Psychic Bonds are Stupid

[Pinhead]

It makes no sense that asexual pawns can be attracted by a random flirt with pyschic bonds even though they feel no attraction to anyone. Same goes with pawns becoming gay without the gay or bisexual trait because of a gay pawn with psychic bonding gene. Can someone explain to me why some psychic manipulation can completely change a pawn's sexuality for someone because it keeps happening to me even though i don't want relationships

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Pinhead:

psychic manipulation

I think you answered your own question. It's quite literally the sci-fi version of magic.

Remember there is the manual romance attempt option with Biotech now so when you get a highmate you can manually match them up with the pawn you want rather than letting it happen randomly. You could also remove their tongue.

[MadArtillery]

It's just an extension of word of love if anything, but more powerful and constant. It forced them into love so it really doesn't matter what the person orginally felt because part of themselves was overwritten. I will say it is quite unnerving but I suppose that's perfectly inline with the average rimworld.

In a way they are futuristic parasites. Able to slip into anyone's life they choose, make their target dedicate to them, and live off the resources of whoever they chose as their 'host'. I'd probably never willingly go near anyone with that sort of power in real life.

[The Blind One]

I wouldn't mind if a psychic link could be formed AFTER they started dating (forced manual action while in a relationship or random chance every 'got some lovin'), that way you at least see it potentially coming and capable of preventing it by making them unable to sleep together.

But right now it's like love on first sight for an unlucky pawn and seeing them go through a teenage existential tantrum when their lover isn't on the map or has died is ridiculous xD

[RCMidas]

It's almost like a questionably consensual forced chemical and emotional restructuring of the brain can have consequences. And is not necessarily concerned about such petty things as "preferences" or "lack thereof".

[Steelfleece]

I found a rather easy way to solve this issue. It turns out, psychic powers come from inside the head. If you remove the highmate's offending body part, they can no longer bond.

[Witch ~]

Its one of those mechanics that makes you wonder what the devs were smoking. Thank god for mods.

I recently had a huge group of refugees in my colony and guess what? Psychic bond with a colonist.

And obviously they left so now I was stuck with this character in constant agony. WOW FUN.

Had to sadly use dev mode to remove the debuff

[The Blind One]

I honestly like / love the concept, just terrible execution.

[Witch ~]

Originally posted by The Blind One:

I honestly like / love the concept, just terrible execution.

Pretty much. If we could "disconmect it" like with a coma involved it wouldnt be so bad

[The Blind One]

Originally posted by Witch ~:

Originally posted by The Blind One:

I honestly like / love the concept, just terrible execution.

Pretty much. If we could "disconmect it" like with a coma involved it wouldnt be so bad

I'm just annoyed by how a highmate initiates it 9/10 times. You can have a pawn basically at random become psychically enslaved and that's what annoys me.

The highmate shouldn't just romance everyone and trigger a psychic bond with them immediately. I'd be much happier with highmates if the player had more agency over them.

Right now your best bet when you get a highmate is to instantly pair them with a designated pawn or risk them randomly romancing some other pawn and getting them enslaved (thus I usually pick to never even recruit a highmate and avoid them like the plague). That's just annoying and a shame of the xenotype.

Give me the player some agency over this. Either by restricting the psychic link to only happen to pawns that sleep in the same bed that are already lovers (bonus points if they did some lovin) and / or a secondary option to only be triggered manually by the player. At least in this situation I always have some choice and or ability to influence the event.|

Btw does anyone know if there is a mod for this?

[Astasia]

I think it should be blocked/canceled if a pawn is psychically deaf, otherwise I think it's fine.

We have all the tools needed to deal with it preemptively and after the fact. You can help prevent bonding by removing tongues, this makes the highmate both incapable of romancing and also disfigured which removes their beauty bonus and makes other pawns unlikely to romance them. If something like a refugee bonds with a colonist and you let that happen, all you need to do is arrest that highmate and keep them around, enjoy the free bonuses. Lastly you can just apply any xenogerm to a highmate to get rid of the xenotype and the bond, this is really easy to do, you can have this ready to go within days of starting a new crashlanded start.

Highmates are very rare, it's not like this is something you need to deal with constantly. They can't show up as a member of any major faction, and there's only a 2-3% chance for a neutral pawn to be one. Refugee shows up as a highmate, alarms should be going off, you should know you should take some action, the most basic is just draft them, move a stack or two of survival meals into a room, move them into that room, build a wall blocking the door, then let them remain isolated in that room until it's time to leave. There are other strategies as well, arresting them is generally what I do because it's worth getting that highmate in your colony. You can also remove their legs (install->remove peg legs) which prevents romancing, or kill them on the spot. Having something like this is interesting gameplay, it's really well thought out and designed, a risk with a number of player interactions and choices required to deal with, either for a juicy reward or to avoid a penalty.

[The Blind One]

Jesus Astasia ... do you hear yourself saying that?

"We have all the tools needed to deal with it"

> ''remove their tongues''
> "isolate them by literally walling them off"
> "arresting them"
> "remove their legs, which prevents romancing"
> "kill them on the spot"

Bruhhh ... ... I mean you're not wrong but I want something less violent as a solution lmao

I just want them to not psychically enslave another pawn without my consent or at least some 'normal' agency, not be forced to commit war crimes just to deal with them.

I think they're a really cool concept but right now they're just annoying to deal with

[Astasia]

Well walling them off in your base is pretty easy and safe and my mind instantly went to optimal solutions, but you could also just assign them to an area and deliver food to them using pawns that will not be romanced. Make them their own building, give them recreation and whatever else, a research bench to be productive, you just have to keep your colonists that are vulnerable away from them.

[The Blind One]

Originally posted by Astasia:

~ stuff said~

I still think just not having them initiate a psychic bond with the first person they romance is infinitely better than this

[Witch ~]

Originally posted by The Blind One:

Jesus Astasia ... do you hear yourself saying that? :lunar2019crylaughingpig:

"We have all the tools needed to deal with it"

> ''remove their tongues''
> "isolate them by literally walling them off"
> "arresting them"
> "remove their legs, which prevents romancing"
> "kill them on the spot"

Bruhhh ... ... I mean you're not wrong but I want something less violent as a solution lmao

I just want them to not psychically enslave another pawn without my consent or at least some 'normal' agency, not be forced to commit war crimes just to deal with them.

I think they're a really cool concept but right now they're just annoying to deal with

Just your average Rimworld discussion

[Sovereign Star]

That matches the exact lore of Highmate.

They're used as toys and political tool. Down right some places even ban them entirely.

Me? I'll be gladly turn them into Ripcores to make me fabricators.