The Psychic Bonding Gene needs a Rework

[Kitten_Sauce]

Thus far, the psychic bonding gene has been more of a detriment to my colonies than a boon. My first attempt at utilizing colonists with this gene, I'd started a colony with the supremacist ideology, as I like having slaves. I had, in the past, attempted to have my male colonists run a train on a female prisoner in an attempt at creating additional colonists and saw that, not only could colonists not share beds with prisoners, but also not romance them. I incorrectly assumed that this meant colonists also wouldn't romance slaves and 2 of the psychically bonding colonists in my new colony promptly formed psychic bonds with one of my slaves. I ended up executing this slave and one of the psychically bonded colonists proceeded to tear off the arm of the other in a murderous rage, prompting me to start a new save.
In my next attempt at using a psychically bonding pawn, I had an imprisoned highmate that i decided i wanted to experiment with. I wanted him to bond with my pawns for the consciousness buff and then return him to his prison bed to use as a hemogen farm. I promptly cut off both of his legs, enslaved him, and put his bed in my rec room in hopes that my colonists would socialize with him. This didn't work, as apparently pawns don't socialize with pawns that are "incapacitated," even if they're awake (I think this also needs to be reworked; I vaguely remember seeing 2 of my hospitalized pawns socializing with each other in one instance). While I could've installed a peg leg to remedy this, i considered this experiment a failure, but decided the psychic bonding gene was worth fiddling with further and started a new colony.
For my third attempt, I made an all male colony with a single female highmate. I wanted this female to bond with my male colony for the consciousness buff and spent a good deal of time getting her to foster relationships with my other colonists. She was getting plugged by a different colonist every night but, for some reason, she'd only bonded with one of my other colonists. Reading up on it in the steam community, it seems that the gene is a "one and done deal" and a colonist with the gene will only ever form a single bond, even if the colonists they're bonded with dies.

Because of this, I feel that this gene doesn't fit the aesthetic of an ideology with the precept physical love: free and approved, and is utterly unworkable with slavery: honorable. Managing colonist relationships so that the bond is formed with your desired colonist is also beyond frustrating and the gene doesn't seem worth the trouble of taking.
As a remedy to these issues, I think the gene should be changed to allow the gene holder to bond with an unlimited number of pawns, cost 6 metabolic efficiency, and only apply the +15% consciousness buff to the gene holder once. Additionally, I don't think bonded colonists that don't hold the gene should go into a murderous rage if the gene holder dies and should only receive a mood debuff, so as to avoid your entire colony from going into a murderous rage upon the death of a single colonist.

I don't know if my suggested changes would make this gene unbalanced or unplayable and would like to read the thoughts of others regarding what might be changed to make this gene worth taking. I think this gene is a fun idea and would like to see steps taken towards making it more playable. Are there any mods on the workshop that change the functionality of this gene?

[heh]

Why would someone want to psychically bond with someone they spend their free time torturing? This trait is obviously specifically designed for the *exat opposite* situation to that one.

[HunterSilver]

It's already one of the most powerful genes in the game and works really well for standard pairings. You're correct in that it's not designed for the scenarios you're describing, but it sounds like you want something else entirely versus what the gene is.

The gene does what it says on the tin, it permanently bonds two colonists and gives them buffs.

[Playzr 🐵]

I have 2 married colonists who I later gene modded that included the psychic bonding but I don't think they became bonded in this way. At one point (I loaded a save so it didn't happen) a hospitality guest seduced the wife and she cheated, it said they now had a psychic bond. I never saw that message before, I don't think the game takes this into account but I read somewhere that it should. I proceeded to beat the seducer to death with a sniper rifle then loaded a save, which was annoying because I had only saved right before some huge mechanoid swarm and had to do it all again.

[Astasia]

The gene is not what needs to be reworked here...

[Ishan451]

So... to get this straight... you feel this gene does need a rework, because it doesn't fit your sadistic preferences and thus you feel it needs to be changed, because YOU specifically can't use it to effect.

Alright then. I suggest simply to avoid pawns with that gene. Not everything needs to be made to your advantage.

Works fine in my colonies and i'd prefer it to remain the way it is.

[Steelfleece]

My understanding is that the bond follows some degree of affection or love. I'm...Not seeing much of that in the OP.

[Limdood]

Works fine with prisoners/slaves. You just don't gain the benefit of children. Still get the mood and consciousness boost.

Works just fine with free love. Still get the benefit of the pairing, and you have NO drawbacks.... You just don't get free, unlimited benefits for all.

Is it risky? Heck yeah! Caravan planning gets rougher and the risk of hulking out of one does is very real

The only change I'd like, but probably won't happen because honestly, it fits the flavor perfectly, is visitors and guests are able to form a bond with your colonists.... And then leave forever, giving a permanent mood penalty. It's almost like a foreign psychic bond is a purpose to war, as the only way not to eat the debuff forever is to immediately arrest the bonded stranger.

[Metrod125]

Psychic Bond does 5 things, 4 for as long as the bonded pawns stay together on a given map:

Pawns with the gene have guaranteed romance attempts
Improves the Consciousness of bonded pawns by 10% ~ 15% (don't remember exact number)
Reduces the pain each pawn of that bond receives by 50%
Improves Psychic Sensitivity of bonded pawns by 10% (even through psychically deaf)
Boosts the Opinion of the bonded pawns with each other by 50 points, this remains even if they breakup (as they say, til death do you part)

For everything that this gene does, its perfectly fine as is.
Besides, romance between colonists and slaves is bloody annoying at best, because when that happens you either full recruit the slave, commit warcrimes upon the relationship, or do nothing since these two pawn types cannot share a bed. Its been like this since Ideology came out.

[Doesn't Learn From Mistakes]

The only change I'd like, but probably won't happen because honestly, it fits the flavor perfectly, is visitors and guests are able to form a bond with your colonists....

Just take a page from the Victorians and have panic rooms for your unbonded highmates to be area assigned to when visitors arrive.

[Wantoomany]

I misused gun, now everyone is shot, please fix gun.

[Jaasrg]

Originally posted by Doesn't Learn From Mistakes:

The only change I'd like, but probably won't happen because honestly, it fits the flavor perfectly, is visitors and guests are able to form a bond with your colonists....

Just take a page from the Victorians and have panic rooms for your unbonded highmates to be area assigned to when visitors arrive.

Highmates are the visitors, not colonists.

[VoiD]

Bond seems fine, romance isn't.

The game should not allow romance with slaves until it can allow them to share beds with colonists, otherwise it's just pointless.

[IchigoMait]

Originally posted by VoiD:

Bond seems fine, romance isn't.

The game should not allow romance with slaves until it can allow them to share beds with colonists, otherwise it's just pointless.

Yeah they should rework on who can use a bed, they can still keep as how the room is marked when you set the bed to be for colonist or prisoner or medical, but allow anybody use any bed that is available for whatever purpose, well except single bed vs double bed usage (in terms of 2 characters not being in the same spot, when just sleeping).
Then you could just force a colonist and a prisoner or whatever to sleep in the same double bed.
Just add that colonists can be selected for prison beds.