Starfield - the greatest space sim?

[Jack Of Owls]

Haven't touched a Bethesda game since Skyrim when it was originally released. Only played about a third of it before I burned myself out. With these massive single-player open worlds the size of Gondwanaland, the trick is to try to stick to the main quest (and maybe a few side ones) to avoid burnout, I think. I'm learnin', one painful lesson at a time

 

[potatojohn]

Haven't touched a Bethesda game since Skyrim when it was originally released. Only played about a third of it before I burned myself out. With these massive single-player open worlds the size of Gondwanaland, the trick is to try to stick to the main quest (and maybe a few side ones) to avoid burnout, I think. I'm learnin', one painful lesson at a time

You should try it.

It's really incredibly good.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Haven't touched a Bethesda game since Skyrim when it was originally released. Only played about a third of it before I burned myself out. With these massive single-player open worlds the size of Gondwanaland, the trick is to try to stick to the main quest (and maybe a few side ones) to avoid burnout, I think. I'm learnin', one painful lesson at a time

You should try it.

It's really incredibly good.

What happens if you choose higher difficulties? Is it particularly artificial and annoying, like hitpoint bloat in enemies, or something better thought out? I think Bethesda games can be too easy on default difficulties so finding a good balance between challenge and fun would be best. The Witcher 3 had a particularly horrible difficulty implementation, especially in the DLC.

 

[Crispy]

I play on Hard difficulty and, after finding a particular weapon, the first-person combat has been almost trivially easy. Your companion (you're only allowed to have one tag along at a time) is immortal and has unlimited ammo. Enemies have unlimited ammo, as well, of course. And yes, their sponginess is ridiculous, but can be mitigated easily with a mod.

Space combat can be very difficult until you both get the hang of it (the mouse controls are horribly bad) and get a better, well-equipped ship. Once you can do the Starfield equivalent of VATS IN SPAAAACE (which only works for ship combat -- weird) it mostly becomes a cakewalk.

To be fair, there are occasions, usually on main quest missions, where you can encounter an enemy at much higher level than you, which will cause you to mostly wake from the slumber you're typically in while stumbling around in this game, and after you expel all ordinance you have and use up every instant heal kit you have and he or it is finally dead, you realize anew how silly the whole thing can be.

 

[Vic]

What happens if you choose higher difficulties?

you get more legendary loot

 

[potatojohn]

Haven't touched a Bethesda game since Skyrim when it was originally released. Only played about a third of it before I burned myself out. With these massive single-player open worlds the size of Gondwanaland, the trick is to try to stick to the main quest (and maybe a few side ones) to avoid burnout, I think. I'm learnin', one painful lesson at a time

You should try it.

It's really incredibly good.

What happens if you choose higher difficulties? Is it particularly artificial and annoying, like hitpoint bloat in enemies, or something better thought out? I think Bethesda games can be too easy on default difficulties so finding a good balance between challenge and fun would be best. The Witcher 3 had a particularly horrible difficulty implementation, especially in the DLC.

I started on normal which is pretty easy and later switched to very hard. I guess higher difficulties just give enemies more HP and make them do more damage, but I didn't really think there was a lot of HP bloat. Head shots still do a lot of damage. The FP combat is quite fun.

It's interesting that with ship combat it's less about tactics but rather about making a good ship design (IMO). On very hard I got killed repeatedly after switching until I learned to make a better ship.

Also like vic mentioned higher difficulties have more legendary enemies, who have weapons and armor with unique modifiers.

 

[tritosine2k]

- There's no sound in space - you only hear your own ship

Lazy devs plain&simple
"My hearing is augmented" is a perfectly valid reason to implement

not to mention the 'depth" of 'bot expertise tree, we wuz pimp slap & shiet
...

 

[Vic]

- There's no sound in space - you only hear your own ship

Lazy devs plain&simple
"My hearing is augmented" is a perfectly valid reason to implement

not to mention the 'depth" of 'bot expertise tree, we wuz pimp slap & shiet
...

sound cannot travel in a vacuum

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So is ship combat deliciously satisfying or meh compared to older games?

 

[potatojohn]

he means a computer on your ship or helmet could simulate the sound you would hear in an atmosphere for better situational awareness

 

[Monk]

 

[Tweed]

Starfield is the greatest space sim ever.

Spoiler

FOR ME TO POOP ON!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I recall a space sim I downloaded back in 2008 era or so that was just Exploring space and taking pictures. Planets, asteroids, stars, etc. it was pretty primitive. Probably the game I liked most was Starflight on the Genesis.

 

[Tweed]

I recall a space sim I downloaded back in 2008 era or so that was just Exploring space and taking pictures. Planets, asteroids, stars, etc. it was pretty primitive. Probably the game I liked most was Starflight on the Genesis.

Noctis?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Might be. I’ll have to watch a video and see if it triggers a memory in my demented brain.

Hmmmm…. https://www.mobygames.com/game/7484/noctis/screenshots/

I don’t think that’s it. I’m not sure you even landed in this game.. er space flight exploration simulation.

 

[ArchAngel]

I started Everspace 2 yesterday and after 2h it is already better space "sim" than Starfield.

 

[darkpatriot]

Starfield isn't a space sim at all. I thought it was super obvious from the pre-release marketing and the fact that they were using the same engine as always that it was not going to be one, but for some reason there were still quite a few people who were expecting it to be one.

I think that is partly down to the fact that space sim fans tend to be a really optimistic bunch who will believe that any given space game in development will be a super ambitious space simulation that is filled with all their dream features with little to no prompting.

 

[elverkongen]

Spoilers regarding a mission in Paradiso and it's orbit:

A strange ship appears in orbit, you're tasked with boarding it and speaking with the commander. It turns out it's a pre-FTL ship that has been traveling since before the cataclysmic events on Earth. As such, one could assume that it has technology that's 200+ years old... Yet nothing about the technology onboard is any different from all the other ships you've seen. It even has the same exact computers with the same desktop screen and everything. You're telling me computers have not changed one bit for 200+ years?! They wouldn't have even really needed to model new ones, they could have flipped the assets and functionality from Fallout 4.

I'm glad I played this on Gamepass which I already had. It's not worth owning.

 

[ArchAngel]

Spoilers regarding a mission in Paradiso and it's orbit:

A strange ship appears in orbit, you're tasked with boarding it and speaking with the commander. It turns out it's a pre-FTL ship that has been traveling since before the cataclysmic events on Earth. As such, one could assume that it has technology that's 200+ years old... Yet nothing about the technology onboard is any different from all the other ships you've seen. It even has the same exact computers with the same desktop screen and everything. You're telling me computers have not changed one bit for 200+ years?! They wouldn't have even really needed to model new ones, they could have flipped the assets and functionality from Fallout 4.

I'm glad I played this on Gamepass which I already had. It's not worth owning.

You are expecting too much. They gave them old weapons and put a bunch of old balls, flags and shit that you can steal and sell as they are collector items. They also give you a bunch of fetch quests that they pay you in those same items :D
Funny shit, at no point anybody mentions that they know those items might be worth something 200 years later or anything.
And I do agree that whoever payed 70$ for this shit is an idiot.

 

[jackofshadows]

That's not lazy at all what are you guys talking about. You are too harsh on a small indie company and its shoe-string budget project.

Interior and shit aside this quest like no any other expose as how ridiculous that people on the ship are exactly the same as they're "now" in the future all around. No cultural change for 200+ years or something whatsoever. The very same globo-homo niggertopia. Rejoice motherfuckers. The only somewhat promising faction in that regard were those space muslims aka serpent worshippers but their faction is non-present in the game, probably planned for DLC or got cut.

The worst part about that quest though isn't even that but the fact despite the game gives you some options you still cannot drive out the asshole corpos let alone kill them and let the settlers stay. But you can fucking blow the ship at the same time. Like what the fuck even. I liked how some reviewer commented that as "get used to obeying your corpo-lords".

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ssssssssssspaaacccceeeeeee Mussssssllliiiimmmmsssssssssszssss!!!!

Hisssssssssssssssssssss

 

[agris]

King Crispy please move this and the main Starfield thread to the space subforum, thx

 

[Crispy]

Infinitron moved it here, not me. Complain to him about it.

 

[Vic]

King Crispy please move this and the main Starfield thread to the space subforum, thx

View attachment 42038

what about the outer worlds and mass effect?

 

[agris]

King Crispy please move this and the main Starfield thread to the space subforum, thx

View attachment 42038

what about the outer worlds and mass effect?

Into the space bucket they go!