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The only complaint I have about this is the name limitations on backstories, as I'm not really sure I understand why they even exist. I'm sure it's something like the body types, but I really feel there should be some work-arounds on this. I think the thing that bothers me most is there is no way to tell 100% what the correct name should be for the character other than a first name, and often times that's meaningless without a last name.

Is there any way to at least make the name randomizer only select from names valid to the backstory? I feel like that could vastly alleviate the issue if possible.

I'm having trouble getting this to work... Can't see the button at character creation screen and also my worldmap bugs out...

I'm having a similar problem in that the Prepare Carefully button doesn't appear in my game. Starting the world isn't producing any problems, but again I'd love to be able to change my pawns.

Edit: I think I may have discovered the problem, at least on mine. I discovered that for some reason Alpha 6 and Alpha 7 were sharing the same save data logs, despite all of their folder data being kept separate. After deleting Alpha 6 completely off of my computer, the mod suddenly started working again. Maybe some kind of conflict is caused in the game's coding when older versions are present?

I put in a no roof zone, and a number of areas where I put it show the zone as applied, but the roof is not actually removed. I know that mountain areas can't completely have the roof removed, but it used to be the roof could be removed anywhere you put the zone down. The attached picture shows what I'm talking about.

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Is it intentional that rain starts no matter what after x number of tiles are covered in fire? I want to go clear out areas of all the brush and bodies without all the manual labor, and found that every time after the fifth or sixth molotov went off rain started almost immediately and put out the fires.

I'd love the ability to start a wildfire and let it rage across the landscape away from my base. If the above is true, perhaps change rain to always be a random occurrence?

On/off toggle for lamps so we can save power in areas of our colony that are not in direct use.

That exists, actually for all electrical appliances aside from batteries, conduits, and generators. If you click on the item in question the option to turn the object on/off is presented in the bottom left menu.

Well, that's the point. Most would not, meaning we have a good explanation.

At this point, we're arguing semantics. You can't possibly say definitively most would not. Too many variables when it comes to people and how they behave. Meaning we don't have a good explanation.

We have: "Three people crash landed on an unknown world. Forced to find any means to survive, they establish a colony. They are beset by a number of further misfortunes; raiders, psychotic wildlife, and constant wildfires to name a few. Eventually, they are able to build a means of communication with passing starships, some of which (slave traders) clearly have the ability to pick up and/or drop off people from the surface without the need for the survivors to build a means of getting themselves to space. For some reason, every single colonist has decided they would rather deal with wave after wave of increasingly more dangerous raiders, crop failures, explosive rats, and all sorts of other disastrous events than bargain their way off the planet back to civilized space with ANY of these passing starships by any means other than selling themselves off as slaves. Or, for that matter, even leave a transmission or S.O.S. to go with the traders back to settled space letting ANYONE know there are survivors there."

Hm. I see what happened. For some reason the program I use to unzip files didn't overwrite the old ones like it usually does and saved the new files in a different partition. Will retest things later when I get a chance.

(...) especially if it was armed passengers who could help protect *them* from raiders boarding the ship in the long run.

For all traders know they ARE raiders, murderers and psychopaths

Again, not every trader would think that though. Certainly some would, but not all.

Most people would be willing to make room in their cargo space for enough money, which is easy enough to stockpile in the game.

And how would you know that, you run a deep space trading ship?...keep in mind, this is anywhere between 3 - 12  HEAVILY ARMED strangers, which the ship most likely can't even confirm the identity of. And considering the absolute mess of security risks (the colonists killing the crew off, highjack, contamination from possible diseases(this is an uncharted planet, keep in mind), being tracked by those who have bounties on colonists, ect) The risk could be viewed as nowhere near worth it.

There's no SIGNIFICANT reason why they would just be rescued, this "plot hole" is the same as "well why don't they just talk it out with the rebel fleet" in regards to FTL's ending. Yes, TECHNICALLY it has a point, but its reading far too deep into it. The short answer is, the rebels (or in this case, traders) don't give a damn.

I'm just saying, *someone* would eventually say "money" over "safety concerns", especially if it was armed passengers who could help protect *them* from raiders boarding the ship in the long run. There is no black and white. Stop it.

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As of 0.0.254b I'm finding any events other than raiders increasingly less common than they were before, and raiders are even more likely in the early stages to be flat-out killed as opposed to incapacitated. I'm now reaching an average of five colonists around cycle two or three.

In my current game, I reached five colonists in cycle two and missed an opportunity for a sixth (the character spawned on the far corner of the map, and had already wandered off - still in the same general area - by the time I could get halfway there). Between then and cycle six I have had:

1x eclipse
2x solar flare
6x raider event (4-6 raiders per wave)
3x crop blight
4x mad animals
3x traders (comms station has been built since 3rd cycle)

No wandering civies. Electrical discharges have not been taken into account, as I have not built any batteries in the current save.

Most people would be willing to make room in their cargo space for enough money, which is easy enough to stockpile in the game.

How about a toggle switch for wire tiles? That way players can fill a stack of batteries with energy and then severe their connection to the network without having to sell the wire, and then rebuild it when the reserves are needed.

So, some specific ideas:

-Trader Guilds/Factions: Dealing with specific guilds potentially better offers, special deals, and even perhaps more frequent visits by traders aligned with that faction. Take this one step further if you would like, and give individual companies with unique proficiencies (like a gun trader that specifically sells rifles, or a slave trader that specifically sells scientists).
-Trader contracts. Deal with a trader enough and they may offer a contract for x goods in exchange for y goods periodically.
-Buy orders. One of two ways; pay a security, hope the trader comes back with goods later, complete deposit, OR; if there ends up being a means to achieve this down the road, intimidate trader into paying a security until goods have been received, and paying back the security plus the deposit for the goods. Or any combination thereof, really.

I'll keep adding to the list if people get more ideas.

See, all of these are fantastic ideas! Economics have the potential to add so much depth to a game like this with very little effort, and helps add to the dynamic events of the simulation.

What about the ability to place back-orders with trade ships? It wouldn't be uncommon for a colony to place a shipment request (for the sake of the example) for a large supply of R4 Charge Rifles. Pay up half the deposit now, and the next time the trader comes back they drop off the rifles and pick up the last half of the deposit. Or even something as simple as trade contracts. Make a contract with an npc trader to come by on some specific day each cycle and automatically exchange goods, something like that.

In general, I feel like the whole economic aspect of the game (given that the game is still in alpha) needs greatly expanded upon.