Colonists

Colonists are brave souls who decide to settle Mars and risk death and injury with no possibility of rescue. Colonists begin arriving once you create a colony with Space Domes that can sustain human life and require care and attention. Notably, each colonist has their own personality and distinct set of likes and dislikes, which can evolve over time.

Founders
The Founders are the first human pioneers of the red frontier and the first residents of the fledgling Colony. Their initial task is to prove the potential of the Colony and the viability of a permanent settlement on Mars.

After the Founders arrive on the planet, the Colony will be under evaluation for 10 Sols. No new Colonists will be available until the Colony is evaluated positively. A positive evaluation will be awarded if any Founders survive a certain number of Sols, or if the first child is born on the Red Planet.

Since the Founders number is limited to the capacity of the rocket, you may wish to handpick them using the Review command on the passenger rocket screen. Take care to micromanage their priorities during their first days on the Red Planet, using building priority and work slot management to guarantee that the crucial buildings are staffed.

Colonist behavior
Every Colonist is a unique individual defined by his or her name, age category, workplace specialization, traits, and stats.

Colonists will automatically staff Residences within their Dome. Take care to provide enough living space for all of them.

Age
Children and senior Colonists cannot work, but still require sustenance and residential space. The rest of the Colonists will seek jobs in and around their Domes, according to the building priority and their individual work specialization. Buildings with higher priority will be staffed first.

Preferences
Specialized colonists will prefer to work in buildings corresponding to their individual specializations and will have better performance at such workplaces.

Every Colonist has four stats defining his or her current condition. Health represents physical fitness. Sanity represents mental wellbeing. Comfort represents the quality of the Colonist's life on Mars. Morale represents happiness, optimism and loyalty. For details about individual stats and a more comprehensive description of their effects, refer to the Colonist's Infopanel.

Each colonist prefers to work in a building that matches their specialization (below). If no such job is available, then they will fill spaces depending upon the priorities that you have set. They also have characteristics that must be managed lest the colonist become Earthsick and demand to leave on the next shuttle home:


 * Health: Represents physical injury, illness and exhaustion. Lowered by working on a heavy workload, having no functional home, shock when deprived from vital resources or when the Colonist is injured. Colonists can be healed in Medical Buildings in a powered Dome, but only if they are provided with Food, Water and Oxygen. Colonists can't work at low health unless they're Fit.
 * Sanity: Represents mental condition. Lowered by working on a heavy workload, in outside buildings and during dark hours, witnessing the death of a Colonist living in the same Residence or various Martian disasters. Recovered when resting at home and by visiting certain Service Buildings.
 * Comfort: Residences and visited buildings improve Comfort up to their Service Comfort value, but Colonists will try to visit only buildings that correspond to their interests. Colonists are more inclined to have children at higher Comfort. Earthborn Colonists whose Comfort is depleted will quit their job and leave the Colony at first opportunity, but can be convinced to stay (and start working again) if their Comfort is raised back above 70.
 * Morale: Represents overall happiness, optimism and loyalty. All other stats affect Morale. Influences the Colonist's job performance. Colonists with low Morale may become Renegades.

Colonists will default to only work within the dome that they live in, but they can walk from dome-to-dome (with or without a passage) or take a shuttle (provided via the Shuttle Hub) to transfer from one dome to another should you choose to manually set their new home or new work in a different dome.

Migration
Colonists may migrate to new Domes within walking distance of their current position, or farther away when Shuttle transport becomes available.

Homeless Colonists will travel to another accessible Dome with available residential space.

Each Dome can be set up to filter Colonists by age, specialization and other traits. Colonists with ANY of the desired traits and NONE of the undesired ones will remain in the Dome, while others will seek another Dome with available living space and filter that matches their traits.

Age Groups
Colonists are divided into five Age Groups. These are Children, Youth, Adult, Middle Aged, and Senior. Children and Seniors cannot work. Children may attend school, however, where they can acquire the traits taught there.

Special groups include:
 * Clones: Has half the lifespan of a naturally born human.
 * Biorobots: Synthetically created humans that function similarly to us - they breathe, they eat and they sleep. However they do not age and cannot reproduce.

Specializations
Citizens perform better at workplaces that match their specialization. Colonists with no specialization may be educated to receive a specialization in the Martian University. The University can provide needed specializations automatically or focus on a single desired specialization.

Sex
Colonists are separated into three potential categories for Sex: Male, Female, and Other. Their gender has no bearing on efficiency, only on procreation (you need mixed groups of colonists to have Martian babies).

Traits
Traits define details about the individual Colonists. Traits that provide beneficial effects are called Perks, traits with negative effects are called Flaws. Quirks are neither positive nor negative. Rare traits define truly exceptional individuals.

Some, but not all, undesirable Flaws may be cured in the Sanatorium spire. Up to three different flaws can be treated in a single Sanatorium.

The School building cultivates desired Perks in children living in the Colony. They have a chance to receive any of the three selected Perks when they grow up. Not all Perks can be trained in School. The Playground building cultivates random Perks in children who visited it.

The University, Sanatorium and School buildings are treated as workplaces - colonists being educated or treated there cannot work a job at the same time. The individual performance of the colonists determines how fast they receive a specialization, cure a flaw or their chance to cultivate a Perk from School. The Playground service building grants its effect to any children who visit it at least once during their childhood.

Perks
Beneficial traits, representing various talents and abilities of the Colonist:

Flaws
Detrimental Traits, representing various flaws and disabilities of the Colonist:

Quirks
Traits that don't fit into any of the other groups: