[Story] Write an ending ! (endless included)

[Bob_Namg]

These are all very good.

Here I've got one:
Ending: Assimilated
The day those [horrible hive based creature] swarmed this planet, we knew it was going to end violently for us. Little did we know their queen would be so humorous and motherly to us. We are now part of this hive, and with her shall we tread many worlds and assimilate many new acolytes.
Trigger: All colonists suffer either a specific new mental break or just break in general, permanently.
PreReq: Event where [horrible eldritch hive beasts] are sieging the planet is on-going.

Ending: To the Last Man
... I did it. The others may have ran, the braver slain; but now I've sure won my ticket to Valhalla. Those [hive beats or mechanoids or something] won't soon forget the beating they've taken from me.
Trigger: Last colonist suffers mental break to either flee the colony or goes berzerk.
PreReq: No other present colonists, can be incapped I guess, but this happens during (Or maybe within two/three days of the start of) a raid by mechs/other horrible third party beasts.

Ending: Distress Signal
I can only hope someone will soon hear our pleas and will rescue us from our subterranean sarcophagi. I doubt those things will figure out how to get us out so maybe they'll die off long before we reemerge.
Trigger: All living/active colonists in crypto-sleep caskets within a couple days of the start of a mechanoid/otherwise raid AND a [special beacon here] is placed and powered when the last colonist enters the casket.
PreReq: As stated, there needs to be a powered [special beacon here], and a lasting mech/creature raid.

[Kegereneku]

This is why it will be indeed more like an achievement, which is pretty cool. Still I think the game will end way to sudden. There is no climax, which in my opinion is needed. Just imagine, a player achieves the ending requirements, going to the comms console and broadcasting it. He will expect something epic, not an "the end"-screen with the credits rolling.

What you call climax, I call epilogue.
The differences are subtle. Play2Jens I think you are just not used to having control over the narrated story and where it end. In result you feel you haven't finished the game unless you are coerced into 'breakingbeating the game'.
And like any gamer you are also subject to hoarding and aiming for everything cool at once.

Some proposal can indeed benefit from a last action (depending of theme) but it would be bad design to impose such for any ending. As I said the point of various Ending is that getting the requirement at all was the challenge (or climax) in the first place. You spent 3~5 years researching/building/managing toward that particular end and proudly end the colony knowing you've done it.

Take the 'Spaceship Escape' for example, it would be absurd to add a countdown sequence with a large raid. The base game already provide surprise events and some players like departing when they want it. (I once waited to recruit 3 prisoners to fills a spaceship.)

Then you have to avoid crossing the line between providing a creative challenge, and satisfying a smug sense of superiority. We could put ludicrous requirement for anything, like needing a dozen Legendary plasteel grand sculpture placed around a Crashed-ship. But this would only bring pointless frustration as only the most absurdly obstinate and lucky players would even bother trying (assuming he know doing so lead somewhere).

This is what make it different from 'Achievement' as well. 'Achievement' are a calamity made to exploit our OCD into playing more.
And an Ending is something that is meant to be satisfying it in itself (even if you can 'keep playing' as a reminder of your base)

To give you an idea of the sheer potential, remember that ideally it would be fully compatible with Themed Storytellers, in result you could try to aim (or just reach) any of those 'ending' following a special storytelling. (e.g : Low-tech storyteller -> technological transcendence)(Moody Storyteller -> Cannibalism)

On this... although Bob_Namg have an [alien/geneticallymodified-psychic-beast] which is unlikely to be introduced (like most of mine), so far it seem to fit the philosophy I think to be behind (at least) the Spaceship Escape.

[keylocke]

i like 4x games actually. especially the total war series.

it also has some "bloodline" features where some traits are passed on by great commanders to their children, making playthrough across multiple generations more interesting.

which becomes more interesting if you enjoy watching historical dramas like dune or battlestar gallactica.. oh wait, what do you mean they're not historical dramas? *gasp!* 

[Play2Jens]

You are right. Rimworld is a different kind of game, because it focuses partly on the player imagination of building their own story. It would be nice though if different endings had a variety of difficulty. Imagine that towards the end of building your spaceship, one last time a slightly harder raid would take place, just because they want to run of with your spaceship? You have to admit it's a cool idea.

I like Bob_Namg Distress Signal ending. Imagine finally acquiring all specific materials and items you need to build a super powerful beacon. There might be a certain chance that another evil faction responds to the signal and attack you. Or maybe it reaches your home base and they'll come rescue you!

I kind of like the idea too to transfer colonists from your last game to a new game after you've reached an ending. I believe Tynan isn't planning on adding children to the game, but this might be something similar 

[Kegereneku]

It would still be absurd to codify the Spaceship Escape into a (forced) predictable events.

As said, many of us like launching whenever they want, myself if I knew there was a forced countdown/raid I would simply not build the AI-Core until I want to launch the ship, and if the countdown/raid was 'during-launch' I would painfully add build walls and defense to slowdown a raid out in the design and if it's worse : a mortar siege, I would frustratingly dev-mode kill it with thunder strike then complain on the forum of the contrived coincidence/logic.
That or change Storyteller for the launch.

So it would change nothing except ruin the potential for player to create a non-textbook colony.
On the other side someone who really really wanted a last battle would have waited (or created a custom-one himself out of game-mechanic).
But for that, the Ending have to be neutral in the first place.

That's why you better separate Game-mechanic that are player-driven, Events which are strictly Storyteller-driven, and Ending as neutral Epilogue to immortalize a story/game and transmit it to posterity.
Now if you are talking of a game-mechanic that might look like a Climax, followed by triggering the ending, then we are talking.

On this... The Ending would also be the very best moment for the game to definitely save your pawn's final state and have him/them appear in another game.

[hazey_sunshine]

+1

[BetaSpectre]

Ending: ZOMBIES!
Pre-Requisite: Install a heavily damaged AI to run your ship.
Place all colonists in the pods.

Effect: The AI mind controls your crew!!!
All the colonists then leave the pods, but are no longer under your command. The game continues, but without leadership who knows what happens next.

[MAKAIROSI]

I agree with Play2Jens, the game would end abruptly in most cases. I also agree that this (or these) should be an achievement and not an ending. I think the end of each colony should be triggered by building the ship (go or stay is your choice, but building the ship means you can go).

[Kegereneku]

Just a note :
I rewrote nearly all "Ending suggestion" since Play2jens post (to give them trigger they lacked), yes the topic is old.
They looked like "Achievement" before, but now most of them would require (IMO) too much work to not be the goal in itself.

Here is my logic :
- LUDEONS added a wonderful ending-music
- Some people want to END the game with meaningful "achievement" so they can start a new one with a feeling of accomplishment.
- But not everybody want to build the spaceship (which require a lot of effort)
So the solution is to have as many several ending that can be reached from different playstyle.

That way you can hear the wonderful ending-music even if you played a Tribal-faction for years.

[Kegereneku]

Due to the newer version, news fanbase, and some topic going in this direction I'm totally bumping my thread.