I submitted this request to Hello Games for settlement improvements (I include it merely for anyone who wishes to read it). What ideas do you all have to make settlements more relevant and fun?

I really love the idea of settlements. Even though this is technically an MMO it can get quite lonely in space. I like the idea of being in charge of something and helping it grow. Unfortunately, it feels too disconnected. Trying to interact with the citizens only gives you the option to leave. When there is a matter to be discussed, it is never in person. Any visitor, dispute, or proposal is done through the comms system. It would be great to have citizens show up at the office with their complaints, to go to the town hall and see everyone voting on proposals. To attend farewell and welcome events for missions. It would be great to be able to use things like the dance hall. That was another thing, inconsistency. It had me build a dance hall but dancing was still banned. It would be nice instead of waiting for options f we could inact them. I would love to make the active choice as overseer to unban dancing and not just wait for that option. I’d also love to be able to live at the settlement. I would love to have a place of residence that I can modify and expand (like a freighter). Having to cheat by building a base on the outskirts and moving inwards isn’t as fun. Making settlements a lot more dynamic would be a ton of fun. Being able to allow friends to buy homes there would also be cool.

I know infinite possibilities etc. but what’s the point to these animals gameplay wise? Most of them aren’t hostile and even if you kill them they don’t drop anything super usefull. It only upsets some nearby sentinels which can result in some battles but the creatures themselves don’t pose any challange or real threat. Hell even the plant’s managed to kill me by surprise since they sometimes blend in with the surrounding, which is more than the animals do. Food wise they aren’t as important since food isn’t necessary, even in survival mode which is an odd choice.

Also like 90% of these animals are not really aesthetically pleasing. Some of them look goofy and even made me laugh but there was never a “wow I need this thing as a pet” moment. The movements and animal “type” sometimes doesn’t even match the environment. Like swimming on land, or bulky cow like creatures with hooves living in the water. It just kills the imersion for me. Most of them are also either gray or a shade of brown, rarely do I find something with vibrand colours. They also get very repetitive.

My most hated animal type is the flying “turd”. I have found many great planets I wanted to settle on and then I saw these snakey flying brown turds over the horizon and I immediately left.

My biggest disappointment however are the Sandworms. I didn’t know these things where in the game and I encountered my first one on a very eerie infested red planet. I almost shat myself when that thing plowed through the surface next to me. I noped out in hoorror thinking that finally there is something I can be scared of in this game. But later I learned they are just for show. And this made me mad, because I love the concept and the Idea of a giant animal like this. But there is no interaction with it. You can’t scan them, they don’t take damage, they don’t attac you or any structures or make any impact on their surroundings. Like why? What’s the point?

The fauna of this game desperatly needs an overhaul in both design and funktionality. I know this comparison is not something people here want to hear, but this game would benifit from a “starbound like” fauna design. Not meaning it should work the same way, but making liveforms more threatening, fit in more with the biomes and give them even more design variety. Animals like massive wooly mamals on frozen planets, or more “rocky” and protective designs on super hot planets. Animals that spit acid and drop materials accordingly. Imagine beeing able to harvest wooly animals and create star silk on your own or something like that.