Game News Colony Ship RPG Update #10: Companions Overview

[Cosmo]

Molding is a god-like trait. You look upon your followers, don't like what you see and start "terraforming" them to make their personalities more to your liking. How many people are capable of such a feat? So you have twp options: accept your party members' "shortcomings" and work around them or manipulate them to get what you need (within reasons).

That's a synchronic view of how human relations work, but wouldn't there be also a diachronic aspect, in that the more successful you get over time, the more they'll be amenable to your wishes because as your followers, they know they'll profit from simply staying with you ?

 

[Vault Dweller]

I think that's a somewhat idealistic portrayal of long-term relationships (personal or professional). Changing yourself is the hardest thing to do, thus any meaningful change is driven by crisis, the bigger the crisis, the bigger the change. Profiting from staying with someone isn't enough to even want to change as most people would see it as a two-way street: you profit from staying with X (person or a company), X profits from you staying with them, so why should you change?

 

[MRY]

Molding is a god-like trait. You look upon your followers, don't like what you see and start "terraforming" them to make their personalities more to your liking. How many people are capable of such a feat?

But we're supposed to be the Chosen One!!!

 

[Jaedar]

Molding is a god-like trait. You look upon your followers, don't like what you see and start "terraforming" them to make their personalities more to your liking. How many people are capable of such a feat?

But we're supposed to be the Chosen One!!!

Only if you have 10 charisma and are clever enough to convince people of your chosenness.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

In a game that's about choices what are the odds that your party members would strongly agree with every decision you make and blindly follow you no matter what?

Better than average.

:australia:

 

[vivec]

I think he means someone normal with simple motivations. I guess that role is filled by the PC.

What does Normal mean in this (your) context, anyway? A farmer who gives up his job and tags you along because he is Neutral Good?

 

[Excidium II]

I think he means someone normal with simple motivations. I guess that role is filled by the PC.

What does Normal mean in this (your) context, anyway? A farmer who gives up his job and tags you along because he is Neutral Good?

I meant somebody who isn't firmly aligned with a faction/doesn't have some sort of offbeat quirkness to compensate the fact they are not faction aligned.

 

[vivec]

The offbeat quirkiness is an artistic requirement to make a character interesting. In games, you do not want to have chars that are mundane, but those that provide entertainment. I agree that this requirement drives the characters unnatural, but this is a part of the package and it needs to be done well.

 

[Lurker King]

The offbeat quirkiness is an artistic requirement to make a character interesting. In games, you do not want to have chars that are mundane, but those that provide entertainment. I agree that this requirement drives the characters unnatural, but this is a part of the package and it needs to be done well.

I couldn’t disagree more. One of the main factors for the lower standards of writing in cRPGs is this “let’s entertain the players” mentality. When you decide to follow this road, you will end up very fast in anime level of cultural idiocy. Nothing makes sense: the setting, the characters motivations, etc. I think that good characters must be believable, and in order to be believable, they must be mundane in some way. Unfortunately for us, mundane writing in cRPGs tends to be associated with stuff like NWN2 mods. This is unfair. The best writing in classics like FO2 is realistic and down to earth. Miltiades is an example that proves my point: it’s both entertaining and mundane. There is fun in rationality too. Of course, you can also built a character around one personality trait or cultural trope, but this is trickier and can end up with a one-dimensal characters like Korgan.

 

[Johannes]

I think that's a somewhat idealistic portrayal of long-term relationships (personal or professional). Changing yourself is the hardest thing to do, thus any meaningful change is driven by crisis, the bigger the crisis, the bigger the change. Profiting from staying with someone isn't enough to even want to change as most people would see it as a two-way street: you profit from staying with X (person or a company), X profits from you staying with them, so why should you change?

But you're not exactly equals with most of the companions, are you? If you've demonstrated yourself to be an effective leader, a lot of people are inclined to follow if you seem more capable and/or moral than their old faction. And they may think themselves more able to influence you compared to how able they are to change their old faction more to their liking.
Of course the interpersonal relationships also can play a bigger part, are they willing to jeopardize relations to their friends and family, to hang out with this one guy (no matter how cool)? Of course, not everybody has a loving family waiting.
You're not changing yourself by giving up your faction for that one guy, necessarily. Only if that faction means everything to you, is that the case. And who knows, maybe in some freaky situation following a renegade dude might be construed to be in the best interests of the people of that faction, too.



It's like that question another game dealt with - what can change the nature of man?
A: Romance.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

The best writing in classics like FO2 is realistic and down to earth.

Since when is Fallout 2 realistic and down to earth?