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The player could have colonists craft tools that speed up tasks (drill for mining, saw for construction, etc.). Balanced by having skill determine chance of injury when using, maybe even setting minimum skill requirements to use at all. Faster work at the expense of safety, essentially.

Another use for the art skill: have them put on shows for the colony to give everyone a mood boost. Have some kind of stage they can use to do it.

The more colonists involved and the better their skill, the more complex and interesting the performance is, and the greater the resulting buff for everyone in the audience. They performers could get a buff too depending on how well the show does. Bad performances cause a mood penalty for everyone involved.

What if you could use weapons to make new turrets, like R-4s could be used to make charge turrets, or M-24s to make long-range turrets?

EDIT: Added indentations to break up text wall.   

    If racks could hold clothes, I think this could help streamline the problem of equipping everyone with parkas without implementing the AI-intensive solution of auto-dressing. You assign as many racks to a colonist as you need to hold everything you want them to be able to equip. Everything in their assigned racks shows up under a new category called "Racked"min the "Gear" screen. When you right click things under the "Racked" category, three options come up: "Equip," "Information," and "Stockpile."

     The first causes them to go to the rack containing the item and equip it, replacing and racking what they already have if it's a weapon, for example, the second does what it already does, and the third takes it off the rack and puts it in a stockpile. All equipped items get a "Rack" option, which prompts the colonist to place the item in an empty space on their racks. If there are no empty spaces, the action is cancelled and the player is informed of the lack of space.

     This could help lessen the somewhat tedious process of tracking down an available parka for each colonist and the equally tedious process of putting them all back when you don't need them anymore. Plus, should you need the colonists to change up their loadout to better suit a certain combat situation, you need only go to the gear screen and pick out what you want them to use!

[Combat Traits:]

These are just some traits I thought could be interesting to implement. The names need work; a lot of them are synonyms. A lot of them are taken from the list in Alpha 5; I just added effects to them I thought might be interesting. I'll add more as I think of them.

Combat Traits:

Agile/Lumbering: Increased melee attack speed but reduced damage and effectiveness against armor/Decreased melee attack speed but increased damage and effectiveness against armor

Brutal Fighter/Humane Fighter: Decreased/increased chance that attacks will incapacitate rather than kill

Goes Berserk: After sustaining sufficient injuries, this person flies into a rage, greatly increasing damage, movement speed, attack speed, and damage resistance. This lasts until no enemies remain within a certain radius. When the rage subsides, this person is incapacitated and, upon waking, gets the "torpor" mood penalty for 3 days.

Great/Good/Bad/Awful Reflexes: Big bonus/Bonus/Penalty/Big Penalty to dodge chance in melee

Heavy Hitter/Pitiful Puncher: Increased/decreased melee stun chance

Resilient/Delicate: Heals twice as/half as fast

Tactical Sense/Tactically Inept: Increases/reduces effectiveness of cover

Tough/Fragile: Bonus/penalty to hit points

Social Traits:

Language Talent: Each attempt to recruit a tribal prisoner gets less difficult; conversations with this person are more effective for people with tribal backgrounds

Egotistical: Conversations have triple the positive mood effect for this person, but result in a penalty for anyone who talks to them

Chauvinistic: Conversations with the opposite sex result in a mood penalty for both people.

Environment traits:

Afraid of the dark/loves the dark: Increased mood penalty/mood bonus for being in darkness

Agoraphobic/Claustrophobic: Spacious environment gives penalty/increased bonus, while cramped environment gives bonus/increased penalty

Animal Lover: Sight of dead animals gives a mood penalty, sight of live animals gives a mood bonus. Hunting or even killing enraged animals gives a severe mood penalty.

Colorblind: Colored lights and carpets have no effect on mood

Fear of Loud Noise: Thunderstorms and explosions cause mood penalties

Messy/Neat Freak: Messiness and cleanliness have no/increased effect on mood

Outdoorsy/Indoorsy: Mood bonus/penalty for being outside. Doesn't mind/hates sleeping outside. Mood penalty/bonus for being indoors.

Pyromaniac: Mood bonus when near fire or when wielding incendiary weapons; will occasionally start small fires

Food-related Traits:

Gourmet/Universal digestion: Increased mood penalty for raw food and nutrient paste, mood penalty for simple meals, fine meals have no effect. Lavish meals, however, give an increased bonus/No mood effect from any type of food

Vegetarian/Carnivore: Will only eat meals made from plants unless no other food is available; gets a mood penalty from eating meat or meals made from meat/Will only eat meals made from meat unless no other food is available; gets a mood penalty from eating plants or meals made from plants

Work-Related Traits:

Strong Back/Bad Back: Hauls items at increased/reduced speed

Movement-related traits:

Good/bad stamina: Reduces/increases movement penalties associated with armor

Nimble/Clumsy: Moves over debris at reduced/increased speed penalty

Misc. Traits

Artificial Arms/Legs/Etc.: Any task performed with the artificial parts gets a bonus, but healing injuries to the artificial parts costs metal

Changing Personality: Passions for tasks randomize every few days

Emotional/Apathetic: All mood bonuses and penalties are intensified/reduced

Nocturnal: Sleeps during the day and works at night

Noisy: Wakes people up as he/she passes them.

Oracular Visions: Warns of incoming attacks days before they happen. Psychic phenomena put this person into a coma until they pass.

Pious: Goes to bed one hour before everyone else; spends this hour praying, resulting in a mood bonus.

Spits On Floor: Spit puddles will intermittently appear underneath this person, reducing the pleasantness of the surrounding environment until cleaned

Split Personality: Has two childhood and adult backstories, two sets of passions, and two sets of traits (both of which have "split personality" as one of them); switches between the two every few days.

Tuneless Humming: Everyone within a certain radius of this person occasionally gets a mood penalty

Weather Predictor: Messages forecasting the next day's weather appear

Vicious/Gentle: Mental break always/never results in a rampage

I've seen the training suggestion pop up a couple of times, and I think an interesting way to balance it would be to accompany the training with some sort of penalty. For example, to train people in shooting, build shooting ranges, but have the targets cost wood to build and break after overuse, meaning that maintaining a well-trained army would take a lot of resources.

With melee, you could set up a sparring chamber and have the loser become incapacitated, or have just have the training cost actual hit points, forcing them to heal after, meaning that constantly training your people would leave you vulnerable if you got raided mid-session.

For other skills, what if there was a teaching system where someone ranked "Master" or higher in a skill could impart their knowledge to others by building a classroom (or maybe having specialized equipment for teaching each skill, all of which would be grouped into an "educational" building category), but only up to two-thirds their skill level (or some other threshold; just an arbitrary limit I selected)? Depending on how hopelessly inept the student is at the beginning, there could be a chance that the educational equipment could break, meaning that training could be potentially costly.