Perhaps it could be interesting if your colonists each had a personal desire / ambition for the colony. One that could change over time depending on what happened.
Examples might be:
1: Build a spaceship and leave
2: Build a successful colony
3: Join the pirate faction
Your first 3 colonists would all start with number 1. They've just crashed, their desire would be to try and leave. That then is a long term goal you could try for (assuming you want to reach an end-game) or ignore.
As time goes on, if your colonists start having children etc, spending more time in the colony, some of them might want to stay. So their ambition changes to 2: build a successful colony (by meeting certain criteria like population, food in storage, happiness etc).
The idea here is that no matter which you decide to aim for, some members of your colony will probably desire something else. You then get to make a choice on what to strive for.
So even if 9 out of 10 of your colonists desire to leave on a ship, some will want to stay -- that stubborn merc who has nothing to go back to but whom everyone respected decides to stay behind on his own... etc.
So every 'victory' could be a little bitter sweet. I like the idea that even in finishing up a game, I can still imagine the narratives of those who didn't get what they wanted. That even though my game has finished, the narratives of that universe still continue on a little in my head.
Examples might be:
1: Build a spaceship and leave
2: Build a successful colony
3: Join the pirate faction
Your first 3 colonists would all start with number 1. They've just crashed, their desire would be to try and leave. That then is a long term goal you could try for (assuming you want to reach an end-game) or ignore.
As time goes on, if your colonists start having children etc, spending more time in the colony, some of them might want to stay. So their ambition changes to 2: build a successful colony (by meeting certain criteria like population, food in storage, happiness etc).
The idea here is that no matter which you decide to aim for, some members of your colony will probably desire something else. You then get to make a choice on what to strive for.
So even if 9 out of 10 of your colonists desire to leave on a ship, some will want to stay -- that stubborn merc who has nothing to go back to but whom everyone respected decides to stay behind on his own... etc.
So every 'victory' could be a little bitter sweet. I like the idea that even in finishing up a game, I can still imagine the narratives of those who didn't get what they wanted. That even though my game has finished, the narratives of that universe still continue on a little in my head.