Huge Pile of Suggestions! Add yours!

[LouisTBR]

So, I have a group of suggestions in my mind that are either too small to require their own thread, or connect to each other in some way, or just simply better in a big spread! So, here they are:

Trenches:
Trenches provide cover, good shooting position and are easily constructed. In the Security tab, there would be a building 'Trench'. Every 1x1 square of dugout earth costs 1 Steel, for things such as support beams. In addition to this, there is also an option called 'Laddered Trench', which is a trench square with faster access. This costs 1 Steel and 1 Wood, and adds a wooden ladder aesthetic as well as 60% faster entry into the trench. Once colonists are in the trench line, they can move to any square in the trench and get out at any time. Movement in the trench is reduced to 70%. When drafted inside the trench, a colonist will be completely invincible to any gunfire while they are not shooting. The only time the colonist 'Pops Up' is when he/she is shooting. The colonist has to stand when the gun is cooling down, warming up and firing. In addition to the pop-up risk, even protected colonists are at risk from grenades. An accurate grenade in the trench is capable of seriously injuring and killing colonists, and due to the slow movement speed along, in and out of the trench, it is significantly harder to outrun. Enemies can also use trenches: When sieging, enemies may build trenches in case of a suprise attack. When they are preparing for the raid, currently enemies just stand around and have a chat. Each enemy may bring with them supplies for building a trench, and while preparing, they can build one near yours to create a real trench war atmosphere. They can also use prebuilt trenches.

Trench Mortar:
Requires Research and a 2x2 walkway in the trench. A small, more portable mortar equipped for trench combat. It fires artillery shells, and has a 7-8 second warmup, a 4 second cooldown time and a range of 30 tiles. Built using 100 Steel and 2 Components.

Advanced Trench Mortar:
Requires Research and a 2x2 walkway in the trench. An advanced version of the regular trench mortar, which has a 4-5 second warmup and a 2 second cooldown time. In addition to this, it can also be trained to a certain 3x3 square in its extended 40 tile range. This means that it can be turned on like an improvised turret, and will fire artillery shells at the target. Requires a hopper for the ammunition, which can be manually refilled throughout combat. Costs 220 Steel, 30 Plasteel and 5 Components.

Trench Railgun:
Requires Research and a 2x2 walkway in the trench. A manned turret placed on a trench square, capable of firing 20 rounds at a time in quick succession. It has a rather long warmup time of 6 seconds between bursts. Cannot shoot directly into a trench, but can shoot popped-up pawns as well as ground-level pawns. Costs 180 Steel, 20 Plasteel and 4 Components.

Razor/Barbed Wire:
A sandbag-like length of coiled wire, useful for no mans land inbetween trenches, no go areas and slowing raiders. It reduces movement speed by 70%, and has a high risk of injuring a pawn which stands on it. It can be shot through while causing minimal damage. Costs 3 Steel per square.
 
Tommy Guns:
Requires Research to Build. A heavy submachine gun. Capable of shooting 30 bullets at a time, but the warmup/cooldown time is high. Inaccurate but powerful. Costs 150 Steel, 10 Wood and 4 Components


Revolver:
A western-style weapon that fires 6 bullets at a time with a small delay. While the time between each shot is short, once 6 bullets have been fired it takes a considerable amount of time to warmup and reload. Not very accurate or powerful, but useful in close range standoffs. Costs 70 Steel and 2 Components


Heavy Doors:
Requires Research. A tough, plated door capable of withstanding extreme force. When attacked, the door loses hp 60% slower than a regular door. Requires 40 Steel and 10 Plasteel


Enemy Priority:
A way to control which enemies are attacked first, which of colonists attack each enemy, whether you want to'Kill' or 'Incapacitate' a certain enemy etc. When an enemy is selected, their are Health, Gear, Social and Character Tabs, but this feature adds an additional tab: 'Priority'. From here, you can see the full list of raiders, and you have options to kill or incapacitate (Maybe a Sniper Sight Pic for kill and handcuffs for incapacitate?), numbers from 1-(No. of raiders) to indicate attack priority and a colonist name beside each enemy which indicates who will attack who (Changeable).


Downed 'Kill' Option:
A simpler way to kill an incapacitated pawn. Rather than drafting a nearby colonist and manually attacking the pawn, there is a little Sniper Sight icon next to 'Strip' which can be turned on and off, designating that a hauler/hunter (?) should finish them off.


Combat Captain:
A colonist who is in control in a combat situation. You can manually select one colonist from the 'Work' tab to fulfill this role. In this colonists profile their is an additional tab which shows all colonists. From here, you can 'Draft All', and drag the colonist pictures to a certain square on the map. This signifies where the colonist will go to automatically when drafted. This can, of course, be manually overridden on that colonist's profile.


Mental Break Guns:
When a colonist breaks, they can only use melee weapons and their fists if they have a gun equipped. Instead of this, a colonists will effectively draft themselves when they break, which allows them to use whatever weapon they have equipped.

Animal Hunting Companions:
A bonded animal will always accompany its master when they hunt other animals, and currently their only purpose is to defend their master in case of a revenge attack. This mechanic will allow the pets to hunt with their master. This feature can be turned off in the master's profile tabs.

Barricades:
A simple construction which blocks entry to a door. Useful when raiders start to try and break in to an important room, such as your stockpile. The barricade not only denies entry, but, if attacked, breaks down 60% slower than just the single door. Costs 20 Wood and 1 Component

Kalashnikovs:
A cheap, assault-rifle type gun. Fully Automatic, capable of spraying numerous bullets at a time before requiring a reload. The reload time is very short compared to the assault rifle. Although it fires quick, it isn't highly accurate and lacks the power of a more expensive weapon. Useful for developing colonies. Costs 110 Steel and 3 Components.

Knuckledusters:
A heavy metal weapon worn across the knuckles to maximize punching power. Can be used alongside any 1-handed melee or ranged weapon. If the weapon breaks or drops the knuckledusters can be used as an advantage over regular fists, and can also be used between blows/swings of the melee weapon and shots of the ranged weapon. Costs 20 Steel and 5 Plasteel.

Grand Table:
A 2x8 square step up from a regular large table, complete with gold finishes. Gives a bigger mood buff to colonists who use it, as well as increasing a rooms beauty. Costs 100 Wood/Steel and 50 Gold.

Office Chair:
Not as comfortable as an armchair but better than stools and dining chairs. Gives a speed boost of 15% when used while researching. Costs 40 Steel/Wood and 10 Cotton/Leathers.

Arbitrary Traits:
Rather than having arbitrary traits such as sexuality and religion (vvv!) taking up valuable character trait spaces, there is an extra trait table with the sexuality (Straight/Gay) and with their religion.

Religion:
An arbitrary trait which 40% of people will have. The religions, bearing in mind this is the year 5500!, are all fictional. There are Spaceus, who worship space, Noxxians, who worship the diety Noxxu, and Silsonians, who worship the emperor Silac. (These are purely Fict-. Ok, purely a huge pisstake but-). Being religious requires a character to pray once a day, and this gives them a small joy boost. There can be relationship boosts between two believers in the same religion, but hostility can arise from two opposites.

Inter-Faction Aid:
If two factions have a good enough relationship, then they may give military aid to each other. If a group of raiders attacks a colony, then that colony's allies will step in to help. To add extra story, this will show up in a yellow notification like faction leader deaths. Your colony may also get free assistance from friendlies, but you can also manually ask a neutral colony to help you for a small price using the comms console. Beware that the faction you ask aren't friendly with the raiders, because they could gang up!

Farm Animals, Pets and Attack Animals:
Instead of having a colonist go berserk when the colony's pig gets slaughtered, all farm animals (Muffalos, Dromedaries, Cattle, Pigs, Chickens, Alpacas, Deer/Elk/Caribou, Ostriches/Emus/Cassowary etc.) cannot bond with a colonist. They can still be trained and assigned to a master, but the animals will not bond. Pets (Cats, Iguanas, Rats, Yorkies, Hares, Monkeys etc.) will bond and can still be trained. Attack Animals (Megatherium, Huskies, Lynx, Foxes, Labs, Megascarabs, Wargs, Thrumbos etc.) Can bond and be trained and treated in the way that pets would, but the bonded colonist suffers little to no mood debuff when they die, as this is likely to happen with attack animals.

Gibbets:
A far cry from Alpha 5, the gibbet cage is used as a way of scaring prisoners and raiders by inserting a carcass (Human or otherwise) and hanging up in full view. Humans corpses give a high debuff, whereas animal corpses give a reduced debuff. Costs 20 Steel

Fences:
Useful for farming. Can be used to cordon off areas for animals as well as to add aesthetic. Can be used to create a 'pen' for farm animals, in which you can grow haygrass or simply keep them away from your food! Costs 5 Wood/Steel per square. Gate Piece costs 10 Wood/Steel and 1 Component per square.

Well, that's about it! I'm sure there's more floating about in my head, and if you could add suggestions underneath that would be really helpful. Good ones will be added to this post. Thanks for reading!

[me911]

The inter faction aid thing already exists, you cancall for help in exchange for goodwill in the comms console or the event "XYZ have sent help" is random. You can't send them help though if that's what you meant abt I misunderstood?
The gibbets is an interesting idea, but what would be the advantage over just dumping a body? And would it give your colonists a de-buff aswell?
Other than that I think everything else are awesome ideas that you've clearly already thought of balancing for!

[LouisTBR]

Thanks buddy! In reply to your questions, I meant to expand the aid system by paying neutral factions to be on your side. I know this is already technically possible through gifting them silver to get goodwill, I didn't think about that. Well spotted! As for the gibbets, the advantage would be that it is purposefully placed there, which is more haunting (In my opinion) than it just being discarded. And, no, the colonists do not get a debuff. This is why it is useful as a deterrent and as a grave. Thanks for the feedback!