Some weapons could have a higher bleed chance, like a knife. While others could have an increased chance of crippling, like a baseball bat.

Anger

Internally, anger is a need, like hunger or sleep, but it’s not shown to the player.

Anger has a value between -100 and +100. +100 is when a colonist is as angry as possible.

Getting punched or seeing an enemy will increase anger. Using weapons will decrease anger.





Aggression

Aggression is the “thing” that controls a colonist’s actions during combat. A colonist with high aggression will fight, and a colonist with low aggression will flee.

Aggression is calculated based on: Health + Anger + Morale + Relationship.

So a colonist will fight their best friend if they’re really really angry. They’ll stop fighting if they become too injured (unless they’re really angry).

More specifically, there’s several stages of combat, each controlled by aggression (in no particular order):

Instigate Fight - When a colonist sees another colonist, and starts fighting. Fight Back - After being attacked, should the colonist fight or flee? Attack Unconscious Colonist - Should the colonist continue to fight, even when the other colonist is incapacitated? Health Check - If health is too low, stop fighting, and flee.

The intent with the aggression system is for small fights to provide a warning to the player before they escalate into murder, and to prevent needless suicidal rages.





Movement Speed

When in combat, the movement speed of all colonists is slightly increased. The intent behind this is so that the player can more easily see that a colonist is fighting.

I didn’t want a fleeing colonist to run faster or slower than an attacker, because it wouldn’t make much sense. (how could an attacker catch up, for example).



Morale Perks

I implemented a system where colonists can randomly acquire perks based on their morale level.

Depressed - Doesn’t work, moves slower, increased sleep need, only talks about sad things.

Saboteur - Breaks objects.

Maniac - Requires -999 aggression to fight and kill. This colonist will fight any colonist they see to the death. Randomly laughs and curses too.

The morale value required to remove the perk is different from the morale value to acquire it. So depression might be acquired at morale -10, but it requires morale of +25 to be cured.



Perk Icons

Victor created icons for the perks.

The intent is for the player to recognize the basic idea of a perk without having to mouse over and reveal the tooltip.