How Many People Actually Play to "Win"?

[Janicepierce]

I would also prefer to play games along with my gamer friends.

[SzQ]

I see no reason to go for ship. Factorio had similar problem.
For me it would have sense if Save Our Ship was in vanilla game so we could pick up some harder planet. (add somehow harder planets to game)
As well as few thing stated in Hairy's post there Rikiki's MiningCo.: Spaceships incoming!

[loc978]

Not I. Built the ship a few times, even designed one or two to look like actual sleek enclosed spaceships with emergency storage and such...

But these days it's all about having a modded hauler bot army of doom riding around in a hover van. Build power stations, cart in turrets ten at a time, lay siege.

[Shurp]

TBH I was very disappointed to see that the end game need for components is still so anti-fun, and that the pawn AI is still so atrocious. Most of the delay in building was because of the usual "build one square of wall, run across the entire map to eat a meal, build one square of wall, sleep" dance. It was still fun, don't get me wrong - but the AI annoyance finally made me rage-win to just end it.

FYI, a useful trick to prevent this sort of nonsense is to create a "stay put" zone.  Create a zone around where you want pawns to work, make sure they're set to "Work" all day, and they'll eat on site, do work, and eventually start whining that they're exhausted.  Then you can set them back to Home/Unrestricted and "Anything" and they'll go to bed.

(Don't leave your pawns in the work zone with a sleep option in their restrictions or they'll just lie down on the ground and pick up a slept in cold / on ground penalties without any warning)

[Andy_Dandy]

Never been interested in the win, but to survive as long as possible and to build the coolest base possible.

[OFWG]

(snip some good management tips)

I dislike micro with a passion so I prefer to use priorities and scheduling to do everything for me while I just do the construction planning, bills and combat (I don't like the combat either). That's why I get frustrated with the AI I guess, asking too much of it. At least it's good enough to be fun almost all the time.

[cultist]

I think most people play to win when the game is new. That's how I played when I first got Rimworld. The task was to build a spaceship and escape the planet, so that's what my focus was. After completing the initial goal, I now play it more as a simulation and building game. I build different designs and in different biomes, trying out various things and just watch the pawns go about their lives.

[Bozobub]

Not me!  I never once bothered with the ship, besides the reactor (for power).  It's a nothingburger for me.

[Yoshida Keiji]

What other end game would people like to work toward ? The spaceship launch is something to work toward but gives limited scope. if you could have any choice of end game or a way to keep the game going what would you look for

Technological advance towards Glitterworld level with research for G-Medicine, Bionic Limbs, Artifacts production.

Domination victory of sorts: Player must build up 5 colonies and reach a specific wealth target. Factions should create their own territory zones across the globe instead of all randomly scattered which makes zero sense.

Conquer a specific Globe region. Now that the world has area naming, the target would be to place all 5 colonies within that geographical location while at the same time wiping out all other factions outposts, except maybe for the friendlies.

Capture alive the Faction leaders of others and build an empire were they serve you once you spare their lives. Kneel or die.

Monarchy: Maintain a lineage for 5 generations.

Touristic city or Commerce Center, make other factions reside within your compounds for extended periods. Coastal colonies could use the shores for beach resorts and each day visitors stay or consume an item, you cash in their money. Become the city of trade where other factions bring goods and buy goods. You manage the stock and item values rather than game default prices. Become a slaver nation or a red light district city.

[Kalre]

I consider a win to not have eye scars before day 60

[Toast]

Guess I'm an outlier, as I have 1000+ hours in the game and I still aim to build the spaceship every game. I just think it provides a pleasing sense of closure to a successful colony that, by that time, I am probably getting bored of. I only send the pawns who would have reason to leave--the original crashlanders, the ones without any family ties on the planet, etc. So in my mind, the colony continues... but my part in it is done. And the wistful song plays, and I think about all the happy memories I have with the little bastards... and then I start a new colony to do it all over again. 

The uranium bottleneck is extremely un-fun, however.

[Golden]

I'm with Toast.    I play to build the spaceship and then start over.  Usually I am getting tired of that colony by then.

For me though, the advanced components are the biggest bottleneck.  I can usually find enough uranium, or at least buy the bit I can't.