Starter Jobs - hidden benefits?

[TheDwarf]

We have Merc, techie and Smuggler offered.
And now game has matured to point where ship to ship combat and minmaxing the ships is a good idea and maybe a necessity.

The question is, "are there hidden bonuses for each career?"

I thought about it a bit and had some ideas.

Merc - bonus ground combat and turret/fixed weapon fire (on ship) This perhaps should be level based and grow with experience of the character directly. Or perhaps tracked as a hidden XP level that goes up per flight/fight. The ground combat bonuses are clearly spelled out and can be chosen as you go already.
Ship bonuses might carry over if CQC happens if you're boarded. Some writing has ship being boarded/overwhelmed to push the storyline, but other times it doesn't follow for that Steele very well.

Smuggler- Better sensor/shield and evasion tweaks on hidden xp perhaps? Ability to store more than ship's basic modules allow? (ie make a free mod for cargo or passenger increase one time per ship. Capped at 1 + lvl/10 perhaps? ie You tear out the beds and install triple bunks in one room, open the wall to give that room more floor space with the adjoining cabin. Thus you have room for 3 to sleep in what was space for 2 and there's still leg room and some privacy inside that.

Techie- Get more from ship. Faster energy regen, bit more thrust (set % per hidden level?) , tweaked systems, in combat repairs to systems or shields and perhaps a 1X per combat attempt to hack enemy during fight when they are distracted? (ie You flood their comms and video with moaning and sounds of lustful fucking (which makes you smile because that's you making the woman moan and groan like that). Or you insert an order for energy to be diverted to artificial gravity to increase or decrease enough to hamper the enemy...the ship falters in it's next attack pass...do you attack (bonus) or use this chance to flee?

Maybe techies can tweak weapons too. If you have techs aboard maybe they can do this instead if not a techie, but do you trust them enough or will it have the exact specs you dreamed up...but haven't quite got the math done right yet on the tablet... "Will this look like the laser/guns on XXXX Space Pirate Princess of Lum and be all flash and no bang? Will your enemies know and fear this weapon?"

Perhaps marrying a slut ray to the EMP projector so that you affect their entire ship once their shields are down...a few blasts and perhaps it's safe enough to board them now...

[this second part could be a separate post, but is in here for continuity's sake]

-- as for starting careers they all seem to be a bit limited or highly regulated. which I understand was necessary for the storyline and programming initially.

Suggest maybe we can add a couple new ones to the character creation?

Rebel/Mynx - you mastered the ability to break the rules set by your father and those raising you. Escaping often and enjoying life. You might belong to the rich upper class, but are more comfortable among the street folk.
Others would call you a thief or whore. As you level you get choices in
Hand to Hand skills or small weapons (melee).
Bonus Seduction/Silver Tongue Skill (talking or sucking or fucking your way out of any difficulties you got yourself into so daddy doesn't know.)
Tease bonus.
Pick pocket skill/lock picking

Socialite- during finishing school you focused on being socially acceptable and dressing the part your rival did his/her best during your finishing school and university to wreck you, but you managed to get through it all unscathed and look the winner. Bonuses and skills in social dialogue checks. Ability to blend in corporate or rich areas. (negatives in others). Bonus on being dominate/training help. (caveat only HARD and GOOD are options for starting personalities. You're a rich smug SOB or you use your standing for good, because you can and it feels right. Looks and appearance (dress) are badges that forces others to recognize who you are...you can blend into a social situation or be a blazing star depending on needs. maybe bonus on outfits and $$ starting?

Stripper- You're daddy's good girl...until he's not looking. You discovered stripping at college and the extra funds that no one else controlled or monitored were well enjoyed. You also discovered that sex is fun, can be a weapon or tool to get things you need - for free or in trade. Not much you haven't done yet. Not many you haven't. You have a bit of an exhibitionist's fetish and enjoy the attention. You can always find work when short on funds dancing, stripping or just plain whoring should you be in the mood. (Lust and Libido boosted ?) Your natural inclinations and designed creation give the treatment a run for its money in capabilities and endurance. (bonus stamina/athletic checks? Don't get tired from sex etc?)

Lab rat- you spent so much time in and out of the doctor's /scientist's offices and labs that you naturally selected science and medicine as a carreer. Not really sexy, but it will serve you a solid base for running the company later or during the rush as you make new discoveries. You start with a lab assistant (choose sex of same or make it a bot/android) they are more physical than you and smart enough to understand what you need when asked. They were tasked with protecting you while you're bent over examining what's under a rock or fending off horny miners while you get samples of the virus/bacteria causing their illnesses. Depending on starting personality (Hard mischievous good) they can start as a minion (hard), sidekick (mischief- they think like you and love to help you with pranks), or as a lover (close quarter protection means in bed too they convinced you early on...) The companion acts like the attack droid in your stead attempting to intercept attacks (physical), distract enemy, or neutralize them so that you can escape, tease/incapacitate or make an actual attack... suffer lower str aim and reflexes (75% cap? or lower?) until you can customize yourself (redistribute add some points? at cost of other things and maybe taint?)


as for starting races
CHIMERA
Dad was tainted. He had a lil of everything eventually in him. He worked with that instead of going for the purity. His megalomania was minor, but he saw no problem in making you the best...something resilient and unique. A chimera that would breed true. Negatives are that after creation you suffer temp taint from mods (including/especially ones that make you look more human). Your physically at peek and training exercise works twice as well? (longer benefits or full effects in half the time.)
As a true chimera your body can change to suit the situation. All it takes is time and food. (you eat twice as much as a normal human due to metabolism).
As for looks, they are exotic and can present as male or female fully or something indeterminate with a night's rest and enough willpower. (main stat). Bimbofication would break that and make you seek the most sexy form possible you are capable of as your baseline. it would be like getting treatment and Bro/bimbofication all at once w/o cow changes)
Your mental capabilities were boosted by taking the best from all the races Dad had been before or discovered in previous Rushes (and even a few that are Steele corporate secrets). Problem is your attention span is poor. But if something has your focus you'll figure it out faster than anyone you know. You can be just as flighty as you are focused. Your tendency is naturally towards mischief over hard or good.
Choose ear type
Choose body type
Choose tail type (short long prehensile fluffy bare and sex sensitive?)
Choose fur, scales, etc (y/n)
Choose sex (can be modified via willpower and time.)
Pregnancies will always cede to your baseline in yourself. In others normal chances of expression. Shared traits are emphasized in those. In your own at most 1-2 traits will be borrowed. During pregnancy you will express parental physical changes.
You're a natural hemaphodite, but unless you chose to present as such you are treated (gamewise) as one sex or another. You have a genital slit that can retract balls and manhood. Or you can express cock into your own tail if one's needed.
Most TFs will not work on you as advertised. You were designed to not need them. To take and use what you need from those you meet to make yourself better and create/be a new race. Steele's child. Able to adapt and have fun in any environment or world. (sperm/milk/bodyfluids etc can increase your change menu) changing too often can exhaust you and drain willpower. You suffer taint at twice what normal characters would from same and drugs.
Another negative is that you are unique and driven to breed. Fathering is easiest, but you naturally speed up pregnancy in yourself (and a bit less in others ie 5x speed base self preg 2.5X in others? needs mathed and can be boosted somehow for gameplay?)
Your senses are broader and better than other races. The dark holds no secrets. At same time you're more susceptible to pheromones and natural aphrodisiacs.

Cyborg Dad started you out human and replaced damaged parts with tech. You're the six billion credit son/daughter of Steele... (or someone tried to kill you as a child and this was the way they saved you? Or things added and replaced with tech ) Your core and sexes may be human, but not much else of you is...

 

[TheShepard256]

Discussion on the ship-based ones (especially boarding parties) will probably have to wait for proper ship combat rather than the placeholder currently in place, but I don't see the others being implemented. At all.

In general, I'm pretty sure the backgrounds and classes that are currently in the game will be the only ones available; there are good reasons they were, and still are, highly regulated. There are several events where Steele's reaction varies depending on either background or class, and adding new ones will certainly mean having to go back through most, if not all, of them to update them. Classes will especially not be added due to balancing issues:
Each level, each class gains one perk and gets a choice between two other perks, all of which are unique per class and level (except for Heroic Reserves and choice between Second Strike and Second Shot), so combined with their starting ability, each class will have a total of 25 perks exclusive to it at level 10 (the current in-game max) and 55 at level 20 (the planned end-game max). Any new class needs to not only have that many perks as well, but also have those perks balanced against those of other classes, which becomes significantly more difficult the more classes are added.
There's also the question of 'what skills would this job give Steele that will help them during the Planet Rush, particularly in dangerous situations?', which was a major factor in how Victor compiled his list of recommended jobs for his child in the first place. As such, class abilities are mainly supposed to be combat-related with the occasional option to take a different (but relatively minor) course of action for certain events. As for each specific idea:
Rebel/Mynx:

• "As you level you get choices in Hand to Hand skills or small weapons (melee)": this leaves no options for ranged builds. Besides, hand-to-hand isn't even a thing for Steele; if they don't have a melee weapon, they use a rock instead.
• "Bonus Seduction/Silver Tongue Skill": this would have to be implemented on a case-by-case basis, including already-existing scenes. Even then, it would only be useful for checks that rely on a stat (usually Intelligence) or have an influenceable random chance of success/failure; passing such checks is ultimately not that big a deal in-game, so I don't think it such a bonus would be significant for Steele.
• "Tease bonus": of little value, since any build that relies heavily on tease attacks can already easily reach the tease damage cap, even without large bonuses to Sexiness.
• "Pick pocket skill/lock picking": already covered by the Smuggler class, and I'm pretty sure Steele's never had to pick-pocket anyone.

Socialite:

• "Bonuses and skills in social dialogue checks": same as the seduction/persuasion point above.
• "Ability to blend in corporate or rich areas. (negatives in others)": Steele doesn't have to actively 'blend in' anywhere, especially on the Planet Rush where there are few, if any, corporate/rich areas to be found. Such areas would also lack hostile encounters, which defeats the purpose of blending in.
• "Bonus on being dominate/training help.": there are no situations this would apply to. Steele is as dominant/good at training as is necessary for any given scene.
• "only HARD and GOOD are options for starting personalities": this would get rejected right away, and wouldn't even be possible since starting personality is chosen before class. Besides, socialites are just as capable of being mischievous as anyone else.
• "Looks and appearance (dress) are badges that forces others to recognize who you are": Steele's already famous enough that this wouldn't matter; anyone who would recognise Steele does so already due to being Victor Steele's heir, and everyone else doesn't really care.
• "you can blend into a social situation or be a blazing star depending on needs": Steele already does this.
• "maybe bonus on outfits and $$ starting?": okay, this one's actually quite reasonable and in-line with existing classes/backgrounds. That doesn't excuse the other points, though.

Stripper: Steele can do most of this stuff anyways, and get appropriate perks/stats for the rest. Either way, no point in making an entirely new class/background for it. (Besides, Jacques00 (I think) already added what is essentially this to the code (the Slutty background), but it got removed almost as soon as it was found out.)
Lab Rat:

• "You start with a lab assistant": this is already demanding an entire companion (which are a lot of content in and of themselves) exclusive to one class, which would never be accepted. Even if it was, everything that follows from this would require said companion to accompany Steele almost everywhere they go, which would require pretty much an entire overhaul of most of the game's content to accommodate them. I'd even go so far as to say that Savin's response to 'can we have pregnancy content with Anno/Kaede/Syri?' is a lesser 'NO!' than the developers' and coders' response to such an overhaul.
• "suffer lower str aim and reflexes ... until you can customize yourself": ignore the reduction in max stats (which would never be accepted as a permanent thing), and things like this are part of what backgrounds are supposed to be, with 'until you can customize yourself' being either level 2 or the Ten Ton Gym (whichever you reach first).

While new starter races aren't off the table (several have been implemented since TiTS was first released), the ones you've thought up wouldn't pass. For the Chimaera, it would be because starter race (and race in general) should mostly be a cosmetic choice, with the remainder being minor dialogue differences; your suggestions would constitute a pretty significant change in gameplay compared to current Steeles. A less extreme form of the same problem would present itself with the Cyborg, in addition to the fact that not only have cyborg/synthetic/prosthetic/whatever body parts not been implemented yet, but it hasn't even been fully decided what they're actually going to do. Besides, starter races are supposed to be half-human, half-(insert race here), not whatever these are.

I'm not trying to be disparaging, it's just... TiTS is a lot more complicated than you seem to realise, both in terms of how its code works and of what the developers, coders and writers are willing to do and accept, and I don't know how to properly demonstrate that to you without dismantling your far-out ideas almost entirely. I'm pretty sure I spent over two, possibly three hours composing this post; hopefully, that gives you at least some idea of how complicated it all is.