Plus, the fundamental problem with the Outer Worlds is lack of budget and content. A lot of people bought it thinking it would be a larger game, but they certainly didn't expect anything different from 'fallouty FPS with skill checks'. An ideal sequel would just keep all the current tech and create a larger, more interesting world that can stand up to F:NV.
Man, dunno about that, just watch Tim Cain lectures on game design and this illusion of an incline game all of sudden coming out of bigger budget will disappear pretty quickly. Do you want Borderlands meets Skyrim with bad jokes? That is what Outer Worlds 2 will be, a bigger pile of shit.
You cant fix a problem of game design with a bigger budget, also, in terms of storyfagness, this game will ever reach the levels of New Vegas because of the writing choice, they chosen satire and satire is extremely hard to do and they also are far from being regular good writers, imagine writers that are so good that they can do satire. Satire involves you making a funny caricature of something with a criticism that is clever and at same time funny, Outer Worlds is a caricature without the clever and funny part and I dont think a clueless huge corporation like Microsoft will just fix the problem giving more money to the same group of mediocre people.
Also, notice that satire has only a bite when it can be unsafe, now, how are you going to do unsafe satire on this day and age? Nope, you can only do boring safe satire. So, the world building will remain as it is, a butt of a clever joke that wont come. Just look to Borderlands and you will see this "humor" on action, a world that is just a butt for bad jokes. Only way I see Outer Worlds 2 being good is if they accept they cant do satire, try a serious worldbuilding for a change and really change their game design ideas that were just typical AAA, by the numbers bullshit with less polish. Maybe a bigger budget will bring a better polish so normie NPCs are more easily bamboozled by the graphics to notice the bad gameplay but that is it if they dont change the gameplay mechanics.
Of course, I'm talking of the codex here, normie NPCs will love any shit as long as it is shiny and is a big empty open world.