Highmates

Highmates are a xenotype, commercially available for those who aspire being one.

Lore

Empathic and effortlessly beautiful, these designed companions and concubines have the unique ability to psychically bond with a mate. In a certain context, they seem to be perfect - happy, charming, and kind. However, they are also inept at manual tasks, physically weak, and mentally incapable of violence even if their life depends on it.

On a few wealthy worlds, highmate xenogerms are commercially available and some people become highmates as a sort of career. However, many societies find them abhorrent, either because they distract people from forming natural families, or because they are humans shaped to serve the pleasures of another. On such worlds they are either reserved as playthings of the powerful, or banned entirely. This particular line of highmate fits the fashions of classical Novaroma, but many other variants exist.^[1]^[2]

Occurrence

Standard pawns from the primary factions do not spawn as highmates, likely because their violence inability prevents common uses. Instead, only select pawnkinds can spawn as highmates. These include:

Pawnkind	Faction types	Chance	Notes
Town trader	Outlanders	4%	Standard caravan trader
Space refugee	N/A	3%	Factionless pod occupants from the Transport pod crash event
Refugee	N/A	2.5%	Quest refugee. See also the faction table below for quest factions.
Slave	N/A	3%	Standard slaver caravan and ship stock
Slave	Empire	5%	Empire slaver caravan and ship stock
Imperial trader	Empire	5%	Standard caravan trader

The table below describes the chance for a given pawn from each faction being a highmate. Note that this value does not account for chances in xenotype chance from ideoligion or from pawn kind, it only shows the base value before those factors.

Standard Pawn Highmate Chance
Faction		Chance
	Gentle tribe	0%
	Fierce tribe	0%
	Savage tribe	0%
	Cannibal tribe	0%
	Nudist tribe	0%
	Fierce neanderthal tribe	0%
	Savage impid tribe	0%
	Civil outlander union	0%
	Rough outlander union	0%
	Rough pig union	0%
	Pirate gang	0%
	Cannibal pirate gang	0%
	Yttakin pirates	0%
	Waster pirates	0%
	Shattered empire	0%

Summary

Because Highmates always sport irregular skin color and their distinguishable snow-white hair, Highmates tend to stick out more in large groups.

Genes

This table has been collapsed due to length. Click to expand Click to collapse

Name	Description			Exclude
Psy-sensitive	Carriers of this gene are more psychically-sensitive than average. Psychic Sensitivity +20% Meditation psyfocus gain +10% / day ^[Verify] +0.1 Neural Heat Recovery per second base. Effectively 0.163 Heat/s recovery at Level 6 psylink.	−2	1	PsychicAbility
Psychic bonding	Carriers of this gene have a special neural organ that makes them psychically bond with a lover for life. As long as the lovers are together, they will be happy. If they are physically separated, they will be disturbed by the distance. If one dies, the other's mind will be badly disrupted. Romance attempts always succeed Gains psychic bond with first attempted romance or lovin' This person has a psychic bond with another person based on the psychic bonding gene. The bond itself grants some limited psychic awareness, allowing it to connect even with the psychically deaf. Bonded pawns receive gain ×50% pain multiplier, +15% consciousness, +12 mood and +10% psychic sensitivity when on same map. Bonded pawns receive −10 mood and +5% psychic sensitivity when not on same map. When one bonded pawn dies, the other will immediately enter an extreme mental break.^[Verify]	−1	1	-
Very happy	Carriers of this gene are highly predisposed to optimism and not at all inclined to think negatively. They'll have much higher mood than others. Permanent +10 Genetic joy mood	−2	3	Mood
Heat weakness	Carriers of this gene are slightly less comfortable in warm temperatures. Maximum Comfortable Temperature: −5 °C (9 °F)	+1	1	MaxTemperature
Violence disabled	Carriers of this gene are emotionally and mentally incapable of engaging in violence. They are overwhelmingly resistant to and horrified by the idea of hurting another. Disables work: Hunt Violent	+3	1	MeleeDamage ShootingAccuracy Aggressive KillThirst
Kind instinct	Carriers of this gene are high in trait agreeableness and are very conscientious. They rarely insult others or starts fights, and will sometimes offer kind words to brighten the moods of those around them. They also never judges people by their appearance. Forced trait: Kind	−1	1	-
Delicate	Carriers of this gene take greater injuries than others from the same damage. They have thin, brittle bones and less binding molecules in joints and flesh. Forced trait: Delicate	+3	1	Toughness
High libido	Carriers of this gene are more likely to engage in lovin' with their partner. MTB Lovin' Factor: 0.5	0	1	Libido
Very attractive	Carriers of this gene have remarkably precise and symmetrical faces. Their features are distinctive and strong without being exaggerated, and their skin is nearly perfect. They are generally seen as beautiful. Beauty (Pawn): +2 Market Value: +700	−2	1	Beauty
Blue skin	Carriers of this gene produce a pigment that turns their skin a blue color. Skin color override: (100, 165, 193)	0	0	SkinColorOverride
Purple skin	Carriers of this gene produce a pigment that gives their skin a purple color. Skin color override: (97, 87, 195)	0	0	SkinColorOverride
Sheer white skin	Carriers of this gene have sheer white skin, unlike natural skin tones, due to a special engineered reflective cell covering. Skin color override: (250, 240, 240) Random brightness factor: 0	0	0	SkinColorOverride
Thin body	Carriers can have thin bodies. A person can have more than one body type gene; one body type will be chosen among those that are allowed.	0	0	BodyType
Standard body	Carriers can have average-shaped bodies. A person can have more than one body type gene; one body type will be chosen among those that are allowed.	0	0	BodyType
Snow-white hair	Carriers of this gene have a particular hair color. With multiple hair color genes, one is randomly selected. Hair color override: (250, 250, 250) Random brightness factor: 0	0	0	HairColor
Long-haired	Carriers of this gene grow hair on the head very quickly.	0	0	HairStyle
Great Social	The carrier's aptitude in Social is increased by 8. Aptitude acts like an offset on skill level. Additionally, one level of passion is added to Social. Social: +8. Note: Experience gain and decay applies as if this offset did not exist. Adds one additional passion for Social	−3	2	-
Awful Plants	The carrier's aptitude in Plants is reduced by 8. Aptitude acts like an offset on skill level. Additionally, all passion is removed from Plants. Plants: −8. Note: Experience gain and decay applies as if this offset did not exist. Removes all passions for Plants	+2	1	-
Awful Mining	The carrier's aptitude in Mining is reduced by 8. Aptitude acts like an offset on skill level. Additionally, all passion is removed from Mining. Mining: −8. Note: Experience gain and decay applies as if this offset did not exist. Removes all passions for Mining	+2	1	-

Highmates have a genetic complexity of 16 and a metabolic efficiency of 0, giving them the default x100% hunger rate.

Analysis

Highmates' most attractive feature is their psychic bond gene, raising the mood and Consciousness of a single pawn (of compatible orientation). Psychic bonding doesn't check how distant pawns are, it only checks if pawns are on the same map. This can make caravaning more difficult, but you don't have to bring your highmate into combat situations for the bond to count.

Psychic bond doesn't just result in the +12 mood from the bond itself. Pawns will immediately have +75 opinion with a new highmate lover (beauty, being lover). With no other opinion modifiers, this results in another +7 Opinion of my <lover/spouse> moodlet. And this isn't including the Lovin' that the pawns will do. Age matters - elderly pawns won't do nearly as much Lovin'. On the other hand, a younger couple might have to deal with pregnancy. Fertility Procedures can be researched if you want to stop that. Highmates can be paired with depressive or otherwise low-mood pawns to ease their worries. You can also pair them with an important colonist, who you don't want going into mental breaks.

On their own, highmates are incapable of violence and awful at Plants and Mining. They can do most other tasks reasonably well, depending on the specific colonist. Psychic bonding's +15% Consciousness also affects the highmate, resulting in increased Manipulation and thus increased work speed. Highmates are also great at Social, and due to all the mood bonuses, are very resistant to mental breaks.

If you don't want a specific highmate in your colony, it's best to eliminate them quickly. Highmates romance quickly and with 100% success, meaning they'll be "stuck" to another colonist in no time.

Synergy with other DLC

Psychic harmonizer - thanks to Psychic Sensitivity, psychic bonding, higher natural mood, and capacity for Lovin', Highmates are a natural fit for the harmonizer, which increases other's mood as the user is happy.

Psycasters - With the boosts from both psy-sensitive and psychic bond, highmates are capable psycasters. They have more neural heat, and regenerate both heat and psyfocus faster than baseliners. This also allows them to make significant contributions in combat, despite their non-violence, though care must be taken to keep them behind other pawns and away from damage due their delicacy.

Ideoligious Roles - Highmates have a naturally high Social skill, making them great candidates for a Leader or Moral Guide. Thanks to their natural happiness (from both the gene and the amount of Lovin'), the increased expectations from these roles are not as much of a problem.

Gene extraction

Some of the more valuable genes that highmates have to extract are:

Psychic bonding - Gives access to psychic bonding, without the restrictions of being a highmate. This makes pawns more effective so long as they remain lovers, but makes death more devastating. Also makes caravan trips harder.
Kind instinct - The kind trait prevents pawns from starting social fights, for the cost of −1 metabolic efficiency. The kind trait can also give others a +5 Kind Words moodlet.

This gene can be combined with Aggressive or Hyper Aggressive to negate the extra social fights while having a positive metabolic impact. The aggressive genes will still increase the chance of violent mental breaks, however.

High libido - Makes Lovin' more common, for 1 complexity and no change in metabolism.
Psy-sensitive - While not the largest boost to psychic sensitivity, the boost from psy-sensitive is a significant buff to any psycasters until Super psy-sensitive can be acquired.

Remember that xenogerms replace all xenogenes. If you implant a xenogerm into a highmate, all of their genes will be replaced, including psychic bonding. This also applies to certain other xenotypes. Don't install Kind Words on a hussar to negate Hyper Aggressive, unless you're prepared to erase and/or replace all of their existing genes.

Biotech (DLC)