Children & Backstories

[Sugar Glider]

Not sure if this has been a thread yet but I thought I would post in case it was not

I love having the idea of children in the game and the potential to create an entire dynastic lineage. However, I am left with questions primarily how the children's backstory will actually develop as they age/grow.

When I say the backstory I do not mean the story that is created by them interacting with the game but rather the backstories that are based on origin, profession, and faction. Will it be pre generated, based on actions during the learning phase ?Or perhaps based on interest or some type of hybrid/other model ? Will the ideology have an influence ?

Personally I would love to see the backstories be based on a mixture of these and some elements generated by how the pawn interacts with the world as they grow. Perhaps some type of meter that is filled as they do related work to generate a relevant background with other influences putting weights on the backstory allotment ?

Another thought would to be to integrate the above thought with how the art system generates the flavor text for legendary and masterworks. I would love a personal touch to add that extra bit of flavor to our pawns.

An example would be if a child pawn ended up as non violent in one of the backstories that generates the no violence restriction it might have something like "Pacifistpawn was a quiet child who preferred learning over fighting thanks to Bloodlustpawn(another child pawn in daycare) always bullying him". This way we can move away from the slightly impersonal backstories and create ones that incorporate the current environment of the colony.

The above scenario could even be used or changed if the child got a trait like fearless showing that the interaction forced him to make a stand or other character building events of that nature.

Anyway these are just my thoughts on how I hope it is implemented unsure about how feasible the entire thing would be or how much it would bog down the game in terms of processing. Does anyone have any idea on how that is going to be handled ?

[RCMidas]

We don't know yet, wait a few days until the news posts start talking about that aspect of the game.

[YourLittlePogchamp]

It has only been briefly stated that raising children in good and proper environments will have a lasting impact on them, and allow you to choose their traits and passions.

Basically you will have free reign over their backstory I guess, and if you do a poor job at raising them then they will develop a more random - maybe bad personality?

[Shas'O O'Kais]

Backstories only have 2 purposes. 1 is the starting, baseline skills, and 2 is any limitations they have. As far as I know, the only backstories that do anything beyond that is all the Tribal backstories that give you access to anima tree meditation.

What I sort of imagine is that you'll just have a sort of generic "colony born child" backstory for kids born in your colony and you can choose through the education system what skill bonuses you want them to have. This creates their bonuses and skill floors and is customizable and selectable. Then for the 13-17 range, you do the same thing as a "colony born teen" and just select your skills. The actual skill gains come from time spent in the classroom, but because they are part of your basic education, you never lose them, just like background skill bonuses.

The other possibility is that the education system has a number of background options you can choose from that has the skills, and possibly limitations, built-in already. So it is less customizable.

Thats how I imagine it anyway. And of course Tribal would need its own tribal variants for natural meditation, and there would also need to be Vat Grown variants because when you bump them kids to adults rapidly in growth acceleration chambers, they're not going to have base skills. lol

[ichifish]

I'd like to see a system where you don't know what passions, traits, and incapabilities they have until a certain age, and then you find out that based on X event they have Y passion or Z incapability.

EDIT: I'd be curious to know if there are player-specific backgrounds / back stories that are generated. Can you make a Vat-grown cook? If your colony is tribal, but the children grow up in a transhumanist ideology, do they still get backgrounds like "Muffalo Shaman?"

I'd like to see something similar to the art-description algorithm create back stories, even if it's as surreal and sometimes nonsensical:

Dangerboy grew up in a top-hat [most produced item] producing colony of yak [most common animal] herders who struggled to establish a safe haven among the Boraquoi Union and the Slaughter Party [enemy factions], while surviving on a diet of berries and yak milk [most common food]. As such he developed a passion for crafting, some interest in animals, and the tendency to overindulge in desserts (Gourmand).