I hear you and it's a good point you make. It's just that the part of the equation that kind of rankles me is the fact that we have a number of party members with fully developed backstories that we can choose to play as, and I feel as though if you're going to offer those as choices then there should be something that allows custom player characters to stand on the same level. I'll be glad to hear that I'm wrong and I missed something, but what exactly is the benefit of playing a custom character with a narratively irrelevant background when compared to playing characters with fully fleshed out backgrounds? I may be overestimating the amount of attention the companion backgrounds are going to get in the actual game but I do think, especially considering at least some of these companions will present unique stories to experience in gameplay (looking at you Asterion) then a custom character should bring something equivalent to the table.
I'm aware that as a video game these things will have greater limitations, but based on everything else they're doing for this game it seems as though those limitations aren't beyond their capacity to address. They're going to the trouble of accounting for every instance of running water that could do damage to Asterion and allowing you to speak to animals. This doesn't feel like a significantly greater devotion of resources than either of those things. Now let me be clear that I don't think I know better than them, if they've decided that this isn't where they want to devote resources, I accept that and at this point i have no meaningful doubt that this game will be good, and if it isn't good, then this background issue certainly won't be the reason why. I'm just voicing my feelings as to why I think this is an issue they should rethink. If the product they put out for early access doesn't feel satisfying with regard to backgrounds in Early Access, I'll say so as part of my feedback. If they decide not to take that criticism on board then I'll just accept that it wasn't something they were able to suitably accomplish, because all the insane stuff they're putting into the game so far tells me that only genuine inability would lead to them not implementing such a roleplay-important feature.
To me the difference is that the companions you can play as have exactly one background. So if you wish to play as a warlock who is trying to get out of his pact, or a vampire spawn , or mage with a bomb in their chest those options are available. If any of those pre-scripted backgrounds appeal to you can choose those characters but they are exceedingly narrow. You can choose to make the game more reactive by giving up freedom in character creation.
If you look at the folk hero there are 10 different defining events, 8 different Personality Traits, 6 different Ideals, 6 different Bonds, and 6 different Flaws for a staggering 17,280 possible combinations.
That's just too much to script.
If you wanted to make it meaningful then each background could have exactly one detailed option ,however once you do that then how is choosing a pre-scripted background different than playing as one of the companion characters?
As a character without pre-made story hooks you get to create your story by choosing how you react to the world as presented to you without the burden of a developers backstory. Playing my character how I choose, reacting to the world around me and basing my choices on what I think my character would do at that given moment are far more compelling to me than having the game pre-script things based on choices made by the developer.
