Why do your colonists build a space ship?

[eugeneb]

Just curious, from the role playing point of view, what is the motivation of your colonists to build a space ship? In all my play throughs I've struggled with the following dilemma. My colonists start on a planet and life is harsh the first few years: you live every day like it's your last day...like, literally, because it might really be your last day, there is definitely no shortage of sudden ways to die. Meanwhile for entertainment you throw horseshoes at a stick and dream about the day when you can escape this hell.

But slowly things get better and eventually you have a well established colony. Sure, it's still "wild west" and everything is trying to kill you still but you now more or less have means of dealing with it. You have a stash of glitterworld medicine if somebody gets gravely ill, fancy armor and weapons for those pesky pirates, organs and bionic body parts if someone needs to be patched up, etc. Meanwhile you have golden beds, poker nights, own cinema, own art museum and more importantly absolute freedom: you can get drunk with your friends and go squirrel hunting with mini-guns and nobody is going to call cops or report you to local ranger that you don't have hunting permit. Neighbors are playing loud music until late and tell you to screw off? Time to grab power armor, charge / sniper rifles, battle bears and pay them a visit.

At this point I usually start struggling to come up with explanation why I'd want to leave this place and undertake a dangerous journey to a place where I'd likely have to get a job and lead a much less luxurious and more limited lifestyle.

What motivations do your colonists usually find? Are they trying to get to a glitterworld where you live in heaven without aging or death? Are they just sick of being surrounded by barbarians and want to be surrounded by civilization? Is the world heading towards impending doom (may be mechanoids we see are just the first warning signs)?

[Boston]

My colonists do not want to leave. Either they are a part of colonization programs (when i do multi-person colonies), or they deliberately sought out the wilderness (when i do single-person colonies).

In most cases, the colonists get well-established, setting up families and homes and professions. The tech-base of a colony is variable (i usually dont use electricity), but they are always comfortable.

They make friends with the neighboring factions, and their families, their homes, their lives are here. Why would they want to leave?

[mcduff]

Because Cassie keeps spawning massive mechanoid raids right on top of you?

(That's why I play with Phoebe)

[Klomster]

I've never actually gotten that far :/        (ashaaamed)

I usually play some funky scenario "A pair of glitterworld space marines are finishing their training, surviving on a rimworld."
"Your ship was shot down, now you need to figure out how to get off this rock..... surrounded by hundreds of tables..... why did you have to transport tables....."
Or.
"An art class crash lands on a distant rimworld, will the pascifist students survive the harshness of the wild?" (No.... they did not, so many deaths... so gruesome...)

Since i then seldom have an actual working colony set-up, with some fantastical modifier to make it all odd, the prospect of getting that far can become very difficult.
Sure i have 10 space marines this time......
But no tech.... and no researcher...... also half of them are incapable of tending..... hmmmm.

So 'ol Randy usually sets me up with some doomsday way before i get even close to such tech levels.
And don't think the space marines got close, they fared the worst.... apart from the art students.... poor sods.

[Teleblaster18]

Because no matter what you do, there's only one brand of beer on the planet.

[khun_poo]

I think the "Planetkiller" thingy from the edited scenario should make his way to be 1 of the 4 standard scenario. So that will make us more motivate to leave the planet.

something like...
"The most wanted criminals of Glitterworld have run away to the planet Rimworld. After a senator from the Glitterworld found out, they've sent the most dangerous weapon ever create in the history of humanity "Planetkiller" to kill you along with the planet. Building a colony is useless, form a resistance is futile. The only choice for you is to retreat.

Planetkiller will reach Rimworld within 300 days."

[Dargaron]

I think the "Planetkiller" thingy from the edited scenario should make his way to be 1 of the 4 standard scenario. So that will make us more motivate to leave the planet.

something like...
"The most wanted criminals of Glitterworld have run away to the planet Rimworld. After a senator from the Glitterworld found out, they've sent the most dangerous weapon ever create in the history of humanity "Planetkiller" to kill you along with the planet. Building a colony is useless, form a resistance is futile. The only choice for you is to retreat.

Planetkiller will reach Rimworld within 300 days."

Presumably, you'd get a different ending crawl if you launch the ship with the "Proton Torpedo" optional extra and have at least one "Psychically Hyper-sensitive" pawn...

[Bolgfred]

We build bad space ships because it's in our genes.

Like our ancestors we feel the big need to climp into our space chunk, go for the skies and drop onto some other peoples dining room, gift them with our bad atitude and lack of motivation, while drinking their beer or binging on their food, only to explain them how great it is to build a space ship and visit other planets in a rescue-pot-like behaviour.

It's the circle of life!

[Canute]

Just think at the main scenario.
3 pawn's, crashed in cyrosleep pod's on the planet.
They wanted to reach a different destination then Rimworld.
Ofcouse they want to try to get to these destination.

Ok, this just count for the main scenario, not for the tribal one.

[sadpickle]

Because no matter what you do, there's only one brand of beer on the planet.

... and it's an IPA...

*shudder*

[eugeneb]

Just think at the main scenario.
3 pawn's, crashed in cyrosleep pod's on the planet.
They wanted to reach a different destination then Rimworld.
Ofcouse they want to try to get to these destination.

Ok, this just count for the main scenario, not for the tribal one.

I don't know, I was thinking about that and in my opinion this would pass as motivation if we had FTL. The way it is now, everyone you know at either end of the trip has been long dead. And you are either flying to establish a colony somewhere, in which case, you might as well just do it here; or you are a lucky lottery winner who is heading towards a glitterworld, in which case it's understandable that you are upset with all the pirates, toxic fallout, murderous mechanoids, etc happening around you. And even then, these are just three starting colonists who are not necessarily going to be alive after the first couple years and who definitely going to be a minority by late game. I don't see how they get random crowd of people to spend tons of resources  on spaceship for them (unless everyone gets sold on the glitter world idea).

Because no matter what you do, there's only one brand of beer on the planet.

... and it's an IPA...

*shudder*

Hahaha now that's one reason I can relate to! I can picture the noooooo moment and how they immediately start working on a multi year plan to build spaceship and escape.

[Canute]

I don't know, I was thinking about that and in my opinion this would pass as motivation if we had FTL. The way it is now, everyone you know at either end of the trip has been long dead. And you are either flying to establish a colony somewhere, in which case, you might as well just do it here;

Not realy.
If you start with a fleet of smaller ships instead of one big one, there still a good chance that you will meet some friends at the destination.
And don't forget many human's are stubborn, they just want to reach that destination even when it would be a better solution to stay.

[Kirby23590]

Well what could you do in rimworld? with pirates and mechanoids trying to destroy your colony?

I think they wanted to go to a glitterworld since it makes sense for the regular scenario of crashlanded vanilla. This extends to the naked survivor in naked brutality i feel too.

But from my roleplaying standpoint when playing as a Tribe. Maybe capturing an crashed refugee/prisoner or allowing a chased refugee to join the tribe, made him or her tell about the stories of glitterworlds or they just wanted to leave this awful planet. However it doesn't make sense fro the journey ending tell the tribals to leave the rimworld since that doesn't make sense to me. ( Maybe their ancestors did build it before devolving into tribals or they found a shiny gadget that allowed stone to contact the tribals? )

Or if your playing as the Rich explorer, i think he/she got bored and wanted to back to their homeworld or thought going to a rimworld in reality instead of their simulator was a good idea. Unless he or she was still alive.

[Klomster]

With the tribals though, remember.
Those who grow up on a deathworld don't think it's a deathworld. It's normal to them.

"Yeah Billy got eaten yesterday by a metal bunny with blade arms, but overall this week has been kinda nice. Only one of us has gotten malaria this year and we fixed up Joey with a new leg. Sure it isn't as good but it makes a funny clonk noises when he dances."

[AnotherFireFox]

They don't. They were super soldiers living transcendental eternal life, now decided to get back to their "normal" life. They had no idea however they're heading to a living hell, where ruled by no local government and spaceship chunks are raining like snow...