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The problem with increasing the map size, it's that it takes more time for colonists to fully cross it. More time means more risks of starving and sleep deprivation, and the game would need more life-sustain buildings or items than he has now, or even vehicles, which are not trivial. Beyond the simple performance problem, it's a whole balancing issue to increase the size of the map.

One way to counter this would be to add some sort of backpack, like colonist could have these accessories like tools belts, backpacks for long travels, tactical vests (if ammo was implemented for weapons (maybe just high end stuff) and what else you could think of.

It would give you more micro management but could give you, first of all the option to traverse a larger map (backpack), but secondly to specialize colonists for jobs such as construction, mining, security/guards etc.

I know they already have specialization but some colonists, like the settlers, are more like a blank slate the way I see it so you could use these accessories (or whatever you think sounds better) to specialize them with.

Also I think vehicles would ruin the game a bit, I know they got some higher tech stuff but still sort seems to ruin it all, dunno just my thoughts.