How Many People Actually Play to "Win"?

[BasileusMaximos]

Do most people who play this game actually do so with the main objective of building a ship and getting offworld in mind?

That seems to be what Tygan thinks, and it seems to influence most of his decisions about the game being a "survive, not prosper" simulator (scarcity of resources, unable to build advanced tech, etc).

I'm not one of those people so I am very glad how moddable the game is to provide content for a game where the developer assumes you've already blasted off.

[Chibiabos]

I don't really see what makes you think that's what Tynan thinks.  He has added quite a bit to make the game world a bigger place, earlier alphas didn't have travelling, establishing additional colonies, etc.

[Regar]

I agree if u only look at the earlier alphas.
I wonder if he will go even further in to "long-play" content like children.

to adress the topic my first colonies aimed at winning.
Now i am more in the mod-it-till-it-breaks mentality.

[SpaceDorf]

I joined pretty early and have yet to build a space-ship.

Which is mainly because of my modding attitude and I tend to break my game before I reach the technology.

[swampslug]

I tend to build the spaceship only when a new alpha comes out, since until this latest release save games were incompatible across alphas.

I find the "build a spaceship and escape" goal a little odd. While the starting pawns may not be on the planet by choice, by the time you have progressed to the point where you can build the spaceship years have passed and you probably have a sizeable, sustainable settlement.

Maybe it's just me but by the time I can build a spaceship I'm thinking why would my colonists want to? Perhaps it's the lack of any true context in the setting. We start with three individuals who have two sentences of backstory and no understanding of where they came from, where they are going and why so there is little sense of urgency to get off world. This leads to a colonise and settle mentality since rushing to the AI ship would cut short the game.

I would like to see additional win conditions introduced focused on longer term colonisation.

[Bozobub]

The repeated raids by (potentially cannibalistic) tribes might be a reason to leave ^^' .

[Shurp]

My impression is that the "build a ship to escape" scenario is just an option for those new to the game who need a goal to focus on while they learn what's all going on around them.  Once you've built the ship once there's not much incentive to build it again.  Especially when odds are the ship isn't going anywhere better than where it's leaving from.

[Hans Lemurson]

Especially when odds are the ship isn't going anywhere better than where it's leaving from.

You can never escape the Rim!

[kubolek01]

It can be a last option when you're overwhelmed with raiders. Just load up and go before they drill the walls!

[sadpickle]

I have 440 hours in Steam, more in the standalone and I've never built a ship part.

I need my plasteel for modded bionics.

[SurvivoroftheNoobs]

I only build the ship for lore reasons anymore. Being in space without a ship doesn't really make sense. Combine the vanilla ship with mods that give more ship furniture/walls and more ship types you can make a massive space port. At that point why leave just to crash on another planet?

[Bozobub]

I've never tried to "win", even once.  I *like* sandboxes.

[Jibbles]

I usually build the ship but not launch it for a good bit. I haven't had the time to try out the B18 quest to activate the ship, where you fight raids for a few days.  Sounds pretty fun though and probably feels more satisfying to send off a colony that way.

[Euzio]

I've probably logged hundreds of hours in this game (before and after steam) and I've yet to build a ship.

I don't see the need to "win" the game by getting off the planet. In the past, I always hit a peak with my colony then I just stop. But now that there is the option of packing up and moving, if I simply get tired of my currently area, and I don't wish to restart, I just start a caravan and move my colony to a new location. Its quite abit of fun in that sense because you can actually choose a nomadic lifestyle as well in which you don't stay in an area for too long.

[Wanderer_joins]

The landed ship.

That's the new really challenging win condition. Early game you need to recruit people to build the base and to get things done. But when you travel, having too many colonists is a drag. So you've to find the sweet spot to build your team, have your colony working and then hit the road.

The survival wave during 15 days is no joke, building the ship in your colony sounds like a piece of cake in comparison.

Now, these "win" conditions take years to achieve, and usually at this point there is no longer any challenge in your game if you chill on the road or in your colony.