u/Icy_Tomatillo3942

I have been traveling with Rafael on my ship for a while now and we have had some good times - Dr. Sohla Banglawala was a highlight. But his crew skills are redundant and his (understandable) PTSD is palpable. He is bringing down the mood of my ship and would probably be better off doing outpost work.

I assigned him to an outpost on Gagarin for an outpost supply mission making polytextile, which seems like a great post for him because it uses his skills and isn't too remote. I genuinely feel bad for the guy, so I took a minute to make sure he had a decent hab with proper amenities.

(Pic) The sun starts setting as I am getting ready to leave, and I see him just sitting on the couch staring at the ground. Now I feel really bad, so I decide to go pick up a coworker for him - this is where I last saved and closed the game. I haven't used them before, but based on what I've heard I am thinking maybe Rosie Tannehill because she is upbeat and a doctor or Mickey Caviar because he is funny and a chef.

Who would everyone choose, and why?

100 hours after completing Sam's companion quest, I got jumped by the bugged Dumas ship. I destroyed it, Constellation got angry, and UC ships in the area started attacking me due to the 15k bounty. My character is a law abiding bounty hunter acting in self defense, so I was a bit angry myself. I decided I needed a vacation and jumped to Bardeen (north center on the star map) to get as far away from the Settled Systems as possible and do a little exploring with Vasco.

FYI, the Intimidation skill adds some great dialogue options for those that want to take a more aggressive approach to persuasion. It let me hold my ground with each angry Constellation member, making them accept my decision rather than making me suck up to them for forgiveness.

Bardeen turned out to be a perfect system for this. I couldn't find any human presence anywhere, there was plenty to see, and there were lots of organic and inorganic resources to support my character's gunsmithing and gastronomy hobbies.

The mountains of Bardeen II are oozing shiny metals. I had never seen that kind of lustrous metal landscape in this game before. I also thought putting the Conductive Ridge planetary trait there was a nice touch.

Bardeen III had some interesting life, including an aquatic creature that jumped onto land to attack me, and loads of rare organic resources for cooking. I found interesting lakes and islands in pretty much every biome of Bardeen III, but I felt really lucky when I found an unusual long, thin peninsula / island in the deciduous forest coastal biome. It was all so perfect I just had to build an oceanic agricultural outpost to ship some of those resources back to Akila (and pollute Bardeen III's pristine oceans).

The air and water on Bardeen III are safe, but there isn't much of a magnetosphere, so I decided to make the entire outpost as indoor as possible with easy open airlock access to all landing pads, greenhouses, and animal husbandry facilities. The outpost is all vanilla and made without upgraded outpost building skills.

I found the Derelict Renegade adrift while cruising. Of course something bad happened to the crew. But this derelict cargo ship came with a mini mission to get it working again. I took it to Hopetown and made it my own 100% Hopetech cargo ship, keeping the same basic design and silhouette. I really like how it turned out, and I love Hopetech for cargo ships ("Trucks in SPAAACE").

This video also gives a quick interior tour of several Hopetech habs (in order): 3x3 Cargo Hall, 2x1 Workshop + 1x1 Storeroom, 2x1 Science Lab + 1x1 Storeroom, 2x1 Living Quarters, 2x2 All in One Berth, 2x1 Captain's Quarters (upper deck), 2x1 Computer Core + 2x1 Control Station (lower deck), Overseer Bridge (upper deck).

I have a bounty hunter character and am slow playing the Constellation and Tracker's Alliance questlines with lots of bounty hunting and planet exploration in between. It felt weird going bounty hunting with Constellation members, so I stopped by Aggie's Bar in Akila City, dropped off Sam and Cora, and picked up Lyle Brewer.

He is a survivalist with expertise in Particle beams, Shotguns, and Xenosociology. Give him a tricked out Big Bang and decent Beast Hunter gear, and he will be able to effectively back you up when on bounty hunter missions and while out exploring around hostile fauna. He is laid back, has some good practical commentary about different planets when out exploring, and keeps it professional, only discussing his cool survivalist personal life and background when asked.

Anyone looking for an immersive and helpful bounty hunting or frontier exploration partner, should try him out.