Clarification / Renaming of "Psychopath" and "Accident Prone"

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  • Suggestion Declined

Hello,

The descriptions / namings of the two detriments are a bit off, at least the former one, while the latter one brings and easy solution, no gameplay changes needed. The topic behind these is a bit deep and diverges from colloquial (mis-)conceptions of terms:

Psychopaths are not automatically evil, they just have no remorse, no conscience, are not automatically insane (the clinical definition for "insanity" is to "irrational"), they are instead "hyper-rational" due to their lack of emotional affect. That of course lends to evil actions because as long as there is no consequence for them personally, they don't care. Which is also why such individuals, despite being very few (only about 2% of the human population at the moment) make up a lot of leading positions in industry and politics. The careers with the highest quantity of psychopaths are CEOs (gold medal), lawyers (silver medal) - what a surprise on both - and brain surgeons only making about 8th place. The latter professions also requires higher levels of competence. It keeps the hand steady, but stories like the brain-surgeon just walking out mid operation because he got bored, to go play golf instead, have happened.

What the tooltip describes is not psychopath by itself, but sadism, or both combined. They are both elements of the "Dark Tetrad" of psychology: "Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, Sadism." - The good Doctor from the Prison Level is a great example of all these traits.

Psychopaths are low in emotional affect, which is why they are thrill-seekers and most of them push further to see how openly bashful they can be about their vile actions without being found out or being punished for it finally. The self-reward comes from a godlike feeling of control over everyone and everything. And the subsequent childlike tantrum when that control is challenged and lost.

While "Accident Prone" on the other hand describes the outcomes of a Psychopath just as much as that of someone incompetent, and malice also loving to hide behind incompetence, that detriment might just be renamed to "Hanlon's Razor - Malice? Incompetence? How could we know!?"

For the patient it never makes a difference, and neither for the budget.

tl;dr
Rename "Psychopath" to "Sadist" or at least "Sadistic Psychopath" (probably too long to be fun)
Rename "Accident Prone" to "Hanlon's Razor"

After all, the little bit of real world science in the game can be educational. That's what SciFi is about, no?

Version:
1.0.3
Platform:
Windows PC
Store:
Steam
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Dominik Customer Support
  • Suggestion Received

Hey! Thank you for yet another suggestion, please keep them coming as our developers are actively monitoring the forum for inspiration! 

Best,

Dominik

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Lee "Noontide" Moon Designer & Community Manager
  • Suggestion Declined

Thank you for the input we are currently happy with this terminology but we'll certainly keep an eye on it.