I feel like I see three people a day here trying to justify why their Lawful Goodboy PC should be able to sell contraband.
We get it. You wanted to play a narc and now you've got FOMO you can profit from crimes. But maybe your roleplaying choices should have consequences in order for them to feel impactful.
Posted Sep 22, 2023, 7:01 PM UTC
This is why the contraband system is broken… I should be rewarded for bringing it in to the authorities, not just for selling it to some shady trade authority dude…
Am I supposed to just ignore that stolen artwork instead of turning it in so the rightful owners can get it back?
About the stolen organs… if I turn them in I should get a tip/quest to go stop that illegal organ farming operation no?
Contraband should be a thing even if you a good guy🤷♂️
If you walked into your local police station with a suitcase full of stolen human organs and demanded money for them, how do you think that would go?
Not money… just, “hey I was hunting this bounty and found this fucked up shit so let me turn it in”…
Then gameplay options can open up from there… maybe you get experience and specific quests, while being unlawful and selling contraband nets you money and specific quests… that kind of stuff…
So instead of money you want experience, which is better than money.
I’m not a game developer, so I can’t speak about balancing. ALL IM SAYING is there should be a system that lets you sell contraband if you want to RP as a morally ambiguous character, that also allows you to do something else with it if you want to RP a good guy… that’s all… it just felt like a missed opportunity for some differentiation between play styles… like why wouldn’t the “good guys” be just as interested in stoping contraband as the bad guys are interested in selling it? Isn’t that how it works IRL?
Greed always wins.... (in video games)
I usually see the opposite.
Why won't my companions from civilized society compliment me when I roleplay a pyscho and go on a murder spree because an npc made fun of my shoe.
I get that there are legitimate bugs regarding bounties sometimes, and that there are no evil aligned companions. But did we really expect this playstyle, on a mainstream AAA game, to get a lot of attention?
And that's why I play without companions, let me be a apace pirate in peace while I murder, rob, and pillage
It's not "why won't goodie two-shoes companions cheer if I murder someone" it's "why aren't there more alternatives to the goodie two-shoes companions."
HK-47 has entered the chat
I already addressed that. I acknowledged that there are no "evil" aligned companions. Just some non constellation ones that are apathetic. I'm not surprised the studio choose not to support that playstyle this time around. They didn't want to expend the resources to flesh out a character that approves/encourages psychotic behavior, especially in this setting.
Sometimes just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
A huge selling point of videogames is that you are able to throw away the "should" and just focus on the "can". But now that I already got my sermon I can skip sunday school this weekend ;)
Is that why AAA game devs do everything they can to avoid an AO esrb rating? Why is no one clamoring for more blood/gore/violence/evil in TotK?
Everything has a place. Just admit the AAA studio behind Starfield wants to move away from making warcrime simulator 2023 and let modders do it for you. Accept that bigger a studio gets, the more sanitized their product becomes to appeal to a wider audience.
Imagine you're playing a UC Vanguard goodie two-shoes, flying around fighting crime. You disable a Crimson Fleet ship, board it and subdue its crew.
While aboard, you spot a case containing a priceless piece of artwork that was reported stolen a few months ago. Do you:
Ignore the artwork?
Try to return it to it's owners, or at least deliver it to the local authorities, as an upstanding citizen would?
Honestly, a lot of it would be solved if we had an option to turn in the contraband to the authorities after a scan for half it's value if you can find a data pad or something nearby it or on one of the people that was carrying it as evidence that it's not yours. Maybe full value all at once if you are either a Ranger or Vanguard.
I'm a dashing rogue so smuggling and stealing works for this run
When I join UC on a diff run, that one I will only loot from.enemies