NPC There needs to be NPC companions

LOOK AT ALL OF THESE REQUESTS!
Seriously, feel free to scroll through here and look at all of the requests for NPC companions.
I know I'd love it, everyone else would love it too.
It can be totally optional, your choice to whisk a citizen away and take them to Neverland using your magical space vessel.
I dunno about you guys but I'd love to grab an Apex or Human citizen named Wendy by the arm as we warp to the stars, they can be like our companion to the Doctor or the stupid looking side-car to your motorcycle.
Just add companions to the game, next update.
Do it.
Come on.
Do it.
Let's see you really listen to you customers now.

 

I would also like to have an NPC companion particuarly as a few times when I've talked to NPCs on certain worlds the line of dialogue they say is for me to take them into space and I feel a little bad that the only thing I can actually do besides making them say the same line time after time is only kill them.

Crazily enough I was playing as a Glitch and when I spoke to a Hylotl he said how much he hates me but instead of just ignoring me he actually followed me throughout half the village before finally stopped once I jumped off a cliff to access the rest of the village.
Perhaps you would need to befriend an NPC (Through gifts or doing a minor quest for them?) before they would follow you on the planet and eventually up to your spaceship (that could even require a teleporter perhaps?)

It would then also be nice if I could configure the NPC's equipment (so I can give them decent weapons & armour) as well as telling them to stay put, follow me, return to the ship or even simply stay in a house (perhaps telling an NPC to stand somewhere for a long period of time would make them angry towards you and potentially even go back to their own planet?)

Another idea would be that you could find NPCs who were space travellers like yourself but had crashed their ship or had it destroyed/stolen by pirates (space pirates obviously) and you could have them become a companion.... or possibly drop them off on a planet with more of their own kind, a planet-type they would like to live on or possibly the Outpost (or some kind of abandoned Outpost they you can fill with rescued NPCs)

 

Ah yeah, see?
Good ideas really, also just gave me a little inspiration, like NPCs have different feelings towards outsiders, some may hate you and some may want to join you ASAP, basically an NPC relationship system where some NPCs will do certain things to you based on how much they like you, such as if an NPC hates your guts they'll follow you around town throwing stuff at you or insulting you, neutral NPCs can give you quests or what not to give opportunity to change their opinion of you, NPCs who like you or more will follow you, help with monsters/mean NPCs, maybe even become your companion or help you on quests, like once your ship has been upgraded enough you can have a quarters/barracks for your ship mates whom you can send on quests that you have and their equipment, skill, and possibly chance roll will determine their success on the mission, if they fail then they'll come back empty handed or possbily even dead.
Some set companions from the Outpost can be highly involved the in the storyline which has yet to be fully developed in game and I would definitely love to see companions involved in the storyline or at least side quests/questlines.

 

NPCs to help/involve in storylines? is that similiar to Nuru? but obviously doing more than opening two doors and helping fight the boss a little. That mission used to have an NPC that would follow you and you could tell them to stay put.... I always felt bad at the end when I left them alone while I returned to my ship.

I think one thing to help influence how NPCs feel about you would have to be your race. That would just mean if for example you were a Glitch and wanted a Floran as a companion, they'd join up without too much effort as Glitchs and Florans get along but if you were a Glitch and the NPC was a Hylotl then you'd have to work extra hard as they don't seem to like robotic people.

 

Exactly, there should be variables to add into the mix and build on the world more, instead of just throwing races that normally hate each other together, while racism is bad, it certainly builds on diversity of each race and things like that, therefore it'll help to create a more diverse/immersive/realistic virtual world, which I assume is what the pals at Chucklefish are going for with Starbound.
Hopefully instead of some crappy kinda sandbox game that's solely based on finishing quests to get to the next area and then fighting bosses in dungeons so you can get better equipment.

 

I think there would need to be a limit to how many companions you can get either in total or have following you at a time. Otherwise you can just explore any dungeon with a small army and nothing would be much of a challenge anymore.

 

Yeah, your ship obviously wouldn't be able to house 50 companions, but a select few of 5 or so, about as many that could add up to an average sci-fi starship crew.

 

Then it could also work that as you progress with the size of your ship, so too does the capability to house more companions.

Some additional rules should be some basic things like enough places for everyone to sleep at and perhaps giving them a 'personal' chest each where they can store items they might pick up. Of course whether or not going through their chests and taking things will affect their opinion of you is something that would need to be worked out.

 

Well it could also work as if you were "gifting" them with equipment or giving them an upgrade so if they had steel armour then you could put a set of titanium armour in their chest and they might wear it.

 

I thought it'd be better if you could access their equipment like you would your own, you can then change their equipment at your own will. They'd have enough spots for all their armour (as well as back) and enough room to give them melee and long range weapons.

By choosing the armour yourself you can give them certain rolls to fill, such as choosing armour suited for ranged fighting. Thus they'd be more likely to stick to guns during the fight rather than if they were wearing armour for close range fights.

Another advantage of being able to change their equipment at will is the capability of dressing them up in vanity sets or whatever combo you think looks good.

I'm thinking though that the armour would probably be slightly less effective when given to an NPC than if you wore it yourself.

 

Certainly choosing a role for your companions could be accessed through maybe talking to them on your ship and altering their equipment, but I don't think it would go much farther than energy-melee-ranged combat types.
And I'm sure everyone would love the opportunity to dress up their companions like fools.
Or even customize your companion's looks, like if they were a Floran and their foliage was a certain way, you could then change it by some form of access.

 

Changing their base look? like giving them a 'haircut', which as we all know from GTA games allows one to grow a moustache.
I'm in two minds about changing their base look, on one side I like the idea of being able to customize them that far on the other hand their look is what made them unique.

I wasn't suggesting any further than simply energy-melee-ranged combat types. I just want to make sure that if I'm having my NPC companion fight close range, he didn't decide he wanted energy based armour..... or low level armour as he didn't like what I put in their chest.

 

Good point.

And good point, although right now I happen to be out of ideas so I'll come back to you on this in a bit.

 

I know what you mean, it's hard to think of another idea for every post on here to try and keep it active.... be nice if some other people posted to get this thread a bit more attention and that in turn would hopefully attract the attention of one of the game devs.

 

It'd be nice if they just had people to check out the suggestions part of the forum instead of only checking out an idea once it's had everyone else's attention.
This kind of idea has everyone's attention but not specifically in one place and therefore nobody else really gives a damn.

 

I suppose. Still not like people aren't gonna stop posting these kinds of threads until something like this happens.... even then there seem to be some people who don't even check up info about what they are suggesting and just make a whole thread for a crazy little thing.

Btw, nice avy.

 

True, it'll happen eventually but the sooner it happens the sooner the devs have time to build on this concept and make it as best as possible like with everything else in the game.
Nice avy? (WHAT'S AN AVY?)

 

Avy = Avatar, the little picture just above your name on the left-side of your post which contains that tiny bit of information.
I'm surprised you haven't heard of the term before.

Hopefully they will work on it but I suppose it all takes time to figure out and they would need to establish it to a certain point before they start releasing it out as an update.

 

Ohhh well thank you very much, I'm surprised I haven't heard that either.
I'm sure they'll work on it, maybe they already are but still, it'd be nice to let them know how many of the fans would really like this idea.

 

One crazy idea would be the potential to ride on the back of one of those space Alpacas. Ya know like how you'd ride on a centaur.... unless its like some of the mangas I've read and riding on the back of a centaur usually has certain meaning/conditions.

I think the space Alpacas should be in a secret war with the legendary and thus almost (actually never) seen space Llamas.