Messages

Hope the game will be like that soon..........

Useless diary?
"Hey Mike! I found your diary!"
"Sure Bob- wait.. What? GIVE THAT TO ME RIGHT NOW!!!!"
Now, to read the diary to the whole colony for a morale boost, or just give it back. I think the choice is obvious.

Kind of... um it will be like this "11/23/2398---------I discover some unknown ships in front of us hope its not space private's ship................. 11/26/2398 some space privates are following us we must escape........" "11/30/2398 We are going to crash into the planet.............QAQ....... "  I maybe some info about why the colonists crash into the planet, and why privates attack them.................  Or just something about some one the colonists don't even know....

the black box could revolve around research tiers in order no to make it "OP"
it also makes for a great story telling element for the lore an so on.
i could see this as a great addition and something that shouldn't be horribly hard to impelament

If colonists get a Technology that's too far away from what their research tiers, they will just keep it in the computer (They cannot understand the Technology) until they get  around research tiers ......   Just like if we get a technology like how to travel in to the black hole we may probably don't even understand how it works...

Make a new kinds of job like hacker... They can hack and open the black box with their skills....Hacker can also hack the robots, automatic weapons, and the transportation that's control by the computer... If there will be a world map in the game. Hacker can even hack the enemy's base hack some technology, money, or even turn their self defend system into the player's side........

Black Box
Something Like a Black Box with some Message or Technology locked(need hacker or some kinds of skill to unlock it) or carry inside. 
It drop from from the space just like the cargo hold(or inside in).............. After the colonists pick it up, they(Player) will receive a Technology(Random?) Or some hidden Technology that player can only discover in Black Box............Or a message(Random) It maybe info about a hidden Treasure , or just a simply Diary..........

Hacker
Make a new kinds of job like hacker... They can hack and open the black box with their skills(If it's locked)....Hacker can also hack the robots, automatic weapons, and the transportation that's control by the computer... If there will be a world map in the game. Hacker can even hack the enemy's base hack some technology, money, or even turn their self defend system into the player's side........

Computer(system)
If there's hacker, there must be computer......
One kind of computer is like laptop or I phone something, a hacker can carry around.(If a hacker don't have a computer..............what can that hacker do...)
Another kind of computer is like a very big computer that can control the defend system, doors, lights(It feels bad when all the lights open at day time, if I want to close it I have to close it 1 by 1 by now, if I had like 100 lights......),fire systems(something spray things that can put out fire), robots(If you make robots independent them self its just like an new kinds of colonists)