Reasons to Befriend the Fishpersons

Apart from the silly idealistic reasons put forth by colonists who are clearly in need of sulfur tonic, there are some rather pragmatic reasons to refrain from gunning down the nasty denizens of the deep that plague our dear colonies:

1. Fewer disruptions of vital colony activity. When hostile fishpersons are about, colonists have the audacity to run in terror rather than bravely continue the important work of colony building. They clearly lack the expected confidence in our military to protect them from harm.
2. Less interference in the important duties of our soldiers. Out fighting forces cannot be expected to keep themselves in top shape through the use of marching and good honest exercise if they are having to spend time chasing after errant fishpersons. Pushups don't do themselves.
3. The gifting of scrap iron. Clearly this is the most important consideration, in that it allows the colony to develop the resources needed to thrive before a suitable permanent source of iron ore can be found. It is an indictment of the intelligence of the sad beasts that they gladly deliver to us the eventual tools of their undoing.

 

The mad ramblings of a fishy scholar.

 

They are a very good source of food though.

 

Very true, but can be spared if food is otherwise abundant.

 

I do wish there was more of a solid way to change your policy on fishfolk once you've said one thing or another.
At the moment its all a bit random, and a bit of a pain since you're pretty much helpless until one of them attacks.

While it may be a good idea to befriend them early on, before your military gets some numbers to it, they still freak out your colonists pretty badly, and a quarter, and up to half, of my colonists stay in a perpetually crappy/freaked out mood from seeing them casually strolling through camp.

 

Agreed. There should be a policy button where we can change our policies at any time by spending prestige.

 

They save me having to mine sand for glass.

 

This whole thread is moot... there's no such thing as fishpeople anyway.

It was probably a bird, or an oddly shaped tree.

 

Lord Blyn is quite correct. Lord Palmer has investigate these claims quite thoroughly and its clear that fishpeople are a result of a delusions brought about by a chronic lack of tonic in the colonies among the insane / inferior classes / other types the crown has declared not our type of people. Even the odd claim of a corpse or two have turned out to be badly mangled shark / dolphin remains.

 

then... where did this cube of meat come from

 

I don't know, I heard it was swamp gas, or a weather balloon.