The Companions So Far, v4.0 (So Many Spoilers)

[Stuurminator]

That would make recruiting really hard on playthroughs, where you create only one ranger.

Since the game isn't designed for you creating only one Ranger and is balanced for four Rangers, I don't rightly see how that particularly matters. If you're going to intentionally cripple yourself by cutting your power by 75%, you can't expect the game to accommodate you.

I feel that's a bit harsh. CNPCs have combat taunts, grudge enemies, interaction with the game world, and just arguably are more interesting than your own Rangers. I don't think it's unreasonable for a player to want to try a "one riot, one ranger" type game.

Your suggestion also makes it essentially impossible to play with permadeath, at least of your core four. If one of your original four goes down, decreasing the pooled charisma, and the other CNPCs can't step in to fill the gap, then you've probably can't recruit any CNPCs to fill the new slot in the team, either. You can argue that this is or isn't realistic, but it's almost certainly Not Fun.

Averaging the charisma of your party (whether your entire party or just the core four) would prevent this problem. But making making party charisma a sum value of your core four, and those values irreplaceable if one dies, means that simply everyone will reload. No one's going to keep on trucking through a failure if that failure is a kick in the balls you can't possibly recover from. Well, maybe Crosmando.

[Galwail]

Since the game isn't designed for you creating only one Ranger and is balanced for four Rangers, I don't rightly see how that particularly matters. If you're going to intentionally cripple yourself by cutting your power by 75%, you can't expect the game to accommodate you.

Wait, what? I thought that creating one ranger and recruiting the three recruits at the citadel is a legitimate way to play. Guess I have missed something...

[SagaDC]

There was official word a couple of times that there will be something in lines of twenty (18?) CNPCs, and that the "other half" is waiting to be recruited in California.

Yeah, but those estimates are a bit wonky. Early on, they were quoting something like forty(!) which never really seemed like a very realistic number. That was probably before they started actually tying the CNPCs into things, and realized how much work it would take.

Since the game isn't designed for you creating only one Ranger and is balanced for four Rangers, I don't rightly see how that particularly matters. If you're going to intentionally cripple yourself by cutting your power by 75%, you can't expect the game to accommodate you.

Wait, what? I thought that creating one ranger and recruiting the three recruits at the citadel is a legitimate way to play. Guess I have missed something...

It is certainly a legitimate way, and that's why the Devs went so far as to plop three "emergency" CNPCs right outside the Citadel for singlette players. BUT at the same time, the Devs have stated that it's not a playstyle that they ever really intended to cater to, so many of the challenges in the game won't be built around that general concept. There are puzzles, for example, that will require more than one character to solve, and having a party of one PC plus three-to-six CNPCs will lead to a number of potential hazards - most notably CNPCs going rogue constantly (your one PC will HAVE to be a Leader) and an unusual fragile squad (if your one PC dies, even if there are still 6 CNPCs standing, it triggers an automatic game-over).

However, keep in mind that you can also (currently) pad out your "Party Charisma" with other CNPCs. As such, it's still possible to recruit MOST of the current CNPCs with a bit of work (and if you're willing to put a good number of Charisma on your one "Starting" Ranger). This approach will almost necessitate at least temporarily recruiting CNPCs like Ralphy (CH 4) and Vulture's Cry (CH 6), since the majority of the CNPCs seem to (understandably) use Charisma as a dump stat. Still, with some creative team-juggling, it should be possible to recruit the majority of the CNPCs even with a Singlette/CNPC party, since it's only two or three CNPCs that really have HIGH Charisma requirements (Pizepi and the trio from Titan Valley).

[Galwail]

It is certainly a legitimate way, and that's why the Devs went so far as to plop three "emergency" CNPCs right outside the Citadel for singlette players. BUT at the same time, the Devs have stated that it's not a playstyle that they ever really intended to cater to, so many of the challenges in the game won't be built around that general concept. There are puzzles, for example, that will require more than one character to solve, and having a party of one PC plus three-to-six CNPCs will lead to a number of potential hazards - most notably CNPCs going rogue constantly (your one PC will HAVE to be a Leader) and an unusual fragile squad (if your one PC dies, even if there are still 6 CNPCs standing, it triggers an automatic game-over).

However, keep in mind that you can also (currently) pad out your "Party Charisma" with other CNPCs. As such, it's still possible to recruit MOST of the current CNPCs with a bit of work (and if you're willing to put a good number of Charisma on your one "Starting" Ranger). This approach will almost necessitate at least temporarily recruiting CNPCs like Ralphy (CH 4) and Vulture's Cry (CH 6), since the majority of the CNPCs seem to (understandably) use Charisma as a dump stat. Still, with some creative team-juggling, it should be possible to recruit the majority of the CNPCs even with a Singlette/CNPC party, since it's only two or three CNPCs that really have HIGH Charisma requirements (Pizepi and the trio from Titan Valley).

Yep, that is what I said. All of the companions count toward the charisma requirement. Counting only core members would be a weird change.