A8: Concerning the new "release prisoner" function... revisiting the exile idea.

[loc978]

I'm very confused about thread necromancy policies here, since the guidelines tell me to consider looking for a discussion that covers my topic, but replying to an old topic warns me to considering posting a new one... I've considered both, so here goes.

Thread I decided not to necro: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=4823.msg46761#msg46588

Now often as not, I make colonies with a theme in mind. My laziest ones are simply sexist. "Ladies only" or "no girls allowed" as it strikes me while randomizing colonists (sometimes it's as exclusive as "psychopaths only"). Sometimes my colonists make a violent, evil society... they kill and eat anyone they don't want to recruit, and the current mechanics work great for that.

Sometimes, though, my colonists are peaceful types... but they still don't let in people who don't fit the theme I chose for them. This can become a problem when such a person joins the colony without asking for my approval. My solution has always been to arrest them and situate my prison in such a way that I can deconstruct a wall, letting the prisoner escape.

While that method still works, I used to use it for space refugees and captured raiders as well. Enter the "release prisoner" command, making such things no longer necessary... except in the case of arrested colonists. They just go back to work as a member of the colony (which feels like cheating if they're just coming off a mental break during which they decided to leave or kill other colonists. I thought there was a good reason my warden had to recruit them from scratch).

I guess my suggestion is a more verbose form of "release prisoner". One option to release them as a member of the colony (which would be greyed out in the case of a prisoner who doesn't want to be a colonist), one to release them into the wild, away from the colony.

Now, I know Tynan responded to the other thread, and he has some sort of plan for colonist exile that isn't a high priority... but it seems to me that one tweak to this new existing system would solve the problem. Not that I have much idea how much code is involved. I imagine this has something to do with changing a pawn's faction on release... maybe a quick and dirty version would change colonists to refugees?