Suggestion: Endcame crisis and new storytelling approach to crisis in general

[Lightzy]

So something cool must be done with colonies that grow over 10-15 pawns. There should be special crisis situations for them which reflect the endgame status, and which are a bit more involved than "psyshic drone -15 happiness".
This is a post suggesting endgame (probably) content.

I also want to suggest a new storytelling approach to these crisis situations:
The aforementioned "psychic drone, -15 happiness"... It's good, I'm not saying to change it, but just to add some crisis situations which are more involved.

In the psychic drone crisis, the player is told upfront, "listen dude. There's a psychic drone on right now so your females get -15 happiness for 3 days". That's one way of approaching it which is fine, and should stay, because the player is involved when he gets this information. If the game stopped informing the player completely of what's going on it'd be frustrating.

BUT
There is also room for some events which unfold in a storytelling way instead of in a "hear hear! -X to Y for Z days!".

What if, for example, suddenly some of your colonists started gathering in a cave every few days, to "pray together", completely unresponsive to orders? Is this benign or is there something sinister going on? and if so, what? and what can I do about it?

What if, for example, one of your colonists was infected with a biologically engineered fluid lifeform which subverts him to its will, seeking to also infect others and subvert them into accomplishing some goal of its own, and harm those who oppose it?
Also... animals can sense it while humans cannot.....

Is it necessarily better that the player get a postcard about it, or would it be more interesting to play out a mystery/horror story unfolding in the colony as a late-game crisis?
I personally think that the player doesn't ALWAYS need to know what's going on behind the scenes, and that it drives player involvement to see strange unexpected things happening and trying to understand and figure out what they are. Especially in a stage in the game where everything pretty "flows".



So here are a few suggestions which are all ripoffs:
1) "THE THING" (watch the movie, "the thing".
It's practically a rimworld story.

.. It's basically a fluid organizm that can take any shape,  assuming it's a creature it's already taken over once, and when it touches anything organic it infiltrates it and makes it part of "the thing", controlling it as it is or turning it into fluid parts of itself... er... difficult to explain, but watch the movie.
In a game where colonies can sensibly reach 15, even 20+ colonists, it's really no big deal to have a "mass depletion" event which incorporates a lot of drama, horror, suspicion... certain people being quarantined for suspected infection, while others are really infected... etc... And pets might give important clues to what's going on... so long as they aren't infected themselves.
In the movie, the "thing" takes over one of the scientists and has him close himself up in the workshop to build a spaceship so "the thing" can return home... The people all suspicious of each other once they figure out what's going on, and in the end.... well... see the movie


2) Dormant Zerganid / Tyrazerg...
If you know about WH40k genestealer cults.. pretty much the same. Kinda similar to the above idea, except probably a lot less awesome.
A cultish type behavior starts happening with some of the colonists... they gather to pray together... maybe all is as it seems (one scenario), but maybe there's something more sinister going on.
Perhaps... if you follow that pawn getting up out of bed at night and walking somewhere far in the dark... you'll see who/what he's meeting in secret...
Or idunno

Kind of like psychic drone, but instead of informing the player "oh, you know, there's a psychic drone now, so that explains why you get -15 to happiness for females", tell it in ingame stories.
Some of the pawns start gathering together to pray and will not accept any commands during that time... they get a happiness bonus and become more immune to breakdowns, but... if not dealt with, the colony can tear apart.


Etc.

There are probably a lot more ideas to steal from horror/mystery scifi type fiction.

So.. yeah.
To summarize: Suggest approaching some crisis in a way where a story, instead of information, is being told to the player.
This also allows for certain events which are told over time, starting out slow and with very few hints as to what's going on, and intensify from there