Thanks to pretty fast help from Avius via discord:

here are the steps to remove the mod:

enable prison labor, then go to mod settings
check disable mod
and load the game
start game so game will have a sec to think
then save the game
and disable mod

worked totally fine for me! thanks again

So I was also using While You're Up and had to end a thriving colony and discontinue use of this mod because it produced this error wherein pawns assigned to construction would simply go idle and wander forever, even when assigned to other tasks. Is this what was happening to you?

im using while your u and a having no issue, save game is at advanced stage as well

Mine was fine for several years in game before this problem came up; I'm not sure if While You're Up was the problem or not in my case, though Prison Labor was definitely the one causing the error. Just trying to iron out what the problem was, as I'd like to go back to using this mod.

Originally posted by Omega13:

Mine was fine for several years in game before this problem came up; I'm not sure if While You're Up was the problem or not in my case, though Prison Labor was definitely the one causing the error. Just trying to iron out what the problem was, as I'd like to go back to using this mod.

have you tried moving round which one come first in mod list? ill definitely post if it happens to me. i have a biggr issue with the ogre stack mod and locking resources in storage if i draft atm lol.

Yes I tried swapping them around but it wouldn't work. I even had a far more technical-minded friend edit my save file to try to fix the problem but it wouldn't stick. I had to abandon the colony completely.

Is anyone having trouble disabling the mod? When I go to the mod settings for prison labor I get an error and it freezes Rimworld, I have to alt f4

idling issue is a problem with me (not running labor) but it comes from change dresser for me

Was the source of the idling issue ever discovered and fixed? I'd like to give this one a try again but am hesitant to do so if it's just going to kill my colony at some point.

Originally posted by bearhiderug:

Originally posted by Omega13:

Was the source of the idling issue ever discovered and fixed? I'd like to give this one a try again but am hesitant to do so if it's just going to kill my colony at some point.

lol casual, your meant to lose sometimes =p
run it. play it. you have nothing to lose

Casual?

You understand the difference between losing your colony due to actually losing and losing your colony due to a bugged mod and a corrupted save, right?

Oh, I've used it quite extensively in the past so no worries there. I agree, it's got some really neat ideas. I was just hoping it was working properly for that reason, as it did abruptly end a colony for me once.

I can appreciate the sentiment (I think?), but I still completely disagree that it makes you a casual lol. If I start a game I want the save to be solid, because there's just as much enjoyment in the end game as the start, and if you're playing a tribal start the end game can be a long ways off- it'd really suck to have all that progress and struggle be for naught, and to not be able to see it through to the end. I don't think hesitating out of concern for this happening has anything to do with being a casual, I just think it has to do with enjoying a game with long-term progress like Rimworld. :P

Sorry, no real reason for me to have commented other than arbitrarily having had an opinion that I felt like sharing. Cheers folks.