A Cool Purpose for Multiple Colonies

[AndrewArt]

     An amazing idea just popped in my mind. I was thinking of multiple colonies and how it can be quite impossible to manage more since there are events occurring in all of them like it's a different game for every colony.. it's tiresome and not very practical.
  So how about this idea? Having a "Main colony" and secondary ones? I'd name them branch-colonies. Maybe the secondary ones can have incidents and events halved or there can be only raids - things that an AI can take care of basically. Such colonies would act as an AI base where they farm for food and defend like an AI would if you don't take control of the defense, which you would have the ability to do (otherwise there are more chances that the colony would be conquered/ destroyed. Also implement a system where people die and new people join that colony as well, so it is forever changing and growing like your own!). So, if you do not take control of the colony when it is attacked and you/ or the AI doesn't successfully defend it or you don't manage the food supply/ happiness or more of the colony, that colony can be destroyed/conquered/or maybe even gone rebel - like a neutral faction type of thingy. This can also lead to being able to truly conquer settlements and reconquer your lost settlements basically. And the more settlements you have also the more difficult it is to maintain them, as more attacks and such. You can also send in reinforcements to other colonies (who needs multiplayer, eh?).

   So basically, I'm not 100% sure how everything should be implemented, but my basic idea would be the other colonies to be on some sort of auto-management routine of your choosing where we have semi-control over the colony (like the option of defending against attacks, also somehow managing the production of weaponry/ food/ construction/ clothes etc in a different and unique kind of way -> more management-like, less rimworldish - so maybe that colony could have its own research tree and start from tribal or advanced depending on your starting research, and you can choose what to be researched and it will be ticking slowly (depending again on neolithical/advanced and the research being researched). And you can't see buildings of production and stuff on the defending map as it will be as an AI base, maybe semi-randomly generated like all the others, but consistent in a way and also somehow changing (keeping it simple, full-on realism isn't really necessary, but it can be if you want in the future). And there can be a tab of that colonies resources and of buildings available and of what you can produce through these buildings and materials that you have = clothes, weaponry etc, and you can also maybe exchange goods/ trade from your main colony with your own other semi-independent colonies).

[Edit: Now that I think about it, maybe don't give us the option to defend against attacks. Just let them be AI, and you can send in reinforcements of your own that you can control on that map. Makes it more simple and also hilarious, it can make for some really nice scenarios and stories. You can get a notification and see on the map that a colony is under siege, with a specific red icon of course!]
 
  Basically what I'm saying is, I see this as a really really awesome idea, and I hope more do. For me it would be like a colony rpg type of thingy, I would just love to see the bars of things getting done like research, production, etc. It's simple, yet it could be so interesting and beautiful (I just imagine unique colors for the research being done, the production of different type of things..). In my eyes it just adds more to RimWorld, and it's a really effective and cool way of using the experimental multiple colonies thingy! This game can be the best management game ever and also.. the best management game ever! So, I hope you will see this idea as I see it, as it really intrigues me and it came to me just about now, and I kept building on it on the spot and just brainstorming away.. This can finally be a purpose for the other colonies and it can change the game in an amazing way. It can make RimWorld also a different type of colony management like a strategy game, without really changing the core. It sounds so cool I would absolutely love it to bits, but my opinion is not the absolute here so.. what are your opinions on this quickly-made-up idea that I wanted to share?

[AgentBlac1]

I dig everything about this idea. Every part. I personally love the multi-colony style of play and this idea would indeed give the game potentially many more laughs, from taking some of the secondary colony defense out of the player's hands, and a lot more to the "let's focus on what we can do ON the planet" narrative.

My only diverging opinion on this would be that this idea would be much more fun when applied in mod form, not into the base game. Something like this would no doubt change some of multi-colony management functionality, which some people may find annoying, especially those who spent time mastering the art of handling real-time incidents on multiple maps at once (like me). If this was given to us in mod form, people would have the option of turning the functionality on and off, giving people a choice in the matter. People who like it use it, people who don't don't.

I completely back this idea and easily second it though