This is why most items are forbidden automatically when dropped. Don't allow items or issue orders that will lead your pawns into danger.

You can potentially find a resurrector serum that can revive dead pawns. You'll have to preserve her body until then to have the highest odds of success.

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

This is why most items are forbidden automatically when dropped. Don't allow items or issue orders that will lead your pawns into danger.

You can potentially find a resurrector serum that can revive dead pawns. You'll have to preserve her body until then to have the highest odds of success.

Thank you^^ I'm a new player and I did allow everything on the map, got to go save her from my dumb choices now.

Originally posted by NightGoblin:

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

This is why most items are forbidden automatically when dropped. Don't allow items or issue orders that will lead your pawns into danger.

You can potentially find a resurrector serum that can revive dead pawns. You'll have to preserve her body until then to have the highest odds of success.

Thank you^^ I'm a new player and I did allow everything on the map, got to go save her from my dumb choices now.

Yeah, don't allow all on the map unless you've actually cleared all enemies first :) Pawns love insect jelly, incidentally, and will generally prioritise it over regular meals because it gives recreation. So if you've got a bug hive on the map and you allow all, your idiot pawns will run over there to try and eat the jelly.

If you kill the bugs and take the jelly, it's a useful item to keep forbidden in a stockpile for emergencies. Nice stuff like that can be the difference between a mental break happening or not.

edit: If you're careful, you should be able to take a pawn over there at night while the bugs are asleep and steal the jelly from under their noses. That way they'll continue producing more, which won't happen if you kill them. Naturally this is quite risky, though, heh.

Originally posted by NightGoblin:

Originally posted by The Grand Mugwump:

This is why most items are forbidden automatically when dropped. Don't allow items or issue orders that will lead your pawns into danger.

You can potentially find a resurrector serum that can revive dead pawns. You'll have to preserve her body until then to have the highest odds of success.

Thank you^^ I'm a new player and I did allow everything on the map, got to go save her from my dumb choices now.

Ahh, thank you.
So happy to see people take feedback like adults.

May your insect hives only ever spawn in rooms you aren't using!
Feel free to ask about anything else you find non-obvious.

Gutted, lol. We've all been there. Could've saved her while the bugs were asleep, it's safe as long as nothing hurts them. Oh well, welcome to the Rim.

I usually prioritize killing insects on the map in case a pawn has a mental break that causes them to wander into a hive. I'll ignore insect hives in rare situations where it's too much of a bother to deal with them, or I plan use them somehow.

9 times out of 10 the answer to is 'she' dumb is yes

Pawns simply obey orders for the most part, it's a blessing if you understand how their priorities behave and what orders they're under, it's a curse otherwise, because they won't make "common sense" decisions. Anything's on the floor on the map, and the access is unrestricted/unforbidden + you have a stockpile that accepts it = "I should go pick that up if I'm set to doing hauling work", even if it means walking into a hive.

You can get used to using the areas system for example, it's pretty efficient against that kind of issue. If there's a dangerous area, like a hive or a mechanoid cluster, and you have no way to deal with it currently, you can assign your colony to an area that contains the entire map except for the hive zone, and they'll naturally avoid going there, even if there are items to pick up.

Originally posted by Red Bat:

I usually prioritize killing insects on the map in case a pawn has a mental break that causes them to wander into a hive. I'll ignore insect hives in rare situations where it's too much of a bother to deal with them, or I plan use them somehow.

the only use for insect hives aside from jelly farming and taming the bugs(dont ask why, i just do) is to use them as a raider lure, as raiders treat them as colony buildings for some reason

This is how I normally paint my zones and rename them in the manage areas menu:

- Inside. This is literally just inside my first and only structure. Later, as I expand, they are allowed to go from room to room without ever setting a foot outdoors, where wild animals and raiders can path to them.

- Walls. This one only becomes relevant once I have erected an outer perimeter wall that serves the above purpose. No direct pathing to my outdoor garden area, my colonists or animals.

- Work. This one expands beyond the walls area, covering the entire central area of my map, but not near the edges, and never near active or dormant insect hives that produce jelly.

I adjust these zones on the fly as needed, and rarely have my colonists unrestricted. Because I too frequently make use of the 'allow all' command and this still leaves my colonists mostly safe when they are in the work zone.

A raid or threat appears? I zone them all to walls or inside.

if they have the 'pigging out' (or whatever its specifically called) mental break, the pawn *WILL* attempt to go and eat the insect jelly, forbidden or not. Stanislav finally got that artificial leg he was always wanting after his little incident, at least.

Originally posted by johndoe987456:

if they have the 'pigging out' (or whatever its specifically called) mental break, the pawn *WILL* attempt to go and eat the insect jelly, forbidden or not. Stanislav finally got that artificial leg he was always wanting after his little incident, at least.

The insects mostly sleep at night. It is possible to loot their precious jelly without waking them if you set your chosen fetcher's threat response to 'ignore' so he won't shoot the sleeping bugs, or run in a panic from them. Then if that colonist can path around the insects and fetch the jelly, you can re-restrict their zoning and have some of it stockpiled for the next 'pigging out' mental break.

Originally posted by johndoe987456:

if they have the 'pigging out' (or whatever its specifically called) mental break, the pawn *WILL* attempt to go and eat the insect jelly, forbidden or not. Stanislav finally got that artificial leg he was always wanting after his little incident, at least.

pawns with the gourmand trait will have random food binge mental breaks, even if their mood is kept high, so they're more likely to die via insect horde than other pawns

"Is she dumb or is this part of the game?"

Both. Don't worry, you'll get to grips with controlling your pawns in a game or two, and then you get to the fun part of mastering overlapping zones and custom policies. Remarkable how much automation is possible in this.

My general advice however is this:

Newbies, don't select a starting map with caves. To the experienced Rimworld player, they do indeed offer free defense against the next naturally occuring raid that will likely attack the bugs and not your colony, but living with the insects on your map is a challenge.

It is overall easier to play on a map without them, or to focus on growing your strength to a point where you can wipe out the bugs and their nests, and finally stop worrying about this problem.

I generally do not adopt gourmands because of the forced mental break, and the fact that they have to pause their work in the middle of the day to eat a third meal, while normal colonists can work from dawn to sunset without needing a meal. They eat right after rising from their beds, and a second time probably just before turning in for the night. This is peak efficiency.

With no gourmands allowed in my colony, and the experience to manage moods well, mental breaks are effectively a thing of the past for me. Unless map conditions are especially gruelling.