131 lines
5.9 KiB
Markdown
131 lines
5.9 KiB
Markdown
# 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](Discipline-and-Reform.md)'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.*
|