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https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BmvNgA
I don't think they would be going to the planet from that game though, since the planet from age of decadence was super advanced then became post apocalyptic. It wasn't an actual medieval society.
From an older update:
The typical space opera trope is that when we make first contact, it is with aliens either corresponding to very primitive indigenous people (such as in Avatar), consisting of a nightmarish swarm (as in Starship Troopers), or at some extraordinary level of technology themselves (as in Star Trek or Babylon 5). Here, however, while the aliens are pre-industrial, they are well past the spears and face-paint stage, and have well-established political, economic, and military systems.
More importantly, they are alien, which means that while they may be humanoid (to make our animator's life easier), the fundamental logic of their society, religion, and power should be truly alien to ours and vice versa. The result is a highly asymmetrical kulturcampf.
For the record, it won't be a retelling of the conquest of the New World but on another planet. The ragtag Terrans who'd land on Proxima B after 400 years of space travel and in-fighting will be at a disadvantage and will have to fight for survival and adapt to this less than welcoming arid new world. Reinforcements won't be coming, so the Terrans will be on their own and each defeat will bring them closer to being wiped out for good. They will have to rely on crude firearms more than ever as the high-tech weapons and gear intended for the future colony were used up during the Mutiny and the civil war that followed. New factions will emerge in response to new threats, each offering a different way to survive and become part of this world.
Though just this part - about aliens being truly alien - I would say is a matter of perspective. If we consider that the universe has its universal laws and the macrocosm follows them, then despite having been formed from different chemical elements, sentient aliens might follow the same societal and development patterns. Planetary conditions notwithstanding.
I believe I know what you are going for, but just bear in mind that there is no need to throw "same as us" narrative out of the window. It is so widespread in fiction precisely because it is the most accurate idea about extra-terrestrial life humanity might have, based on its contemporary understanding of the universe.
For example, there are religious folk on your ship. They might be the "Spanish conquistador" type and will bring some pox blankets with them. But then again, they might actually see some universal imperative in not interefering (and especially fighting against) an already established sentient society. So instead of joining into the crusade, when the colonists land (today, you are going to have a hard time selling the narrative where people play as the Spanish, unless the aliens are like feeding on babies) the religious faction could surprise everyone by adopting non-violence or, more interestingly for the story, start aiding the aliens against inhumane colonists.
Well that does not really put them on the same scale. Here, in Colony Ship, as far as I understand, they do not travel dimensions - they just travel conventionally, through space. And there is little known just what the non-human dimensions looked like, in Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats. What I am trying to say is, that there is so-far no sufficient variable that would position all three stories in the same universe. Ultimately, it does not really matter if they do share the universe if the author decides not to elaborate on it, at all.
We portray aliens as human caricatures not because it is accurate but because it is useful. It is useful to a storyteller because he is now telling a story basically about humans and it is useful for the audience because they can relate both to the 'alien' characters and the overall point the story is making. There is no reason to think aliens would be very similar to us in mindset, though the biology and environment of any putative sapient species would greatly inform this.
The most obvious way to make an alien alien is to change their primary sense. All animals use all their senses but ultimately humans are audio-visual creatures. We most rely on our sight and hearing to interact with the world and one another. Most animals are nowhere near as visual as humans. This is why we sometimes interact with our pets in unhelpful ways. Both cats and dogs have significantly worse detailed vision than us and cannot see colours to the same degree we can. Examples of this include putting or holding treats too close to a cat so it's within the focal length of their vision (in other words it's a blur because their eyes cannot focus on it) and then withdrawing it when the cat does not respond. If you wait long enough, the cat will smell your treat and eat it or just move it back a couple of inches so the cat can see it. The cat may still not respond (it's a cat) but at least it knows it's being offered something.
If the aliens of Proxima Centuari communicate by smell, particularly social communication, along with vocalisations and body language (in other words the way most species do) then humans would seriously struggle to engage in social communication. Depending on how important smell is and how much the other species can adapt, this could range from a difficulty vaguely comparable to ASD (humans miss social cues, misread emotions etc but can communicate and develop effective strategies to address this) to complex communication is impossible.
Then you can consider things like reproduction and diet etc. Body plan.
You are right in the sense that roughly humanoid aliens will share certain basic faculties with us. These aliens will, for example, have a sense of object permanence. Without it complex tool-use is impossible. They may share lots of human cognitive faculties. This alone does not mean they will be similar to us. Human cultures can be wildly disparate from one another despite all of the above being exactly equivalent.
Of course, I do not mean "accurately" in a sense that it reflects the reality. There is no way to know just yet, alas. By that I mean that in portraying them this way, humans get as close to the idea of "other" in this universe as they can. If the world conforms to those rules, then should a life be possible on another planet it should conform along the same lines. You are correct that storytelling and psychology-wise aliens are mostly human-like for the "can relate" reasons. I guess I am approaching this problematic from philosophical perspective instead.
Humans rely on tools, the aliens rely on psionic abilities. They have no defenses (yet) against the firearms as they've never had to deal with such enemies before, whereas the Terrans have no defenses (yet) against their psionic attacks. Human minds are as unprotected and fragile to them as their bodies to 'us'. They will have other mental abilities as well: basic telepathy, mental suggestions, etc. Conversations should be fun to write and very different from AoD and CSG.
The factions would evolve as well:
"We will never be safe until we unlock the powers of the mind and beat the natives in their own game" (focus on science, research, mutations, forbidden experiments, etc). Pure humans can't have such an ability so some ... alterations would have to be made. Naturally, the Church will see it as abominations - "for what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?", so there's a nice built-in conflict right there.
Also don't the Church, or at least aspects of the Church, see the current mutants as abominations in the eyes of God already?
If so, incorporating non-human sapient genes would be very not okay with them.
In general the Ship seems to draw the line at significant genetic alteration of humans. Probably in part because of the accidental and uncontrolled episode of rapid forced evolution that lead to the rise of the mutants on the Ship anyway. Technological modifications are fair game and the Church is fine with these.
wcc you may not see a distinction between one type of modification and another and I might agree with you. Does not mean everyone does on the Ship or in RL.
Final point, the mutants clearly experienced forced evolution or germline modifications. Being a mutant is hereditary. If it wasn't, they would experience catastrophic population collapse as their unprotected infants died to radiation exposure. I'm sure plenty of children died anyway. Children are significantly more vulnerable to radiation than adults.
If the proposed further modifications in a proposed sequel were also germline modifications. That is to say, you will pass alien DNA on to your children then you have quite a serious argument that such modifications are the end of our species. This is why people dislike the mutants so much in the first place.