What I've learned so far...

[Adeelos]

...is that fear is by far the most effective method of keeping colonists from splitting. Six times in a row, I tried keeping everyone happy, which often resulted in needing too much maintenance while still developing the colony. Ultimately colonists would have a mental breakdown and split.

However, on my most recent playthrough I decided to focus on instilling fear (beating prisoners, putting corpses in cages) and I haven't had one alert about a colonist about to have a mental breakdown. In fact, the entire game up until now (seven cycles in) has been unbelievably smooth compared to my other runs.

Whether or not this is the intent, it's definitely food for thought.

[Greski09]

...is that fear is by far the most effective method of keeping colonists from splitting. Six times in a row, I tried keeping everyone happy, which often resulted in needing too much maintenance while still developing the colony. Ultimately colonists would have a mental breakdown and split.

However, on my most recent playthrough I decided to focus on instilling fear (beating prisoners, putting corpses in cages) and I haven't had one alert about a colonist about to have a mental breakdown. In fact, the entire game up until now (seven cycles in) has been unbelievably smooth compared to my other runs.

Whether or not this is the intent, it's definitely food for thought.

do you put the cages inside the colony or what, screenshot?

[Adeelos]

Leaving them outside initially is often enough, though once you're more fortified you would need to move the cages inside. If you're not planning on keeping the whole colony afraid for the entirety of your gameplay, put them outside.

I would post a screenshot, but for some reason it keeps telling me the image is too large (over 600kb).

[W1Z25]

Leaving them outside initially is often enough, though once you're more fortified you would need to move the cages inside. If you're not planning on keeping the whole colony afraid for the entirety of your gameplay, put them outside.

I would post a screenshot, but for some reason it keeps telling me the image is too large (over 600kb).

upload the pic to photobucket or imgur and then post a link here

[Greski09]

Leaving them outside initially is often enough, though once you're more fortified you would need to move the cages inside. If you're not planning on keeping the whole colony afraid for the entirety of your gameplay, put them outside.

I would post a screenshot, but for some reason it keeps telling me the image is too large (over 600kb).

upload the pic to photobucket or imgur and then post a link here

yeah please, http://imgur.com/

[Adeelos]

I already tried that, it's still telling me the image is too large. Might be something to do with the fact that I play at 1600x900?

[W1Z25]

I already tried that, it's still telling me the image is too large. Might be something to do with the fact that I play at 1600x900?

works on photobucket.. i post large pics all the time

[Adeelos]

So it turns out I have to save it as a .jpg, not .png. The vast majority of the corpses are kept in the dumping areas, and that alone scares them a pretty big deal. The only other way they'll end up having a mental breakdown is if they run out of food, but as you can see in the top left that's not really a problem. The gibbets are located in front of each entrance, and that's all that's really necessary:

[Lochar]

I wondered about the other prisoner commands and wether fear was worth doing. But to be honest , I am on my second playthrough , with my first being a learning curve that led to a restart when I understood the roof working, and I have only had 1 flag for a possible mental breakdown and that was avoided by just moving my guy into a nice enviroment for a minute.

I have watched a few lets plays and am surprised at how so many are having a hard time. Thats not to say I havent had any deaths but I am on 60 days or so and food and metals arent an issue, and I have yet had 1 person break down. Ok I take that back, 1 guy quit and I just arrested him and then got him back, but most times can see why they are breaking down and fix it, unless its from food shortage, which I havent had yet.

[w00d]

learnt a few more things about the game

Dumps cannot be set alight. Tired of annoying raiders or dry thunderstorms burning your walls? Just put a dump next to your walls and hooray, fire cannot ignite a dump site.. raiders will shoot at the wall and the fire will go out by magic and not spread..

[Zorbane]

learnt a few more things about the game

Dumps cannot be set alight. Tired of annoying raiders or dry thunderstorms burning your walls? Just put a dump next to your walls and hooray, fire cannot ignite a dump site.. raiders will shoot at the wall and the fire will go out by magic and not spread..

Sounds like a bug to me hehe

[Riker13]

I think happiness "increases" the production. Fear reduces I think...

[Adeelos]

learnt a few more things about the game

Dumps cannot be set alight. Tired of annoying raiders or dry thunderstorms burning your walls? Just put a dump next to your walls and hooray, fire cannot ignite a dump site.. raiders will shoot at the wall and the fire will go out by magic and not spread..

Definitely a bug. I light my dumps on fire all the time to get rid of bodies.