Why don't they just... escape?

[maxthebeast11]

Every time that a trade ship comes around, our colonist survivors have the opportunity to escape the dangerous planet that they have been stranded on and return to their past lives and families. Obviously a crashed civilian ship would create some buzz, and the company responsible for the ship would be interested in salvaging the remains to find out what caused it's failure. I'm confused as to why the colonists don't take the opportunity to hop aboard the next vessel that comes along, and insist on staying stranded on a hostile alien world.

[Kender]

It is a very good point. 

[Kingmal]

That would kinda make the game pointless. Although it's a good point once we start getting to the point where Tynan will add a way to win. maybe they'll have to build a shuttle and then find a a willing ship? Sort of like the Cultural Victory in Civilization 5.

[Kender]

Or it could be a Civilization IV: Colonization, win a military victory. XD

[gigan]

Maybe it's the way technology is at this point, breaking outa the planets gravity well requires a dedicated set up.   Like how we get to space now days.   Everyone on Rimworld including raiders are trapped there.

[AspenShadow]

Every time that a trade ship comes around, our colonist survivors have the opportunity to escape the dangerous planet that they have been stranded on and return to their past lives and families. Obviously a crashed civilian ship would create some buzz, and the company responsible for the ship would be interested in salvaging the remains to find out what caused it's failure. I'm confused as to why the colonists don't take the opportunity to hop aboard the next vessel that comes along, and insist on staying stranded on a hostile alien world.

As far as the company responsible for the ship trying to salvage its remains... The game is set on a Rimworld, a planet in the cold Outer Rim of the galaxy where special drift and the expanding universe has caused the distance between solar systems to increase more and more the further you travel. It's a harsh, largely uninhabitable wasteland. Any company wouldn't waste a large amount of money and the possibility for a second crash simply on trying to recover what scraps of metal they can, they'd be better served mining an asteroid.

Also the ship we crash on is not so specific. It's not a civilian ship and it's certainly not a paid-for chartered course run by a company, it could be any number of things but the nearest empire wouldn't send ships into The Drift commercially. The fuel prices alone would be too high.

This problem with escaping is nothing new to be honest lol, we've been trying to design a logical work-around for it since the game's inception.
It's discussed here, please try and keep to that thread with future conversations on the matter. I get that it's not clearly labelled however.