This is a common find in great games, companions they will follow you 'till they literally die but here's the catch because in starbound followers would be represented in a different fashion than some games. In this suggestion you will be able to walk into a passive town or house etc, and talk to a certain npc that will be able to join you as 1. A mercenary, you pay pixels they fight until they can't anymore 2. Crew members, like all space captains they need a crew, you can have say your ,medic heal a shipmate or teammate in mid-battle or have your soldiers follow captains orders and weaken up the boss for you 3. companions, why in the hell would you be able to travel through space but somehow not make friends? Well this would be the solution to that issue, you can make friends with certain npcs by doing quests for them or being in general a nice person to them and then they will ask to join you on your journey across the cosmos. All of these are great ways of getting followers in game and as an added point, just to make sense: different followers will have different personalities and abilities. Example: mercenaries will be very powerful and skilled but they won't like you as much as they should and they will drop out on you if they are about to die. Companions will be the weakest of the followers but they will be the most fun to be with and they will stick around until she/he is dead. Crew members will be remotely skilled, they will have some funny dialogues and they will do multiple tasks depending on their job, in combat they will stay with you until the verge of death and then at the last second (maybe) they will warp back to the ship. If the devs are feeling like it there can be orders sent to your crew by clicking on certain icons thus forcing them to warp back or to retreat, fight on or check point (scout ahead). I hope you guys like this idea of adding followers into the game! I personally think it'd make the already awesome game 10x more awesome than it already is.
I support this idea combined with my idea! http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/crews.60119/
I do enjoy the general idea of having crew members/companions on my ship, especially considering there will be space combat. However, I do not like the idea of them having some sort of "class." Like being a medic, as you said. The feel of that is just so off. As well as having multiple companions follow you with said medic. That's just turning into a strategy RPG. They're actually planning on adding a companion feature, though. However, I would like to be able to do quests to be able to obtain them. It'd make things interesting and personal. "Capture Pods & Mercenaries: May be able to capture NPCs with pods. Summon NPC Mercenaries by using the pod as a beacon." From: http://playstarbound.com/the-future-of-starbound/ A few tips on your post though: You should probably try breaking it up better so it's not a clump of text. As well as revise your sentences/grammar(specifically your punctuation) so that it flows better. This way it'll be easier to see your ideas. For example: Description of idea. 1. Idea 1 2. Idea 2 So on, so on. Additional comments here. Just some food for thought, though.
Ohgah.. The wall of text.. My eyes.. ~___~ ^ This. I read your ideas though. 100% agree. NPC's should do more than just stand around and do nothing. I get the feeling that this may fall to somebody modding it in though, because chucklefish has a lot on their plate without having to spend months on a solid A.I..
I can see your point it's just that it'd make more sense for the crew to have positions on the ship so you could tell what they're supposed to do... unless they can change from being a professional ship doctor to a helmsman to a turret operator. And I'm not saying all followers would have assigned positions, just the crew. Companions and mercenaries would be giving you an opportunity to have fun with them although my post states that the mercenaries are kinda jerks and only want your pixels.
I see what you're trying to go for, but that's more of a Mass Effect game. What I could see happening more is that instead of the NPC's having positions or specialties, you're able to obtain certain NPC's for your ship/town that can sell/trade you items depending on the type of vendor they are. Or possibly help you craft things for cheaper, but those things sort of nulls some exploration. However, since there will be space combat, maybe there will be something like turret operators. As for followers, all I can see going is one person following you. Possibly you could ask a crew member on your ship to become a follower, but once they die, they should just be dead. As for their appearance and weapons, they'd be—for the most part—randomized. As for special abilities, they could possibly hold your loot. I'm not sure if it'd be quite possible to make a sandbox game with indepth relationships or personalities(Not yet anyway).
