Search the Community

- OUTER WORLDS - First off I would like to thank and congratulate the Outer Worlds Team from Obsidian and its affiliates, this game is wonderful and I havent enjoyed a game like this in awhile. THANK YOU! A few Subjects that I thought I would share with the team and fellow Captains. I use (need) loosely, more of agreeable additions. • Companions: Companions need a story buff, I would personally like to see more immersive content regarding companions, I think an expansion on content related to certain members of your crew would definitely bring some extra life and backstory to them while providing wholesome content for players that are here for the story. • Factions: More Immersive Faction quests and more faction content with varying Ranks and missions, allowing allegiances, a fluid Story based off your decisions on what Factions to bring together and what Factions you outcast from the fold. (Your endgame cutscene gave me the idea) •Factions & Reputation: There should be a way to increase your reputation based on actions displayed, a Kill on Sight Faction is basically done for the game, there should be a way to continue to obtain missions and content from KOS Factions via on-ship comms. Possibly an Emissary alerting you that “[Faction] has heard of your [ _] and is willing to come to an agreement if you help us on this task. Varying difficulty for increased or decreased amounts of Faction respect gained. This just provides a resolution to “accidental” situations. • Homesteading In regards with rallying behind a particular Faction, able to build your faction headquarters and bases (included with this is internal ship customization.) Something parallel to what Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls series have. This was a nice option to have when you want a break from shooting and blowing up NPC’s. • Relationships I understand this is considered not exactly a key aspect, but developing character relationships with NPCs in game heavily increase your sense of story immersion. Whether it be friends or romance, which can lead to additionally unlocked quests adding additional content. • Ammunition I found it difficult to keep up with my heavy ammunition consumption. Eventually as I progressed I gained enough bits to always buy what I needed, but increasing world spawns of ammo and increasing the amount sold per vending machine may resolve that. • Wild creatures As of currently, looting wild creatures is near useless as they drop an item worth <10 bits, maybe adding in random items on occasion could fix that. • Free Roam One thing that irked me is upon finishing your final mission(trying not to spoil) is that I am now unable to play until a DLC is dropped. Unless I want to start a fresh character. It would be wonderful to see this resolved after the DLC drop(hoping there is plenty of DLC to come.) I greatly appreciate your time and I hope the Development team checks some of this out, it would be a treat to have some of my ideas used to better this game! [XBOX]

When I first started the game, I was under the impression that there could be a variety of combinations when it came to the companion's reputations with each other. Like one playthrough could have Aloth /Eder as friends and another as enemies. Or I suppose, to use a more extreme example, having Xoti/Pallegina as friends and another playthrough as enemies. However, as time goes on, it seems to be that their relationships with each other are mostly set in stone. There will always be a Xoti/Pallegina rivalry, Aloth will always dislike Tekehu and Serafen, etc. The only ones that seem to have a good potential of going either way so far are Eder/Aloth and Eder/Xoti. I'm curious at the amount of variations others have seen in their playthroughs with this system. So, is the game rigged?

So, I was hoping that I'd be able to make this thread after finishing the actual game, but the issues with my computer are worse than expected (i.e. there's always a worse scenario than the worst case scenario) and so I doubt I'll get to finish it in some time. Likewise I've only been able to skim the boards of late so if this is all already being discussed elsewhere and people feel it comes across as spam or the likes, feel free to merge it with that other thread. For the most part I hope I can add something worthwhile to the discussion regarding the two titular topics and present some possibilities that could potentially help improve the same. So, I'll go ahead and reiterate that I have not finished the game so I would appreciate spoiler tags being used when appropriate and so on, and also that my assessments below are based on what I have experienced so far of the game, which I would still say is over 100 hours or the same. With that out of the way, I'll start off with the more contentious subject based on what opinions I've read, which is the companion relationship/reputation system. Right off the bat I would say that in general I dislike relationship systems based on a reputation scale the likes we've seen in previous games like Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, and to me this is no exception to the rule. I feel that the more transparent these systems are, the more they invite the player to play to their companions' ego and "game" their way to a max relationship, and the more unnatural and mechanical the relationships feel; Deadfire seems to exasperate this further by adding a very clear set of traits that each companion likes and dislikes, and making them respond with stock reactions to every instance where either the player or another companion acts in a way that they like (leading to many strange reactions the likes we've seen many times in other threads already). In turn I also know that if I am to respond to a certain interaction in a specific manner, the rest of the party will inevitably "like" or "dislike" that response because that's what they're very broadly and obviously programmed to do - which is odd because even if someone is "light-hearted" for example, that same person won't necessarily find every joke amusing or every situation ideal for the same. Personally I would have liked a more invisible system myself which kept track in the background of what each liked and disliked and where we'd see only the results of these opinions more so than the ticking of every instance where we say something or do something that increases a character's disposition towards us; but what's done is done and for what it's worth I think the idea of keeping track of companion-companion relationships is an interesting one which I'm glad is to some extent or other being worked on, as it would seem a good way in which to make the party feel a little more dynamic and reactive and all that jazz. But still, even if the system can't be torn down and reworked from the ground, there's a few things I reckon could improve it going further in Deadfire's development. For example, one thing I would love to see looked at is the effect that certain actions we take have on characters regardless of whether they match with their "traits" or not. For example, I am of the opinion that there's things that very likely have a deeper effect on a relationship than whether or not you are one way or abscribe to a certain philosophy. I feel that in cases like these for each character, having a reputation change unaffiliated to companion likes/dislikes would do a lot of good towards making the relationship system feel a lot more natural and less "gamey" or jumpy than it does currently. I feel the like/dislike system is fine but it should really be relegated to very minor shifts, with maybe some big swings at very determined situations when things do get very personal, in either a positive or negative sense (e.g. Serafen helping Xoti out with her nightmares, or Aloth not being able to stand Tekehu's vanity anymore). Likewise it wouldn't be an entirely bad idea to have certain "critical" situations affect a companion's disposition to the *whole* party and not just the Watcher (to use Pallegina's example above, she'd probably be appreciative towards all who helped out with her personal quest and not just the Watcher). Also something that I've noted is that at the beginning of the game, when we were first shown the relationship system via the tutorial, the tutorial section mentioned that companions could lead to forging deeper and more unique bonds and these same would be detailed through the "relationship" box right next to the reputation compass and so on… But has anyone actually seen this box get updated with new content between companions? Or even between companions and the Watcher themselves? I reckoned it was a bit early in my playthrough at first, but as the game moved on, and having reached the point I have most recently, it seems very odd that I should see no update to the same, not even to indicate the ongoing relationship between Maia and my Watcher for example. This would be worth looking into, I think, whether it is working as intended or not. Moving onto the crew now… I for one will say I really liked the crew system, a heck of a lot more than the hirelings back in the first Pillars for certain. I liked the many vignettes involving them, I liked being able to collect them all across the Deadfire almost as if I were filling out my own little Eoradex, I liked how you could get an idea to their individual personalities through many of their introductory interactions and quests and so on. I also reckon that their personalities also determine the role they'd take in the vignettes out at sea, so I liked how Eld Engrim often played the pious character, Emeini the more combative type, and so on. However, I do feel that I would like to see a few situations more appropriately tailored to either the events of the game or to individual crewmembers, which I'll expand upon next. Likewise, and this is a minor addition but and important one I feel: when we look into our journal for information on the mechanics to crewmembers, be it the way they level up on their positions or what advantage does each position and experience in the same bring, these are either not present or very scarcely explained, with all that's said about them is that they're a "motley assortment of neerdowells" and so on. I don't think it's ever mentioned that crewmembers can earn four overall stars across all ranks before they max out either, and I only learned it once I looked at the wiki or a subreddit discussion about it. A more detailed clarification within the game itself that we could access at any time would be appreciated, I think. These are some aspects which I feel could improve both systems over how they presently are, which I also feel would be feasible to do for a future patch or something. What do you guys think? Anything else you would like to add, or would disagree with, or any changes you would propose yourselves?

She says she'll help me find Thaos, but I'm pretty sure I had never even heard of Thaos in the game until that moment. Full dialogue: On that note, does anyone else think that the pacing for certain characters' "bonding" with you is a little off? I mean I had barely met Sagani a day ago and she's already going on about how I'm doing so much for her.

4:49PM for me. Im about to go eat some pizza. Buuuuuuut my apetite isnt doing so well. See my mind feels like its on acid. Im on winter break (towards the end of it anyway) Spent most of it gaming and reading manga. What a waste!!! Im an idiot... I should have been thinking about ways to confess to the person I like. Trouble is the first two people I told about my crush was 1st my best friend (let's call her Lady Crabs) & 2 a guy friend (let's call him Mr. Jacket) Heres where the DOOOOM begins. I told Lady Crabs about it & her reaction was not too enthusiastic. In fact she hasnt been talking to me for while.... Im crazy worried about her but I've got my pride so like hell im gonna try to work things out with her first! Then there is Mr Jacket who upon telling him about my feelings for his friend I soon found out that HE has a crush on ME?! That's just great! A darn love triangle! The only one who doesnt know is the fellow i have the crush on. We shall call him -> Little Slash That's all for now. Any advice for a poor love striken sap like me!!!??? I really dont wanna be crushed with this crush. Otaku Piece!