Being betrayed by refugees is trivial because they don't carry locked weapons

[eugeneb]

I just experienced my first event where the refugees I've been hosting betrayed me and I must say that while I really love the idea, the actual event is a non-threat. It would have been much more exciting if they carried some serious weapons that were impossible to remove. Either that or at the very least if upon betrayal they would go to the stockpile and arm themselves with something better than "27% poor steel knife" they arrived with.

[Canute]

Beginner traitor don't deserve it.
Even with a 27% poor steel knife you should be able to kill someone while sleeping.
Clever traitor/infiltrators would sneak into bedrooms and try to murder then before they even wake up. But could you imagine how upset the player would would be if that happen ? :-)

[ReZpawner]

If they came with good weapons, the player could just swap the weapons anyway. It comes with problems on both sides.
1. They have good weapons - the player drops them all, and gets a bunch of new expensive weapons.
2. The weapons are locked - the pawns are less useful for defence strategies for the player.

[eugeneb]

If they came with good weapons, the player could just swap the weapons anyway. It comes with problems on both sides.
1. They have good weapons - the player drops them all, and gets a bunch of new expensive weapons.
2. The weapons are locked - the pawns are less useful for defence strategies for the player.

But the mechanic is already there - if I remember it correctly, some Imperials come with locked (not just bio coded) weapons that you cannot unequip. I know you can cheese and make the pawn pass out and drop the weapon but I am not sure if it's worthwhile trying to make it 100% cheese-proof.

Or they can borrow some of the "escaping prisoner" behavior where depending on the situation, they would either charge the colonist or if they have enough time, go equip that doomsday launcher they saw lying around. Otherwise, it's kind of boring - several of them were hopelessly charging a colonist with an assault rifle in a wide open field while the last of them used this opportunity to smash a chair in the dining room.

[AileTheAlien]

I feel like the solution is to have gear and/or combat implants spawned when they go rogue. Would need biocoding and acidizer to make sure the player doesn't benefit. It could also be on a dice-roll, just like how biocoding and/or acidizer is random for Imperial pawns or visitors.

[eugeneb]

Spawning gear would accomplish it too! Not super immersive because I am not sure where they've been hiding that charge lance for months... But if it's easier to implement, it's better than nothing. Of course AI upgrades would be ideal, especially since prisoners are already quite aware how to arm themselves.

Speaking of AI - I feel like it needs tweaking anyway because currently betrayal happens at some random point when everyone is at work and spread out. And while some of the betrayers will (maybe) happen to be next to your colonists and will start attacking, others will be alone somewhere and will just start smashing that dining chair while you are hunting down their friends one by one. It kind of looks silly that they came up with this entire scheme just to break your furniture.

I am not sure what exactly would be a good fix - a few things that come to mind are maybe some mechanic where they attempt to regroup, or perhaps AI should weigh heavier "hunting down colonists" and "stealing stuff" over "smashing stuff". There could even be different betrayer groups, some with the intent to take over your colony, and some who just want to run away with your stuff. Imagine you are hunting elks, mining, etc and suddenly they just quickly grab your plasteel, legendary grand sculpture, excellent cataphract armor and run hard towards the map edge.

[kclace]

One simple fix could be that the betrayal occurs during a raid event. Then the player has even less time to react.