Starfield Thread - Shattered Space expansion coming September 30th

[GaelicVigil]

Looks p. neat but I wonder why it runs so slowly. It's like the guy has a 386 or something.

Edit: Also, this is the game that Prosper should have designed.

That's a very old video. Not sure why the dev used that for the store, but that's when it was running online on a very high latency server. That's the jitters you're seeing. Runs faster now that it's an offline game. The guy has always struggled for donations and getting good hardware to run the game on. Hopefully with this launch that will change and he can re-implement some form of multiplayer again.

[A

Yeah, I get it. The graphics are not great. But the game is really feature rich. Every control panel in this screenshot controls aspects of your ship. You can sit and control it yourself or have your crew do it for you. The ship interior is rendered so you can walk through it even while it is flying through space. No other space game does that, that I'm aware of. You can design your own race however you want. You can make them humanoid or alien, you can even create a flying alien race.

Every planetary body is simulated. Moons and planets rotate around each other, true day night cycle dependent upon the size of your planet. You can circumnavigate your planet, build cities anywhere, even underwater or in the sky with habitats or platforms. Building a platform city on the side of a gas giant is really cool.

This is the Anti-Starfield. Every single star you see in the sky is real and you can travel there in real time. No loading screens anywhere, a far more realistic and simulated universe. You are managing a civilization kind of like X4, except it's not just limited to spaceships, you have full planetary settlements to manage.

 

[GaelicVigil]

Sometimes the game can be beautiful. One world I started on was orbiting this gas giant (notice the other moon as well). The cool thing was that asteroids were headed to my planet to destroy it, but the gravity from the gas giant pulled them instead. What other space sandbox games can do things like this?

 

[Crispy]

How odd is it that this game would be so trivial (relatively speaking -- from a "talent" perspective) to get looking much, much better, but it would take a miracle to get something like Starfield to have all the features in it that you're describing this game has.

It actually reminds me a little of Derek Smart's games.

Edit: I'm thinking we might want to split this off to its own thread. GaelicVigil, do we have a thread here for Hazeron already?

Edit 2: Nevermind, I just saw it. I'll leave these posts in here for now since we're sort of comparing the game to Starfield.

 

[taxalot]

What I have the feeling is happening is that for Bethesda, the real test is not so much the release than the reaction to the SDK and mod toolkits being available. Most often, in their history, it triggered a rush of content to make the game alive forever.

However, judging by the current reactions of even the Bethesda fans, I have the feeling the release of such tools is going to be mostly ignored.

It might be why The Witcher 3 is getting one soon ; also betting that BG3 is going to get one. They're betting on a void.

 

[Vic]

However, judging by the current reactions of even the Bethesda fans, I have the feeling the release of such tools is going to be mostly ignored.

what makes you say that? there have been over 1000 mods uploaded to the nexus in the last 30 days. The starfield subreddit is approaching 900k members. You can't say a positive thing about the game on here without getting shat on but plenty of people love the game.

 

[taxalot]

However, judging by the current reactions of even the Bethesda fans, I have the feeling the release of such tools is going to be mostly ignored.

You can't say a positive thing about the game on here without getting shat on

There, you have it.

Small reminder that you can join a subreddit by just one click, and therefore the number of members there quickly decorrelate with actual game interest.

 

[Vic]

that's just wrong

 

[taxalot]

Even Kotaku has started noticing it :
https://kotaku.com/why-is-starfield-hemorrhaging-active-players-1851053340

 

[Vic]

normies get filtered by starfield

Starfield just seems to be boring and frustrating players​

I personally spent well over 160 hours in Starfield. I don’t regret it, but I had to make my own fun (as I discussed in my review of the game). I also just have a thing for anything remotely science fiction and also love spacey, ambient vibes. So stick me on a barren planet with distant mountainscapes and orbiting planets and I’m happy. Others agree, but after the pretty vistas have lost their luster, it’s common to see complaints follow.

biggest problem for starfield was wrong expectations, it does have a lot of fans and active modding community tho, but we will see if anything good comes out of it once the toolkit is released.

 

[Desiderius]

You'd have no trouble immediately recognising a screenshot from each of these games, which I don't think is true of Starfield.

Whenever I see those scenes I feel like that dude sitting down over there is about to invite me to play Pazaak.

 

[Vic]

Whenever I see those scenes I feel like that dude sitting down over there is about to invite me to play Pazaak.

these are not twi'leks

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

these are not twi'leks

if they were, maybe people would actually play the game.

 

[Lord_Potato]

normies get filtered by starfield

Starfield just seems to be boring and frustrating players​

I personally spent well over 160 hours in Starfield. I don’t regret it, but I had to make my own fun (as I discussed in my review of the game). I also just have a thing for anything remotely science fiction and also love spacey, ambient vibes. So stick me on a barren planet with distant mountainscapes and orbiting planets and I’m happy. Others agree, but after the pretty vistas have lost their luster, it’s common to see complaints follow.

How was this guy filtered, lol? He gave this game 160 hours of his life, which means he probably completed it twice.

biggest problem for starfield was wrong expectations,

Expectations which were a result of a marketing campaign managed by Bethesda. Exactly how it happened before the release of Fallout 76.

it does have a lot of fans and active modding community tho, but we will see if anything good comes out of it once the toolkit is released.

Problem is a lot of this stuff is hardcoded and a result of a very obsolete engine that tries to compete with much more modern tech in crafting an engaging, cohesive and believable game world.

I'm sure mods can improve things like gunplay, add better quests, dialogues, more interesting locations, or even ground vehicles (which will result in seeing loading screens much more often).

But it won't make space flight & exploration more active, because it's based on fast travel & loading screens. It won't make 1000 planets worth visiting.

It will keep Bethseda's new offering afloat a bit longer though, especially if they manage to monetize the mods (which they currently seem to be in the process of doing).

And this seems to be the last remaining ambition of Bethesda.

 

[Vic]

Problem is a lot of this stuff is hardcoded and a result of a very obsolete engine that tries to compete with much more modern tech in crafting an engaging, cohesive and believable game world.

I'm sure mods can improve things like gunplay, add better quests, dialogues, more interesting locations, or even ground vehicles (which will result in seeing loading screens much more often).

But it won't make space flight & exploration more active, because it's based on fast travel & loading screens. It won't make 1000 planets worth visiting.

okay so I actually have a few good ideas for mods, problem is I have no idea about modding so I don't know if it can be implemented. Here are some:

- tap into the proc gen algorithm and replace the samey structures to add a lot more variety to them
- change how cells generate POIs in the first place so that you don't have so many POIs next to each other
- connect cells together so that when you reach the boundary (preferably with a vehicle) it loads you to an adjacent cell
- change how terrain is generated to add wildly varying biomes with unique flora
- improve the crafting and add farming so that you can play it like a farming sim on distant planets with cool vistas
- and of course the big one, custom made planets, maybe maps that play like stalker or metro, with improved combat mods of course

and many others. again, the potential is here, game is almost like an empty canvas compared to what it can be, can modders fill in the white spaces? That remains to be seen, but the constraint can only be technological because there is a lot you can do with the game, in theory.

 

[Yosharian]

Well, Vic seems to have accepted his lot in life

 

[Lord_Potato]

Well, Vic seems to have accepted his lot in life

Long ago I advised him to embrace his inner Bethesdard. It seems he finally listened.

 

[Vic]

I mean it can't get worse right, so w/e

 

[Vic]

there's obviously a lot more stuff to add like custom races, items etc. A complete Star Wars overhaul mod with wookies, twileks, light sabers, stormtroopers etc. and then custom maps that play like star wars battlefront or something are just some things that could be done if people with the right know-how want to get serious about it (and the engine allows for it). so far the signs are good, modding looks very healthy.

 

[Lord of Riva]

I mean it can't get worse right, so w/e

You sweet, sweet summer child.

 

[Vic]

don't touch me there, old man

 

[FreshCorpse]

You'd have no trouble immediately recognising a screenshot from each of these games, which I don't think is true of Starfield.

 

[Grauken]

Well, Vic seems to have accepted his lot in life

Long ago I advised him to embrace his inner Bethesdard. It seems he finally listened.

It's a mark of honour

 

[Lord_Potato]

One thing Starfield needs is some naughtiness. In pursuit of PG-13 rating they completely sanitized the setting, to the point of ridiculousness, hence the dancing teletubbies in the Astral Lounge.

Neon and the Crimson Fleet HQ need some actual strip clubs, Akila needs to embrace the western setting with saloons and whores. New Atlantis and pleasure cruise ship need quality escort services.

Since Bethesda is too chickenshit to do it, modders need to step in.

 

[Yosharian]

I'm sure the Loverslab modders will have a field day with that particular aspect of the game

 

[Vic]

naughtiness is the least issue, nexusmods is filled with "thicc" mods as is already

are there any drugs in the game? can't remember