Prisoners, people, etc

[Drabus]

So, this is partial credit to John about prisoners, expanded into a more complicated system by me... perhaps too complex, but still worth mentioning so you can toss it aside =)

Prisoners - Depending how you treat them and bring them into your colony through fear or friendliness, they may have different abilities or reactions. For example, someone who is beat up a lot might be stronger in the "strength" type tasks from hardiness, such as construction and mining, whereas a prisoner brought in from discussions and social interactions might have more in the way of social/doctor tasks. It could also be that converted prisoners could move slower on conversion, and speed up to normal speed over time, to indicate the not-super-willingness to do your work.

People system - Instead (or in addition to) assigning experience in tasks upon creation, you could give them "proficiencies" or "masteries" in tasks that, instead of/in addition to giving them a % speed bonus, would increase their rate of experience gain in that proficiency/mastery by X% as well.
Eg: Each person can have one mastery and two proficiencies. Mastery would give them level 3-4 of the chosen mastery, and increase experience gain when performing that task by 20%. Proficiency would give them level 2-3 of chosen proficiency, and increase exp gain when performing task by 10%.

That way, you could really have some specialists! Leanne doesn't like this idea because she likes well-rounded people, but it would add an interesting dynamic!

[Tynan]

-I do like the idea of having characters who are intrinsically predisposed to certain tasks. E.g, someone who just naturally learns research faster than others, someone who is a natural socialite. They'd learn faster and have a higher max level.

Not sure I like the real world commentary of that ( I like the idea that anyone can do anything they put their mind to) but I can't deny that people have proclivities. It would be a good way of giving people some fixed underlying character. Right now they're totally malleable bundles of skills.

In terms of grumpy ex-prisoners, tell me what you think of this. Seeds of Rebellion: Sometimes someone recruited will have a "seed of rebellion" hidden from you. They work for you for a while then boom! They rebel and start fighting against the colony. Or try to escape. This happens more when you brutalize them, or if you don't convince them fully enough, or if your prisoner-handling Warden is an incompetent convincer.

I'm also interested in the idea of ex-prisoners having some status that sticks ith them. e.g. if you recruit prisoners brutally, they don't become colonists, they become slaves, who might fight back, escape, or not be able to do certain kinds of work.

[Drabus]

Interesting! And good response! Very true about intricacies of people. As for the seeds of corruption, it mimics life more as well. Sometimes you can fully convert them, but other times, they will just play along and wait for revenge.

[xTAMERx]

-I do like the idea of having characters who are intrinsically predisposed to certain tasks. E.g, someone who just naturally learns research faster than others, someone who is a natural socialite. They'd learn faster and have a higher max level.

Not sure I like the real world commentary of that ( I like the idea that anyone can do anything they put their mind to) but I can't deny that people have proclivities. It would be a good way of giving people some fixed underlying character. Right now they're totally malleable bundles of skills.

In terms of grumpy ex-prisoners, tell me what you think of this. Seeds of Rebellion: Sometimes someone recruited will have a "seed of rebellion" hidden from you. They work for you for a while then boom! They rebel and start fighting against the colony. Or try to escape. This happens more when you brutalize them, or if you don't convince them fully enough, or if your prisoner-handling Warden is an incompetent convincer.

I'm also interested in the idea of ex-prisoners having some status that sticks ith them. e.g. if you recruit prisoners brutally, they don't become colonists, they become slaves, who might fight back, escape, or not be able to do certain kinds of work.

do you know Liberal Crime Squad ?
i think, this Character-System would fit best to ur game 

[InkedYogi]

I like the idea of slaves vs recruited colonists! It gives me a reason to be mean to the prisoners instead of just holding them until they decide to join.

Maybe they could be converted faster, but the warden must oversee their work (must be within certain # of squares), or else they run, try to help raiders, steal a weapon and open fire, or sabotage equipment.

The level of a colonists warden skill could determine how many slaves they could watch over at once, or how likely they are to rebel.

You could also introduce some tech in this area as well. Research chains to make the slaves movement capped, research gps tags to dramatically increase the range the wardens can be, etc.

I look forward to my tobacco colony!

[Galileus]

I'm also interested in the idea of ex-prisoners having some status that sticks ith them. e.g. if you recruit prisoners brutally, they don't become colonists, they become slaves, who might fight back, escape, or not be able to do certain kinds of work.

It's definitely a very interesting topic to investigate. I believe this could give a lot of depth at expense of little complexity - just few simple rulesets about treating your slaves could increase how stories differ a lot.

I have a "prisoner/slave allowances": system in mind. A simple yet beautiful ruleset: you simply decide what goods and activities are allowed for slaves: with a simple switch of On/Off and in some cases Reward and Punishment. Do you want to set your slaves free and be totally like this one blonde lady from Game of Thron... no, not this one. The one with the dragons. Yes! This one! Ekhm... just give them all allowances and they are treated as free. Or maybe you want to reward them with something extra to eat when they do good, or maybe its whips all the time? Of course this is a double-edged sword. Pull out whips and innocent (while heavily tattoed) raider cook and he will wither under your eyes. Give too much freedom and you risk that this exotic beauty you want as one of yours is rather... unpleasant... up close.

There is also potential for security measures, but this one is much trickier in the depth per complexity department. Alarms and security doors (with, say security level passes) sound all good and well, but I can't shake the feeling they would feel as a dead weight if too simple and a headache if too complex.

[Patches]

On the topic of people and prisoners. Personally I would love to see a way to attempt to recruit the people randomly walking past my colony without having to throw them into jail. Some sort of a negotiation type interface or the like. To be honest, I'm not entirely comfortable with being forced to be a prison dictator/slave trader, and it seems like a mechanic that could use a little more depth. Loving the Alpha so far, I am a satisfied kickstarter customer

[NephilimNexus]

In terms of grumpy ex-prisoners, tell me what you think of this. Seeds of Rebellion: Sometimes someone recruited will have a "seed of rebellion" hidden from you. They work for you for a while then boom! They rebel and start fighting against the colony. Or try to escape. This happens more when you brutalize them, or if you don't convince them fully enough, or if your prisoner-handling Warden is an incompetent convincer.

Risk of revolt increases if you entrust them with weapons.  Fear level of base reduces risk (autoturrets should also induce fear in their radius).  Risk of escape increases the farther away from the base they get (so don't sent them out hauling stuff from other side of the map).  Colony commander toggle boxes on how to deal with escape attempts: Ignore, Subdue, Terminate.

[Jaxtor]

I like the idea of slaves vs recruited colonists! It gives me a reason to be mean to the prisoners instead of just holding them until they decide to join.

Maybe they could be converted faster, but the warden must oversee their work (must be within certain # of squares), or else they run, try to help raiders, steal a weapon and open fire, or sabotage equipment.

The level of a colonists warden skill could determine how many slaves they could watch over at once, or how likely they are to rebel.

You could also introduce some tech in this area as well. Research chains to make the slaves movement capped, research gps tags to dramatically increase the range the wardens can be, etc.

I look forward to my tobacco colony!

I really like this idea; to expand on it I think it would be cool if you could torture the prisoners that were raiders and have them reveal the location of some secret hidden cash of items his raider buddies put on the map. Or if there ever was to be some sort of hidden raider camp implemented that keeps spawning raiders you could torture the prisoner to tell you where it is at.

[CodyRex123]

(i did this on the cheapest ideas thread, but i suppose it gos here) Prisoner labor,

[zylosan]

On the topic of people and prisoners. Personally I would love to see a way to attempt to recruit the people randomly walking past my colony without having to throw them into jail. Some sort of a negotiation type interface or the like. To be honest, I'm not entirely comfortable with being forced to be a prison dictator/slave trader, and it seems like a mechanic that could use a little more depth. Loving the Alpha so far, I am a satisfied kickstarter customer

I completelly agree. I have played some games where I have specifically taken a dark path but the default assumption of arresting random stranger and not ever allowing them to go home rankles a bit. As does the default assumption of slave trading with passing ships.

On a related note: Who exactly are the colonists afraid of when you rule through fear?  You decide to put up rotting bodies in cages to increase fear. Alright. Who exactly made this disicion? The worker who put it up and EVERY OTHER COLONIST are filled with fear by it. But I guess its kind of an bidirectional fear with no target.

"Holy SHIT there is a body hanging out side my window! who would of done something so horrible. Oh yea it was me?

Also given the amount of violence and death that takes place in your typical Rimworld game, you would think that the colonist would gradually have less and less fear of bodies and someone dying.  As it is its difficult to impossible to lead or survive by happiness

[Galileus]

On a related note: Who exactly are the colonists afraid of when you rule through fear?  You decide to put up rotting bodies in cages to increase fear. Alright. Who exactly made this disicion? The worker who put it up and EVERY OTHER COLONIST are filled with fear by it. But I guess its kind of an bidirectional fear with no target.

Game logic did it

Also given the amount of violence and death that takes place in your typical Rimworld game, you would think that the colonist would gradually have less and less fear of bodies and someone dying.  As it is its difficult to impossible to lead or survive by happiness

There was a great suggestion about some kind of people (soldiers, often drafted people) getting number to violence and increased debuffs from friends getting wounded or KIA. Not sure how to find it, it's somewhere at page 10.000 or something
As for difficulty - to be sincere, never had any problems with leading by happiness.

[thebadman]

I don't really see whats problem with ruling by happiness, if they have separate rooms that aren't 2x1 big and have time to eat and sleep then they shouldn't go psycho unless you don't let them fulfill their needs.

[TrashMan]

What I would like to see is that beating a prisoner up having different effect on people depending on circumstances.

The more colonists the raiders killed and the more damage they did, the more supportive the colonists become of a "prisoner, meet fist" strategy.

Of course, ti would also depend on the personality of a specific colonist.

[IncognitoMode]

I assume if one of the colonists with seeds of rebellion did rebel then any others who also had the seed would join them and they would switch to the raider team?

Also I think that it would be good if they developed it with low unhappiness and fear. This way carpets could stop your rebellions