Starfield Thread - now with Shattered Space horror expansion

[Vic]

guys why game is shit after 200 hours of play

 

[ropetight]

I have 0 hours in it and it is still shit.
It is the definition of universal acclaim.

 

[markec]

Only winning move is not to play.

 

[Bulo]

If Fallout 4 was goyslop, Starfield is zogchow. We may need a new word for TES 6

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Todd Howard. The man, who by saying anything, can sell fire to the devil himself.

Todd Howard says that Starfield's ship AI sucks on purpose so players can actually hit stuff: 'You have to make the AI really stupid'

No matter, God will prevail. After giving man over to his own depravities and, man, seeing the degradation caused by it, will see the abhorrent sin of his ways by worshipping creation itself. Wonder if Todd realizes his role in all of this?

 

[ArchAngel]

There is no gold, just crypto bullshit money. Probably also the reason why there was not that much inflation.

It weren't goods, but credits. Even if it's all digital you either get inflation or deflation.

Also there is no password on the ship. Orud fails at reading.

Yes there was.

I just finished that whole quest line few days ago. You only find money on the ship. Only password you need is from the bank representative so you can hack bank records in their HQ to get the location of the lost ship.

As for credits, they are based on some crypto system, if it is anything like bitcoin and everyone is using it then its value can only go up and not down. Inflation happens when you print unlimited number of currency (or when banks invent numbers that do not really exist) which is not possible with bitcoin.

So yea, everyone wants it. You get 250 000 if you side with UC, probably more if you chose CF. And they say it is only a fraction of the total. Probably something like 10 million or more

 

[Bigfass]

I just did my favorite quest in any videogame, ever. In Starfield. I have to share. There's no tldr.

If you jump down to the pit at the bottom of the Mars settlement, you meet a miner foreman called Trevor. He gives you a quest: his crew need new mining equipment because they have a hard time meeting their quotas with the broken stuff they're using. So he has you mine iron for him. What better way to demonstrate broken equipment to management than employing an outsider off the books to boost productivity? This foreshadows the brilliance of things to come.

When you deposit the iron. he tells you about his actual plan: he has a request pending for the new equipment with management, and he wants you to go and click the thing on the manager's computer so it gets approved. We forget about the iron and quotas and whatever.

Hacking then? Not an option. Trevor says you have to get yourself hired as the manager's assistant to access his computer. There's no other way. The office with the manager and his computer is 2 flights of stairs from where Trevor is, so naturally you have to go to the Deimos space station to apply for the job.

Now, you might think that a trip to a space station is pretty cool, what with you piloting your fancy spaceship, and maybe having an unexpected adventure on the way. In Starfield, this is streamlined to bringing up your starmap while standing next to Trevor and selecting Deimos. After the loading scren, select the space station floating in front of you, press [Dock], watch an unskippable docking cutscene then press [X] to get another loading screen and be inside the space station.

The kiosk for job applications is 20 feet from where you entered. You walk up to it, click a few things that have no bearing on the outcome. Quest update: Return to Trevor. He's just 2 loading screens away.

He informs you of the next step of the plan: go to the office, and hack a computer to delete every other job application to ensure you get the job. I'd much rather hack the computer 20 feet away that has Trevor's request on it, but the game says that's not an option.

After the job applications are deleted, you need to return to Trevor, which takes 10 seconds. He tells you that you've been hired, and you should go back to the office to report for work. Things move fast on Mars!

In the office you meet your boss who thinks you're his old assistant with a new face. He then forgets what he was talking about mid-sentence. Middle-aged white male managers, amirite?

Before he has you do his daily chores on his computer, he sends you on to the Governor of Mars to solve an issue he has. The Governor needs you to do a thing for him before he's willing to consider your request. This sub-plot is almost a normal quest so I'm not elaborating other than to say that in interacting with the Governor, we learn more about why we don't like old white men.

When all that's done, you report back to your boss. He orders you to do his email, great! Amongst the pending requests are things like "can we get 5 extra paid time off days after 10 years of service". (Denied, commie scum.)

You approve Trevor's request, Quest updated: return to Trevor.

Trevor tells you that he heard you approved his request. In fact, one of his miners - Hank - was eager to go pick up the new equipment that you approved 10 seconds ago so he let him go do that; but he's worried because Hank's not back yet.

Trevor suggests you speak to the ship technician in the spaceport 1 loading screen away, so you go do that. The ship technician says Hank's actually back, but he did not land in the spaceport. I am told to return to Trevor.

Trevor says that he doesn't know what's going on, but miners hang out in the bar, maybe I should look there. I do that, and Hank is indeed where the quest pointer said he was going to be.

He says he stole the equipment because the others had been making fun of him while mining, and if *he* steals from the company *they* will all get fired or something. But he doesn't want to go to jail; he'll return the equipment.

So you and Hank walk to his spaceship on the other side of the settlement.

Literally. You slow walk to the airlock, exit the base, and walk around the complex to the ship.

Following Hank means pressing W for a second every 5 seconds. This goes on for a while.

He blathers on about how his plan was actually brilliant, because people would have been fired or something. This does not make the walk more enjoyable.

When you get to his ship he pulls a gun on you. [Persuade] or [Attack]? I shot him in the face. This is not a bossfight; he's level 1 and dies to 1 bullet. Quest update: return to Trevor.

You tell Trevor that you killed Hank. He expresses a tinge of sorrow but is happy to get his new gear. He rewards you with 8000 credits and 50 units of iron. (Iron is worse than vendor trash, but heavier.)

As you slow-walk away under the burden of the unexpected gift of iron, Trevor does this thing that Bethesda NPCs do, which is to say random and sometimes contextually relevant things to nobody in particular:

"Prison is a good place for Hank."

 

[ArchAngel]

Tnx for suffering for us. Luckily I never jumped there :D
But I had some operative that abducted some other dude pull a gun on me, Andreja and abducted dude I released after we just killed like 30 of his armored Eliptic mercs he hired.. of course he died in 2s..

This game just does not care. I just play it like Space Diablo with FPS like combat.. but instead of cool loot it has lots of random shit I put in my cargo hold and forget about it.

 

[Bigfass]

Tnx for suffering for us. Luckily I never jumped there :D
But I had some operative that abducted some other dude pull a gun on me, Andreja and abducted dude I released after we just killed like 30 of his armored Eliptic mercs he hired.. of course he died in 2s..

This game just does not care. I just play it like Space Diablo with FPS like combat.. but instead of cool loot it has lots of random shit I put in my cargo hold and forget about it.

I think the worst part of it, even worse than the atrocious writing, is how the whole space exploration aspect of the game was nuked by fast travel.

Space does not exist in this game. It's a backdrop where you may spend a few seconds before docking or landing. You may get an encounter: pirates shooting at you, or some dumb quest like a random spaceship full of schoolchildren needing to be transmitted 5 ship repair parts. But it's not really a place to explore. If there's no combat or talking to be done, you can beam your ship down to planet, or instawarp to some other "orbit", which is the exact same place with a different colored planet in front of you, and another chance for more combat or "quests".

I kinda enjoy on-foot planet exploration and outpost building. The latter could have been so much better, but it's still decent fun despite it's half-assedness.

 

[Vic]

so the quest is so shit that you type out 900 words just to describe how shit it is

 

[Hirato]

The quests make sense if you consider that Bethesda's main goal is to direct the player towards Points of Interest they haven't yet been to.
Every other goal - such as making sense, being a logical fit, or facilitating role playing - is at best a secondary concern.

 

[Robotigan]

so the quest is so shit that you type out 900 words just to describe how shit it is

This website (and RPGs in general) is overrun with storyfags, what else is new? As I've said a thousand times already. Bethesda's writing is not good, but neither is all the writing that gets praised around here. Write an edgy, morally ambiguous premise and allude to some sophomoric take on political philosophy. Sprinkle in some references to 'classic literature' for the cred--not obscure stuff either, shit like Gilgamesh that only demonstrates you read the assigned reading in high school. Automatic acclaim from gamers because they're all a bunch of philistines.

I don't know why this is difficult to comprehend but if you're on the writing staff for a video game made by anyone other than deep-pocketed companies like Rockstar or Naughty Dog, it's probably because television producers binned your scripts. Maybe you could claim some non-degree holders slipped through the cracks, but if you're credentialed and still can't crack into a more writing focused industry that's pretty damning.

 

[Vic]

video game writing is functional to drive gameplay. the best quests are not well written as a book would but allow for branching and interesting paths and different approaches. of course it helps if the premise is cool but gameplay is always king

the other person didn't actually critisize the writing but the quest design, which addmitedly was shit, but he spent so much time describing it that it was kind of funny why he would bother

maybe another love/hate relationship like with the otter and the watermelon

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

It ain't like TV and film writing is setting a high bar these days either, which makes the inability to clear it all the more damning.

 

[potatojohn]

Tnx for suffering for us. Luckily I never jumped there :D
But I had some operative that abducted some other dude pull a gun on me, Andreja and abducted dude I released after we just killed like 30 of his armored Eliptic mercs he hired.. of course he died in 2s..

This game just does not care. I just play it like Space Diablo with FPS like combat.. but instead of cool loot it has lots of random shit I put in my cargo hold and forget about it.

I think the worst part of it, even worse than the atrocious writing, is how the whole space exploration aspect of the game was nuked by fast travel.

Space does not exist in this game. It's a backdrop where you may spend a few seconds before docking or landing. You may get an encounter: pirates shooting at you, or some dumb quest like a random spaceship full of schoolchildren needing to be transmitted 5 ship repair parts. But it's not really a place to explore. If there's no combat or talking to be done, you can beam your ship down to planet, or instawarp to some other "orbit", which is the exact same place with a different colored planet in front of you, and another chance for more combat or "quests".

I kinda enjoy on-foot planet exploration and outpost building. The latter could have been so much better, but it's still decent fun despite it's half-assedness.

Are you retarded? What do you think space is? Well let me explain it to you buddy: It's the empty stuff between planets. What is there to explore? It's literally the void between different points of interest.

Starfield does it exactly as most space sims do, the "space" is really instances around POIs, and you warp between them. It's how Independence War space sims work where the instances are Lagrange points.

Sure, there are a few that let you fly between planets like KSP and the old Elite games, but those are the exception.

 

[Robotigan]

I think the worst part of it, even worse than the atrocious writing, is how the whole space exploration aspect of the game was nuked by fast travel.

Bethesda was inspired by Traveller so they decided to go for a realistic approximation of scale which is a weird move for them--they haven't shied away from abstractions before--but if you're going to do that you essentially have to use a fast travel system. They should have kept the fuel system, but otherwise most of the backlash is because the average person doesn't actually internalize how big space is. They think they do, "Yeah I understand it's not like our model solar system in class" but they don't really. This is a good reference if you want to truly grasp it: https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

 

[Bigfass]

Are you retarded?

no u

It's the empty stuff between planets.

That implies the existence of planets, or empty stuff between stuff. Instead, you can fly through the collision-free disc that's been hung in front of you and looks like Mars if you're autistic enough to try. If there's a space station, well whaddya know, it's right in docking range though. Pirates about? In gun range. Damsel in distress? Right in front of you. Each "planet" has one of these POIs, and only one. You use your engines to approach shit 4000 meters away at 150m/s. These same engines get you into orbit from the surface somehow, but they lose 99.9999% of their power once in space. It's fucking pathetic.

Sure, there are a few that let you fly between planets like KSP and the old Elite games, but those are the exception.

Well excuse me for having grown up on Elite and adoring KSP.

realistic approximation of scale

Instawarping between NPC 1 and NPC 2 on different sides of the "galaxy" without ever getting a whiff of space is not a realistic approximation of anything. If you have a fast PC with short loading screens, it's faster to go from the town square in Alpha Centauri to the town square in Volii than it is to go through an airlock at one of your outposts.

I'm not saying they should have done Aurora 4x-level autistic shit but maybe I am. (Great game btw, buggy and super fucking weird, with an asshole boomer dev, but that's why it's so good.)

non-degree holders slipped through the cracks,

No, the quest I detailed above is german shepherd-level of writing. In one instance, you do a thing then - following the resulting prompt - walk over to a guy on the other side of some staircases and doors, who informs you that because of the thing you just did 10 seconds ago, his employee has not been seen in quite some time and is now considered missing. No time travel shit either. Before the quest trigger he's toiling in the mines next to the quest giver; after the trigger he's been missing for a while.

Skyrim, but even Fallout 4, were masterpieces compared to this slop. And I fucking guarantee you that this is a direct result of the diversification of the writer's room, and the quest was designed by an affirmative action enjoyer, or worse, a woman with a social sciences degree.

 

[ArchAngel]

I think the worst part of it, even worse than the atrocious writing, is how the whole space exploration aspect of the game was nuked by fast travel.

Bethesda was inspired by Traveller so they decided to go for a realistic approximation of scale which is a weird move for them--they haven't shied away from abstractions before--but if you're going to do that you essentially have to use a fast travel system. They should have kept the fuel system, but otherwise most of the backlash is because the average person doesn't actually internalize how big space is. They think they do, "Yeah I understand it's not like our model solar system in class" but they don't really. This is a good reference if you want to truly grasp it: https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

It is funny. Ships grav jump between systems but show you just flying beween planets in same system.. ignoring such travel will last weeks :D

 

[Silverfish]

What do you think space is? Well let me explain it to you buddy: It's the empty stuff between planets. What is there to explore?

I'm given to understand that there are interdimensional gateways that take one to posh hotel rooms of unknown origin.

 

[random_name]

So there's a white old male in the lodge (Walter Stroud) and he's financing the whole thing. I was shocked that a white rich male could be portraided in a good light. Then you go to Neon City with him and turns out his wife actually runs the company and he's totally subservient to her. Another useless white male.

 

[Late Bloomer]

So there's a white old male in the lodge (Walter Stroud) and he's financing the whole thing. I was shocked that a white rich male could be portraided in a good light. Then you go to Neon City with him and turns out his wife actually runs the company and he's totally subservient to her. Another useless white male.

That is how all the white dudes are portrayed (cowards, pathetic, incompetent, criminals etc). If they have one shred of dignity about them (most don't) they are always attached to some mutt / female at their hip.

Calling Walter a white dude might be a bit of a stretch. Although, when you swim in a sea of darkness long enough, anything not black starts to look white. Also, you forgot to mention Walter's wife is some mutt negro creature.

For anyone out of the loop, Stroud-Eklund is the name of a prominent ship manufacturer. Walter Stroud and his "partner" Issa Eklund are pictured below.

 

[Mortmal]

So there's a white old male in the lodge (Walter Stroud) and he's financing the whole thing. I was shocked that a white rich male could be portraided in a good light. Then you go to Neon City with him and turns out his wife actually runs the company and he's totally subservient to her. Another useless white male.

That is how all the white dudes are portrayed (cowards, pathetic, incompetent, criminals etc). If they have one shred of dignity about them (most don't) they are always attached to some mutt / female at their hip.

Calling Walter a white dude might be a bit of a stretch. Although, when you swim in a sea of darkness long enough, anything not black starts to look white. Also, you forgot to mention Walter's wife is some mutt negro creature.

For anyone out of the loop, Stroud-Eklund is the name of a prominent ship manufacturer. Walter Stroud and his "partner" Issa Eklund are pictured below.

Well, Phantom Liberty isn't any better. We have a character in position of power you will escort and work for , a strong character , guess the gender then guess the skin color of the honorable dude and dudette who will help during this journey, and finally guess the skin color and gender, and even age, of the villain holding Dogtown.
Classical woke tropes will undoubtedly help you fill in the blanks with 100% certainty.

 

[potatojohn]

That implies the existence of planets, or empty stuff between stuff. Instead, you can fly through the collision-free disc that's been hung in front of you and looks like Mars if you're autistic enough to try. If there's a space station, well whaddya know, it's right in docking range though. Pirates about? In gun range. Damsel in distress? Right in front of you. Each "planet" has one of these POIs, and only one. You use your engines to approach shit 4000 meters away at 150m/s. These same engines get you into orbit from the surface somehow, but they lose 99.9999% of their power once in space. It's fucking pathetic.

That's how most space game works. If you want to spend an hour travelling between points, go play Star Citizen or ArmA.

Instawarping between NPC 1 and NPC 2 on different sides of the "galaxy" without ever getting a whiff of space is not a realistic approximation of anything. If you have a fast PC with short loading screens, it's faster to go from the town square in Alpha Centauri to the town square in Volii than it is to go through an airlock at one of your outposts.

You're not forced to to do that. Feel free to only fast travel in orbit if it helps with your autism.

I'm not saying they should have done Aurora 4x-level autistic shit but maybe I am. (Great game btw, buggy and super fucking weird, with an asshole boomer dev, but that's why it's so good.)

Aurora 4x is a MS excel 4x game played by 10 ultra-dorks on somethingawful. What does it have to do with Starfield?

No, the quest I detailed above is german shepherd-level of writing. In one instance, you do a thing then - following the resulting prompt - walk over to a guy on the other side of some staircases and doors, who informs you that because of the thing you just did 10 seconds ago, his employee has not been seen in quite some time and is now considered missing. No time travel shit either. Before the quest trigger he's toiling in the mines next to the quest giver; after the trigger he's been missing for a while.

So they didn't program in a delay in the quest triggers and this hurts your austism? Did you know games don't represent reality 100% and take shortcuts for player convenience?

Skyrim, but even Fallout 4, were masterpieces compared to this slop. And I fucking guarantee you that this is a direct result of the diversification of the writer's room, and the quest was designed by an affirmative action enjoyer, or worse, a woman with a social sciences degree.

Really? How do you know that?

 

[Desiderius]

Stunning and brave

 

[Bigfass]

Really? How do you know that?

That's how most space game works

That's literally not how any space game works, because if it works like that, it's not a space game.

You're not forced to to do that. Feel free to only fast travel in orbit if it helps with your autism.

You actually kind of are: you lose nothing by doing it, and save yourself the trouble of a bunch of loading screens.

Aurora 4x is a MS excel 4x game played by 10 ultra-dorks on somethingawful. What does it have to do with Starfield?

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize only you were allowed to bring up other games about space.

So they didn't program in a delay in the quest triggers and this hurts your austism? Did you know games don't represent reality 100% and take shortcuts for player convenience?

"They made the game bad bro, but it's for your convenience, bro. It doesn't have to adhere to the basic principles of time and space because it's just a game, bro. You're autistic if you notice, bro."

Retards like you defending this is a big part of the problem, actually. Probably bigger than Bethesda not giving a shit. At the end of the day they're just trying to make a buck, while not spending more than they absolutely have to. What's your fucking excuse?