Hey! I'm quite new to the server so I don't think I'm qualified to make a colony yet, but I just want to gather some ideas in case I ever start one. I think the main problem with a Floran themed colony is the aggressive nature of the Floran. Like, the inhabitants can't be too aggressive as to not allow outsiders in the colony, but not too peaceful as to make it feel really OOC. Maybe a feeling like the Apex Apartments would work, but I'm unsure.
To be fair, it's not a matter of the Florans as much as it is the other characters on the server. Most of which likely wouldn't ever glance at the place due to poor previous experience with Floran, which is fairly common. If you really wanted to give it a shot and you could find enough Floran players who agreed to live there, my suggestion would be to make it tribal. Not so much so that they wouldn't allow other races, but enough that it's favorable to Floran and goes along withe the mentality, have it mostly comprised of Floran and such. you could try a system like every Floran who lives there is allowed to sponsor one outsider they trust, allowing them to visit the colony, move in or w/e, the catch being each Floran can only sponsor one person at a time, thus strictly limiting non-Florans to half, or less than half of the overall colony population.
^ In my experience this doesn't work. The problem is that most people aren't interested in visiting a tribal settlement. You either go full savage tribal, evil monster Floran culture, with a large amount of Floran players (which I don't think we have). OR you create a civilised/relatively modern community of Florans who welcome and/or promote the integration of non-Florans into their community, largely abandoning the tribal structure and culture the Florans are known for. The problem with optin #2 is that both IC and OOC you won't be considered "a real Floran", or a "plantsuit".
I think number 2 could work well, but only with a big catch/twist. An idea I had was kind of like what happens in many jungle/farm hotels IRL, in which you pay to have an "ancient" or "primitive" experience. But the catch is that the prince is extremely high and/or you have to donate some tech (only way to make more "conservative" Florans agree), and the Florans won't be exactly nice to you. There's always the "everything and everyone is nice but some people disappear at night" trope. I prefer when it's used in Apex colonies more than Floran ones, but it's also an option.
