Is there any plans for future extension of the game? Of maybe some modding tool release?

No plans for DLCs due to the nature of the endings. If the game sells well enough to keep us in business, we'll do a sequel set on Proxima 40 years after the events of the first game. If not...

Modding - we can look into it but developing a proper toolkit will take many months, so it's not something we can promise at the moment.

That's unfortunate. You don't need to have the DLC expand past the end of the main quest, you can add side content.

I could see a DLC to expand:
1. Mission Control to add some more lore flavor. More levels. Larger maps (repair ship systems to access sealed off areas). More hazards (vacuum, toxic gas, no firearms, total darkness, high gravity, etc...). The current MC doesn't seem deadly enough for its reputation.
2. Green/Yellow/Red zones with additional optional combat encounters. Perhaps a zone dedicated to developing floaters. More interaction with the mold itself.
3. Simulated experiences using the skill training chair where you play as other characters enacting out events from the past (perhaps recordings of the mutiny found in MC; optional self-contained short story quests). These might be linked to large or "specialist" skill unlocks that require a minimum level in the skill or stats (INT+CON?) to use. Or weak context-specific feats like extra damage vs shields or smg extra penetration against >10 DR armor.
4. A prequel where you go through the events leading up to Tanner getting the Armory Key. Tanner is an idiot, and not charismatic, so it'd be a good bit of writing to fill in the blanks and make it seem like he only got it through blind luck or the helping hand of the monks. Or make it seem like the monks are trying to get the key as well but Tanner just doesn't see the signs so the others are willing to get rid of it quickly to avoid attention.

There's a lot of room for expansions. You don't need to go _forward_ with time.

Please consider giving some effort to opening your game to modders, even if you can't afford to make a proper toolkit. Allowing item/character stats and/or some game settings to be changed with a text file would be appreciated by me and a lot of other players. Some process to edit the game's text and add/modify dialogue options and effects would be great!

Any attention to modding you can spare will pay off for you in the long run, by magnifying the impact your games make on your audience. You don't want Colony Ship to get its mods like Fallout 1/2 did: the hard way, through fans' efforts alone. Fallout never had a level editor or toolkit, the development of mods like Fallout Resurrection and Olympus 2207 was insanely hard!

They happened anyway because those games had such a huge impact on those mod authors - and that sounds awesome, except you won't get anything nearly so involved or complex this way. Colony Ship is comparable to FO 1/2 in its story and gameplay, but it came *after*, and there are more alternatives now, some easier to mod for. But if Colony Ship is even slightly more accessible (like Baldur's Gate 1/2, which allowed for tools like the Weimar script engine with its more open file structure) it might grow a modding scene without great expense on your part.

It's not an easy thing to do with one programmer, so it's not something I can promise.

Well, that answers what I came here for. I tend to put off buying games until they are complete and I guess that is the state of colony ship now. The sequel involves the ship reaching proxima centauri to find it is already occupied and the game revolves around community management and dealing with different internal and external relationships?

That's correct. We'll continue improving the game for the next few months, but no new areas or quests will be added. Kind of. More info here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3881599433105628908/