Yes, groan at the newbie making their first post about suggestions 
I have read through 10 pages of the 12 "Cheap Ideas" and checked through the topics every page of the Suggestions forum... and I hope that I am not treading on the toes/fingers of anyone else's ideas (except one, which I think could be fleshed out and might not be suited to the cheap ideas thread it is in).
Portable lighting: Flashlights, lamps, flares.
Flashlights should provide the nice cone of light in front of the user with the ability for the character to turn them off/on at will and have a limited though rechargeable energy source. Upgrades could be access via research such as brighter beams, wider/longer beams and/or extended battery life.
Lamps, a bit of a throwback to the mining lamps of yesteryear. A circular light pattern emanating from the user, long lasting and possibly more cost efficient than a flashlight.
Flares... good to illuminate specific areas of the map that you want to see without having to send a colonist to walk over to that spot and stand there until it's light.
In theory, I guess a flashlight could be better for wardens/sentries/patrols that require the ability to see longer distances in the night to watch out for threats or potential positives for the colony. A lamp could be placed down by the side of a colonist whilst they're fixing/repairing/maintaining a wall/power conduit or simply excavating parts of a hill. Flares would be used as a cheap lighting source when you're not really flushed with enough cash or technologically advanced enough for other high illumination items or you want to throw down an area of light to spot night raiders without using a source of light (flashlight or lamp) to reveal your location. My idea here being that if raiders drop in at night and want a piece of your colony then having 5 people behind a wall, all shining torchlights at them or carrying lamps would just make them an easier target and provide no ambush value. Laying down a few flares 10-20 metres in front of said wall would give less of an ambush advantage but might allow for a more appropriate tactical response (shooting the raider with the big gun first or dropping a grenade in a spot to cause multiple injuries/deaths).
So,
Flashlights: rechargeable light source that provides slight bonuses for patrolling/sentry/warden/search party duties in the dark but likely to make colonists easier targets for raiders at night.
Lamps: rechargeable light source that provides slight bonuses to repairs/maintenance/mining in the dark but likely to make colonists easier targets for raiders at night.
Flares: Cheap, one time use items ideal for keeping areas temporarily illuminated when you cannot afford to have a colonist illuminate it for you or buy a static illumination device, or wish to ambush enemies at night.
Encumberance levels
A Rookie soldier might be slowed down and hampered by attempting to move with a rifle or machine gun, slowing them down a bit or tiring them out more quickly. A bureaucrat whom is more adept at firing personnel than firing a rifle would likely to struggle more with the same gun as the Rookie and tire out faster/be even slower, whereas a Veteran might be able to use either weapon effectively, efficiently and not have it affect them in any way at all.
Slightly akin to different travel speeds over different terrains, an untrained repair worker trying to fix a solar panel would not only be slower at the repair job than someone well trained, but would likely tire out faster, not enjoy doing it so much (slowing down their walking if they need spares or procrastinating a bit) and possibly affect them negatively by way of additional stress.
It boils down to Trained workers are better than Untrained workers in their specific fields but being forced into doing something/using something that they're very uncomfortable with could further negatively affect performance and even affect a colonist's mental state.
Slave Traders (like Trader/Raider events)
You're in space, you encounter the good, the bad and the shades of grey (no, I am not referencing a book, nor am I suggesting anything associated with or contained within such a book). Slave Traders are "bad". We may agree that slavery is wrong but it might be acceptable in some alien cultures and Slavers could appear in Rim World in several ways.
Friendly Slave Traders: They'll visit, offer to buy colonists off you for money (lose colonist of your choosing, gain money, make colonists unhappy on a moral note/fearful of being sold) or they might offer to sell you slaves for money. I would suggest that they have their own personalities like Slave (full on slave, will do as they are told), Resistant (do everything begrudgingly) or Rebellious (will attack people/sabotage things) but much like prisoners, they can be treat like normal colonists and eventually become members of your society. Positive effects on your colonists might come from setting the slave free or incorporating them into your society or negative effects might be caused by keeping a slave as a slave or punishing them if they're disobedient.
These would be more akin to merchants dealing in grey market areas, buying slaves and selling them to the highest bidder.
Unfriendly Slave Traders: These are likely to demand that you hand over a colonist to become a slave otherwise they'll raid you. Giving into the slaver will cost you a selected/random colonist and cause other negative effects on your colonists based upon morale. Refusing their demands could lead to something akin to a raider strike, maybe weaker, maybe more powerful, or maybe just more numerous (just being typical pirates or being trained or simply using slaves as cannon fodder in amongst their ranks, respectively). Afterwards there could be some sort of resolution such as losing a colonist to death/slavers capture them and fly off, slavers are pushed back and fly off or possibly some sort of slave rebellion where they overthrow their masters and fly away of their own accord, offering you some tech/items/money from their previous slaver leaders or maybe even join you in part. Another potential possibility here is some sort of scenario where the ship blows up or crash lands near your facility, which you could then mine/harvest/scavenge for minerals/materials/scrap or it could provide you with an interesting power source or simply emit radiation which is harmful but localised and could harm outside crops/animals/soil quality to a small/medium area.
This kind of slave trader would be more akin to a violent pirate gang, whom use intimidation and violence to earn their slaves and make money through selling them.
Anti-ship/pod weapons
Anti-ship weapons might be going above and beyond what the game will come to in the end but it's a theory worth mentioning. You're going to encounter hostile ships and if they're going to drop pods on your head and pillage your colony then you might wish to take the initiative and blast their ship into micro-molecular pieces or scare them off with a well placed volley, showing that you are not without a means to defend yourself... or you might be a mean so-and-so and use these anti-ship weapons to run your own little band of naughties by shooting down traders and stuff until they give you items or explode in a ball of flame and drop salvageable loots.
Anti-pod weapons: You're vulnerable to a ground assault being launched from orbit/low orbit/the upper atmosphere. Even the odds by shooting the pods? Even if you don't destroy any, you might damage them and kill or injure the occupant, or force them to scatter or go off course, allowing you more time to protect the civilians, arm the soldiers and prepare your defensive lines.
These last two ideas are probably mid-end game stuff and less important possible features than other things but they do sound pretty cool to me
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read any/all/none of my first post here at Rim World and I hope that I have presented my wall of text in a suitably readable way, providing nice background and some new ideas that could fit into the whole structure of Rim World over the course of it's development.
Feel free to comment/criticise/expand on what I've wrote and beware, fire extinguishers were the first thing I researched when I joined this forum so if you want to flame, you'll just end up getting wet.
I have read through 10 pages of the 12 "Cheap Ideas" and checked through the topics every page of the Suggestions forum... and I hope that I am not treading on the toes/fingers of anyone else's ideas (except one, which I think could be fleshed out and might not be suited to the cheap ideas thread it is in).Portable lighting: Flashlights, lamps, flares.
Flashlights should provide the nice cone of light in front of the user with the ability for the character to turn them off/on at will and have a limited though rechargeable energy source. Upgrades could be access via research such as brighter beams, wider/longer beams and/or extended battery life.
Lamps, a bit of a throwback to the mining lamps of yesteryear. A circular light pattern emanating from the user, long lasting and possibly more cost efficient than a flashlight.
Flares... good to illuminate specific areas of the map that you want to see without having to send a colonist to walk over to that spot and stand there until it's light.
In theory, I guess a flashlight could be better for wardens/sentries/patrols that require the ability to see longer distances in the night to watch out for threats or potential positives for the colony. A lamp could be placed down by the side of a colonist whilst they're fixing/repairing/maintaining a wall/power conduit or simply excavating parts of a hill. Flares would be used as a cheap lighting source when you're not really flushed with enough cash or technologically advanced enough for other high illumination items or you want to throw down an area of light to spot night raiders without using a source of light (flashlight or lamp) to reveal your location. My idea here being that if raiders drop in at night and want a piece of your colony then having 5 people behind a wall, all shining torchlights at them or carrying lamps would just make them an easier target and provide no ambush value. Laying down a few flares 10-20 metres in front of said wall would give less of an ambush advantage but might allow for a more appropriate tactical response (shooting the raider with the big gun first or dropping a grenade in a spot to cause multiple injuries/deaths).
So,
Flashlights: rechargeable light source that provides slight bonuses for patrolling/sentry/warden/search party duties in the dark but likely to make colonists easier targets for raiders at night.
Lamps: rechargeable light source that provides slight bonuses to repairs/maintenance/mining in the dark but likely to make colonists easier targets for raiders at night.
Flares: Cheap, one time use items ideal for keeping areas temporarily illuminated when you cannot afford to have a colonist illuminate it for you or buy a static illumination device, or wish to ambush enemies at night.
Encumberance levels
A Rookie soldier might be slowed down and hampered by attempting to move with a rifle or machine gun, slowing them down a bit or tiring them out more quickly. A bureaucrat whom is more adept at firing personnel than firing a rifle would likely to struggle more with the same gun as the Rookie and tire out faster/be even slower, whereas a Veteran might be able to use either weapon effectively, efficiently and not have it affect them in any way at all.
Slightly akin to different travel speeds over different terrains, an untrained repair worker trying to fix a solar panel would not only be slower at the repair job than someone well trained, but would likely tire out faster, not enjoy doing it so much (slowing down their walking if they need spares or procrastinating a bit) and possibly affect them negatively by way of additional stress.
It boils down to Trained workers are better than Untrained workers in their specific fields but being forced into doing something/using something that they're very uncomfortable with could further negatively affect performance and even affect a colonist's mental state.
Slave Traders (like Trader/Raider events)
You're in space, you encounter the good, the bad and the shades of grey (no, I am not referencing a book, nor am I suggesting anything associated with or contained within such a book). Slave Traders are "bad". We may agree that slavery is wrong but it might be acceptable in some alien cultures and Slavers could appear in Rim World in several ways.
Friendly Slave Traders: They'll visit, offer to buy colonists off you for money (lose colonist of your choosing, gain money, make colonists unhappy on a moral note/fearful of being sold) or they might offer to sell you slaves for money. I would suggest that they have their own personalities like Slave (full on slave, will do as they are told), Resistant (do everything begrudgingly) or Rebellious (will attack people/sabotage things) but much like prisoners, they can be treat like normal colonists and eventually become members of your society. Positive effects on your colonists might come from setting the slave free or incorporating them into your society or negative effects might be caused by keeping a slave as a slave or punishing them if they're disobedient.
These would be more akin to merchants dealing in grey market areas, buying slaves and selling them to the highest bidder.
Unfriendly Slave Traders: These are likely to demand that you hand over a colonist to become a slave otherwise they'll raid you. Giving into the slaver will cost you a selected/random colonist and cause other negative effects on your colonists based upon morale. Refusing their demands could lead to something akin to a raider strike, maybe weaker, maybe more powerful, or maybe just more numerous (just being typical pirates or being trained or simply using slaves as cannon fodder in amongst their ranks, respectively). Afterwards there could be some sort of resolution such as losing a colonist to death/slavers capture them and fly off, slavers are pushed back and fly off or possibly some sort of slave rebellion where they overthrow their masters and fly away of their own accord, offering you some tech/items/money from their previous slaver leaders or maybe even join you in part. Another potential possibility here is some sort of scenario where the ship blows up or crash lands near your facility, which you could then mine/harvest/scavenge for minerals/materials/scrap or it could provide you with an interesting power source or simply emit radiation which is harmful but localised and could harm outside crops/animals/soil quality to a small/medium area.
This kind of slave trader would be more akin to a violent pirate gang, whom use intimidation and violence to earn their slaves and make money through selling them.
Anti-ship/pod weapons
Anti-ship weapons might be going above and beyond what the game will come to in the end but it's a theory worth mentioning. You're going to encounter hostile ships and if they're going to drop pods on your head and pillage your colony then you might wish to take the initiative and blast their ship into micro-molecular pieces or scare them off with a well placed volley, showing that you are not without a means to defend yourself... or you might be a mean so-and-so and use these anti-ship weapons to run your own little band of naughties by shooting down traders and stuff until they give you items or explode in a ball of flame and drop salvageable loots.
Anti-pod weapons: You're vulnerable to a ground assault being launched from orbit/low orbit/the upper atmosphere. Even the odds by shooting the pods? Even if you don't destroy any, you might damage them and kill or injure the occupant, or force them to scatter or go off course, allowing you more time to protect the civilians, arm the soldiers and prepare your defensive lines.
These last two ideas are probably mid-end game stuff and less important possible features than other things but they do sound pretty cool to me
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read any/all/none of my first post here at Rim World and I hope that I have presented my wall of text in a suitably readable way, providing nice background and some new ideas that could fit into the whole structure of Rim World over the course of it's development.
Feel free to comment/criticise/expand on what I've wrote and beware, fire extinguishers were the first thing I researched when I joined this forum so if you want to flame, you'll just end up getting wet.