5.9 KiB
Deterrence — the feedback loop
The connection that turns the pipeline into a cycle.
This is the part that makes policing govern rather than merely clean up. Everything else in Justice reacts to one pawn: this reacts to the whole colony, and it feeds back into every pawn's disposition. Crime that goes unanswered emboldens everyone a little; visible justice deters everyone a little. The reason to punish is not just this prisoner — it is the message it sends the rest, and here that message is a number they all read.
The climate of order
Every colony carries one order value:
| Range | 0.0 (lawless) … 1.0 (iron) |
| Baseline | 0.5 — an ordinary colony |
| Below baseline | crime pays; dispositions run hot |
| Above baseline | order holds; dispositions run cool |
It is nudged by two events and, left alone, forgets.
The nudges
| Event | Nudge |
|---|---|
| A crime, unanswered | −0.08 |
| Visible justice done (a punishment) | +0.12 |
Both stay clamped to the 0–1 range. Note the asymmetry: punishment (+0.12) outweighs crime (−0.08) by 1.5×. A colony that answers every offence does not merely break even — it ratchets above baseline into "order holds" territory. This is the deterrence dividend, and it is deliberate: justice seen to be done buys more order than the crime cost.
The same crime that moves the climate also marks the culprit's record — the offence that shifts the colony's mood is the one classification and parole will remember later. A punishment moves only the climate; the reform side of a punishment — how the offender themselves changes — is Discipline's job.
The drift
Memory fades. With nothing happening, the climate creeps back toward ordinary at about 0.0015 every in-game while (roughly one nudge every 2500 ticks) — which works out to:
drift per in-game day ≈ 0.036
So a single unanswered crime (−0.08) takes roughly 0.08 / 0.036 ≈ 2.2 days to heal on its own — or
one punishment (+0.12) to over-answer instantly. An iron colony you stop maintaining slides back to
baseline over about two weeks; it does not stay stern for free.
The feedback — how it reaches every pawn
This is the loop. The climate is read back into every colonist's upbringing as a multiplier on their propensity:
| Order level | Factor | Effect on every pawn's disposition |
|---|---|---|
| 0.00 (lawless) | 1.300 | +30% hotter — crime pays, everyone feels it |
| 0.30 | 1.120 | +12% |
| 0.50 (baseline) | 1.000 | neutral — a default colony sits exactly here |
| 0.70 | 0.880 | −12% |
| 0.90 | 0.760 | −24% |
| 1.00 (iron) | 0.700 | −30% cooler — order holds, everyone calms |
Two things to notice:
- Baseline is the neutral point, by design. A default colony sits at 0.5, which is a factor of exactly 1.0 — ordinary order neither inflames nor calms. That symmetry is deliberate. If baseline ran hot, ordinary order would nudge propensity up, breed a little more crime, drop order, and feed a slow runaway. Neutral-at-baseline means only a colony that lets order slide below ordinary earns the hot multiplier, and only one that pushes above it earns the calm.
- The swing is 0.7× to 1.3×, symmetric around 1.0 — a ±30% spread applied to everyone's disposition at once. This is the multiplier that makes catching one pawn matter to the disposition of the rest.
When it applies
This bending of behaviour only happens while Policing is installed. Core on its own reads a flat, neutral 1.0 — colonists are indifferent to order — and only Policing wires the climate into their disposition. A colonist who is off the map (in a caravan, in transit) has no local climate to read, so they fall back to neutral too.
Worked example — a day at the institution
The colony starts at baseline 0.5 (factor 1.05). Over one day:
| Step | Event | Order level | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| start | — | 0.50 | 1.050 |
| 1 | Prisoner A shanks a guard (crime, unanswered) | 0.42 | 1.106 |
| 2 | Prisoner B foments trouble (crime, unanswered) | 0.34 | 1.162 |
| 3 | Warden punishes A | 0.46 | 1.078 |
| 4 | Warden punishes B | 0.58 | 0.994 |
| overnight | nothing happens, drift ≈ −0.036 toward 0.5 | 0.544 | 1.019 |
Two crimes cost −0.16; two punishments returned +0.24. The colony ends the day at 0.58 — above where it started — because punishment out-answers crime. Every pawn's disposition dipped hotter as the crimes landed (1.05 → 1.16) and then cooled below neutral once order was reasserted (0.994). By morning the drift has begun erasing the gain, and if nothing keeps the pressure on, the colony sinks back to its slightly-hot baseline over the next couple of weeks.
That arc — hot when crime pays, cool when justice is seen, forgetful when neither happens — is the whole reason discipline is not inert. You are not punishing a pawn; you are setting the temperature of the room.
How to play with deterrence
- Answer crime, visibly and promptly. Each punishment is worth 1.5 crimes of order. A colony that reliably punishes climbs above baseline and cools everyone; a colony that lets offences slide sinks below and heats everyone — a spiral, because hotter pawns commit more crime.
- Don't coast on a past crackdown. The climate drifts back to baseline at 0.036/day. Order is a maintenance cost, not a one-time purchase.
- Push past baseline if you want calm. Neutral disposition needs an order level of about 0.571; ordinary (0.5) still runs 5% hot. A steady rhythm of caught-and-punished offences is what holds you there.
- A lawless spell is self-feeding. At an order level of 0.3 every pawn is 1.19× more disposed; more crime follows, driving the level lower still. Break the cycle with punishments, not patience.
Part of the Institution suite for RimWorld 1.6: Core · Contraband · Policing · Corrections · Gangs · Ward.