Tired of babysitting every single pawn? This mod gives them a brain. Built on real combat data from military grade wargame development, every system — suppression, AI, artillery, explosives — follows how real engagements actually work. Your pawns fight smart, take cover, and retreat when they should. Stop micromanaging. Start commanding.
RECOMMENDED MODS
Performance Fish is strongly recommended. Without it, you may experience unplayable levels of lag and freezing.
A mod that disables drop pod raids is also recommended.
Dire Raid would also be a good choice.
SUPPRESSION & COMBAT DYNAMICS
Suppression System
Bullets and explosions suppress nearby pawns. Suppressed pawns duck, crawl, and eventually get pinned in place or forced to retreat. Melee pawns and mechanoids are more resistant.
Combat Posture
Suppressed pawns go prone or duck, significantly reducing their chance of being hit.
Cohesion & Adrenaline
Cohesion represents composure under fire — it drains from movement and combat stress, and low cohesion makes pawns vulnerable to breaking. Adrenaline builds during combat and grants immunity to mental breaks.
Orders Delay
All pawns have a realistic delay before executing orders. Suppression, shock, and low cohesion increase this delay.
Ranged Pawn Close-Contact Flee
Ranged pawns who spot an armed enemy at close range will automatically fall back.
Weapon Overhaul
All vanilla ranged weapons rebalanced — extended ranges, adjusted accuracy curves, and modified burst counts to better reflect each weapon's real-world role.
FOG OF WAR & OBSERVATION
Fog of War Integration
Integrates with Real Fog of War with optimized presets (sight range 400, turret sight 450). Sight range slider extended up to 400. Sight is reduced at night (down to 25% in darkness).
Forward Observer System
All weapons — direct and indirect — can only engage targets within their faction's field of view. Mortars require observed targets to fire.
TURRETS, MORTARS & ARTILLERY
Turret Operator System
Direct-fire turrets require a nearby colonist (within 8 tiles) to operate.
Turret Tactical Markers
Zooming out reveals military symbols over turrets, color-coded by faction.
Turret Relocation
Drafted pawns can relocate turrets via right-click. Delay scales with current orders delay.
Artillery Rework
Indirect-fire weapons have aiming error (15-tile scatter), fire at fixed coordinates (no target tracking), and will not auto-target enemies near your colonists. Mortar barrels are auto-replaced when worn out.
Rocket Artillery
New rocket launcher turret — fires a salvo of 6 high-explosive rockets.
Turret Overhaul
All vanilla turrets have been redesigned. Mini-turrets are now tripod-mounted MMGs. Autocannon turrets fire high-explosive rounds as AA autocannons. Uranium slug turrets have been reworked into field guns.
EXPLOSIONS, SHRAPNEL & EFFECTS
Shrapnel System
Explosions send lethal fragments outward. Hit chance depends on posture — prone pawns are far safer than standing ones.
Enhanced Effects & Sound
Massive dust clouds, lingering smoke, and reworked explosion sounds. All explosives rebalanced to match realistic kill radii.
AMMUNITION SYSTEM
Ammo for All Ranged Weapons
Every ranged weapon has limited ammo. Guns use Chemfuel, bows use Wood. Turrets, mortars, and rockets consume high-explosive shells. Each weapon has a unique capacity.
Reload & Depletion
Auto-reload from stockpiles when undrafted, or manual reload via right-click. "Ammo Reload" work type in the Work tab. Pawns who run dry automatically fall back.
ENEMY AI & RAID REWORK
Smarter Enemy AI
Enemies engage at proper weapon range instead of blindly charging. They hold position, fire, reposition, and re-engage tactically. Spawning enemies have a brief command delay.
Combat Stagnation Retreat
If enemies fail to land any attacks for 40 minutes, they retreat from the map.
Siege Rework
Sieges split into roles: gunners, standby crew, builders, and assault team. Gunners are auto-replaced when killed. Shell count scales with raid points. All industrial+ factions can siege.
Settlement Proximity Raid Adjustment
On larger maps, enemy spawn points are pushed away from your base. The safe radius scales with map size (250 tiles on 400 maps, 500 tiles on 850 maps).
MAP, CAMERA & OPTIMIZATION
Extended Maps & Camera
Map sizes up to 900 (1000/1100 test). Extended zoom-out. Reduced mountain density on large maps.
Performance
Extensive tick throttling and animal population cap for playable framerates on 800+ maps.
TIPS
1. Map sizes above 850 require a high-end PC.
2. Build your colony in a corner — more time to respond to raids.
3. Prioritize Chemfuel production. No fuel = no guns.
4. Don't give everyone MGs — they drain ammo fast. Match firepower to the threat.
5. Recruit more colonists. One-man armies don't work anymore.
6. Don't over-command. Your pawns fight on their own. Unnecessary orders just get in the way.
7. To stop a pawn, double-tap draft. Canceling orders makes them stop immediately.
8. Use assault teams. Suppress the enemy, then flank and close in.
9. Use melee pawns. Mechanoids charge hard and insects never retreat.
10. Forget killzones. Spread-out foxholes and field combat are far safer. Your pawns think for themselves now.
11. Keep reserves. Some battles last days. Without fresh troops, your line will collapse.
This mod is compatible with most mods. However, any mod that modifies pawn AI, job behavior, or combat logic will very likely conflict silently — no error logs, no warnings, just broken behavior.
Adding this mod to an existing save works, but updating to a newer version mid-save may cause minor issues. Starting a new colony on update is recommended.
Q: Why is this for 1.5?
A: 1.6 does not yet have Performance Fish. This mod is very demanding — without a proper optimization mod, most PCs will lag heavily.
Q: Will there be a 1.6 version?
A: Yes, planned. But expect heavy lag until an optimization mod becomes available for 1.6.
Q: Is this compatible with Combat Extended?
A: No. This mod has its own suppression, ammo, and balance systems that overlap with CE entirely.
Q: Does this work with [other mod]?
A: Content mods (weapons, factions, races) are fine. Mods that change AI or combat mechanics will almost certainly conflict silently.
Q: Where do I report bugs?
A: Discord. I don't check Steam comments often.
Q: I'd like to request a feature, or modify the mod myself.
A: Please reach out on Discord. Feature requests are welcome, and help with optimization or bug fixes is always appreciated.
[discord.gg]
LICENSE
© 2026 akem8. All rights reserved. Do not copy, redistribute, or reupload without permission. Modpacks are not permitted.
