Spaceship Uses

[BasileusMaximos]

Since most people don't start a colony with the goal of getting the official ending of escaping the planet, spaceships and spaceship parts should have alternative uses that would give you a reason to actually invest in those expensive technologies and structures.

1) Planetary Transport: Spaceships can be used to travel anywhere on the planet extremely quickly and with no chance of interception. When arriving in a new zone, you choose where to land and your colonists disembark. There could be new parts for storage and passenger.

2) Make your own orbitals: Allows you to craft your own satellites which can give you info (population of towns, advanced raid warning, etc.), allow you to request orbital traders (and possibly some other inter-galactic interactions), and even build your own orbital bombardment station where the amount of guns/laser you put on it determines the severity of the strike.

3) Asteroid Mining: A better solution for lategame resource extraction, you should be able to send out an autonomous mining ship to mine minerals and periodically send them in pods down to your colonies. Better than the non-portable drills we have now...

[OFWG]

That would make a nice mod! I don't think the base game needs it though.

[Call me Arty]

 I don't think it's going to happen, but a ship that did more would be fun. Really just, reclaim the Rimworld.