Colonization deserves better - SE is ignoring its best mechanics

As much as I love this game, it’s time for some criticism that comes from that love. Keen has created beautiful planets with varied biomes and a promising concept of colonization, but the execution feels shallow. I genuinely hope what we have now is just a temporary iteration, because colonization built on repetitive contract grinding, with barely any meaningful problem-solving, is an incredibly low-value gameplay loop and pales next to the design philosophy behind the decade-old KSP’s challenge-driven progression.

KSP made brilliant use of its mechanics to empower progression. SE is a different game with different strengths - but it also has a deep potential that its gameplay currently barely touches.

In SE1 the community built everything: rovers, mechs, static mining rigs, automated drone networks, gravity cannons, space elevators, satellite constellations, deathstars - the list goes on. Meanwhile, the actual gameplay requires little more than a miner and some patience. Most environments don’t meaningfully influence what you build. Differences between planets feel superficial, and even with random encounters or POIs, the world rarely pushes you to engineer solutions.

On my server, just a couple of tweaks changed so much: a high-gravity planet, stronger wheels, and late-game reactors instantly made hydrogen generators, rovers and rigs relevant again. Surface rovers became the best choice for mining ice; deep resources benefited from proper rigs. The mechanics already support this, so why isn't it taken advantage of?

We have enormous lego-like creative freedom, hinges, rotors, pistons, antennas, automation, remote control systems… yet will colonization boil down to hauling boxes and crafting/delivering bulk components? These tasks can exist, but they shouldn’t define the better part of progression.

Even sticking strictly to existing mechanics, as a lazy example, colonization could include building a planet-wide network of biome-specific research stations: cave labs, weather stations, deep-crust probes, alien-artifact observatories, satellites, particle-accelerator loops (artificial mass slingshot looping!), and more. Say, a station could be equipped with sampling tools or monitoring equipment mounted on automated robotic hands, generating and transmitting data to a central computer in order reach a goal of, e.g., unlocking, relevant to that research, blocks. All things the game can already support and barely require a couple of new models and not extravagant developer manhours.

I too have to produce software to make a living, so I’m not here to outline an entire progression system - that’s ultimately the designers' domain, and their responsibility to shape. My point is that the tools for deeper, more meaningful engineering challenges are already in the game and I just hope future updates embrace that potential.