Conversations, quarrels and making up

Arrange a meeting

Conversations need two living settlers who are awake, on the home map and within two walkable cardinal steps on the same level. A wall or a sealed corner can prevent a meeting. A settler who fought within the last in-game hour cannot take part. With Medical care enabled, the person starting an ordinary conversation must have more than 25 health. A person who cannot stand can still listen.

Who speaks each hour

At each hourly check, a settler normally has a one-in-three speaking chance. A Talker has two in three and a Quiet settler has one in six. The colony seed, person and hour determine that check. Settlers are considered in roster order. A person who already took part in an exchange at that check cannot join another ordinary one. A requested Sit with meeting is handled first and can happen between hourly checks.

The first suitable exchange wins

The game checks Comfort first, then Quarrel, Talk a quarrel out, Lesson, Praise, Welcome, Gossip, Joke and Chat. It chooses the first suitable exchange for that speaker and the available people. It does not roll between all possible outcomes. A quarrel can become an Argument, Insult, Brawl or Fight in earnest. Comforting someone can therefore take precedence over a quarrel, and a lesson can take precedence over praise.

Feelings and personal reasons are different

The catalogue lists base memory effects and base personal reasons. Memories affect morale and work pace. A settler keeps up to 8 active memories, and a weak new feeling can be discarded. Personal reasons change what one settler thinks of another and fade over time. At most 6 reasons about one person are retained. Repeating a reason adds to what remains, up to twice its usual worth, and restarts its duration. Warm and Aloof alter good reasons. Grudging and Forgiving alter how long bad reasons last. Cheerful and Gloomy alter memory duration.

Quarrels use current morale and remembered insults

Ordinary settlers start a quarrel below 60 morale. Quarrelsome settlers use 80, while Peaceable settlers do not start one. The speaker chooses the nearby person they think least of. They spare a Friend or Comrade while morale is at least 40. An ordinary quarrel is blocked if the speaker has a Had an argument or Came to blows memory about that person less than one day old. An insult recipient gets Was insulted instead, so they can retaliate at a later hourly check without waiting for the speaker’s cooldown.

From an argument to a lethal fight

A quarrel starts as an Argument if the speaker has no stronger reason to escalate. A Rival or an existing Argued with me reason leads to an Insult. A Rival who has insulted the speaker can provoke a Brawl. A Rival who has already come to blows with them can provoke a Fight in earnest. A Brawl deals up to 8 damage to each and leaves both at least 1 health. A Fight in earnest deals 25 to the target, which can kill, and up to 8 back to its initiator while leaving that initiator at least 1 health. These blows also use the colony’s health loss and death handling. This damage route does not itself add the Wound medical condition.

Volatile settlers at breaking point

A Volatile settler who breaks can turn on the nearby person they think least of, one step higher in the quarrel ladder. This can turn an ordinary argument into an insult, or a brawl into a lethal fight. This route bypasses the ordinary speaking roll, morale threshold and one-day quarrel cooldown. Keep apart and Peaceable still prevent the outburst toward that person. The usual awake, nearby and not-recently-fighting conditions still apply.

Help a pair recover

Use Keep apart in Social to prevent their exchanges, including arguments and comfort. Use schedules and work areas to arrange meetings. For Talk a quarrel out, both need hunger and thirst below 60 and must be at Leisure or Eating. The speaker must be Forgiving or have at least 60 morale. Each negative reason they hold is halved and its duration starts again. The other person only does the same if also Forgiving or at least 60 morale. This can improve a relationship without instantly clearing every grudge.

Read what happened

Notable exchanges appear as Conversation entries in Life so far. Chat is counted under Day to day without its own Conversation entry. Jokes give both settlers a Shared a joke feeling. Its first retained occurrence can appear in the story, while later ones are counted. A small mark can briefly show the exchange above the pair when no need takes priority. Select a settler and open Social to read their own reasons about the other person.