Attachment to characters/units

[leibniz]

Spoiler:

I am trying to design a game and as a part of that I've been wondering how to make units in the game matter more.
For example, when people play Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, X-COM, etc., they pay more attention to some characters, and feel bad about losing them.

Some of the reasons behind this:

• Scarcity: You value your units more when you can't just click on the barracks to produce more.
• Heroism/idiocy, history: Units can do memorable stuff. It is also nostalgic to still have your starting units late in the game.
• Skill: Losses are painful when veteran units are a lot better to recruits. This ties in to scarcity. Also related to choosing specialisations for units in some games.
• Customization: Naming units, etc.

What else could I add to the list?

[Remie Richards]

That's pretty much it isn't it?

[Super Aggro Crag]

I'm attached to THIS unit *grabs dick*

[Qbopper]

you, uh, got everything I can think of

[captain sawrge]

Darkest Dungeon

[danno]

^

[captain sawrge]

Fire Emblem as well, to an extent.

[Wyzack]

this probably comes pretty close to the customization bit, and is certainly not feasible for every game, but Dwarf Fortress gives every character a massive degree of individuality that makes them feel much more personal than random meatsacks doing your bidding. Likes, dislikes, values, incredibly specific appearance details, stuff like that.

[captain sawrge]

op mentioned DF

[Wyzack]

Yeah but he asked for specific reasons why people get attached to characters not just a list of games yoU DUMB PHONE HEAD

[leibniz]

this probably comes pretty close to the customization bit, and is certainly not feasible for every game, but Dwarf Fortress gives every character a massive degree of individuality that makes them feel much more personal than random meatsacks doing your bidding. Likes, dislikes, values, incredibly specific appearance details, stuff like that.

This is close to what I felt was missing.
In the other mentioned games like Darkest Dungeons, etc., let's call them squad games, the role of the player is to complete the mission and part of that is "making sure everybody makes it back home alive". So the units in a squad matter more than in an RTS.
In Dwarf Fortress, there is a layer of simulation on top of everything else, Dwarves are closer to real people than simple unsimulated units in other games, because of thoughts and other things.
In a broader sense, it is related to "framing". For example, in Doom, you encounter a demon and you shoot it with your gun, very simple, it doesn't matter how hideous it is. But in Amnesia, when you encounter a demon, you can only run.
If you dont, you lose, so the fear of the enemy is tied to the fear of losing the game. "The Player" and the "enemy" are the same, but because of the framing, one typically feels afraid when playing Amnesia.
In the case of Dwarf Fortress, it is not just about digging, the realness of the dwarves is tied to the "caretaker" role of the player. Even though I know that 2x1 rooms are sufficient for my dorfs, I like to give them 3x3 rooms so they can live a good life.

tldr: muh immersion

[XSI]

You should give them 3x3 rooms also because then you can put cabinets in them. Otherwise they'll leave random clothing all over the place, and no, a single cabinet isn't good enough. Most of mine end up filling up 3-4 of the things before I stop playing/they die

That said, definitely point 2 more than the others as far as I'm concerned, their actions gives them character. Something to remember them by. Failures and success both.
Being able to customize them helps keep track of them, but otherwise doesn't really do much for getting attached unless you're naming them after people

[PKPenguin321]

customization minus player input. so like randomly generated traits. since you can't just whip up a new character with the same traits (even if they're cosmetic ones) they have more value to you, especially if they're ones you like. this is kind of a combination of scarcity and customization, i guess

[Lumbermancer]

Customization of equipment. It adds to identity of unit.

[leibniz]

...

Stellaris is at a disadvantage compared to EU4. When you look at the map of EU4, you see all these countries and you probably have an opinion them, hate some, like others, etc.
In Stellaris, you start the game, "Time to paint the map" but why? The other factions are just dicerolls, you can look around and say "That's a nice roll" or "Now that's a shitty roll if I ever saw one" but dont feel anything about it really. I've seen that some people only play with their own custom factions as opponents which is nice.
My other problem with Stellaris was that it doesn't really have a vision, just "Remember how <popular scifi author> wrote about <thing>? We gotta put that in" and random event #224521 was born.
It's a sandbox but there isn't much to create. Maybe the mods will fix it.

[Nilons]

Having random appearances and also being in control of them in a way where you are not directly controlling them but they're listening to your orders so it feels like they have a personality.

[Screemonster]

I'm reminded of it being a pain in the hole even back on Cannon fodder in the 90s to lose Jools and Jops, just because you'd had them from the beginning getting promotions and all the other recruits in the queue were going to be nowhere near as good.

CF didn't even give you the option of swapping out your more treasured units and just taking in grunts for the missions you knew were gonna be a meat grinder.