Useful Ships

[XeroJoy]

I know that ships were recently added in Alpha 7, but what if ships served the additional purpose of transporting colonists between colonies on the same world, or even to other worlds (the planets generated by seeds when you first start the game). I think this would be extremely useful for the game right now as it is in pre-alpha undergoing massive development. With the amazing updates to the world generation, some people may want to start over again (experiencing a different biome or world generation change) with the characters that they started their first colony with.

When a ship flies into space, the ship design and characters could be saved in a separate text file (instead of being deleted), allowing you to use them in a later update if the text file is moved to the new game save area. Depending on how one might want to do things, the ship could either land on the planet successfully (but with no power in their ship? (possibly need to make a particle accelerator to create more antimatter particles)), or the colonists could crash land on the planet in their cryopods, with the story being a never-ending cycle.

I feel like there should also be an element of skill degradation in this as well, as being in a cryopod could potentially create side-effects that affect the colonists' minds. In addition, it would make the game more fun by lowering their skills (never down to zero though).

[collider1]

I really like the idea of moving to different sections of the map. So you could move a colonist or group of colonists to the edge of the square and it would give you the option to go take those colonists to the next square. You could carry resources with you and start setting up small outposts every few squares to let your colonists travel long distances to meet friendly tribes, attack hostile ones, or claim resources that are scarce in your starting biome. It would also provide a kind of endgame section with a very long play time as you can start to colonise the whole planet, and the ships could act as a faster way of getting from place to place. It would probably be a little difficult to implement, but games could get so much longer if you don't want to just leave the planet and get the "you win" message. I really like the prospect of setting up colonies around a pirate base and then launching a huge attack against them (I could finally turn the tables on them and put those Molotov cocktails to good use too), or moving in with a friendly tribe and building a huge base together.

[mega]

This could be cool. It would kinda be like SimAnt.

Oh yeah, I did it, I made a reference to a 23 year old video game... man I feel old.

[Oga88]

i like that idea! it would really be awesome to go to a different section of the map from desert to tundra.

[kasimirtlw]

The idea of going to other sections of the map reminds me of an old AMIGA game UTOPIA
you also build a colony there,do research but it had a nice feature you don't have here: you could build  tanks and  small airships (multiple different version  had a hovering tank and a fusion plane that didn't need fuel)
that you could send of to fight at an enemy base of the map where you had no acces or use them in defence
after the fight you get a battle report or even resources captured

I really enjoyed building those tanks and ships.
and  sending them off into battle


in the picture you can see 2 ships and 6 tanks a tank factory and a landing  square . the green roofs where the shipbuilding hangers
it also used solar power
I which i had an old pc version to play again

[keylocke]

woah. i didn't know about this game until now. that sounds awesome.
is this real time or turn based?

anyways, do you know of more recent games similar to this? i like a lot of sandbox simulations and 4x games.. 

[kasimirtlw]

the game was real time

you should try M.A.X.  or the orginale MOO series (MASTER OF ORION)
For recent games  i would suggest  Port royal 3  or  the endless series. (space and fantasy)

[KDStudios]

Oh snap.
You just made me think of another use for the ship...

Pack away some resources and transport your colonists to enemy colonies!
Give you a chance to feed the pirates some of their own medicine by besieging them back!

Or send them to friendly colonies to help with the defence.

Get rewarded by destroying or saving a colony.
On randomly generated colony maps, that'd be pretty cool heh.

[Montag]

I really want to know tynans thought on this feature, particularly the moving colonists between squares idea.

In my opinion these are the sorts of features that Rimworld most desperately needs. Right now the game simply feels choked of options and depth.

[skullywag]

Just wanted to say loved utopia and its spiritual successor k240. Both amazing games. Im sure Tynans gonna do somethimg with the ship, i think a lot p of people have made the point that pressing a button to end the gamr isnt really wanted, its alpha so placeholder features will get added.

[kasimirtlw]

well i downloaded k240 for a first try never played it before.
google also mentions that fragile alliance is the  next successor: any feedback on that game ?
now to track down Utopia again

[mega]

Man, i blew so many hours in Utopia.  Very good game.

MOO & MOO2 were even better, but unrelated to this game.

[Professor Cupcake]

+1 to the idea of moving to different world tiles.