The Psychology mod is a total overhaul of RimWorld’s psychological and social systems. The stories that emerge from your pawns’ peculiarities are big part of the fun that RimWorld provides. The goal of the Psychology mod is to expand that emergent storytelling by increasing the extent and complexity of RimWorld’s systems.
With the Psychology Mod everyone you encounter will have a unique and recognizable character archetype, with massively increased depth and charm. Pawns’ traits will affect absolutely every facet of their interactions with other people, which have also been expanded to allow your colonists more ways to get to know each other and express their individuality.
Psychology Mod’s features
Psyque
- Every person on the rimworld now has their own attitude and personality as part of the new psyche system, entirely separate from traits.
- You can view a rundown of their personality traits in the Psyche tab. A colonist’s psyche has a real and noticeable effect on their social interactions and self-expression.
- Colonists’ relationships with each other are now far more realistic, varied, and driven by their persistent identity.
Social
- Colonists (and non-colonists) hold conversations with each other about a multitude of topics in order to form opinions on them. Two colonists might briefly remark on something as they pass each other in the hallway, or have a long discussion while working on crafting tables in the same room. Instead of being arbitrarily assigned a compatibility with each other, they will naturally gravitate towards like-minded people and away from those they have strong disagreements with. Colonists will even set aside their differences when the colony is small enough that they have to tolerate each other.
- Some colonists may not have an opportunity to get to know each other very well, because they simply don’t spend enough time in the same vicinity and never get an opportunity to chat. Parties are a great place for your colonists to get together and make new friends (or enemies). However, they will also now invite each other to hang out when they have free time, and spend a few hours relaxing and talking. Good friends will also hang out to keep their relationship strong, and empathetic colonists might even try to hang out with people they don’t like to see if they misjudged them.
- If there are relationships in your colony, they will make plans to go on dates when they don’t have to work. Unless their schedule changes, they will meet at the scheduled date and time and spend time together to keep their relationship alive. Of course, if they’re not meant for each other, a date may also reveal an incompatibility between them.
Sexuality and Romance
- Instead of being arbitrarily assigned a slot-hogging Gay trait, everyone’s sexuality is now graded on the Kinsey scale, from zero to six.
- The overwhelming majority of colonists will be straight, but their sexual orientations can have much more variety and their romantic interest in each other will be adjusted accordingly.
- Everyone also has both a sexual and romantic drive, influencing their interest in that part of a relationship. Depending on their personality, colonists may be more likely to have multiple “flings” rather than a single lover, and how they treat breakups is affected accordingly.
Mayorship
- After a settlement’s first year, elections will be held at some point every fall. A slate of colonists will announce their candidacy for mayor, and will present a platform to run on that is chosen based on their personality. A few days later, a polling place will be chosen and colonists will go there to cast their votes. They will vote for the candidate whose positions best align with their personality, and their opinion of the candidates may also affect their vote.
- The candidate with the plurality of votes becomes the mayor until the next election. They will receive visits from constituents in their room unless their schedule is set to Work during that period, particularly by people who are very unhappy or very content. Complaining colonists can find relief in venting to the mayor, and the mayor of a happy, well-functioning colony will be pleased by the words of support they receive.
Mental Illness and Treatment
- The number of mental breaks has been vastly improved, and colonists will break differently depending on their traits. Inhabitants of the rimworld can also develop anxiety (usually in their teenage years), or acquire it after suffering PTSD from a stressful mental break. They will require occasional treatment (and good medicine, if it can be spared) to keep their anxiety in check, but once managed, it won’t affect their day-to-day life. Some traits that can make colonists undesirable, like chemical interest and pyromania, can also now be treated to mitigate their effects at the cost of medical upkeep.
- Additionally, the drug methadone is now available to help treat addiction. Instead of removing legs or trapping colonists in walled-up rooms, you can put them on a methadone regimen to eliminate the severe mood penalty, though they will still suffer all the physical effects of addiction. Methadone itself is mildly addictive, so be careful!
New Thoughts
- Adrenaline Rush: Pawns get a short mood boost when killing a hostile from an enemy faction. This gives them some relief at having defended their home.
- Dreams: Pawns may have dreams while sleeping which can affect their mood.
- Passionate Work: Pawns will be a little happier while doing something they have a burning passion for.
- Imprisonment: They may be willing to join your colony, but pawns you’ve captured and recruited will be resentful and awkward with the people that imprisoned them, until they get used to their new life.
- Individuality: Pawns don’t like looking the same as everybody else. They will get a gradually worsening mood penalty depending on how many other colony members are wearing a perfectly matching outfit.
Compatibility notes
Thanks to HugsLib and Harmony, this mod should be compatible with practically everything. However, some features may be automatically disabled if you are using a mod which adds them in a different way. Romance Diversified is one example, which is almost entirely redundant when combined with Psychology. If you wish to use features from other mods instead, then it will not negatively impact your game, however you are encouraged to give all of Psychology’s features a chance before disabling them.
