Make the Prisoners Work! (Slaves.) Make Some Babies! (Breeding.)

[Kolljak]

if age can kill then you should also be able to have colonists but make it only possible to some people

Age limitations 18 - 35 [45] some where around there
Gender Restriction [Male Female]

idea on how to accomplish this

Make the baby and ingame item and pregancy setup like Malaria or a disease that lasts 9 months with monthly treated time tables [monthly checkups] then you get the item. which you have to keep alive for 12 years or use incubator or some sort of science growth tank in later tech to boost is growth speed.

[killermen962]

Theres a prison mod that allows you to mark people as prisoners.
Just need a "Slave collar" which can be made of any leather and they will work for you, Their new modifier changes from, "Locked up" to "Enslaved - I hate being enslaved but atleast I can walk around....." which has only a -3 attitude modifier. I cant remember the mod atm but it exists

[ImNatalie]

While that may exist, I believe in my idea of breeding just as well.

[picollo]

Everybody here is mentioning that children would be problem to the colony, and it would turn game into sims. What if we consider children not as way to get new colonists, but as new victory goal. You can escape from the planet. But colonist born on new planet reaching maturity could be a win-goal for another victory "I'm staying here". If you established colony lasting for X years, and were able to have colonist reach his 18th birthday, colony probably won't fall (storywise).

18 years (ok, some time for pregnancy, so lets say 19-20) years could be a little too harsh. But with 3x accelerated aging rate (so aging to 18 would take 6 years.  This would make it really hard, yet possibile goal to win the game.
This way having children would be about starting new life on a planet, instead of trying to escape from planet.

[eastwood6510]

Slave idea:  +1
Babies idea: nah

[Devon_v]

Two things:

Sexual maturity does not magically occur at 18 years of age. (And 18 is not some universal legal standard either, not even in the US.)

Reproductive capacity does not turn off at any specific age. Yes women find it harder to become pregnant as they age, but it's not completely impossible after 45. Also men, with much simpler systems, can remain viable for substantially longer.

What should be done is to implement a probability range. Say 14-80. At 14 you start to have non-zero chances of conception. The odds peak at 17-26, and then you have a slow decline towards 80. Females would simply decline faster, having near-zero chances from 55ish on. And that's assuming Earth-stock humans. 3,000 years of gene splicing might have fixed age-related infertility.


I also noticed a few comments about incapacitating the female colonist. Pregnant women are not made of glass. My co-worker didn't go on maternity leave until she was eight months in. A doctor's care is also utterly unnecessary. We only do it because we can, because we might be able to identify a potential problem and correct it. Women can and do give birth all by themselves. A doctor's care might reduce the odds of a complication, but to imply that bringing a baby to term requires nine medical checks is absurd.

Throw some penalties in during the third trimester, sure, but even a heavily pregnant woman is not immobile.


I think that children and bonds add a lot to the story. They give you something fragile and miraculous to protect.

[ImNatalie]

Okay, that makes sense.

[Sens]

Having prisoners work - Mining sounds more than reasonable (have to earn that daily meal anyway), simplified, a script could override all their abilities except "Mining" and they could join your colony as normal colonists who cant move outside jail areas (rough version which prolly can be done in couple hours)(mine inside that jail area and nowhere else), as for cleaning, hauling you would need guards present which wouldnt really be of much use then, or would you let your prisoners run around camp freely (in real)

Babies, saying 18 years ingame till it matures is unreasanable, since age here doesnt rly play much role anyway (age could be removed all together, doubt someone had a colonist die of old age yet so whats the point of age here anyway) i doubt it would bother anyone if they fully mature in 2 years, would still have little kids run around his base for long enough to feel somewhat real.

[bchbum16]

You say that having a guard on a slave who is set for hauling wouldn't be much use, but it could give more use to the lords and assassins who can't do much. I'm sure there would be a way to code in that one guard could watch multiple prisoners too, maybe like one guard to two prisoners and the prisoners would have to stay within x distance of the guard? Maybe in this scenario the guard goes to an area where things are needed to be hauled and "tells" the slaves to haul the items?

[Sens]

would need to code in mutiny, jailbreaking in case of prisoners etc. then also in same update + ways that would occur and ways that would be avoided taking some steps in ahead.

in case of slaves, id say you would need to break em down mentally before they go from pirate mercenaries to your local maids.

[Regret]

RE: babies, sounds good, I think it is already in development.

RE: slavery,
I wish this was a multiplayer game so i could raid slaver players.
Slavery is not acceptable and anyone saying that prisoner labor is not slavery is either a fool or an American (or both).
Are you using violence or the threat of violence? check.
Are you forcing them to work for your profit? check.
Are you not paying them a fair wage? check.
Ergo, slavery.
So what if they jaywalked or smoked the wrong plant, forcing anyone to work for your profit is slavery and therefore reprehensible. Now, giving them a choice is something different, which is why the better prisons use some kind of reward system for prisoners who are willing to work.

Game-wise, I can't oppose it because it fits the setting. It would add some interesting (as in: hard) choices to the game.
I would like a viable non-violent way to recruit people though, even random spacers crashing on the planet need to be captured to be recruited.

[Sens]

Depends how you see slaves, it is slave work yes, my image of a slave is some sort of "servant" without free will, guess you see them as slaves from old egyptian movies then, chained with free will, i would call those prisoners instead, you are right thou by the general definition .

[ImNatalie]

Depends how you see slaves, it is slave work yes, my image of a slave is some sort of "servant" without free will, guess you see them as slaves from old egyptian movies then, chained with free will, i would call those prisoners instead, you are right thou by the general definition .

Honestly I don't see them like that. Just prisoners forced to work. Free will is irrelevant.

[Reviire]

I'd enjoy slaves, early on you could just fear them into doing what they're told, by drafting someone with a gun.

[Necronomocoins]

I like your ideas. Human reproduction shouldn't need accelerated growth, just a slower increase to getting to 100% size raids/events and/or make children under 15 unable to attack or be attacked, which is likely to make the game feel less "wave defense" and more "colony survival". Your entire colony was wiped out except there was a child old enough to plant cut and haul food to the nutrient dispenser that survives and continues the colony alone. 0 - 3 years  unable to do work or learn work skills.  4 - 12 unskilled tasks only with accelerated learning in all fields.  13 - 14 skilled labor and can develop passions and work on those with normal learning rates. About the slaves, maybe have to research the explosive collar, before then risking escape attempts by any "slaves" far enough away from an armed drafted colonist.