Alarm Bell and rallying point

[Darcion]

let us make a Zone for rally and if you ring the bell all your people let the work lay down and rally to that zone for defense.

[UnassumingWhiteGuy]

Agreed. Although there are certain colonists I wouldn't want anywhere near a fight, so maybe you could toggle whether or not they respond to the bell?

Also, it would be handy if it auto-drafted anyone who was supposed to respond.

[Klitri]

Perhaps an overview job, "Militia" or something, those would respond to the bell. Also, anyone incapable of violence cannot be a "Militia", obviously.

[UnassumingWhiteGuy]

Something that just occurred to me thanks to a colonist wandering off during a raid and dying: an alert zone. Zone an area that any undrafted colonist goes to and stays within when the alarm is active.

[BlackRush]

Something that just occurred to me thanks to a colonist wandering off during a raid and dying: an alert zone. Zone an area that any undrafted colonist goes to and stays within when the alarm is active.

I think this is what OP meant with his post.

[Johnny Masters]

Something that just occurred to me thanks to a colonist wandering off during a raid and dying: an alert zone. Zone an area that any undrafted colonist goes to and stays within when the alarm is active.

I think this is what OP meant with his post.

It's similar, but not quite the same i think. There's both a rally point and a safe house idea, which ofc both are valid and could be implemented in several ways.

For me, a rally point should be an object (like a flag or the statue in the middle of town), and pawns marked for rally would draft and meet there when you sound the alarm.

Then, we could have a safe zone, which works like home zone, and non-rally pawns would be 'confined' in the area, when under alarm. If getting another zone is too much trouble, it should work with home zone, you'd just have to be careful with what you set as home, definetly not the outside of walls or the middle of your killbox.

bonus: when you set an alarm, all marked for rally would go for the nearest armory\weapon cache for arming up weapons and armor. It could be the nearest random weapon or a pre-set inventory

[BassMonroe]

How about some type of floor sensor pad which when triggered by enemy raiders causes the colonists to move towards that location and seek out base defences to cover behind.

Or having floor pads linked to an rally point location so that when triggered colonists move towards your set point. (Maybe each floor pad can have its own rally point so that you could automate your base defences without spending time planning what colonist goes where).

[UnassumingWhiteGuy]

Something that just occurred to me thanks to a colonist wandering off during a raid and dying: an alert zone. Zone an area that any undrafted colonist goes to and stays within when the alarm is active.

I think this is what OP meant with his post.

It's similar, but not quite the same i think. There's both a rally point and a safe house idea, which ofc both are valid and could be implemented in several ways.

For me, a rally point should be an object (like a flag or the statue in the middle of town), and pawns marked for rally would draft and meet there when you sound the alarm.

Then, we could have a safe zone, which works like home zone, and non-rally pawns would be 'confined' in the area, when under alarm. If getting another zone is too much trouble, it should work with home zone, you'd just have to be careful with what you set as home, definetly not the outside of walls or the middle of your killbox.

bonus: when you set an alarm, all marked for rally would go for the nearest armory\weapon cache for arming up weapons and armor. It could be the nearest random weapon or a pre-set inventory

This is exactly what I meant. Rallied colonists go one place, non-rallied ones go another.

[Tankh]

Also been wanting this feature

And to add I'd like to have the possibilty of even more customization, so you can designate specific positions for each colonist to station at when the "militia" is activated.
Something like a zone/"Battle station" you can assign colonist(s) to. It could be 1 square size so they just stand there, or bigger so they kind of patrol or randomly move around within the zone to possibly get better shots than in their 1 square zone. I see them being placed just like stockpiles.
Zones should be capable of holding as many cololonists as it is squares big

This will help in defense like so:

• Enemy spotted
• Activate safe zone (colonists move to stay inside only that area)
• Activate military (a designated bunch of colonists gets instantly drafted and selected, and maybe also fetch their weapons/armor etc in an armory)
• Activate battle stations (militia colonists with a designated zone will move there)

colonists without a battle station will not go there when it's activated. You should still be able to select and move individual colonists away from their battle stations, and also individually tell them to go back there with some button in the interface. The idea is that "Activate Battle Stations" isn't really a toggle option. It's more a "go to battle stations" and they will do that until some other order overrides it, like you selecting and moving them.

[Johnny Masters]

You seem to want two different systems. Which is perfectly fine, because it's also a good idea. You seem to want the 'guard post' idea, which gets offered every so often.

Basically an alarm bell is for a surprise attack or horde invasion. It could be activated by an interface button or could be prompted by a rally object (a flag as i suggested). This has the added benefit of you being able to rally your pawns to distinct locations (rally point A is your main killbox entry, B are the south mines, C is town center, etc).

A guard post is more of a long term service/job, that in my opinion would need/ work great with fog-of-war. Right now it has little value, since you get huge warnings and have the entire map revealed. If you have fog-of-war, it makes a lot more sense to have some of your guys patrol the perimeter to get vision, shoot out small patrols, dangerous animals or spot invasions.