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Would like to see a firebombing raider whose AI goal is to set walls (not buildings, a building has a roof) on fire/blow them up... start including him after the second cycle, and he will start attacking any wall in a fairly large radius while the raiders are in the planning mode... thus it will look much more like they ARE planning/preparing to attack, by weakening your outer defenses.
This also answers the tactic that people choose to take by building walls  in the wilderness to funnel the raiders into a kill box, that alone would make raiders much more dynamic. 

Dealing with expeditions idea... explaining this a tad more how it could be implemented.

Hawkido, that idea is so far from cheap I can't even begin to describe it. Cheap is "a gun that lights targets on fire".

*Original entry removed*
Yeah sorry... I accidentally posted that in the Cheap ideas board... I moved it to story teller events.
But I think the idea could create an pseudo-extension to the imaginary border of your crash/colony site.
And would require any more art effects or sound effects.  just a scripted event with a basic case selection scenario.

Colony runs low on food, the longer the colony remains at a low food status the greater the chance that some of your settlers will make a request to explore outside the map and look for food. Once your party is selected they depart.  The game then selects a challenge from a list of weighted possible challenges, determine what the over come score should be, and what skills and equipment should be used to modify the expedition "Roll".  The Expedition makes their roll and adds the modifier.  then the outcome is determined, and how much time it would take for this to happen.  after that amount of time has passed the player gets a report, or possibly none at all as the member is MIA, and may never turn up. If the member turns up any spoils are then dropped where the member re-enter the map at and must be collected by the townsfolk.  these can be made more complex later on... but the basic framework would add a lot to the sense that you are on a whole world... not just a patch of ground.

Detailed example:
Colony Starving: Food quest as goal of expedition.
For starters we will implement that only one colonist can go on the expedition, so select and equip that colonist, then launch expedition.
the computer selects from a list of possible challenges:
Finds a field of raspberries... roll values: <100 Fierce Bears maul your expedition -80% max health if you have a gun -40% max health, but you kill the bear for food +120 food if your expedition survived the initial attack, takes 48 hours if he/she survives.
<300 Most of the berries are unripe +30 food. Takes 36 hours for the trip.
<500 The berries are deliciously ripe, everyone will be happy +100 food +20 morale for 2 days. Takes 24 hours for the trip.
<700 there are a few berries but also a mineral deposit +20 food +50 metal takes 48 hours.
<800 the berries are gone but there is a rotten bear corpse and a dead body with a gun (you get the gun (random roll for gun)) takes 18 hours.

The stats of the character in this scenario that may modify the roll could be "guns" skill, health, any trait that makes the character afraid of or better with animals, being better or worse at combat traits, the quality of weapon...

The expedition member then rolls and adds or subtracts his modifier then gets the result tier.

No not cheap... not asking for this in the Alpha and probably not early in the beta, but at some point there will be a limit to the type of events that can come up in an instant fashion on-screen.  and you the player have to tend the camp, so you can't be everywhere.

From what I undestand about the real-world research :

First is the fundamental research has no predictable goal nor time, but produces raw discoveries once in a while. People assigned to research should be creative.

After that, raw discoveries can be exploited by engineers, who work toward a known goal for a more prodictable time. It produces inventions that have a direct outcome. People assigned to invention should be equally creative and technical.

Yes I like the "Pure Research"/ "Applied Research" model... I have seen it in a few games and loved the random element.  The research should also be slowed down.  I posted an idea about off screen expeditions returning with happiness trinkets or horrors that could also happen on them... perhaps trinkets for research ideas could be among them.
http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=38.msg3853#msg3853

I know that ramping the game in to a more full fledged product is first on the list before fleshing out new territories in the game but here are some ideas to think about or throw out in the mean time:

Suggestion for the Gameplay Directors, assuming that there will be an end goal (or multiple ways to be considered successful in completing the game ala FTL defeat the Rebel Flagship):
Make a director the can sense how hard or fast you press to victory condition, not so much your progress but the rate at which you make progress, and throw more stumbling blocks your way to slow you down. Maybe "Lucy Longhaul" as a name for her. It will force the colony to focus more on survival and perseverance, so it can endure the natural events that will just happen, but if you start pushing too hard or fast for "building a ship to escape" or what ever the victory condition will be then more bad stuff will happen. this will force the player to take a more marathon approach to keep "Lucy" from crushing you much like a non-Newtonian fluid increases resistance at a rate greater than the increase of speed of an impacting object. Okay, wow, that sentence sucks, but I hope you understand. The more the player tries to rush to the end the more brutal the game becomes... and the slower and more methodical and robust the player plays the more relaxed the director is. This will help satisfy those who might say the game is too short once a victory condition is in place.

Potential victory conditions:
-purchase a starship
-Build a star ship
-actually colonize the planet by attracting X# NPCs to live in your colony.
-Become so greatly feared as a pirate raider that you hijack a ship and take your piracy to the stars.
-Become a Respected trading post/hotel stopover for passing NPC ships
-Become the hive of scum and villainy replete with Bars and Brothels.
-Become a prison planet where other worlds prisoners are stored and "Cared-for" *COUGH**COUGH*

Okay an idea for a (semi)random event.  expeditions (both voluntary and involuntary):
can be randomly triggered but best if triggered for a reason (high unhappiness, low resources, etc...)
The colonists want to scout outside the map for more resources, or out of boredom, or they saw a meteorite fall, or ship crash just off the map.  You must select colonists to go, they will be gone a period of time, and require resources or may have to forage on their way, possible outcomes (mostly random but also based on the goal of the scenario): never heard from again, captured by pirates (possible rescue as follow-up scenario) if not rescued they return as raider-converts, or are found in a gibbet cage on the edge of your map, or you find survivors, metals, food, supplies, rare trinkets to be placed in houses for happiness boosts, rare/unique/exotic weapons, some may return injured (lightly or maybe critically) or be carried back dead.  The people in your camp may want to go on some expeditions, and doing so improves morale, where as not doing so lowers morale, and vice versa sometimes they do not want to go check out the green glowing meteorite that fell just over the hill, and sending someone will be a morale hit.  things like this can be really bad or really good... and some of the events if left un-investigated will have worse results.  the whole outcome would be given in an after action report, with possible follow-up expedition options.

What the player will see is the notice that a reason for an expedition has came up, will you send someone (or more than one on some missions)?  who? are they ready (make sure they have the equipment, plus a prepared meal for each day it is expected to take, or force them to forage (less chance to survive), or 2 raw food for each day of the mission (something in food cost, you get the point) then launch expedition... the player sees them head for the edge of the map.  once the reasonable time has lapsed, either the members return, or some word is heard (gibbet cage, possibly booby trapped), retaliation from pirates or raiders, perhaps a trader will have word of them, or maybe a cycle or two later they will return, as they got delayed or injured.  Some of these missions the player can decline, others the camp survivors will not give a choice.

Should be fairly easy to script, as most of it will be "Dice rolls" with a case selection of possible outcomes depending on the scenario, would like the skills of the members sent to have an effect on relevant "dice-Rolls", also certain attributes of members sent might cause them to chicken out and return early.  Also weapons can count toward dice-rolls if needed in the expedition.