Hair/Skin Visual Gene Issues (Potential Bug?)

[Oмεяυıп]

I've scoured the internet for information relating to this, but either I've been putting in all the wrong keywords or I cannot find many discussions or posts about this particular issue.
Normally I wouldn't open up a discussion like this, but I am beyond confused and basically need confirmation about the problem(?) I'm having.
If it's NOT a bug, feel free to let me know.

This problem(?) occurs in vanilla, unmodded RimWorld + Biotech and modded Rimworld + Biotech. I don't have any of the other DLCs. Yes, I've cleared the data in %AppData% and verified files, multiple times and have done various testing relating to this.

When I say hair + skin visual gene issues, this is what I mean:
Normal, random baseline pawns appear normal, their visuals matching their gene colors.
- If they have a dominant gene with dark-black hair, they appear to have dark-black hair.
Random vanilla Biotech xenotypes also appear normal, such as the Impids.
- If they have sandy-blonde hair and pale yellow skin as the dominant genes, while orange hair, orange skin, and deep red skin are recessive, then their appearance only matches their dominant genes.

However, if I EDIT the Impids to create a new CUSTOM XENOTYPE, for example, and give them MORE hair and skin color OPTIONS, such as:
- Snow-white hair, blonde hair, reddish-brown hair, brown hair, and red hair.
- Deep yellow skin, pale red skin, sheer white skin, and ink black skin.

Suddenly, the random pawn's visuals don't match their genes. (This can all be seen when randomizing pawns using the custom xenotype while creating a new colony.)
It could show that red hair and deep red skin are the dominant genes (NOT grayed out), but their appearance is blonde hair with ink black skin (despite those genes being grayed out)?

Does this mean that I have chosen too many potential color genes? What is going on? Do I have a misunderstanding of how genes work? What is the difference between genes that are and are not grayed out?

Explanations or help with this would be MOST welcome! Thank you for your time.

[Astasia]

If you are "editing" a single pawn using dev mode, you usually have to save and reload for the new gene effects to show up. I don't believe there is any way to "edit" the base impid xenotype without modding, you can make a new custom xenotype based on the impids and called impids, but the impid faction for example is still going to spawn the original impids with the "normal" skin/hair. Not sure what else you might mean.

[Oмεяυıп]

Originally posted by Astasia:

If you are "editing" a single pawn using dev mode, you usually have to save and reload for the new gene effects to show up. I don't believe there is any way to "edit" the base impid xenotype without modding, you can make a new custom xenotype based on the impids and called impids, but the impid faction for example is still going to spawn the original impids with the "normal" skin/hair. Not sure what else you might mean.

Apologies, I forgot to say something crucial in my original description.
I am not dev-editing pawns, but trying to create a custom xenotype. All of this is done with the game's built-in xenotype creator. Nor am I trying to edit the Impid faction. This "bug" can be seen straight from the pawn selection when making a new colony with a custom xenotype, even if it is a barely-altered version of a vanilla one.

[Astasia]

I see what you mean and I can reproduce it. Looks like a disconnect between the assigned skin color and the "dominant" gene for custom xenotypes. Displayed skin color and the skin color gene are two different values saved per pawn, displayed skin color is an older stat from before biotech added genes and still has to work without biotech so is kept separate. Whatever method the game uses to determine the "dominant" skin color on a custom xenotype appears to not match the method used by the game to determine visual skin color, both are picking a random gene from the list of owned genes but I guess you could say they use a different seed. This has no functional impact on gameplay, displayed skin color should still match one of the genes, and a gene being "dominant" in this case has no impact on inheritance or anything like that. So you could say it's a cosmetic UI issue related to cosmetics. It's something you can fix using Character Editor if it bugs you, if you edit a pawn's skin there is an option to copy the color from one of their genes and you can pick the dominant gene.

[Oмεяυıп]

Originally posted by Astasia:

I see what you mean and I can reproduce it. Looks like a disconnect between the assigned skin color and the "dominant" gene for custom xenotypes. Displayed skin color and the skin color gene are two different values saved per pawn, displayed skin color is an older stat from before biotech added genes and still has to work without biotech so is kept separate. Whatever method the game uses to determine the "dominant" skin color on a custom xenotype appears to not match the method used by the game to determine visual skin color, both are picking a random gene from the list of owned genes but I guess you could say they use a different seed. This has no functional impact on gameplay, displayed skin color should still match one of the genes, and a gene being "dominant" in this case has no impact on inheritance or anything like that. So you could say it's a cosmetic UI issue related to cosmetics. It's something you can fix using Character Editor if it bugs you, if you edit a pawn's skin there is an option to copy the color from one of their genes and you can pick the dominant gene.

That explains a lot, thank you.

So, something like this has probably already been reported as a cosmetic issue and I should just continue playing the game as normal?
I'm not sure if there are any mods out there that could fix this until the next update rolls around.

Since it doesn't affect gameplay, it really shouldn't be so bothersome to me, but it was really starting to annoy me. The cosmetic mismatch has been confusing to deal with and most notable with families that have children [Biotech]. But, I can just use the Character Editor to make things right in the meantime.

Thanks again!