill them, since capturing has no peanalty.

If stun guns are added that would work.  You have to get extremely close though and probably eat a few bullets...

Where would you get it? from raiders? You might as well just melee them.

[AstronauticalFerret]

(Long post warning xD ))

I think this would be more trait based. IE- a person who is frightful or not well traveled will probably freak out and develop harsh PTSD that could be a problem down the road. A person with Veteran or a Rehabilitated trait would be able to withstand the effects a lot better. I agree that we need cargo trucks or carts to help moving long distances, I only play on large maps myself and would love to have at least maybe a rover that follows the group and has supplies like a first aid station and MRE dispenser for your combat team.

As a person who has done military work and has worked in a morgue I can say this, it's not for the weak of heart or will, nor is it even a pretty subject. It has underlying consequences for everyone over a period of time unless of course a person has some serious issues and is not bothered by bodies at all. I myself now work as a caretaker of kittens instead of covering up corpses. I prefer living, breathing, happy little kittens over anything else. On a psychological standpoint there are still Vietnam vets who are locked up in rehabilitation centers to this day who are still suffering from chronic PTSD, along with EMTs, Firefighters, Cops, and even civilians who have been unlucky enough to witness a fresh body. All first timers flip out. At least normal people, even if not outwardly it's all internal.

This being said I don't think the corpse seen thing is OP at all, it's an individual base thing and the Devs simply need to tweak things with individual traits. It's realistic for people to flip a shit biscuit when they see their first corpse. Most people freak out just during their first time being shot at, much less shot.  Combat itself has a lot of psychological stress, so that's another thing that could be put into the game to help add in some realism if desired.

A simple look into possible traits usage for this: (Assuming the idea of max being what happens at 10 bodies seen at once.)

Necrophiliac +10Happiness and -10Fear per corpse seen to a max of 100/0

Killjoy +3Happiness per corpse seen up to a max of 30

Sadistic +2 Happiness per corpse seen up to a max of 20.

Vat-grown No modifiers, emotionally numb

Veteran -1 Happiness per corpse seen up to a max of 5

Empath -1 happiness per corpse up to a max of 10

Fragile -2 happiness and +3 Fear per corpse up to a max of 20/30

Cowardly -5 Happiness and +5 fear per corpse to a max of 50/50

Chronically depressed  -10 Happiness per corpse seen to a max of 100

[StorymasterQ]

Necrophilia is...a 'different kind' of happy, though, not necessarily from looking at a corpse.

Otherwise, sound suggestion.

[AstronauticalFerret]

Yeah, I kind of jus
t tossed necrophilia up there for the lols. We already got characters with the "Bestiality Thirst"...So may as well add to the list of weird stuff.

[mkt8989]

I've seen the same behavior and would love to see some improvements in how people cope with attacks generally. Colonists seem to get into a very disturbed state after serious attacks that (to my thinking) should be recoverable. I ran into a situation the other day where all of my colonists were very hungry after a long attack but rather than just stopping to pick up some of the food just laying around, they went on doing totally unimportant tasks. With no way to "force" a colonist to eat they just began to starve and then gave up or went on a rampage because they were so unhappy from being hungry.

In the short term I'd like to see a "prioritize eating" action from a nutriment machine or table.

[Killaim]

pawns getting harden to seeing dead people would be nice and realistic.

would also say that the more harden and used to it they get other morale things also lessen - like joy from talking to someone or joy from eating - suddenly liking being in the dark and away from people

[Rennegade]

If i gave you a inaccurate pistol and told you to incapacitate someone 20 feet away with it vs kill them, do you think you would have a real choice? Maybe there could be "Try to incapacitate" option you could check on and off (just like drafting them), when its on the incapacitate chance is higher but damage is reduced.

No, what I mean is that if you, say, melee said enemy, it sould be a 100% chance to incapacitate. Or, alternativley, you could just simply add in an option to aim at certain body parts. For instance, a leg hit has a 100% chance to incap., an arm hit has a lower chance to incap, but a high chance for the opponent to stop shooting, a torso hit with a medium chance to incap, but a high chance to kill, or a headshot with extremely high chance to kill, and extremely low chance to incap..