Is this always to be a game about a small number of survivors ... or more?

[akiceabear]

My personal view is that it would be a better investment of development time to balance and enrich the core experience (Cassandra, vanilla) around relatively small colonies of ~10, while allowing for the more gargantuan ones in alternative story tellers or modding. I think it is easier to create compelling and unique stories with smaller groups, and that larger ones end up feeling like a cross between an RTS and SimCity. Also, I think mega colonies don't fit within the lore of the current game whatsoever.

I mention balance because my guess is trying to balance both types of colonies will mean a lot of compromises, especially given Tynan is one guy and there are huge (and widely varying) expectations on him for the development path of the game. I'd rather Tynan focused on balancing a certain type of gameplay (small colony or big colony!) and did that very well, rather than trying to make the core game cover every possible narrative but not really succeed at any of them. Keep in mind there is still huge scope for emergent stories within smaller colonies.

FWIW, one reason I feel this is because of my time with Prison Architect. I really enjoy the mechanics and got a lot of fun out of it, but the game becomes boring as it scales. As your prison grows you have no time to really connect with any one of the pawns or "imagine" the scenarios.

[Mathenaut]

For those curious about life at 60 colonists, here's the thread:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=11769.0

It seems that alot of things don't properly scale and it leads to alot of micromanagement.

[DNK]

So I didn't vote in the poll, because all of the choices seem to be predicated on the idea that wanting a deeper tech tree (which I do) implies also wanting higher colony populations (which I don't).

Limited number of poll options.

While I hope for bigger, I also recognize smaller can be better. I'm also fine with just having a far more in depth and longer tech tree with more survival/primitive focus. I get that huge colonies force you to lose your connection with your pawns, but I also see that as part of the evolution: when small, you have this more individually focused game that slowly changes into a large management game after a few years.

[Kegereneku]

Making a correct polls is difficult, it need a neutral option, including a neutral "I don't care" option and it's tricky to poll for 2 thing a once (population AND tech level).
Myself I expect more technology anyway from Tynan, but the same amount of colonist.

This game is best balanced for a dozen of colosurvivonist and is the reason (with storytelling) it stand out and attracted my attention.
As said before the monkey sphere is a thing and over a certain number you tend to be less attached to your colonist. The difficulty heavily change once you start having colonist to replace all skills.

Since myself I never pretend to build a endless or realistic colony I'll be satisfied up to 15 colonists.
On the storytelling part, I expect much more than we have for now. Like more Storyteller, hundred of events and dozens of distinct "ending".

So I consider than anyone aiming for 20+ colonists should consider lucky the game allow it in the first place (even with the Storyteller trying to kill them above 12 or so).
Many were the AAA game in the past that used arbitrary unit limit for gameplay that wasn't that AAA in the first place.

[Gennadios]

The reason I chose this game over, let's say Stonehearth, is because of the deeper characterization. I wouldn't even bring Dwarf Fortress into the equation, gamers love the idea of it but only a tiny fraction actually learn the game, it takes an anount of reading equivalent to earning an Associates to degree to figure it out.

Liking the characterization that this game offers doesn't necessarily mean I wouldn't want a larger colony, 25-30 would be a decent amount. Visitor quarters and visitor trading would add a more lively, sprawling feel without going over that. Game tends to become unplayable after about 70 pawns on the map though, so I'm not sure how feasible. Either way I still check out the stat sheets of random visitors and raiders just out of curiosity, it adds to the experience even if it isn't as personalized.

What I'd really like to have is the ability to break off part your colony and have them settle other parts of the map however, once one colony hits it's technological peak, move on to another tile and work on turning the planet into a Glitterworld one area at a time.

Maybe some mechanics on the worldmap to group research techs that are too complex for single colonies to manage, and create more flavor resources/structures like the cryptosleep shrines to seed around the map to make the player actually want to colonize other parts of the planet. Could give the game that epic, civilization making feel while still keeping the individual colonies manageable.

[TheSilencedScream]

Like I originally said, I'm not against the option for bigger colonies, but I've noticed about myself that - if I have more than 7-8 colonists - I stop being attached.

In the same vein to what one of my favorite comedians said ("You can't be a good parent to eight children! My mom's one of seven, and there's two uncles we don't talk to!"), I just can't appreciate my colonists when I have a large number. I lost someone? Well, I have three others with almost identical skills to the one I lost, no big deal.

[Teague]

For the people voting 100+ colonists, I challenge you.

Use dev mode, spawn 100 pawns for your side at the start of a game. Outfit each of them with the gear and weapons appropriately to what you would want at 100 colonists. Build a base in god mode that can support said 100 colonists. Maybe add artwork to make your value of town what it should be. Give them some jobs to do.

Then spawn a raid from tribals - I bet yall come back voting differently because the outcome is hideous.
Tynan has confirmed that the game breaks down at that many colonists.

Now it would take considerable development time to ameliorate this. This is a story based game, story teller, unique artwork text, rng based events.
Having that many colonists makes the uniqueness of each character go away (read story).

I would much rather the development time be spent on expanding the depth of the characters you have - Fun is a perfect example of that. I would also love to see a few more unique storyteller options.

[Klaatu]

I've actually done colonies of 200+ on the largest map size on a boreal forest where it is freezing winter 10 months out of the year. It is quite a challenge keeping all of them outfitted, and I have a few high skill crafters pumping out outfits as fast as they can.  Food is less of an issue with freezing, hunting, hydroponics and nutrient paste dispensers.

Large scale construction projects are interesting, and I have killing / maze fields. Fighting off dozens of mechanoids is also a challenge too if they drop pod into the base instead of appearing outside it.