Why don't Orbital Trade Ships just rescue the colonists?

[Penguinmanereikel]

This is more of an in-universe question, but if colonists can trade their prisoners to the Orbital pirate traders, then how come the Orbital Traders can't just take the rest of the colonists (in the case of the Crashlanded Scenario) on a trip back home? Wouldn't that be easier than trying to build a space ship or traveling literally to the other end of the planet?

http://www.rimworldcomics.com/page/68

[ReZpawner]

Would that be fun? "Well, I finally got my communcation thingy up. Oh look - a trader. Game over. "

[O Negative]

Eh, just a minor plot/lore hole.

One could argue that such a thing is highly illegal interstellar hitchhiking. That's probably the most likely potentially official reason

[khearn]

This has come up before. The best explanation I saw in the last thread was "Would you willingly go into cryosleep in a ship that you had just seen buying and selling slaves?" You might just find yourself in chains when you wake up.

[ArguedPiano]

I believe the official response was somewhere along the lines of:
"It would be like asking why a fishing boat in Taiwan doesn't take you to America" (Don't quote me on this)

[Canute]

Main reason are , the trading ships are only interplanetar ships not interstellar. They just travel between the different planets at the rimworld solarsystem which got multiple planets at a habitat zones, not just the one you currently landed.

[Calahan]

I believe the official response was somewhere along the lines of:
"It would be like asking why a fishing boat in Taiwan doesn't take you to America" (Don't quote me on this)

Close, but not close enough for a gold star. As it was Liberia not Taiwan

None of the traders you communicate with are interstellar traders. None of them are going anywhere you'd want to travel to, nor could they, since they don't have starships.

This is like being in a remote fishing town in Libera and asking, "Why can't I just pay one of the fishermen $10 to take me back to Los Angeles?"

(And there's nowhere else you want to be in-system more than you already are, since you chose your landing site when the game started. There are no cities or spaceports, as you can see on the world map.)

(although Tynan also fails to get gold due to his typo. Although apologies to both Tynan and the good people of "Libera" if there is such a place. Unless Tynan was actually referring to the English all-boy choir called "Libera", according to Google. In which case TIL that there is an English choir that formed a town which also plays a part in the fishing industry. A genuinely surprising discovery that!).

[zztong]

The reason given doesn't really make sense, but its part of the charm of the game. Just laugh it off.

Yes, the Liberian fishermen cannot take you to Los Angeles. But the Liberian fisherman can rescue you from being stranded, starving, exposed to the elements, being attacked by raiders, and deadly insect infestations. Then, once you're back to the fishing village, you might be able to arrange something further.

Have you ever watched an empty map after your colony has escaped to space? Escape pods land roughly every 3-4 days. Are they just attracted to that part of the globe, or are they raining down all around the planet? There must be lots and lots of ships up there.

But again, this is all part of the charm of the game. Don't change a thing.

[ReZpawner]

Just to be pedantic (because despite my efforts in trying to find a place called Libera, all I could find was a restaurant in Poland):

You could offer the fisherman $10 to take you to land, where you could run with your awesome bionic legs to Roberts International Airport in Liberia, where you could grab a flight to LAX for as low as $1100 with only two stops. It should get you there in just under 24 hours.

Do remember that LA itself has a thriving drug-scene, so there's no need at all to bring drugs on the plane. Infact, the customs agents prefer if you don't bring any at all on international flights. If you do have a luciferium need, be sure to use this prior to checking in.
Also do remember that guns are stored underneath the airplane in the luggage section, as there is very little room for weaponry in the overhead compartment.

[Limdood]

Given the lore, one can infer or extrapolate a few things:

1. The ship may very well not travel planet to planet, but instead just circle the current planet in a slow orbit.  After all the risk management of interplanetary trade without FOL travel would be INSANE!  The lore mentions that planets are in a constant state of flux - advancing and devolving, being colonized and razed all the time.  You'd never know in the 8 years it took you just to reach the NEIGHBORING planet, if it would even have any market for your trade goods.
2. One can then assume that the trade ship crew are NOT in cryptosleep, and are, instead, likely on a generation ship (people living, reproducing, dying, all aboard the ship over years) - maintaining the ship while they continue to circle the planet as a sort of mobile Amazon.com delivery service.
3. You wouldn't be getting transit to other planets, you'd be joining the ship, likely as crew...Crew that you have to assume lives and dies by their profit margins.  If the work is already being done, an extra mouth to feed would be awfully expensive on a spaceship.  In fact, depending on the supply of food, ANY amount of money might not be enough to take on additional crew.
4. A crew of people that lives and dies among only among themselves is going to be a pretty damned insular bunch.  You wouldn't be asking for a ride, you'd be asking them to take you into their family...their extremely enclosed family.  They aren't likely to have a lot of sympathy or trust for those outside their family.

Yes, the names of some of the ships imply that they travel to other planets or stars (see "interplanetary" and "interstellar") but those could just be affectations.  They could be true, but the sheer impracticality of interstellar trade seems a hell of an obstacle to overcome.

This makes the "notability" and legitimacy of the "travel to rocket to win" game event/win condition more plausible as well.  Orbiting trade ships are common, but a ship actually bound for a different planet/solar system?  That's worth travelling to.

[ReZpawner]

They won't bring you because you're a fucking jinx.
How many times have you and your crew crashed now? Even if we're generous and say "one per version", that still amounts to 20+ times, and that's no longer within the realm of 'accidental'.
There's something seriously fucky with you and ships. There's absolutely no way we're going to pick you up.

[Limdood]

They won't bring you because you're a fucking jinx.
How many times have you and your crew crashed now? Even if we're generous and say "one per version", that still amounts to 20+ times, and that's no longer within the realm of 'accidental'.
There's something seriously fucky with you and ships. There's absolutely no way we're going to pick you up.

Now i need to do a lone survivor game and name the pawn "Tom Hanks"

[grrizo]

Because then they would sell you as a sex slave? The chance that you end in a paradisiac planet full of super models while working as a adult toy is very low, so I would prefer to starve in a shack in the middle of nowhere.

[b0rsuk]

The real reason is - the game is poorly thought out. If they really cared, they would at the very least add a dialogue option when talking to trading ships: "Please take us out of here!". Ships could provide various excuses, ask for 50,000 silver / person, ask you to do suspicious things like put down your weapons, etc.

The way it is now, it makes it look they hope we're too stupid to notice.

[doctercorgi]

Would be cool being able to go to other planets. After you wipe your starting one of all other human life of course.