Your Cheapest Ideas

[LaEsmeralda]

Introducing... private property!

You get the power to freely assign an owner to every object in the colony: if they don't get any owner, they'll remain of "public property" and can be freely used by anyone, just like they work now.

When a colonist owns an object, only they can use it by default. Ex. If they own an anorak, whenever they get cold they'll go and put it on, if they own a chair, they'll always choose that chair to sit on, etc.  They get a debuff if they own too little and a buff if they own a lot of things, and both grow proportionally with how many stuff they own (or don't). They also get a debuff if something they own is suddenly given to someone else or turned into public property.

A colonist will get a debuff if you make someone they are neutral or rivals with use or take the stuff their own, and their relationship with them will go down: if the other colonist is already a rival, they may try to arrest them for theft/property infringement and take them to the prisoners' cells. If the one using their stuff is friends with them, however, this doesn't happen and the one who got "robbed" doesn't get any debuffs. You know, because bros.

This could come with a new trait, "Kleptomaniac", someone who will occasionally get a mental breakdown that makes them go on a stealing spree.

[Evelyn]

You don't really understand the concept of a cheap idea, do you?

[Third_Of_Five]

URBAN BIOMES:

The ruins of a city making up a new biome with a lot of structures tightly placed together. Less natural resources such as plants and big animals. This kind of biome should have more dormant dangers than usual so cryptosleeping hostiles, mechanoids and bugs should be hidden within unexplored buildings.

Below is a very outdated mod which did something similar:

^^ THIS

[Indoril120]

It's a bit strange how a colonist can consume a cooked meal and get food poisoning, but eating raw food has (to my knowledge) no negative health repercussions. Would it be possible to implement the same food poisoning chance factor to something like raw boomalope meat that exists for poorly-prepared meals? Just seems like something that ought to be a thing.

[The Great Muffalo]

The Crank! A crank that can be turned by colonists for the most primitive source of power. Can toggle the crank to only be a priority when the batteries are low or empty, watch all the colonists line up to keep the lights going during an eclipse. Crank only takes 25 steel to make can can directly be hooked up to your power source, producing a constant 2,500WT * (Colonist Manipulation Percentage) while any colonist is cranking the crank. Finally colonists that are idle or mentally disabled can be sentenced to some nice, hard, productive labor.

[Bendigeidfran]

Would be great if when modding you had the ability to define a folder as a source for the texture instead of an individual sprite. Like with sound "clipPath" defines one but "clipFolderPath" defines a folder from which it will choose one at random. Would really mods be more graphically diverse, and has a lot of potential applications.

[QuantumNelly]

Another two in the morning idea!
So, what if. JUST WHAT IF - Sanguine and Depressive didn't add bonuses to a colonist's mood bar? What if instead it made bonuses and debuffs (respectively) stronger or less so?

If you're a happy guy, you enjoy things that make you happy. Might be harder to get you down. If you're mopey all the time, it's harder to find  something to be happy about.

[AileTheAlien]

Trait: Sadist
A pawn with this trait gets no penalty from other people being organ-harvested or killed, and gets a mood bonus from melee combat. And harvesting organs.

Notes about other peoples' ideas:

The Crank! A crank that can be turned by colonists for [...] power.

I was going to suggest making this a pedal-bike like in real life, but something that looks like cartoon-style street organ seems better.

a colonist can consume a cooked meal and get food poisoning, but eating raw food has (to my knowledge) no negative.

You can definitely get food poisoning from raw meat. Happens to my pawns all the time. (Easiest idea ever - already in the game!)

[mumblemumble]

If a pawn is fleaing, make them shut open doors behind them automatically.

[frenchiveruti]

If a pawn is fleaing, make them shut open doors behind them automatically.

Any easy way to dress prisoners to avoid the nudity penalty.

Both of these are really cheap to be honest!

[Scarecrow]

Some random traits:

Heavy Sleeper: Does not get disturbed when sleeping. Takes longer to wake up.

Insomniac: Rarely ever sleeps. Mental break threshold +10%.

Gluttonous: This pawn eats x2 more food compared to everyone else.

Mechanophobe: This pawn has a fear of mechanoids. When in combat with mechanoids this colonist has a chance of cowering and fleeing.

Squeamish: Vomits when seeing dead animals, blood and human corpses.

Gypsy: This pawn lives to travel and gains a mood buff when traveling.

Gullible: Easier to recruit. Bad at trading. Insults x2 more effective.

Of course there is other suggestions such as dietary requirements such as vegetarian etc.

Maybe more fear traits too such as: Insectophobe, Claustrophobe etc.

[giannikampa]

Is this cheap?

In caravans: put a button switch to toggle foraging ON/OFF.

By default it is OFF.

When set on "ON" travel speed is reduced simulating that some food is being collected on the way but you don't see it displayed in the inventory: it is a generic foraged nutrition value, you can put a filling bar in the bottom of the button (full bar sets forage on OFF).

A full day spent on "foraging on" will give full foraging bar, but only if the tarrain was suitable.

Foraged food has to be cooked, so more time is needed: Resting with the "forage ON" will last a couple of hours further, they will be fed by simple meals when they go back marching but no food will be lost from inventory, they consmed the amount they foraged and the bar is resetted to zero.

On terrains that has no way to have berries or games to hunt it is automatically switched "OFF".
If for some reasons the forage bar is full the forage button is switched to "OFF".

Stealthness could be affected accordingly.

Someone starving should trigger the immediate stop-to-eat and consequential depletion/distribution of the foraged bar.

All in all a healty caravan passing only trough perfect terrain cells (biome+season) could travel indefinitely having no food in the inventory. But this will have huge cost in time.

A random positive event could happen to a moving caravan that has the foraging ON: "plenty of forage in this area": forage bar will grow double for one sqare.

Each square you walk trough has only a certain amount of nutrition to forage: you can't stop your caravan in a sqare and see the bar grow indefinitely.

[frenchiveruti]

Is this cheap?

In caravans: put a button switch to toggle foraging ON/OFF.

By default it is OFF.

When set on "ON" travel speed is reduced simulating that some food is being collected on the way but you don't see it displayed in the inventory: it is a generic foraged nutrition value, you can put a filling bar in the bottom of the button (full bar sets forage on OFF).

A full day spent on "foraging on" will give full foraging bar, but only if the tarrain was suitable.

Foraged food has to be cooked, so more time is needed: Resting with the "forage ON" will last a couple of hours further, they will be fed by simple meals when they go back marching but no food will be lost from inventory, they consmed the amount they foraged and the bar is resetted to zero.

On terrains that has no way to have berries or games to hunt it is automatically switched "OFF".
If for some reasons the forage bar is full the forage button is switched to "OFF".

Stealthness could be affected accordingly.

Someone starving should trigger the immediate stop-to-eat and consequential depletion/distribution of the foraged bar.

All in all a healty caravan passing only trough perfect terrain cells (biome+season) could travel indefinitely having no food in the inventory. But this will have huge cost in time.

A random positive event could happen to a moving caravan that has the foraging ON: "plenty of forage in this area": forage bar will grow double for one sqare.

Each square you walk trough has only a certain amount of nutrition to forage: you can't stop your caravan in a sqare and see the bar grow indefinitely.

That's as cheap as the entire GP morgan Group

[Pantalaimon]

Add a material option for 'any stone type' when building things, so that it is easier to build larger scale constructions (eg paved areas and walls).

Eg a wall of 'any stone' will have colonists just grab whatever stone to complete it.

[frenchiveruti]

I think I have a cheap Idea.
Make the "night owl" trait don't be affected by the "low light" movement penalty.