What are your gripes/criticism of TiTs?
- Thread starter TheInfamousImmortal
- Start date
So are a lot of other possible recruits. It's pretty easy to have more possible gunners than you have Turrets, which leads to your Crew apparently taking turns (who shoots is randomized).
Aim and Intelligence.
You don't have to Flirt/Arm Wrestle or go on a bender to recruit Ramis.
Choose 'Back Off', then approach again. 'Recruit' will be available.
The only difference is she demands 2K more Credits.
I was thinking a different way to gaining the Ghost Deck quest was for the player to look around the Steele Tech office on Tarkus until they notice a codex with a diagram of the Nova ship. Anno gets defensive about it but the player insists that Anno admits what was on the codex, to which Anno confesses which unlocks the Ghost Deck quest.
For Syri, if you beat her enough times in holo-games, the player can refuse to have sex and instead say it was merely bragging rights, which surprisingly made Syri chuckle. Regardless, Syri commends the player's skills and shakes their hand.
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Might be closer on the horizon than one might think, now I'm working on the Nasti/Riya expansion...
Honestly if I had to say, it'd be the whole "your the heir to a megacorp and must go out to earn your inheritance" premise. I'd personally really love a more loose story option where we can choose our own background, like for example maybe we're a slumrat working our way up, or a freelance agent taking jobs where we can, etc. Obviously the whole game is built around being a Steeletech Heir so I highly doubt this will ever be considered outside maybe a mod or even TiTS2 if that becomes a thing. Something like CP2077 backgrounds comes to mind in practice tbh. Hell, even just like a questionaire style which you get to pick specific parts of your history and reasons for going on the rush.
I'm well aware this is extremely conflicting with how the game is built from its core, so I doubt this will ever be considered, but its easily my biggest gripe/criticism. I just really like playing the underdog and going from nothing to everything personally, and having a hard-coded background is pretty darn limiting for character rp.
I'm well aware this is extremely conflicting with how the game is built from its core, so I doubt this will ever be considered, but its easily my biggest gripe/criticism. I just really like playing the underdog and going from nothing to everything personally, and having a hard-coded background is pretty darn limiting for character rp.
You already do choose your background, which is your class, I mean the smuggler and merc are, but how would you be connected to steel tech? You being a steel is a big part, I like the story the way it is honestly
Doesn't that literally change the entire backstory perhaps even the point of the game (of Steele) if that happened? It just wouldn't be the same.
Characters that new daddy Steele would have to be changed which then would change their character far too much.
Ex. Shade & Anyx would no longer be relatives of Steele. Anno would just be a random NPC.
Might as well play a different game all together.
Additionally the game only really happens BECAUSE Steele is well.... Steele.
A lot of gameplay only happens because of that for instance:
We have easier time with Transformations and handling Taint of Lessau's micro-agents and because Steele is a designer baby who has the time to go planet rushing.
We only go for those planets BECAUSE we know there is a probe there or other shit to fuck around and find out.
We have more leeway to do things because of our surname among many other things.
Tbf you still are an under-dog, Dad gave us shit and made us go on a wild goose chase for our "infinity money" inherritance, and you can simply kinda go "fuck you" to your dad through head canons (he did try to make us go through a pre-determined fate and lifestyle afterall)
Sometimes it feels like combat is too easy. The combat loss scenes are some of the hottest in the game imo, and intentionally losing or creating a weaker character just doesn't elicit the same feeling as getting those scenes after a fight where you really feel as if you were unquestionably bested by your opponent. I wish there was an option to increase difficulty.
I feel like I've complained about this before, but the Gryvian Techie on FIRST-14 is in a bit of a rough state. I believe that the focus with her is "your weapons will be severely hampered by her shields, so you need to use teasing." However, if you do not unequip your clothes, and don't start out with Ice Cold, you end up with an abysmally low hitrate with your teases, and when they do land it's somewhere around 12 lust build-up. It makes the Techie practically unbeatable when you start out if you don't know to strip down until you're completely naked (or if you don't take Ice Cold).
And this is the tutorial area, effectively, with her seemingly being designed to teach you to use teasing given the shield regen and its accompanying message. There's nothing, as far as I can tell, which tells new players "hey, before you walk around, you should actually start streaking," so instead, many new players will just end up getting beaten down without recorse. Hell, even if you're not new, if you just forget that the optimal strategy against her is to take up the nudist lifestyle, you'll still probably end up loosing to her.
The point is: The Gryvian Techie needs to be significantly weaker to teases, or at least be much easier to hit with them, because every bit of signposting around her is trying to say "don't attack, just tease," but you need to strip or take Ice Cold to actually effectively do it.
And this is the tutorial area, effectively, with her seemingly being designed to teach you to use teasing given the shield regen and its accompanying message. There's nothing, as far as I can tell, which tells new players "hey, before you walk around, you should actually start streaking," so instead, many new players will just end up getting beaten down without recorse. Hell, even if you're not new, if you just forget that the optimal strategy against her is to take up the nudist lifestyle, you'll still probably end up loosing to her.
The point is: The Gryvian Techie needs to be significantly weaker to teases, or at least be much easier to hit with them, because every bit of signposting around her is trying to say "don't attack, just tease," but you need to strip or take Ice Cold to actually effectively do it.
Yeah, I usually end up running away from her in all my new playtroughs, it's crazy how weak the lion is compared to her, you can easily down him with your weapons but the techie takes forever with tease.
You have.
Unless you're a Tech Specialist. The starting Scoped Pistol is quite effective (her shield has a 25% weakness to Burning). If you can get an Arc Sledgehammer from the Salvager, she becomes easy. The Ancient Laser Rifle is also good, but you have to beat her at least once, first. The actual lesson seems to be 'upgrade your weapons/equipment with enemy drops'.
The really annoying thing is the Salvager is actually extremely weak to Teasing, he just gets to reset his lust several times.
So, it's more like you have one enemy that's easily defeated by whatever method you want to use, and one enemy that can completely stonewall you.
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Kineticist has a really hard time with her as well. Force darts are too weak and inaccurate at level 1 to consistently beat her, and you don't get a gun
having played through to dhaal again, I think my biggest gripe is the weird inverse difficulty curve the game has overall. The game starts pretty hard but gets significantly easier after you hit Myrellion. between the Gyravian Techie, Dane, and the 3 security bot encounter, you have a pretty rough time in the early game. Granted, Tika letting you access uveto early does make things a little easier since you can get a lategame weapon without progressing past Tarkus, but still. The only enemy that puts up much of a fight after Tarkus is Amara Faell, who feels pretty reasonable for the tools you have at that point, and the Juggernaut who, again, feels pretty reasonable.
Even so, we still occasionally get people who complain the game is too hard.
A lot of it comes down to how you distribute your points and if you take advantage of Stat Training.
If you decide to spread your points around and create a well-balanced character? That doesn't really work in this game.
As for Tika, forget Uveto. +50% Shields and Health makes a big difference.
Kane is a pain in the ass if you're not Teasing him. 20 Defense at that level is no joke. And he can Stun for 3 rounds. And remove 40 Energy. And forces you to use your (probably) weak attack stat every other round.
The only other enemies I could find with 20 Defense are Amara & Nimue.
Granted, I like to low-stat until Zheng Shi, so I can take maximum advantage of Augment-Weave.
A lot of it comes down to how you distribute your points and if you take advantage of Stat Training.
If you decide to spread your points around and create a well-balanced character? That doesn't really work in this game.
As for Tika, forget Uveto. +50% Shields and Health makes a big difference.
Kane is a pain in the ass if you're not Teasing him. 20 Defense at that level is no joke. And he can Stun for 3 rounds. And remove 40 Energy. And forces you to use your (probably) weak attack stat every other round.
The only other enemies I could find with 20 Defense are Amara & Nimue.
Granted, I like to low-stat until Zheng Shi, so I can take maximum advantage of Augment-Weave.
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50% shields and hp is good but at level 3 it's not enough for the security robot fight if you get unlucky with targeting since they'll just burst you down before you can heal. The extra firepower from uveto was more the breakpoint for that fight I found.
1. I use Electrified Shock Blade on Tarkus regardless of Class.
2. As long as you get a Hammer Shield first, you should have decent survivability, with a little luck.
3. If you're still having trouble, buy some EMP Grenades from Anno. Unfortunately, you have to buy them before leaving, but still.
2. As long as you get a Hammer Shield first, you should have decent survivability, with a little luck.
3. If you're still having trouble, buy some EMP Grenades from Anno. Unfortunately, you have to buy them before leaving, but still.
I mean, I'm in dhaal now so, kinda a moot point. But if anyone has trouble doing the fight as soon as you hit tarkus that's good to know. I still stand by the fight is way harder than like, most of what the game throws at you after it. Kane I can see being rough, but I think at that point you probably have enough tools to deal with him. Plus he's an optional fight back on Mhenga that unlocks while you're doing Myrellion, there's a good chance you won't be doing him on level, unlike Ghost Deck which you would have good reason for doing underleveled
1,000% Agree.
While on the subject of things that need to be sign-posted... How about the Kineticist's ability to pretty easily and innately cause Deep Freeze and Shatter? I only figured it out quite some time ago, but after I had already beaten Mhen'ga and was farming Two-Handed Spears when I discovered the Sizzlepod Staff and tried using it. Only with a ton of trial and error did I manage to notice the cause-effect relationship with Entropic Whip > Deep Freeze > Sizzlepod Staff > Shatter. Even then, figuring out that it was the Crushing weapon flag and not that it was a Psionically Tuned weapon took even more time and diving into the Wiki.
I dunno about everyone else, that seems really obtuse and lame to me. Doubly so when the starting equipment for the Kineticist is a knife and a rock. Not only are you getting shafted on equipment you could later sell when compared to other classes, neither is capable of triggering Shatter. The Kineticist needs a unique starting weapon, something like a one-handed security baton, that is low-damage but still has the Crushing flag. I bet if you did that then a whole lot more players would accidently bumble into the Deep Freeze/Shatter mechanic without any additional signposting. Without that ability, Kineticist seems really weak and underpowered starting out, especially if you're trying to Force Dart things into submission and your attacks are missing constantly because of their abysmal accuracy. Playing a low level Kineticist without knowing how to proc Shatter feels awful.
That reminds me that Force Darts also feels awful. I hate RNG, and especially bad RNG. The accuracy on Force Darts is really bad RNG. You know you could be hitting with X amount of darts, but constantly getting 1 hot out of 3 feels like shit. It is the game constantly pushing your face in the mud and telling you that you could be doing more damage, but your ability sucks. It feels awful, and it's not fun. Is all of the darts hitting 100% of the time too powerful? Then rebalance the damage and make them way more accurate. If hitting every dart was the baseline, misses were rare, and they did reliable damage when all of them hit? It would feel much better to use even if they average out to the same amount of damage over time. As is, the game's initial ability for the dedicated caster class does everything it can mechanically in game to scare a player away from using it with its very unreliable accuracy (and thus, damage). Again, that seems really lame.
I like playing Kineticist. I know enough now to farm Kaithrit Salvagers until I get the Steele Tech Hazard Suit, 9L Pistol, and (most importantly) Arc Sledgehammer. Then I can walk around 2-shotting those bullshit Gryvian Techies, as the burst damage from Shatter absolutely overwhelms their defenses. I know to do this now, but there is nothing within the tutorial or the F.I.R.S.T.-14 station that would lead you to any of this organically. Being effective with a class at the beginning of the game shouldn't require multiple playthroughs and a deep dive of the Wiki...
I was thinking about the Quarterstaff, but it's way too powerful for a starter weapon.
Deep Freeze Tooltip said:
The fact you get up to 5 Darts, any of which can Crit is extremely valuable for Deep Impact.
At least 1 Crit, assuming all Darts hit:
3 Darts | 4 Darts | 5 Darts
5%*: 14.26% (0.857) | 18.55% (0.8145) | 22.63% (0.7737)
15%: 39% (0.61) | 38.6% (0.614) | 47.8% (0.522)
20%: 48.8% (0.512) | 59% (0.4096) | 67.2% (0.32768)
Once you get a Stun, all Darts will hit. Unlike Stun Chance weapons, Deep Impact will Stun through Shields/Armor.
*Base. Can be increased with Witch's Robe & Reaper Cloak.
And you can have 2 (20%+15%) attempts with the Xukwood Staff & Haste.
Arc Sledgehammer is enough to win on it's own. No Deep Freeze required.
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Yeah, and it would diminish the upgrade that getting the Sizzlepod Staff would be. Just something with the same damage as the Knife (4), but with the Crushing flag.
Also, the tooltip has it's own flaws. For one, what even is +100% Crushing damage? When I first saw that, I assumed 'Crushing' was a damage type like Kinetic, Corrosive, or Electric. The fact that 'Crushing' isn't a type of damage, but rather a damage type-agnostic weapon attribute (that doesn't even apply to all non-bladed or 'blunt' melee weapons; see Reaper 'AA' Stun Rod, Electrokinetic Knuckles, and Knuckle Busters) is not something you are going to get from that tooltip. There is this whole really important damage mechanic just sitting here, and discovering it organically though play and using it effectively is a real crap shoot. Rewriting the tooltip to something like '+100% Damage from Crushing-type weapons and abilities (consumes debuff)' would be far more informative.
Also, There are a grand total of 23 melee weapons (out of 74 on the wiki) with the 'Crushing' flag, and 8 of which I know didn't exist before the Kineticist was playable (the 7 psionic weapons and the Magma Crusher at least were all added with or after the class). There are only 7 weapons in total that can even cause Deep Freeze, and 1 of those is the Sleet Staff; so even playing a lot before the introduction of the Kineticist left you kinda unprepared for this.
Sure, if you know enough to break down the numbers and do the math, it might be effective. But in game, when you are playing with it for the first time and experimenting to see what works and what doesn't? Literally none of that matters. In the moment, without that prior knowledge, all of the game's feedback is telling you this ability sucks. It doesn't matter how true it is from a meta-gaming perspective with perfect knowledge of the mechanics. In the moment, as a new player trying out Kineticist, using Force Darts feels like slapping the enemy with wet noodles. It is a low damage ability that is frustratingly inaccurate and lacks any other non-damage utility by itself. The ability to later stack mini-crits and stun lock doesn't do anything for a player on F.I.R.S.T.-14 using the ability and being underwhelmed with its effectiveness in comparison to tossing a ROCK at the enemy. Given how the Entropic Leech hits reliably, regens HP and Energy, and can setup Deep Freeze? It feels like it should be the Lv1 starter skill. It has so much more utility than Force Darts.
Also, 'Crit Bonus' is another vague descriptor that had me avoiding the Xukwood Staff. Is 'Crit Bonus' a boost to the CHANCE to cause a critical hit, or a boost the the MULTIPLIER or amount of damage a critical hit does? How much damage does a critical hit actually do over a regular one? This is the kind of stuff that I know and can answer in other RPG's, but not this one. What even is the baseline chance to cause a critical hit? Is the +15 there a flat bonus, or a percentile? How much does +15 actually help? NO IDEA! That's why I never used it. I'm not going to build around a mechanic I don't understand. There is room in the weapon inspection screen to write 'Critical Chance Bonus' instead of 'Critical Bonus' if they cared to. At least the Trip chance of the Hookstaff and the Freeze chance of the Sleet Slate had very noticeable and obvious things they claimed to do, and could be observed to do in combat. But critical hits? Whose mechanics are hidden behind calculations you cannot see, and reliant upon RNG? Again, unless you are going to sit there and run a control test of X amount of attacks with another weapon and compare that to the same X amount of attack with the Xukwood to try to determine the relative change in Critical Hits or the damage they do, how else are you supposed to quantify that weapon attribute? The dialogue doesn't say anything in combat about it (or accuracy for that matter).
Smuggler gets the Flash Grenade, with an obvious effect that triggers reliably. It also has a very obvious synergy with abilities you gain quickly thereafter, and allows the player to effectively use it early and often to put up big damage numbers easily. Paralyzing Shock for the Tech Specialist does the same thing, as preventing an enemy from taking action is a huge and obvious benefit that moves the action economy drastically in favor of the player. Ditto for the Mercenary's stunning Headbutt. By Lv3 Smuggler has Sneak Attack or Aimed Shot to double down on the Flash Grenade. Tech Specialist has big damage with Overcharge or Charge Weapon (the later of which, given the prevalence of shields, is never not useful). Mercenary has Power Strike or Rapid Fire to put up damage numbers. Also, none of those abilities rely upon a specific weapon-dependent flag outside of the broad categorical distinction between melee or ranged. Kineticist by Lv3 has Force Darts, Entropic Leech, and Kinetic Burst or Thermal Sunder. Leech is the most dependable workhorse, Darts is an unreliable noodle fest, Burst is very situational, and Sunder has utility in weakening an enemy but without the ability to prevent them from hurting you in the way other classes can by this point. Again, regardless of meta-gaming the behind the scene calculations, this is part of what contributes to Kineticist just feeling so much weaker than its peers.
^^ Why do 4 damage when you can instead do 11 and get energy back plus have a chance to Deep Freeze? F.I.R.S.T.-14 and Mhen'ga is just this over and over again. It trains new players to not want to use Force Darts, because the ability just sucks at low level. Here I have max 15/15 Intelligence and Willpower, and I'm doing Lv1 ROCK damage. My ZK Rifle reliably hits for over 15 damage with an Aim of 8/15 without needing energy, let alone the damage my Sizzlepod Staff (with 15/15 Physique) can bring. Synergies and combos at much higher levels don't change that in-the-moment reality. ^^
Honestly, it's more out of frustration and revenge at that point. Again, nothing in the game tells you that the most effective way to sideline her is to strip off your starting clothes to get a reasonable tease damage (going from and average of 12 to 20 is massive). But Entropic Leech with the Arc Sledgehammer did let me take out the Machina bot on Mhen'ga in 2 rounds at Lv3. So, that was fun at least. But again, back to my point, there is no way on Earth you are doing 51 damage in a single turn with Force Darts at Lv3. Deep Freeze and Shatter make the Kineticist feel effective and powerful; Force Darts makes you feel like you're tossing baseballs at the side of a battletank.
Game design is more than just code and spreadsheets worth of data, it is also vibes; and new-player vibes for the Kineticist are not good.
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Originally, it was only 1 weapon (FZR Fire Suppression System). And it was hilariously broken (Crushing didn't remove the debuff, -50 Evasion and bonus damage for negative Evasion applies to enemies).
2x for Shield/Armor/HP damage, 1.5x for Lust.
Codex>Stats>Combat
Critical Chance:
┕ Melee: 5%
┕ Ranged: 5%
Equip Xukwood Staff
┕ Melee: 20%
The thing that required testing was whether +Crit Armor/Accessories increased the Crit chance for powers (they do).
Kineticist is envisioned as a 'Space Wizard'. And for better or worse, Wizard-type characters generally rely on a better understanding of game mechanics.
I actually posted a list of enemies that should be affected by Disarm some time ago. I know that Fenoxo was working through it. I don't know how far he got. Disarm as a status has some major fundamental problems, yes.
Also, Thermal Sunder is good for more than just the Sunder effect. It's Burning damage, which makes it more effective vs Shields than Force Darts or most Staffs. It was surprisingly useful vs Khorgan's Mech.
You're right that Kineticist doesn't have an effective Crowd Control option at low levels. You have to wait until Debris Field or Gravity Flux.
Thinking about it, a Telekinetic Grapple would be appropriate, but that might require rewriting a lot of enemy AI.
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There's not that much support for some of the transformation tags in scenes such as Aphrodisiac Laced stuff, horns, most tails, any legs that are more or less than two, etc. Kind of feels disappointing when you're practically custom tailoring your character to have everything you want them to have and then it isn't brought up as much in scenes. For example, height doesn't really matter for scenes and I've played a character that was 10 feet tall not counting horns but there were no blurbs about my characters having to bend under doorways or in low ceiling environments like the Tunnels of the Korg'ii Hold. And despite having horns, I think I only ever saw one sex scene where someone grabbed them.
This is further made frustrating when you consider that gene modding and transformatives are such a prominent part of this game's writing, ya know?
This is further made frustrating when you consider that gene modding and transformatives are such a prominent part of this game's writing, ya know?
double edged sword: the more customization you add for the player character, the more work you create for the people writing for the game.
while normally a valid criticism, i think tits is unique in the amount of community writing there is; there is little to no coordination between writers. as such, generalizing tits writers as a collective "they" doesn't quite work when referring to the overall plan of the game
Stat gains suck. There, I said the one thing we all already knew.
The slow stat gain system isn't inherently a bad idea, but it's current implementation is pretty crap. It just is. The game doesn't tell you how the system works. Only a few very select activities, many of them oddball or esoteric interactions, actually do anything. Having good stats basically requires you to rely on sources outside of the game (e.g. the wiki) to lean how the system works, and how to use it.
Training your stats at a gym? Not a bad idea. Gyms are places for self-improvement, so it would make sense that if they're in-game, then they would serve a tangible in-game function beyond just set dressing. That there is one-and-only-one gym in the entire explorable game world, a relatively easy to miss location on a non-core progression world? With access locked behind an exorbitant payment that even knowledgeable players need to plan around? That's crap.
Here's a novel idea - Using abilities should cause growth in their associated stats.
Novel idea, I'm sure. They've only being doing it every Elder Scrolls game ever. But swinging a melee weapon and having that slowly raise your Physique attribute would be a far more usable, intuitive, and streamlined system than the current ad-hoc and piecemeal collection of semi-random stat raising actions. I mean, seriously, talking to Syri about Sci-Fi books raises Intelligence. Talking to anyone else about anything similar, or talking to her about her other reading genres? They do fuck all. It is only her, and only Sci-Fi, that does anything. There's no two ways around this; that's dumb as hell.
The implementation of the system could really use an overhaul. The most streamlined way to make the game less grindy would be to do an Elder Scrolls style of usage raising corresponding attributes. Failing that, the game could really use a complete rebalancing and implementation of what's already in place. There needs to be orders of magnitude more actions that raise stats, and do so with a consistent across-the-board logic that a new player will be able to intuit and make use of without needing to consult a wiki. There should be more gym locations, and they need to be along core progression paths (or here's a novel idea, put a treadmill, some free-weights and a bench in your ship). If talking to Syri about Sci-Fi raises Intelligence, then talking to her about other books should also raise stats. Talking to other people about similar topics should also induce stat gains. Talking to people about philosophy or exploring new cultures should likewise increase stats. If playing video-games with Chrissy or 4D chess with Semith gets stat gains; then so should playing games with Syri or anything else, and you should have options to play videogames by yourself on your ship too. The game would be so much more enjoyable and less-grindy if more of the various things you already did had tangible benefits; rather than the current slew of myopically small, select, and inconsistently applied actions.
Raising Physique without using transformatives or cybernetics comes down to just 3 actions. Training at Ten Ton Gym by yourself, training at Ten Ton gym with Mirrin, or training with Ramis only after she's a crew member. Stop and think about how lame Skyrim would be if the only way to raise your baseline Two-Handed attribute was by 3 and only 3 non-combat actions in the entire world, 2 of which were located right next to each other (but none of them placed in major cities or along the main story path), and all 3 of which required substantial funds to access. Bethesda's game design ethos has plenty of flaws and criticisms you can level at it, but in this specific regard, they succeeded in building an intuitive and fun progression system. The core idea, that you get better at the things you do by just doing them, is a sublimely intuitive system that by and large just works.
Hell, before that, Morrowind and Oblivion had trainers you could pay; and they were placed throughout the world. Every guild or faction had their associated trainers, and every large settlement had at least a few major factions of guild locations available. The system might have been flawed and resource intensive, but it was consistent, made sense within the game's world and logic, and was a fairly straightforward concept for players to grasp. Need to improve your Evocation? Don't want to just toss fireballs at bandits (crucially, this option to just use a skill is missing from TiTS)? Then go find your nearest Mages Guild, talk to their local trainer, and pay to have them train you in that skill. You didn't need to find the one and only one weird NPC in some lost cave and spam a very specific conversation chain with them in the hopes of getting your stat to roll over to the next point.
The slow stat gain system isn't inherently a bad idea, but it's current implementation is pretty crap. It just is. The game doesn't tell you how the system works. Only a few very select activities, many of them oddball or esoteric interactions, actually do anything. Having good stats basically requires you to rely on sources outside of the game (e.g. the wiki) to lean how the system works, and how to use it.
Training your stats at a gym? Not a bad idea. Gyms are places for self-improvement, so it would make sense that if they're in-game, then they would serve a tangible in-game function beyond just set dressing. That there is one-and-only-one gym in the entire explorable game world, a relatively easy to miss location on a non-core progression world? With access locked behind an exorbitant payment that even knowledgeable players need to plan around? That's crap.
Here's a novel idea - Using abilities should cause growth in their associated stats.
Novel idea, I'm sure. They've only being doing it every Elder Scrolls game ever. But swinging a melee weapon and having that slowly raise your Physique attribute would be a far more usable, intuitive, and streamlined system than the current ad-hoc and piecemeal collection of semi-random stat raising actions. I mean, seriously, talking to Syri about Sci-Fi books raises Intelligence. Talking to anyone else about anything similar, or talking to her about her other reading genres? They do fuck all. It is only her, and only Sci-Fi, that does anything. There's no two ways around this; that's dumb as hell.
The implementation of the system could really use an overhaul. The most streamlined way to make the game less grindy would be to do an Elder Scrolls style of usage raising corresponding attributes. Failing that, the game could really use a complete rebalancing and implementation of what's already in place. There needs to be orders of magnitude more actions that raise stats, and do so with a consistent across-the-board logic that a new player will be able to intuit and make use of without needing to consult a wiki. There should be more gym locations, and they need to be along core progression paths (or here's a novel idea, put a treadmill, some free-weights and a bench in your ship). If talking to Syri about Sci-Fi raises Intelligence, then talking to her about other books should also raise stats. Talking to other people about similar topics should also induce stat gains. Talking to people about philosophy or exploring new cultures should likewise increase stats. If playing video-games with Chrissy or 4D chess with Semith gets stat gains; then so should playing games with Syri or anything else, and you should have options to play videogames by yourself on your ship too. The game would be so much more enjoyable and less-grindy if more of the various things you already did had tangible benefits; rather than the current slew of myopically small, select, and inconsistently applied actions.
Raising Physique without using transformatives or cybernetics comes down to just 3 actions. Training at Ten Ton Gym by yourself, training at Ten Ton gym with Mirrin, or training with Ramis only after she's a crew member. Stop and think about how lame Skyrim would be if the only way to raise your baseline Two-Handed attribute was by 3 and only 3 non-combat actions in the entire world, 2 of which were located right next to each other (but none of them placed in major cities or along the main story path), and all 3 of which required substantial funds to access. Bethesda's game design ethos has plenty of flaws and criticisms you can level at it, but in this specific regard, they succeeded in building an intuitive and fun progression system. The core idea, that you get better at the things you do by just doing them, is a sublimely intuitive system that by and large just works.
Hell, before that, Morrowind and Oblivion had trainers you could pay; and they were placed throughout the world. Every guild or faction had their associated trainers, and every large settlement had at least a few major factions of guild locations available. The system might have been flawed and resource intensive, but it was consistent, made sense within the game's world and logic, and was a fairly straightforward concept for players to grasp. Need to improve your Evocation? Don't want to just toss fireballs at bandits (crucially, this option to just use a skill is missing from TiTS)? Then go find your nearest Mages Guild, talk to their local trainer, and pay to have them train you in that skill. You didn't need to find the one and only one weird NPC in some lost cave and spam a very specific conversation chain with them in the hopes of getting your stat to roll over to the next point.