gamesradar [Official] Starfield Discussion Thread

[Slaughtahouse]

On 23/10/2023 at 00:32, UltraMega said:

I figured it out. Somehow my ship was like 100 points over weight. 

 

What lvl are you guys? I'm at 41. 

 

I believe I am ~17 at 31hrs. That's largely due to going off the critical path and spending time just exploring. 

 

That said, I haven't played much in October but I will revisit the game soon. Got side tracked by AC (surprisingly) and now my attention will be horror games up until Halloween

 

Edit: Interesting... 

Ex-Bethesda Developer Reveals Internal Debate About Starfield's Scope - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Bethesda's former design director has revealed an internal debate around the number of planets in Starfield early on in the game's development.

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Slaughtahouse

[Sir Beregond]

I just started this game last night. Kinda just getting through the "tutorial" so to speak. Left the mining moon, had the small battle in space, and travelled to the other moon.

[Slaughtahouse]

5 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

I just started this game last night. Kinda just getting through the "tutorial" so to speak. Left the mining moon, had the small battle in space, and travelled to the other moon.

Try the* mod recommended by Ultramega a few pages back to remove the instagram filters. It will help a lot with contrast and I suspect these filters are the reason why HDR doesn't properly work in this game. 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Slaughtahouse
fixing my horrible grammar

[UltraMega]

There are a lot of mods that adjust the filters now. Might wanna look on mod nexus before you try the same mod that was out right after the game launched, which just removes the filters completely. 

[Sir Beregond]

4 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

Try the* mod recommended by Ultramega a few pages back to remove the instagram filters. It will help a lot with contrast and I suspect these filters are the reason why HDR doesn't properly work in this game. 

 

1 hour ago, UltraMega said:

There are a lot of mods that adjust the filters now. Might wanna look on mod nexus before you try the same mod that was out right after the game launched, which just removes the filters completely. 

Thanks, will do.

[UltraMega]

 

 

I think now that people have had time with the game, it's really starting to set in that this game felt like a bait and switch. Bait being the Skyrim level of quality and engagement people hoped for, and the switch being Bethesda's attempt at a procedurally generated RPG. 

 

A friend of mine who really loved Skyrim was hooked on Starfield for a while until he finally realized it was never going to be more than just a remix of the same assets everywhere, and then he went back to Skyrim

[Slaughtahouse]

5 hours ago, UltraMega said:

 

 

I think now that people have had time with the game, it's really starting to set in that this game felt like a bait and switch. Bait being the Skyrim level of quality and engagement people hoped for, and the switch being Bethesda's attempt at a procedurally generated RPG. 

 

A friend of mine who really loved Skyrim was hooked on Starfield for a while until he finally realized it was never going to be more than just a remix of the same assets everywhere, and then he went back to Skyrim

 

I didn’t watch the video but I mean that’s how we all felt here (referring to your Skyrim friend). I admit, I am a huge sucker for Bethesda games.

 

They got me hooked since that day I walked into a Zellers (Canadian Target) and discovered Oblivion. That was my first console RPG and I only picked it up because A) I got a 360 on launch and I need another game besides Perfect Dark Zero and B) the screenshots on the back resembled Lord of the Rings.

 

Starfield is still a good game but… it lacks “the world” that ties it all together in my opinion. I recall vividly exploring Cyrodiil, Skyrim, Washington D.C, etc. In Starfield, the key planets that have cities feel like nothing but the cities. All other planets are empty, and largely that is OK but it just doesn’t work as well as it should. 

 

Im sure this premise of game could be done but for Bethesda to apply their typical formula, it just doesn’t hold up when, as you mentioned worlds are procedurally generated and well, disconnected.

 

I played it for most of September and I do intend on finishing it, at least the UC faction quest line, but it didnt have the hooks in me (the world) to stick through it in one long marathon.

 

More on topic, one of the reasons it’s getting reviewed bombed is because back in November, Bethesda decided to respond to Steam reviews. Their responses by and large were trying to convince the authors that they didn’t understand that experience of exploring empty planets. 

 

Not sure why they decided to shoot themselves in the foot when the average daily count was already so low. Mix that with their philosophy to avoid frequent and signifiant patches, accessibility options, and rely on mods… I think it just pushed the community over the edge.

 

Again, it’s a good game, but it could of been great. Sad to see them try and innovate yet feel so dated at the same time.

[UltraMega]

14 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

 

I didn’t watch the video but I mean that’s how we all felt here (referring to your Skyrim friend). I admit, I am a huge sucker for Bethesda games.

 

They got me hooked since that day I walked into a Zellers (Canadian Target) and discovered Oblivion. That was my first console RPG and I only picked it up because A) I got a 360 on launch and I need another game besides Perfect Dark Zero and B) the screenshots on the back resembled Lord of the Rings.

 

Starfield is still a good game but… it lacks “the world” that ties it all together in my opinion. I recall vividly exploring Cyrodiil, Skyrim, Washington D.C, etc. In Starfield, the key planets that have cities feel like nothing but the cities. All other planets are empty, and largely that is OK but it just doesn’t work as well as it should. 

 

Im sure this premise of game could be done but for Bethesda to apply their typical formula, it just doesn’t hold up when, as you mentioned worlds are procedurally generated and well, disconnected.

 

I played it for most of September and I do intend on finishing it, at least the UC faction quest line, but it didnt have the hooks in me (the world) to stick through it in one long marathon.

 

More on topic, one of the reasons it’s getting reviewed bombed is because back in November, Bethesda decided to respond to Steam reviews. Their responses by and large were trying to convince the authors that they didn’t understand that experience of exploring empty planets. 

 

Not sure why they decided to shoot themselves in the foot when the average daily count was already so low. Mix that with their philosophy to avoid frequent and signifiant patches, accessibility options, and rely on mods… I think it just pushed the community over the edge.

 

Again, it’s a good game, but it could of been great. Sad to see them try and innovate yet feel so dated at the same time.

I don't think the fact that Bethesda decided to reply to reviews has much to do with it. It did seem to entice a few people to leave a negative review, but I think the score was already heading in this direction which is why they started responding at all. The score on the Xbox app isn't much better. 

 

I did enjoy the game for a while even tho it was disappointing. It's not a bad game compared to an average game, but it's a bad game for one that tried to be a once in a blue moon major Bethesda title. I think it just took a while for people to form their opinion since players needed to see for themselves that there wasn't anything interesting to find in all that empty space. 

[Sir Beregond]

Honestly I've yet to really be drawn in like I would on a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game.

 

I made it to New Atlantis, started doing all the side quests that were popping up and man, talk about basic and disappointing. They also kinda tease with some quests (like figuring out the power spikes in the underground area, forget the name) where you are presented with branching options, but in the end don't actually mean anything in any meaningful way. 

 

I've discovered the persuasion system to be absolutely random on what options work. I've reloaded saves just to retry failed attempts and it's different every time in terms of what works. On one hand I can kinda understand that from a game design so you can't just go to a guide and say use these 3 options, but on the other hand seems completely asinine as what persuades a person should be fairly rigid based on their personality, environment, circumstances, etc.

 

And then as for the planets themselves...I haven't really gone past the tutorial and then getting to New Atlantis, but if that first planet was any indication, there's definitely not much interesting to see like there would be in a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game.

 

I don't know, I always loved older Bethesda games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 - there are memorable quests/questlines, exploration is wonderful, and the sandbox nature of the worlds presented a lot of compelling options/modability to your play. Now I totally agree with many who would state that games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 are incredibly shallow games, but wide enough to have fun in...again as a sandbox.

 

But man, I am just not feeling Starfield. I haven't felt a desire to pick it back up yet, which makes me glad I didn't buy it and have just been trying it out through Game Pass.

 

Bethesda needs better writers for one thing. While I consider both to be good games, comparing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, and then comparing both to Fallout 4 is quite something. It's got its own flaws as a game, but honestly if you've never played New Vegas, you are doing yourself a disservice. Fallout 4 was just a flat out mess, but I will admit I still had fun going around and doing things.

 

As for Starfield, what is there to do on an empty, barren planet? Sandbox games still need interesting environments.

 

EDIT: And for all its flaws as a game mechanically or otherwise, wife and I are actually having tons of fun in Fallout 76. Again, its an interesting world to explore and find things in.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Sir Beregond

[UltraMega]

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

Honestly I've yet to really be drawn in like I would on a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game.

 

I made it to New Atlantis, started doing all the side quests that were popping up and man, talk about basic and disappointing. They also kinda tease with some quests (like figuring out the power spikes in the underground area, forget the name) where you are presented with branching options, but in the end don't actually mean anything in any meaningful way. 

 

I've discovered the persuasion system to be absolutely random on what options work. I've reloaded saves just to retry failed attempts and it's different every time in terms of what works. On one hand I can kinda understand that from a game design so you can't just go to a guide and say use these 3 options, but on the other hand seems completely asinine as what persuades a person should be fairly rigid based on their personality, environment, circumstances, etc.

 

And then as for the planets themselves...I haven't really gone past the tutorial and then getting to New Atlantis, but if that first planet was any indication, there's definitely not much interesting to see like there would be in a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game.

 

I don't know, I always loved older Bethesda games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 - there are memorable quests/questlines, exploration is wonderful, and the sandbox nature of the worlds presented a lot of compelling options/modability to your play. Now I totally agree with many who would state that games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 are incredibly shallow games, but wide enough to have fun in...again as a sandbox.

 

But man, I am just not feeling Starfield. I haven't felt a desire to pick it back up yet, which makes me glad I didn't buy it and have just been trying it out through Game Pass.

 

Bethesda needs better writers for one thing. While I consider both to be good games, comparing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, and then comparing both to Fallout 4 is quite something. It's got its own flaws as a game, but honestly if you've never played New Vegas, you are doing yourself a disservice. Fallout 4 was just a flat out mess, but I will admit I still had fun going around and doing things.

 

As for Starfield, what is there to do on an empty, barren planet? Sandbox games still need interesting environments.

 

EDIT: And for all its flaws as a game mechanically or otherwise, wife and I are actually having tons of fun in Fallout 76. Again, its an interesting world to explore and find things in.

As I understand it, the persuasion system is based on your persuasion level + some RNG, with each option having a different value and likeliness of success. The actual text is completely irrelevant, and you can choose the exact same options and get different outcomes. 

 

 

I think during development, the game was probably a lot more of a survival game. Remnants of systems that have no reason to be in the game if they hadn't had a larger scope at some point seem to suggest a lot was left out for the sake of making the game more accessible. The game has a fuel system, an environmental debuf system, and at least half a dozen other systems that just don't really do anything meaningful. I wonder if they wanted to make a survival and exploration based game sort of like Valheim but pivoted when they realized they hadn't made anything interesting to explore, and hadn't fleshed out the mechanics of the game enough for the survival to be good. Perhaps they thought the scope of the game would ballon if they were to add the content needed to make exploration meaningful, so they cut their losses and over-simplified any survival aspects of the game. 

If the exploration were actually good and there were interesting planets to go to, the game could have had a solid survival based aspect where a player could go to a planet and use the outpost system and crafting system to build a base for the purpose of survival. In Valheim, it makes sense to build different bases in different biomes to make it easier to process the items you can get in each biome, and Starfield could have made that an engaging part of the game. As it is, I don't really get what the point of the outpost system is beyond just farming for XP. 

 

It seems like most of the pieces are probably already there, and it wouldn't be that hard to tweak the game into a much more survival focused game. Makes me wonder if a mod or expansion/update will eventually aim to do that. 

[Sir Beregond]

1 hour ago, UltraMega said:

As I understand it, the persuasion system is based on your persuasion level + some RNG, with each option having a different value and likeliness of success. The actual text is completely irrelevant, and you can choose the exact same options and get different outcomes. 

 

 

I think during development, the game was probably a lot more of a survival game. Remnants of systems that have no reason to be in the game if they hadn't had a larger scope at some point seem to suggest a lot was left out for the sake of making the game more accessible. The game has a fuel system, an environmental debuf system, and at least half a dozen other systems that just don't really do anything meaningful. I wonder if they wanted to make a survival and exploration based game sort of like Valheim but pivoted when they realized they hadn't made anything interesting to explore, and hadn't fleshed out the mechanics of the game enough for the survival to be good. Perhaps they thought the scope of the game would ballon if they were to add the content needed to make exploration meaningful, so they cut their losses and over-simplified any survival aspects of the game. 

If the exploration were actually good and there were interesting planets to go to, the game could have had a solid survival based aspect where a player could go to a planet and use the outpost system and crafting system to build a base for the purpose of survival. In Valheim, it makes sense to build different bases in different biomes to make it easier to process the items you can get in each biome, and Starfield could have made that an engaging part of the game. As it is, I don't really get what the point of the outpost system is beyond just farming for XP. 

 

It seems like most of the pieces are probably already there, and it wouldn't be that hard to tweak the game into a much more survival focused game. Makes me wonder if a mod or expansion/update will eventually aim to do that. 

Perhaps if they keep updating it like they did with Fallout 76 it can fix some of those issues.

 

But at this point I am kinda concerned for Elder Scrolls 6. 

[Slaughtahouse]

7 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I don't think the fact that Bethesda decided to reply to reviews has much to do with it. It did seem to entice a few people to leave a negative review, but I think the score was already heading in this direction which is why they started responding at all. The score on the Xbox app isn't much better. 

 

I did enjoy the game for a while even tho it was disappointing. It's not a bad game compared to an average game, but it's a bad game for one that tried to be a once in a blue moon major Bethesda title. I think it just took a while for people to form their opinion since players needed to see for themselves that there wasn't anything interesting to find in all that empty space. 

 

I agree with a lot of those points but I have still found my time in the game more interesting when exploring space.

 

Even if it’s not as good as it should or could have been, I have still enjoyed the small side quests I have found. Not the random encounters when you warp to a planet but the side quests that drive you to land at a random base or station. I believe those are hand crafted quests and they’ve been fun. I really can’t follow the main quest but Ill give it another go soon.

 

Edit: And I’ll remind others here to try the UC faction quests. I have not completed  it yet so it could dissolve into nothing but so far, those quests have been the most interesting (to me) and I personally enjoyed the Alien (film) references.

Edited January 1 by Slaughtahouse

[Slaughtahouse]

2 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

Perhaps if they keep updating it like they did with Fallout 76 it can fix some of those issues.

 

But at this point I am kinda concerned for Elder Scrolls 6. 

 

If they come up with simply the same formula in a more fleshed out region, Elder Scrolls 6 should be just as good as any other past Bethesda game. 

 

My fear is not the game being good, rather that they will excuse basic quality of life features that any game in the past 5 years supports. FoV slider missing from Starfield and a major update allowing players to “eat food” without going into the menu was a joke.

[Sir Beregond]

15 minutes ago, Slaughtahouse said:

 

If they come up with simply the same formula in a more fleshed out region, Elder Scrolls 6 should be just as good as any other past Bethesda game. 

 

My fear is not the game being good, rather that they will excuse basic quality of life features that any game in the past 5 years supports. FoV slider missing from Starfield and a major update allowing players to “eat food” without going into the menu was a joke.

Great points and I hope they actually take the time to craft some interesting aide quests and not just random gen "another settlement needs your help" stuff. Witcher 3 showed that can be done.

[Slaughtahouse]

 

 

I mean… I think their gameplay did the exact opposite… no? Even going into Starfield, I didn’t expect innovative gameplay. I expected a more fleshed out universe, in space, with typical Bethesda gameplay. For better or worse, that’s what we got.

 

Same RPG systems, same movement, same loading screens, same plot / intro tropes. I like Starfield and don’t want to rag on it for the sake of it but winning the most innovative gameplay award for 2023? What!? Was the community smoking crack?

 

In 2023, I played a variety of very high quality games. One of which was Cocoon, a game where the gameplay is unlike any other game. You carry orbs which are both explorable worlds and puzzle pieces. For all its complexity, it does so with only one button / input. Which I thought was the best part. Not even a nomination. Yikes 

Edited January 4 by Slaughtahouse

[UltraMega]

I agree, definitely not an innovative game. 

 

I think steam awards go out based on total players and playtime to some degree, and a lot of people played Starfield for a good amount of time before realizing it was pretty disappointing. 

[Slaughtahouse]

First Ever Look at Starfield Land Vehicles Revealed in Brief Gameplay Clip - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Bethesda has given Starfield fans a first look at what might be its most-anticipated feature yet: land vehicles.

 

Vehicles inbound amongst other updates. Check out this vid.