I've really enjoyed the lore for the Banu, as the storytelling reminds me of the story style of the Ferengi on Star Trek. Does the Star Citizen team of writers favor certain styles of storytelling akin to other popular sci-fi titles?
TL;DRThe writers draw on many sources, including the Ferengi as a trading-race comparison they deliberately set aside, plus history and real societies, aiming for the Banu to feel unique rather than a collection of references.
All over, really.
I mean, we definitely looked at some of the more common trading races that have been in sci-fi culture, the Ferengi were one of them, and then we tried to put that aside because we knew that was the main comparison people would be drawing, and tried to [find] what was a tone that would make sense for them, and what could make them not only unique inside Star Citizen, but unique in science fiction, but also feel true and not just weird for the sake of being weird.
Yeah. Because there's that certain element where, again, you'll reach into other pop culture things as a starting point. Just to go, it's sort of like this, but sort of like this. But then, yeah, you obviously want to focus on making them feel like they're their own thing and not just a collection of references and stuff like that.
We definitely look a lot to history a lot of times for actual working societies, and being like, this element here for their political or social setup is very cool, of this small group of people, and then can we incorporate that, or what if that became the dominant aspect of a society, and how would that look?