A 'Recall to Base' Button

[Captain47]

One of the most annoying things for me in the game's current state is that whenever there's a big raid, I find my colonists outside my walls not wanting to return. Whenever I draft them to bring them back in my base, and then un-draft them, they still try to leave (to mine, chop wood, gather materials etc). Many times, they're willing to walk into the middle of a bloody battle just to leave the base and gather more resources outside. I often have to keep everyone in 'drafted' mode until the fighting is over, whether or not I actually need them to battle or not. Half my time spent during battles is just checking my non-fighting colonists to make sure they're not wandering into the battle or starving due to being idle in 'drafted' mode for so long.

I would love it if there was a region-mode where you could select where the 'safe areas' of your base are, and then there could be a button that would force all non-drafted colonists to stay in that zone until you press the button again. I feel that this could solve a lot of problems. Also, it would be good to have a general rule that all non-drafted colonists try to avoid danger as much as possible; that would be more sensible and easier to deal with.

[byondtester]

I feel exactly the same. I tend to lock mine in when I draft them and send them back to base.

[bullwinkle]

This is a fantastic idea !!!! I hate that I have to draft all my colonists when a battle starts. Bring them inside then lock the door behind them. Then undraft them.

Even if it was a code built into the colonists to be "scared" of gunfire when not drafted so they would run to the home zone for safety.

[arodian]

This is the cause of so much frustration! Unfairly losing colonists due to dumb AI is the worst.

[TheClassiness]

This is basically the "Burrow" function in Dwarf Fortress. I'd also like if undrafted colonists would naturally try to run away from threats instead of taking a few hits, continue doing their work, and then dying. With this idea I could make a "Everything is falling apart, hide and cry" bunker.

[StorymasterQ]

I think there was talk about a Safe Zone as a complement of the Home Zone. Undrafted colonists will go to the safe zone when (something happens). IIRC, talks stopped as people couldn't decide what the 'something' was. Some sort of raid? Any red envelope? Some sort of alarm?

[Johnny Masters]

Well, a player-decided feature should do the trick. Evil genius had such a feature with its green, yellow and red alert buttons (all player controlled). Under alert, your guys could arm up and pick the next gun (or use a loadout), stay under an area and only pick jobs available at that area.

A scramble button could mean automatically equipping your pawns with set weapons and armor (to quickly go from peace to war inventory) and meet around a set place. Really, am i the only one that find it silly to have your people farm and cook in power armor?

[Syvera]

Yeeeaaah, I definitely support this idea. At any rate, there should be an option to actually set maximum distance for doing tasks. Also perhaps auto-draft and engage when within firing distance of an enemy, or an alert or something. It's always annoying when you lose a colonist because they decide to wander right into an enemy raid group all "HERP A DERP I R SMART". A recall button would be nice, especially one that also makes them stay put within the safety of your base. :X

[Johnny Masters]

A simple crosshair icon could mean a combat or combat-like event, so pressing it would skip the map to the place where it is taking event. Could be anything that has attacked in the last 30 seconds or so.

And yeah, its silly having unemotional suicidal derps ignoring the huge enemy wave while picking berries outside. So we definitely will be needing a "flee" behavior soon. Draft = stay put and fight back, undrafted = flees to home zone/safe zone.