Long topic title I know.
And a good chance it's been done before but if it has been done before it's been a while and fresh thoughts in a fresh topic can never hurt too much.
I've noticed a trend throughout the forums where there is a degree of cognitive dissonance with regards the game's objective. I will also admit that I am one of these people.
So without any more preamble let me jump to the (potentially human) meat of the matter.
The basic premise of the game is that we control (or guide) survivors who have crash landed on a planet and are seeking a method to escape from said planet. To this end our goals should be to survive long enough to send off a ship.
That is the de jure premise.
The de facto situation is that the vast majority of us (if not all of us) play this as a colony building game. This is exemplified that we refer to 'colonists' rather than 'survivors'. We are building a colony and for the most part we might not have any desire to build a ship and get off planet.
I know that I have only built the space ship once in my hundreds of hours of play and that was only to see what it was like and I was left underwhelmed. The joy of this game is building a sustainable colony. Building all of that up and then leaving it behind seems anti-climactic and almost counter intuitive.
There are also many posts and threads regarding alternate endings. Taking control of the planet, becoming the dominant faction, building trade ships instead of an escape shuttle. That sort of thing.
So after stating my thoughts and observations let me now lay down some guidance for what I think should be discussed or posted below. Mostly just posted mind you. I don't see a problem that needs to be solved so much as observations on how we play and whether the game is in fact tailored towards it.
1) How do you play the game? As a colony sim or survival/escape sim.
2) Have you built an escape ship and did you feel it was an accomplishment?
3) Do you refer colonists or survivors? (I know some people call them other things but of the two which would you use as a generic term for the people who come out of your escape pods)
4) Throw out any other thoughts and observations here.
And a good chance it's been done before but if it has been done before it's been a while and fresh thoughts in a fresh topic can never hurt too much.
I've noticed a trend throughout the forums where there is a degree of cognitive dissonance with regards the game's objective. I will also admit that I am one of these people.
So without any more preamble let me jump to the (potentially human) meat of the matter.
The basic premise of the game is that we control (or guide) survivors who have crash landed on a planet and are seeking a method to escape from said planet. To this end our goals should be to survive long enough to send off a ship.
That is the de jure premise.
The de facto situation is that the vast majority of us (if not all of us) play this as a colony building game. This is exemplified that we refer to 'colonists' rather than 'survivors'. We are building a colony and for the most part we might not have any desire to build a ship and get off planet.
I know that I have only built the space ship once in my hundreds of hours of play and that was only to see what it was like and I was left underwhelmed. The joy of this game is building a sustainable colony. Building all of that up and then leaving it behind seems anti-climactic and almost counter intuitive.
There are also many posts and threads regarding alternate endings. Taking control of the planet, becoming the dominant faction, building trade ships instead of an escape shuttle. That sort of thing.
So after stating my thoughts and observations let me now lay down some guidance for what I think should be discussed or posted below. Mostly just posted mind you. I don't see a problem that needs to be solved so much as observations on how we play and whether the game is in fact tailored towards it.
1) How do you play the game? As a colony sim or survival/escape sim.
2) Have you built an escape ship and did you feel it was an accomplishment?
3) Do you refer colonists or survivors? (I know some people call them other things but of the two which would you use as a generic term for the people who come out of your escape pods)
4) Throw out any other thoughts and observations here.