Ability to set a rule restricting pawns to a zone during raids

[kenmtraveller]

Maybe there's a mod out there already for this, but after the nth time of having an undrafted worker pawn head out to haul something from the far corner of a map during a raid , it occured to me that it would be nice to be able to set a rule where undrafted pawns get restricted to a user-defined zone (or even 'home') during raids, and possibly other bad events, and unrestricted once they're over.

Any thoughts on this?  Or, is this a vanilla feature I've missed somehow?

[Limdood]

It's a vanilla feature, but it requires some setup.

Step 1) define a zone using the last 2 buttons on the "zones" tab.  You can select "manage zones" from the dropdown menu to custom name them and create more than the default 1 zone you have to make at game creation.
Step 1a) make sure you adjust your zone as your base changes, so that the "safe" zones, or "Barn" zone, or "grazing animals" or "toxic fallout" zones stay relevant and where you want them!

Step 2)  When a raid happens, go to the "restrict" tab...the same tab you use to select pawn sleep/work/recreation schedules...at the end of each pawn it shows their allowed zone (default is "unrestricted" meaning they can walk anywhere).  Click-drag down the list of names to select the desired zone and instantly, all jobs outside the allowed zone will be cancelled (so someone on his way to haul will stop and turn around) and no new jobs will be taken outside allowed zones.  Keep in mind that currently, you can't even tell someone to do a job outside allowed zones, so if you want to capture a raider you downed a ways out, you'll need to unrestrict the chosen pawn's area, then tell him to do it. Pawns will not take a job outside an allowed zone, but they CAN walk outside of it in order to get to a job inside the zone...this matters if you have multiple, unconnected parts of the zone, or if the zone is U-shaped or something.

Also step 2) You can do the same thing with your animals through the animals tab.  Prior to B19, if the animal was sleeping, it wouldn't move until it woke up, but now the animals move zones same as the colonists

Step 3) after the raid CHANGE YOUR ALLOWED AREAS BACK! Don't be like me and lose animal pregnancies because you forgot to allow your animals out of the bedroom after a raid!



If that wasn't what you meant, you'll have to be more specific.  If it was what you meant, be sure to consider using allowed areas for other things (as mentioned above, barns, grazing areas, toxic fallout, and more can be managed using the zones)

[kenmtraveller]

Yeah, I knew I could do that... but rather than have to stop and do that at the beginning of each raid (and remember to undo it after) it would be nice if each pawn could have a default zone assignment (like exists currently), and a second zone assignment that would automatically become active when a raid happened , until it ended.

[Limdood]

Well, they do that too with the "flee/fight/ignore" response to threats.  Having auto-assigned and swapped zones is a big problem to tackle, because having pawns suddenly do something without player input can cause all sorts of problems.

Consider a raid hits when a pawn is currently pathing to rescue another pawn (hurt animal/colonist, crash pod survivor).  if that raid AUTOMATICALLY sets a new zone, that pawn will instantly change and start walking to the zone...even if he'd already picked up the rescuee, he will drop it and run to the zone.  Assuming i even notice immediately, i'll likely lose a tile or 2 of movement from the direction swaps, and i can't even tell him to pick up the guy again without going in and manually swapping the zone BACK to unrestricted.  The game already pauses when a raid happens....you have all the time you could ever want to manually assign the colonists to a zone, which only takes a handful of seconds anyways.

Additionally, when does a raid "end"?  When you get the "raider are fleeing" message?  What if its one of the new multiple group raids, where each group flees independently?  What if the raiders trigger "kidnap/steal and leave?"  Is the raid over then?  The raiders still fight, but they're trying to run.  What about when they do flee? they will still melee attack any colonist hitting them.  Is it safe to call the raid "ended" there?  If you wait until all hostiles are off the map, now its significantly harder to rescue downed colonists/visitors/allies or capture downed enemies, which could easily lead to unnecessary deaths due to bleed outs.  What about mechanoid ships?  There's no immediate threat from a mech ship, and there's no formal notification or event to trigger the zone change when the ship is damaged.  Do manhunter events trigger the zone change?  what about herd revenge?  When do those end?

Whenever you have the game make a decision for the player, it always triggers an insane amount of "what if" questions, because those situations will come up, and if they aren't all answered, answered clearly, and told VERY CLEARLY to the players, then you have situations where the game is making a decision that the player may not want, that can cause setbacks, which in itself is only a minor problem....the MAJOR problem comes from not knowing EXACTLY what caused it.  If you don't know WHY something happened, you can't take steps to fix it, causing frustration and making people quit the game, and rightfully so. 

You'd need to communicate under EXACTLY which conditions the zone change happens (and probably why, otherwise non-covered conditions, like herd revenge, or single animal insanity or mech ship activation will cause the same frustration) and EXACTLY when it changes back and why, and THEN explain why it is better than the current system, which already instantly pauses the game and has the tools built in to allow you to assign each colonist and animal quickly and efficiently.