RimWorld

RimWorld

Questionable Ethics Enhanced
Kueh Lapis Sep 7, 2021 @ 9:57pm
Social relationships for clones
Hello, been enjoying the mod in my playthrough of a colony built up from a single clone. As I created more clones though, I realised that they regarded the progenitor and fellow clones as if they were strangers rather than genetically/mentally identical.

So I propose a few new familial relationships specifically for clones. I'm still iffy on the terms themselves, but the definitions are the key here.

Donoror/Donoress: Equivalent to father/mother. The pawn from whom the genetic template was extracted from. Perhaps a mood buff could be granted to them upon clone completion, just as how the clone may receive a mood debuff.

Genetic clone: The pawn cloned from a genetic template. Technically could be also reflected as son/daughter since cloning is by definition asexual reproduction.

Mindion: Portmenteau of 'mind' and 'scion', where the scion is the part of the plant containing the stem in plant grafting. So just as the stem is grafted onto the root, the brain template can be grafted onto an empty clone. Relationally, this is roughly equivalent to donoror/donoress.

Mindock: Portmenteau of 'mind' and 'root stock', where the stock is the part of the plant containing the roots in plant grafting. Relationally, this is roughly equivalent to clone/child.

These terms encompass the different combinations of social relations that may arise from QEE clones. Say we start from a pawn called Dun. If Dun has an empty clone called Elk, then Dun will be Elk's donoror only. Then Dun has a second clone called Hwi which he applies his brain template on, so Dun becomes both Hwi's donoror and mindion. Finally, Dun has a third clone called Kong, but then uses Elk's brain template on them. So Dun will be the donoror of Kong, while Elk will be the mindion of Kong.

Hope this description is clear enough. I'm not sure if this is relatively straightforward to implement otherwise I might have raised a PR myself.