Initial Suggestions

[Insignus]

Hey all, I've been tooling around the alpha since it came out, and I finally figured I'd pop in and run some ideas. Now I am aware of the search feature, and have used it a bit. These are just a few general leads I would like to see in the game.

Permanent mineshafts and quarries: This has been mentioned in various forms, but I thought I'd iterate that no matter how large the maps become, you'll eventually run out of metal or stone to harvest. While you can conceivably get metal, stone would probably be a bit more impractical to cart around space. So, my suggest is to approach it in a manner similar to the way Banished does it (Banished is a recently released medieval town builder. A wee basic and such, but solid). Like Rimworld, Banished lacks a Z axis, so to compensate, mines and quarries are just static buildings workers enter. While this does provide ready access to raw materials, the drawback is that once placed, it can't be destroyed or reclaimed (Although that is more of a balance issue), and they have a finite supply of material (Once played out, they become big ugly holes in the ground) with a fairly large footprint. Also, the mines take stone to build and the quarries take metal to build. They're also dangerous, which in Rimworld could translate to a potential to damage or sinkhole nearby tiles. Thus, they'd need to be placed a bit farther away, which leads us to.....

Carts and sleds: While I imagine that Rimworld will eventually include armor items like backpacks that boost carry capacities and vehicles like rovers, and initial foray into those would the addition of simple metal survival sleds that your colonists can drag behind them, as well as carts that run on tracks capable of transferring from one stockpile to another. Here's how it would work: You place two stockpiles. Then you place a pair of cartstops adjacent to said stockpiles (Or perhaps 1 tile inside the stockpile, like the landing pad). You then connect the tracks and put a switch next to the cartstop (Later research may allow remote cart operation). When a colonist hits the switch, it calls the cart using power. Once at the cartstop, the user can right click on the cart and open a modified trader UI. This creates a queue of haul orders that a colonist will then carry out. Once loaded, the user tells the colonist on the other end to activate that switch, and off it goes. When a cart is at a stop, the user can right click and generate a "Load goods...." which opens the trade window, a "Load all" which fills the cart with as much cargo as possible, and and "Unload all" command.
These carts would come in very handy if the aforementioend mines/wquarries are added, and in general if some advanced stockpile commands come into play. Also, if you've got a mega massive colony, your main living space may be deep in the mountainside, but you may have farms spread all over.
And since I know you're going to ask, yes, you can put your colonists in the carts to give them a mood boost, and yes, you could also theoretically use them to mow down your enemies. Some form of guardrail and fence gate would probably be handy. Because nothing says doom like a cart loaded with 2 tons of stone barreling at you. (If you wanted to overload the engine and make the game eat more processor power, you could introduce a weight/speed equation). Did I mention the tracks and motorunits needed? Two forms of tracks full metal tracks that provide a boost in speed, metal/stone tracks that provide a powered but slow speed,and full stone tracks that are unpowered, requiring either pushing or a boosting station.

Why carts? Why not just put all your colonists on hauling? Because carts enable you to initiate and complete a hauling task over long distance while your colonists are free to go about their business. Fun times. We need carts.

3. Hard mode. I make this suggestion for nearly every game I play, but it would be very enjoyable if, as others have suggested, some form of toxic/vacuum atmosphere were added later on (Like, 7-8 months from now depending on developers progress) that required the construction of an emergency ad-hoc life support shelter. This would also let you eventually research terraforming for ultra-meta game goodness and epic challenges.

4. Components and buildings: This has been suggested before, but I'd like to reiterate it. Example: Solar power shouldn't be available initially. PVCs are not whip up jobs. Scavenging some cable and putting it in a wall, thats doable, but in the future, we could make buildings not require simply "Metal" but also components, perhaps those made at them there crafter tables and manufacturing stations (Such as a 3-d printer that initially lets you print out mini-solar panels). For initial power, and I'm serious, bicycles. No really. Or maybe a primitive steam wheel turbine (Something cheaper and much less advanced than a geothermal plant). Also, windmills. Or perhaps some solar panels drop during the crash, which can be used for initial ones.

Like I said, I like hard modes

Commence your "Dude we already suggested that" responses.