Highmates are seriously dodgy.

[Duskmare]

Or anyone with the psychic bonding ability really. A small detail I missed when reading it initially is that a pawn with psychic bonding can force any other pawn to love them.

Just had a new pawn that arrived about half a day ago force an affair on one of my best colonists, who I would usually send out for trading, exploring ruins, etc.

Practical debuffs and whatnot aside... How is that not considered 'guilty'? He basically just gave my perfectly happily married colonist a date rape drug that turns them into a sex slave on the first day of meeting them.
There's not even an option to cut out whatever brain tumour it gave them to reverse the effect and free the colonist from mind control.

Naturally I stabbed the newcomer to death in their sleep and just have to deal with the entire colony having a -2 to -10 mood debuff for their 'friend' dying.
Plus the specific pawn that was psychically manipulated has - 10 for their 'friend' dying, -16 for their lover dying, and -25 for the psychic bond being torn. The first of which lasts 20 days, the other two for 30 days... So they'll basically be living break to break and will likely need 2x catharsis for +70 to function like a normal colonist.

I think I'm going to have a racist colony from now on... All highmates will be persecuted to the fullest. Dodgy space rapists.

[Astasia]

Цитата допису Duskmare:

No, it literally says "romance attempts always succeed." under the psychic bonding description in the xenotype editor, or whenever you're looking at a pawns genes.
You can also command your pawns to attempt a romance. So if you have a highmate you can literally command them to 'influence' another colonist into a relationship.

It doesn't quite work that way. It doesn't change how relations are formed it just makes the natural romance attempt succeed. You can't force a highmate to enter a relationship if the target pawn doesn't like them, it gives you an error stating the relationship is too low.

It's not some magic ability to force any pawn to love them. It's just instead of the usual situations where two colonists might hook up and have an affair with like a 20% chance the gene makes that 100%.

[Pizzarugi]

Цитата допису Astasia:

Цитата допису Duskmare:

No, it literally says "romance attempts always succeed." under the psychic bonding description in the xenotype editor, or whenever you're looking at a pawns genes.
You can also command your pawns to attempt a romance. So if you have a highmate you can literally command them to 'influence' another colonist into a relationship.

It doesn't quite work that way. It doesn't change how relations are formed it just makes the natural romance attempt succeed. You can't force a highmate to enter a relationship if the target pawn doesn't like them, it gives you an error stating the relationship is too low.

It's not some magic ability to force any pawn to love them. It's just instead of the usual situations where two colonists might hook up and have an affair with like a 20% chance the gene makes that 100%.

In all of my experiences, you can actually attempt to force romance attempts (assuming, like you said, that their relationship is high enough to make it possible). Unless you have an ideology that hates anyone not of an allowed xenotype or matching ideology, a highmate should easily be able to romance anyone in the colony because of their beautiful gene.

If you go to their social tab, you can set who you want to prioritize romantic attempts with. If a highmate is involved, the chance of success is guaranteed. Beyond that, they (or someone who likes them) will randomly attempt a romance which would also instantly succeed, leading to the issue OP is describing.

The best way of dealing with a highmate is doing one of the following:

1. Banish them immediately and eat the -3 mood
2. Force them to romance someone not in a relationship they have decent social with
3. Change your ideology to allow both males and females to have as many partners as they like so affairs physically can't happen

[Astasia]

Sure, like I said the beautiful gene makes people like them and generally pushes them into romance range. The highmate's ability is not like a "rape drug" though and it simply doesn't work if the target isn't interested to begin with. Anyone with the kind trait is going to be immune to their beauty for example.

They can certainly be a danger to colony stability, but it's not some "unethical" ability. It also works both ways, anyone within relationship range to attempt romance with the highmate will also have a 100% success chance.

[Steelfleece]

Цитата допису Pizzarugi:

The best way of dealing with a highmate is doing one of the following:

1. Banish them immediately and eat the -3 mood
2. Force them to romance someone not in a relationship they have decent social with
3. Change your ideology to allow both males and females to have as many partners as they like so affairs physically can't happen

4. Farm for very pretty organs and blood. This is RimWorld, how could you leave that off?

[gti enjoyer]

oh so i shouldnt use them as lovin slaves for all my hussars to give them a mood buff???

[jtm_alaska]

Haven't tried the biotech DLC yet but if you have Ideology you should have social roles. Leader has an ability that allows you to accuse someone of a crime. If voted successfully they are guilty for a extended period of time. You can then freely banish, execute, or do whatever you like with them, without any drawback.

[brown29knight]

Цитата допису Steelfleece:

Цитата допису Pizzarugi:

The best way of dealing with a highmate is doing one of the following:

1. Banish them immediately and eat the -3 mood
2. Force them to romance someone not in a relationship they have decent social with
3. Change your ideology to allow both males and females to have as many partners as they like so affairs physically can't happen

4. Farm for very pretty organs and blood. This is RimWorld, how could you leave that off?

5. Play a psychically bonding race, and pair off your entire colony. Each pawn can only have one psychic bond, so then the highmate has no power over you. Also you get to choose who romances whom, which helps keep your genetic bloodlines pure.

Цитата допису Pizzarugi:

For highmates, if you happen to have a pawn who is single, force them to do a romance attempt since they can't bond more than once.

As much of a pain in the ass as it can be, the benefits of a psychic bond for mood are undeniable. You not only get almost permanent +10 from their opinion towards their partner, but gain some more from the bond itself. I tend to play with a very futurist ideology so my pawns have free and open relationships, making highmates a great colonist to have in order to raise moods without creating unwanted affairs.

Even without the open relationships, psychic bonding is obscenely powerful. +10% psychic strength (which can let a psychically deaf pawn become a mechaniator, or add that much more to a powerful pawn) and a significant bonus (10-20%, I forget the exact #) to consciousness, and a total of +22 to mood (10 from opinion of lover, 12 from the bond itself)

And it also makes the chance of that pawn choosing another relationship almost zero, so you do not get the "affair" mood hits. Combine it with kind, and you'll never have any social problems between your pawns at all.

[tank16365]

Every new colonist goes into quarantine until I have a chance to get a good read/convert them to my religion.

[SievertChaser]

Цитата допису tank16365:

Every new colonist goes into quarantine until I have a chance to get a good read/convert them to my religion.

I am increasingly inclined towards doing the same.

[Duskmare]

Цитата допису L2k:

oh so i shouldnt use them as lovin slaves for all my hussars to give them a mood buff???

Definitely not. Mostly because Hussars are a combat race, so you'd want to send them on expeditions to complete quests or trade. Psychic bonding causes a -25% consciousness debuff if they aren't on the same map square, and a mood debuff too. So unless you want to take your squishy Highmates into battle... Probably better not to use them.

You could totally use them as a couple of joywire, psychic harmoniser, no limb-amputees though. Just get two colonists bonded, chop off their legs by installing and removing peg legs then put them in a medical spot in the middle of your rec room. Someone will have to feed them but because of the joywire, Highmate innate optimism and psychic bond they'll basically be at full mood all the time and provide a huge psychic mood share buff to the rest of your colony.

[marcusaddamsson]

I got a highmate as my first non-starting colonist on a mechanitor run. She and he have been married for years now, and this is the first game I've had (with Ideo) where I'm not constantly worried about my priest's mood; she's almost always in a great mood. And the mechanitor also couldn't be happier most of the time too.

The only real issue I've got with my current Highmate is the fact that most of the other male colonists constantly hit on her, and she's constantly rebuffing them. How is "lifetime psychic bond" confusing for those doods?

hehe. I forgot. I've actually had two highmates in my current game. One of my ex-slaves.. poor bastards got zero luck. Right now... he's in a sculpt pod pleasure cycle. His highmate wife crashes her pod on my map, I rescue her. She's a highmate; she's got zero skillz other than social... oh, did I mention she's hooked on Luciferium? She left on her own (thank the gods). Then a day or so later, his son shows up in a caravan... and promptly murdered by 41 rabid wolves. And a day later, a different colonist's wife decides to show up... and promptly murdered by 27 wolves.

[kENSHIfAN]

May Okran protect you from the Narko spawn, holy brother.

[Duskmare]

Цитата допису High Inquisitor:

May Okran protect you from the Narko spawn, holy brother.

Wrong game but I approve.

[eighmy_lupin]

They are super dodgy, but they aren't completely to blame.

They were genetically created to basically be submissive sex slaves to the rich and famous.
The psychic bond effects them as well and was probably added to them to help keep them inline.

Any Highmate you find in the wild is basically an escaped sex slave.

We are also told that the bond happens on the first romance attempt that happens to them. So its not 100% in their control.

[SievertChaser]

Цитата допису eighmy_lupin:

They were genetically created to basically be submissive sex slaves to the rich and famous.

The more interesting part is that they aren't always created from scratch... and we're never told of an involuntary conversion, although my first highmate's biography (Pirate) was somewhat suggestive of a... repurposed human resource.