There's no "big 4" though. They've implied that we're going to meet all of the deities; as there's going to be options to sell your soul to each of them for specific boons or transformations. Hence why that assertion of "the big 4" is based upon opinion or assumption; and not substantiated from fact.
Yes, I'm aware of how well in advance the game was planned out. But here's the thing, the development was actually stalled for a bit, something that you'd know if you dug through the posts on the official forums - hence why it was actually pretty up in the air of whether the game was actually to exist or not.
Development only really started back up on the game because the Lead Programmer created a framework for the game so they could learn JS - which is why when they did so all of the team came together again to actually begin creating the game.
This is why, when Savin approached the subject of writing 4 separate companions, they realized that one had to be dropped for their own sanity; as with being the Lead Writer and in charge of writing another 3 companions it was just too much.
And I don't know where you're getting that "He's not exactly quiet expressing that some of his other stuff gets left behind because of that." Do you, or any one on this F95 CoC2 sub-forum actually belong to the official forums; because it always seems weird seeing complaints here, but nobody actually detailing whether they've brought it up so that the people they're complaining about can actually respond.
In any case, it's been brought up on the forums before, and Savin even gets jibes about it in good faith by the other writers.
That's quite the assumption there. I literally said that there's no information detailing as such on the forums (by the very writer of the character) indicating as such; nor is there indication of that mentioned in the character's publicly available google document.
If you actually look at his character from a lore perspective he wants to be an adventurer but is not quite cut out for it; something that is made very apparent by the quest to rescue him. The only time we actually see some competence from him is in his redemption arc in Fort Marrock.
TObs had every intention for Kiyoko to be their priority as a companion; as theyd'd planned her out for years before the game had even conceptualized. Sure, TObs did mention that if they were offered a second companion slot Garret would be their choice (aside from possibly re-instating Shar to companion status; although this was mentioned 4 years ago at this point); but the assertion that Garret was always intended to be a companion is something you're seeing.
It wouldn't make sense for that to take priority over TObs' entire Floofhaus plan that centered around Kinu.
TObs doesn't just focus on one or two projects though. Literally 0 of the content in the game is entirely mutually exclusive from one another from a writing perspective. Heck, TObs writes a lot of companion scenes for any content they add (such as Arona lines for going into Fort Marrock, as well as the collaborative effort for the Winter Palace Ball).
It's true that Savin is pulled in more directions than most, but that comes with the territory of essentially being the Project Lead, and Lead Writer.
No, the reason why Cait has so much content is because she is literally the most integral character in the game from a lore perspective (i.e. the intro to the game; the mission that leads to the PCs quest), as well as the very first companion in the game.
The fact that she's fun to write is just an added bonus for some of the writers.
As mentioned before, writers generally write for every area or every major bit of content in some way. But yeah, I guess we'll see.
See above in this message.
They have been mentioned by names on the forums, but the writer is focusing on other content at the moment (aside from being a programmer for the game).
They will likely be expanded upon at some point in time, but there are other priorities first.
To answer your question, yes I do browse the Fen forums, and the reason I comment here is because I like the environment better. People here are more likely to disparage the game, while people in the Fen forums are more likely to praise it. I like to see both sides of the coin, sue me.
To reiterate, it's fine, I know there are a lot of things going on in the background that us plebian consumers aren't privy to. It's just fun to point out things that could have been and go "huh neat." I'm not espousing that Savin should have kept Shar as a companion, or that Tobs should have dropped Kiyoko and picked Garret. It's just neat little fluff at the end of the day.
As for Cait, she's was just used as an example. Even if she is integral to the plot, what I was saying is that she's popular, so she, of course , has droves of people wanting to write for her. All I'm saying is that if you're a fan of,say, Ihzalti, don't be shocked if it'll take a while for her relation to the drider queen to ever be expanded on.
Also being integral to a Fen game doesn't mean crap. Lethice and your cousin were obviously 3-dimensional characters that you got to interact with at every turn right. Heck you can count on one hand the amount of time Tollus shows up, and you need 2 hands for Kasyrra. Obviously they're going to fix this, but currently we are allowed to poke fun at them for this.
I like this game alright, I know I rarely had anything positive to say about it here, but I wouldn't be here if I didn't. But just because I like it doesn't mean I can't make fun of the writers silly decisions at times.
To end on, Coc2 is making $30,000 a month on patreon, and even more from steam sales. What they're doing is clearly working. I'm not a patreon so, if the writers want to take half a year to introduce something I like, I don't truly care. I don't have a horse in this race to begin with.
