Private property in RimWorld

[Garwel]

The economy of a RimWorld colony is effectively "primitive communism": everything belongs to the commune (and managed by the player), which has total control over both production and consumption. So your colonist doesn't even own the shirt they are wearing or the meal they are eating. This is roughly the way prehistoric societies were organized (and some modern-day primitive tribes still are).

I have a concept of a mod that would overhaul this system to bring in a bit more private property, specifically personal property, and some elements of markets. This might work like this:

- Every pawn has some virtual money ("credits") that don't directly correspond with silver but are used for internal exchange.

- Pawns pay credits to the colony for consuming items, putting on clothes etc. If they return the item, they are paid back.

- Pawns can earn money by doing work. Instead of assigning priorities to different work types, you set their pay rates, either per hour, per work unit or something like that. There may also be other sources of income, e.g. some minimum daily wage.

This may also be extended with ownership of furniture, rooms or other items, family-owned property etc.

This system is still not capitalism, because all the means of production (and all produce) would be owned by the colony. It would be closer to socialism as existed in the USSR and other Eastern Bloc countries. But at least it would create a more interesting and dynamic economy and open up completely new ways of managing the colony.

What do you think? Would such an overhaul be interesting? What would you add or change?

[KWanchai70]

Is it better now?

[Hilvon1984]

Well... obvious question:
If a pawn gets beaten senseless and has to spend days in bed, who is paying for their food?

[Garwel]

Well... obvious question:
If a pawn gets beaten senseless and has to spend days in bed, who is paying for their food?

Like in a real world, there are various options. The colony ("government") may pay for their food and medicine while they are downed/sick (in other words, they won't be charged for that). Or they can be given a loan that they'll have to repay later.

[Bandw2]

I think a better option would be to make a simpler system, pawns want to own "things", like how dwarf fortress has it, pawns will want shelves in their rooms to store items they own, this would random but would be weighted toward owning apparel, armor and weapons. with maybe other weights depending on perks, passions or skills.

give a mood boost for owning a workshop related to their job, or fence off a growing area for a farm. this could maybe replace moodlets for working your current passion.

instead of having wealth abstracted per colonist, have a pie chart of ownership from the colonies wealth divided based on various weighted factors such as titles, how well liked they are, backstories, etc. this determines how many things a pawn wants to own.

then you could implement crime, both in theft, but also people might have a mental break where they specifically try to destroy a rival's property.

Pawns would get upset if an item they own is used by someone else, based upon their relationship and will impact their relation with that pawn.

The next step would be the creation of zoning, where pawns would try to automatically fill the zones with stuff. you could also make a market zone where they will trade with visitors and other pawns.

when pawns make items there is a chance based on quality and their current wealth versus their expected wealth that they'll claim ownership of an item.

you could also maybe restrict ownership, lowering "expected" values, to designate different social classes, and maybe give these social classes different desired types of items.

there's so many little things you could do with pawns simply wanting to own things.

[RicRider]

I've seen a lot of people playing RW as a 'colony builder' (obviously how it was meant to be played) but I've only seen a few people playing it like an adventurer's guild RPG and that's how I prefer to play it too. Any mod you work on that adds something like this would be super useful although I have no idea how you would even work on the mechanics of what you're proposing without extensive use of the biocoding system (which is going to get annoying quickly for a lot of players who don't like it already).

[demeggy]

Funnily enough, i started working on a mod for this; essentially it's exactly as you stated; there was a tracked value against each colonist, you could pay them for completing jobs and if they didn't get paid, they'd get disgruntled and go on strike refusing to work. They could spend their earnings on vending machine objects, that would give them temporary buffs (was also working on a turnstyle that would allow them access to certain areas, but couldn't get the pathfinding working correctly).

In the end (tldr), the micromanaging of financially balancing your colony with all the other pressures the game throws at you wasn't worth it and I decided to shelf the idea.

[IceThorn]

Fun fact: you keep hearing all the time that communism doesn't work and Rimworld proves that the opposite since it works great, lol.
...and they still have some properties, like beds or spots or things.

[White935]

This seems like a great idea, would love something like this.

[VitaKaninen]

Fun fact: you keep hearing all the time that communism doesn't work and Rimworld proves that the opposite since it works great, lol.

But would you want to actually LIVE in Rimworld?

The entire premise of the game is to escape and get back to civilization.  The Communism-like economy in Rimworld is a temporary measure enacted to streamline an escape. 

Lots of freedoms and liberties are sacrificed for a short time in extreme situations.

Think about Cannibalism.  You have to do what is necessary to survive and escape.  It is not a goal that we should seek.