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Thinking about it :
"STORYTELLING"
A colonist sit at table with other and tell them story.

Cassandra Classic joined your colony

Is there going to be any incentive to build a diversity of fun stations? Otherwise I can see players building a minimum of the cheapest stations to keep their colonists happy.

I don't think we need such incentive... most of us will do so anyway and the freedom would allow us to imagine make up our story rather than following needs.

[@Kegereneku:]

After reading all post, the question seem to be "What kind of context/backstory allow us to justify as many case as possible ?"
On the matter what I gathered from Rimworld's lore sound to me extremely suited for many many kind of story (within what we accept for science-fiction of course).

@Kegereneku: How is having trade ships around more probable in a shipwrecked scenario?

That's the aspect that I found to be more probable, that would work better with the lore, if the colonists were actual space pioneers. Your argument is even harsher with a shipwreck on a rim world, since nobody will know to check in the first place.

Thing is, we have a whole sliding scale of realism from soft to hard SF to work with. So you have to invent the logic that lead to what you want sounding plausible. The pioneer-colonist for example is ...childish for HARD science-fiction but acceptable for softer SF, same for space-trading.
If I'm allowed to reformulate the lore I can make pioneer just as likely as unlikely.

In one logic, a ship can get wrecked here because there was a traffic* in the first place. Goods trading is indeed unlikely over such distance but still possible if the destination is incapable of producing the goods. So it isn't so much 'middle of nowhere' than 'on the way'.

*SCIENCE (see next quote) can justify ship halting by system-planet on their way fairly easily. But explaining why there is a continuous traffic is harder.

In another logic, the would-be pioneer colonist crashed on arrival.
But this time it ask for goods trader to voluntarily come to a 'middle of nowhere' which bring us back to how to justify their existence.
Note that 'volunteer pioneer colonist' negate a lot of the mystery and flexibility in term of storytelling. Imagine the TV series "Lost" if the crash survivors were stated to be peoples who wanted to live on an desert island.

This is why many suggested to replace (interstellar)trade-ship by local caravan.
Those caravan would be like us 'incapable of cheaply producing said good', the goods could come entirely from scavenging & other pods crash. From there, normal trading paradigm apply.

Said 'caravan of scavenger' are compatible with both shipwrecked/pioneer context, but -to me- more probable with the shipwrecked one because it have more parameter to play with.

This doesn't seem very practical given how long it takes to travel from one place to the next in space. Passing over inhabitable planets/systems in favor of much further ones doesn't make any sense, so there shouldn't be any.

If you're going to say it wasn't passed up, but that an entire civilization just "disappeared", then I ask why it hasn't been re-inhabited yet.

I can give possibility...
1) Spaceship reliability, if a spaceship can fail over 20light-year of travel, you better stop every 10 light-years at known inhabitable point to check it and 'reset/lessen' the risk, rather than dying mid-space.
2) Few people could have both reasons and the means to truly Colonize a planet, and as said earlier the lack of FTL and over 10y travel time ask for it to be independent.

A government could recolonize/exploit a system. But do they need to ? Humanity won't die because there's already other colony, Extracting resources so far might not be profitable, it would be costly to recolonize, require lot of colonist and ultimately said colony would become independent.
Way smaller group of privater could want to to found a new world but lack the means (technology/science/manpower/education) to do more than a primitive settlement.
This explaining nicely a crazy range of factions on Rimworld.

Lastly, it might be hardly conceivable for a technologically advanced civilization to just "disappear" but in the realm of SF you can shape everything to make the improbable into facts.
That mystery is a fertile soil for us to imagine.

Myself I wouldn't imagine it any other way than a 'trait' or background.

I disagree that it wouldn't bring anything good to the game, after raider you could have cultist attacking you... or defending you, all the while being neutral, not forced down your throat.
In my mind the game-logic associated doesn't need to be complex, it would work the same than other trait and use already existing mechanic.

Though Experiment :
You have a spiritual 'trait', affected colonist react to event linked to it (like psychic) with a mood-buff/debuff.
Using craft/art you can decide to build specific idol... or not. It barely affect things.
Praying... is made a 'fun'-type activity, it doesn't require more code.
Faction could be religious, and abandoned temple appear on the map. Once we get a minimum of diplomacy between faction exchange like 'built X and we will like you' shouldn't be hard.
If you want nothing to do with religion... then a 'spiritual' afflicted colonist just can't pray, live with a debuff or go insane and get killed, cultist might crusade but they replace raider so nothing changed.
And in the end it still make a story.

Now of course what I wouldn't want is a spirituality bar to fill for everyone as if they all had to care, there would lie madness.

What you mean is making the "colonist AI" smarter rather than needing us to micromanage, right ?

I would get behind that too, we aren't supposed to micro-manage, only macro-manage.
But the less lever you give the player to "correct" thing, the more likely I see a AI behave unexpectedly requiring direct order -> micro-management.
Whereas enough sub-task allow to avoid those on the long therm.

Rewording the overview (maybe to match 'Menial/intellectual/violent work' ?) seem to be necessary, but if made correctly a great number of task wouldn't pose problem as they aren't meant to be changed often (I never utilized manual priority setting).

In my mind, normal storyteller are meant for time-limited* game and push you toward an ENDING, even if only two exist right now (Spaceship or Death)
However raid being constant, predictable in process and increasing difficulty don't make a good story. This is what make Rimworld still an ALPHA.
From how Tynan sold the project to me, the game will in the end generate event in a way that can form narrative, hopefully logical yet not predictable.

*of course, another Storyteller could be made for endless playtime.

I preferred calling it "joy".
"Joy" is less likely to be misinterpreted on the forum than "fun". I find it more serious too.

But I don't really mind.

[neutral]

I would see religion as a neutral game-mechanic that you decide or not to make important the same way you have the choice to build the spaceship or not.

It's okay to me to have a token believer colonist might with a slight debuff if you don't cater their need, however it wouldn't change much except event in the same way psychically sensitive people react.

On the other hand, since Rimworld is a game where your construction's choices tread the story in a direction, building/crafting the structure/idol would amplify/create its effect, potentially leading to some end.

Aside : it would obviously be fictional religions.

We must be careful to not turn the health mechanic into a whole Mad Doctor game with human centipede exploit.
Kidney/heart transplant without a need to freeze the organ is bad enough.

As is colonist getting their limb cut/shoot off so easily (even if I should be happy they didn't die).

(sigh) yes, yes, be assured someone did.

Anyone who played age of empires 2 remembers the town center bell, best feature ever.

Gotta admit it was useful...
But Rimworld isn't a game about army doing army thing. Combat should even be a very rare event considering its gameplay.

As in the other thread I propose you the following :
- A Guard toggle, variation of the Draft toggle. Once pressed your colonist only leave their post to eat or sleep. Or alternatively, do other task but come back to "position" when they should be 'idling'.

thing is...Alpha10 will have a 'Fun' bar, colonist wandering to keep themselves happy, This would have to be OFF when in this mode.

For the rest... some people have suggested that during attack colonist don't wander away from the home region. Myself I just don't give them reason to do so in the first place, I check what I asked them to carry.

I don't think it is necessary or fit with Rimworld's gameplay.
Rimworld isn't shaped for "army" or large settlement where you can afford to have people doing nothing, and I wouldn't want stealth event where raider attack/kidnap by surprise. It would only be a recipe for rage-powered save reloading.

In short I don't want the implied feature that would require me to have a guard full-time.

But at worse it doesn't need to be a task or and order.
Ask for a variation of the "Drafted" toggle where a guard only move from the position you put him in to eat or sleep.
I imagine that going a lot smoother with the game mechanic than a 'task' or an 'order'.

From my point of view we already get more than enough legs/arms shoot off and I don't want more.
A colony of mine in Alpha8 had 5 cyborg over 10 colonists + new organ, only once did I took a weak excuse to "upgrade" a colonist, everyone else got their leg/arm/lung/liver stabbed/shoot of by raider.

That time I also had a lot of money to spend on that, but looking at Alpha9, I hope in Alpha10 I'll be able to afford a pegs leg.

However I don't feel a need for more opportunity or reasons to go cyborg. The stats increase is interesting enough.

I'm not interested by the first suggestion .

The main interest of Rimworld, the thing that to me make it different from other game, is the lack of micro-management as well as the lack of what I would call 'clockwork gameplay' where everything happen because it have been scripted to do so and deviation from normal is inefficient or a problem to solve.

In fact this isn't a "lack" of micromanagement, this is a feature. It give the ability to timewarp entire weeks/month without requiring to tell the colonist at which hour they must sleep/eat to survive.
Thus Generating month of actual playtime/entropy without the monotony/predictability.

However a 'clean all' global priority could be interesting.

From what I gathered of various source and the wiki, Rimworld is a mix of the typical far-west pioneer and a "dark age" setting after galactic decline.

There's valid reasons (SF speaking) for planet being terraformed then abandoned.
- Maybe the terraforming process was automated (mechanoid) and the few true colonist who emigrated there couldn't build a true civilization, the next generation devolving into tribes from lack of education.
- Maybe they abandoned the colonization effort when a war started on the homeworld
- Maybe they didn't needed the new planet anymore, the Glitterworld being so damn cool it doesn't need to expand (especially for resources)

Still, I think the lore would work better if our colonists were actual space pioneers rather than shipwrecked space travelers. Why else would they be all the way out in the middle of nowhere, anyway? If the Rimworld is in between two more heavily populated areas, can you really say it's in the middle of nowhere?

To me the pioneer case is actually the less credible possibility.
It's all in the number.
At speed slower than light, even at 50% of the speed of light (which is quite awesome) over close 20 light-year distance you would take 40 years.
And if inhabitable planet are 100 light-years apart, that's 200 years of travel, more than an human generation. Adding non-FTL communication (laser taking years to travel, just one way) you'd have to know if you can send colonist OR send send a self-sustaining population at once as if nobody else would follow OR... send robot to colonize the planet.

Two solar system 100Ly apart are basically more separated than China was from America before it was 'discovered'.
Imagine : event at short 20ly distance : 40y of colonist travel, 10y to 'prepare the planet', 20years for light to tell the first-world that it is viable...
And once you know you already have hundred of apparently sufficient colony, "preserving human civilization" is not a reason anymore.

But with Rimworld's lore right now it can be a lot of thing. Tynan choose well.

One could go from an Industrial World to a Glitterworld hoping for better comfort (immortality..etc)
One could go from Glitterworld to Industrial world thinking that with their knowledge they can accomplish great thing and become "founding father"
One could be a Pioneer sent to what was to be a new colony ... that actually collapsed 50years ago before their arrival
One could be a political exile going to a planet they think more suited to them
One could also be fleeing a Mechanoid invasion on their home planet and get stranded on planet where the mechanoid had scout
Or one know there's "other colony" and hope to find one where every land/asteroid haven't been bought already.

In all case the 'shipwrecked' tropes justify there not being 1000 pioneers landing at once with all survival equipment.
All this supposing that we don't live and travel in space-colony anyway

Yeah, we should really be able to repair those.
And considering we have the ability to make high tech equipment, it shouldn't be that hard to be able to actually make the gun ourselves.
Weapons like the AK-47 are popular precisely because they can be built with little equipment.
Even power armor should be repairable.
Energy shield... maybe not.