Joywire question

[Hanuman]

My pawn had -30 husband died, -8 friend died (I guess husband counts as friend also) and -12 for not having drugs available, during my first harsh winter with my ideo colony. Husband died of plague two days before his acolyte ceremony.
A trader sold me 3 glitterworld med kits and a joywire. I installed it last night not really knowing what to think. Rimwiki is a bit vague, it says a permanent 20% debuff on everything and that it renders a pawn virtually useless? All I see is +30 boost in mood and she seems to act normal? Is this like a long term thing? She seems fine and I would love all my pawns to have them. It says something in the description about it ruining whole societies?

[Cormac]

-20% to consciousness. look in your medical tab, and see that he might only have 80% of it (maybe less, maybe more based on other buffs/debuffs


the biggest, most direct thing: when the pawn is below 30% consciousness, he goes down, at 0%, he dies... having 20% debuff from the start means that reduced blood, other debuffs, damage might take him down faster than befor

less direct, but way worse when not used in combat, consciousness influences:
Eating (he needs more time on the table)
moving (he is slower)
talking (social impact)
and more important: manipulation (crafting, farming, animalhandling,m butchering, mining... basicly everything)

[Hanuman]

Yikes...sounds like I permanently ruined my best pawn than lol

thanks so much for info, now I know I guess

Wonder if that effects the rate at which they acquire psycasting focus through meditation? I could make her just do that? Might have to kill her off though.

[Astasia]

It's not that bad long term, if you can get some bionic arms you can mostly counter the penalties to skilled tasks. The dying from 0% consciousness thing shouldn't be a concern, even with a joywire and max pain/bloodloss they aren't going to die from that. It's when you start stacking things like smokeleaf, heatstroke, and malnutrition on top of all those things that 0 consciousness death becomes a risk.

I don't believe it has any negative effects on psycasting mechanics.

You can turn the situation to your advantage by installing a Psychic Harmonizer in them as well, which radiates a mood effect to nearby colonists based on the mood of the person it's installed in. With a joywire they will pretty much always be happy so that will provide a constant positive buff for those nearby.

[Hanuman]

Yea I just have to stick with her for the 25 day debuff of death. Long time but will be very interesting :) Thanks!

[RCMidas]

...and also joywires cannot be removed. That's kinda the biggie. You're going to have a semi-operational hyper-cheerful colonist forever. Which is fine if you can produce some go-juice to help offset the Consciousness loss, or get your hands on a neural supercharger that can daily provide a 24hr boost (including +10% Consciousness - one of the very few things in the game which actually improves that stat).

EDIT: Of course, as mentioned above, joywires synergise very well with psychic harmonisers. If you have a mostly useless pawn (ideally a masochist incapable of most jobs that you give a mindscrew for +20% pain and even more mood), then a niche strategy is to zone them into perpetual comfort and luxury, drinking and smoking to be blitzed out of their hallucinating skulls, and broadcasting their ecstasy to everyone nearby. Everyone nearby, including through walls, such as people stuck indoors working too long in ugly surroundings, writhing in agony in hospital, recovering from a breakup or death and so on... :)))))