Your Cheapest Ideas

[Chieftain101]

How about something as simple as a "Stun Turret", all it would require is more power etc. It would work the same way as a standard turret however it would fire bursts of electrical current to stun maybe one target for a certain amount of time. It would be cheaper to build, and would have a chance to incapacitate a target, allowing people to take them prisoner etc. The chance for the incapacitation should probably be very low otherwise people might abuse this feature way too much (Then it already would). Later on you should be able to research ways of making the turrets cooldown shorter or even a more powerful pulse to shock targets for longer times (Not necessary just a thought).

One more of my ideas is maybe a scientific spaceship, that could share with you information or even some research points to finish said research.

[pfox__]

Howdy! *great* game. I'm so glad I paid the difference to get the Influencer tier so that I could play now. Here are a few cheap-ish things (except for maybe the last one).

1) range indicators for lights at build-time, ala turrets (more important for sun lamps.. want to know how far I can effectively space them out.. they use a ton of electricity)
2) fire suppression equippable item (like a gun, makes putting out fires go much faster) .. or maybe they're buildings.. like rapid-deployable fire extinguisher turrets that you set up and tear down as-needed?
3) would be great if something could be done about poor prioritization during low-food situations. having the colonists cross the map to the site of a wreckage where there're 300 units of food, just to have them take the food, eat it, then have a mental break because eating raw food put them over the edge is heartbreaking. I could further in-depth about this, but venturing outside of this corner-case would probably make it non-cheap, heh.

[Cilionelle]

Double Doors: when two doors are placed next to each other, they become one double door (functionally the same as two doors but with a bigger tile and animation).

[Clint]

On/off toggle for lamps so we can save power in areas of our colony that are not in direct use.

[Adeelos]

On/off toggle for lamps so we can save power in areas of our colony that are not in direct use.

That exists, actually for all electrical appliances aside from batteries, conduits, and generators. If you click on the item in question the option to turn the object on/off is presented in the bottom left menu.

[Somz]

I am currently playing with an older version of the game, I did not bother to DL the new one yet, I fear the loss of my saved games (for I have yet to find the place the save files are).

So here are my ideas:

-More happiness stuff (Tv, Mood lamp or anything, sorry my imagination here is poor)

-An option to make your colonits "have some fun" for a while, sending them to a previously selected place for them only to sit and chat? +happiness)
(Edit: -Another kind of "work" tab, with priority to have fun? if all the work is done,
to have them go to that previously selected area and play cards or something?
would be good in my opinion.)

-New food making stuff (they don't like nutrient paste)

-Maybe some new turrets (double LMG, "sniper",
maybe even a short-ranged flamethrower)

-An option for walls/conduits to toggle on/off power transfer (if one were to build batteries for emergencies and would like to keep them at 100%)

-Anti-fire equipment for putting out fires (burning people included)

-A "lightning catcher" or what it is called, with a transformer, to have some more electricity on stormy days and/OR to keep lightning away from your base AND colonists.
they are very flammable, the colonists.

-(now I do not know how simple or complex this is but)
I have a hard time recruiting anybody now because every attacker dies
or flees (mid-late game), so some more guys "passing by" would be great,
or if the chance of attackers getting knocked out would be higher, it'd be great as well.

-A "stungun" or turret would be also useful (for purposes mentioned above)

-An option to literally "burn" corpses where they are instead of having someone
carry around all the corpses making him/her really unhappy (with the lack of happiness options it's really a pain in the arse)

-A food "dispensor" that requires no electricity, or just an option to extract raw food from the paste dispensor in case of no power/solar flare (I lost a game because my folks starved to death...

-Having an option to select the area(s) people can/can not work on,
for example if one were to have 2 growing areas or anything one could assign a grower to each)

-Priority option (to set up priorities yourself)

-A device or something to protect your electrical devices during Solar Flares
(it's really hard to protect your colony of 7 without turrets, with 30-40 bandits attacking).

and...yeah, that's it for now.
Probably you are working on some of them already, one can never know.
Anyway, it's a great game, sometimes annoying but really awesome.
You have my thanks!
Edit:
Yes, I should have read the other ideas... If I were to "stole" anything, I aplogize.
And I promise I'll read next time before posting anything.

[Somz]

I've been going through the ideas to know what not-to suggest (again) and I've run into AwMeGawd's idea which is pretty damn good, Kudos to him(/her), I fully support this idea and suggest you to make something like it!

I am running out of metal, plus because of the size of the colony, it eats up a lot of power,
so a mining building (like low, slow but constant metal output), a power hungry machine that could even generate dirt/gravel/stones/whatever around it or in a specified area)
and a steam powered generator (eating up crops to generate some electricity, fed by people)
would help people out "late-game", like me, because if I don't run into a ship selling a ton of metal soon, I won't be able to replace the destroyed turrets and I'll get smashed by those pirate...assassin...raiders.
I have mined out every single ounce of metal on the map and fear the worst...

Edit: Also, I need moar colonists.
Breeding. Think about it. I know it might not be a "cheap idea" and even though it's not "The Sims", I think it'd be fun. One of my colonists is "pregnant" (and even though it's a guy...?) it's been a long time and I want that new colonist!
I don't know, a cage or a growing pod to put the little fellow in, feed it once in a while, then after X cycles it becomes a 15 years old guy/girl (the youngest colonist I've seen so far).
Also, aging might be a good idea too. Doesn't have to have effect on the game.

Or maybe they could die when they reach 100 or something,
it would make people rethink capturing someone old.

[kamistar]

-An option to make your colonits "have some fun" for a while, sending them to a previously selected place for them only to sit and chat? +happiness)
(Edit: -Another kind of "work" tab, with priority to have fun? if all the work is done,
to have them go to that previously selected area and play cards or something?
would be good in my opinion.)

I can see my nobble landlord having fun at library while smoking a pipe or cigar and driking a cognac or whiskey.

some quick ideas:
-coffee maker (makes ppl work harder and longer but might cause problems)
-library + books (gives happiness but takes time from working might also improve some abilities like research, medicine)
-music/player: happiness + might improve working rate near music source

[DeltaV]

Idle colonists should only walk around inside of home zones.

[maxthebeast11]

Animals such as squirrels and boomrats should eat and demolish crops

[Galileus]

Animals such as squirrels and boomrats should eat and demolish crops

They do

[Workload]

Cooking:  Food Rations    maybe if your units are able to carry items. They would give 40% food need taste bad though. Plus will only use if far away from other foods or if there really low food.

I know this keeps popping up but Jail Doors/Looked Doors   That only open for your people And same HP as reg door but the reg door should let prisoners pass them. So you can have them in there own cells but be able to have a food dispenser in the different room and have them feed them selves.

When it's raining water could be a Carried Filth and leaves a puddle but goes away after some time. More work but if on carpets they would make mold if not cleaned.

New plant: Vine Spores    A event that saids something like " Heavy winds from the west carried some weird looking plant spores "
What they do is slowly tear apart anything made of metal but they don't hurt living things. Concrete/metal floors/stone etc slow it down.
A few spores will land and start spreading. Can take it out with fire/cut plants. Keep in mind it's just a plant it has no mind just grows.   This last one is not too cheap but it could be neat.    Also would this fit into rimworld or is it to weird.

[Yellowdart1]

Mass Graves:
Something like a 2 x 8 trench that holds large numbers of bodies, say double what the normal tile capacity would be, (or more actually since it strangely takes 2 tiles to bury a one tile person) so a 2 x 8 would hold 32, 2 bodies per tile, and cover over automatically when full.
Building dozens and dozens of graves for nameless droves of unfortunate raiders is a bit tedious, and poor use of space. Also, should have toggles for friend and foe, if you don't want your friends tossed in with the riff raff.
There is the cheap idea, and for the future, when all cheap ideas have been used up, it could cause very strong disgust and fear for colonists near it. Also, if wind ever exists in the game (rapidly spreading fires? wind turbine output? Walking speeds by direction?) the smell of an open death pit could dishearten anyone downwind.

[Yellowdart1]

Intro modification:
In addition to the blurb about about waking from cryo and such, a second screen shows a display from your escape pod computer that you could scroll through. It gives you a few details about the moon you're on, nothing game changing for now, to keep it cheap, just a fun little thing to make the story feel deeper, and you could include some funny, random, or unexpected details/easter eggs in your lists of potential facts. Could include things like:
Name of gas giant (i.e. Omichron Persei, Hoben, Bat'leth)
Name of moon (Omichron Persei 8, Wash, Kapla)
Standard year for the planet (random number of days)
Distance from Star (giant random number of miles)
Class M (or you'd be dead)
First human visit X number of years ago
Terraformed X number of years ago
Nearest inhabitable planet (another name from a list of planets) and it's orbital distance.
Native flora and fauna (always dandelions, squirrels, and boomerats for now)
A little story about something in the planets history, such as:
The first settlers attempted to raise kangaroos for meat and fur but all of the females died in cryosleep. Settlers went mad and ate each other.
Or, Planet was originally terraformed to be the site of a SuperMax Prison for pirates and raiders, but was deemed too depressing. Or they all escaped due to a fire cause by boomerat mating season.
Or, Muffalo were originally introduced from Rigelius 9 in order to get rid of the Boomerat infestation on the planet. They then realized that all Muffalos do is eat poverty grass and go mad.

Nothing game changing, just something for the story.

[krockobil]

Somethings that i would think make the game more fun, and would be kinda simple to add:
Things that make money worth haveing:

A rare chance that weapon trading ships selling super-weapons realy expensive. (like 20k+ cash/each )
Ideas for these: Bazooka, Granate launcher, rail-gun, Flamethrower, minigun etc.
Weapons that's kinda unbalanced but very rare.

Technology selling vessels. (very expensive 30k+)
Building architect vessels that sells blueprint for good buildning objekts:
Etc: Bunker (a place where stationed soldiers take 25% less damage).
       Guard tower (A good place for a sniper that makes it possible to shoot over walls. But enemy can target you)
       Sprinkler (extinguish fires in area)
       Repair droid (A npc that repair damaged things) Max cap: 1. Expensive as shit.
       Etc.

The storage cite should be limited and need to be upgraded for more capacity.
The research table should also need stuff to be upgraded for advanced research.
A trash burner that burns corps and stuff. (advanced research)

Last and last: Researching should cost items/cash... not just time thats op.

I hope you like some of the ideas =)
Love the game and the work your doing.
Krockobil