Starfield Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[ADL]

Nothing they've done in the 25 years since Daggerfall indicates their ability to match Daggerfall, yet they're gonna do a game that's at least a hundred times the scale? Good luck. I'll try and keep an open mind. If it's comparable to No Man's Sky with some deeper RPG mechanics I'll shrug and be mostly satisfied but I can't believe how awful the stealth and gunplay is in their games still. It's so bad. The AI not flinching to getting shot in the back and running from out of cover only to expose their jetpack and get exploded to death in the gameplay reveal segment is astounding too. At least they're not hiding how shit it is.

They're the premiere studio for one of the biggest publishers in the world. Why aren't they flying over some Arkane and id Software people to improve their stealth and shooting? It's been 14 years since Fallout 3 and it doesn't look like they've improved either by any significant margin.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

. Why aren't they flying over some Arkane and id Software people to improve their stealth and shooting?

Why would they? Arkane's stealth and Id's shooting are doing fine.

 

[Perkel]

I mean it is not like they going full into daggerfall. More like they take approach to game more in vein of daggerfall instead of skyrim.

It will probably be still potatorpg.

 

[gerey]

I like how even the normalfag mouthbreathers and game journalists are giving a collective "meh" at the game.

It just looks like a NMS clone, only with even less content and polish. And yes, you can argue that NMS has had 6 years of continuous support and patching, but that's what Bethesda has to go up against, and they're falling short of even that low bar.

The one advantage they could use would be hand-crafted content, storytelling and quests, but Bethesda has been neglecting that aspect of their game development since Oblivion.

They're the premiere studio for one of the biggest publishers in the world. Why aren't they flying over some Arkane and id Software people to improve their stealth and shooting? It's been 14 years since Fallout 3 and it doesn't look like they've improved either by any significant margin.

And yes, it's pathetic that this is what they've got to show off after 5 years of development and the backing of one of the biggest corporations in the world.

People were asking years ago why Bethesda didn't bring in id for the shooting and engine updates and Arkane to help them with melee combat, yet nothing ever came of it.

 

[Wunderbar]

I don't think it would be possible to improve shooting by inviting specialists from shooter studios, it's not that simple. In order to make gunplay more satisfying, their entire combat and RPG systems needs to be overhauled. It doesn't seem like Bethesda are willing to abandon bulletsponges, because without HP bloat you can't inflate your RPG system with "+10% to damage" perks.

It's a problem of every action/rpg hybrid out there.

 

[gerey]

Actually, it would. Satisfying shooting is a combination of a few key elements:

- weapon and reload animations (they need to be fluid and feel weighty)
- sound design (shooting, reload and impact sounds need to be LOUD and punchy)
- on-hit animations (enemies need to react appropriately to getting hit)
- effects (muzzle flash, bullet holes, dust, blood, entry wounds etc.)
- careful balance of enemy health and weapon damage (to avoid enemies being bullet sponges and the weapons feeling weak)

id managed to accomplish all this with NuDoom, so why can't Bethesda? Hell, many other studios with the fraction of resources Bethesda has at their disposal managed to accomplish this, and it's not like they had ample time to implement all these systems in FO4 and FO76 and then port them over to Starfield. Bethesda are just lazy and inept.

And yes, their perk and skill system are terrible, but that's just more evidence Bethesda has no idea what they're doing and clearly require outside help.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Also, people probably mentioned it before, but did they really think it was a good idea to frontload the trailer with resource gathering and a gunfight with braindead pirates, and then Todd talking?

Is that... exciting? I genuinely don't know why they put something so mundane at the forefront of their video.

They know all of you fags will buy it like you did Skyrim.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

- careful balance of enemy health and weapon damage (to avoid enemies being bullet sponges and the weapons feeling weak)

id managed to accomplish all this with NuDoom, so why can't Bethesda?

because nudoom isn't an RPG?

At every single point in nudoom, the designers know all the details about your character because your character is the same exact one as everyone else. There's about 10 unique weapons total in Doom 2016 -- and the devs know exactly when you'll be getting those weapons because you can't obtain them out of order.

When they design an enemy, they design it knowing exactly what your character is capable of when you encounter it.

 

[Child of Malkav]

First bug already spotted. Bethesda quality right here.
https://i.4cdn.org/v/1655175315492m.jpg

Edit: fix this fucking website, holy shit!

 

[Wunderbar]

Actually, it would. Satisfying shooting is a combination of a few key elements:

- weapon and reload animations (they need to be fluid and feel weighty)
- sound design (shooting, reload and impact sounds need to be LOUD and punchy)
- on-hit animations (enemies need to react appropriately to getting hit)
- effects (muzzle flash, bullet holes, dust, blood, entry wounds etc.)
- careful balance of enemy health and weapon damage (to avoid enemies being bullet sponges and the weapons feeling weak)

Sounds and animations seemed alright to me. Enemies also do flinch upon getting hit, just inconsistently - otherwise it would be easy to stunlock them with automatic fire.

The main problem is HP bloat. If you balance enemies around not being bulletsponges, then "+damage" perks become useless and it becomes harder for game designers to balance a proper difficulty curve where you start out weak and become stronger by the end.

id managed to accomplish all this with NuDoom, so why can't Bethesda?

tbh i don't like gunplay in NuDooms. Weapons look overly bulky and overdesigned, sound design is screechy, enemies all look like they were made of marmalade, and animations are too cartoony to take seriously.

 

[Stavrophore]

Looks like utter dogshit, like fallout 4 in space with terribly shit skills and lack of roleplaying, like cheap Star Citizen. This shit will be right up into the alley of braintard playing fallout 76.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

A lot of things turned me off of FO4, but gunplay wasn't one of them. I'm not a big FPS fan so whatever, but it felt entirely fine to me. If I made a list of complaints I don't even think that would get on it anywhere.

 

[gurugeorge]

Has it been established yet whether the stuttering is an artifact of the streaming, or is actually in the gameplay (if the latter, then it's pretty terrible, isn't it?). Is there an actual official version of the showcased bits of game yet?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Has it been established yet whether the stuttering is an artifact of the streaming, or is actually in the gameplay (if the latter, then it's pretty terrible, isn't it?). Is there an actual official version of the showcased bits of game yet?

The point of the show was for microsoft to flaunt a bunch of xbox garbage so it was probably being demoed on an xbox.

 

[Wunderbar]

The stuttering and low FPS is a sign that Bethesda were showing the actual game build, and not some bullshit techdemo running on a top-end PC like certain polaks did.

 

[Stavrophore]

This is creation engine, of course it will slightly stutter when loading new textures/areas, same as in F4.

 

[Trithne]

I mean it is not like they going full into daggerfall. More like they take approach to game more in vein of daggerfall instead of skyrim.

It will probably be still potatorpg.

> Why are all your crew women in bikinis?

Bold of the image creator to assume they'll be wearing even that much.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I like how even the normalfag mouthbreathers and game journalists are giving a collective "meh" at the game.

It just looks like a NMS clone, only with even less content and polish. And yes, you can argue that NMS has had 6 years of continuous support and patching, but that's what Bethesda has to go up against, and they're falling short of even that low bar.

The one advantage they could use would be hand-crafted content, storytelling and quests, but Bethesda has been neglecting that aspect of their game development since Oblivion.


And yes, it's pathetic that this is what they've got to show off after 5 years of development and the backing of one of the biggest corporations in the world.

People were asking years ago why Bethesda didn't bring in id for the shooting and engine updates and Arkane to help them with melee combat, yet nothing ever came of it.

It does look very No Man Sky, but it already looks like a better No Man Sky than No Man Sky does at the moment. Combat seems to be much better than the somewhat recently added combat I saw of No Man Sky...I think that was recent anyways. At least from this trailer it looks like a much more polished version of NMS.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Interesting "realistic near future" art direction. I think I like it?

It sure fits the classic SF activities like... uh... pickpocketing. And shooting a double-barrel space shotgun.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This is creation engine, of course it will slightly stutter when loading new textures/areas, same as in F4.

FO4 ran like poo for me, but SkyimSE and FO76 ran significantly better.

I think people forget that FO4's engine version is actually older than Skyrim SE's which contained the major renderer rewrite

 

[soulburner]

Some of you asked why Bethesda couldn't ask id Software for help with the shooting. Well, they did. For Fallout 4.

"I won't say anything bad about Fallout 3, but we wanted this not to make any excuses for the fact that it's a role-playing game, for how the action felt," he said.

"Because we feel we can layer all the role playing and stats on top. Let's have our cake and our ice cream."

Bethesda's background is in fantasy RPGs, but it has a respected pool of veteran shooter talent to call on: the team behind DOOM, Wolfenstein and Quake (oh, and that other one I suppose).

"Since id Software is part of our company, that's the first thing we did, we call them," Howard added.

"Like 'alright, we're gonna do this from scratch, give us some tips.'"

While F4 was annoying during first few hours due to bullet spongy high level enemies, I generally enjoyed the gunplay. They also did the audio right, with loud enough weapon fire and even some nice sound effects for shots in the distance. Hopefully they have some time to tweak this in Starfield.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Some of you asked why Bethesda couldn't ask id Software for help with the shooting. Well, they did. For Fallout 4.

I recall there being a fairly agreed upon consensus that Fallout 4 had decent shooting. It was one of the (very few) things I didn't hate.

 

[soulburner]

I recall there being a fairly agreed upon consensus that Fallout 4 had decent shooting. It was one of the (very few) things I didn't hate.

Yeah, I must admit, I liked Fallout 4. Once I came to terms it's a Fallout-like looter shooter spin-off, it was a very good game with good audio, nice graphics, rewarding exploration and stuff. If treated like a modern Far Cry game, but with less cringy spoken words (yes, say what you want about F4s writing, it's nowhere near the dumbness of Far Crys) it's pretty enjoyable. If Starfield manages to keep the good parts of Fallout 4 and re-add some meaningful RPG elements, it might be an RPG Codex GOTY.

 

[whydoibother]

This is creation engine, of course it will slightly stutter when loading new textures/areas, same as in F4.

Saying "of course its shit, its always been shit" doesn't excuse it being shit.
Also, have we seen any ladders? Just asking.

 

[gerey]

Interesting "realistic near future" art direction. I think I like it?

It sure fits the classic SF activities like... uh... pickpocketing. And shooting a double-barrel space shotgun.

I genuinely like the NASApunk aesthetic.

The lockpicking/hacking et al, that's basically a requirement to have in these types of games - I'm just annoyed that Bethesda once again took the lazy route and didn't even bother trying to come up with anything interesting with the lockpicking minigame.

As for the double-barreled shotgun, I can imagine them still being made and used in the future - so long as there is a market for a specific firearm or firearm type they're going to be made and sold, regardless of how impractical or outdated they are.