Hands Off my Waifu

[Galgano]

if I remember correctly, I read something a while back about how Fen wanted to avoid what happened to CoC (every character became a waifu/husbando/follower) to happen to TiTS. But now I'm seeing a bunch of talk about quests that will allow various characters to become followers. So: either Fen relented or I read speculation.

In either case it looks like we're going to be getting a whole bunch of waifus following us everywhere. But with the amount of detail that's going into writing these characters it feels like doing such a thing to some of them will be doing more harm than good. You're basically asking them to leave their old life/job to come kick it with you around the galaxy while you pop out 20+ kids every 9 months.

For some characters, it might not be such a bad thing - they don't have a lot of attachment to the planet we found them on - but for others it seems like Steele is just being selfish and wants to cart his/her lovers around and have them be inconvenienced just so he/she doesn't have to go back to their planet every time they want to engage in a little interplanetary booty call.

Basically the whole point of this is to ask which characters would you NOT like to see become a follower and would rather their story arc or their life to continue on their planet and they stay there.

 

[Noob Salad]

It's not about not having waifus. It's about not having trash waifus.

So we still failed there.

 

[Slab Bulkhead]

You might be right, but turning NPCs into ship crew has a purpose in TiTS, or at least it will once ships are in the game: https://www.fenoxo.com/little-shippy-little-shippy/

Crewmembers properly take up space on the ship, so the number you can have with you at any time is finally limited…

… but you’ll be able to assign them to different jobs aboard the ship and potentially receive bonuses in the process. Off the top of my head things currently support something like 7 core system assignments, and potentially dozens of weapon assignments. (Capital ships pls tia)

So it's not like these people are just going to come with you and sit around waiting to fuck, they'll actually be part of your crew and do different things. Even if it just means they give you different bonuses, that's still them doing something, I think.

But I get what you mean. I think NPCs who have their own lives going shouldn't join the crew, especially if it's clear they like where they are or what they're doing is important. It makes sense that Anno would want to, since she already sort of works for you, but I don't know if someone like Gianna would join since it seems like she likes her life on NT. I wouldn't write Amber (my WIP) as a crew member since her whole thing is about Steele helping her with her job, and she's not going to give that job up to go cruise around in someone's ship for no reason.

 

[balitz Method]

So many characters following the new beat - that it's p. casual and maybe they're attached but you know, whatever, they're doing them (and you, sometimes) - seemed like a direct attempt to avoid that waifu collector rut that CoC fell into. Everyone's got their own lives and they're generally not disposed to dropping them or even getting overly attached.

But the core of the game is still Steele Jr. being selfish and gallivanting around because they've got no responsibilities or financial struggles and one of the intended features was always building a hare-er, "hiring a crew that just so happens to consist entirely of people Steele Jr. is boinking with". Giving them richer lives just means that tearing them away from those lives feels a lot more exploitative than it could have - especially when the recruitment method is usually buying them outright or buying them something expensive to create a sense of obligation.

One solution to this would be introducing characters that are actual hires to be crew members and -then- giving them content as opposed to seeing people you like and figuring out how to convince them to drop their life or coming off as a scumbag who opportunistically "saves" people from their troubles to get to that end.

 

[Klaptrap]

One solution to this would be introducing characters that are actual hires to be crew members and -then- giving them content as opposed to seeing people you like and figuring out how to convince them to drop their life or coming off as a scumbag who opportunistically "saves" people from their troubles to get to that end.

We will most likely not see that until crew positions (no pun intended) are a thing and even then I imagine most are going to lean very heavily into the waifu side of things. Because waifus is what pays the bills.