Discoverable dupe settlements

[Meltdown]

Currently we can discover dupes on other planetoids, but only in some kind of suspended state, like inside cryotanks. 

I think it would be cool if there were a small chance to stumble upon dupes in already active state, trying to survive by themselves in a little settlement.

Variant 1: Just a rare planetoid feature

Dupe settlement is a rare planetoid feature. Settlement, just like ruins, should be an area covered in fog of war, with designated entrance. Inside the settlement there would be 1-3 dupes with 0-2 skill points each, a farm with basic plants (Mealwood/Bog Buckets/Blossoms), basic infrastracture for oxygen systain (Oxygen Defuser, skimmer or algae terrarium) , and small living space. The base should contain small amount of resources, enought to sustain 3 dupes for 10-20 cycles at best. There also should be some kind of POI that suggest the way dupes appeared in the first place (like empty cryotanks).

Everything inside the fog of war should be in suspended animation, so this feature could be safely ignored.

Variant 2: Early-Mid game timed challenge

The same as Variant 1, but with a twist. Having this feature on one of planetoids additionally generates special POI in/near starting biome on main asteroid. Inspecting that POI reveals the asteroid with the feature. The property window of POI should also contain countdown timer. Countdown starts from the beginning of the game, so it doesn't matter if player chooses to inspect POI later, or does it right away.

What happends upon discovery of Settlement is based on that timer state:

1. If player arrives (opens the entrance with dupe) before timer expires, they find settlement area mostly undug, with cryotanks set to automatically defrost after timer expires. Player would have an option to cancel timer and turn them into regular cryotanks.
2. If player arrives after timer expires, but within certain time window, they find settlement in state described in Variant 1.
3. If player arrives after timer expires and outside of time window, they find abandoned settlement, with buildings, but no dupes and resources. Optionally there could be something hinting that dupes didn't survive for long enought to meet players expedition.

[danberhe]

seems like the only problem with it is that the reason that they are in cryo (and the food being nutrient bars) is that the other planets run in real time, so for a dup base to come by it needs to be 100% self sustainable.

although a gamemode where you start 2 (or more) colonies side by side would be a cool challenge to approach.

[Meltdown]

11 hours ago, danberhe said:

other planets run in real time, so for a dup base to come by it needs to be 100% self sustainable.

AFAIK undiscovered areas of the map are not calculated, so the idea is that such settlement could wait in some sort of suspended animation state until it is accessed by player. Even if I'm wrong, the Variant 2 does not require that mini-base to be sustainable - because the core idea of that variant is a time-limited rescue mission.

11 hours ago, danberhe said:

gamemode where you start 2 (or more) colonies side by side would be a cool challenge to approach

I like that idea. It would be cool to have a big distance between two starting asteroids, give them a pair of supply teleporters, but no dupe teleporters.  This way, the only way to transfer dupes between them would be tied to rocketry - either developing advanced rockets or setting up a multi-stop route through intermidiate asteroids. And early/mid game would be focused around efficiently using the supply teleportation.