Why aren't there any families or children NPCs?

I believe there should be children in villages and cities because it would add to the towns. Maybe they would look at you like: " Wow a spaceship pilot!" and they would be a smaller version of their family and have a different voice. It would be a great addition.

 

While this would be a great addition to the game it is unfortunate that this would take a ton of coding that I don't think they would care to do. Also only a few of the races could have children since Glitch are created at adulthood and Novakid don't have children. So I guess that would lessen the workload a bit.

 

There was a kids mod some time back. I think it stopped being supported though.

 

this in my opinion is a very good idea. i would like to see little aliens running throughout a village. also there is a kid for the first mission, the child floran.

 

Nuru mentions in one of her banters that she's 17 summers old, she's hardly a child by human standards. Another problem with children is: how do you handle firestorms / meteor swarms / homicidal players? Invincible children watching their town and everyone in it get destroyed? Or destroyable child npcs, which would open another can of worms... Perhaps not suited for a light-hearted game. I'd love to see children in a happy context though, it's what I build my colonies towards: to provide a place for humans to live and repopulate!

 

Allowing kids in games where players can kill people is tricky in many countries.

 

Maybe kids could appear as our colonists get maried. So instead of paying for 1, they first pay for 2 (the wife/husband) then they pay for 3 or 4 people (their kids). That would deppend on how big is the house you gave them in first place. The colony would feel sooo alive this way... Maybe the kids could be playing around, runing and even exploring dangerous places, so you recieve a quest to rescue them. They could be imortal, and if your colonist (their dad/mom) dies, the entire family realocates (vanish) and you have to start again.

This would make colonies more lucrative, and would add motivation to complete their quests, so they can "upgrade".

 

If that were to be the case, perhaps the children could just zip away. Maybe they get teleported out of the colony like their parents teleported in, to the outpost for example, and then children aren't involved.

 

It would take very little coding. Most of the work would be sprite work.

 

So, why we still don't have them even mentioned? Any chance a DevTeam Member can send us some light in this idea? Do you guys have any plan to improve Colonies?

 

Because there's only 2 options when it comes with dealing with children in most games: Either they're not shown, or they can't die; and do you want potentially obnoxious NPCs to be unable to die?

 

I agree that Children shoudn't appear randomly in villages. My point here is that they should appear in colonies by "upgrading" the colonists. So, if you don't want them, just don't "upgrade" or remove the colony deed.

 

Would having children benefit the game in any meaningful way? Not really. They would be purely an "immersion" thing. Its understandable why they weren't really considered, since the focus of the game doesnt involve them.

 

Good point. Anyway, I just wonder if they plan to improve the Colonies... Right now they are not very produtive (I can't be everywhere taking the taxes), and not very fun (just random ppl around with very limited interactions)... This Children thing was some hope for me, but not something I would die for.

 

They might be cute. That's meaningful to me.
Hopefully some modders pick up the torch on that front again.

 

I said meaningful to the game.

 

They game can't understand meaning, silly.
Only the players can derive meaning from it.
Computer can't think in abstract ways like "meaning" yet! That'd be a weird feature to program too.

 

Well, for me, the Colony is an important part of the game, and if Children can add to that, why not?

 

Not sure if trolling at this point.

 

Only mild trolling, but the core point stands. I'm a player of the game. If an addition is meaningfully improving my experience, then that's what matters. Player experience. There is no feature "meaningful to the game" without that.
Maybe you mean "Does it meaningfully benefit <insert mechanic here>?" If so, then you have a real argument. Children won't make gear progression better, they don't have any baring on that... It very well may be meaningfully beneficial to colonies and perhaps even ships if you can get them there. Go full-on Fritz's Magic School-Bus with a bunch of kids on board. All sorts of stuff. Be like the Starship Enterprise where your crew have their own families on board.

You can't argue that there isn't a meaningful benefit to the 'game', only to specific areas of the game which may or may not be the focus of other players.