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dangblingus, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

If there’s more going on outside my window than in the $90 game I just bought, there’s a problem.

Afrazzle,

Long haul flight simmers must really confuse you

superkret,

Then…go outside?

jcit878,

I have MSFS2020 and enjoy completing long haul flights. literally a whole workday spent where I see nothing but cockpit controls and the sky through the window, with no interaction needed due to autopilot. then I bring her in to land 10 hours later.

and that’s fun.

fun is what you make it man

Koffiato,

Very different games and very different expectations of effort spent. I’ve space trucked a lot in Elite, spending hours going back and fort. But it was never dull, more of a relaxing experience.

That comment stems from games failure to live up to its promises.

This game was marketed as an explorers game with 1000 planets to see, for example.

None of those planets have even the half of the content Skyrim/Fallout has. None of those planets are barren as Elite’s planets, either. You can’t traverse them more than 30 minutes, so it doesn’t even scratch NMS itch. People that liked the exploration of any of those four games would dislike this games exploration very much.

The person above was probably expecting a more lively game, like any other Bethesda game and got whatever this is instead. It’s completely justified to be disappointed.

lemmyatom, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose

Good to know. I’m hoping to hear more about the game from players before deciding to dive into this.

NuPNuA,

It’s a Bethesda game, albeit on a larger sci-fi setting. If you enjoyed Elder Scrolls of their Fallouts you’ll be right at home.

LoamImprovement,

Granted, I’m only like five of the twelve hours in I’m supposed to be before the game starts getting good, but my god they made some baffling design choices here. Possibly the most egregious is the fact that every skill comes with leveling requirements - for example, the worst offender I’ve seen is the oxygen (stamina) skill requiring you to completely exhaust your meter 20 times before you can put a second point in. (Worth noting, ‘completely exhaust’ in this context means deplete both the regular O2 meter and max out the CO2 meter, which depletes more slowly than the O2 refills) The only way to reliably and safely do this, considering you only really need stamina in short bursts when playing normally, is to literally just run fucking laps. Bad and boring, to the point that I will say, without a hint of sarcasm, that the person responsible for making it this way should be moved off the team. I cannot fathom how that person arrived at the conclusion that doing chores was somehow the most exciting and innovative way to spice up FO4’s perk system, because that’s all it is underneath, and it is an aggressive waste of time.

ColdWater, (edited ) do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose
@ColdWater@lemmy.ca avatar

That’s mean the entire game is also dull and boring combined with Beth’s mediocre story writing it’s should not cost more than a sack of potatoes

HughJanus, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

Video games are supposed to be a fun escape of reality…

FluorideMind, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

Bro I’ve spent at least ten hours just building cool space ships.

Erk,

The ship builder is just tons of fun. I wish the controls were a little bit more obvious but once you get the hang of it, I think it’s my favourite in genre. I love building something neat and then going to check out the interior walkthrough, particularly. I think I need a save where I just cheat in millions of credits so i can experiment for a while

totallymojo,
@totallymojo@ttrpg.network avatar

What are you gonna do with it when you are done?
Photo mode in space?

Jakeroxs,

There is space combat

SpacetimeMachine,

It’s pretty garbage though :/

OldPain,

1v1 me in space punk

Jakeroxs,

Is it? I find it pretty fun, sure games like everspace did it better, but that is literally a space dogfighting game lol.

NMS space combat is noticably worse in comparison, and some of the upgrade paths and the ability to adjust your reactor usage (very reminiscent of FTL) make it interesting enough for me.

cyanarchy,

Your ship is kinda like a player home you bring around with you. Having one that uniquely suits your needs and preferences is cool, and also I want a damn weapon workbench.

Katana314, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

To give an impression of what it’s been like for me:

I had a quest where I needed Iron. I found a random planet that had it, and picked a spot in the middle of the scan readouts. Arrive, looks like a barren rock - but that’s fine because I only wanted rocks. However, I see something in the distance, and check it out. On the way, I find a wandering trader taking her alien dog for a walk, and sell some stuff weighing me down. I find a cave, where a colonist is hiding out with a respiratory infection - and am able to help them get out as a little mini-quest, though the infection spreads to me.

I come past a little mining installation, where I find a bounty hunter that tells me of a bounty nearby she’s offering to split with me. We do so, fighting a base full of raiders to get to their captain, and I finally decide to leave.

The key here is, I don’t think any of those quests are amazing - they’re likely very dynamically generated. But they’re also not fun to “seek them out” - just to come across them in some other mission, like trying to make an outpost or mining for stuff.

gringo_papi,

Sounds like work tbh

Katana314,

I mean, I can’t even argue against that. Some people find some forms of work fulfilling, and even switch to games because their own jobs don’t actually give them that feeling of fulfillment.

Monster Hunter is a prime example of a game that sets such elongated goals that it’s regarded as a “grind-heavy” game - but its players like the grind. Heck, the entire space simulator genre often involves quite a lot of “Space Truck Simulator” gameplay, where you’re just engineering good ways to ferry cargo around.

Which is not to say that’s what Starfield aims for. From what I’ve played, it’s closer to Sea of Thieves, having adventurous interruptions - where you start a boring, routine mission to bring Sugar from one merchant post to another, but then get ambushed by a skeleton ship, then a giant shark, then find a map to a buried treasure nearby.

chatokun,

Half the reason I play Elite is space trucking. I’m only raising my empire rank to get the largest ship… in order to space truck better. The Fed Corvette I plan to make a combat vessel, but the Cutter will be my space truck.

sheogorath,

I found that flow of the game works a little bit better if you just don’t fast travel at all. I played a lot of Elite and it gave me a little bit of Elite vibes when I just walk to my ship, go thru inside it and sit down. Then I take off “manually” using the button and jump to the target system by manually targeting it and press the jump button.

What Bethesda can do better is to just mask the loading with a flight animation, for example when you’re taking off from a planet the loading should be replaced by an animation where you’re going out of the atmosphere. And when you’re jumping between star systems, the loading should be replaced by something similar to Elite when we’re jumping through the witch space.

All in all, my experience with Starfield has been fine. I loved the weird stuff happening when you’re just fucking around. Although the main quest has taken a step back with their sense of urgency, compare it to previous Bethesda games, where there’s a big stake going on that pushes you to at least complete the main quest once. In Starfield there’s no such sense of urgency.

It seems like Bethesda is leaning heavy on their sandbox side, just letting people go around and do stuff.

With optimized settings from the HUB YouTube channel, my FPS never went below 60.

glimse,

Sounds like play lol I mean it’s a game about exploring

If exploration isn’t fun to you, that’s ok. There’s plenty of games out there that are more linear.

tormeh,

Yeah, but since it’s dynamically generated it’s likely the 10th time you see those quests.

Fraylor,

Yeah I literally do all of this stuff near daily in my 9-5 bounty hunting job.

thanks_shakey_snake,

That sounds pretty fun, actually!

MysticKetchup, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

Starfield sounds like an okay game but all the PR responding to complaints sounds like an absolute disaster. Stop letting Todd answer these things directly

TechnoBabble,

I’ve flipped flopped my consensus about the game a couple times, but my conclusion is this…

Starfield is not going to be what you expected from Skyrim in space, at first. It will seem weird and claustrophobic and broken.

But if you give yourself a bit to acclimate to the world they’ve built, there is a surprisingly engaging game underneath.

I believe they’ve left most planets barren on purpose, so they can easily shove DLC wherever they want for the next 10 years.

“New facehugger planet, 20 hours of exciting quests and valuable loot! - $29.99”

That’s 100% going to happen.

abraxas,

So far, Starfield is exactly like Skyrim in space to me. There’s as many carefully crafted cities, and quite a few carefully crafted locales. There’s just a lot more space in Starfield (estimated about 500x more. Skyrim is 15sq miles, and those 1000 planets are each a couple square miles ingame). Sounds like there may be less hand-crafted content in Starfield than Skyrim, but that’s hard to tell.

I’m definitely not finding Starfield to be claustrophic. On the contrary, a bit agoraphobic.

dmrzl,

Are you certain that you know what Agoraphobia is? Tip: it is not the opposite of Claustrophobia.

abraxas, (edited )

I had agoraphobia growing up. I know exactly what it is. And I had moments of it exploring the planets. I found myself hugging to keep buildings in range and not wanting to stray out into the great wide open. For some odd reason, I got more of that in Starfield than in NMS.

I’m also still fairly early into the game, so perhaps I’ll spend more time indoors than I have so far.

EDIT, also, it kinda is the opposite of claustrophobia in some ways. There are some overlaps and nuances (both fears sometimes include fear of crowds). I had a grandparent with really bad claustrophobia who never used an elevator in her life. Ironically, we could relate on a lot. But they were still opposite issues.

dmrzl,

I don’t know, been agoraphobic for quite some time. Never had problems in elevators (alone), but trains or tunnels are the worst. Guess that’s why it’s hard for me to imagine how a game could ever transport that.

100,

I think there’s definitely more handcrafted content in Starfield than Skyrim, there’s also tons tons more dead space with nothing at all.

abraxas,

Some folks say there’s only about 25 hours of handcrafted stuff. I’m not late enough in to know for sure.

100,

Yeah no way. I’ve played longer than that and I haven’t even done the main quest.

abraxas,

I’m approaching that, but I have to admit I take my time and revisit towns a lot.

I’ve only gone to a dozen dungeons so far that were hand-crafted. There were literally hundreds of them in Skyrim. I’d love to get real numbers.

So far, I am enjoying the hell out of the game, if my lack of twitch reflexes is hurting that a lot. I keep having to juggle between ship upgrades (my Mantis keeps dying to small fleets more than 10 levels lower than me) and face-to-face. Usually by now in other Bethesda games, dying is rare. I’m too stubborn to drop the difficulty, though, so I suppose that’s on me.

There’s a pirate fleet in orbit around the planet I want to build my first output. Last 5 times I tried to go there, fleet keeps showing up and killing me. That’s somewhat annoying.

100,

Save in space often. There’s a semi common bug I’ve just run into that will cause your ship to vanish and it somehow retroactively removes it from all previous saves. No recreateable way to get it back. The only thing that saved me was a previous save where I was in orbit, still lost a few hours of progress.

abraxas,

Weird. I haven’t heard of that one yet.

Panurge987,

How can one person have a consensus?

another_lemming, (edited )

It’s only a problem when they can’t.

fadingembers,
@fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

When they have dissociative personality disorder :D

30p87, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose

When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren’t bored.

Because it wasn’t just a rock, but the first time entering another natural body of mass in the universe, apart from our earth. Something that never happened before. In contrast, over a million players have discovered planets in Starfield by now, including all customly made content by Bethesda for the planets.
The astronauts where excited and happy as they achieved a huge step for humanity - somewhere I heard that before - while one could literally only achieve one small step for a human in Starfield.

Syrup,

Yeah, and it’s not like the astronauts just put up a flag and left. They took soil samples, set up sensors to measure tectonic activity, etc. Rocks are interesting when you can interact with them.

rgb3x3,

You mean pointing a laser at a rock for a few seconds until it pops isn’t interesting? /s

original_reader, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose

It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

Catastrophic235,
@Catastrophic235@midwest.social avatar

What’s that quote from originally? I’ve always assumed it was Todd but now that I think about it I’ve never seen anything that would prove it, I supposed I’ve always just associated it with bethesda games lol.

DmMacniel,

It’s just a general software development joke. Eventually your customers will rely on that bug, because thats how it works right? So you can´t fix it later as it would break workflows thus that bug becomes a feature.

BeigeAgenda,
@BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca avatar

It’s probably from the 60’s or 70’s

lockhart,

It’s a running joke in programming

Yepthatsme, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

I have no clue what people are talking about? I have beaten it twice and surveyed an entire solar system and there was plenty. You can fly around to any point in most planets and moons and have stuff generate at each landing, within hiking distance.

I feel like the game is so big and good, the haters are just hating and being stupidly immature about it.

CraigeryTheKid,

Beaten it twice? like the main story? Honestly I forgot Skyrim had a story too. I always wandered for so long I forgot what I was doing.

vitriolix,
@vitriolix@lemmy.ml avatar

I think here we are reacting to the colossally dumb reasoning in the quote from the article. Astronauts had a few things to be excited about that gamers… won’t

totallymojo,
@totallymojo@ttrpg.network avatar

*Fast travel around to any point.

dangblingus,

Everything in the game is “within hiking distance” because that’s how the game generates planets. You don’t just “land on a planet”. You go through several hidden loading screens and arrive in a 1km x 1km square of planet.

Jakeroxs,

Your point is?

tomi000,

Thats exactly what they were saying

Kilamaos,

Ng+2 ? Any more change at +2 over +1, apart from the item & ship? Does the suit even improve ? And the ship ?A good mantis still is better I found

OldPain,

Didn’t this game come out like last week?

dan1101, (edited ) do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

I’m an Elite Dangerous veteran and have no problem with that. I think it’s more realistic.

I’m about 18 hours in and the illusion of variety hasn’t worn off yet. Plenty of things to find, with some travel time though. Unlock/upgrade your backpack boosters and it’s almost like Tribes though, as you go flying across the landscape in short bursts to keep moving forward in the air.

ipha,

Shazbot!

thanks_shakey_snake,

“It’s almost like Tribes” are the four magic words to get me interested in any game.

Rodeo,

New match starts and half the team instantly spams

“I’ve got the flag!”
“I’ve got the flag!”
“I’ve got the flag!”
“I’ve got the flag!”

ipha,

“I am the greatest!”

“No.”

“I am the greatest!”

WhatWouldKarlDo,

Yeah, I’m right here with you. I’ve explored hundreds of systems in Elite. I get excited when I find an interesting planet. It would be really weird and immersion breaking for me if every planet was interesting.

hypelightfly,

Oddly enough, it's misleading. Planets are covered with procedural generated POIs what he meant is that the environment of most planets is barren. I wish there were actually unexplored planets that weren't covered in POIs too.

lorty,
@lorty@lemmygrad.ml avatar

Starfield at least lets me have some fun on foot. Elite built their ground component in a very punishing way that made it very annoying to deal with.

storksforlegs, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose
@storksforlegs@beehaw.org avatar

So just wait for mods, then. Got it.

(I really do want to play this game, I like Bethesda games. But there are always inevitable shortcomings, which modders will fix.) Also by then perhaps it will be cheaper.

purplemonkeymad,

At least if a modder picks a random spot for their content it’s unlikely to conflict with any other mods.

BruceTwarzen,

I want to like Bethesda games. I liked fallout 3 a lot and their doom games, which is different i guess. But man, i'm not a trash collector that collects trinkets. It's not enjoyable to me. It doesn't matter where the setting is. And the fact that the characters still look like the game is made in 2010, with the same shitty zoomed in dialogue and awkward ass eye contact is just driving me away. This isn't some indie company that want to make thir dream game, this is Bethesda that wants to make a 80 dollar game with as little effort as humanly possible.

saplyng,
@saplyng@kbin.social avatar

Bethesda was only the publisher for Doom, Id software were the developers.

EvaUnit02,
@EvaUnit02@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, I'm rather bored with the wide-but-shallow approach Bethesda games take. Tons of geography with maybe 20% filled with things of consequence. I am uninterested in collecting 42,000 wheels of cheese or finding some random space hobo on a planet.

DrPop,

It really just feels like Bethesda needs to just build world so we can populate them however we choose. They know the public and modders like their framework so they create settings. Fantasy, Nuclear Wasteland, Space. They know modders keep games alive.

cdipierr, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose

“Dull on Purpose” is a hell of a box quote. Do you think that will be on the Game of the Year edition?

victron,
@victron@programming.dev avatar

I hope it becomes the game’s unofficial slogan.

ebenixo, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

Looked boring af, now getting confirmation it’s boring af

jsdz, do gaming w Bethesda says most of Starfield's 1000+ planets are dull on purpose because 'when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there' but 'they certainly weren't bored'

The moon is boring, so every planet in the universe must be boring. Earth is mostly capitalist right now, so every planet with humans must be one form or another of late capitalist dystopia. A whole galaxy made of inert rocks, fast travel, and people eager to exchange gunfire with you.

I haven’t played it yet, but from what I’ve seen the setting looks even more bleak and depressing than Bethesda Fallout.

Skiptrace,

The setting is actually really cool. New Atlantis is actually quite utopian looking. I haven’t gotten too deep into the game yet, only about 3 hours so far.

jsdz,

New Atlantis does look pretty cool, but I worry that it seems a bit empty. From what info I can find it seems to have maybe half as many named NPCs as the average Skyrim city even if it is three times the size. But maybe there are many more and they just haven’t all made it to the wiki yet? I don’t know, it’s little things that annoy me. Like it’s the glorious spacefaring future and every city is still full of fast food franchises selling coffee in what look like exactly the same kind of disposable cups with plastic lids we use today? Maybe that’s a failure of imagination too small to complain about in itself, but it seems representative of how everything is when you look closely. Is it meant to be allegorically examining the social problems of our current world rather than presenting future humanity as doing something genuinely new? If so what’s it trying to say about that, exactly? Where’s the deep lore? Where are the characters you’d actually care about as people rather than video game NPCs that help you advance a quest? I was hoping for Skyrim in space, but to me it looks more like Fallout 4 in space. Never mind the reviewers who compared it to Oblivion and got my hopes up. The only thing it has in common with Oblivion is the Annoying Fan who I must admit is genuinely annoying.

Eh well, it’s a Bethesda game. I’ll probably give in and play it eventually.

BigBananaDealer,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

this game is a lot more like KOTOR than any of the bethesda games. if you loved KOTOR you will probably love starfield

and people will always bitch about the NPC amount, whiterun is too little (but everyone is unique). well okay, we’ll add an actual city population but now everyone is just a random citizen (but it looks like a city size population)

TechnoBabble,

For all the problems the game has, the major thing they get right is the environment.

Almost every area looks more than great, some are industrial, luxurious, barren, creepy, outright hostile, or cozy, but they are usually always gorgeous.

The environments are what pushed me to keep giving the game a chance after the initial shock of not having a cohesive overworld.

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