Starfield - Bethesda Softworks - Release Date - Sep 6th 2023

[ColonialsHockey10]

He's exaggerated things in the past, like the AI in Oblivion, the number of endings in Fallout 3 or the economy in Skyrim. I think his reputation as some kind of liar is a little unfair, it's not likes he's Peter Molyneux, but he has misled his fans from time to time.

I wouldn't say they Bethesda has a bad reputation, more that it's mixed. I think there's a few reasons for that:

• How buggy their games are
• The disaster that was Fallout 76
• The way their games have been generally been getting dumbed down with each new entry
• They were one of the studios that got the ball rolling with microtransactions in Oblivion
• Their paid mods plan for Skyrim was not well received

Thanks for the response, makes total sense. I was actually going to bring up Peter Molyneux in comparison in my original post.

I guess the reception to the trailer that I’ve seen only has been overwhelmingly negative, which I find surprising. I thought the trailer was fantastic. Made me wonder if hating on Bethesda is just the hip thing to do, like hating on U2 or Nickleback.

 

[NyQuil]

There are people who hate open-ended sandbox style RPGs.

Due to the gating associated with radiant style questing, the freedom to create your own story can seem a bit awkward at times when the impact of that story on the game world doesn't percolate everywhere.

Case in point, you save the world and the guard is still asking if someone stole your sweet roll.

Some people much prefer tightly crafted narrative-driven RPGs on rails, then play a Bethesda game and get mad about it.

 

[Mikeaveli]

I think people have gone way overboard with the No Man's Sky comparisons. This game is going to be Fallout 4 in space. Two completely different experiences

 

[Osprey]

I think people have gone way overboard with the No Man's Sky comparisons. This game is going to be Fallout 4 in space. Two completely different experiences

It'll be an RPG that's familiar in a lot of ways to Fallout 4 and Skyrim, but there are some obvious similarities to No Man's Sky, as well. The ability to fly between hundreds of procedurally generated planets, descend into their atmospheres and land anywhere on them, all without loading screens, is something that NMS is known for. Also, Todd Howard has indicated that a lot of those planets (presumably most of them) will be for mining purposes, which is also a lot like NMS. There's even a shot in the trailer where it shows the player using a laser to cut a section off of a rock, just like in NMS. None of Bethesda's RPGs have had mining like this before, so this is something different and, I imagine, inspired by NMS. It'll likely be an overall different experience than NMS, but it'll probably also be an overall different experience than Fallout 4 or Skyrim.

 

[NyQuil]

None of Bethesda's RPGs have had mining like this before, so this is something different and, I imagine, inspired by NMS. It'll likely be an overall different experience than NMS, but it'll probably also be an overall different experience than Fallout 4 or Skyrim.

I mean, you -can- mine in Skyrim with a pickaxe for crafting purposes.

It's not a laser but I suspect for game purposes it will be the same. There will be rarer ores required for very specific equipment.

 

[Jussi]

Are we also going to pretend Elite didn't exist before No Man's Sky?

 

[NyQuil]

Are we also going to pretend Elite didn't exist before No Man's Sky?

Elite didn't really have a story.

 

[Osprey]

I mean, you -can- mine in Skyrim with a pickaxe for crafting purposes.

It's not a laser but I suspect for game purposes it will be the same. There will be rarer ores required for very specific equipment.

You can mine in Skyrim, but it isn't like mining in No Man's Sky. Instead of a finite amount of ore hand-placed in small quantities across the map, there's a virtually infinite number of procedurally generated planets with the presence, amount and location of each ore determined by algorithm. Instead of just picking it up as you're questing, you usually need to go out of your way and spend time to mine. The amount of ore that you mine is determined mostly by how much you're willing to grind. It's closer to Minecraft than it is to Skyrim.

 

[aleshemsky83]

The thing about Bethesda games is that resource gathering and crafting is completely optional more or less. It's a very small part of the game if you want to be.

No man's sky it's literally the entire main game. You can turn it off of course and just fly around doing base building and exploration, which some people actually do enjoy, but overall the main gameplay loop in the regular game mode is just so bad.

 

[Osprey]

The thing about Bethesda games is that resource gathering and crafting is completely optional more or less. It's a very small part of the game if you want to be.

No man's sky it's literally the entire main game. You can turn it off of course and just fly around doing base building and exploration, which some people actually do enjoy, but overall the main gameplay loop in the regular game mode is just so bad.

Yeah, mining in No Man's Sky is virtually the whole game. If grinding isn't for you, then the game isn't. Starfield may have that, but a whole story-driven RPG experience, as well, and we'll be able to choose which interests us more. Even in Skyrim, we could treat the story and most quests as optional and just run around exploring, mining and crafting. I bet that we can do the same thing in Starfield and just play it as if it's No Man's Sky if we want. Most of us are going to want to follow the story and do the quests, though, with maybe a little mining on the side. Once we finish the main story, however, we may want to keep playing in the sandbox and go anywhere, mine extensively and continuously upgrade our ships. I imagine that mining and ship upgrading will be a bit like base building in Fallout 4: not a core feature that we need to do much of to finish the main story, but something to do after or whenever we feel like it. We'll see.

 

[NyQuil]

The real excitement is how real the game world can get once the really experienced modding community gets their hands on it for a few months.

My last incarnation of Skyrim (Special Edition) was running more than 100 mods and it was a real joy.

 

[Blender]

The real excitement is how real the game world can get once the really experienced modding community gets their hands on it for a few months.

My last incarnation of Skyrim (Special Edition) was running more than 100 mods and it was a real joy.

Modding on planets, in space, item crafting, ship crafting, characters, etc.

The modding community could probably keep this game going for a decade.

 

[Osprey]

Well, this is a big bummer. I thought that it'd have seamless space-to-planet flight, but it won't.

Bethesda Defends Missing Starfield Feature

Starfield doesn't just sound more ambitious than Bethesda Game Studios' previous releases -- [...]

comicbook.com

 

[Andrei79]

I hope Bethesda finally managed to hire good writers, the story, dialogue and voice acting are always so underwhelming.

 

[NyQuil]

Well, this is a big bummer. I thought that it'd have seamless space-to-planet flight, but it won't.

I would have been pretty surprised.

They don't even have seamless town/cave/dungeon/tower to wilderness features in any of their other games.

 

[Blender]

Well, this is a big bummer. I thought that it'd have seamless space-to-planet flight, but it won't.

Bethesda Defends Missing Starfield Feature

Starfield doesn't just sound more ambitious than Bethesda Game Studios' previous releases -- [...]

comicbook.com

He said last week it doesn't. In the gameplay trailer it wasn't seamless but there was no loading screen, only a cut. I assume this was done on a very powerful machine, so the release version will likely have a loading screen or pause.

 

[Jussi]

Well, this is a big bummer. I thought that it'd have seamless space-to-planet flight, but it won't.

Bethesda Defends Missing Starfield Feature

Starfield doesn't just sound more ambitious than Bethesda Game Studios' previous releases -- [...]

comicbook.com

That really not something I would miss. Just a waste of time.

 

[Osprey]

I would have been pretty surprised.

They don't even have seamless town/cave/dungeon/tower to wilderness features in any of their other games.

True, but their previous games were on older engines for older gen systems. There were technical limitations that may not exist anymore. Creation Engine 1 debuted with Skyrim on the Xbox 360 and PS3 and was used for the last decade. Creation Engine 2 will debut with Starfield and run their games for the next decade, including ES6. I just figured that their next-gen engine would have a capability that No Man's Sky had 6 years ago and Outer Wilds had 3 years ago. Of course, No Man's Sky relied exclusively on procedurally generated planets and Outer Wilds had ridiculously small planets. Neither had sprawling, hand-crafted cities like Starfield to load, so I can understand why this would be more difficult. He did suggest that it was possible, though, just not worth the time. It's too bad because it's just so cool and immersive to approach and land on planets seamlessly.

 

[Khelandros]

True, but their previous games were on older engines for older gen systems. There were technical limitations that may not exist anymore. Creation Engine 1 debuted with Skyrim on the Xbox 360 and PS3 and was used for the last decade. Creation Engine 2 will debut with Starfield and run their games for the next decade, including ES6. I just figured that their next-gen engine would have a capability that No Man's Sky had 6 years ago and Outer Wilds had 3 years ago. Of course, No Man's Sky relied exclusively on procedurally generated planets and Outer Wilds had ridiculously small planets. Neither had sprawling, hand-crafted cities like Starfield to load, so I can understand why this would be more difficult. He did suggest that it was possible, though, just not worth the time. It's too bad because it's just so cool and immersive to approach and land on planets seamlessly.

Starfield doesn't have any sprawling, hand-crafted cities either. All we have seen is a fly through rendering of a city, which could be limited to a few hallways/common places for people to explore.

 

[NyQuil]

Starfield doesn't have any sprawling, hand-crafted cities either. All we have seen is a fly through rendering of a city, which could be limited to a few hallways/common places for people to explore.

From earlier in the thread:

“- New Atlantis is biggest city they’ve built. Four major cities in total.”

 

[Osprey]

Starfield doesn't have any sprawling, hand-crafted cities either. All we have seen is a fly through rendering of a city, which could be limited to a few hallways/common places for people to explore.

I think that it's safe to expect hand-crafted cities at least as large as Skyrim and Fallout 4. That's all that I meant by "sprawling," not that they'd be anywhere near as large or detailed as, say, Night City in Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Well, this is a big bummer. I thought that it'd have seamless space-to-planet flight, but it won't.

Bethesda Defends Missing Starfield Feature

Starfield doesn't just sound more ambitious than Bethesda Game Studios' previous releases -- [...]

comicbook.com

You know I'm making my way through Fallout 4, which I like a lot. But along with there being no working ladders, theres a loading screen everytime you go into a building like skyrim. So people are worried about not having seamless flight, they should be worried about just having a seamless city or town, lol.

I will say this game is very good however ive never been a fan of the setting (and still like it), I rate it very high and im only 6 hours in.

 

[Osprey]

You know I'm making my way through Fallout 4, which I like a lot. But along with there being no working ladders, theres a loading screen everytime you go into a building like skyrim. So people are worried about not having seamless flight, they should be worried about just having a seamless city or town, lol.

I will say this game is very good however ive never been a fan of the setting (and still like it), I rate it very high and im only 6 hours in.

Good point. I didn't even think about whether buildings would be seamless. I should probably prepare myself for them to not be and not expect too much, in general, or I may be disappointed.

It's too bad. I remember when Bethesda innovated. Their Xngine (used in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and Terminator: Future Shock) in the 90s was cutting edge. Nowadays, they take so long to make games that they're technologically behind by the time that they release, though they make up for it with story and gameplay.

I still need to play Fallout 4. I should probably play that before Starfield comes out, myself.

 

[Khelandros]

From earlier in the thread:

“- New Atlantis is biggest city they’ve built. Four major cities in total.”

This tells us nothing without context. Like, what is the size of the biggest city they've ever put into a game? It's nothing from Skyrim cause all those cities were tiny. FO4 had diamond city but that was pretty small as well. Do we have to go back farther to Morrowind? And if we do, what was the size of Vivec? ESO has bigger cities but they are not really that big, they just have a lot of empty space.

 

[NyQuil]

This tells us nothing without context. Like, what is the size of the biggest city they've ever put into a game? It's nothing from Skyrim cause all those cities were tiny. FO4 had diamond city but that was pretty small as well. Do we have to go back farther to Morrowind? And if we do, what was the size of Vivec? ESO has bigger cities but they are not really that big, they just have a lot of empty space.

Imperial City in Oblivion was plenty big.

Not just a couple of hallways.