Starfield: Thoughts?

[Axeface]

I don’t agree with this. The scope and perceived ambition of the game seems way too large for it to be just a distraction. I think they’re genuinely going to make this a new game series, assuming the game does well. But of course, it’d take a decade or two for a sequel. I just hope that they avoid making a game that’s just TES: Online, or Fallout 76 in Starfield’s universe. They probably won’t, but maybe it might be interesting. At least for a few hours.

I didnt mean that it is being developed as a distraction, I meant that for me I think it will just be a distraction. Of course bethesda are going to try to build this franchise, I just doubt i'll fall in love with it (I may be very wrong of course).
Ide also question whether the scope is so large. I think people are getting way too hyped for this. A thousand procedurally generated maps with a (I assume) handful of more curated ones is not the revolution people seem to be thinking it is. They seem to be more polished than the normal, but I'de err on the side of caution about jumping to that conclusion too.

As a final note i'de also like to point out that we arnt getting a new TES yet because of Starfield. If I dont like the game that is going to be extra annoying.

[Tranxalive]

I didnt mean that it is being developed as a distraction, I meant that for me I think it will just be a distraction.

Ah, my bad.

Ide also question whether the scope is so large. I think people are getting way too hyped for this. A thousand procedurally generated maps with a (I assume) handful of more curated ones is not the revolution people seem to be thinking it is. They seem to be more polished than the normal, but I'de err on the side of caution about jumping to that conclusion too.

Yes, I see your point. I suppose in actuality, it’s really not that large. I do think they might be overselling their game, I hope that’s not the case, but they’re certainly attempting to generate hype. …which is working.

Personally, the reason I’m hyped isn’t because it’s revolutionary, or the game looks nice, or anything like that. It just has a bunch of good features that I love in the game. Ship customization, “planet exploration,” base building, space combat, etc. None of these concepts are new, or have some paradigm-shifting change. They’re just simply included with the other features.

As a final note i'de also like to point out that we arnt getting a new TES yet because of Starfield. If I dont like the game that is going to be extra annoying.

That’s very fair. I’ve been waiting for a new adventure in Tamriel, and ESO does not scratch my itch in the slightest.

[alt3rn1ty]

As others had noted already, I wouldn't touch Starfield until way, way later because I absolutely expect it to be a bugridden mess for several major patch cycles at the very least. Plus I'm far from being hyped on the vastness of their universe. Procedural generation tends to be repetitive and if we're talking repetitive x1000 for all those planets it's just a recipe for boredom. In addition: quests, encounters, etc. are also going to be randomly generated on these worlds so it's not like I expect anything outside of the typically short main story to be particularily engaging.

Honestly I've just been burned out by most of the last decade's big game hypes falling disastrously short to the point that I just mute the audio and look at the art design and gamplay without having to listen them running down their formulaic buzzword checklist and what I've seen in the Direct presentation wasn't exactly thrilling, looked just like gameplay from any other of their recent games packaged in a different look.

Starfield is only really interesting if they can deliver on most of the grand promises they made, but Bethesda has a long track record of overhyping and underdelivering. Only once I hear from lots of people that the game is actually making good on the hype, that all these planets, moons etc that you can visit actually come with engaging quests, dungeons, combat and/or exploration AND after a suitable amount of time has passed for the game to be (hopefully) patched to a degree that offers acceptable performance would I ever consider getting it, preferably on sale with the inevitable DLC. If it's just another 8 hour campaign with ~20 hours of decent sidequests and a thousand planets with randomized stuff to bloat the game, no thank you.

Thats pretty much my thoughts, every time I see Todd Howard pushing to the masses I think "Once bitten, twice shy, three times a fool ... ooh look there's a crowd full of gullible"

I dont think you can land/take off from planets like you can in NMS, its more like a cut scene and not actually flying through the atmosphere.

I hope the community will make an un-official patch to cover the huge amount of cracks that Bethesda usually leave behind, but depends if they are not already burned out from the last 18 years. Whatever happens there though it will take the community at least 5-6 years to complete, Bethesda games just get more complex with each new iteration of the frankenbrio engine.

[clakclak]

The real question is, will they finally be able to remember that there is more to a game then fetch quests and that characters actually can have....well character? Remembering Skyrim and Fallout 4 I can not name a single memorable character from those games. The all seemed so samey and boring, non of them had anything interesting to say. That is not to say those were bad games, just that a bit more effort in the writing department could really elevate those games.

[Feloidea]

[...], Bethesda games just get more complex with each new iteration of the frankenbrio engine.

I haven't followed this closely enough to know, but is it still on that same engine? Damn, if true that's already a red flag.

[Ketraar]

As some one that is not very fond of magic, zombies or similar stuff, I have waited for this game for a while. I do like RPGs but often those are limited to Fantasy settings, so I'll grab this one (with consent) asap. Similar to KSP I'm buying the idea of the game, but its a personal choice and as usual everyone should make up their own mind and live with the outcome. Its still "just" a game after all.

If I had a life I would lose it to it for sure.

MFG

Ketraar

[chew-ie]

About that 1000 planet thing - that's a (unecessary) figure which doesn't really matter. It's an american thing I guess to include it in the salespitches (50 square kilometers of playable map! 600 spells! 500 hours of gameplay!).

To me, it doesn't "make the game". If it'd just have 2-3 questhubs and one solar system with a handful of planets - It would be enough. What I'm interested in is the world building, the setting, the ability to build my own ship, to build a space character like I did it in The Outer Worlds, build my base like I did it in Fallout 4.

So yeah, there will be bugs, there might be some overselling ("16 times the details") - but the core stuff will be there. (as we already have seen it in the deep dive). And of course, in ten years the game will be even more awesome because of the mods. (e.g. these days I don't play Skyrim - I play Skyrim Requiem - I wouldn't touch the vanilla experience anymore) But that doesn't imply that the base game was bad. Which is also not the case for Fallout 4. So IMHO there is little what could go wrong - as I know what Bethesda is able to deliver and what not. (I never would e.g. expect a deep npc character development like e.g. in Mass Effect / Witcher series, a ground shaking story - or a awesome cRPG ruleset like Pathfinder).

[alt3rn1ty]

[...], Bethesda games just get more complex with each new iteration of the frankenbrio engine.

I haven't followed this closely enough to know, but is it still on that same engine? Damn, if true that's already a red flag.

Apparently its going to use Creation Engine 2 .. Which is just Gambryo's frankenstein offspring with a few more bells n whistles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Engine

It probably supports a few more dds textures formats, a few more effects, maybe the games .bsa archives can decompress a bit faster .. idk for sure what will have changed but its certain to give modders a few more headaches waiting for someone with talent to develop the tools needed to extract/manipulate/mod the files.

It may also be used for TES VI

[Zloth2]

I'm certainly hyped for it. It looks like a combo of Skyrim with No Man's Sky. I really liked NMS even before it started getting patches and loved Skyrim, so I'll be buying this for sure. But not until they cough up all the DLC. I don't expect to play through it more than once, so I want it all there when I begin. It would likely be best to wait a few months extra, too, so patches can show up.

I'm not expecting much at all from ship combat - just some arcade shooty stuff. It should be a good diversion from whatever we're supposed to be doing. Plus, having a 'mobile home' will make it easier to hoover up everything not nailed down in the places I explore. I could have used one of those in Skyrim!

[chew-ie]

I'm not expecting much at all from ship combat - just some arcade shooty stuff. It should be a good diversion from whatever we're supposed to be doing.

Yip, I too have not much interest in dog-fighting mechanics we've seen so far. I'm more the capital ship captain, seems there are no automated turrets though. But there is boarding ....

Plus, having a 'mobile home' will make it easier to hoover up everything not nailed down in the places I explore. I could have used one of those in Skyrim!

Yeah, a small carriage steered by one of your companions would've gone a long way

[Axeface]

Thats pretty much my thoughts, every time I see Todd Howard pushing to the masses I think "Once bitten, twice shy, three times a fool ... ooh look there's a crowd full of gullible"

I still remember the promises about radiantAI for Oblivion, months before release. When the game dropped I kind of forgot about it all because I was so into the game, but looking back in hindsight, they really hyped the game into something it wasnt.

[mr.WHO]

I keep my expectations low, yet I'm still prepared to be dissapointed - it's modern gaming that we talk about.

As in all corporate, staff turnover make that there is very little to none of old Bethesda left, so even the low bar of Skyrim in space might be too high for them.

[nemo1887]

It's a Bethesda game. I only buy those looooong after initial release because:

a) tons of release day bugs that get at least ironed out to make it possible to play.
b) modders iron out the bugs that're left.
c) modders need time to add all the stuff that should have been in the game from day one.
d) I don't play Bethesda games vanilla.

Remember: It's not a bug, it's a feature

exatement like X4 , since version 1.0 there are still old bugs coming back.

[clakclak]

The fact that they said that the game will only run with 30 FPS on an XBOX Series X makes me wonder about the system requirements this will have. (That being said it will run 30FPS for 4k, so probably not that bad, especially at lower resolutions).

[Alerion_V.X3]

If I remember correctly, the recommended system requirements are a Ryzen 3600X (don't know the performance counterpart from Intel right now) with an RTX 2080TI or RX 6800. I think in higher resolutions and with ray tracing activated. My system with an RX6600 XT/Ryzen 5600 X should be sufficient, with some reduced graphics settings here and there. At least I hope so. Quite hefty for my taste.

[felter]

Don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but the system requirements take away my ability to play it my computer which I currently have doesn't even meet the minimum requirements.

• Minimum System Requirement:
  OS: Windows 10 version 22H2 (10.0.19045)
  Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7 6800K
  Memory: 16GB RAM
  Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
  DirectX: Version 12
  Network: Broadband internet connection
  Storage: 125 GB available space
  Additional notes: SSD required

• Recommended System Requirement:
  OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
  Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5 10600K
  Memory: 16GB RAM
  Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
  DirectX: Version 12
  Network: Broadband internet connection
  Storage: 125 GB available space
  Additional notes: SSD required

The 125 GB SSD space required would in itself use up most of my current free SSD space, I would have to buy a new SSD, let alone a new graphics card and CPU. So I'm out for sure no matter how good, buggy or bad it is, its specs are just way too high for me.

[mr.WHO]

FOMO is a bad advisor, especially for hardware purchase/upgrade.

I'm planning to buy new computer around 2025 - by that time I somewhat expect Starfield to be more or less pathed, bugfixed and optimized at acceptable level.

[Alan Phipps]

By 2025, the new computer might be buying mr.WHO as a domestic minion or pet while it plays Starfield by itself.

[mr.WHO]

Never.

Definetly not for Starfield.

...but if AI will make me Freespace 3 I might consider selling my soul to cyber devil.

I could ask for Star Citizen complete edition, but AI would just say it doesn't deal the scams.

[alt3rn1ty]

Thats pretty much my thoughts, every time I see Todd Howard pushing to the masses I think "Once bitten, twice shy, three times a fool ... ooh look there's a crowd full of gullible"

I still remember the promises about radiantAI for Oblivion, months before release. When the game dropped I kind of forgot about it all because I was so into the game, but looking back in hindsight, they really hyped the game into something it wasnt.

They do hyping very well.

But despite my grouchiness about them, eventually they do become really good games.

Morrowind (with Bloodmoon and Tribunal) was excellent, especially after the modding community got established. For me Morrowind is an old favourite with huge amounts of nostalgia, though its a bit dated now.
Oblivion, especially after the modding community had matured was really quite good, I loved the forests. And quite a few really good modders got together to make the Unique Landscapes project and did a superb job. I used to play with Duke Patricks Combat Archery installed, sneaking through the UL crafted landscapes was very immersive.
Skyrim Special Edition I liked eventually, we had someone called Sclerocephalus reworking the scripting for things like the upside down barmy butterflies and many other scripting fixes which changed a lot of things once seen could not be unseen. But I ended up using a lot of my time testing stuff for the Un-Official Patch team, and occasionally contributing some texture fixes for them to the patch. The DynDOLOD mod for SSE was modding on an exceptional level and did a lot for the broken distant visuals which Bethesda never fixed.
Fallout 4 was fun, but again needed a lot of very in depth work from Arthmoor and individuals again like Sclerocephalus to weed out some awful complicated scripting bugs. It also had as usual the problems incurred by not completely reloading the game from desktop if you died, a bad thing about GameBryo is a lot of in game items get a memory register, so if for example you walked over a mine in Fallout 4 and blew up, reload from a few meters back, then walk over the same area .. The same mine would not blow up because in memory it was already noted as gone. I spent a few minutes once firing at the floor to try and hit where I knew it was, and then found I could just walk over it. Load up from completely quitting the game and you go boom again.

Then came the Creation Club, which had a file which needed updating in some advanced modding tools every time a new CC Mod was added to the list, which became very often and very tiresome .. I have a long story on Bethesdas monumental and consistant bug peddling to the masses, and eventually I got really fed up with them. Been playing and modding their games since 2006 and my first purchase of Morrowind.

Around about the same time I got into Egosoft X series with X2 The Threat. A much more worthy publisher who do follow through with years worth of polishing.
What a contrast.

Apparently Bethesda in recent years though have become more attentive to bug fixing (since Microsoft became involved), so I am once again nearly attracted to this next game Starfield .. Will see how it gets received first for a few years.