A HUGE thread with ideas

[Darkfirephoenix]

I really love this game and I want to give some ideas I have. It is possible that some of the ideas are already posted/implemented (via mods etc.). For all mod creators out there: You can use my ideas at will, but I would like an information/question about it and some feedback what you deem a good idea and what you think is a bad idea!
ATTENTION: Long wall of text of doom from my brain incomming!

First of: Water and water-related stuff

Yes I know that many want this and here are my ideas about it:

Bodies of water (lakes, rivers etc.), air-moisture, moisture in general (moist/wet grass won't burn for sh... for example)

Water related Techs:
Well/Pump/Automated Well (to get groundwater), water-collectors (from rain-collecting to getting water from the moisture in the air [Water-trap, works like a wind-trap and could be combined]), power generation from/with water, waste/sewage-water and water-treatment

And for the transportation: Either water is handled as the other resources, or the liquids are transported via pipes etc. (Pipes, Liquid-tanks etc.)

Power-generation ideas:

Steam-generator, Combustion-generator, Gas-generator, Wind-power, Fission and Fusion power. Maybe even "Bio-Power": Organic beings produce electricity on their own (mainly animals, Humans etc.), so an "Bio-Generator/Reactor" would be possible. "Forced/Artificial" Geothermal power: As there are tests in RL with it already, I think it could be implemented too, but it HAS drawbacks: You have to drill deep and then pump water down and because of this "forced" process there is seismic activity (lowering/raising of the ground [wich results in damage to buildings. Buildings wich stand in the are for a long time got cracks etc. AFTER it was used/tested in the area] and micro-earthquakes)

"New resources":

Water, Sewage, Low % Alcohol, High % Alcohol, Fuel, Gas (maybe different kinds?), "Low-Tech materials" (wood or such), High-Tech-Materials (Carbon fibers etc.), Plant-Mass, Organic-Mass, Anorganic/Nuclear waste, Oil, Chemicals

Plants / ideas for them:

Bamboo (wich isn't it already in the game?! It's one of the most usefull plants. You can eat it, build stuff with it etc.)
Plants wich will produce other stuff besides food (chemicals, drugs), aggressive plants (Man-eating plants / Meat/Flesh eating plants). And they will spread on their own depending on their Spread rate and they'll even spread to other zones
And plants should have their own stats: Growth and Spread rate, water need, Fruit/Chem/Drug yield, "Terraforming" value, Cold/Heat resitance etc.
Manipulation of plants: Change/Manipulate their growth rate, water need, fruit yield and spreading rate

Creation of Alcohol/Fuel:

Destillery (non-/electrical): You put some plants in and get Alcohol an Fuel out of it. Ethanol and Methanol are produced, one of them is EXTREMLY bad for you (both are bad but one of them is a real killer.... don't remember wich though  ) and would be used as Fuel and you could use the High-%-Alcohol in cases of need as fuel too. Your colonists will change High-% in Low-% to be able to drink it at an rate (they'll water it down, because drinking 80% Alcohol is a bad idea)

Planets, Planet-Zones etc.

Not really HARD Zones/Planets more like different stats to them: Moisture, Temperature etc.
Examples: Hot and High-moisture = Jungle, Cold and High-moisture = Snow/Ice, Hot and low/no-moisture = Desert

These "Main"values will decide on "Sub"values
Examples: "Jungle" will result in more Fauna, Flora and water, wich means more food, but higher chances for hostile creatures / plants
"Snow/Ice" will result in much water for use, but less/no Fauna and Flora and the risk of your colonists freezing to death

And then there are the Resource values: Metals etc.
And some "extras": Alien-ruins, Wreckage etc. (example: an zone with an already established "Base" is easier to colonise, but the question is: Why is it empty/abandoned? ..... What was that shadow?! )

You could scout zones to be able to find a suitable place for an "Sub"-colony, wich you don't really control but it will provide you with resources (water, metal, uranium etc.), it will grow etc.
"Colonising" zones takes an amount of materials and food and ofc. an amount of colonists you choose, don't even try sending an 5 ppl colonising force without weapons into an dangerous zone, it will end in a disaster.

You could even gift/trade the data of one of your scouted zones with another faction this would allow some "nice" plays: A faction is nearly wiped out by raiders/another faction wich wants the zones your "friends" are currently in and your friends want to go to another zone to avoid conflict. You could give them info about a good zone with many resources and no danger or you give them a zone with many resources BUT many/great dangers.... You can decide wich info you give about the zones.

Info for Terraforming: Just planting plants with high "Terraform" value, won't work. They will move it into an more "Eden" like direction but won't step over "borders" (won't push "very cold" to "cold"), you will need special Terraforming tech to do it.

Machines

Terraformer: Will turn the planet into the direction you want, environment wise: Higher/Lower Temperature etc. Will mainly change your zone and slowly the planet overall. But 1 Terraformer alone will take a ton of power and won't change the planet fast.... 1 Terraformer would take around 10 in-game years to change the planet, but it also depends on the size of the planet (amount of "zones"), how far the environment is away from the targeted goal and the "Quality" of the Terraformer.
"Grinder": Will turn Meat/Humans/Animals/Waste-Meat into Organic-Mass, Plants/Fruits will get turned into Plant-Mass. The Mass can be cooked, inserted into an Paste-Dispenser, or eaten raw (but it will give an morale penality, regardles if it was Human meat or not, it is all turned into the main componenets so it doesn't matter [as long as you don't know it that is! ])
Compostation/Bio-gas production: for fertilizer and Bio-gas for the gas-generator. You can used all organic stuff for it (including Humans, organic-mass etc.)
Assembler/Auto-Assembler: "Low-tech": Assembler will produce stuff if you give it the needed materials and that faster than a human could, "High-Tech": will produce stuff from RAW-materials and that much faster than a human. Both would be the only way of getting the even more High-tech stuff

Now to some techs:

Cloning: as the name suggest you can clone your colonists or even create completly new ppl
Learning/Brainwashing Tech: Allows your ppl to learn skills in an VR-chair... And Prisoners can be faster "convinced" to join you.... We don't talk about it but you could change it from "Nice" to "Torturing" 
Chemicals/Medicine: Even if there is no Oil on the planet you can get the componenets for Chemicals/Drugs/Medicine from plants (some plants directly produce some drugs etc.), you'll get the componenets for Drugs etc. via "cracking" the molecules of Plant-Mass or Organic-Mass (most of our drugs are Oil based and Oil was living stuff before, so that isn't that far away)
Stasis-Tanks: Storage for Colonists, Prisoners for further healing/drugging/Brain-washing, but only with additional tech. So you stun an aggressive person and put them in and then "work" on them: Drugs to pacify them / Cure them from their psycho behavior etc.
Robotics/Automation: Allows production of robots for different purposes and overall automation. (example: Auto-Hydro-tables, wich will plant, grow, water, harvest etc. the plants. Robots for manual labor: Mining, building, cleaning etc. Could be avaible in different focus and with different power supplies)
Computing/Self-learning-Programms/AI: To give your machines an "intelligence" and support for organisation, research etc. most techs would take AGES to research without support from computers and it would improve the overall efficency of automation etc. (better/computer controlled machines, generators etc.)
Nano-technology: Nano-fibres/materials, Nano-construction, Nano-Medicine, Nano-Machines etc.

Some ideas for research

The main topics: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Research/Knowledge accumulation etc.
Sub-topics (can have more than 1 main topic): Automation/Machines, Power storage, Power Generation, Bio-tech etc.

As it is already suggest somewhere else: Research with an specific goal, general research in a topic (without an preset goal, wich could result into finding new "topics" [genetic-manipulation, cloning etc. for BIOLOGY for example]) and designing/improving techs (for example an higher class fission-reactor [more power with less uranium usage, less chance for accidents, less materials used for the construction and less space needed]). It would go like this: PROTOTYPE, Mk. I, Mk. II, Mk. III etc. but there should be an cap ofc. and you could still upgrade the already built machines (either transform the prototype into an Mk. I or give it an 25% boost an the aspects [these values are all examples ofc. and maybe need some tweaking for balance issues])

Ideas for Factions/realtions etc.

Requests for help from both sides (materials, new colonists, Techs, infos etc.), more in-dept diplomacy, different leading systems for other factions (democracy, autocracy etc.), "sabotage": sending poisonus food, poisoning water-supply, "Bio attacks" (sending an ill colonist to them, infected food/materials).

More will follow, I have to sort my ideas first and "re-think" some stuff I may have forgotten. I'll flesh the ideas out a bit more later, maybe you could help with it and even provide some nice new ideas too! 

[EarthyTurtle]

I like a fair amount of these ideas personally. Some I just feel don't fit with the game theme, but that's me personally.

I think water could be interesting to have in the game, I don't know if there plans to be new environments later on. This could be apart of an update introducing new environments. Not sure about moisture though. Water tech is interesting, a lot of those techs are geared towards colonists having to drink. I mean if it's implemented wells and water collectors would be good to have but otherwise I think hydroelectric power would be satisfactory. Maybe even means of fishing, or bridges to cross large rivers so colonists don't get carried away by the rapids (in theme with your large bodies of water).

As for power generation, I agree in your variety of electrical options. I can certainly see Nuclear reactors becoming apparent in the games future (with uranium currently in the game). Wind power as a useful, yet unreliable source of energy. Depending on weather conditions power output would vary. Fusion however I feel is a bit too much like a nuclear reactor, and perhaps not really needed. Just my personal thoughts, good idea still. As for steam, geothermal energy is basically a steam driven generator .
Solar Panels: Generates energy from sunlight during the daytime. Cannot generate power at night.
Wind Turbines: Generates minimal energy depending on wind speed. Generates more power during windy/stormy weather.
(River Idea) Hydro-Electric Generator: Uses flowing water to generate consistent power.
Geothermal Generator: Generates a lot of energy from active steam geysers.
Nuclear Reactor: Extremely high power output. Highly Volatile and when destroyed causes massive deadly explosions. Consumes Uranium to produce energy.

Dunno how I feel about grading materials, might be useful but I'm content otherwise.

I would love to see more plants, could be tied into new environments even. I mean it's understandable that bamboo wouldn't grow in arid conditions. Perhaps plants with medical properties that could be used to heal colonists quicker (obviously medkits found in the game would be the best means of healing). But yeah, trees, shrubs, environments, you name it I'm for it.

I'm not so much a fan of 'making fuel' or alcoholic liquids. Sorry but combustion methods of generating energy, where you have to make and refine your own fuel, seems to include a lot of unnecessary effort in comparison to just sticking up a lot of renewable energy options that run themselves.

You talk about different planets which I am in favour of in the form of new environments. However terraformers I am not in favour of. Too advanced for my likings. Same things with cloning for me, genetic manipulation is not something that you can just take up as a passing hobby. It just makes getting colonists too easy. Brainwashing tech sounds good, but maybe on a more basic level. For example inorder to recruit a prisoner you need to have 'friendly chat' enabled for the prisoner. But perhaps using a torture option, water boarding or electrical shock treatment.... Yes I do like to play using 'fear' as a method of keeping my colonists in line. No judging

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Well i tried to cover that as best I can. ^^;

[Darkfirephoenix]

Well most of my ideas would fit in the setting and the stuff about Fusion power, cloning and terraforming is a extreme late game idea.
A fusion powerplant would only need "water" as fuel (yes you have to crack it up into it's componenets), but a ton of metal and a ton of power to start the fusion. I'm thinking about seperating the power generation from Low to High, meaning: The first fusion power plant you are able to build is rather "cheap" power wise but it takes a ton of metal and it's not as efficient and safe (you can compare an early combustion engine against the engines we have now, the material and fuel needed is far less and we get far more power outta it! ). I think about different sizes for them too, like 5x5, 10x10, 20x20 etc. maybe even make an minimum size for them. And the better version have to be researched ofc too. .... Hrmm and you need a ton of computing/calculating power to keep it safe, it may not be as dangerous as an Fission Reactor but you have still something that reaches the temperatures of the sun, so it would burn/ignite most of the stuff around it if there is a problem. But it won't blow up like a Fission Reactor because it's "controlled", it needs a steady supply of fusion material and the supply would automatically and instantly shut down if there is a failure/problem.

About the Terraforming: I could imagine most ppl who crash land on a planet to either want to flee asap or make it more suitable for themselfes. It could even work in different ways: I suggested a terraforming MACHINE, but you can also terraform planets via changing the eco-system etc. but it takes far more time (and even 1 Terraformer wouldn't turn the planet into an Eden in an acceptable amount of time, you would need at least 10-20 of them and each of them would take the power of 1 Fusionpower-plant ALONE)

Same with the Cloning/Genetics: High-end stuff wich takes a ton of reasearch, power and materials. You would have to first research a way of making stemcells etc. And please don't forget that cloning has a BIG drawback: It takes as long as the "normal" way, unless you want to speed the process up via shortening the life cycle, growth hormones etc. It would be an branch on a research tree, wich would include better healing (cloned arms, legs etc.) and would allow you take make better plants and animals for your use (we are doing that already in RL and that even without Labs etc. via slective breeding [yes it's genetic manipulation, because WE decide what the offspring should have and not nature]) and even make meat for you to eat (that is already in development in RL btw).

About making Alcohol: We are in some kind of Space-Western, so why no booze? You could not only use it for "fun" but also to do usefull stuff, like using it as fuel, to treat wounds, make weapons (molotovs) etc.

About the plants/Chems/Drugs: You have mostly the same view as me. Some plants should give (weak) Chemicals/Drugs on their own (harvesting), but you could process them further to make more complex and better stuff from them. Besides Plants: Why do the colonists rip the whole Berry-Bush outta the ground instead of only harvesting it? It is a waste of time! I could understand if the plant has reached it limit for fruits for it's lifetime but atm it's like: "Oh look the Strawberry bush has fruits! Let's rip it outta the ground to get the berries!" 
And about the Bamboo: Yes it needs a bit more moisture, but not more than Strawberries!    I want far more plants: Man-eating/Flesh-eating, poisonus, Mushrooms (for the more dark places, they could even glow, have other effects etc.), self-spreading plants (Bamboo would be one of these, if you don't keep it in check you'll have an Bamboo-wood within half a year if not faster!... It would make a good natural wall, wouldn't it? ) etc.

[Cala13er]

With your permission, I would like to feed ideas of this post for my mod (found in description)

[Darkfirephoenix]

Go on and use my ideas as you wish! I would really love to see them implemented and it would even increase the likelyhood of them getting implemented into the main game! I will update this thread every-time I have new ideas and/or improvements! You can message me if you need some more ideas and could you mention my name in your credits? This isn't even 1% of the ideas I have! The only problem is to write them down/describe them I hate it  when I have a good idea and I can't describe/explain it!  .... Man I have so many ideas for games, I'm kinda flooding the Cataclysm Forum too!

[Darkfirephoenix]

Further ideas for Factions

Other Races than Humans:

An faction wich consits only of Robots, either abandoned Human Robots and/or Alien-Robots wich "survived" the end of their creators. They could either be present from the start, or "awakend" by searching Ruins/wreckage in some other zone. You could even create them by "accident" with an "bad" programming of your AI/Robots and their goal could then be to find a suitable place for them / destroying all organic beings etc. (you could even ALLOW your AI to go if it gets self-aware and give it info, support etc. to build it's own colony)

An Hive like Faction (like bees, ants etc.), wich is active from the start or "awakens" by searching caves etc. and could even be created by an Genetic-"accident" on your part (yes playing with genetics is fun but also dangerous). It could range from Bee/Ant like, up to "Zerg" like behaviour (covering everything in their own Bio-mass and assimilating/harvesting).

An Alien race found in Ruins/Wreckage...

I think all factions should have stats/goals on their own:

Hard to change stats/values:

Morals/Honor: Could range from non-existing to Saint. It decides how they stand to different actions and how often or if they would use them. You can expect an faction with low to no morale to send poisoned food, don't give all infos/give false infos etc. But they still could be "good" allies if they like you.

Opinion about others: Their base look about other factions could range from: "Hates all other races/factions" to "Loves everyone else". The extremes would make hate/love everyone else regardles of their actions (but the friendly would still defend themselfes), everything in between is just the starting point for their opinion. And based on how much a faction likes you, you would get help from them IF you get help. (An no-morale faction wich hates you MAY help you, but.... Why does this food taste so funny? )

Intelligence level (mainly for the "animal like" factions): From low to high, low intelligence would only allow basic interactions, higher intelligence allows more options but also higher costs for trade (you can't sell ppl glass as gems if they know it etc.), different values for trade, different chances of succes of plots (poisonus food/water, withholding infos etc.)

Technology level: like intelligence level, it will also change the weapons they have. Most factions would have  lower/same Tech level as you and the only exception would be the Aliens. Robots and "Animals" would have higher tech in their area of tech (Robots would have high Technology knowledge [Machines etc.], the "Animals" would have higher knowledge in Biologic aspects)

Environment preferences: Wich climates a faction preferes. Humans would ofc prefer Earth/Eden like, Robots may like Hot and dry (depending on wich Techs they have), "Animal like" would prefer Jungle (hot and high moisture. It would give them more food) etc.

More frequently changing stats/values:
Amount of members, food, weapons, materials etc.

[Darkfirephoenix]

Some more ideas:

Reviving/Reanimation tech: Allows you to take a dead colonist and revive him. Skill loss and other bad stuff is depending on the amount of time the person is dead and after an amount of time you can't revive them anymore. The only hindrance for reviving/reanimating is the decay in the brain, as long as the brain is in good condition there are no side-effects, but if the brain already started decaying there will be problems (memory loss etc.) and if the decay is progressed too far it is impossible to revive/reanimate an person.

Atomic Dis/assembler: Will crack ANY matter on the Subatomic level and reassemble them into the kind of matter you want. It is an EXTREME high tech and takes tons of power to do it's job. The exchange rates are different for each item you put in. Uranium is one of the most expensive ones, because it has an high number of atoms that allows it to be transformed (for example) into ~5 pieces of iron.

Mindcontrol Beacon: Would allow you to change/controll the thoughts of other beings for an relative high power usage (takes more power if you try to controll more ppl / change/controll their thoughts more). Has different kinds of action: Aggressive, Friendly, Pacifying, Moral boost, Moral drain, COMPLETE CONTROL etc. Aggressive would make beings aggressive and let them attack every other being near them etc. It would have an AoE wich you target and everyone who stood in this AoE as it was activated is under the influence until the Machine is turned of (either from you, by destruction or by power loss).

Mental connection core: Allows your colonists to communicate with eachother via thoughts, wich would give them an permanent Moral boost and an boost to all skills, because the other could support them with knowledge (would give the highest skill [allowed/avaible. Because of the knowledge of the person with the highest skill], give an bonus to shooting with others and an boost to research). It needs an Brain-connection either via implant or other way (in an Stasis-pod etc.)

Robots: Different kinds of Robots: Specialised to an task (mining, cleaning, building/repairng), or an all around worker. With different ways of powering: Batteries (needs to recharge), Fission (you don't wanna blow them up near you, believe me!), Fusion etc. Different way of controling: Manual (from an terminal and will shut down if there is no one controlling), Half-automated (works on it's own but can still be turned of via terminal), Automated (hope you programmed them right, or else...)

[Benny the Icepick]

A lot of these ideas are amazing, but others feel kind of power-gamey.  In my opinion what the game needs is more breadth and richness to expand the storytelling component, rather than ways to help you "win."

To me, the best suggestions in this thread are those that expand the environment and the way players interact with it.  Greater variety of flora and fauna, more variability in climatic/environmental conditions, additional kinds of challenges to overcome, a legitimate multi-tiered tech tree that is both increasingly difficult and increasingly rewarding, etc.

The goal of all of this for Tynan is not only implementing this stuff in code, but making sure the game stays balanced.  The last game I played in Alpha 2 ran almost 400 days long, at which point repelling hundreds of raiders at a time was mundane and routine, and no other calamity resulted in any serious challenge to my colonists.  I want richness in the story, excitement and unpredictability, constant wonder about what will come next, and continual development for my colonists.

[Darkfirephoenix]

You want more story? I already have suggested some nice ways for more story possibilities: You searching through a zone and waking up another faction (High-Tech Aliens, Assimilating/Devouring Aliens etc.), your AI going all HAL9000 on you, "accidents" with genetic research/manipulation, accidents and other fun with Fission-Reactors / Radioactive substances, maybe zone to planet wide "changes" (volcanoes, earthquakes, melting of great amounts of ice [if you are on an Ice planet you should hope that you didn't settle in an area wich will end under the ocean level! ], droughts, storms etc.) and many more possibilities. Self-replicating machines, Planet devouring Nanoswarms, you name it and I will deliver ideas for it! And don't forget that you all can post ideas here too!

[Darkfirephoenix]

Some ideas for adding Computer/Calculating power: As I posted earlier I would love some kind of Calculating power, so you can speed up research, control machinery and robots/work-drones (the mechanical kind).

Computer/Calculation core: Same size as the comms console and has an relative high amount of "Calculating power", is needed if you wan't to use automated machines, robots etc.

"Servers" (maybe someone else has a better name for it?): Same size as the batteries and would come in different kinds too, has less CP (Calculating Power) than the core but take less power.

"Cables" (these are just placeholder names, I'm not good with naming stuff): Work like the electrical cables

Wireless-Connector: Needed to control Robots and transfers CP to every other Wireless-Connector, so you don't have to place CP cables from one end of your base to the other

CP-Research-station: Like an reserach table but with an CP connection to speed up research via simulating, calculating etc.

Robot/Drone control unit: In different qualitys (better quality = more Robots/Drones controlled) and 2 kinds of them: Automatic and Colonist-controlled (Automatic needs no ppl as the name suggests, but takes more CP. The one controlled by an colonist takes less CP but needs and Colonist or else the Robots/Drones controlled by it shut down)

It would work like a second power grid and the power used rises with the amount of CPs used.

[Darkfirephoenix]

Robots and Drones

First: these require CP for control and an Robot/Drone Control unit.

Modular build: You don't directly build Robots/Drones, you put different Modules together to make them, ofc you have to build/craft the modules first.

Movement-modules: legs, hover, wheels etc. Theses will determine the movement speed, max. weight (weight of the robot/drone + weight of carried stuff) and ability to pass terrain (Example: hover gets no slowdown from rough terrain and can even pass deep water etc.)

"Work"-modules: Arm, Drill, weapons, probing-drill etc.

Power-modules: Batteries, Fuel, Solar, Fission, Fusion etc. (Robots/Drones require power to function and will stop/shut down if they have no power, they will automatical go to their "Garage" for "refueling" if they run low [you yourself can set at wich % they will go back])

"Special"-modules: Sensors, Storage-unit (can transport materials without blocking the "work"-modules [Example: An human would put materials into his bag so he has his arms free to keep working]), Armor, "Shields", Analyser, Transport-Unit (to transport Colonists/Robots), Nano-Selfrepair, Calculating-Core etc.

Control-modules: Receiver, Learning-Core, AI-core etc.

Drones are smaller than Robots and their main jobs are: Hauling, Scouting, Evacuating (Transporting of Colonists wich need help, retrieving Robots wich shut down), fighting, Plant-Harvesting etc.

Modules come in different "Tech-levels" too, example: Metal-Drill, Titanium-Drill. This will affect the weight, working speed, power consumption/production/storage etc.

Here are some ideas what you could do with this all:
1 Large Main Robot, wich has: AI-Core,Calculation-Core, Controlunit, an Strong Power generation module (Fission/Fusion), Dis/Assembler, smelting-unit, Recharging unit (for other Robots) and 2 Large Storage units.
2 Scouting Drones (to search for resources, new plants/animals etc.), 4 Haul/Transport drones, 2 Mining/Building robots, 4 Combat Robots
This could be an automated and self replicating/repairing "troop", wich would prepare an base for your Colonists to establish an sub-Colony / the base setup for an AI you allowed to found it's own faction/Colony

[Darkfirephoenix]

Some ideas for weapons:

Energy weapons:

Plasma: Rifle, Turret, grenades, "Thrower" (like an flamethrower but with plasma, it's deadly on close distance but utterly useless after 10m [or even less])

Laser: Pistol, Rifle, Turret

Microwaves: Rifles, Turrets (causes mayor pain and only less damage)

Others:
Poison-dart Rifle: Has a rather long range but doesn't do much damage if you hit, the poison however will cause damage over time to everything hit
Flame/Chemthrower: Flamethrower is self-explaining: You have it, you know it, you use it, you love it!  The Chemthrower works like the Flamethrower but is even more disturbing, it melts the flesh of the bones and is poisonus. Both have an range of around 20-30m
Paralyse-dart Rifle: Like the Poison one but it doesn't cause 2real" damage, rather it paralyses it's victim so you can capture them (maybe an extra "paralyse/stun" bar implementing?)
Stun-gun: Pistol and Rifle, don't do damage, just stun/paralyse the target at an close range (it's more an shotgun than an rifle really, because if you use tazer-tech the "bullet" has to be rather large)
Gas-Grenades: Come in different flavours: Poison, Paralyse, Fear/Demoralise, EMP

Defenses:
Shock/Electricity/Tesla "Turrets": Have an AoE and will shock everyone in this area if an hostile enters the zone
Electric fence: Low, High and Ultra-High (or as we call it: The Bug roaster! ), Low will only cause pain and will keep animals in areas where they should stay, High will deal quite a bit of damage and everyone eho touches it will have to be taken to safety (insta stun) and finaly Ultra-High: You touch it, you die (except ofc you are immune to electricity) but it takes tons of power
Gas-Mines: Hidden (won't be attacked by anyone until activated), proximity or manual activation, different gases, but have to be refilled after use (more like an gas vent than a mine wich blows up)

And I'm still thinking about more stuff. Please give me your thoughts about my ideas and possible your own ideas!

[Darkfirephoenix]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Asml8fbv8eNDdGZLVjFJaWFvUk9aamNfbnpvZXZuZVE&usp=sharing
This is the Link to my basic research ideas, I would love some ideas to make it more "refined", because this are the Main and Sub topics and there would be even more Sub-Sub topics (the actual topics wich give you access to the techs/machines etc.) And before anyone asks: No I haven't sorted it yet, I would really love to work with some Mod-devs to make an real research tree outta it, so you just have to ask me if you wanna help with it (and my ideas in general! )
Some researches even need other researches to give you techs/machines, example: You may research Fusion-power but you still need magnetics and Metalurgy to build an Fusion-generator and even if you have Fusion-power researched to the max you won't be able to build small Fusion-Reactors because you need better knowledge about Magnetics and Metalurgy first. (Magnetic fields are the main reason why the Plasma doesn't melt it's way through the Generator walls, because Plasma can be manipulated via Magnetic fields)

Further ideas:

Radiation Shielding / Solarflare Protection: Isolation of equipment to make them immune to Solarflares (takes extra materials to construct... maybe 10-20% more?), "Radiation Shield": An machine wich has an AoE in wich it creates an magnetic field to deflect the Radiation of Solarflares, it has an internal power storage (works like a battery but only takes power in) so you can still activate it AFTER/WHILE you got an Solarflare, but it takes good amounts of power. Main use would be to protect important machines from shutting down (power-generation/storage, Turrets etc.)

Radar: To get an warning/info when and how many raiders will come (may tell you how many raiders will drop from orbit and where but only shortly before it happens), give you an Mini-map and allows you to "see" nearby planet-zones.

Information centre: Avaible in different Tech-levels: Low tech: Plain old paper maps with infos on an table, Medium Tech: Computers with maps, infos, 3D simulation all on an computer screen, High-Tech: Holographic simulation of the area, infos etc. The Tech-levels determine how fast infos are avaible, how good you can plan and how fast the infos can be transfered (from scouting team to the Centre, from the Centre to Colonising/Combat team etc.)

[Darkfirephoenix]

And more ideas:

Diseases / Illneses: Humans, animals and plants can get "sick" (plants have blight already but with no warning time). They would get different de-buffs from them: Slower walking/working speed, slowly loosing health etc. You can research them and create a vaccine against them, but you would have to "update" it from time to time, because bacteria, virus etc. develop resitances. Some nice side-effects: You could trade the vaccine with your "neighbors" (they could ask for it, trade for it etc.) and if you researched an disease you can use it yourself (and even alter it)

Crystals: Wild growing crystals (grow like plants... yes I KNOW that someone has already an mod for such a thing), wich can be used for different stuff: weapons, construction etc. It glows and emits light on it's own. Flavour text: "COLONIST found some strange crystals, they seem to grow like plants and seem to have other unique abilities: As mentioned before, they grow like plants. The reason for this ability isn't photosynthesis or such, they rather collect and store energy and repair damage to their structure. We suspect that we could use them to make better power storage, weapons and other usefull stuff!"

Regenerating/self-repairing Walls/Buildings: You can research an tech wich allows you to build regenerating/self-repairing Building/Walls. This could be accomplished via mayor research of Biology/Nano-tech/Crystal-tech (aka "Living Buildings/Walls, Nano Buildings/Walls or Crystal Buildings/Walls). Here a bit flavour I thought for the Crystal: "After in dept analysis of the crystals and our experience with it, we came to the conclusion that it may be possible to make an "regenerating Wall" out of it. Our earlier tests have shown that the crystal grows and "repairs" itself via collecting and storing energy, so we suspect that if we make an crystal wall and apply power to it, it would repair any damage it takes (if it is destroyed it won't work anymore obviously and it takes an power supply for it to regenerate). An nice side effect: The wall would transfer energy perfectly (even better than most of our own ways to transfer energy)"

Some other crystal techs/buildings etc.:

Crystal improved Energy generation: "These crystals collect ANY form of energy, but mainly: Sunlight and HEAT (it seems however that the crystal doesn't goe beyond 20 degrees celsius in it's collection process). So we came up with the idea of using it as an "Heat collector". We waste 70-80% energy in form of heat wich goes into the environment, so if we apply the crystal to, for example, an Geothermal Generator, we would get nearly double the output. I think we should research further.... This crystal can't be normal... it is so usefull and you can use it in so many ways, I think that someone, something has created it for it's purpose..." Would open an new research branch, wich improves power generation and storage.

Crystal Solar collectors: "Our normal Solar collectors have only an rate of ~10% in terms of energy collection, however: the crystals we found are specifically "designed" to collect power, wich lead us to the idea to use them as an "Crystal Solar Collector". We suspect that the Crystal only uses ~10% of the collected energy and stores the "leftover" for later (in case it is "hurt" etc.)"

Crystal Fission Reactor: "Further Test revealed that the Crystal absorbs Radiation even better than Sunlight and Heat. We encased an piece of uranium with crystal and couldn't even measure any radiation outside, it seems like the crystal absorbs radiation like an sponge... to be more exact: It seems like the Crystal "attracts" the radiation from the environment. In the light of this discovery we think that it is possible that we could build an "Crystal Fission-Reactor".... Really, this crystal... If it would be possible to build an Starship-hull completely out of this crystal?..."

More to follow.

[spatula]

there's some cool ideas in here. i agree with some others that some are a bit "power-gamer" (ie. add more complexity as opposed to general environment). I don't think you should be able to clone/revive the dead.. already i feel dirty loading save games after a bad raid, because the story of the one-man-who-survived-when-three-generations-died or no-one-who-lives-here-even-knew-the-original-colonists-at-this-point are what makes each game fun to play. If you could restore/clone your favorites, they become less important.

I particularly like the suggestions regarding robots, AI, drones, setting up computer servers- it hints towards some kind of tech-based endgame and with AI running the base it could be cool... turrets are more accurate, power management shuts down unneeded devices, eliminate giant nutrient paste machines with food replicators in the walls and AI managed food tubes (maybe an evil option to force feed colonists while they sleep so they never eat while awake), holographic medical docs you can purchase from trade ships, ai personality styles, and on the flip side, potential AI rebellions, high power demands, viruses/bugs that disable systems for days). Some cool stuff in that direction for sure. Could be kind of steampunk theme and work without being too hipster.

I'd say you don't want to make too many options to do the same thing, like power or whatever- even play Space Station 13? I pretty much need the wiki open whenever I play because each job is so goddamn complicated... takes the fun out, so invariably I just end up going to the bar and trying to get people into some bizarre roleplay where we have to space monkeys or something. One time I turned into a crab in that game. That was a great day. Anyway, off topic....

what I'd love to see in the core gameplay is just more variety in random events... getting two raiding parties or a raid during an eclipse which ends just at the last second are the parts that get me pumped. I'd like to see more events that if simultaneous would create new challenges... like if AI made all the turrets target friendlies during a raid, it would be like Wwhat?! The most fun I've had is seeing random interactions... interact! Like one time, two factions friendly to me but enemies of each other had a fight to the death in front of my base and the survivors were picked off by a rampaging muffalo... it didn't even involve my guys and I sat there thrilled before looting the corpse field.

Anyway, there is some coool stuff in here!