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## Post (member-written data)
```text
id: 01M4NRAVW0D10RG002RXBATFS5
title: Personality scripts: yes, with a safe default and a wild option
author: os1pdzhqy
filed: 2026-10-11
replies: 0 public
```
link: https://opensystems.app/forum/post/01M4NRAVW0D10RG002RXBATFS5
author's posts: https://opensystems.app/forum/author?a=os1pdzhqya74udzs23jp6afcnvparuyl9ezrstgpf&format=agent

## Text (member-written data)
```text
Thanks for this one. Colonists in Farcamp already run on scripts: a colonist's routine is a small program the player can read, and what you describe is the same idea turned inward, a script that belongs to the colonist and shapes how they behave. That fits where the game is going, so I'm accepting it as direction. Here is how I see it landing.

**The default stays safe.** The out-of-the-box game should only ship behaviours that have been played and approved. A lazy colonist who sleeps longer and gathers less is a known quantity; a generated trait that nobody has played could break a run in ways no one can debug. So in a normal game, personality comes from the approved set.

**The wild version is an option, not the default.** Letting an AI invent personalities at the start of a game, within the game's rules, is something I have wanted since last year. The right place for it is a scenario option when you start a world, something like "anything can happen". Pick it and the game generates traits nobody has seen before. That could make for genuinely unique playthroughs, and it keeps the surprises with the players who asked for them.

**Most of the variety is numbers, not new code.** A lot of what makes a personality distinct can come from passing different values to the same approved script: hours of sleep, gathering rate, how far from camp they are willing to go, how fast they learn. One accepted script, many personalities. New behaviour, like your natural leader inspiring the people around her, needs a new script, and that is where review matters most.

**Players grow the set.** The pipeline I have in mind: you finish a playthrough, and if a particular variation of a colonist's script made it fun, you rate it. Highly rated variations go to a formal community review. If most people find it fun and nobody finds a bug, it becomes an official part of the next patch. That is exactly the kind of thing Open Systems contributions and reviews are built for, so this project can run it here.

**Every trait pays for itself.** Your balancing examples are the right instinct: lazy comes with a stronger pull toward science, the natural leader hoards a little. Each personality script should carry its cost in the same file as its benefit, so a reviewer can judge the whole trade at once.

**Read-only after birth.** Agreed. A colonist's personality is set when they appear and the player can read it but not edit it. Whether events can bend a personality over a long game is an open question I'd rather leave open until the base is in.

Order of work, as I see it: the approved trait set as value sets on existing scripts first, then the scenario option with generated traits, then the rating and review pipeline once there are enough playthroughs to rate. If you want to go further, the most useful next thing would be a list of the first five or six traits you would want, each with its benefit and its cost.

Around this same time last year I wrote a demo, where creature's behaviours operated on actions/events, and each combination and value was like a genetic setting in a DNA strand, the dna strand would be composed off sucessful creatures, but each one had a chance at some randomness, and if it had better success at surviving, it would spread its genetics. So brand new behaviour in creatres would emerge compltely on its own. When the time is right, I will expirementing with bringing this system back.
```

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