Starfield - the greatest space sim?

[darkpatriot]

why would you run to the cell’s end? POIs stop generating way before that

You shouldn't understimate what a codexer will put themselves through in order to criticize a Bethesda game.

 

[Crispy]

It might have been nice if Starfield had planets like KSP, but if you feel "penned in" by the fact that after sprinting for ten minutes you reach an invisible wall of the tile you landed on, the only problem here exists between your keyboard and chair.

If by problem you mean that I don't think it's acceptable to have a Bethesda or any other developer's game that had traditionally been "open world" to now restrict that world to tiny fractions of past efforts, and, at that, randomized ones, then yes, you're right. It's not even a walking sim anymore, ffs.

And I hate to appeal to popular opinion here, as well, but this is one of the most glaring and common criticisms of Starfield. It's really weird to me to discover that you're not defending the game as some sort of goof.

 

[darkpatriot]

It might have been nice if Starfield had planets like KSP, but if you feel "penned in" by the fact that after sprinting for ten minutes you reach an invisible wall of the tile you landed on, the only problem here exists between your keyboard and chair.

If by problem you mean that I don't think it's acceptable to have a Bethesda or any other developer's game that had traditionally been "open world" to now restrict that world to tiny fractions of past efforts, and, at that, randomized ones, then yes, you're right. It's not even a walking sim anymore, ffs.

And I hate to appeal to popular opinion here, as well, but this is one of the most glaring and common criticisms of Starfield. It's really weird to me to discover that you're not defending the game as some sort of goof.

You're being a silly billy. Each of those randomly generated landing sites is about the same size as a previous Bethesda game world. But since there are usually no major obstacles preventing you from running in a straight line to the edge of the map it is much easier to reach than in a traditional Bethesda game. There is just a lot lower content density. And there seems to be at least as much hand placed content as well, it is just spread out over different worlds, space stations, and ships. It is just no longer all concentrated on a single map.

I personally appreciate the much more realistic level of content density as that was something that always bothered my about Bethesda games. They no longer have to cram everything together so you run into something with just picking a direction and walking 45 seconds, and they don't have to scale the size of everything down so much.

I really don't understand why loading screens breaks so many people's enjoyment of a game, especially when the loading screens only take a few seconds at most. They would rather have everything crammed together than deal with the fact that stuff is actually so far away that you can't walk, run, or fly there in a few minutes and is abstracted with fast travel and loading screens. The abstraction of fast travel is far more realistic than the abstraction of scaling down time and space so much.

But apparently a lot of people's brains are wired otherwise.

 

[Crispy]

Each of those randomly generated landing sites is about the same size as a previous Bethesda game world.

 

[darkpatriot]

Each of those randomly generated landing sites is about the same size as a previous Bethesda game world.

Bigger actually.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16alt80/the_areas_we_land_on_in_starfield_are_almost/

https://www.quora.com/How-big-is-th...nts-How-much-of-Boston-does-it-actually-cover

Size of each Starfield landing cell: 64 km2

Size of Skyrim map: 37.1 km2

Size of Fallout 4 map: about 43 km2

What do you not understand about this?

 

[Crispy]

What do you not understand about this?

I honestly was unaware.

Also, from your link:

The cells are still consistent with each other for example somebody posted on this subreddit that you can see new Atlantis from the neighboring cell. And there are apparently also a ton of cells on a planet cause the person who posted this said he had to get it pixel perfect to actually end up in the cell that's right next to new Atlantis.

This is both impressive and sad at the same time. Think of the potential that was there. Clearly the tech is available, but the execution of presenting that tech to the player is so poor that I think the vast majority of players (like me) believe all these cells are not only small but completely randomly generated.

In any case, mea culpa. I also think it might be possible that the one time I thought I had reached the edge of the cell I was in, I assumed I was actually at that edge because of the undefeatable radiation warning or whatever. I know I hadn't "walked" for very long; at the most it was maybe five minutes?

 

[mediocrepoet]

What do you not understand about this?

I honestly was unaware.

Regardless of the fact that it's easier to generate 64km² of nothing, compared to 37.1km² of game, I love having game discussions where you can't tell if someone's trolling or just insanely autistic. Codex Classic!

 

[Vic]

What do you not understand about this?

I honestly was unaware.

Also, from your link:

The cells are still consistent with each other for example somebody posted on this subreddit that you can see new Atlantis from the neighboring cell. And there are apparently also a ton of cells on a planet cause the person who posted this said he had to get it pixel perfect to actually end up in the cell that's right next to new Atlantis.

This is both impressive and sad at the same time. Think of the potential that was there. Clearly the tech is available, but the execution of presenting that tech to the player is so poor that I think the vast majority of players (like me) believe all these cells are not only small but completely randomly generated.

In any case, mea culpa. I also think it might be possible that the one time I thought I had reached the edge of the cell I was in, I assumed I was actually at that edge because of the undefeatable radiation warning or whatever. I know I hadn't "walked" for very long; at the most it was maybe five minutes?

you'll get this popup, and it appears long after all POIs stopped generating so there's really not reason to even go that far

 

[ArchAngel]

What do you not understand about this?

I honestly was unaware.

Also, from your link:

The cells are still consistent with each other for example somebody posted on this subreddit that you can see new Atlantis from the neighboring cell. And there are apparently also a ton of cells on a planet cause the person who posted this said he had to get it pixel perfect to actually end up in the cell that's right next to new Atlantis.

This is both impressive and sad at the same time. Think of the potential that was there. Clearly the tech is available, but the execution of presenting that tech to the player is so poor that I think the vast majority of players (like me) believe all these cells are not only small but completely randomly generated.

In any case, mea culpa. I also think it might be possible that the one time I thought I had reached the edge of the cell I was in, I assumed I was actually at that edge because of the undefeatable radiation warning or whatever. I know I hadn't "walked" for very long; at the most it was maybe five minutes?

I guess they could ask you to enter next zone by foot where it goes into a loading screen similar to one you get when you craft is landing. They probably had no idea what to do with your landed craft in that case. It would need to spawn in next area without you being one that flew it there.

I am more irritated that there is no manual flying or landing on planets. But I am guessing they would then have to have craft combat as well and people would be trying to shoot at non craft targets with their spacecraft.

 

[Vic]

I am more irritated that there is no manual flying or landing on planets.

given how many people are asking for this feature it will 100% be added in either updates or mods, probably mods

 

[Falksi]

So it's actually good then?

 

[ArchAngel]

So it's actually good then?

Only if you got 100h to spare and do not feel like using your brain while playing. For me it is perfect game to relax after work when I am already so spent I do not have energy for a real game. Either this or Path of Exile.

 

[potatojohn]

Only if you got 100h to spare and do not feel like using your brain while playing. For me it is perfect game to relax after work when I am already so spent I do not have energy for a real game. Either this or Path of Exile.

The mental gymnastics codexers feel they need to do to justify why they like a bethesda game

 

[ArchAngel]

Only if you got 100h to spare and do not feel like using your brain while playing. For me it is perfect game to relax after work when I am already so spent I do not have energy for a real game. Either this or Path of Exile.

The mental gymnastics codexers feel they need to do to justify why they like a bethesda game

I always had a love/hate relationship with their games. I tried most of them (started with Morrowind) and while some only lasted few hours (Oblivion and F3), with some I tried multiple time to come back before quitting again after 10h (Skyrim and Fallout 4). This was at the time when I was looking to play serious games. Now I am at state in life where I just game to relax and kill some time. Bethesda games are perfect for this.
I've been mostly killing time with aRPGs for last couple of years, Bethesda games are not much different.

 

[tritosine2k]

The paradox with Bethesda single games is 6 digits dorra spent on companions, dialog and GFX yet they can't behave ingame ie. fight then it's the same as in Fallout4 you have to "savescum" until things go your way. If it'd work then encounters and the whole game would be very different.

The mental gymnastics codexers feel they need to do to justify why they like a bethesda game

 

[Zeriel]

Only if you got 100h to spare and do not feel like using your brain while playing. For me it is perfect game to relax after work when I am already so spent I do not have energy for a real game. Either this or Path of Exile.

The mental gymnastics codexers feel they need to do to justify why they like a bethesda game

"Like" is a very strong word. Do people "like" TV they just watch to vegetate and chill out and not think? A lot of the times, I'd submit the answer is "no". It's just not so bad they turn it off and watch paint dry instead. Pretty low bar to clear.

 

[darkpatriot]

What do you not understand about this?

I honestly was unaware.

Also, from your link:

The cells are still consistent with each other for example somebody posted on this subreddit that you can see new Atlantis from the neighboring cell. And there are apparently also a ton of cells on a planet cause the person who posted this said he had to get it pixel perfect to actually end up in the cell that's right next to new Atlantis.

This is both impressive and sad at the same time. Think of the potential that was there. Clearly the tech is available, but the execution of presenting that tech to the player is so poor that I think the vast majority of players (like me) believe all these cells are not only small but completely randomly generated.

In any case, mea culpa. I also think it might be possible that the one time I thought I had reached the edge of the cell I was in, I assumed I was actually at that edge because of the undefeatable radiation warning or whatever. I know I hadn't "walked" for very long; at the most it was maybe five minutes?

you'll get this popup, and it appears long after all POIs stopped generating so there's really not reason to even go that far

The only real reason I could think you might reach the edge of the map during normal gameplay is if you were trying to complete a planetary survey and were ignoring the POIs. If you just kept going in a straight line scanning what you find along the way, you could probably sometimes make it to the end of the map before you 100% completed scanning everything in that biome. Although, it is doubtful you would maintain that straight a line of travel while just randomly travelling and scanning since you would veer off to scan different stuff which would change your orientation.

 

[Vic]

The only real reason I could think you might reach the edge of the map during normal gameplay is if you were trying to complete a planetary survey and were ignoring the POIs. If you just kept going in a straight line scanning what you find along the way, you could probably sometimes make it to the end of the map before you 100% completed scanning everything in that biome. Although, it is doubtful you would maintain that straight a line of travel unless while just randomly travelling and scanning since you would veer off to scan different stuff which would change your orientation.

I've scanned a couple planets or was just xp grinding killing aliens and never encountered the edge naturally

 

[ArchAngel]

What do you not understand about this?

I honestly was unaware.

Also, from your link:

The cells are still consistent with each other for example somebody posted on this subreddit that you can see new Atlantis from the neighboring cell. And there are apparently also a ton of cells on a planet cause the person who posted this said he had to get it pixel perfect to actually end up in the cell that's right next to new Atlantis.

This is both impressive and sad at the same time. Think of the potential that was there. Clearly the tech is available, but the execution of presenting that tech to the player is so poor that I think the vast majority of players (like me) believe all these cells are not only small but completely randomly generated.

In any case, mea culpa. I also think it might be possible that the one time I thought I had reached the edge of the cell I was in, I assumed I was actually at that edge because of the undefeatable radiation warning or whatever. I know I hadn't "walked" for very long; at the most it was maybe five minutes?

you'll get this popup, and it appears long after all POIs stopped generating so there's really not reason to even go that far

The only real reason I could think you might reach the edge of the map during normal gameplay is if you were trying to complete a planetary survey and were ignoring the POIs. If you just kept going in a straight line scanning what you find along the way, you could probably sometimes make it to the end of the map before you 100% completed scanning everything in that biome. Although, it is doubtful you would maintain that straight a line of travel unless while just randomly travelling and scanning since you would veer off to scan different stuff which would change your orientation.

Scanning is the most waste of time you can do in this game. Also almost completely pointless lol.
The amount of Xp and gold you get from it is tiny. You are better off to land at high level planet with lots of fauna and start murdering hunting everything you see.

 

[Vic]

"Like" is a very strong word

Do people "like" TV they just watch to vegetate and chill out and not think?

I'd submit the answer is "no". It's just not so bad they turn it off and watch paint dry instead.

do you read your own posts?

 

[Vic]

Scanning is the most waste of time you can do in this game. Also almost completely pointless lol.

it's required for Phil Hill's quest, otherwise I just did it for fun a couple times while grinding xp

 

[ArchAngel]

Scanning is the most waste of time you can do in this game. Also almost completely pointless lol.

it's required for Phil Hill's quest, otherwise I just did it for fun a couple times while grinding xp

I mean it is a bit of free XP on lifeless planets when you are travelling to your goal. If you can scan all resources you get a tiny bit of XP for it.

 

[Gregz]

So it's actually good then?

stronk women and niggers simulator

 

[Zeriel]

"Like" is a very strong word

Do people "like" TV they just watch to vegetate and chill out and not think?

I'd submit the answer is "no". It's just not so bad they turn it off and watch paint dry instead.

do you read your own posts?

I'd ask if you did, but you actively enjoy Starfield, so needless to say expecting reading comprehension is too much.

 

[Vic]

"Like" is a very strong word

Do people "like" TV they just watch to vegetate and chill out and not think?

I'd submit the answer is "no". It's just not so bad they turn it off and watch paint dry instead.

do you read your own posts?

I'd ask if you did, but you actively enjoy Starfield, so needless to say expecting reading comprehension is too much.

nonsense upon nonsense. does this wannabe elitism give you some meaning in your life? Why is the word 'actively' there? Do people 'passively' enjoy video games? Maybe watching let's plays? Is actively enjoying a game worse than passively enjoying it or why did you include that? Maybe you mean I'm openly enjoying it, as opposed to the many others who chose to remain silent and not paint a target on their backs for people like you. If you can't find some enjoyment out of Starfield the problem might be between your ears and not in the game itself.