Your Cheapest Ideas

[Vaporisor]

Once an animal is bonded, can you put an underline to it's name the same way a name gets it when you draft a colonist or some other form of highlighting?

Reason is I had to cull some farm animals and needed to check them tediously each one at a time for any that had bonded which sometimes happens.  Would be much more reasonable to show animal names and be able to see at a glane.

[b0rsuk]

COLONIST SEED. Like for map, except it works for colonists. Many maps are only interesting with a specific set of colonists, like my initial trio of whom NONE had research enabled but all were great miners, growers, and constructors. Workers and psychiatric patients (literally).

[mojo-jojo]

Have the commands that appear when clicking on a single object act the same way as when selecting the command through the orders tab. At the moment you are limited to giving the command for that one square, and usually I want to select more (for mining, harvesting, everything).

Its clunky going architect / orders / command, but every time I click on a thing and see the button there and try to do something I have to go do that anyway.

[b0rsuk]

Automatic reloading of mortars, like with trap auto rearming. Manually manning a mortar aftar a mortar after a raid sucks.

[Marduk]

Some cheap ideas loosely based on Unreal World's starting scenarios:
The Crash Landing mod is an example of that, but these ideas go further:

1.Add an alternate start mode where the colonists land a starship on the planet instead of crashing in pods. More resources to start with, possibly more colonists, parts of ship to disassemble, cryopods to use, and starship reactor for power....
OTOH, the extra wealth makes this start rougher event wise.
It doesn't need to be a starship from another colony, to start with just a normal random start with predefined equipment and random colonists, like normal. Through later on, when the "play old colony starship" option will get added, it could be plugged right into that alternate start mode.

2.Escaped prisoners start. The colonists have stolen escape pods of their prison ship. More colonists, but they less starting building materials, they get prison uniforms for wear, and outlander towns start hostile.

3.Starship troopers start. Your colonists start with lots of nice armor and weapons, but the map also has a raging bug infestation.
4. Pioneer family start - colonist generator is forced to make all your colonists single family members from an outlander town. More starting animals, but less components. You better make sure no one dies...

As for other ideas:

5. Finally add some randomization to starting equipment overall. Its already there with the pet after all... For example, instead of having a plasteel knife, pistol and survival rifle all the time, make it 2-4 weapons, and include shotguns, clubs, assault rifles.
6. Research for crafting recipes, being able to craft sniper rifles and LMGs as soon as you build a machining table is just too easy. Without extras, you should be able to craft only, say, pistols, survival rifles, shotguns and molotovs.
7.Poison\chemical weapons. We already have one sort of poison in form of the toxic fallout, there is also the fire mechanic... Why not add gas grenades\sprayers\bombs etc? There could be sleep gas, tear gas that slows down, reduces vision, and gives a really bad mood, and lethal kinds of gas. Even several kinds of each.
8. Ability to disassemble non natural floors for resources, like with walls.
9. Give us vanilla nuclear power already, it would be pretty much the same as the fuel generator, except with different graphic, and using uranium instead of wood. Optionally have it bought from starship trader only, and have 2 variants - actual huge and powerful nuclear reactor, and a small, low power radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).
Also have a researchable "low tech" nuclear heater.
10. Make turrets require a proper weapon to put on them to build. SMG turrets, assault rifle turrets, LMG turrets, charge rifle turrets, minigun turrets....
11. Event scenario combos that fit together nicely. For example, a starship crash event that is nothing but a rapid sequence of:
4-10 cargo pod events
2-8 escape pod events
8-16 starship part fall events
50% chance of toxic fallout
50% chance of flash thunderstorm

Or a great hunt event:
- Large amount of extra animals enter the map and pass through it
- Tribal or outlander town party spawns afterwards, attacking the animals, taking the bodies of those they manage to kill, and leaving

[b0rsuk]

2.Escaped prisoners start. The colonists have stolen escape pods of their prison ship. More colonists, but they less starting building materials, they get prison uniforms for wear, and outlander towns start hostile.

I like this one! Escaped prisoners would be biased towards combat skills, mining (escape tunnel) but would have less hard work skills like Growing, Cooking and Construction. You would have to rely more on hunting. And I was never actually hostile to outlander, this would be interesting for a change.

3.Starship troopers start. Your colonists start with lots of nice armor and weapons, but the map also has a raging bug infestation.
4. Pioneer family start - colonist generator is forced to make all your colonists single family members from an outlander town. More starting animals, but less components. You better make sure no one dies...

Like with a movie, it depends a lot how well it is executed. #1 sounds a bit bland and I'm not convinced extra wealth is such a big drawback.

Note that some playstyles are less supported than others. For example combat-heavy settlers will struggle in current Rimworld because there are few opportunities to gain something with combat. Thrumbo is the first example of optional combat, but the reward is in midgame (comms console to sell horns, and you need a Good crafter to make good use of the leather). If Rimworld had events like pirates conducting smuggling operations, making illicit deals in corners of your map - you would have a chance to show off your combat skills, because they would exit the map if you don't attack them, and they wouldn't get near your colony on their own. I'm convinced Rimworld needs something like this - an optional combat event where you earn something that's not meat or leather.

As for other ideas:

5. Finally add some randomization to starting equipment overall. Its already there with the pet after all... For example, instead of having a plasteel knife, pistol and survival rifle all the time, make it 2-4 weapons, and include shotguns, clubs, assault rifles.

I agree in principle, but some events seem to rely heavily on your starting survival rifle. Tribal attacks (until they overwhelm your turrets/meat shields) are much easier to deal with because of the survival rifle. Sieges are much easier because of the survival rifle - not every single one has a sniper rifle.
Maybe it should be "a couple of weaker items + a few better items" kind of randomization. I wouldn't despair if I got a Personal Shield instead of the starting rifle, or handgrenades, a good armor vest or a power helmet.

6. Research for crafting recipes, being able to craft sniper rifles and LMGs as soon as you build a machining table is just too easy. Without extras, you should be able to craft only, say, pistols, survival rifles, shotguns and molotovs.

Disagree. A sniper rifle costs 6 components, and if you have no good crafters you'll make an awful one. That's only good enough against crashed ship parts. And unless you're lucky like the 0 skill raider that shot off my melee colonist's leg, you won't hit.

7.Poison\chemical weapons. We already have one sort of poison in form of the toxic fallout, there is also the fire mechanic... Why not add gas grenades\sprayers\bombs etc? There could be sleep gas, tear gas that slows down, reduces vision, and gives a really bad mood, and lethal kinds of gas. Even several kinds of each.

Poisoned bows - give an infection-like effect when they scratch a pawn. Less direct damage than other bows. I would be almost happy to see some tribals use them instead of great bows which tend to remove limbs on hit.

[blub01]

200 pages; I'll be honest I gave up before I hit 50. Apologies if this is repetition, and I won't hold it against you if, like me, you skip to the end. I'm sure you've thought of all these before, but I've typed them out now so...

• Trench tiles: Hard labour, for cover and to slow attackers.
• Soil: A resouce dug from soil, leaving a trench/pit. Required ingredient to build plant pots.
• Gravel: A resource dug from stone, leaving a trench/pit and used as flooring.
• Deadfall trap: Add steel or wood and labour to a trench tile.
• Planters: A slow, low tech version of hydroponics requiring soil and wood.
• Forge: A slow, low tech smelter that runs on wood and crafts simple tools.
• Pyre: Give your colonists a Hindu/Sikh/Viking sendoff.
• Ash: Used as fertilizer, for fire extinguishers, clearing snow. Byproduct of Pyres, Campfires, Stoves, Generators etc.
• Oil Spill: An event triggered when digging ground tiles. Makes a big mess that spreads unless capped with...
• Oil Well: Extracts crude oil from underground, to be refined and used in..
• Oil Fired Heater: Use oil to keep your toes warm
• Oil Fired Generator: Ugly, smelly but efficient power generation.
• Oil Well Cap: Plug that hole before it fills the Gulf of Mexico entire map! Used if you haven't researched the oil well, or simply don't want to.
• Refinery: Used to convert crude oil
• Sugar Cane/Beet: Can be eaten or turned into fuel

Some of these might be a little against the lore-grain, I'm not sure if the planets we're on are naturally capable of sustaining plant life or if they were terraformed. Obviously if the latter there'd likely be no oil to strike!

some comments on your thoughts:

• gravel should be possible to produce at the stonecutting table (or the crafting spot, with some kind of club or hammer) from stone chunks, too, and should be both plentiful and easy to turn into paths, that, while not giving speed bonuses, be able to negate negative movement modifiers from soil, mud, etc. building a path over mud would, of course, require a lot more gravel and work as you'd have to create a small dam. same with shallow water. an option is the possibility to create dams in deep water, allowing passage or even building on it - allowing for highly defensive positions in coastal maps, for example. lots of possibilities with this one.
• so planters are supposed to allow growing indoors, and on rock, but they don't give the growth speed modifier? did I get that right? also, another matter would be the ability to dig up rich soil for use in planters/hydroponics, for an additional speed modifier, and the ability to create fertilizer both for normal growing and planters/hydroponics. what I would also love to see are lit hydroponics, ideally in a way which allows them to be shaped at will, like floors.
• there already are quite a few fueled variants of crafting benches of various kinds using fuel, namely the fueled smithy and cook stove.
• Ash shouldn't remove snow, it should a)prevent snow tiles from forming and b)prevent them forming into ice when it is spread after the snow fell (if snow was to turn into ice, there would be a chance of an event where a colonist would slip, and possibly hurt himself).
• I think oil should be handled more like geothermal spots, and at most form a kind of river running to the edge of the map, or a puddle.
• this could probably lead to plastic production later on.
• (sugar cane)other possibilities: lemonade and candy, and it could be used to sweeten meals, leading to a bigger mood boost when eating them. while we're at it, we might as well add coffee, too, which would, upon consumtion, create a health effect that causes higher consciousness, increases the rest value by a bit and reduces the rate at which it goes down upon consumtion, but inverts the effects with some extra once the effect wears off. some colonists might only like it with sugar in it.

also, I just thought of a (relatively) cheap way to make multiplayer happen, so I'm putting this here: basically, you could use something like a permanent visitor group to represent other players' colonists, and have them act exactly like them - the data ought to be relatively simple to transfer. I'm pretty sure any pawn can do all jobs - raiders can mine through rock, after all - so this shouldn't be hard to do. I don't know though, I have no idea how rimworld is coded.

EDIT: no idea if this qualifies as cheap, though. some parts certainly don't.

[Yodo223]

"Fixing" your pets so that they cannot breed. Have it as an operation under medical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leN5Vm3qdAY

[Goldenpotatoes]

If an unarmed colonist is attacking a very small (i.e squirrel) or downed pawn, it should say 'foot' instead of 'fist'.

I don't know what'd be funnier though honestly, the mental image of a colonist trying to curbstomp a manhunter pack of squirrels or punching.

[newcadence]

It's very plausible this has been suggested, but fitting in with the theme of how many genetically modified things are in this game, (Wargs, Boomalopes, Boomrats, Devilstrand, Alphabeavers) I propose a genetically modified wood source which I've dubbed Megabamboo.

Pros:
Grows in a day
Cons:
Very low wood yield to make up for the grow speed
Spreads like wildfire: Can take over your entire map

Or we could add an incident. Megabamboo! Think the opposite of alphabeavers.

[Ace_livion]

It's very plausible this has been suggested, but fitting in with the theme of how many genetically modified things are in this game, (Wargs, Boomalopes, Boomrats, Devilstrand, Alphabeavers) I propose a genetically modified wood source which I've dubbed Megabamboo.

Pros:
Grows in a day
Cons:
Very low wood yield to make up for the grow speed
Spreads like wildfire: Can take over your entire map

Or we could add an incident. Megabamboo! Think the opposite of alphabeavers.

i can imagining myself exploding the shit out of this plant build a wall of stone around your base and let the megabamboo spreed all over the map. then each time there are raiders i trow out a molotov and watch the world burn around my colonists. then plant a new bamboo next morning its will be glorious do make it happen 

[Jorlem]

I'd like to request a "reroll" button for the generated colony name.  Basically, a button that would grab a new name from whatever internal list of potential names the game has, for when you get a name you don't like, but can't think of one you want to use yourself.

[Mkok]

I wanted to make my colony melee only, but I noticed a huge problem with that. You cannot order more than 1 colonist to engage a target in melee, like you can for ranged weapons. So it would be nice, if right clicking on enemy, when you have more colonists, equiped with melee wapons, selected made them target that enemy in melee.

[Goldenpotatoes]

I wanted to make my colony melee only, but I noticed a huge problem with that. You cannot order more than 1 colonist to engage a target in melee, like you can for ranged weapons. So it would be nice, if right clicking on enemy, when you have more colonists, equiped with melee wapons, selected made them target that enemy in melee.

You can. Pause, then right-click each to manually melee. The option cancels itself out whenever the pawns are hit for whatever reason.

[Vaporisor]

I wanted to make my colony melee only, but I noticed a huge problem with that. You cannot order more than 1 colonist to engage a target in melee, like you can for ranged weapons. So it would be nice, if right clicking on enemy, when you have more colonists, equiped with melee wapons, selected made them target that enemy in melee.

You can. Pause, then right-click each to manually melee. The option cancels itself out whenever the pawns are hit for whatever reason.

Actually, you can group order melees to attack with the new fire command.  If you select multiple melee and give the attack order in their selected unit menu, they will all move to engage that target.