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Shitpost aside, I think obsessing over the ranking like this is a bad idea...

The purpose of the ranking was that we wanted to know what the average affection value for all players is around the end of each build, so we can plan the content for the next build better (if the average value is 6, with the max being 8, then we know that 7 is a good threshold to give a reward for players that are being extra nice to asterion without excluding people that didn't minmax to get the best outcome).

We were going to have the game print out a number that you put into the poll, but we figured the ranking was more fun.

However, seeing how people obsess over it and want guides to get the best possible ranking and feel like they fucked up if they didn't get the maximum, even if they still got a really good score, gives me conflicting feelings. The idea I had for MinoH is that there is no best route, no optimal way of doing things  (eg. even if you trick Argos at the end of 0.3, which is arguably the best solution to that puzzle, you still have Asterion become unavailable for R&D as a trade-off, and tricking Argos will impact an important choice in 0.5). If there's an objectively best outcome, then players are going to stop making the choices that feel right to them, and instead going with whatever gets them the best result. I feel like the ranking ends up doing this, so I considered taking it away, or at least not making such a spectacle out of it at the end of a build.

But... people really like the feature, and I don't want to punish people for being invested in the story (which conflicting feelings aside really warms my heart), so I feel like taking it away is not the solution. Maybe, we should introduce a trade-off to not make maxing the ranking the optimal, objectively best way to play the game.

So, in 0.5 getting the maximum ranking will require spending in-game days with Asterion that could be otherwise spent on other side quests. This way, going for that maximum rank means you're avoiding optional content such as getting extra guests and improving your staff's stats and getting R&D and exploration rewards.

I hope this takes pressure away from getting the max ranking and instead makes it an incentive for going in blind, making the decisions you think are meaningful, and makes getting the maximum rating a fun goal for a subsequent playthrough.

I know this is in response to a shitpost but it did make me get a big thonk, so thank you guys for posting.