A probably bad (but maybe interesting) idea

[MAKAIROSI]

Ok, i'm gonna say the word, don't hate straight-away, ready? Aircraft.

Well, this also goes towards vehicles in general but what i imagined was aircraft. I mean small plane-types like in the movie "oblivion". Maybe the aircraft doesn't even have an engine and relies on the wind but again, what i imagined was "proper" aircraft. A vehicle that you sit in, drive it and land it etc.

It occured to me when i thought about the procedure of making the actual escape ship. I said previously that the escape ship should be extremely harder to build so i thought making a regular one-or-two-person air vehicle could actually take the amount of time and resources that the escape ship takes now.

So why would you need a plane (let's call it what it is) ? Trade, travelling, attack from behind on sieges, MAYBE attacking from above (imagine the terrified tribesmen when they notice your ship taking off), hauling (this is HUGE), etc.

It could be an automated aircraft (hauling, assisting in battles, carrying wounded, etc.) it could be manned (that's what i prefered) it could be small (i was honestly imagining a one-person plane) or big (that would be unrealistic) and it would be as expensive, tiring and troublesome to make as the escape ship (this, again, goes along with making the escape ship MUCH harder to make) AND it would need a specific fuel to run on, let's say not as expensive as glitterworld meds but close to it, so you would probably only make one. I imagined a grown colony, the size of a village, and suddenly a pod crashes. A trained guy goes to the plane, flies over there, but there's a thunderstorm, so he crashes. He's wounded but manages to carry the survivor back. In the morning the sky is clear so people go and haul the ship's parts. In the colony they are repaired and re assembled (another week's work). Your colony's plane would be your prized asset!

Now concerning "automated planes" this idea could expand to other "levitating" mechanisms. Imagine a cleaning bot, a nurse bot, a watering bot etc. Levitating bots would be fast mechs that run on power (you would need large amounts for even one of them). The tech could come from alien spaceships (the ones that have the automated guards).

BTW i'm not advertising this idea as realistic, i'm just saying it would be fun, i completely understand there are other issues right now.

[Kryc8]

I think that it's too soon for suggestions like that. Maybe later when game will (hopefully) traveling mechanic.

[paxinum]

A downside is that mining to discover hidden areas would then be trivial, right?

I think it is cool to discover hidden sections even later in the game as a nice fun.

On that note, it could be cool to have some type of technology to scan a small area, to reveal the structure there...

[NeonOverIon]

Although the idea of aircraft isn't BAD, It just doesn't seem right. I mean, even at max Map size, it doesn't seem like the maps are large enough to support aircraft. This is why I, personally would go for an alternative, Airborne creatures.

I'm not talking about little robins swooping around hauling massive chunks of stone, I'm talking huge LOTR style eagles able to quickly fly from point A to point B, carrying resources (and maybe even colonists) with ease, And in combat, able to drop raiders from a large height, at KO or No-chance-in-hell-you're-living-after-this height.

Also I like your idea of Butler-bots. Would lift a lot of weight off colonists in terms of jobs to do. Also they could have small recharge stations they could stay in at the end of the day to recharge.

[Kryc8]

Kea stealing everything that is left outside.
It would be 'FUN'

[Tagasaki]

Call it a drone for hauling and advanced drone that is able to administer complex techniques such as nursing and consoling (butler). Aircraft/plane name seems weird, although ornithopter sounds good.

But eh just a suggestion for naming. =P

[MAKAIROSI]

@NeonOverIon

That could work too

@Tagasaki

I agree. I love the idea of at least a cleaning drone or a watering drone or a harvesting drone.